grace – Page 2 – I AM for You!

I can’t hear you over my talking

Many people that I personally interacted with today are worried about what President-elect Donald Trump will do to them; their relationships, their bodies, their jobs. I didn’t understand until I thought: Would I be concerned about my religious rights and freedom of speech rights if Hillary Clinton had won? I am very scared of the trouble her presidency would have caused me and worried if I would be willing to stay true to Jesus in the face of unknown suffering.

These people are also tired of hearing, “Don’t worry,” “Get over it,” and other mindless remarks by friends, family, etc. that may show they don’t understand, don’t care or both.

What I am trying to do is listen with my heart for their heart. We are all people and we all have a story. If I interrupt, judge, give advice am I going to hear their story? Do I really just want to hear myself talk and confirm to myself how brilliant I am in my own eyes or do I want to discover another beautiful human being and their unique story?

Everyone’s opinion makes sense to them. If I listen long enough they may tell me why they feel the way they do. Today I heard why someone believes in doing something I wouldn’t do. And from their perspective it made sense.

This presidential election proved that most people want to be heard. And “the other side” has feelings and concerns that don’t make sense.

Until you listen.

What is Jesus like?

What is Jesus like? The Bible says:

He is the [exact visible] image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15a, KJV, brackets mine)

What is God like? The Bible says

…God is Love. (1 John 4:8b, KJV)

What is Love like?

¹If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

²If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
³If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
⁴Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
⁵Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
⁶Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
⁷Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
⁸Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. ⁹We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. ¹⁰But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
¹¹When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
¹²We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (1 Corinthians chapter 13, The Message)

This is what Love is like. This is what God is like. And this is what Jesus is like. He never gives up on us, He’s always looking for the best in us, He doesn’t keep a sin scorecard (our sins are wiped away when we trust Him that He paid the penalty for them), He doesn’t think He’s better than us, He’s not stuck up, He doesn’t force Himself on us, He doesn’t have to be first, He cares more about us than His own life.

This is one amazing Love…
This is one amazing God…
This is one amazing Jesus.

Jesus tells us to be "Meek" not Weak!

My son and I were watching an old 1950s era episode of “Denise the Menace”. Denise’s Mom said to his Dad, “If you’re too meek and mild to stand up for what is right, I will”. The Bible called Jesus’ mother Mary, “meek and mild”. I always assumed by the way it was used with the word “mild” that meek meant weak. Then I heard somewhere that the word “meek” meant “great strength under control”. To find out what “meek” really means I looked in: online dictionaries, Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias and Googled “What is the Biblical definition of meek?”

Some online dictionaries define “meek” as “weak” using its current common use as the definition. W. L. Walker in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says that: “[‘Meekness’] presupposes humility, flows from it, and finds expression in moderation.” However the most help I received was from Mr. Grady Scott and his explanation of Matthew 5:5 found at the following URL:

http://www.christianlibrary.org/authors/Grady_Scott/matt5-5.htm

Mr. Scott describes Moses as standing up to the most powerful man on earth at that time (Pharaoh Ramses) and yet describing himself as the most meek of men. Jesus controlled nature (stilled the wind and waves), demons (cast them out of their victims) and the elements (turned water into wine) and yet describes Himself as “meek and lowly of heart”.

Mr Scott describes the origin of the word “meek”:

An understanding of the root definition of meek in the original language and how it was used will help us in understanding what Jesus meant.
1. Greek word praus
a. Used to describe a soothing medicine.
b. Used by sailors to describe a gentle breeze.
c. Used by farmers to describe a broken colt.
2. What do all these definitions have in common? They all describe great power under control.

So “meek” does not mean “weak”, rather it means having your strength under control. When someone wrongs you, you don’t lose your temper. You don’t seek revenge. You do what Jesus did and entrust all things to your Father in Heaven and do exactly what He says to do. To those who don’t know Jesus that may appear to be weak – forgiveness, grace, longsuffering, putting others ahead of yourself – can be misinterpreted by the masses. But to the person whom you forgive, give undeserved favor, endure without retaliation, and put before yourself, you convey the unmistakable love of Jesus.

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