Sunday Fresh Food
for thought. Are your feelings hurt?
Dead people don’t have feelings.
If you are one of
those who are looking for reasons to be offended and hold grudges against
people, then you cannot say, “I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” “If
anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature all things have passed away and
everything has become knew.” “I have been crucified with Jesus.”
A believer is
dead to self and alive to God in Jesus. God does not hold grudges against the
redeemed because of Jesus.
The best evidence of being alive to self and dead to God is the demand and pursue
of “Personal Rights.” Once people know what their rights are, their minds
give birth to expectation and expectation that are not satisfied are fertile
ground to feel offended.
Offenses begin
with self-pity and self-pity leads to circular reasoning as the chasing of a
dog to its tail, where success is a self inflicted and destructive wound.
If you are looking for an offensive terrorist that keeps you in constant fear,
do not look to the Middle East or the Far East, because they are nearer that
you think. The modern day terrorist is not behind the “Iron curtain, or
behind the bamboo curtain or South of the Border, neither is across state lines
or on the other side of the fence. The modern day terrorist is among those
about whom you care the most.
Only a friend can
hurt a friend, because they care and love one another and are vulnerable to
each other. Who cares about the thoughts, words and deeds of an enemy? An
enemy is an ENEMY and hate from an enemy is expected, otherwise they would not
be our enemy but our friend.
According to Jesus, “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own house
hold.”
Experts say that
boxers are knocked out by the punch they did not see coming. This means
that you were off guard. A man is off guard only among those he loves and
trusts and those in whom he believes and does not expect harm.
If I do not lower my guard in the household of God and my own household, where
then can I lower my guard? It is not a matter of being on guard or off
guard in the flesh that counts because in reality our struggle is not with a
seen enemy but spiritual enemies that sometimes is within oneself as the dog
who chases its tail is self destructive behavior.
How can I rest and be safe?
We cannot be safe and that is the reason why we need a savior strong enough to
save us and protect us from the past, present and throughout the balance of our
lives on earth. The prescription of Jesus the savior for salvation and
preservation is one and the same.
“Death to Self morning, evening and night.”
“He who loses his
life will keep it and he who keeps his life will lose it.” There you have
it from the lips of the Lord and Master, Jesus.
“Death to self.” Dead people do not get offended because dead people have
no feelings of their own. Jesus has already paid for all the offenses we have
inflicted to them and the offenses others have inflicted to us.
Aren’t you ashamed to use your “Race Card” to be offended? Aren’t you ashamed
of being offended by envy as Cain of Abel?”
Aren’t you ashamed of the offensive “Poor little me syndrome?” Aren’t you
ashamed of what ever your offensive predispositions are...such as beauty,
height, weight, color, origin, wealth, family or friends?”
I am constantly ashamed when for a moment I think in my rights and what is fare
and what is not fare to me.
Thank God that it only lasts as long as an eclipse and it is also as far apart
one from the other as time goes on and I grow in grace.
To the praise of God there is nothing I cannot solve by walking in a childlike
boldness into the Holy of Hollies for a good heaping portion of
intimacy with the Lord at the cool of the day.
The other option
I do not recommend to anyone and that is, “To press on your rights and what is
fare and what is not fare, because if you want Justice, your might get it and
not like it at the end.”
Remember that it is by Grace that you are saved through Faith and this not of
yourself but it is the gift of God.
“The Faith to died to self is a gift of God.” Jesus was offended unto to
death so you don’t have to hurt the pain of offenses. Be free, for to
freedom we have been called in Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Gerry Gutierrez.
PS: Perhaps you
find me offensive? I am your friend and pray for you regularly. “The
wounds of a friend can be trusted.” Let the reason of our relationship govern
our lives and not the changing circumstances of our behavior. Let us walk by
grace and not by works. Death is gain to us who are in Jesus.
Two of us in this picture are more alive than ever and beyond
feelings. "Death is Gain."
