Friday the 10th

Luke 9: ⁵If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them."

 

There is a man down in Florida who wants to burn a Koran. In his mind this is how you take a stand against a religion that opposes ours. I say ours, because if you agree with him or not, he calls himself a Christian, he is the Pastor of a Christian church. That means we own him, in some way shape of form. I have read the Bible a number of times, cover to cover, I have yet to see where God, His Son, or the Holy Spirit call for us to rise up in an act of antagonism to prove a point. If we dig into the New Testament, where our Covenant with God was renewed by the sacrifice of His Son, we really see the exact opposite don’t we? How can we stand and preach compassion, love, faith, and glory in front of a pile of burning books? How will this act of hate grow, and spread love for Christ? How can we say that all are welcome into our Fathers house if we are busy kicking people in the teeth, and slamming doors in their face? No one can open their heart to Christ, and learn about the love HE has to offer, if we do not love those people first. This spectacle in Florida really is just a magnification of an underlying problem that we have. Far too many people do not understand that if the Good news is rejected, then we have done all that we can do…the rest is up to God. We cannot force people to become Christian, Jesus understood that. Shake the dust from your feet…it is a saying that means that you do not want to take anything from that person, or that town. You are done, and you have resigned to leave it up to God. God can turn the hearts of Pharaohs, the power of the Lord can part seas, the strength of the Lord can raise up the weakest and take them heights never imagined. You, by yourself……well we are just not that good. We plant the seed, God waters. We are the spark, the Lord is the flame. We are the small idea, the Lord is the entire plan. We will never convince anyone that we are full of love, and forgiveness, if the display they see is a display of hate. That is not just on the grand scale we see in the news, it holds true for even the smallest things that we do. You want to play yourself up as better than others….you just burned a Koran. You shout or speak hate because they do not think like you, grab the box of matches.  All we can do is speak the Word and offer love. If we are rejected, we shake the dust from our feet……we leave it in God’s hands. We cannot force anything to happen. God will turn the heart when it is time for that heart to be turned, He will transform that life when it is time according to His plan. We are the messengers, not the arsonist. We build up, not burn down. We lift our prayer, our hearts, and we lift others up for the Good Lord to transform into a spectacular display of His power, His Love, and His glory. We do not need a box of matches for that to happen, we need a heart full of LOVE!

 

God Bless,

Brian