Tonight's blog for April 9, 2013

Does it seem to you that some folks are more likable than other people? It seems to be that way to me, anyway.

And I have started to see that the opposite it true too. There are folks who aren't as likable at first, or even after you get to know them. Rather than fighting against those folks, can we embrace the freedom we have in Christ and allow others to be different? Can we learn to love them anyway? Maybe our task isn't to like each other, but to love each other as we are loved by Christ. 

Let me try to explain. There is a verse in Proverbs that is repeated twice, "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death," is found in Proverbs 14:12 and is repeated exactly the same way in Proverbs 16:25. THE HOLY SPIRIT is repeating this for emphasis and for us to learn a valuable lesson. If you were a kind person before you came to know JESUS, you might remain kind for a while, or even for longer. If you weren't a nice person, the first days in Christ might find you feeling discouraged.  You start to realize that the enormous freedom in Christ and the great beginning you found in the release from your past burden of sin won't last past your first time of testing and temptation. 

I sense from Paul that he could understand what we were feeling. Before he came to Christ, Paul's every waking moment was spent in a zealous flame to honor the GOD of his people. He fought against the followers of Jesus, and took personal charge of persecuting Christians. Going door to door and traveling to Damascus are just two of the ways that we are told that Paul used to show his fiery ways for GOD. After he saw the light of JESUS and the new ways, Paul was still zealous. But now, his fiery ways led him to seek to honor Christ through loving those same believers he had previously persecuted. 

"There is a way that appears to be right…" was still Paul's way. His methods and his motives were the same. The difference was his heart! You see, we are all going to die. It is ok to embrace death as an inevitable end for all of our ways. The writer of our two proverbs wasn't saying that you can change your outcome, death, by choosing a different way, life. He was saying that by living our lives with death and leaving behind the fear and the dread of death, we become a people who have changed our "WAY" that leads to death. Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No one goes to the Father except through HIM… not Solomon or Paul or You or Me! 

I know that there are people who we naturally like a lot even before they become Christians. It just seems that we

have a natural affinity to each other. That is ok, embrace it! I also know that there are some folks who don't naturally enjoy each other. Now, here is the hard part. Even after they become followers of Jesus, we are like oil and water with the tendency is to stay separated. The way of life should lead us to heaven, even if we have to die first to get there. The way of life might not make us easy to like. The way of life is a process of growth and grace and love that makes all this possible! GOD Bless you tonight. big marv