WisdomForInspiredLiving.com
DATE:
PLANTING SEEDS: (Truth)
Scripture Memorization : Matthew 10:34 (NIV)
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
COFFEE CUP COUNSELING: (My Personal Perspective)
Since giving my life to Christ nearly 12 yrs ago, one thing is absolutely certain. Conflict always comes with Truth. I found myself in more heated discussions than I ever did in any other time in my life. People didn’t have much to say when I lived for the world, matter of fact, I had lots of friends, but the moment I came to Christ…friends scattered like ashes in the wind. Not only is there conflict in the world, but there is also conflict in the church with believing brothers and sisters in Christ. Conflict seems unavoidable.
I absolutely love people, if you were to sit down with me, you would see that I am absolutely without much of any “bubble”. The closer we get the more loyal I become. I love people’s lives, their emotions, their questions, their fellowship. My love language is TIME. I try not to judge people for their lifestyles…goodness, I have a huge plank in my own eye I and I’m not shy in sharing all my past mistakes or my weaknesses. I’m a very flawed person, but I’ve been redeemed by Christ and the freedom of the potters wheel has been my security blanket. God takes all those flaws, and he little by little removes the impurities I’ve let in and he replaces them with his thoughts, his ways and his truth.
When Christ grabbed a hold of my heart, he opened my eyes to things that were destroying people. I began to speak out scripture over those situations. Wow!!! You would have thought I opened up WW3. I had so many battles on Facebook you would have thought I was some sort of Pharisee. For awhile, I believed I was. I even got called “Evangelica” (Evangalist and Angela) by a family member who very openly shared his disapproval of me on FB. How dare I judge sin. Who was I to tell anyone anything. I shut FB down several times because I believed I was doing more harm in the world than good. How could someone who loved people so much and beg God daily for friend and family restoration, be in so much conflict? The turning point for me is when I fell into conflict in the church over a false testimony that I confronted. I opened the Bible and I searched how to handle the conflict. I tried to take the steps in the most loving way possible, but it didn’t turn out. I obviously didn’t handle it right, at least not in that beautiful way I thought it would. Instead, because I felt that I had caused conflict in the church and I was already told by one member they would not come to church because of me, I felt like I was the yeast of the church and I left to avoid hurting anyone else.
Yesterday, I watched a Pastor on TBN tell his mega church, that we are the righteousness in Christ and the true test to know if we believe it is after we sin to say, I am righteous to God. Every red flag went off in my belly and I thought, if he preached that to my boys I would be furious! But isn’t that what most of us are trying to do? Aren’t we trying to console people when they are convicted of sin? So many people are hurting and depressed and longing to be loved and we are trying to get them to understand that God is love but so is His correction, and the reason we feel like that is because we are in bondage to sin, and that even though that conviction of sin hurts a little, we should never compromise truth so that we FEEL better, we will feel better once we take care of the sin. If we can pull sin out by speaking truth, instead of shaming people or keeping our mouths shut about scripture and sin, maybe then we can help heal broken hearts. My family is reading Revelation and God is telling the churches what he approves of and disapprove of and tells them if they don’t REPENT (which means feel bad about and turn from) he will blot them out. How’s that for hurting feelings? Did I tell you I love people? I do, so much, that I don’t want to see any thing hinder their lives and cause them to be hurt, depressed or believing lies.
I wrote a book about my depression over a marital affair in my life. I remember asking God to help me forgive that offense. It was so deep and so raw I didn’t think I ever could. I still struggle, but God gave me a vision in a dream once. He showed me the woman who had hurt me so deep, falling in a endless dark pit and screaming for help. I didn’t think twice, I ran as fast as I could I reached down, like a scene in a movie and I clamped my hand around her arm and I did not let go. I cried and I pulled and I didn’t let go until I had her out of that danger. That’s love…. not to tell them that everything is going to be alright, but to be willing to save them from that pit they’ve fallen in, snatching them out of sin and bringing them into truth. That’s what speaking truth does. Even if it appears like conflict.
So I took a look at the Bible in general. I thought of Noah, of Jonah, of Moses, of the OT Prophets, of John the Baptist, of Jesus and the 12 Apostles in the NT. I took a look at how they shared the Gospel. They spoke truth. I took a look at what it did to the people. It caused riots, it caused conflict, it caused anger, it caused hatred, people killed each other, and it caused the ones speaking truth to be ridiculed and hated, most of them were killed. How’s that for a thankless job? I don’t recall one story in the Bible where everyone all just all compromised truth and sang kumbaya around a campfire. But there is coming a time when we will.
So does that mean that when Jesus said to come with a sword, he meant to come and fight! Absolutely not. Jesus not only came to speak truth, but he also came to correct the Pharisees and Sadducees that were controlling the people with their religious doctrines. It made him so angry that they were preaching their ways and not God’s. That the leaders were confusing the people’s thoughts with religious ideologies and opinions, making them pay for sacrifices, shaming them, and not allowing them freewill. Two things are very important to Jesus. 1) is that you love God with all your heart mind an soul and 2) is, that you love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, you must speak truth, at all costs, but in doing so, you must never shame anyone, you must never give up on them, and you must always remember that humility means that you put others before yourself. You did not come to fight with a sword like Peter did when he cut off the guards ear, you come to share God’s truth with the sword of God, (his word), which pierces the heart directly and comes to save others from a spiritual death or an eternity in hell. Conflict isn’t bad and you are not the yeast of the church if you share truth. Just make sure you are NOT condemning people. Sharing truth will always come to do exactly as God intended and sometimes that looks slightly different than we want it to.
So share away. Speak truth, set the captives free!
MEDITATION & DISCUSSION:
Take time to journal your thoughts on this scripture. You are more than welcomed to share your insight, testimony, thoughts, questions with me below, or keep it for your own personal journal.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SHARE WITH A FRIEND:
Studies indicate that if we share what we have learned with someone else within 24 hours of being taught, the chances of it remaining in our memory is increased. If you have had a friend, relative, or anyone come to mind while reading this blog, please share this with them! You can text it, post it to Social Media, Discuss it at Bible Study, watch my YouTube Channel or print this blog out, invite a friend to have coffee and discuss! It’s easy!
I’m going to share today’s blog with _____________________________________________________.
I thought of them because:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget to memorize and meditate on today’s Word! It’s absolute Truth!
Scripture Memorization : Matthew 10:34 (NIV)
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
DATE:
PLANTING SEEDS: (Truth)
Scripture Memorization : Matthew 10:34 (NIV)
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
COFFEE CUP COUNSELING: (My Personal Perspective)
Since giving my life to Christ nearly 12 yrs ago, one thing is absolutely certain. Conflict always comes with Truth. I found myself in more heated discussions than I ever did in any other time in my life. People didn’t have much to say when I lived for the world, matter of fact, I had lots of friends, but the moment I came to Christ…friends scattered like ashes in the wind. Not only is there conflict in the world, but there is also conflict in the church with believing brothers and sisters in Christ. Conflict seems unavoidable.
I absolutely love people, if you were to sit down with me, you would see that I am absolutely without much of any “bubble”. The closer we get the more loyal I become. I love people’s lives, their emotions, their questions, their fellowship. My love language is TIME. I try not to judge people for their lifestyles…goodness, I have a huge plank in my own eye I and I’m not shy in sharing all my past mistakes or my weaknesses. I’m a very flawed person, but I’ve been redeemed by Christ and the freedom of the potters wheel has been my security blanket. God takes all those flaws, and he little by little removes the impurities I’ve let in and he replaces them with his thoughts, his ways and his truth.
When Christ grabbed a hold of my heart, he opened my eyes to things that were destroying people. I began to speak out scripture over those situations. Wow!!! You would have thought I opened up WW3. I had so many battles on Facebook you would have thought I was some sort of Pharisee. For awhile, I believed I was. I even got called “Evangelica” (Evangalist and Angela) by a family member who very openly shared his disapproval of me on FB. How dare I judge sin. Who was I to tell anyone anything. I shut FB down several times because I believed I was doing more harm in the world than good. How could someone who loved people so much and beg God daily for friend and family restoration, be in so much conflict? The turning point for me is when I fell into conflict in the church over a false testimony that I confronted. I opened the Bible and I searched how to handle the conflict. I tried to take the steps in the most loving way possible, but it didn’t turn out. I obviously didn’t handle it right, at least not in that beautiful way I thought it would. Instead, because I felt that I had caused conflict in the church and I was already told by one member they would not come to church because of me, I felt like I was the yeast of the church and I left to avoid hurting anyone else.
Yesterday, I watched a Pastor on TBN tell his mega church, that we are the righteousness in Christ and the true test to know if we believe it is after we sin to say, I am righteous to God. Every red flag went off in my belly and I thought, if he preached that to my boys I would be furious! But isn’t that what most of us are trying to do? Aren’t we trying to console people when they are convicted of sin? So many people are hurting and depressed and longing to be loved and we are trying to get them to understand that God is love but so is His correction, and the reason we feel like that is because we are in bondage to sin, and that even though that conviction of sin hurts a little, we should never compromise truth so that we FEEL better, we will feel better once we take care of the sin. If we can pull sin out by speaking truth, instead of shaming people or keeping our mouths shut about scripture and sin, maybe then we can help heal broken hearts. My family is reading Revelation and God is telling the churches what he approves of and disapprove of and tells them if they don’t REPENT (which means feel bad about and turn from) he will blot them out. How’s that for hurting feelings? Did I tell you I love people? I do, so much, that I don’t want to see any thing hinder their lives and cause them to be hurt, depressed or believing lies.
I wrote a book about my depression over a marital affair in my life. I remember asking God to help me forgive that offense. It was so deep and so raw I didn’t think I ever could. I still struggle, but God gave me a vision in a dream once. He showed me the woman who had hurt me so deep, falling in a endless dark pit and screaming for help. I didn’t think twice, I ran as fast as I could I reached down, like a scene in a movie and I clamped my hand around her arm and I did not let go. I cried and I pulled and I didn’t let go until I had her out of that danger. That’s love…. not to tell them that everything is going to be alright, but to be willing to save them from that pit they’ve fallen in, snatching them out of sin and bringing them into truth. That’s what speaking truth does. Even if it appears like conflict.
So I took a look at the Bible in general. I thought of Noah, of Jonah, of Moses, of the OT Prophets, of John the Baptist, of Jesus and the 12 Apostles in the NT. I took a look at how they shared the Gospel. They spoke truth. I took a look at what it did to the people. It caused riots, it caused conflict, it caused anger, it caused hatred, people killed each other, and it caused the ones speaking truth to be ridiculed and hated, most of them were killed. How’s that for a thankless job? I don’t recall one story in the Bible where everyone all just all compromised truth and sang kumbaya around a campfire. But there is coming a time when we will.
So does that mean that when Jesus said to come with a sword, he meant to come and fight! Absolutely not. Jesus not only came to speak truth, but he also came to correct the Pharisees and Sadducees that were controlling the people with their religious doctrines. It made him so angry that they were preaching their ways and not God’s. That the leaders were confusing the people’s thoughts with religious ideologies and opinions, making them pay for sacrifices, shaming them, and not allowing them freewill. Two things are very important to Jesus. 1) is that you love God with all your heart mind an soul and 2) is, that you love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, you must speak truth, at all costs, but in doing so, you must never shame anyone, you must never give up on them, and you must always remember that humility means that you put others before yourself. You did not come to fight with a sword like Peter did when he cut off the guards ear, you come to share God’s truth with the sword of God, (his word), which pierces the heart directly and comes to save others from a spiritual death or an eternity in hell. Conflict isn’t bad and you are not the yeast of the church if you share truth. Just make sure you are NOT condemning people. Sharing truth will always come to do exactly as God intended and sometimes that looks slightly different than we want it to.
So share away. Speak truth, set the captives free!
MEDITATION & DISCUSSION:
Take time to journal your thoughts on this scripture. You are more than welcomed to share your insight, testimony, thoughts, questions with me below, or keep it for your own personal journal.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SHARE WITH A FRIEND:
Studies indicate that if we share what we have learned with someone else within 24 hours of being taught, the chances of it remaining in our memory is increased. If you have had a friend, relative, or anyone come to mind while reading this blog, please share this with them! You can text it, post it to Social Media, Discuss it at Bible Study, watch my YouTube Channel or print this blog out, invite a friend to have coffee and discuss! It’s easy!
I’m going to share today’s blog with _____________________________________________________.
I thought of them because:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget to memorize and meditate on today’s Word! It’s absolute Truth!
Scripture Memorization : Matthew 10:34 (NIV)
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
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