Love Does........FORGIVENESS: You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry

 



It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  1Cor. 13:5




In my very early 20's I had worked really hard and bought my first REAL car.  I say REAL CAR because my first car technically was a Ford Escort (nicknamed CHRISTINE) because the exhaust fumes came on the inside of the car instead of the tail pipe, and I swear that car tried to kill me.  So I had bought a Pontiac Bonneville.  It was black with a camel colored cloth interior.   I had decided to get some 5-Start aluminum wheels on it, with gold studs on it.   I then got all the windows I could smoke-tinted, and had a premium after-market sound system installed so people could hear or feel me before the even saw me.    When I brought home my monster of a mobile, I decided I wanted to upgrade the 6x9 speakers and decided to do that myself.

My neighbor's son was a 40yr old man that did odd jobs and had a few issues with drugs.   He and I tried to take out the back dash to install the speakers and to no avail it didn't work.  Later (alone and on my own) I figured out I needed to go through the trunk.   That night while I slept that same crack addicted neighbor broke into my car and not only stole those same speakers, but also many of my cd's and my radio.  Because of how the back dash had been ripped out.....I knew it was him.   Of course the one night he's always outside trolling the streets he was nowhere to be found.   As a young man, filled with unbridled anger for a multitude of reasons, my first thought was he has to pay!  The police came, and couldn't do much of nothing, this angered me more....and at this point I didn't want to ride in my car, nor touch anything as I felt it was dirty and violated.     I won't go into the range of emotions I endured...and let me just say they weren't God-honoring.  Had I owned a gun my life would've been tragically different today.

When we feel disrespected, offended, and violated we are prone to think, say, and do things that could really lead us down a path of darkness and that's whether you are a believer or non-believer (Ask the sword slinging Peter).   I can't tell you what this crack addict thought about me, or said about me, but what he did to me seemed to justify every thought I was having about him, but honestly it really didn't.  Days later I learned from his mother (my neighbor) I learned he had been murdered a few days later in very neighborhood I grew up in as a child.   If I'm honest I felt justice had been served...but whose justice?  As a mature follower of Christ I've come to realize that Jesus desires that none would perish but would come to repentance.  Since I am supposed to be an ambassador of His Kingdom, my goal should be the same as his....that I'd be a reconciler of relationships, not a champion of my own national rights, because if I am truly not of this world my agenda is not the same as the average American.    This means I will speak out in ways that may not lead me to march in concert with others.    This means I may like Christ, choose the path of establishing one-on-one relationships where the greatest changes occur.    This means I may not entertain anyone political parties agenda but those things that pertain to upholding the will of God concerning the widows, orphans, and those that may not have a voice sign me up. 
  

Jesus told them my kingdom is not of this world.  He didn't speak out against Caesar or Pilate, He turned people onto the WORD, looked to the righteous judge His Father, and continued living in a manner that was so different that it was attractive to those that sought more out of life.  Jesus demonstrated His anger once publicly with the money changers then after that continued on His tour of changing the world through loving every person He came in contact with.  So while you march, or attend your meetings, I'll make sure I'm looking for the ones that are hurting because of the words you spewed or posted and offer them a hand up, instead of a handout.   Continuing the GREAT CO-Mission.  LGLP

LOVE DOES......RESPECT: But Can Offend

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,  1Cor. 13:5a

²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!  1Cor. 11:22


Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”

⁸ and

“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. 1 Peter 2:7-8

  

 

It's impossible to go through this life without offending someone.   Kids burp at the dinner table and your are offended.   You are accused of passing gas, and you are offended.   You are accused of stealing something you are offended.   You watch the news and depending on the subject matter and rhetoric you are offended.   You have come to church and because the message was so on point, you are offended because you think either they are talking about you specifically or you think information you shared is now being somehow preached without your permission.

 

Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes.  Now if you simply replaced the word offenses with temptation or an occasion to stumble you get what Jesus is saying.   Simply put we will have many, multiple, a plethora of opportunities to be offended but to the one who causes them....they are in trouble!   See Paul when he penned this letter loved the people of Corinth so much that he felt and obligation and unction from the Spirit to inform the of how they were bringing shame to God.   Jesus was considered the ROCK of OFFENSE because remember HE is perfect and when you tell people love their enemies, do good to them that curse you, offer someone you cloak, rejoice when you are persecuted....to them and to us...that's offensive, but Jesus is only asking us to attempt to model what He modeled before us. 

 

So this is not about living a life of purposely trying to people please....no...it's more a of a life of trying to live identical to the heart of Christ amongst people.   Instead of chiming in on the cultures rhetoric regarding ____________________________ live in such a way that people think you are weird to love people that hate you.   Live in such away that they call the police only to discover they have no charge against your love for them.  Paul later told the Galatians 5:22-23  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things.

 

Instead of exhausting yourself trying to demonstrate all these qualities of the Spirit alive in you, focus on a few.  Maybe the ones you excel at, or the ones that you struggle at just to the glory of God!   Think of ways you can turn the negative water cooler conversations around to offer people a cool drink, since a kind answer turns away wrath.  LGLP

LOVE DOES...........RESPECT: The Problem w/@The Party

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking ......1Cor. 13:5a

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.  When he appeared in human form, ⁸ he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.  Phil. 2:6-8

So remember in 1Cor. 11:17-22 discussed earlier that the Church of Corinth had been sited for having divisions amongst them and that their communion gatherings were really not about communion and rather played into the divisiveness of the culture and time.  There were no megachurches....these gatherings were held in local homes...so it further played into the rights/freedoms of the homeowners to do as they pleased.   As an American there is a prevailing culture here.   It's one where OUR RIGHTS take great precedence.  We have the freedom of speech.  The Right to Bear Arms.   The Right to Remain Silent (one which we rarely ever demonstrate).  We have the right to assemble peacefully....(but it often tends to turn into anything but peaceful).  And the list of our rights goes on and on...and what's really sad is that we are more familiar with Constitutional Rights, than we are with our GOD GIVEN RIGHTS.  

Now some of you are saying or thinking they are one in the same, and no where in scripture will you read that we are encouraged to cling to our rights.  As a matter of fact in lieu of the text, as followers, believers, disciples of Christ He gave us the example of forsaking, giving up, laying down our rights for the sole purposes of demonstrating humility and obedience to the Father.

At Calvary Church whenever a missions team prepares to go on a trip, we have a form called " Release of Rights" where the missionaries are encouraged to read, study, pray over, then sign as they go off to serve.  What's striking to me is we can go to Africa, Honduras, Czech Republic, Haiti, and other corners of the world relinquishing our rights willfully for the cause of Christ, but on our own soil we will grow roots in our feet to STAND OUR GROUND regarding our rights.  See the problem with the Party is that the Party that we ascribe to, promote, or even throw we feel (at it is true to a degree) is our RIGHT to have.  We can play with, drink with, party with whomever we so choose....but as a Christian our goal should be to lay down those rights as Paul did 1Cor. 9 all for the sake of the cause...the call of Christ!


See.....the people of Corinth were somewhat oblivious to that fact that while it WAS their RIGHT to have a party, they were infringing upon the will, the heart of the Father for His bride, the church because they called it communion.  I heard from Donnie McClurkin that in order for someone to be saved, someone has to be sacrificed.   For every person reading this blog today, there were people that sacrificed their very lives for you, and I'm not even talking about servicemen and women, but rather a mother that bore you in her womb.   I'm talking about Christ himself who laid down His rights so that you may have ETERNAL LIFE.   So again.....I leave you with this lingering question, your RESPONSE-ABILITY who are you sacrificing for?   If , WE THE PEOPLE, are the people of GOD are to be on mission daily, we too have a responsibility to the lost, and in order to win them.....we will have to lay down something in order to show them the love of JESUS CHRIST, the question is will you?   LGLP

LOVE DOES .........RESPECT: THE PARTY

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking 1Cor. 13:5a

But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. ¹⁸ First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹ But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!
²⁰ When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. ²¹ For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. ²² What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!  1Cor 11:17-22

If we are all honest we like parties!  I mean there are so many different types and styles of parties....I mean there are literally parties to suit every taste.  You have:



Birthday Parties
Wedding Parties
Bachelor Parties
Political Parties
Office Parties
Going-away Parties
Divorce Parties
College Parties
Drunken Orgy Parties
Dope (drug) Parties
Graduation Parties
Congressional Parties



And the list goes on and ....and one would have to look from the outside to say...THESE PEOPLE, these humans, like or even love to party, to celebrate.   Even during the New Testament, the formation of the Church of Jesus Christ parties were popular.    They  were called feasts...but all the same they were a gathering of like-minded people with the purpose to celebrate or honor something or someone in their hearts. Which brings me to this point, Paul learned that the people of Corinth were having parties that literally shamed Jesus, because they were supposed to be worshipful, pertaining to the celebration & remembrance of Christ's sacrifice of dying on our behalf through the practices of communion but what was really going on was a party of different sorts.

People getting drunk, and eating to they were full, while the less fortunate sat outside waiting hoping that there would be something left for them to too enjoy.  But that's not what often happened.  Much like a High School party, some where excluded.  Some were allowed to stand on the outside and watch.   See at these parties God wasn't glorified, as a matter of fact His presence was likely not to even be there, because this type of party/gathering brought dishonor to God.   See love doesn't dishonor others.

I have wrestled all week with posting a blog or a response in light of the events on the news.  From the Zimmerman Verdict to that of the Normandy/Riverview School District busing their kids 30+ miles away from their homes.   While I will weigh in on these things.....I have to pause to ask the question what party am I associated with?  Is the party I'm associated with purposed to glorify God, and create an atmosphere that His Holy Presence is welcomed into?  Or is the party I'm affiliated with gatherings where I am literally disrespecting GOD through my conduct regarding others?  


Let me wrap this up.....just like the Corinthian church, we run the risk of getting in our Holy and UnHoly huddles and bashing the very people God's heart is breaking for.  See whether you feel like you represent Zimmerman, Trayvon, FHSD, Normandy, Riverview, Same Sex Marriage, or whatever the hot topic cause......at the end of it GOD is looking to see if you really do Love Him.   Much like Christ cornered Peter saying if you love me....feed my sheep.   If you love me tend to my sheep......see if you really LOVE THE LORD, if you really sing I LOVE JESUS, YES I DO, I LOVE JESUS howabout.....then that would mean the party you are affiliated with wasn't man made.   The party that you are affiliated with is really not even of this world, which means your conduct is an anomaly in this society.  Your heart breaks for every party involved, and your deepest desire is to demonstrate the love of GOD to every breathing soul......why?  Because LOVE DOES just that!   LGLP