Last week, very soon after I had posted about my cat on my blog, someone said to me 'Did you hear about that man who used a cat as a football, he got nineteen days in jail.' A word formed in my mind, then my concience suggested that I did not say it. My love for cats however finally persuaded me to answer 'good'. Immediately I had said it I felt bad. By then other words were forming in my mind. 'He will come across lots of cat lovers in prison.', but I stopped myself from saying them. Later that day I thought of how easy it is to drift from what the Lord is trying to teach me and, after praying that while in prison the man would come across, not someone who would harm him for the harm he did to the cat, but someone who would tell him about salvation in Jesus, so that he would not do that sort of thing. Where would I be now, I thought, if God had punished me according to the things I did before knowing Him, and the things I yet do? I was thinking about this on Sunday morning, and realizing how praying for the man had brought happiness and peace to me, whereas answering 'good' had brought the opposite. I went to open my Bible to read, and opened to Proverbs ch.12. Verse 18 was underlined. It read ... 'There is one whose rash word are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.' I believe that those 'sword thrusts', directed at the one the words are aimed at, also have the ability to attack the spirit of the one who speaks them. I love the way the Lord teaches, and know that there is no way that I could change myself without the help of the Holy Spirit. God's ways are totally different to our ways, and neither are His thoughts our thoughts.
New man for old
Lord when I'm being taunted and mocked for loving You
Cause me to remember that You were taunted too
When I'm being laughed at for calling on Your name
Let me see You standing there and taking all that shame
And if I'm being tempted to draw back into sin
Tell me 'Turn away child, don't let the devil win'
Lord sometimes it's difficult to die to sinful man
When the Spirit says 'You can't' and the flesh says 'Yes you can'
I'm so afraid I'll fail You, the old man can be strong
Sometimes it's hard to tell Lord what's right and what is wrong
The old man says 'Retaliate!' to every harsh word said
The new says 'You've been born again, the old man is now dead'
So Lord teach me to listen, when I hear You speak
Create in me a spirit that is lowly and meek
Take away the old man of anger, greed and lust
Form a new creation inside this outer crust
Help me to forgive them, when the world abuses me
Teach me how to show Your love, that I know can set them free
Lord help me go all the way to that rugged cross
Show me that to lose this life is gain and not a loss
And then just like the chrysalis that hangs upon it's thread
I'll become a butterfly.... and You'll have raised the dead
2 comments:
Very good post Brenda; our first reaction is to hate, and often our second reaction is to love, and forgive.
I know what I was like before I really turned my life over to Jesus; it's not a pretty story; I was the consummate sinner versed in sin, and far from God. Now? Now I just try to serve the Lord with a whole heart everyday; I don't always succeed but I think because my intention is to be a good servant, that God is merciful.
There is a difference between being a sinner and living in sin; we are all the former but should not be the latter!
Great post, and well-written poem too! I wish I could write poems like that.
Hi Tim. Yes you are absolutely right about sin. It simply means to be out of line with God, and He is the most patient being that I have ever known and ever will know. At the moment He is putting me through a patience test with Talk talk, I am still not on line at home due to some technical problem. I looked up the word patience long ago, it means 'to endure with calmness'. I could always put up with something, gritting my teeth, but the tests I go through are gradually bringing calmness. The main reason I want to go on line at home is to be able to spend more time reading other people's blogs and be able to interact with them. I really need a teacher, I have joined several blogs but for some reason they are not coming up on my profile, although my pic is coming up on their blog. I accidently made myself a follower of my own blog, and am afraid to try to take it off in case I block myself from getting into my blog. I love, not only the way you are honest about your life but also the way you set out your blog too. There are so many things that I want to do on mine. I shall have to be PATIENT while learning
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