Reading testimonies in the Joshua Project and Voice of the Martyrs keeps me grounded as to what persecution looks like. So does regular Examen and having a friend who knows me inside out. We talk weekly for 2 hours and are able to speak truth into each other’s lives. As you noted, nowadays one doesn’t have to look for hate, it’ll find you. Even people pleasers are having a tough time not being hated by someone. Yesterday had the only answer, love one another. Today we have daily opportunities to love our enemies.
I love all three of these practices--remembering the martyrs, examen, and processing with a wise, Spirit-filled person. I've heard disciplines described as a trellis for the vine. These are good ways of enabling abundant fruit.
It is hard to be hated, being a people pleaser. I find these hurts the hardest to find love and turn the other cheek, especially when your intentions were for good, and, the offended is part of the body of Christ. I am learning a new humbleness, a new death, to love one another.
Hatred just has no place in the Kingdom, and I can't bear it when it creeps in. It breaks my heart. If we can't generously love one another, how will we ever love our enemies? (I say all of this knowing how much difficulty I have loving everyone. I can be so easily turned against my own brother or sister. The pull of the world is strong.)
Great post! I used to think I was persecuted just after I got saved---my college class ganged up on me and tried to have me kicked out because I decided to homeschool my 2 daughters after I graduated. I just saw a post about a woman from Nigeria that had both babies cut in half in front of her eyes, one after they pulled it from her breast. Then her husband killed. That's persecution. I'm so tired of the N American church saying...obviously God won't let his church suffer. He will rapture us out. Well I'm not a dispensationalist and I tell them to read the Bible where it says that we will share in his sufferings. I'm done with being liked. God brought me to the street after my daughter became a fentanyl addict. I spent a lot of time there hanging out with her and her addict friends, dealers and prostitutes. I spoke the gospel there, fed them and prayed for them. For that, most of my other 7 kids turned against me. Half of them godly Christians. But I feel more comfortable now on the street than I do in a church full of Christians who never leave their subdivisions. Now I'm raising her baby. She has returned to the street. From all of this, do something daring for Jesus. Speak the gospel to people you meet. Buy the homeless man on the corner a coffee and ask him if you can pray for him. Cut your elderly neighbour's grass. Invite in a new refugee family for a meal. God blesses these outward actions and gives us great joy for our faithfulness!
Thank you for this, Rosemary. For testifying. We need to hear stories like yours to help us have a holy imagination--what could love look like? It could look like this.
Rosemary, how beautiful and brave and courageous to do at first your daughter. I have a friend with an addiction daughter and although her other kids are ok with their mom, they have all basically turned their back on their sister. Who k owes who you may have influenced on the streets by planting the seeds.
I've already have a few people tell me that me being out there once a week with my daughter and not giving up on her, stirred them to get sober. One man told me that he was still young--early 40's--and he realized he still had a lot of life left to live. I witnessed to him and he pulled his shirt off and he had a huge tattoo of Christ with a crown of thorns on his back. Often they just need someone to believe in them and come alongside.
Amen! It is amazing how God Yahweh uses our circumstances to see another side of life. I'm with you, there is real suffering on this earth if we engaged in the work with Yahweh AND He sustains us! I love your boldness and encouragement to be bold!
What struck me this morning in the reading and contemplating with Yahweh is the pointed question, JL, of self preservation. This did catch my attention as it is a concern since I function in the world differently. I needed a living space that I can work in and serve. Yahweh has provided that for me. I am so grateful.
How does this journey of death look like? To me, living in Christ is a journey of deaths. Awakening to who Jesus is, who our Father is, and who we are in our broken selves; we begin to surrender parts of our will and sinful nature. I read scripture and my weakness is revealed and I surrender a new and battle that sin, until I learn a new attribute of our loving Father, and reflect a bit of His image.
The world will hate that as our lives change and at times, causes a conviction of sin in another person. I go back to the parable of the sharing the cloak, walking the extra mile, turning the cheek. I learn more of what the Father's love is and I can be part of the transformation of another. I change in that process and am unified with our Father in that work. He works all things together for those who love him. I am struck with how our loving Father changes us in the process of rejection/hate. Our Father is so good!
I pray to be more self aware (of what I say and what I do). To be open to being wrong and willing to consider another perspective. And to do all things in love. If I can do that, I can tell if I’m being rude or hateful.
Reading testimonies in the Joshua Project and Voice of the Martyrs keeps me grounded as to what persecution looks like. So does regular Examen and having a friend who knows me inside out. We talk weekly for 2 hours and are able to speak truth into each other’s lives. As you noted, nowadays one doesn’t have to look for hate, it’ll find you. Even people pleasers are having a tough time not being hated by someone. Yesterday had the only answer, love one another. Today we have daily opportunities to love our enemies.
I love all three of these practices--remembering the martyrs, examen, and processing with a wise, Spirit-filled person. I've heard disciplines described as a trellis for the vine. These are good ways of enabling abundant fruit.
It is hard to be hated, being a people pleaser. I find these hurts the hardest to find love and turn the other cheek, especially when your intentions were for good, and, the offended is part of the body of Christ. I am learning a new humbleness, a new death, to love one another.
Hatred just has no place in the Kingdom, and I can't bear it when it creeps in. It breaks my heart. If we can't generously love one another, how will we ever love our enemies? (I say all of this knowing how much difficulty I have loving everyone. I can be so easily turned against my own brother or sister. The pull of the world is strong.)
Great post! I used to think I was persecuted just after I got saved---my college class ganged up on me and tried to have me kicked out because I decided to homeschool my 2 daughters after I graduated. I just saw a post about a woman from Nigeria that had both babies cut in half in front of her eyes, one after they pulled it from her breast. Then her husband killed. That's persecution. I'm so tired of the N American church saying...obviously God won't let his church suffer. He will rapture us out. Well I'm not a dispensationalist and I tell them to read the Bible where it says that we will share in his sufferings. I'm done with being liked. God brought me to the street after my daughter became a fentanyl addict. I spent a lot of time there hanging out with her and her addict friends, dealers and prostitutes. I spoke the gospel there, fed them and prayed for them. For that, most of my other 7 kids turned against me. Half of them godly Christians. But I feel more comfortable now on the street than I do in a church full of Christians who never leave their subdivisions. Now I'm raising her baby. She has returned to the street. From all of this, do something daring for Jesus. Speak the gospel to people you meet. Buy the homeless man on the corner a coffee and ask him if you can pray for him. Cut your elderly neighbour's grass. Invite in a new refugee family for a meal. God blesses these outward actions and gives us great joy for our faithfulness!
Thank you for this, Rosemary. For testifying. We need to hear stories like yours to help us have a holy imagination--what could love look like? It could look like this.
Rosemary, how beautiful and brave and courageous to do at first your daughter. I have a friend with an addiction daughter and although her other kids are ok with their mom, they have all basically turned their back on their sister. Who k owes who you may have influenced on the streets by planting the seeds.
I've already have a few people tell me that me being out there once a week with my daughter and not giving up on her, stirred them to get sober. One man told me that he was still young--early 40's--and he realized he still had a lot of life left to live. I witnessed to him and he pulled his shirt off and he had a huge tattoo of Christ with a crown of thorns on his back. Often they just need someone to believe in them and come alongside.
Amen! It is amazing how God Yahweh uses our circumstances to see another side of life. I'm with you, there is real suffering on this earth if we engaged in the work with Yahweh AND He sustains us! I love your boldness and encouragement to be bold!
What struck me this morning in the reading and contemplating with Yahweh is the pointed question, JL, of self preservation. This did catch my attention as it is a concern since I function in the world differently. I needed a living space that I can work in and serve. Yahweh has provided that for me. I am so grateful.
How does this journey of death look like? To me, living in Christ is a journey of deaths. Awakening to who Jesus is, who our Father is, and who we are in our broken selves; we begin to surrender parts of our will and sinful nature. I read scripture and my weakness is revealed and I surrender a new and battle that sin, until I learn a new attribute of our loving Father, and reflect a bit of His image.
The world will hate that as our lives change and at times, causes a conviction of sin in another person. I go back to the parable of the sharing the cloak, walking the extra mile, turning the cheek. I learn more of what the Father's love is and I can be part of the transformation of another. I change in that process and am unified with our Father in that work. He works all things together for those who love him. I am struck with how our loving Father changes us in the process of rejection/hate. Our Father is so good!
I pray to be more self aware (of what I say and what I do). To be open to being wrong and willing to consider another perspective. And to do all things in love. If I can do that, I can tell if I’m being rude or hateful.
Excellent