Discovering what love is one day at a time
Guilty by association…Have you ever heard that? Have you ever been accused of having the attributes of another, because you spent time with the one who was guilty of committing some forsaken act? Chances are the accuser that accused you only had an outward picture of what was happening. Chances are, just the surface was being scrutinized, picked apart and looked at with a critical eye. This happened to Jesus many times, because He ate with, hung out with, and spent time with the tax collectors, adulteresses and such. Jesus, the God who died for us, has a heart for humanity. He has a heart that protects, edifies and builds up others; bringing life to others, and not death.
Christ did not live separate; in fact, He came down from his heavenly position, to earth in the likeness of man. He gave up His position, seated high above, and became like one of us. He never compromised the integrity of His righteousness. He became sin, who knew no sin that we might become His righteousness. He did not come separating us one from another, but after His death and resurrection on the cross He separated us from death, and brought us unto Him into life. We are separated unto Him. We are not called to be separate from one another. Jesus was not concerned with the questioning of others about his behavior, or choices in what He did with His time. Jesus was not worried about mixing His Life with the Death that surrounded Him. Jesus’ life overflowed to others. He said if you have seen Me you have seen the Father. So what are we to do…we are not Jesus…we are fallible… Yep, we all can be like the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. We all fail. Our job is to be real with God about that. When He speaks to our hearts we are to fess up, get real with Him and not pass the blame; and walk through repentance with Him. Repentance is simply turning from that way of thinking feeling and deciding, and walking out the true submission to Him and His Word in our lives. Yep, we all can be like the Pharisee and the Scribes as well, because there are people in our lives that are different from us….look around we are all unique. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. But there are other ways that we are different in terms of the way we were raised, the things that have happened to us, and what we each believe. We have different lenses that we filter our lives through. A truly healthy lens is one that is fully submitted unto Christ. When the adulteress was caught in the act, the Pharisees and the Scribes questioned Jesus about her, but Jesus spoke to them and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” The Pharisees and Scribes were so concerned about defiling their flesh, their outer appearance, and their own morality. They were concerned that their morality would be tainted if they did not judge and separate themselves from those whose practices did not fit into their paradigm. They forgot about the heart of the one who literally stood naked before them, her sin was obvious, and her heart although broken and full of many wounds was the least of their concern. They were willing to destroy her for their own self-preservation. Their “love” was a clanging symbol. Is that truly love? Their type of “love” was not one that built up, but one that desired to steal, tear down, crush and destroy. Our love is to be one that does not take, or steal, or destroy that which is full of value. Our love is to be the love that builds, adds to, edifies, corrects and straightens, teaches, guides and heals.That kind of love can not be manufactured on our own, that kind of love is one that has to be received from the one that created it. That's the kind of guilty by association I desire to be accused of.
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AuthorI have been married to my wonderful husband for 29 years. We have two young men ages 25 and 20.. This blog is somewhat of a journal and attempt for me to remind myself of my purpose and invite others to join me in keeping an eternal perspective as we move through each day. Archives
May 2023
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