God’s Nature, Our Nature – Part 2

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Mat. 5:43-45

35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (Lk. 6:35-36).

I was shocked to learn recently that of the most hated group amongst prisoners by their fellow inmates are child molesters, also known as paedophiles. The other group that is equally hated in prison are rapists. These two groups of people are amongst those who are most likely to be attacked in jail by their fellow inmates. In other words, the men that we loathe most (criminals) do not like people who mercilessly prey on the weak.

Now, I know it is not easy to talk well of jailed criminals, many of who themselves have hurt people in extremely bad and cruel ways. But it is contemplative to know that somewhere in their dark hearts, these people can sport some form of kindness. I am also assured that, to the dismay of many of us, we will find many of these violent criminals seated in the front row in the Kingdom of God. They will have heard the gospel and they will have repented of their sins. And God forgot long ago that they ever sinned!

The heart of man is God’s abode. It can carry incredible riches – riches of the grace of God. That is why when we get to heaven, you will find these violent murderers seated up front. It is because one day, these men and women opened their hearts to the grace of God and it transformed their lives. God’s Kingdom is all about the heart.

Just consider the sun again. The sun has been around since Adam. That talks of how rich God is. That thing could be up there for eternity if God so desired, burning up and never diminishing. That talks of His power.

In the same way that He is rich and powerful physically and materially, God is more so spiritually. Amongst His many Godly characteristics (of which He is extremely rich) is the trait of kindness. Kindness goes hand in hand with mercy, and that is why Luke’s account is so helpful here. The root cause of kindness is mercy. Mercy talks of a soft heart. That is one reason why when we believe God gives us a heart of meat. He removes a heart of stone from us and gives us a soft heart so that we may be kind to people.

Kindness is something very deep, and spiritual. Kindness also speaks of humility. You have to be humble in order to be kind. Otherwise, you will lord it over anyone unfortunate enough to ‘benefit’ from your selfish brand of generosity, which is no generosity at all.

In the natural, when people hurt us we immediately think of ourselves. Self  takes over. That is when anger and little things like resentment, and irritation set in. We are so weak!

But kindness is the basis for forgiveness. You don’t forgive because it is written; you forgive because you love that person. With God, when we hurt Him, He thinks of us. When we hurt God, He comes up close and looks us up. He is not thinking about revenge, but He is looking for where the problem is. Once He finds the faultline, He lovingly fixes it. That is mercy.

God is calling us to carry the same heart that He has. And that can only be accomplished in the Spirit when we go to the cross, just as the Author of our salvation went to the cross. The gospel of the cross alone can cause us to have the heart that Jesus had and still has.

[Below: The roundabout leading to Singida Town]

True Christianity is Practical

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd dividethhissheep from the goats:
33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35For I was anhungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee anhungred, and fedthee?or thirsty, and gavetheedrink?
38When saw we thee a stranger, and tooktheein? or naked, and clothedthee?
39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have doneitunto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have doneitunto me.
41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42For I was anhungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee anhungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye diditnot to one of the least of these, ye diditnot to me.
46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. Mat. 25:31-46
I have been away from home for close to two weeks, on what we call a regional inter-circuit tour of our churches. Overall, I went through three different towns.
At the very outset of my journey, my computer developed a problem, and my schedule did not give me any time to visit an internet café, so I was unable to do anything blog-wise. It is my hope and prayer that my readers and my blogging friends have not given up on me!
Today I will share a lesson that I learned during my recent travels.
In one of the towns that I visited there lives one of the oldest and most well-known diamond mines in the world. Long before I ever set foot in this town I had heard of this diamond mine, it is so popular.
There is, however, a rather unsavory folklore connected with this mine, which I heard only recently when I was there. The story goes that many, many years ago, the owner of this diamond mine once went to Buckingham Palace and, on account of his wealth, presented a marriage proposal to one of the Queen’s daughters. The Queen’s Protocol duly answered him that he would soon be receiving an answer to his request.
The man went back home and, unknown to him, the Queen dispatched a super-secret spy team after the man to check out on one singular detail: how did this multi-billion pound conglomerate of a man live with his neighbors?
The team came and did its investigation, which was not much of an investigation since everything was clear once the sun had risen in the east. They established that, despite the fact that the diamond mine had been there for ages and although the diamond mine was indeed extremely productive and the owner had to be a multi-billion entity in himself, yet his neighbors lived in abject poverty. The mine operated in an enclosed compound, and the man was totally unknown to his neighbors. There was also not the slightest sign of any development in the area which one could attach to the existence of this mine. The spies established many other things, which all pointed in one direction.
Shortly thereafter, the Queen sent a reply to the man who had asked for her daughter’s hand in marriage. She told him pointblank that she could not give her daughter to a man who does not care about his neighbors.
The story is folklore, which means it might be true, or it might not be true. But when you visit this town, you will find the story there; it is common to everyone who lives there.
As I listened to this story, I remembered Jesus’ words in the scripture above. I was reminded then that, as God’s children, we are called upon to do many things apart from singing, preaching, and doing the many things we do in church. We are called to give our lives for other people and in very practical ways. This pleases the Lord more than anything.