He that fears man, shall quickly fall: he that trust in the Lord, shall be set on high. - Proverbs 29:25 (Douay-Rheims Bible) The Gospel of Jesus of Christ is not about how someone treats you! Its just isnt. Whole ministries are created on the idea of making victims out of people which causes people to always be working on themselves. Working on yourself for the purposes of creating a positive self image is not the Gospel. I would like for everyone to like me, I really would but I know it is not going to happen, so why continue to speak to that? There are things that I call outside stuff or exterior mess or outer-court issues. The idea of protecting myself from hurting people is not the example that Jesus left for us and it is outer-court stuff that should not be brought into the inner-court. I have one particular goal that I am working hard towards and that is to keep my emotions out of how I treat people. I desire to die to self. I am working towards the goal of not letting a another persons actions towards me determine how I am going to treat them. Psychological babble has made its way into the Gospel which says dont let nobody treat you bad. Am I to be constantly throwing away people because they dont treat me like I want them too? If so, then I will never have any peace. I will never grow in grace because I am constantly looking for my Judas. Tell me, am I to be constantly looking for Judas? If so, then thats going to drive me crazy. I will always be questioning the motives of everyone around me. I will always worry if someone wants to use me. How Jesus dealt with his Judas is the same way we should deal with ours. Jesus told Judas to do quickly what he was going to do. In other words, I know what you are going to do, so go ahead and do it but I am not going to sit here and try to figure out why you dont like me. I am not going try to analyze your state of mind or try to determine your insecurities and inabilities, so I will know better how to hide mine! Am I too saved or too strong or too awesome in Christ to deal with people? The Gospel is for people. Jesus said in Luke 4;18 Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Imagine if Jesus was into Himself so much that He ran from the the idea of dying for us. Jesus had been on this earth for 33 years and His flesh did not want to die (Luke 22:42) but it was for that purpose that He came. He endured the cross for us. Are we not willing to endure? How can I preach to those that are hurting when I am so dang sensitive? How can I let Jesus use me when I am always so fearful of being used by Judas? Is Judas causing me to have to protect my inner circle and not let anyone in who I dont like? No, because Jesus poured His life into His disciples, even though one of them was Judas. He also dealt with a stubborn and denying Peter and a doubting Thomas and in the end He told Peter to feed my sheep. Do we love Jesus enough to feed His sheep and ignore our Judas, past and present? Let Judas alone...pray for Him! I pray God continues to send people around me that He will use to destroy my self-worth and my selfish ways because I only want to find my worth in Him. Remember that Jesus chose Judas. He handpicked Judas. Are we willing to have people in our inner-circle who are not trustworthy or are we too afraid of losing our stuff? Some of us are hiding in the stuff (1 Samuel 10:22) instead of hiding the Word in our hearts (Psalms 119:11) This may seem like a rant, but this is from my heart. We must stop being afraid of people who are hurting just like we are. I will continue to pray that the Lord tear out of me any desire for self-protection and self-victimization!
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 02:09:55 +0000
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