This is the second part in a 3 part series called Sweet Growing Pains (Read Part 1 here). It is a bit cheekier then some of my other posts, but actually that is how the Lord gave it me =) The Lord has a wonderful sense of humor of course and also knows how to combine humor, wisdom, love and irony perfectly doesn’t He? LOL.
How quickly we can forget that we represent Christ Jesus. What makes us forget? Maybe, a tone of voice there, an ignored hello over here, a, no she didn’t’ over there or he better get his eye balls back in his head now before I…You get the point 😉 However, the bible says we are ambassadors of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:20 says, we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
One may say, well that is precisely why he better or I will sma….but hold up!’ I’m not saying that brother or sister may not need help or even manners, but what I am saying is what does the Lord tell us to do? Even in correction, we are called to be gentle and humble, with Holy Spirit fruit. Question: why are your eyes on he or she anyway? Why aren’t your eyes on Jesus?
I’m not saying we don’t play a role, but sometimes we may need to just let GOD be GOD and get our plank out of our own eye before we start pointing at other people’s annoying specks! 😉
Now I know we all love to come over to “help” our bro or sis out in “love” as we get our ball of fire out to throw at them. However, we need to remind ourselves, (Lord please help us), that this Holy Spirit fire is not an “It,” but a Person of the Godhead. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, also known as the Spirit of sonship, by which we cry Abba Father. The Bible says when we are born again and receive the Holy Spirit, our spirit witnesses with His Spirit that we are children of God! How beautiful and glorious and how we need this reminder.
The Holy Spirit is known as many things, one of them being the Comforter. He also has fruit (characteristics of Christ) by which we can recognize Him.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Notice, nowhere in His fruit does it say to hit another believer with a ball of fire in aggression claiming its ‘”in love” LOL. Now, I know, before those of you get all excited, I’m not trying to say there is no correction. The Bible is crystal clear that there is, we absolutely need correction, and as we mature, we learn to appreciate it.
However, for the sake of this illustration, the Lord Jesus clearly spoke strongest against one main group of people, and they were the religious sect known as the Pharisees and Sanhedrin. They were the “keepers” of the law and acted prideful and holier than thou. In other words, they were hard to walk in love with! Think major thorn bushes, ouch!
Their hypocrisy even upset and frustrated the Lord! (yet He still loved them). You know if Jesus got upset with them, they were some serious self-righteous people. This religious group spent the whole time trying to set Jesus up, prove Him wrong, accuse Him, kill Him etc.
The devil uses religion as a weapon. We can see here clearly that godly relationships are not found in religion. In fact, religion can produce pretty horrible things. That is why the Lord came to bring us out of religion and into relationship with Him.
Challenged? Good! The Lord is doing it on purpose! Would love to hear your comments below! I double-dog dare you to go to Sweet Growing Pains – part 3 with me. Just kidding, you are welcome to come if you’d like 🙂
God bless you all. Always in His love and grace, your sis, Sybella
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