Love your Enemies

Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." Matthew 5.11

Jesus said, "You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: 'You must not kill; and anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court.' But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court." Mt. 5.21-22

Jesus said, "You have learnt how it was said: 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I say to you, Offer the wicked man no resistance. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him." Mt. 5.38-41

Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy; But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those whose persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Mt. 5.43-46

Jesus said, "You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved. If they persecute you in one town, take refuge in the next; and if they persecute you in that, take refuge in another." Mt. 10.22-23

Jesus said, "No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay." Lk 3.14

Jesus said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly." Lk. 6.27-28

Jesus said, "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judge yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned." Lk 6.27

Jesus said, "What is written in the law? What do you read there? He replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." "You have answered right," said Jesus "do this and life is yours." Lk 10.26-28

Jesus said, "This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you." Jn. 14.22

Jesus said, "What I command you is to love one another." Jn. 14.27

Jesus said, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well. But it will be on my account that they will do all this, because they do not know the one who sent me." Jn. 15.20-21

Jesus said, "I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but be brave: I have conquered the world." Jn. 16.33

What if?

This video was made by our church during the Kingdom series. Music by the Desperation Band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGBRkx--w7I

Kingdom Reflections Part 1

For the past six weeks, we've been on a churchwide journey called "Kingdom Experiment". I'm sharing some of my reflections here as I continue to journal them out. Thanks for reading.

During our Kingdom group, we talked about the letter writing exercise (and how most of us didn't do it!), an exercise that several of us had done in the past however. While we were discussing all of this, it came to my memory of the time that I wrote one of those letters myself. I was 19 years old and wrote a (never mailed) letter to the neighborhood boys/young men who had terrorized, humiliated and raped me for 12 years, from the time I was just a baby of 4 until I was 16. At 19, I was battling depression and other destructive patterns of behavior and finally sought help. It wasn't a letter of forgiveness, actually, but a letter of unburdening myself with all of the garbage they had laid on me that I had decided wasn't mine to carry around any longer -- the anger, the self-doubt, the low self-esteem, the fear, the self-loathing, the loneliness, the terrible pain so deep and so wounding and yet so close to the surface I could almost hear it screaming -- and the shame. The terrible, terrible shame that followed me for years afterwards, long into my adulthood. I told them none of that belonged to me any longer, it wasn't mine to begin with, and I was giving it back to them to carry around. I was too tired to
do it any longer. It was more of a letter that said "Take this back, you jerks. FEEL the pain! FEEL IT! LIVE IT! SUFFER the same pain you made ME suffer!"

I guess I thought that was "my way" of forgiving
them.

And I thought it worked. Until the subject came up that
night in group a couple of weeks ago. As I was telling others in my group about this letter I wrote 25 years ago, God spoke to my heart. He told me "No, Joyce. You can't give it back to them. You have to forgive them. In other words, you have to give all of that stuff to ME -- I need you to forgive them. I will take all of that stuff, and then I will give it back to them. Vengenance is Mine; not so they will be harmed or await a certain hell, but I will give this load they put on you back to them. But you have to give it to Me first. Then they will have to give it back to Me and to receive the same freedom and forgiveness as you have. Let me take all of that for you. I'll handle it from there." What a revelation. It seems simple, but it was huge and complex and awesome and convicting all at once. Wow.

Fast forward to the Prayer Experiment. Not really thinking about this, but trying to just have an open mind and heart, I walked into the rock room. I picked up a BIG rock ... I couldn't believe how long I had to hold on to it and how very heavy it became so quickly. I couldn't wait to be able to unload it.

And then it clicked. God was waiting to take that very
load away from me. I gave it to Him in the illustration of dropping it in that pond. The water was so murky (or appeared to be) that I couldn't even see it after I dropped it in there. It was gone!

When I walked into the bowl room, I sat and prayed and listened -- and wept. I sat there for a very long time, just sitting in His presence, waiting until I was ready to take the next step. Now that I had agreed to give that burden to Him, it was time to really let Him keep it. Forgiving those guys seemed the logical thing to write down, and I did. But then I continued to write -- about forgiving myself. I forgive you, Joyce, for being afraid. I forgive you, Joyce, for being jealous. I forgive you, Joyce, for being insecure. I forgive you, Joyce, for not trusting God's promises. I forgive you, Joyce, I forgive you, Joyce. The list went on and on. Finally, I finished writing and dropped my paper into the bowl. As I watched and saw my words begin to fade, the paper began to tear, from top to bottom, slowly but completely. It was to me exactly how I envisioned the veil was torn in the Holy of Holies when Jesus offered His forgiveness on the Cross and it was finished -- exactly. It was as though God was showing me just how my unforgiveness separates me from being in the full glory of His presence and He was reminding me by this beautiful vision right in front of my eyes. Jesus' forgiveness tore that veil that sheilded my eyes from focusing completely and fully on Him. He did that for me! Me!

I was so excited that the next room was a place to just
write down my praise and awe and joy and marvel about Who God is and about how much I love Him -- and how much He loves me! I mean, I know all of this and have known Jesus for decades but this was so fresh and so huge and so new to me -- a new freedom and a new place where I've finally allowed His light to shine, into the deepest, darkest places of my shame. There is light there now! I feel so bouyant, as though I had been walking with shoes made of cement for so many years and now I have on ballet slippers that allow me to dance in a way that I wouldn't have dared to have hoped I could have.

And now my prayer is just to have more opportunities to
reflect His beautiful light to others.

Amazing. God is simply ... amazing.