The Highway to Joy! From CoffeeHour @ Chicklit Power!

Happy day to you! I know it’s the 1^st of the month and it’s WOW (Words of Wisdom and Weapons of Warfare) time, but I thought it would be good to finish up with the second sacrifice that Jesus smiles over when His kids offer it! It’s a sacrifice of righteousness, made difficult and sweeter when offered up after being wronged! Grab your coffee and come on in.

I can’t believe that we are getting all this from our search for joy! I truly thought Destination? Joyful! ™ was going to be a small, fun, happy-go-lucky and lighthearted series! And now we have a series within a series, which I should have made its own series…. Oh, well, straight ahead and let’s keep going. Something tells me it’s going to make our journey towards Destination? Joyful! ™ all the more rich and beautiful, and we for sure will be better equipped.

So I left off with … Oh, that’s right, where someone had verbally slapped my cheek and stomped all over my heart with her words, and at the end declared she couldn’t be my friend. She wrote me off and that was that!

Those stomps on my heart and verbal slaps on my cheek were all the more powerful and hurtful because I was not expecting them, number one, and number two, I had truly invested in her emotionally. God has used her to teach me so many lessons in ministry about ministry so when I read her words laced with what I deemed venom, I was stung, rendered bitten by hurt and shock.

Would I, could I resist the evil temptation to lash out and instead turn the other cheek?

I tore myself away from her words I was reading in my inbox of Facebook and returned to saying good-bye to my board members. The excitement and enthusiasm I had felt from our planning and strategizing for next year all but forgotten, I walked them out a bit deflated, stumped and discouraged.

I sat in her painful words for a day and a half, grieving the many contradictions which revealed that our friendship wasn’t strong enough to travel the two-way highway of honesty.

As I mulled over her words, I looked for anything I could learn from them, in other words, I wanted to own what was mine so I could work on it and disown it. I even had myself a good long cry over the whole deal, and of course I spent much time in prayer over it. He’s revealed to me some mighty powerful truths, shown me how some things didn’t line up and why. I have offered Him a sacrifice of righteousness by NOT defending myself, not responding to what felt like scathing coals on a fire I didn’t even know existed. So I did not and I will not respond … unless He leads me to, in His time, and in His way!

Stepping back allows Him to move forward. I was reminded of this in church the other day and I love how His word gently but lovingly teaches while chastising at the same time! Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men (others).” Do you see the beginning part, if it is possible? Those words do not denote a permission slip to retaliate; rather, they relieve me of the burden of trying to get the other person to see things my way, or for the other person to be nice! Only what is possible with me! It is not reasonable to expect healthy words and/or actions from unhealthy hurting people!

Oh, if you only knew how hard it was at first to just step back, let go and let God!

But I was and continue to be determined to learn this lesson of offering up a sacrifice of righteousness, a lesson that is so multifaceted; each facet shining through the different form of righteousness and adding depth and solidarity to my joy.

Join me tomorrow for the conclusion to this sacrifice … the cost of offering up a sacrifice of righteousness!

Seeking to sacrifice my flesh,

Evinda

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