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December 04, 2006
Your Word is a Lamp
Yesterday morning in church I sat there crying. It's such a marked difference from my workplace, to sit in a pew surrounded by people who love me and mean it. My husband, his family (they flew in for Madrigals, yay), and my church people.
I had a bad day Saturday. It's not a good place to work, and I was full up to here [points to eyebrows] but now I'm sick of it. Sick, sick, sick. I've had enough.
So I sat there crying because it's hurtful to be treated unlovingly. It's wrong. Sinful behavior hurts people around you, and Saturday it hurt me.
I wrote about this a few posts ago, and just a reminder, here's something Christ showed me during that prayer session:
But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity;
redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.
-Psalm 26:11-12
So he already showed me that my workplace is not the place where I belong, the place where I am with like-minded folks. I know that my workplace is where I am surrounded by evil-minded folks who do not love and do not know God. But when the unlovingness comes it still hurts.
So--Sunday I was crying and asking God for the answer. "Jesus, what is the purpose in this? My brain knows you have a purpose, but my heart does not. Please show me."
Here comes the answer!
The very next part of the service was The Reading of the Law, wherein we hear some portion of Scripture. Yesterday: 1 John 3. Read it, if you please.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
And the verses that stood out to me? Written in my Bible as if they were glowing, or bold, or italicised, or hyperlinked? Planned before the foundation of the world to teach me and give me new hope? Placed on the pastor's heart to read yesterday--and the pastor not knowing I needed to hear them? Read them:
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. --I John 3:13-14
A reassurance that my sensitivity to the difference between love and not-love is a right sensitivity. A reminder that there is a real difference between me (part of the body) and Them (not). And a reminder of the Gospel, of the Truth we partake in when we eat the Bread and drink the Wine.
And then we ate communion and it was driven home again. What a blessing to be part of the communion of the Body of Christ. God is faithful.
My $0.02 , Someone Else's $0.02 , Stories from Behind the Counter | By The Newest Worker | 09:51 AM
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