Retaliation

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

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but it is also very challenging to our faith. In the gospel  of Mark 2:1-12, some men tore off a house-roof so they could lower down a paralytic friend in front of Jesus…. Did you get that? They tore up some poor guy’s roof! This hospitable family man offers his home for a meeting and that’s the thanks he gets?! I suppose the man could have used the resulting hole for a skylight…? !

The details we are given in the Word make this story extraordinary. Mainly because I don’t imagine digging a hole in any kind of roof would be easy. But these men were so devoted to their friend, in their desire to get him to Jesus, that they would have done anything. Meanwhile nobody seemed to care too much about what the occupant of the house thought when they burrowed into his nice little house like gophers either. Why not?! Somebody got healed and they all saw it.

 Are we willing to risk possibly offending people in order to bring someone into the Lord’s Presence? (Remember wherever we go, He goes.) The fear of retaliation or offence is very real in our society. Nowadays if somebody tore off a church roof to get a sick person to Jesus, they’d probably sue them for a replacement roof!  Plus they’d grizzle at them — ‘don’t you know how to use a door?!?’ But these friends were undaunted by societal rules, and motivated by love for their sick friend, instead. I’d like to be a friend like that, and boy would I like to have a friend like that myself!

Jesus didn’t really seem to care who He offended. The Lord did not ever set out to be offensive but if that happened, well, it happened. He didn’t even pause to explain Himself, or His motivation etc … He just moved on. His priority was  His Father’s will. How can we possibly imagine how incredibly difficult it must have been for Him to carry out the Father’s will, even when it included His own suffering and death?  

Not to mention the fact that when it came to the time of His death, Jesus did everything He did, without the comforting Presence of the precious Holy Spirit. He was SomeOne the Lord had always known intimately. It must have been so painful for the Father, and the Spirit stand back and not rescue Jesus from such villainous wickedness. But there was a higher purpose. Meanwhile it is not hard to imagine satan firing mental missiles at Jesus while he was tormenting the Lord inwardly and outwardly on the cross.   

Today I want to remember how very much the Holy Spirit loves to help, comfort, and guide. And yet at that point in history, He had to step away. The Father’s Will could only be accomplished if the Holy Spirit didn’t step in. The Lord Jesus did all that He did for us, so we can be sons and daughters of God!  Otherwise the doors of heaven would have stayed shut to the likes of you and I! Jesus chose to do this so we would never have to be separated from the Holy Spirit’s loving kindness, and wisdom ever again. It stands to reason that His devotion to mankind is so huge – HE WON’T EVER LEAVE US. The Spirit of God loves us the way He loves Christ. Imagine that. He freely shares with us  His life-giving ways. If it is not love, then it is not Him. 

The Spirit of the Living God creatively uses the power of love and grace in ways we cannot imagine, over and over again. To one person He says, “consider Jesus” … to someone else He says: “you have been forgiven” and to another He says: “the Father loves you with an everlasting love.” No matter what the Holy Spirit says: there is always  unimaginable, overwhelming love in it. He chooses to meet some people in their dreams, others while they are reading the bible, or through someone else’s books. He met with me in front of a clothes line! His originality is mind boggling.  

Someone else might say what I just said, in a totally different way, and that is just another example of His incredible creativity. He is also out-of-this-world wise. There are so many ways to describe Who He is and what He does – silently -we can easily lose count! That’s why I love Jesus, we can see in Him the things our natural mind couldn’t possibly make up! And the Lord Jesus totally relied on the Holy Spirit’s help – so should WE.

This is Paul speaking to the Ephesians, about the diversity of the things He has for us. 3:8-12: “To me, the least of all the saints, was given this grace: to proclaim the good news of the fathomless riches of Christ to the Gentiles, and to enlighten everyone as to what is the administration of the mystery hidden from the ages by God, Who created all things, in order that the many-sided wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church, according to the purpose of the ages which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in Him.”

Please do not allow anyone else to minimise the beauty of the One that Jesus Himself chose to entrust with our care. We all matter so much to God, even when our faith is severely stretched, let’s not limit Him. Let’s learn to walk with Him instead. Watch out for evidence of His work in your life as well as around you. Seeing Him at work helps our faith.  He will show us how to repair the things that this life has broken in us, or in our relationships with others. He will tear up and get rid of anything that is holding us back from reaching Jesus, just like those friends tore away the roof in order to get to the Lord that day. Despite challenging our faith, the impossible is so easy to our God.  Bye. 👋

P 2244 Avoiding sin.

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Genesis 4:5-7 MSG “God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn’t get His approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk. God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.” 

My first point is this – Cain wasn’t mad at Abel – he was actually mad at God’s response to his sacrifice. The thing is, it is sometimes easier to get angry with the person who is standing next to you – than it is to tackle the real problem. The place to turn away from sin isn’t afterward … it’s before it grabs hold of you. In this passage, Cain seems unaware, or unconcerned about his own weaknesses and where they will lead him. He simply exhibits envy and jealousy. Recognising what is going on inside us, is a key to stopping or pushing the pause button on something before it starts.

Brooding is a useless thing to do. Nasty things grow in hidden places. At the moment the Lord identified those stirrings in Cain it would have been opportune for this man to pause and acknowledge his sin. But he didn’t. I’ve found that anger is an emotion that loves to escalate – it can grow into resentment and bitterness very quickly. Let’s be clear, the Lord was trying to help Cain to recognise he was in danger of doing worse things than getting angry – but Cain was not happy to be uncovered, and have his fault identified. Often this scenario has nothing whatsoever to do with the person who is trying to get the truth out – they want to help!

Learning to recognise our triggers is part of overcoming the potential for sin, so I ask the Holy Spirit to help me with this process. We all have blind spots, and as we recover from painful things that have happened in our past, we will hopefully mature enough to ask our partner, or someone else close to us, to help us to pause, think about it, and then turn to the Holy Spirit for His help. BTW, the other person in a disagreement does have some responsibility… 

… here’s a red hot tip if you happen to be that other person. “A soft word turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1. Kindness and understanding at the moment of impact can turn an angry person around, and give them breathing space. Then they can recover and realise they are headed down the wrong road on a skateboard… and there is a hairpin bend coming up rapidly! We can help each other with our faults, if and when we all want transformation, more than being right.

Unfortunately this confrontation between Cain and Abel escalates – and the next stage is harder to turn away from. When we get into retaliation we have entered the going-down-the-drain stage. It is not impossible, but it is very difficult to come back from there. This is because we have invested in the drama with our own words and attitudes, and now we have an ax to grind about it all. A point to prove. A beach-head to defend! It is hard to recover when you feel under attack – but it is not impossible with His help.

In this case we all know Cain’s last step was to kill his brother, and then he lied about it. The place to stop murder is in our thoughts, not when we’ve entered into out-of-control anger. By then our emotions are totally in charge. This is why the bible says we need to renew our minds. Our natural minds are defensive, and we go into “protect me” mode whether there is a danger or not. BTW, when the Lord told Cain he was now cursed for shedding his brother’s blood, Cain also lost his role in society. He was a farmer, and he could no longer successfully tend the ground because of what he had done. 

Mastery of any sin starts in our thought life, not in our words or actions. James 3:2 says: “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”  👋🏻

PS A disclaimer: despite the last three blogs featuring pictures about physical activity, I have not joined a gym. My main physical exercise is getting out of my chair to go to the loo! 😂