Are You Guilty of Murder?

"For this is the message you have heard from the beginning:  You should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own actions were evil and his brother's righteous.  Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death.  Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."  "  I John 3:11-15

I love the Word of God!  As strange as it may sound, I love it when during Bible study, or anointed preaching, the Lord convicts my heart in an area.  I enjoy learning how to please him, and what does not please him.  How can I be more like him, if I do not read the decrees, statutes and commandments laid out in the Bible?

As a young mother, I struggled with disciplining my children.  It broke my heart to  see them cry.  But as I studied the Bible I became more and more convinced that when I disciplined with dread, it was motivated by love.  When disciplining them eased the angst of my soul, I was in the flesh and not disciplining them in love.  Praise God!  He never disciplines us because he is fed up and is going to "show us a thing or two."  Rather, he disciplines us that we may live, that we may be blessed,  that we may enjoy his presence.

Loving others, forgiving, and resisting hatred is one of the hardest things we are called to do.  Why?  Because usually those we are tempted to hate or hold a grudge against is someone who has wronged us in some way.  The deeper the offence, the easier it is to being tempted to hate.

Dictionary.com defines hatred as "to dislike intensely or passionately to feel extreme aversion or hostility toward."  God said in today's verse that this is the same as murder.  Oh my!  That is a very strong whack on our spiritual posterior!

Is there anyone you intensely dislike?  I urge you to heed today's warning and begin to choose forgiveness.  Pray for the Lord to enable you to walk in love.  Today's passage indicates that clinging to this type of emotion separates us from the possibility of heaven, thus we have to purge any traces of it from us.

Dear Lord, please forgive me of anyone that I harbor wrong feelings toward.  I choose to let them go now and instead, I ask you to love them through me.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Sherri

Love: The Jumping-off Point

"For this is the message you have heard from the beginning:  You should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own actions were evil and his brother's righteous.  Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death."  I John 3:11-14

Hatred = death                                Love = life. 

And that is all of your math lesson I have planned for today!  But all jokes aside, that is the bare bones of truth.  Picture the first word in the equation as a starting point and the one on the other side as a destination.  If you start out hating people, ultimately, it will kill you emotionally, spiritually and even physically.  Much research  has been done that attempts to determine the consequence of negative emotions on health.  Research has documented that   hatred, unforgiveness, and stress lead to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.  Conversely, love leads to life.  Spiritually, physically and eternally.  Walking in love protects our spirit and even our physical and emotional well-being.  You most likely have seen the same reports I have, infants that are not held and shown love can die even when their physical needs are being met. We were made for love!

Love is the spiritual DNA of God.  The Bible clearly explains "God is love."  Thus, when we are born again children of God, our spiritual DNA is impacted by love as well.  Receiving the love of God changes everything!  It changes how we think, how we feel, how we problem-solve and approach life in general.  And that type of love is productive.  It produces spiritual offspring.  Because we have received Christ's love, we love others and lead them also to the truth of His love that we have found. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..." (John 3:16)  When we become children of God, we-like natural children-pick up characteristics of our Father. If there is no resemblance to the Father, one wonders if the person is indeed his child!

The love of God inspires us to love our earthly brothers and sisters all the more.  The love of God inspires us to love our Christian brothers and sisters in the Lord.  In fact, it is commanded.  But it does not stop there.  The love of God requires that we also love and bless those who hate and mistreat us.  Why?! Because of the love of God.  It is our starting point for all things.  But thank God, eternal life is our destination!

Oh Lord, help me to receive all the love you have for me.  Help me also, Lord, to let you love others through me.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Sherri

Don't Be Hating

 

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense- Jesus Christ, the righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world.  We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:  Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.  The old command is the message you have heard.  Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.  Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.” I John 2:1-8

 

Emotions are fickle things.  We love someone, and then we hate them.  It is amazing how our emotions can run from hot to cold.  So often we put the word hate on strong emotions of anger. Regardless of how we come to these negative emotions, we have to guard against them.

At times we feel like we love God, but hate some people in our lives.  But it does not work that way.  The Bible is plain that we cannot hate someone whom we have seen but love a God we have never seen.  (I John 4:19-20)  If we do not love our brother, then we are not walking in the light.  God is love, and if we are walking in him, then we must walk in love as well.  No matter how someone hurts us, offends us or betrays us, we must guard against allowing our offence to deepen to hatred.

If we truly believe that God loves us, we can trust him to ultimately defend and avenge us.  If we are waiting on him to be our defense, it is much easier to let go of anger we have toward someone else.  Often we clutch bitterness and hatred to ourselves as if it protects us from further hurt.  But what we are honestly doing is exalting ourselves to the place of God, casting judgment and exacting revenge.

No matter how closely we walk to God, we never reach a place that we do not have to guard against negative emotions. We are all tempted to allow sin to creep in.  We cannot sail through life without being hurt, but we can decide in advance to deny bitterness the right to remain in our heart.

Dear Lord, please help me to trust in you to protect me in relationships.  Help me to guard against the negative emotions I am feeling.  I need your grace and strength to stay in love and light. In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

Sherri