I hit a milestone. I turned 50 years old. I am thankful that I don't feel 50. I am thankful for things God has taught me throughout those 50 years. . I have learned that God loves mercy and when I feel a sense that justice needs to happen over mercy, all I need to do is remember that I am thankful for when God gives me mercy instead of a just punishment. (Micah 6:8 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.) ( Luke 6: 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. ) I have learned that hurt people end up hurting people. When I am able to see that I didn't hurt them but I am bearing the results of that persons hurt inflicted by other people, it helps me forgive whatever hurt they pushed onto me and move on. (Romans 12 : 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ) I have learned that anyone who thinks they have God
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How to be a good friend..even if they are not...
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What does it take to be a friend?
Friendship
isn’t easy. Why? Because we are inherently self-centered and prideful. We want our way and we don’t ever want to be
seen as wrong. Then, Christ reaches down in our sin and
rescues us. So, we have the Holy Spirit
which enables us to reach down when a friend is hurting, is stuck in some kind
of sin, or just isn’t being fun to be around.
Sometimes HE calls us to do hard things for a friend..without much of a
thank you. Sometimes He calls us to be
Mike to our Sully. If you for some
weird reason have never watched, Monsters Inc, then you won’t get the
reference. But for those of you who have
watched Monsters Inc, you know that Sully is so focused on one thing…that he
fails to consider Mike’s feelings and fails to consider how his actions will affect
Mike. Near the end of the movie, we see Mike’s
great service of love for Sully. He
displays his cut up hands and shows how he has painstakingly sorted the chewed
up pieces of Boo’s door to take it from one million pieces to one piece. You can go to 5:50 to see Mike show Sully his
“gift” of the door to Sully.
Notice that
Mike had the pain…. Sully got the gift.
We have to know that sometimes we will not be on the receiving end of
the gift, but have a whole lot of pain to make things right with a friend…even
if we weren’t the one that broken something.
We can only do that… be humble and loving instead of self-centered and
prideful.. through the Holy Spirit. We
have to choose to be obedient to the calling.
It is easy to give in to “they deserve the bad thing”… or “Why do I have
to make the first move..they were the one’s unloving”. Why?
Christ gave us the example.
Phillipians
2 Imitating
Christ’s Humility
2
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort
from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and
compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having
the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than
yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others.
5Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6
Who,
being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a
servant,
being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death —
even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Shining as Stars
12
Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now
much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and
trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act
according to his good purpose.
14
Do
everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become
blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved
generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
You have to know that this won’t necessarily make
friendship easier, but it will make you happier. … Trust me.
Obedience to God….always brings joy in the long term.
Now, you might feel like you are this dog…just
trying to get along… but know you aren’t alone.
Sometimes our friendly gesture will be misinterpreted as a hostile display... and then, our friendly gesture is met with a truly hostile display. Friendships are worth fighting for. We are GRACE receivers... and must be GRACE givers...no matter what. Otherwise, is it really grace?
Friendships can be sticky. Sometimes there are things that should be worked out and then there are times God is pruning people from our lives in an effort to place others there. The only way we can tell the difference is, as you wrote, to remain humble.
You never fail, though, when you love in return for any action made against you. And sometimes that love is being painstakingly truthful; combined with the courage of risking the friendship of another if they can't see the love in your honesty and concern.
There is something pretty amazing about being untied in Christ. It takes believers beyond friendship and unifies them with the common thread of Him, no matter what comes our way. Sort of like family... you seek to stay on good terms, because you know you'll see them at the big family reunion, but it doesn't mean everything is perfect. Likewise, we will see other believers be forever united in heaven, before the throne. However, all of our pride, envy, and selfish desires will be removed and the pithy things we wrestled with here will be remembered no more, as we worship in unity. But until then we seek to love, knowing God uses it to glorify Him and reveal His love to others as others have be used to reveal His love to us. :)
Thanks for sharing. I was just discussing similar thoughts with Dan the other day. I hope everyone is feeling better. It appears my Autumn now has a barky cough...ug! It's the season.
Vicki, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am so sorry to hear your little one has a cough. We will pray that it doesn't circulate through your family. Thank you for fighting to love others well.
Before you jump to the conclusion that I am saying Christian are "brainless" sheep, read this post completely. If you still aren't sure, read this post: Are Christians brainless? Why does He call us SHEEP? ( The Bible makes reference to sheep no less than 220 times). A few of the more notable passages that come to mind are the 23 rd Psalm, Isa. 53:6 and John 10. There are many references to His People being sheep. So why not something more powerful, like a ram or horse? Why not something more graceful and valued, like a prized bird? Well, God chose to use the word sheep to identify His followers, as we are "His sheep." Our shepherd, Jesus, is leading the way, so let's look at the facts about sheep-the nature of sheep. Let's look at the facts about sheep- *Sheep aren’t intelligent . Sheep are not known to be smart or cunning animals when it comes to safety; rather, they are susceptible and tend to wander away from the prote
I hit a milestone. I turned 50 years old. I am thankful that I don't feel 50. I am thankful for things God has taught me throughout those 50 years. . I have learned that God loves mercy and when I feel a sense that justice needs to happen over mercy, all I need to do is remember that I am thankful for when God gives me mercy instead of a just punishment. (Micah 6:8 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.) ( Luke 6: 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. ) I have learned that hurt people end up hurting people. When I am able to see that I didn't hurt them but I am bearing the results of that persons hurt inflicted by other people, it helps me forgive whatever hurt they pushed onto me and move on. (Romans 12 : 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ) I have learned that anyone who thinks they have God
The Fellowship of the Believers (Acts 2) 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. How cool! God shows us in Acts the need for the church to devote itself to “fellowship.” What do you think about when you hear the word fellowship? If you are a good old Baptist, you probably think of food. :) We expect the church to ’ teaching” and “to prayer”... but we have to equally expect fellowship. Notic
Friendships can be sticky. Sometimes there are things that should be worked out and then there are times God is pruning people from our lives in an effort to place others there. The only way we can tell the difference is, as you wrote, to remain humble.
ReplyDeleteYou never fail, though, when you love in return for any action made against you. And sometimes that love is being painstakingly truthful; combined with the courage of risking the friendship of another if they can't see the love in your honesty and concern.
There is something pretty amazing about being untied in Christ. It takes believers beyond friendship and unifies them with the common thread of Him, no matter what comes our way. Sort of like family... you seek to stay on good terms, because you know you'll see them at the big family reunion, but it doesn't mean everything is perfect. Likewise, we will see other believers be forever united in heaven, before the throne. However, all of our pride, envy, and selfish desires will be removed and the pithy things we wrestled with here will be remembered no more, as we worship in unity. But until then we seek to love, knowing God uses it to glorify Him and reveal His love to others as others have be used to reveal His love to us. :)
Thanks for sharing. I was just discussing similar thoughts with Dan the other day. I hope everyone is feeling better. It appears my Autumn now has a barky cough...ug! It's the season.
Vicki, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am so sorry to hear your little one has a cough. We will pray that it doesn't circulate through your family. Thank you for fighting to love others well.
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