"You have heard that it has been said, "You must love your neighbor and hate those who hate you." But I tell you, love those who hate you. (*Respect and give thanks for those who say bad things to you. Do good to those who hate you.) Pray for those who do bad things to you and who make it hard for you. Then you may be the sons of your FATHER Who is in heaven. His sun shines on bad people and good people. He send rain on those who are right with GOD and with those who are not right with GOD."Matthew 5:43-45 , New Life Version
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
Your gracious and kind encouragement about last week's email, "The Garden Behind the Wall," means so much to me, yes it does...thank you for taking time to share with me that it was a blessing to you. HB and I will be traveling up to North Carolina for the Greene's (www.thegreene'sgospelmusic.com) Jubilee in Marion, North Carolina, this Thursday...LORD willing. Sure would appreciate you praying for us...and for our guys we are leaving behind. Please also pray for the Greene family as it will be a great but tiring weekend for this dear family who has had their share of suffering. Thank you so much for remembering them.
A couple of weeks ago, I took Dixie and Midnight, my dogs, out for our normal morning walk. I put the leashes on them (having learned from another painful experience a few years ago when the Animal Control was called on me for walking them behind a new neighbor's house without a leash) and we took off on our walk through the neighborhood, headed to the woods. Midnight had to "poop" just as we got going... when the neighborhood wasn't developed she just went on the vacant lots. Now that the neighborhood is developed I make her stay in the street. Now she thinks she has to poop in the street and won't do it in the yard before we go...that's some training on my part. Well, you would think I would listen to my conscience that said, " You really ought to pick up that poop," and my daughter said she told me, but I rationalized that cars would run over it and it would get gone." I know, Anne Marie, ya'll taught us respect for others in GKGW (www.gfi.org) and I'm sorry I am such a slow learner, lazy, or obstinate or all of the above. I rationalized on more than one occasion about Midnight's poop, in fact, one too many. As we were walking in the field, back on the North Forty, all of the sudden my tranquil walk was interrupted by a phone call. It was my son telling me that one of our neighbors had called the "Chief of Police" on me for not scooping up Midnight's poop, and when I got back, I'd better get it out of the street. The Chief of Police had called Animal Control, and he called the house...as I said, this isn't the first time, I've gotten the whistle blown on me before, but it is the most recent. As I continued my walk, I knew that I was guilty as charged, but I was also irritated that one of my neighbor's would call the police instead of telling me. I was guilty, no doubt about it, and once again, GOD had allowed me to get caught. When we got home, I wasted no time going to get the pooper scooper and getting Midnight's poop out of the street...less than 30 yards from our house. I also went to the house where she pooped in front of and no one was home. I was going to apologize to them for not showing respect for their property. Midnight had pooped previously on the edge of their property so I thought I might as well confess my sins and cover all the bases. I later went back when they were home and took some fresh tomatoes from my garden as an "appeasement" offering. When I talked to the man and apologized, he didn't seem to be the one who called the police, but I offered him the tomatoes anyway and he seemed really glad to have them. I still don't know which neighbor called the police on me, I can only wonder, but I can guarantee you when we go for a walk now, I carry a bag and gloves with me, and we get the poop scooped up. I really don't want to spend time in jail, and worse, I hate being a bad witness for the LORD JESUS CHRIST to my neighbors by not showing respect.
I want to be honest here. Though I did want to make things right with my neighbor, whoever called the police on me, I did struggle with them not responding the way I wish they had of...I was saying in my mind, "They should have come to me first." Well, this seems to where I am walking right now, in many areas, and where GOD is teaching me that even if others don't respond to me the way I think they should, I am to respond to them with grace, GOD's grace and HIS forgiveness. This isn't my natural tendency, in fact, I'll share another example that happened this past Monday night in my neighborhood to show you my "natural" tendency.
There is a new neighbor down the street who I have tried to be friendly too as I passed by walking the dogs, and he wasn't too friendly to be honest. I just thought he might be shy. When he first moved in a few months ago, I walked the dogs behind his house in the ditch like I have done for years, and one day it dawned on me, I need to ask him about walking through his ditch. I had asked the other neighbors but had failed to ask him. He was working outside, and I walked up to him with the dogs on the leash:), and asked him permission. He said he'd rather me not because sometimes he's home and leaves the blinds open in the back. So, even though we have to walk in the hot sun on the street, instead of the shade, and he is often not home, I have not walked through his ditch again. I have walked up the side of his neighbor's yard a few times on their property with their permission. I had been thinking, I'm going to take this guy some brownies, and maybe it will soften up his heart and I can walk the dogs through his ditch again...my motives weren't exactly pure, but I was hoping maybe I'd make some "brownie points," with him. While making supper, I quickly made some brownies and took him some after we finished eating. At first Hannah Beth was going to walk down to the neighbor's house with me and man, do I wish she had of...I just think things would have gone better. I walked up to his door and not through the yard, but around by the driveway and rang the doorbell. No one answered, so I walked to the side door and rang it again. It appeared he wasn't home, so I took the brownies back home, and got the dogs to go for our evening walk...we missed the morning one. When we walked by his house, there he was outside working. This should have tipped me off...but when I returned from walking the dogs, I put them up, and went back to his house with the brownies, after I washed my hands:). He was in his garage working and came to the door. I told him I wanted to give him some brownies and welcome him to the neighborhood (okay, that wasn't totally the truth), and he wouldn't take them. Instead, he had some rather abrupt and unkind words for me that I totally wasn't expecting ...and I'll leave it at that. So, I returned home with the brownies, fighting back the tears as I walked down the street, and a question,"LORD, what are you trying to teach me?" As far as my natural tendency, I went home and told my husband what happened and asked him if he would go "punch his lights out for me":). He didn't, thankfully, but if it wasn't for the LORD JESUS living in me, and my husband ...I would want to retaliate, and return evil for evil, but,well, I still did, but the LORD does live in me and has called me to a higher standard of love, unconditional love. The hard part about all of this is I am guilty of wrong doing in both of these instances. It would be a whole lot easier to swallow if I were blameless. But GOD in HIS graciousness, has let me walk with feet of clay, and not only have I seen my sin, it's been out there for my neighbors to see and that is the painful part. It's humbling when others know you claim to be a CHRISTian but you stumble and fall...over and over it seems. I think of that bumper sticker, "CHRISTians aren't perfect, just forgiven."
I know the LORD is teaching me humility, respect for others, and HE's teaching me others things too like, though I may not like the way people say things sometimes there is something for me to learn from what they are saying...especially when I am at fault. The Psalmist says in 141:5, “Let the righteous (and sometimes it's those who don't know CHRIST who strike us) strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it.” Well, I guarantee you my natural tendency is to always first refuse the rebuke and want to defend myself, but after the LORD settles me down, HE starts teaching me, even through words that sting my heart. And then there's that matter of forgiveness....people don't always handle things the way we would like for them too, including me. I have already shared with you what my natural tendency is...to retaliate and hold a grudge, letting bitterness take root in my heart...Hebrews 12:15 says,"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up and causes you trouble, or many of you will become defiled." Through the blood of HIS SON JESUS, HE has cleansed me from my sin, and made me a new creature....I didn't say I don't sin anymore, I do, over and over. As HIS child, I have a different nature, and I want to please my FATHER. HE has put in me a desire to turn the other cheek when I am wronged...maybe not initially, but the longer I walk with HIM, the more HE HIS love is having HIS way in me, instead of what I "naturally" would want to do and that is to return evil for evil, instead of doing good to those who nail me to the wall (that's my paraphrase).
I have one more little story to share with you that my dogs have truly been an example to me in that helps me to see this picture of forgiveness and not getting bitter when others lash out at me. In the ditch where we used to walk, there is a dog that is really mean, not to me, but to my dogs. Maybe it's not mean, maybe it just is bored and doesn't like being tied up all day, or maybe she is mean because my dogs are in her territory (wow, that's when people get upset too, when we get in their territory and don't show the respect we should). It is tied up to a rope and thankfully often gets tangled up under the trampoline it lays under to keep it from running out towards us. When it's not tangled up, that dog will run down the hill, with her teeth showing and act like she wants to eat Dixie and Midnight up. You know what my dogs do...they just keep walking and don't even act like they notice this dog...and this dog has torn into Midnight before when I was trying to get the mean dog untangled from the trampoline. Dixie and Midnight don't stop and growl at her, or do anything, they just go about their business and don't let the other dog's unkind response get them upset. Now granted, they're not returning good for evil, they're just ignoring the dog, but they are an example to me of when other's "poop" on you sometimes, keep on walking... walking "in the Spirit, not carrying out the desires of the flesh," Gal. 5:16...love them with CHRIST's love, not returning evil for evil, but doing them good and praying for them. And then there's always that matter of examining my own heart to see what am I doing that may be causing them to respond that way...that is what hurts:).
A few weeks ago in "My Utmost for HIS Highest," Oswald Chambers addressed the issue of being treated unjustly in a way that was such a soothing balm to my heart. The verse he used was Jeremiah 1:8 that says, "I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD." Oswald Chambers wrote, "That is all GOD promises HIS children. Wherever GOD sends us, HE will guard our lives...The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on JESUS CHRIST's errands, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. JESUS says, in effect, Do not be bothered with whether you are being justly dealt with or not. To look for justice is a sign of deflection from devotion to HIM. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will begin to grouse (complain) and to indulge in the discontent of self-pity-Why should I be treated like this? If we are devoted to JESUS CHRIST we have nothing to do with what we meet, whether it is just or unjust. JESUS says-Go steadily on with what I have told you and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from MY deliverance." I cannot tell you what these words meant to my heart, several weeks ago when I read them, and now as I read them again...I wish I could say that I have not stumbled and tried to stand up for myself when others have spoken rather strongly to me- I have tried to defend myself. I am thankful for my loving FATHER's patience with me, as HE trusts me with my feet of clay to go on errand's for HIM knowing that I am going to fall time after time, but HE promises that HIS "grace is sufficient and HIS power is made perfect in my weakness" and somehow HE does that over and over..." even when I ignore my conscience and leave poop in the street, even when I don't respect others as I should, even when I walk through my neighbor's yard without permission.
I was really down last after my episode with my neighbor getting so upset with me, wondering if GOD could use me for HIS glory when I keep messing up over and over. In fact after our family devotion, where we read the verse "1 Peter 1:6-7, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of JESUS CHRIST". I shared my "wonderings" with my dear family who knows all about these "messes"and honestly, they do all they can to warn me to keep me from getting into these predicaments...and I still fail. Can GOD use our trials when we seemingly bring them on ourselves? Can HE use me in my neighbor's lives and others when I keep stumbling and they see my "messes"? GOD graciously reminded me this morning of Peter and how he denied the LORD three times. The LORD forgave Peter and used him greatly to build the church after he failed CHRIST so miserably...
As I write this, GOD brings to my heart, that I am HIS child, and if I were perfect I wouldn't need a SAVIOR or a Shepherd, the one who left HIS perfect home in heaven, and came to die on a cross for my sins and yours. HIS death took away my sins, and when CHRIST looks at me, I am sinless in my position before HIM, for all eternity, my sins have been scattered as "far as the east is from the west." HE has called me to be HIS child and I have trusted HIM as my LORD and SAVIOR, repented of my sins...but I still sin and I will until the day I die. The process of our loving FATHER maturing us, and disciplining us to be like CHRIST is called sanctification. My children aren't perfect (though I expect more from them than I do myself at times), and GOD knows that we aren't perfect...we are going to mess up and sin until the day we die and so are others. We are HIS children and HE spends a lifetime making us to be like CHRIST. HE loves me, unconditionally and uses me, not in spite of my weaknesses, but because of them, and HE disciplines me as a loving parent, to help me to become like CHRIST. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, for those who have been trained by it, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace." Hebrews 12:11. If my loving heavenly FATHER had to wait on me to be "perfect" before HE used me or loved me, well, HE would never use me or you, and never love us. We aren't perfect...we are sinners saved by grace...HIS grace, and not by our works..."For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of GOD, that no man should boast." Ephesians 4:13, and HE loves you and me, warts and all.
When I look at my own heart and how much I stumble and sin and mess up over and over, and how much JESUS has forgiven me, and others have forgiven me, it helps me to be patient who don't always respond the way I wish they would to my "messes." I am so thankful for my neighbor's across the street who showed me grace and forgiveness when Midnight put her paw through their screen door last week, and she was on the leash...I was just inside the door and she was outside. Yes, all these "messes" have all really happened to me within a few days time.
My favorite bluegrass gospel group, the Issacs,(http://theisaacs.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm) sing a song called "Unlike Me, Just Like HIM," by Larry Petree that reminds me, it's not like me to forgive when others hurt me, but it is "Just like HIM," our LORD JESUS CHRIST. I am so thankful for CHRIST's forgiveness and grace that others, including you who are reading this, show me. Our Forgiving FATHER, loved us so much that "while we were yet sinners CHRIST died for us"... Romans 5:8 He teaches us to love each other and forgive one another with the love and the forgiveness HE has lavished upon us...and HE does so lavish HIS love upon us. I have a picture that I'm sure many of you do of JESUS holding a little lamb in HIS arms and HIS other lambs are gathered round about HIM. I love to look at that picture and think about how JESUS gathers me in HIS arms and tenderly loves me and cares for me...especially when I mess up, over and over, and when I feel so unworthy of HIS love or anyone else's. Thankfully, HIS love for us is not based on our performance, but HIS perfect love for us. "You are loved with an everlasting love,"Jeremiah 31:3, and "underneath are the everlasting arms." Because of HIS great love for us, JESUS requires us to love and forgive others. In Matthew 6:14, in the Sermon on the Mount, JESUS teaches, "For if you forgive people their trespasses-that is, their reckless and wilful sins, leaving them, letting them go and giving up resentment-your heavenly FATHER will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses-their reckless and wilful sins, leaving them, letting them go and giving up resentment-neither will your heavenly FATHER forgive you your trespasses." Amplified version. Wow...that is pretty plain spoken, and that is a good test of whether or not I am truly HIS child-am I becoming "Just Like HIM" and "Loving My Neighbor"? I can't love and forgive in my own strength, it's unlike me, until I realize how very much the LORD loves me and forgives me. Then I can forgive with HIS strength, HIS love, and with HIS grace..."It's unlike me, but it's just like HIM."
With all HIS love,
mitzi
"Unlike Me, Just Like Him" by Larry Petree
How can I forgive someone who has hurt me?
How can I love someone who is my enemy
Can I just overlook it and let the healing begin
It's unlike me, but it's just like HIM.
Chorus:
From the cross HE said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do,"
When HE said, "It is finished," He made that possible for you,
Calvary's where the hatred ends and forgiveness begins,
It's unlike me, but it's just like HIM
How can I forgive the past and just start all over
How can I forget my scars and pour in the myrhh
It isn't really like me to make my enemy my friend
It's unlike me, but it's just like HIM
I couldn't find a video of the Isaacs singing, "Unlike Me, Just Like Him" but did find Larry Petree, the writer of it singing it ... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kcbvQBOcsh0
I did find The Issaacs singing "HE understands My Tears," ... the LORD brought this beautiful song to my mind as I thought of the recent events of my life:). http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cpizJmVrhKk&feature=related
In the picture, Midnight, Dixie and I walk by this "potty" often in an adjoining neighborhood. I have been thinking, if I can just "potty" train Midnight, maybe we'll stay out of trouble. Naaaah, that's not going to happen... Midnight learning to use the potty or me staying out of trouble...what would I have to write about if we didn't "mess" up?
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