Dear Church Family –
Saturday night we lose an hour of time. Be sure and set your clocks ahead to be on time for Sunday School and Church Sunday morning.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I’ve been reading This Light of Mine: Living Like Jesus in a Non-Jesus World, by Joseph Stowell. I say “reading” but it’s probably more accurate to say I’ve been marking nearly every other paragraph. Stowell has good stuff to say and he says it well.
Here’s one example from pages 93 and 94.
“In His teaching on kingdom values and behavior in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His followers, ‘You have heard it said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of Your Farther who is in heaven.’ (Matt 5:43-45). Loving your neighbor and hating your enemy was street talk. Kind of like, ‘I don’t get mad, I just get even.’ But right-side-up followers don’t get mad or even but rather seek to figure out ways to bless our enemies.
“Paul picked up this theme in Romans 12 when he wrote to persecuted Christians,
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:17-21)
“One thing is liberatingly clear in this text. Getting back at our enemies is God’s responsibility. It is not ours. Loving them is our business. It always takes two to fight. Followers of Jesus leave their enemies shadow-boxing by themselves.
“So the question remains for kingdom people, ‘What does it mean for me to love my enemy?’
“It’s easier to think what it doesn’t mean. Loving my enemy doesn’t mean that I slander and gossip about them, hoping to rally others to join my vendetta against them. It doesn’t mean that I plot for ways to get back at them. It doesn’t mean that I revile them and cast verbal stones at them. It doesn’t mean that I mock them and belittle them with names and verbal disdain. It doesn’t mean that I refuse to forgive them.
“So what do we do? Luke helps us categorize ways in which we can love our enemies. When he records Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount, he specifically states that Christ said, ‘Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you’ (Luke 6:27-28). In Luke’s terms, those three things qualify as acts of love to those who oppose us.”
We look forward to seeing you Sunday as we talk about “Catching the Wind of God’s Spirit.” Because of Christ – Pastor Tim
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