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When you are wronged by a brother or sister from within the Body of Christ:
* When you are wronged by a man or woman outside the fellowship of the Church:
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At this week's Anchor, we considered a series of statements from the Feast of Tabernacles' message of Jesus, from John 7, and I want to share with you a few of my favorite takeaways:
Towards the end, Jesus says to the crowds, “I shall be with you only a little while longer and then I am going to him who sent me. You will look for me then but you will never find me. You cannot come where I shall be.” In this and the final statement to follow, Jesus not only points ahead at what is to come, but He also demarcates the differences between the “ways of the world and the flesh” and the glories of the “Way of the Kingdom and the Spirit.” Consider what He’s saying here of the world and the flesh: It is constrained by the construct of Time--“only a little while longer”—and of the distance between God and men--“I am going… but you will never find me.” Also, the world and the flesh, unchanged, unredeemed, cannot do anything to change the equation: “You cannot come where I shall be.” But what of the “Way of the Kingdom and the Spirit”? It is UN-bounded by time—eternal, everlasting, unchanging—and, thanks to the coming Ascension of Jesus, completely connected between God and man, Heaven and earth. And though, yes, we “cannot come where [He] shall be,” as we are, He is in the business of utterly remaking us so that it’s possible. How? Read His final statement, as John writes it: “If any man is thirsty, he can come to me and drink! The man who believes in me, as the scripture says, will have rivers of living water flowing from his inmost heart.” In other words, the world and the flesh are thirsty, uncertain where to go with their thirst, and desperate at the level of the heart for life, and for true living. But, in the Kingdom of Heaven, and by the Holy Spirit Jesus will offer to “any man” (note that “any”), we may drink to our fill, believing in Him--NOT in thirsty old religion—and, ourselves, become a river of living water for the world to come and drink from. Do you understand? By the Spirit He will pour out upon His friends and followers, we, His friends and followers, are meant to become the fountain of JOY, and of JESUS, for this world. Yes, all may come to you and I… in order to drink OF HIM! What an awesome, and humbling, honor! “In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another… the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,’ can truly say to every group of Christian friends, ‘Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.’ The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.” C.S. Lewis
The Four Loves He works beside Peter’s mother-in-law in the kitchen, kneading dough, chatting comfortably of the rest of the things she is preparing for supper this night. He reaches out and takes a drink from a clay cup. She prattles on. Jesus continues to listen, smiling. * * * In the darkness, you hear Him chuckling to Himself in the stern of the boat, while re-fluffing His pillow. Both sounds are perfectly audible against the unnatural stillness of the waters. He only just finished hushing the storm. * * * Ideas of His: The colors of the sunrise; the smell of the lilacs in springtime; the breath of cool air off a brook in the morning; the cronch of new-fallen snow underfoot up in the high country; autumn breezes; the sound of a wind-tide lapping against a pebbly shoreline; your breath; your heartbeat; you. These, among so many millions and billions of others, were things He personally thought up. * * * Jesus enjoys your enjoyment of the life He created for you. He is also dissatisfied with your petty, untoward dissatisfactions. You must always mind your pleasure- and pain-points in all that you do—with Him and for Him. * * * His friendliness holds space for your great silences. He is content to walk alongside you, just being together.
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Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A.
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