heap what?

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:9-21, NRSV)

We are not to repay evil for evil, but we are to love our enemies.

We are to pray for those who revile us.

We are to bless those who curse us.

We are to live in harmony with one another.

For by doing this we leave space for God to work in the lives of those who seem to be against us.

And in so doing this we heap burning coal on their heads!

Now that would just down right hurt! Burning coals on your head would not be a pleasant experience and in the whole grand scheme of things is truly worse than any revenge I believe any of us could come up with. Plus think of it in this way. Most people expect you to retaliate, in fact that is probably why some of them lash out in the first place. And if you do not retaliate, they will be confused and annoyed. By not doing what they expect, but loving them in-spite of their hate, we are doing what God has done for us!

God confuses us by loving us in-spite of our doing what we shouldn’t.

So confuse them and heap burning coals on their heads!

are you kidding!

‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:38-48, NRSV)

Are you for real Jesus?

Really I’m suppose to not seek retaliation, but turn the other cheek to become a punching bag and to let people walk all over me by giving them everything I got!

If we take the words at face value then yes that is what it says, but we have to understand the context.

You see it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth so that there would be justice and not retaliation. It is suppose to keep it equitable. Yet it turns the bullied into the bully. It makes the one taking the eye, just as bad as the person who took the eye to cause the taking of the second eye…

And as Jesus usually does He ratchets up what society expects…

But we still have to understand what He is saying…

But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;

This sounds like Jesus wants us to be a punching bag, but actually it is leveling the playing field. You see someone of a higher status would strike a person on the right cheek with the back of their right hand. But in order to strike a person on the left cheek they would have to use the palm of their right hand and in Jesus’ day this signified that those people were equals. One did not strike a lower statues person with their palm… It is leveling and saying we are equal in the eyes of God!

and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Again Jesus is asking to go above and beyond. But we have to understand that the understanding in the Roman Empire was that any person should and could be asked (forced) to care a Roman’s soldier’s pack for a mile. Jesus is saying take the expectation and do it happily and then go an extra mile! We as disciples are called to go the extra mile. We can not do the bare minimum with those we love. Everyone does that so how does the world see the love of God, by us as disciples living like Jesus and loving those who nail us to the cross, you and me!

So know Jesus is not asking you to be a doormat. He is asking you to share His love with the world!

 

do not judge…

‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbors eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbors eye. (Matthew 7:1-5, NRSV)

Do not try to remove the speck from your brothers eye when you have a plank in yours! We take this as a statement to not judge others, because that is what we do not do. But Jesus says “do not judge, so that you may not be judged.”

We could say from this statement that God will judge us if we judge others. Well I know it is too late for me on this, and if you are honest with yourself probably you too. If only we hadn’t judged we might have not been judged! So this means that we can’t judge others because then we ourselves will be judged on the same level we judge.

The picture above I think shows it all! They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I agree here.

You see the 2 men are pointing at each other, we assume judging one another. But look closely at the top hand…

Yes he has one finger pointing at the other man, in an accusing way, but where are his other three fingers pointing?

Those other three fingers are pointing back at him! He is in a way accusing himself more vehemently than the one in front of him. He is pointing three fingers at himself!

Remember that every time you wag your finger at someone, you are wagging more at yourself, and the very speck (sin) you see in them is probably the plank (sin) you yourself are trying to keep from the light in yourself…

Confess for yourself and make your relationship right, rather than playing God in the world.

Where is your trust?

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:2-6, ESV)

Where do you place your trust?

Paul tells the Galatians that they can not hope in circumcision.  If they place their hope in circumcision then they must keep all of the law, and for 99.9% of people is impossible.

We can not trust in anything other than our faith in Christ. Only our faith is capable of holding us through…

If you trust in the physical aspects of this world Christ is nothing for you. If we trust in the law our faith is nothing and there is no hope.

But our hope is strong when we live by faith. Trust in Christ for His faith will see you through!

Change for Change Sake

Wonderful words on change!

the16percent's avatarThe 16%

When confronted with the need to change, many managers attempt to reassure their organization that “we are changing because we have to, but we are not going to create change just for the sake of change”.

While their intent is to make the change easier by reassuring fearful employees, in reality they accomplish just the opposite… their team hears that change is bad, and something to be endured only to the extent absolutely necessary.  Indeed, the underlying message of “we won’t make you change just for change sake” creates an extra burden to persuade your team that each and every change is actually necessary – thus requiring far more resources and energy to drive the needed change.

But the only constant in today’s world IS change. And high-performing organizations recognize the constancy of change and develop an organizational culture that rises above merely “enduring” change, and actually embrace, harness and drive…

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Everything is allowed but does that mean it’s good?

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:23 – 11:1, ESV)

Paul told the Corinthians that everything is allowable, but does that make it good?

We must also do everything for the other and not for our own good. We have to do what is good for the other and not make ourselves the center of our world.

The center of our world must be Christ.

Paul tells us to imitate him which would mean we are imitating Christ.

So imitate Christ and do for others.

Imitate Christ and put others first.

And do not do everything but what He calls you to do.

Do not allow this world to control you and your actions but make Him the center of your world!

wisdom

My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;  if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures— then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you. It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil; those whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. (Proverbs 2:1-15, NRSV)

Where does your wisdom come from?

As I watched the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics there was a discussion of why the countries were entering in the order the entered in. It of course is because they go by the alphabet of the hosting country. The host is Sochi and therefore they used the Cyrillic alphabet. The point of all this is at one point one of the commentators said “if you need more information on the Cyrillic alphabet, Google it.”

This is interesting, because anytime we do not know what something is, or if we need more information what do we do? We Google it.

In confirmation class when I ask what something means, more times than not I will get the question, can we use our phones to look it up? And if I say yes, where will they go, to Google.

Do we look at Google as a repository of information, and wisdom?

This brings to mind a quote from Attack of the Clones Star Wars movie II. Ob1 goes to see a friend, Dex, about a dart they found.  Dex says to Ob1, “I thought you Jedi would know the difference between knowledge and wisdom.”

You see Google is a great repository of knowledge, but it is not a place of Wisdom!

Our wisdom only comes from the One who created us all (and Google too!).

Look to God as your ultimate source of wisdom and walk on His paths daily!

partiality

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement. (James 2:1-13, NRSV)

Who in the picture above would be welcome in your worship service?

Ok maybe we would all say both of them. But would you keep one of them in the back, so not a lot of people would see them?

Some of our congregations have unwritten rules on what we should look like, what we have to wear. If someone comes in not following these rules what happens?

James tells us we can not treat people differently. Just because we think someone is well off, does not mean they will give us stuff if we are nice to them. And just because someone looks destitute and down and out does not mean that we should write them off and they will not give us the greatest gift we have ever received.

You can not judge a book by it’s cover, nor can you tell who people are by how they dress. We must accept all as Jesus accepted us.

Show no partiality!

rules just bring me down…

Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.’ Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. (Exodus 20:1-21, NRSV)

The 10 Commandments are something we look upon as the basis of our life with God.

They are rules we must keep in order to be in a right relationship with Him.

And as they are stated above, and above I am not sure there are 10. If I count them going through the scripture there are more than 10… But as they are stated above, are not that hard to keep.

Honor God, keep His name holy, don’t pray to idols, take a day of rest, honor your parents, don’t murder, don’t have physical relationships apart from marriage, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet your neighbor’s house, don’t covet anything your neighbor has.

See just there in my list there are 11…

We get hung up on keeping these, and then Jesus comes along and makes it so it is impossible to keep, or is it?

Jesus tells us that thinking bad thoughts about someone is murder, and thinking lustful thoughts about someone is adultery, so how do we now keep these commandments?

But what if the commandments are not rules for us to keep to get in God’s good graces, what if the commandments are God’s rules for us as His beloved children.

You see these are the house rules, the ones that keep us safe and help us to have a blessed life.

And just like our children who we do not stone when they disobey us as Leviticus 20:9 says we are to do, we still love them. And so does God.

The rules are not set up as a way for you to be a part of the house, they are in place so that you can live peacefully in the house!

So think of the rules as a way to help you live in a good relationship with God and others, and use it for your benefit, not as a basis to keep you out if you can’t keep them…