January20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:5:43-48 BUT I SAY UNTO YOU (ENEMIES) - Every man determines himself his enemies. The label enemy can also be influenced by peer pressure, religious indifference, racial prejudice, false witness, etc.. What criterion then is to be used? Justice? The common teaching has become the mentality of us against them, just versus unjust. The fuller teaching is that God makes his rain to fall upon all. There is a higher calling, to love even a much proven enemy with the love of God; to see others as God sees them. If we needed any further prompting, God added a reward for such. The faith of our Lord is much the same. Though He is surrounded by the wicked and the unjust and the foolish and the hardened and the negligent and the abusive and the timid and the disbelieving and the... (you get the idea), the core of a man's heart that makes Him at enmity with God, His love yet remains all the more. It is not just for them that we should do this, it is for Him and for our own selves.
February22 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:13:24-30 WHILE MEN SLEPT - The Kingdom sowed but, certain men were apparently given the responsibility of watching over the field and did not. While they slept the enemy came in and planted near identical yet false seed. This parable goes hand in hand with the original Parable of the Sower. Wouldn't it be good to know that along with your personal struggle to bring forth fruit that there is a field (world) of other believers going through the same process? Wouldn't it be equally as good to know that not everyone that you would think by appearance is of the same stock? No one would know until the final fruit was harvested. It is interesting that all the enemy had to do is plant the seed and then go about his way. Are these darnel seeds subject to the same process of root and depth and parching sunlight as the wheat? Most likely. Is one required to grow the other? Apparently not. What then is the difference and how can they be identified? Not even the servants from above can tell until the final fruit is bore. Once intermingled, removing the one would uproot the other. Imagine for instance the prospects of the Protestant church if ever the Catholic Church was removed or vise versa. The faith of our Lord is in that while this did not need to happen it was going to and did happen because men do sleep. It is deceptive to say that all paths lead to God when not all seed leads to the same fruit, when not all seed is planted to the same intent by the same kingdom. While we cannot identify the measure now amongst ourselves, He certainly can when all things come to fruition.
February24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:13:36-43 SO SHALL IT BE - The Lord's explanation of the 'Parable of the tares' has more to do with the end of the tares than anything else. 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear' He concludes. There is a consummation of time when the angels will be used to gather the tares for burning because they offend and do iniquity. They offend because they are moral agents of the enemy and even in their best of intentions/deeds they commit iniquity. Remember how often Jesus has spoken of no middle ground, the tree/fruit is either good or evil. Given that for so long there was little way for anyone else to tell the difference from the wheat this must come as a shock to a great many. The difference must be quite obvious in the final fruit. Many have faith in some form of His non-judgmental universal compassion, the faith of our Lord is not only in the execution of judgment but, that the judgment that He intends is entirely righteous; it is the ultimate form of compassion to those on whom it will be placed.
June20 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:12:28-34 THOU ARE NOT FAR FROM - The two larger sides could not be any farther apart. Maybe this scribe is somewhat closer or maybe Jesus says this in jest. kjv@Matthew:22 gives us further details, that the scribe intended to tempt Him, and that he and everyone else was finally shut up by a quote from David "The LORD said unto my Lord" kjv@Matthew:22:44-45. The question or targeted ploy from the scribe had more to do with Jesus' claim of divinity and less about the greatest of commands. He believes that Jesus has confessed to His own supreme arrogance; there is none other but HE. The man's reply was discreet in the one sense, the prophet's sense that this love is desired more than sacrifice, but, not all together right if one does not allow for the prophesied Son of God into the Father's overall plan. How can one love the LORD with all of their heart/mind/strength and not love or even know what the same LORD is doing by way of His Son towards mankind's salvation? How can one be a lover of the Father and an enemy of His Son? The scribe is as close as He will ever get to the Kingdom because it stands right there before him. Jesus leaves the conversation with the one to address this with the group that sent him. The faith of our Lord has remained constant from day 1 on earth and before. He has been tested and inspected. He has been poked at and and measured up. What is there left for the others to say to Him but, "crucify Him"? "Let His God save him now"? He has passed examination. The passover Lamb must be prepared now for the sacrifice.
December5 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:13:31-38 A NEW COMMANDMENT - You will remember the two great commandments "love the Lord your God with all your heart/soul/mind/strength" and "Love your neighbor as yourself"? You have also heard "love your enemy"? The new commandment puts a much more practical face on all of this, to "love one another as I (Jesus) has loved you". How has Jesus loved us? While many would rightly to lay down one's life, consider this, Jesus Himself has not at the point of saying this done has not yet done that and we are not all likely to be put into that situation and Peter here is offering that very thing. While the giving of one's own life in the right situation (for the right glory) can be the greatest form of love, there must also be something much more daily and practical. The key may be in verse 31-32; the direction towards which the glory is given by Jesus. Jesus' love for us was directed toward the glorification of His Father. He did not seek His own glory; love does not seek it's own glory. Neither did Jesus glorify the people that He showed love, but pointed them to the glory of the Father. In His presence His love covered a multitude of transgressions and yet made it clear that this was not the behavior of the world to come, that the only way out from this death sentence was the answer that the Father had sent. He never criticized or convicted individuals, only the groups of religious hypocrites that held the people down. He concerned Himself with the spirit of the law rather than the letter. All this and more done for no better reason than to glorify the Father who sent Him. Compare this to the sacrifice of two opposing soldiers giving their life for country, you can see how Jesus rightly could have died and risen for the sins of both and how that His commanded form of love exceeds even this so great a human form of love. How does that apply to our love for others? There is much that has been modeled for us that all boils down to the Father's glory. Peter was ready to lay down His life for his master, true/loyal/much to the point we thought Jesus might be teaching through this passage. Despite the best of Peter's intentions, it is a love pointed toward his own glory. If the command was to love the others as Jesus loved them, how then would this self sacrifice on behalf of Jesus have servered the others? Would it not step all over Jesus' time of glorification? Peter will one day follow where Jesus now goes, but it will be in a time and manner that better illustrates a love for the others such as Jesus has shown to all believers. In it's time Peter's sacrifice will greatly serve us and glorify Father and Son and Spirit. Until his time of ultimate sacrifice (or the possibility of our's) there will be much learning on Peters part (and our's) to know the true meaning of this new command. God will be glorified in Jesus and Jesus will be glorified in HIM straightway and then by all. The faith of our Lord is that He one day will be known as our Lord by this very same type of discipled love one to another. It is a love for others that seeks to glorify none but the Holy Trinity. To love God with all heart/soul/mind/strength and others as self by loving as Jesus has loved us.
Hoping in light of enemy? or enemy reacting in light of anointed?
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