Forgive but won’t forget, Ephesians 4:31-32

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

(Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV)

Older people have this way of always seeming right. I just think they got to mess up first and then they can feign wisdom. Joke. Obviously. I woke to a lecture on holding grudges, it was justified but untimely. I may have been more receptive after a fry up. So I politely declined further participation in said lecture and my mum went to work. And thennnn….God revealed this scripture to me, because that’s how He rolls.

There is a time for being stern, for noting that someone is “denying” God by how they live. But our biggest motivation will always be His love, His mercy, His forgiveness. I needed correcting, I’m normally quite decent at receiving spiritual chastisement but I didn’t want to be lectured at whilst I was yawning and moody. The same applies to the roles being reversed, my choosing to lecture my mum if she appeared to be emotional, angry, despondent wouldn’t be appropriate for more reasons than she’s my marge.

God has forgiven us for actions we did against Him. For the multitude we do subconsciously, even when we know Him and yet “His mercies are new every morning”?!?!

We treat each other with love because that is all God shows us. Our God is one of comfort and justice, joy and love, wholly good and steadfast, He is our Father and we are His children. If someone tests your patience, if you catch yourself in behaviour that you don’t like, your response shouldn’t look worldly. If you watch a chick flick and see yourself, get to praying. No grudges, no retaliation, no cold shoulder, no cattiness, we should be reflecting the mercy and boundless love of our Creator. I haven’t done that recently, I fell off that wagon. But I’m guessing I won’t be alone on that one. I’m quite good at pointing out how you’ve messed up, I haven’t gained the spiritual maturity to always know the appropriate method of addressing it. But the best possible foundation will always be love.

God loved us and saved us. He loves us and comforts those broken bits that no one else can see. When Peter denied Jesus, Jesus forgave Him. If anyone could have held a grudge, Jesus would have been justified in not choosing Peter to head the church, let alone be a disciple, but in John 21, He does the absolute opposite. By one fire, Peter denies The Lord on the Thursday, cries at his realisation and is in despair. By Easter Sunday, Peter jumps out of a fishing boat to swim to Jesus on the shore. As a miraculous amount of fish is caught and cooks over a different fire, Jesus almost re-interviews Peter to be the head of the early church. One of His closest friends betrayed Him, and Jesus says “you were young, if you’re sure, I see in your heart that you are right for this. Lead my sheep”. When Zacchaeus chooses to give back far more than He’s taken, it’s because Jesus enveloped Him in His almighty love, not because He made Him feel guilty or ashamed (Luke 19:1-10).

We have our examples in scripture, and we have our testimonies. God saved each and every one of us and that is more than enough reason to treat people with that same love and mercy. It goes beyond being a decent human being to being a lighthouse powered by the Sovereign Lord. God grants us mercy and freedom when we sin against Him! Choose to reflect those qualities because God has and is transforming your life through His glorious love.

What would Judas do?

What would Judas do?

So if you know me you’ll know I’m something of a boffin.

Reclaiming the word y’all.

I like reading all things Chrstianity, so on randomly googling things about the twelve disciples I obviously came to an about.com page. They’ve got them on everything, brilliant. Anyways, point: there are things that we can learn from all of the disciples. Why? Because all of the disciples had human relationships with the Messiah. Other than John, they all abandoned Christ when He was crucified, Thomas denied that He could have risen from the dead and the temper of James and John saw them nicknamed the “sons of thunder” – hardly in line with the message of love taught by Christ.

These were real people, experiencing human relationships with Christ. They weren’t perfect, they weren’t always pious or loyal, they certainly weren’t consistent but many went on to found the Early Church. So why Judas? Because Judas is a great place to start with evaluating ourselves. Judas’ heart was greedy, before the idea of betraying Jesus even entered his head, there are verses referring to his tinkering with the donations given to Jesus and the disciples. He followed Jesus for three years, and yet with a kiss gave Him up to be crucified. Evaluating ourselves allows us to note our flaws and strengths, maybe people think you’re a great Christian but you feel pressure or a sense of shame because your heart is actually quite ugly. That’s not great, but it isn’t the end of the world. We still have time to humble ourselves before the Lord and ask for His limitless mercy and forgiveness. Judas did himself a disservice when he hung himself, pretty Faustian if you will, but quite clearly Judas really didn’t get Jesus’ ministry.

Do check out the short series.

God bless and keep you x

Stick At It, James 1:12

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
(James 1:12)

The first time we looked at James we looked at the notion of faith and asking for things like wisdom with certainty because God wants you to come to Him, and He wants to give you such gifts (re: 8th Aug, James 1:5-6). But in the same chapter James also discusses endurance. The term “carrying the cross” doesn’t mean easing Jesus’ burden, but in following Him you take up one of your own. The path of the Christian is one of challenge, persecution and judgement. You are challenged by friends, bosses, family; made out to look foolish in classes or even over dinner; and you are judged sardonically by non-believers…sounds appealing right?

But the Bible says blessed are those who “persevere” through all of this for they will receive “the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him”. Or as Romans 8:17 puts it “if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory”. We are not promised a life of ease but one of the greatest reward imaginable when we have poured out our lives in service on this planet. Paul and James noted (as Jesus repeatedly told the disciples) that inevitably following The Way would lead to a number of struggles and challenging experiences. But as co-heirs of Christ, in sharing in His suffering, in suffering in His name, we would also jointly inherit His glory.

This isn’t like the employer who still owes you a couple weeks pay, God’s good for His promise and His promise is the crown of life ! (For those of us who’ve forgotten our rightful inheritance is death, this is a serious change of events !!) We aren’t toiling for nothing and at times when we may feel fed up it’s well worth reminding ourselves why we do. Or perhaps more importantly what it is that we are toiling for.

I brought this up for another reason. A lot of young Christians struggle between discerning what is testing and what is temptation. As Christians put on this earth for but a season we expect to be tested by God, but how do we know what are lessons and what aren’t?

James straight up rules out a link between God and tempting (1:13-18). Instead he says when we are tempted it is because of our own base desires, which lead us into a horrific downward spiral should we appease them. In contrast, God is “good and perfect”, He would not bring things of a tempting nature about even to give our spiritual maturity a check-up.

“Bad company corrupts good morals” (1Cor 15:33). As you grow in your walk you will inevitably come into interaction with people acting in a more worldly way than you would envision for yourself. Take stock of this and remember this verse. Meeting such a person is not God trying to see if you start mimicking their sin too. Think about the nature of God. With the best intentions in the world we can still mess up, so it can be sensible to try to offset our chances. In such a scenario, God may watch the way in which you do or don’t compromise but never would He act with the intent of let’s see if he/she falls to temptation ! Such behaviour is not of The Lord Our God. Paul knew it, James knew it and you need to know it.

God bless and keep you always x