Wounded Soldiers (2)

This is a follow up to my last Tidbit on Wounded Soldiers.  Like I said in my last Tidbit, I am not writing this to put down the church but to help make people aware of this problem and to encourage people to seek out those that were in church but are not there anymore.  Listen to them and try to encourage them and not just come back with some pet answers you have heard.  Also, try not to do all the talking, and don’t forget a gentle answer is the way to turn away wrath, just let them know that someone misses them and cares about them.

I think the main ingredient missing in the world today is the lack of love, and I hate to say it, but it seems that way in some of the churches too.  Maybe many of us have forgotten where we came from and what it took to get us out of the situations we were in.  Remember Jesus forgave us when we were His enemies because He loved us, and we need to do the same.  Remember what the Bible says about the last days; it says the love of many will grow cold.  If this is true, which it is, how much more does the church need to show people love, inside and outside the church.  You might say, “I am feeding the poor and clothing the naked,” and doing good things, and that is good, but ask yourself why.  What is your real motive for doing these things?  Is it just to hear the ‘atta boy’ or to get the ‘pat on the back’ or the ‘look at me’ pharisaical attitude or maybe you are trying to get brownie points with God or some other selfish motive or maybe it is because of real love.  I hope that real love is the case because all the other things are a waste of time as far as you are concerned if your motives are not what they should be.  You may be helping others but you need to repent and ask for forgiveness if your motives are wrong, and ask the Lord to help you love what He loves and to hate what He hates.

I have been serving the Lord for many years and I know what it is to have the wrong motives and need to repent, I have been there!!  There have been times that I would rather fight someone in the church than love them and that was wrong, very wrong, so this isn’t just about you but it is also about me!!  I admit it isn’t easy to love some people, but probably at times it isn’t easy to love you or me either.  Thank the Lord my wife does and she knows me better than anyone else and I live with that miracle every day.  Love is an action word and needs to be demonstrated every day.  It is not just a word you say like so many people seem to think.  I know we hear a lot about it, but what does it really look like?  

What are the first two commandments Jesus talked about in Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Read Matthew 7:12, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

This is what is called the ‘Golden Rule.’  How many of us really live this way, or is it just good sounding words?

Jesus taught about loving even your enemies in Matthew 5:43-48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Lastly read 1 John 3:11-18, “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”  

I think I have said enough.  If you are reading this and you are getting angry, it may be the Holy Spirit’s conviction.  If it is, repent and ask the Lord to forgive you; then start serving and loving people with the right motive.  Something to think about!  Have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours and don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!