Lean On One Another

Take care brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

Hebrews 3:12-13

We are surrounded by sin.  It tries to invade our lives with all manner of evil.  We see wars and crime and hate and discouragement.  Sometimes Christians are beaten up by the onslaught of evil and give up. 

Paul tells us to stick together and encourage one another in the faith.  When we speak words of kindness and encouragement to one another it is a two way street, as we give encouragement we are encouraged. 

We are called to care for each other, let us do so without reserve.  Lean on one another, encourage one another, believe the living God.

Seek God, Find These

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Hope, joy and peace: seek God, find these.  

God Is In The Forgiveness Business

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

Romans 8:1-2

Man is in the condemnation business.  God is in the forgiveness business.

Happy Thanksgiving

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.

Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before Him with joyful singing.

Know that the Lord Himself is God;

It is He who has made us and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the Lord is good;

His lovingkindness is everlasting

And His faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100

Do What Is Right

And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.  And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. 

When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.”

And He laid hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. 

But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him?  And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.

Luke 13:10-17

When we set out to do good, there will always be critics arguing against the good we are doing.  Just look at the never ending debate in the United States Congress about the school lunch program that provides low cost and/or free lunches to poor children. There are those who have the warped notion that we should not feed hungry kids.  Where does that come from?  

Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”

Do what is right.

A Lot Of Forgiveness

Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Matthew 18:21-22

“Are you mad at me?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you mad at me?”

“You know .”

“No, I don’t.”

“You know!”

The thing about being human is that our humanness invades every inch of our lives including our relationships with one another.  We all make mistakes and those mistakes can hurt or offend our friends and relatives.  And, this same humanness can cause us to carry grudges against one another for years and years.  One of us is angry and the other one does not know why.  Our pride gets in the way of us doing what is right. 

Jesus said the right thing to do is to forgive.  So, we forgive – with or without an apology from those who offended us. 

And, I don’t think it hurts for us to apologize, even if we think we are right, just to clean things up so we can get on with God’s work.

Seventy times seven is a lot of forgiveness.