Me, Turn the other Cheek? From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks for joining me for this search of joy. Oh, how I long to stay on the destination to joyful! Grab your coffee and let’s go explore more about this second sacrifice, a sacrifice of righteousness.
So I left off with a baffling and mind-boggling question and/or concept, one that is too hard to digest without our spiritual selves, so please remember that component as we dig to understand what in the world Jesus is telling us in Matthew 5:38! The question: Is He telling us to stand face to face with the one who slaps us on the cheek and offer the other side?
According to Matthew Henry, that is exactly what He’s saying! He says: “The plain instruction is ‘Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord’s keeping. And the sum of all is that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right principles will have most peace and comfort’.”
That may sound incredibly confusing, but oh my goodness; I just got a word picture! I hope with all my being that I can help you see it too! I’m going to apply these words to a situation that just happened, in other words, to my drama! Oh, before I do, let me tell you about something else I discovered: the “evil” that Jesus is referring to in this context is not the enemy himself, rather, the human acting in their flesh!!!!! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I feel like making the sound that the “angry birds” make on the game when they get smashed!
Now, I wouldn’t call this person who sent me to blur with one action and all their mean words evil, although their choice to do what they did felt evil. But maybe, just maybe there’s something to this verse that applies to these types of in-the-heat-of-the-moment situations. At least this verse is speaking to me ever so loudly in a soft kind of way.
Here’s something else to think about: maybe resisting evil isn’t confined to a person who is not a follower of Christ. Could it also apply to us as followers of Christ who act out of our flesh? Could resisting evil mean not reacting to it? Ugh, hindsight is always 20/20, right? If I had stood firm against what I deemed wrong/evil which was being demonstrated by someone I love, I wouldn’t have had to endure what happened next: a complete verbal slapping in front of another someone whom I love!
Let me tell you, I did not turn the other cheek to receive anymore! In fact, I spit out a mouthful of nails! You may be saying, “Well, why would you? That’s not what Jesus is saying in that verse.”
I agree; we are not to be doormats; however there is a fine line between turning the other cheek and hurling nails out of my mouth to pierce the heart of the one who hurt me! Have you ever felt like that; like all you wanted to do was strike back and hurt the one who just hurt you? The line is the line of pride!
Could it be that we are to emotionally turn away from the evil acts of those who hurt us, and face them in love, without retaliating? Could this be a sacrifice of righteousness? Oh, but I can see now how different it could have turned out, no matter how right I felt about my position and wrong about theirs because in the long run, when I’m face to face with Him, He’s not going to ask me about their side; we are going to only talk about my actions and my failure to offer a sacrifice of righteousness!
Oh, Abba, I fall short, miss the mark every day, and some days are worse than others. I thank you for your mercies that are new every morning, for your Word that works as a double-edged sword, piercing my heart and trimming away what needs to go. Help me offer up a sacrifice of righteousness, even when I don’t feel like it! When it all comes down to it, Father, what matters is my relationship with you and my relationship with others affects my relationship with you. Help me to be Christ-like to those who slap me in the face with their evil acts.
Seeking to offer a sacrifice of righteousness,



Evinda
Thanks for joining me for this search of joy. Oh, how I long to stay on the destination to joyful! Grab your coffee and let’s go explore more about this second sacrifice, a sacrifice of righteousness.
So I left off with a baffling and mind-boggling question and/or concept, one that is too hard to digest without our spiritual selves, so please remember that component as we dig to understand what in the world Jesus is telling us in Matthew 5:38! The question: Is He telling us to stand face to face with the one who slaps us on the cheek and offer the other side?
According to Matthew Henry, that is exactly what He’s saying! He says: “The plain instruction is ‘Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord’s keeping. And the sum of all is that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right principles will have most peace and comfort’.”
That may sound incredibly confusing, but oh my goodness; I just got a word picture! I hope with all my being that I can help you see it too! I’m going to apply these words to a situation that just happened, in other words, to my drama! Oh, before I do, let me tell you about something else I discovered: the “evil” that Jesus is referring to in this context is not the enemy himself, rather, the human acting in their flesh!!!!! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I feel like making the sound that the “angry birds” make on the game when they get smashed!
Now, I wouldn’t call this person who sent me to blur with one action and all their mean words evil, although their choice to do what they did felt evil. But maybe, just maybe there’s something to this verse that applies to these types of in-the-heat-of-the-moment situations. At least this verse is speaking to me ever so loudly in a soft kind of way.
Here’s something else to think about: maybe resisting evil isn’t confined to a person who is not a follower of Christ. Could it also apply to us as followers of Christ who act out of our flesh? Could resisting evil mean not reacting to it? Ugh, hindsight is always 20/20, right? If I had stood firm against what I deemed wrong/evil which was being demonstrated by someone I love, I wouldn’t have had to endure what happened next: a complete verbal slapping in front of another someone whom I love!
Let me tell you, I did not turn the other cheek to receive anymore! In fact, I spit out a mouthful of nails! You may be saying, “Well, why would you? That’s not what Jesus is saying in that verse.”
I agree; we are not to be doormats; however there is a fine line between turning the other cheek and hurling nails out of my mouth to pierce the heart of the one who hurt me! Have you ever felt like that; like all you wanted to do was strike back and hurt the one who just hurt you? The line is the line of pride!
Could it be that we are to emotionally turn away from the evil acts of those who hurt us, and face them in love, without retaliating? Could this be a sacrifice of righteousness? Oh, but I can see now how different it could have turned out, no matter how right I felt about my position and wrong about theirs because in the long run, when I’m face to face with Him, He’s not going to ask me about their side; we are going to only talk about my actions and my failure to offer a sacrifice of righteousness!
Oh, Abba, I fall short, miss the mark every day, and some days are worse than others. I thank you for your mercies that are new every morning, for your Word that works as a double-edged sword, piercing my heart and trimming away what needs to go. Help me offer up a sacrifice of righteousness, even when I don’t feel like it! When it all comes down to it, Father, what matters is my relationship with you and my relationship with others affects my relationship with you. Help me to be Christ-like to those who slap me in the face with their evil acts.
Seeking to offer a sacrifice of righteousness

Evinda

The Adulterous Woman From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks for joining me at Coffee Hour for a little break and the continuation of The Adulterous Woman, which we still haven’t met, but we are getting close! Grab your coffee and come on in.

We left off with the answer to why everyone was whispering in their little groups at this party: Because if these so-called leaders heard them, their worst nightmare would begin: excommunication from the synagogue.

So this explains why no one would speak up for Jesus -- STOP! We have to take this detour; it’s too relevant in our lives today not to. So let’s look up the definition of excommunicate in the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: excommunication – 1: an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. 2: exclusion from fellowship in a group or community.

Oh, I just saw something else, another interesting fact from the World Encyclopedia: Excommunication – Formal expulsion from the communion of the faithful from sacraments and from rites of a religious body. Largely abandoned by Protestants, excommunication has been retained by Jewish congregations and by the Roman Catholic Church.

Remember, we’re in the New Testament with two major bodies of religion, if you will, Jew and Gentile, sort of like our two governmental bodies, Republican and Democrat, and just as we see the unnecessary fighting between those bodies, imagine that kind of constant rift all because of Jesus and His Father who desired then, and desires still, fellowship and relationship with His chosen people, the Israelites/Jews, and the Gentiles, you and me! I’m trying to paint a verbal picture of constant tension, a major power struggle, if you will, that caused these Jews to whisper their true desire to know more about The Christ that they’d been hearing about for as long as they had been walking.

Religious Leader

Imagine the fascination they must have experienced. Who was this Guy who was said to be abolishing The Law that they had been spoon fed from the time they could eat of spiritual food? Was there really a possibility that they didn’t have to obey the Law down to the letter? If He wasn’t The Christ, how could He know that they didn’t keep the Law Moses had given down to all of them? And what about that guy He healed on the Sabbath?

Oh, yes, there was much conversation going on about Jesus, and I can only imagine the confusion that overwhelmed the hope of those who were searching for The Christ. This type of conversion that believing He to be Who He said He was would be like you and me converting from Christianity (New Testament) to Judaism (Old Testament) theology. Do you feel the jump? It’s almost insurmountable, too much to wrap up on one blog….

Join me for more on this detour Wednesday.

Thoughtfully,

Evinda
P.S. Join me today at 1:00 Pacific time for our Blog Talk Radio show, Breaking Free from Co-Dependency at www.blogtalkradio.com/Chicklit-Power