They say you get to choose your friends but not your family. The other people we don’t get choose is our enemies. What we do get to choose is to love them. We’ll never experience the miracle Jesus has in store till we dare to obey Him!
True Love
love your enemies
Which Way to Go?
But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. 1 John 2:11 NIV
Don’t you wish that following God’s guidance could be like entering an address into your GPS? Then knowing the right direction would be as simple as listening to the calm pleasant voice alerting us to turn at the next intersection.
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But finding the right career path, soul-mate or next apartment is not about knowing which way to turn. God’s word is clear that what matters to Him is in how we treat the people around us. In fact He tells us that we are stumbling through life because we are mistreating, manipulating or using others for our own advantage in ways that God calls hate. When we treat anyone with hate then we walk straight out of the presence of God and down a dark path. It reminds me of when we were driving home from Northern Vermont. The GPS in our car kept saying, “Satellite transmission lost”. We kept going the wrong way and sometimes even in circles until we stopped at a gas station and asked directions. In the same way finding the right spiritual direction means following directions from someone who can show us the way. That someone is Jesus Christ, who loved us even when we were his enemies and showed us the way to His Home.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11 KJV
Great Expectations
Sometimes the line between rights and expectations gets a little blurry. There is now plenty of debate about the right to bear arms. The two warring factions on this subject haven’t even waited for the funerals to finish before they are at each others throats. What is at the heart of the flame and fury is a battle over the right to bear arms. It may not be a right but it is a reasonable expectation to believe going to church, a shopping mall or a concert should not be risky choices. You go with your family to church expecting to return, but for 25 innocent people last Sunday that didn’t happen.
There is no solution able to create a perfect society but Jesus is quite clear about His expectations for His children. We are to love even when it is dangerous to do so. We are to give even when nothing is given to us in return. We are to believe fearlessly even when the world tells us we have no right to do so. We do all these in faith because God has a right to our lives and we have the great expectation that He will freely forgive our sins and welcome us home to heaven!
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45
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