melting away (love part two)

In my last blog, I wrote about the need to love ourselves before we attempt to love another.  My mentor and closest friend had the wisdom to remind us of a scripture that tied all of these ideas together; Jesus says to love one another as we love ourselves. (Mark 12.31)  I think it’s easy to focus on the first half of that verse, but not on the second.  If I focus all my attention on others around me then I don’t have to pay any attention to my issues.
However, if I haven’t examined myself; if I haven’t fully realized that I am only a sinner in need of a Savior, then I will start to think I’m better than others. Instead of loving others as myself, I may start to have pity, which is the result of judging, isn’t it?  It is certainly not a result of realizing how depraved I am.   I think that’s why in another verse Jesus says,”It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.  Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you’ when your own face is distorted by contempt?  It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part.  Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.” (Matthew 7.1-5)  He makes it abundantly clear that I need to love myself first.  However I feel about myself is what I am going to project upon another.  I say that is reason enough to get it right with ourselves before we attempt anything else.

Ok, once we have attempted to conquer the arduous task of loving ourselves, it is on to loving others.  Once you begin this task, it makes more sense why the Creator, in His infinite wisdom would want us to be right with ourselves first.  People are not always the easiest to love, are they?  I am married to a person, and even he’s not on his best behavior one hundred percent of the time.  And surprise surprise, neither am I.  

Paul tells us in Romans 12.9 that “Love must be sincere.”  On a simple level, Paul is merely saying to be honest and genuine, a fine idea.  But if you look at the root meaning, you see even more.
The word "sincere" comes from Latin. If you break the word down, you have "sine" (without) "ceres" (wax). When marble columns were being cut from the quarry, often nicks and cuts would mar the marble surface. Stonecutters would put white bee's wax in these cuts to hide the blemish from an unsuspecting buyer. Of course, once the stone was in place, the hot sun would melt the wax causing the blemish to appear.  
So, to be sincere you need to be without wax:  you have to be the real deal to those around you.  To love with the gloves off.  I have to resist my natural urge to listen to others’ problem while making my own problems sound so minimal.  I think love would be so much more real if I could testify to the same junk that another goes through.  

One more thing.  The following is a list of ways we are to love another;
“Therefore…clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Paul in Colossians 3.12-14)
Throughout the Bible, the word compassion is used dozens and dozens of times.  The Lord Himself has much compassion for each and every one of us. Thank God that He is willing to come down to us with our dirt and our bull and gently wash us clean.  I like how Miriam-Webster defines compassion, ‘sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.’  We should be with our friends, our neighbors where they are at, in their place of vulnerability.  

If we love with compassion and sincerity, aren’t we getting as real as things get?  I think there’s enough bull in the world, enough ‘wax’ covering our blemishes.  It is time to let those melt away and reveal our true selves.  Think about it.  

the arrows of love

As if to assume I am qualified to start a ‘series,’ I am about to do just that.  I was pondering the subject of love today, (go figure) and rather than cram all my ideas into one enormous confusing blog, I will separate it into three confusing ones.

Ok, so that blathering aside, my first thoughts are about myself. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about your mate, right?  Well, in this case I opt to discuss me instead.  The premise is very simple, if I am bothered by myself, if I am combatant toward the very person who is to love another, I will be completely unsuccessful at any outward gestures.

When Jesus captured my heart, my heart was rather skeptical toward the whole idea.  I may have alluded to this before; but my counselor’s idea of looking to God to be the father I never had went over poorly at best.  I think that may have set my relationship with God farther back to be honest.  Fathers were to be distrusted and I wanted nothing to do with another one.  
I got over that and started to look at God with a different reflection; the Alpha & the Omega, I Am.  Those were powerful, take-charge kinds of ways to look at the Creator of the Universe. Those names seemed to be more fitting for a God I could get to know, to get used to having in my life.
However, what I ultimately needed to realize is that the problem lied within me, not Him.  I had to realize that I was afraid of letting in another father; that the idea of a gentle shepherd scared me inside.  I was looking for something fierce because that was what I was accustomed to.  I was afraid because I might actually start to believe that He cared about me.
I still am.  When things go wrong in my life; when things really start affecting my pride, my self-esteem, I retreat.  Rather that stand strong, knowing my Father has my back, I slide back into the familiar.  For me, the familiar is the ‘nothing can hurt me’ ostrich pose.  Of course it’s self-defeating; I know that.  Heck, I knew that when I was a drug addict.  To be brutally honest, I thought I was in control because I knew I was self-destructive, but I just didn’t care.
So for me right now, I have a problem that I need to deal with.  Of course, God is still there with me.  As I write those words, I have to actually take a leap of faith to believe that; but I know it’s true.  But this is an issue that I need to take apart and explore.  

So for Valentine’s Day this year, take some time to make sure you love yourself.  Check for mental roadblocks that prevent you from loving your Father as much as you should, and more importantly, from receiving the love that you so desperately need.  Loving yourself makes it easier to let go, to release that false sense of control you think you have, to stop retreating.  

Until then, here’s some reassurances for us all.  Peace in abundance to you all.

“All you saints!  Sing your hearts out to God!  Thank Him to His face!  He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime there is only love.  The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter.”  Psalm 30.4-5

“Oh, thank God-He’s so good!  His love never runs out.  All of you set free by God, tell the world!  Tell how He freed you from oppression, then rounded you up form all over the place, from the four winds, from the seven seas.” Psalm 17.1-3

DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST

The picture you see above is currently on display in an art gallery in New York. I did not post it upside-down by the way, it is portrayed the way the artist intended. And yes, that image is of Osama bin Laden.
If you were to see the entire print, you would read along the edges words like 'terrorist' and 'infidel' along with some references to Nazis. This is an artist rendition of Jesus Christ. To this artist, He is a terrorist. The painting is still on display at the time of this posting. The building has not burned to the ground and the artist is still alive.

I have watched the violence continue to unfold since my last posting. I was hopeful at seeing the information I posted being reported on the evening news. I was thinking that perhaps news of an actual Muslim Iman trying to fan the flames of violence and hatred with his own pictures would turn the tide of opposition a little.
I was shocked and dismayed to find out otherwise. It seems that the media believes Islam is a religion that has been oppressed and ridiculed so much that all of this protesting is justified. Sure, they condemn the actual violence, but they point to the recent riots in Paris as a symptom of segregation and racism.

This whole issue angers me. It's not the kind of anger that will send me into the streets with a gun or even a placard, but I am angered at how quickly Christianity is ridiculed and condemned. We lose our rights to pray in public, to display our Savior, and in some areas, we have lost our rights to some of our Bible. If we care too much about an issue, like abortion or even the environment; we are dismissed as right-wing and fundamentalist. Let's not even discuss marriage laws; we're too close-minded to have a discussion. We are lumped together with republicans and Pat Robertson, and we are laughed at. The values that our founding fathers had, that our nation has flourished with, are thrown out as archaic and oppressive.

Well then, why should Muslims be surprised to be lumped together with the terrorists? They don't deserve their individuality any more than I do. They also deserve it as much as I do. The media has no distress when they report on Christianity with a 'them' mentality, but they seem to have remorse for the actual peaceful practioners of Islam. I am so tired of this double standard. It would almost seem that Christianity, and Jesus in particular, strikes a chord in people. This chord is so unsettling that it causes defensiveness and the urge to flee.

So then, the reason I don't fight? Because despite what the world around me may say, or may look like, I know God is truly in control. Names will never hurt me, not really. I am a child of the King, and I will let Him defend all of us in His own time. Which I have no doubt will happen. Until then, I'll just keep content knowing the truth.

PAUL MAKES MY POINT FOR ME...

"[But] God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see; eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat Him like God, refusing to worship Him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand." Romans 1.18-23

A THOUSAND WORDS

I thought about writing this particular blog for quite a while. I really wasn't going to include my voice in the world arena. There has been so much written about the Mohammed cartoons; why should I add my opinion to it? The Dannish newspaper seem to have made their point, haven't they?I decided that there's more to talk about. As I listen to the rhetoric being blasted all across the media waves, I can't help but reflect on the other parts of the story.

I am a Christian, as you are well aware. While I watch the coverage of this story, and I watch violence erupt, I think about two things: how Christians are represented in media and government, and what our reaction is to said coverage.

There were several other small protests across Afghanistan on Wednesday, including one in Kabul. Hundreds of university students, including women, marched peacefully through the capital, chanting "Death to the Dannish! Death to Americans!" Foxnews.com

When did it become peaceful to chant about the death of another group of people? Is it peaceful because they weren't carrying guns and shooting up armies and civilians?

In an attempt to be unbiased and fair, the Danish newspapers have now decided to run cartoons about the Holocaust. The cartoons are from the Iranians, drawn in retaliation. I can only assume we are next.

But haven't we been in cartoons already? It can only take a minute for me to find editorial cartoons satirizing God, Jesus, and Christianity in general. We are the source of inspiration for comedians, talk show host and news anchors. Politicians take shots at us, and courts remove any representation of us from the public square that they can.

If were to take extreme offense for every cartoon drawn about our religion, there would be anarchy. So why don't we? According to the media and sources like Newsweek; we are the religion of intolerance, of bigotry, of hatred and of suppression. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, right?

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted in the Turkish press saying: Caricatures of prophet Muhammad are an attack against our spiritual values. There should be a limit of freedom of press. Junkyardblog.net

But here's what happens to Christians on a weekly, if not daily basis somewhere in the world.

The New York City schools policy states that the display of secular holiday symbol decorations is permitted and lists as examples the menorah and the star and crescent. But the policy specifically excludes the display of the Christian Nativity scene.The city argues the menorah and star and crescent are permissible symbols because they are secular, whereas the Nativity scene must be excluded because it is purely religious. Junkyardblog.net

Despite our portrayal, we persist in sharing the Message we have been given. Because we're human, some of us tend to skew the lines by being rather intolerant, I don't deny that. But to my knowledge, in the modern era of humanity, we haven't insisted on a mass uprising against the rest of the world. Instead, we have chosen to act as light in a world that has increasingly become dark. The world of Islam appears to have other motives on their agenda. According to the story that is unfolding below, if your religion isn't making enough ground on its own, try to fan fires of discontent and strife.

A lot of this "spontaneity" was clearly staged. The cartoons gained a wider audience when radical Danish clerics toured the Middle East last month, showing the offending cartoons to the heads of several of the major Islamist groups in the region. Just in case the originals weren't offensive enough, the clerics also supplied a few of their own cartoons, ever more inflammatory, and said they sprang from the pens of the infidels. One of the clerics, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Ladan, explained in an interview that the tour was meant to "internationalize this issue." The clerics told their hosts that Muslims do not have the right to build mosques in Denmark, and repeated other ridiculous lies to foment discord and ridicule the Danish government. powerlineblog.com

TODAY'S POINT

I only can point to the words of Jesus for my point today. We can point fingers back and forth, as we have been doing since the Crusades, and each side will claim superiority and the fast track to heaven. But, I ask you to consider how the followers of Jesus conduct their day to day life, and how we 'peacefully' handle ourselves.

"You're blessed when you can show peoplc how to cooperate instead of compete or fight." Jesus in Matthew 5.9

"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. " Jesus again in Matthew 5.10

"Not only that-count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens-give a cheer even!-for though they don't like it. I do!" Jesus in Matthew 5.11

I want you to also remember one other thing that Jesus said, and it's important.

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. NO one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well."

Think about it. I'll have more on this subject Friday.

i have come to a crucial decision. because i want people to read this blog, and actually come back to it time and time again, i think a little consistency is in order. starting the week of February 5, 2006, i will post two messages a week: tuesday and friday. as i typically write in the middle of the night, you may check any time for the new posts. so, once again, that's every tuesday and friday for your complete word sword message.
thank you for reading this blog. you may return to your regularly scheduled life.

deer in headlights

I had another article lined up for tonight, but something more interesting came up in the meantime.  Since this idea includes a neat little story, I thought I would write this one first.  The other one will have to wait until next week.
Ok, ok, here’s the story.  My husband and I attend a small group Bible study at someone’s house every other Sunday.  This Sunday was no different, except the previous week our marriage sustained serious damage, of which we were beginning to emerge.  It seemed to me that we went though some sort of a ten-year crisis, but having never gone through one, I cannot be positive.  It did appear that everything in our relationship that usually simmered below the surface began to boil over and make a terrible mess.  
My emotions were all over the map during that week of crisis.  I tried to cling to Jesus, I really did.  Just when I thought I could keep my focus on Him, my anger or my sadness would take hold of me and my sight would veer. Half of the time I would pray; the other half I would curse.  Just when things were their bleakest, the fighting between my husband and me stopped.
The thing that has to be clear is that the distress in our marriage was catastrophic and had the potential to be fatal.  Sure, we had our fights in the past, but nothing compared to this one.  Words were said that acted as daggers, doors seemed to slam shut, never to be opened again.

We are driving home from the Bible study.  We are cautiously optimistic to one another.  The peace treaty is fragile; the relationship is more delicate then ever before.  Small words are said like, “Good group tonight, huh?”  
Then all at once, I am impressed with the knowledge that my husband should slow the van down.  I need to let you know something about my husband.  Because of his line of work, he has taken several defensive driving and emergency vehicle driving classes.  He is an outstanding driver, and I feel very safe driving with him.  Because of his passion for hunting, he is also very competent at spotting ‘eyes’ on the sides of the road.  I need to emphasize that I never have urges to criticize his driving.  
So, weighing our delicate relationship with this now pressing need to tell him to slow down, I proceed with caution.  I respectfully ask him to slow down.  Thankfully, he looks puzzled, but does what I asked.  Almost immediately, the headlights shine on a herd of deer.  I realize that deer don’t travel in herds, but there are at least a dozen deer right in front of us.  They look at us with casual surprise, and then move along into the night.

AND NOW RUNS THE POINT…

I think it is absolutely amazing that Jesus seeks after us even when we are a disaster.  I had just spent the past week feeling sorry for myself and being angry with Him, but He was still speaking at me.  
True story turns into cheesy analogy ahead:  it occurred to me that I was that deer in the headlights.  When the hard lights of adversity and struggle pierced my eyes, I froze.  I did not have the strength to take refuge in Him.  I focused on my circumstances rather than on God.  The deer freeze at the sight of headlights because their eyes are accustomed to gathering light in the darkness.  So when the lights shine on them, their eyes freak out (not a technical term) and they are blinded.  I was so blinded by my anger and our fight that I could no longer see the truth; that God was with us and He was in our situation.  But as God is an eternal lover, He kept right along side of us and averted potential disaster.

“Since God has so generously let us in on what He is going, we’re not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times.  We refuse to wear masks and play games.  We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes.  And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves…So we’re not giving up.  How could we! even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us; on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace.  These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.  There’s far more here than meets the eye.  The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.  But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” Paul in 2 Corinthians 4.1, 16-18

Not a day goes by without God’s unfolding grace.  My husband and I were not alone through our struggles.  It was I who walked away from God; it was I who tried to make it on my own.  And it was God who stayed loyal and loving, protecting us from harm.
Think about it.