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Are you surprised how easily
you are offended? I remember when I first became a Christian,
I was shocked that the Bible was so clear, yet so many believers
around me were mad at somebody all the time. Often the only time offense is not taken is when the person has learned to pre-determine how they really want to react to things others do. One of my clearest memories of my father is an occasion when someone close to him was desperately trying to get his goat, and I watched him respond in the Holy spirit like heaven's ping-pong champion. Those victories don't overtake us like money falling from an airplane - they occur with regularity when it is a priority before God to learn to minister grace. This is a spiritual skill, exercised by faith. Over time, God's desired response comes first, instead of it dawning on us what we have done as we mop up the blood. Is it beautiful to you to hang on a cross naked and falsely accused before a hostile crowd, but using your faculties and what is left of your physical life to minister to others? Or is it beautiful to you to be safe and avoid all that strikes you as unpleasant? That is the measure of availability to the Lord in this area. Lord, I want to have your likeness brought about in me. I understand it means giving up being right and having human respect. Please take my life and so change me that heaven is far more real to me than the things that are of this physical earth. |
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