Monday, January 09, 2017

WONDERFUL IMMEDIATE RELIEF FOR A STRESSFUL LIFE

True.  We can't always avoid many of the challenges that come our way.  We are able, however, to manage some of them with ability to reclaim hope and to demonstrate love.  Why else would God give us His Holy Spirit if were not to be divinely equipped for earthly conflict.  Look at the descriptions of the Fruit.  Yep, God surely saw conflict in mind.  But He, too, saw the way into wonder, and glory, and joy was to yield to the Spirit who knows how to make life pop.

Our job is to cut the accusations toward another as to how miserable they make us and let this be a time of Holy Spirit action.  Anyone can forgive anytime anyone wants to do this.  The Spirit of God is not Voodoo weirdness beyond the human imagination.  No, He is the supply of robust fellowship when our flesh prefers to rule with clinched fists and teeth.

Romans 2:1-5 pins each of us to the whipping post.  Anytime we want to blast away at another, Paul wrote that we are precisely alike in our actions; the very same as those of our opposition.  Every time we accuse another we condemn ourselves.  Go ahead and ignore it if that's one's wish; but be certain the way you condemn or release sets the stage for each of us face to face with the Judge.

I think it was Jesus who stood beside a most sinful woman out in the bright sunlight as accusers built their case as to why they could/should/would stone her to death on the spot.  Jesus didn't explain her.  He inquired as to one thing of them.  Who among you is not guilty of sin...fire away!  100% dropped their charges, released their firing-power, and walked away.

This truth is one that stands in enormous need every day in every household toward every relative and every friend.  Sin is sin.  Poor behavior is poor behavior.  Conflict is conflict.  The game-changer in all of these situations, however, is that every participant was such a sinful mess that God had to send in a rescue team straight out of Heaven....because we couldn't keep our act together.

Not.  One.  Of.  Us.

I'm sure you been offended.  Do not take lightly, though, that you have offended.  I'm certain you are tempted to keep score.  But what you may not realize is that you have many friends who chalk your walk and your talk up to being just like the rest of us so we have no choice but to give you room to be the wonderful you we dearly love.  Therefore, if you are driven to grind an ax, use it for chopping wood and not for cutting down humans who are precisely, exactly as are you....deeply flawed.

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