Careful You Do Not Destroy Each Other!

Galatians (5:15)
If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.


Healthy relationships aren't always conflict free; they're conflict resolving.
The problem is: we fight for victories instead of fighting for solutions.
The result is: one wins, one loses, and the relationship suffers!

1) Differences are inevitable, normal, and potentially beneficial. They're inevitable, because relationships bring people together very different people. They're normal because all relationships, including great ones, experience them.

2) There are three conflicting handling styles:

A) The avoid style. These are the 'don't want to rock the boat' and let sleeping dogs lie' people. They fear confrontation, so they bury their feelings, not realizing they're buried alive and will rise up again down the road. They go from clam-up, to build-up, to blow-up, inviting physical and emotional illness. Meanwhile offences accumulate, unaddressed issues multiply and unfinished business erodes the relationship.

B) The attack style. These are the 'get them before they get you' people; ruthless fighters who refuse to give in, they inflict terminal wounds on each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other". Attack leads to counterattack, both sides 'dig in' and nothing gets resolved.

C) The approach-assertive style. These are the 'no price is to high for a good relationship' people. They're sensitive to feelings of others, yet insist on dealing directly with important issues. They avoid blaming, confront the issue, not the individual, and invite others to partner with them in solving the problem and saving the relationship!

Ask yourself; which of these categories do 'you fit into". I know which one "I would chose!

The Howling Sanctuary

Amos (8:3)
"In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD, "the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies? flung everywhere! Silence!"

Now that He has announced Israel's imminent calamity, God begins to show how His punishment would alter the lives of the people. Notice the dramatic change of attitude in the people. The songs of His Temple would ordinarily be happy and joyous songs of praise to God, but He will turn the songs of their temple - sung to Baal in the name of the Lord - to wailing, for the numbers of the dead will be unimaginable.

Because of their self-absorption, God's "sudden" punishment will stun the people of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, and the other nations of modern Israel, including some members of the true church. In their spiritually unaware state, they will be incredulous at God's punishment for "such a little bit of sin." But God has a different perspective; He says they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked Revelation (3:17).

Because of their self-procured wealth and affluence, they think they are being blessed with material things. They see themselves as following the way of God, but their religion has deceived them by failing to teach them His truth. They think that what they are doing is right, but they are deceived. However, God still holds them responsible because the truth is available. He views them as personally rejecting Him and His Word.

Today, some evangelicals attempt to prepare the people for what is to come, but their teaching is a mixture of right and wrong. Jesus says, "They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch" Matthew (15:14). In their ignorance, the people do not realize the terrible calamity that is coming soon upon modern Israel. It will be far more terrible than anything ever seen on this earth!

Close Your Door To Lust!

Judges (16)

Samson was a he-man with a she-weakness. In spite of the fact that he was born of godly parents, set apart from his birth to be a Nazirite, and elevated to the enviable position of judge in Israel, he never conquered his tendency toward lust. On the contrary, it conquered him. Several things that illustrate his lustful bent may be observed from the record of his life in the book of Judges.

1) The first recorded words from his mouth were: I saw a woman (14:2).

2) He was attracted to the opposite sex strictly on the basis of outward appearance: Get her for me, for she looks good to me (14:3).

3) He judged Israel for 20 years, then went right back to his old habit of chasing women - a harlot in Gaza, and finally Delilah (15:20-16:4).

4) He became so preoccupied with his lustful desires, he didn't even know the Lord had departed from him (16:20).

The results of Samson's illicit affairs are familiar to all of us. The strong man of Dan was taken captive and became a slave in the enemy's camp, his eyes were gouged out of his head, and he was appointed to be the grinder in a Philistine prison. Lust, the jailer, binds and blinds and grinds. The swarthy pride of Israel, who once held the highest office in the land, was now the bald-headed clown of Philistia, a pathetic hollow shell of humanity. His eyes would never wander again. His life, once filled with promise and dignity, was now a portrait of hopeless, helpless despair. Chalk up another victim for lust. The perfumed memories of erotic pleasure in Timnah, Gaza, and the infamous valley of Sorek were now overwhelmed by the putrid stench of a Philistine dungeon.

Without realizing it, Solomon wrote another epitaph - this one for Samson's tombstone:

His own iniquities will capture the wicked,
And he will be held with the cords of his sin.
He will die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray. Proverbs (5:22-23)

The same words could well be chiseled in the marble over many other tombs. I think, for example, of the silver-throated orator of Rome, Mark Antony. In his early manhood, he was so consumed with lust that his tutor once shouted in disgust:

O Marcus! O colossal child, able to conquer the world but unable to resist a temptation!

I think of the gentleman I met several years ago - a fine itinerant Bible teacher. He said he had been keeping a confidential list of men who were once outstanding expositors of the Scripture, capable and respected men of God who have shipwrecked their faith on the shoals of moral defilement. During the previous week, he said, he had entered the name of number 42 in his book. This sad, sordid statistic, he claims, caused him to be extra cautious and discreet in his own life. Perhaps, by now, he has added a couple dozen more.

A chill ran down my spine when he told that story. No one is immune. You're not. I'm not. Lust is no respecter of persons. Whether by savage assault or subtle suggestion, the minds of a wide range of people are vulnerable to its attack. Sharp professional men and women, homemakers, students, carpenters, artists, musicians, pilots, bankers, senators, plumbers, promoters, and preachers as well. Its alluring voice can infiltrate the most intelligent mind and cause its victim to believe its lies and respond to its appeal. And beware - it never gives up it never runs out of ideas. Bolt your front door and it'll rattle at the bedroom window, crawl into the living room through the TV screen, or wink at you out of a magazine in the den.

How do you handle such an aggressive intruder? Try this: when lust suggests a rendezvous, send Jesus Christ as your representative.

Have Him inform your unwanted suitor that you want nothing to do with illicit desire; nothing. Have your Lord remind lust that since you and Christ have been united together, you are no longer a slave to sin. Romans (6.) His death and resurrection freed you from sin's stranglehold and gave you a new Master! And that new Master isn't afraid to slam the door in lust's face, no matter how far it has slinked in.

The Problem Today With Some Preachers And Ministers:

Is they can be, like all successful modern Calvinists. Always discussing the pain they has been through. Though they never officially suggested that women are raped, abused, etc. for some higher purpose. They almost always use their Calvinist perspective in a positive way like that we are destined for something greater that what we are living right now.

The main [problem] is their extreme doctrine of Providence. Some believes, states, and teaches that everything that happens in our lives is an event caused by God, in order to teach us, or help us, etc. God causes everything to happen, whether good or bad. She goes on and on about it extensively, almost every lesson. You need to really think about this - and where it leads. Because if they believe this, then do, what do they tell a mom whose child has just died - that God caused it? To teach her what? Of course, the Mother's don’t believe that, neither do Dad's

In addition to the above, my personal take is that these (Preachers, Ministers) over use the idea “God spoke to me” and people feel inadequate; because God doesn't always speak to them the same way. I am not doubting their experience, but as a pastor, I doubt they realize the effect this has on some people. There’s a pastoral issue when one emphasizes special revelation in Teaching a study that is meant to be empowering and illuminating and given their role, of course they don't have to deal with the ramifications for the individual (Mother or Dad) trying to make sense of why God “willed” their son to die.

Their main teaching is on Providence. “God causes everything to happen, whether good or bad". This is absolutely unhelpful to Mother's and Dad's who have lost a child, have cancer, etc. I have never been able to look a Mother or dad in the eye who had a stillborn child and tell them God has a plan for their child to die (though God does have possibilities for healing!).

Opening Up To God!

Psalm (139:23-24)

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Who but God has a CV and a track record like that? Looking back, Paul recalled times when there wasn't enough money in the kitty and he had to go to work as a tent maker in order to support his ministry. He could remember the whippings, the stoning's and the betrayal at the hands of those he trusted. But listen to what he says about it:

'Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand.' Acts (26:22). Jeremiah felt the same way: 'Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness' Lamentations (3:22-23). No doubt, you failed God at some points last year, but did He ever once fail you? No, and He won't fail you this year either, so trust Him. A. B. Simpson wrote: 'How often we trust each other, and only doubt our Lord. We take the words of mortals, yet distrust His word; But, oh, what light and glory, would shine o'er all our days; if we always would remember, God means just what He says.

The desired result of this probing is set forth in the last verse, where David asks God to see if there is any way of pain or grief in him. It is not so that God might know the results, but that he himself - David - might know what God discovered. When you submit yourself to the scalpel of the surgeon for an exploratory operation, you do it not just for the sake of the physician. You want to know the findings yourself, don't you? You are interested in what is discovered. David finally states that it is his desire to be led in the "everlasting way," meaning the path of righteousness. He wanted to be a man of God, regardless of the cost.

Do Not Worry!

Matthew (6:25)
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Jesus said, 'Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life. Now, the Lord is not condemning you for having a legitimate concern about your responsibilities. No, what He's condemning is having a mindset that keeps leaving Him out of the equation, or turning to Him only as a last resort. Destructive anxiety subtracts God from the future, faces uncertainties with no faith, tallies up the challenges of today and tomorrow, and forgets to include God's promises and His faithfulness. Jesus told His disciples, 'I tell you not to worry about everyday life - whether you have enough.'

Note the words 'whether you have enough'. That's what we worry about, isn't it? Shortfalls, sickness, redundancies, economic downturns. Faced with the feeding of five thousand people, the disciples had the same worry. Philip did an audit: ' Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!' John (6:7). How do you suppose Jesus felt in that moment?

Standing next to them was the solution to their problems, but they didn't go to Him until their backs were to the wall and they had no answers. In their hands five loaves and two fishes looked like nothing. Yet in His hands it was more than enough to feed the multitude and solve their problem. As the bread kept multiplying, surely they must have come to the point where they said, 'Lord, why did I ever doubt You?'. Let your problems drive you into the arms of Jesus. And when you get there, stay there!

Peacemakers

Matthew (5:9)
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God

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Interestingly, this is the only time in all the New Testament that the Greek term translated "peacemakers" appears. Maybe it will help us understand the meaning by pointing out first what it does not mean.

It does not mean, "Blessed are those who avoid all conflict and confrontations."

Neither does it mean, "Blessed are those who are laid back, easygoing, and relaxed."

Nor, "Blessed are those who defend a 'peace at any price' philosophy."
It doesn't mean, "Blessed are the passive, those who compromise their convictions when surrounded by those who would disagree."

No, none of those ideas is a characteristic of the "peacemaker" in this verse. The overall thrust of Scripture is the imperative, "Make peace!" Romans (12:18); (14:19); (James 3:16-4:2.)

A "peacemaker" describes those servants who, first, are at peace with themselves - internally, at ease not agitated, ill-tempered, in turmoil, and therefore not abrasive. Second, they work hard to settle quarrels, not to start them; they are accepting, tolerant, and find no pleasure in being negative. In the words of Ephesians (4:3), peacemakers "preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Ever been around Christians who are not peacemakers? Of course. Was it pleasant? Did you sense a servant's heart? Were you built up and encouraged, was the body of Christ strengthened and supported? You know the answers.

Solomon gives us wise counsel on some of the things peacemakers do:

They build up. "The wise woman builds her house" Proverbs (14:1).
They watch their tongues and heal rather than hurt. "A gentle answer turns away wrath" Proverbs (15:1). "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones" Proverbs (16:24).

They are slow to anger. "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute" Proverbs (15:18). "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city" Proverbs (16:32).

They are humble and trusting. "An arrogant man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper" Proverbs (28:25).

The Lord Jesus states a marvellous promise that peacemakers can claim: "they shall be called sons of God" Matthew (5:9). God's children. Few things are more godlike than peace.

When we promote it, pursue it, model it, we are linked directly with Him.