Taking the Hide Road

Speaking as a gal whose done her share of travelling some high and low roads, I highly recommend the high roads. I've taken some perilous, torrential-rain, "low" roads that I had to turn around to take a higher road to travel. And, in the spiritual sense, I've taken some precarious "low" roads of doubt and fear and turned myself around to get back on the "high" roads of hope and faith.

There's some very angry, hurting people out there who are traveling some pretty low roads. Their hearts are broken for reasons only they know -- but most of all, they've never encountered love -- the true love of Jesus. Acting out and speaking vile and profane language is how they think they can make a difference in their world. I'm so sorry for them. If only they knew the freedom in taking the way of peace and joy that comes from our Savior. Oh, Lord, help us help them through our prayers and our living examples as Christ's followers. Here’s what God says:

~ Colossians 3:8 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”
~ Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up that it may give grace to those who hear.”
~ Matthew 12:37 “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned.”
~ Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

So, how “different” are we from those who have no sense of "gracious, seasoned-with-salt" words? Some say that “It’s normal to vent and say it like you feel it. It’s normal to be angry and to speak hatefully. Normal to some is ranting and raving right along with everyone else who is travelling on those same low roads. But, those of us who take the "High Road" way, know that God called us to live a radical love-walk-and-talk life where kindness, love, joy and peace rules. There are many differences to be found in devoted God-followers.

~ We are LOVINGLY different -- extending His love freely and unconditionally to others.
~ We are TRUTHFULLY different -- believing the truth and loving the truth, speaking the truth and living the truth.
~ We are MERCIFULLY different -- knowing that God’s mercies are new every morning, we extend His mercies to those who have failed and disappointed us.
~ We are PRAYERFULLY different -- we pray in faith, we pray because of who God is and what He can do, we pray because of what God has said in His Word. We pray because we have the assurance that God hears us and answers our prayers.

We are DIFFERENT, and DIFFERENT never felt and looked so good! Being a difference maker to those on the low roads just might be the answer to this world's problems. I think I'll grab someone's hand on the low road and show them the way on the high road! How about you?

Just Harping About Loving

What are we going to do about the evil in this world? Let it play out, or, as Christians, take the responsibility to demonstrate radical love that people will start to know Jesus by our love. We could reach the world with this radical, Christ-like love.

How do we measure up? Do others know we're a disciple of Christ by the way we talk the "love talk" and walk the "love walk"? Let's take St. Paul's love test to see how we measure up: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own way, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). That love is the mark of Christ’s disciples.

Yes, I’m harping on loving. We’re in good company if we become a “love-harper”. We’ll be taking after Jesus. Our hearts of love (or not) are being exposed. Here’s a scripture that reveals whose side we’re on: “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy”, but the Jesus way of love says: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) The thief is aka Satan. The Lover and Life-giver is Jesus.

Jesus explained it in an easy-to-understand way. He said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.“ (Matthew 22:37-38) Loving God is the heart of the matter. Without love for God, first and foremost, it's easy to violate all the other commandments, the laws of the land, love and respect for our brothers and sisters, and ourselves. If we stuck to this one -- we'd sail through the other ones!

And, isn’t that why Jesus gave us that first and most important commandment? It was because He loves us too much to see us wander and become isolated from a Father-Child, loving relationship that is about obedience, righteousness and a daily heart-check-up! If we aren’t purposefully loving God with all our hearts, it's easy to slide on keeping any of the others.

These times call for an immersion in the waters of love. When we fall in love with the Lover of our Souls, then it is a natural by-product of Jesus’ second greatest commandment – to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). In 1st John the connection is explicit: “We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21). Whew! How much clearer could it get?

So, how can we measure up to loving in spite of wrongs done to us? We can't measure up, but there is One who does. Jesus loved us perfectly and gave Himself for us. He saved us when none of us could save ourselves. And now, when we put our trust in Him, we are transformed and can imitate the pattern of His love: In receiving His love, we can, in turn, love others. It’s a win-win – we love God with all our hearts – and then, we live it out by loving others. Let's harp about this kind-of-love!

Taking the High Ground With Kindness

After I finished my blog and posted it about “watching our words on the battlefield”, yesterday, I read this daily email from a ministry. It was the “icing on the cake” of what I had said in my blog: “I call you, My people, to be kind to one another. The world is filled with selfishness and hatred. But you belong to Me and not to the world. When you become one with Me, your attitudes will reflect My heart and not yours. And the fruit of My Spirit will be evident in all that you are and all that you do, says the Lord." "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, KINDNESS, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

Those words pack a punch, don’t they? I reeled them in my heart --.hopefully to stay there, germinate and then produce a bumper crop of those fruit – especially the “kindness” fruit. Yep! That’s a fruit I needed a couple of days ago – before my blog, yesterday. From hearing way too much irritating smack talk that I “shushed” that person with fingers to my mouth. To someone else, I really wanted to retaliate (but didn’t) when they opposed my way-of-thinking. And to another, I even let casual words slip out that “stung” them enough to end a conversation. Holy kindness, Lord, I pray!

What in the world? I’m that on-purpose gal who does her best to never get my “panties in a wad”, but that day I did. Eventually, I realized the enemy was setting me up for a crummy day. Those are his tactics – it’s not just one little incident, but incidents -- multiplied. But, he is such a loser that he doesn’t get that those of us who are the blood-bought, filled-with-the-Holy Spirit, strivers to improve our love-walk daily – recognize him. We take that nonsense long enough and, in my case, I turn it into a blog that teaches a better way – God's way of handling opposition. You messed with the wrong girl, devil!

I love this quote Joyce Meyer says about herself: “Each morning, before getting out of bed, I pray that I will love and be kind to everyone today. But, then I get up and encounter people!” That hits home. I live by myself so, really, I should be okay, but then again, I know myself enough that I need to stay on guard for myself to keep ME out of trouble!

If anyone should speak on behalf of staying in tune with the Holy Spirit, it’s the Apostle Paul. He wrote these words: “Ask God to bless those who persecute you — yes, ask Him to bless, not to curse”. (Romans 12:14). We all have people in our lives that require extra grace from us. They annoy, anger, frustrate, and test us. But they also help us grow. God calls us to demonstrate mercy and kindness to everyone -- even those who cause us the most trouble. And being Spirit-led people who have the fruit of the Spirit in us, we just get "kindness" out of the fruit basket and refuse to be offended. Most of all we purpose to always take the higher ground. Proof positive of being fruit bearers!

When we take the high ground, we can see past the behavior of others. When we take the high ground, we rise above the irritation and the conflict and choose to live in peace and to be loving and kind fruit bearers.

Ronald Reagan said it well: "Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God."

You Can't Put Love on Cruise Control

I attended Holy Cross Church yesterday and was blessed in several ways, besides being able to worship and praise God for His many graces and blessings to me.

First of all the East Indian pastor was congratulated and applauded because this last week, he became a U.S. citizen. He had been the pastor of this church for two years and he expressed his gratitude and love to the congregation because they loved him even before he became a citizen. We sang "America. America. God shed His grace on thee, and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea." Oh, that we natural born Americans truly had the gratitude of living and appreciating this great land as those who were deprived and marginalized and now know freedom and liberty.

The pastor went on to give a beautiful message about loving to the nth degree -- on purpose. He told this story:

"A very astute businessman, as well as a loving and devoted husband, wanted to be absolutely sure he wasn't one of those guys that forgot his wife's birthday or anniversary. So, he made a deal with the florist to ALWAYS send his wife flowers on her birthday AND their anniversary, without fail. The card with the flowers always said, "With all my love, your loving husband". Year after year, she felt so loved and remembered by her husband. Then, on one of the occasions, the husband came home, saw the flowers and said, "Nice flowers. Who are they from?" Ouch! He got caught. The pastor said, "You can't put love on cruise control or auto pilot! Love is on purpose. Love is being present. John 13:35 says "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

How do we measure up? Do others know that we're a disciple by the way we talk the "love talk" and walk the "love walk"?

Here's a love test to know we're loving disciples....or not! Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and it not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own way, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

If we combine 1 Corinthians 13 and John 13, what would our lives look like? How would people come to recognize Christians? Well, they would know us by our patience. They would know that we are Christians by our contentment, modesty, and humility. They would recognize us, for we would not be rude. We would seek the best for others, be difficult to make angry, and refuse to keep count of how many times we've been hurt. They would know us because evil makes us sad, and truth makes us happy. They would know us because we protect the defenseless and we do not live in suspicion of others. They would know us by our hope. They would know us by our perseverance. That is what love looks like. Those should be the marks of Christ’s disciples.

It's our responsibility to change what the world thinks of Christians. It’s our responsibility to demonstrate that radical love St. Paul described to the Corinthians. Because then, one by one, people might start to know Jesus a little better. Because then, one by one, we could really reach the world with this radical, biblical, Christ-like love.