Food for thought

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

We have all heard this many times, but let's take a deeper look at it.  As children we understood it to mean treat others the way you want to be treated and we all know that doesn't mean others will treat us kindly back.  We can either learn to forgive and turn the other cheek or we can harden our hearts and fight back.   To be honest, we have all probably tried both ways but  " The road is long, with many a winding turn..." and "There are many miles to go before we sleep"  for a good reason.  Do what unto others?  2 Corinthians 8:9 says "For you know that the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty you might become rich."  Rich spiritually! When we are truly rich spiritually we will desire poverty so that others may become rich.  What? Desire poverty? You must be mad! And I would be, by the world's standards.  When we disciple others they in turn yearn for us by prayer on our behalf because of the surpassing Grace of God in us.  So by becoming poor so they may gain spiritually we become yet rich , this produces equality.  Jesus became poor. Are we willing to do the same? Do unto others just dove into the deep end and we shall emerge victorious if we are willing to become poor so they may become rich.  Jesus said "love as I have loved.", "Follow after me.", not become rich and retire!  The only retiring we should do is to ourselves, then God will have a vessel He can shine His Son through.  We have the Gospel, we are rich, the question is what are we going to do with it each and every day? "Blessed is the man who lays down his life for his friend, and Jesus said I call you friend."  Are we willing to do unto others as Jesus did unto us?  We are all called for a purpose, to glorify one God with our lives. We all desire to hear "well done", the question is, are we willing to give everything and die to ourselves?  We will indeed desire poverty over riches for then and only then will we know the true meaning of what it feels like to be spiritually rich.  We should never underestimate our ability to give when Jesus is the source of our strength and understanding.  "... for God loves a cheerful giver."  Let us go with joyful hearts as "Onward Christian soldier's marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before..."  This is inverting the paradigm and it will be well with our soul, so let us "do unto others as we would have them do unto us."

Heavenly Father  I thank You for Your amazing Grace, that opens our eyes to see the truth and a light for our path.  Help us to take courage to dive into the deep water of poverty, no turning back, no turning back. Thank you for Your Son who through Your Mercy saved us by Your Grace.  May we live for You in all we do.

In Jesus' name I pray amen.

Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)

food for thought

Giving no cause for offense in anything!

OK um sounds nice but we are constantly messing up that one.  The bible talks about fires, trials, and hardships.  This life is boot camp and we groan with every task. Why?Because of our own affections!  They are most difficult to let go of and they are the weed that binds us. I work in my yard and there is this one weed that is a vine and it wraps itself tightly around whatever it is next to.  It is really quite amazing how fast it grows and grips its prey.  Not hard to pull out and when its gone the plant is free but many of the other plants face the same threat.  Left unattended it would attempt at a fast rate to choke out what it has clung to.  The vine has a unique quality of a very sticky grip and it never ceases to amaze me every time I pull one out. Now this vine is no match for the gardener, it actually takes very little effort to remove them. When I am weeding I often think of the parable of separating  the tares from the wheat.  As we face each new day we are learning to recognize the weeds in our lives, so we may separate unto God alone.  If we started with a perfect record we would indeed give no cause for offense but it just isn't so.  We get tired, run down and keeping out the weeds can seem quite a daunting task and it is indeed.  We can do nothing except for Christ's strength, lest anyone should boast.  The question is what are we asking Christ for the strength to do?  We must be willing to have our hearts examined here.  Are we diligently seeking to know Him, living separated  unto God? "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord."  Most of us race out in the mornings with little thought of anything except our own affections.  Those clinging desires we seem to be stuck to.  Most of us are like the song "I work and work until life's no fun..." and we are exhausted when the day is done.  Our own affections produce the weed of exhaustion and we do it day after day after day thinking we are needed and nothing will be right if we do not do it ourselves.  Now we know our God is an awesome God and He does not need us to do this or that, He lets us because He loves us.  As a child when our parents let us do something, there was excitement, anticipation, and joy.  Our Father wants the same for us now, yet unless we learn to separate unto Him alone we will not have what we had as a child.   It is indeed a growing process to become a child in His image;  giving Him complete control, desiring His desires over the weeds of our own, that threaten to choke us out.  It would be nothing for God to pull out the weeds of hardships, trials, and difficulties, but then what would we learn? Instead we must desire to root out the vines because without hardships, trials, and difficulties, we would not even know we were being choked.  We must go boldly before the throne and ask God to open our eyes and give us wisdom and understanding to see what is not of Him in us, and for the courage and determination to root it out!  "Through Christ we can do all things."  When our desires are freed from our own affections they are God's desires for those of us who love Him and desire His will for our lives and we will know what it is for our joy to be full in whatever the day may bring; by living a life separated unto God.

and Jesus told them "Love as I have loved."

Heavenly Father, as we walk through each day, help us to see through the difficulties to Your grace knowing our joy is full in You alone.  That we may desire Your desires above all else. In Jesus our Savior's name I pray, amen.

Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)