Love's Got You Covered

The papers are full of the exclusive revelations of the love life and failings of people as friendships are sold for the price of a good story. Rumours among colleagues that undermine people’s characters are often the product out of broken trusts to fit in with others. Good friends, however, can challenge each other privately, but won’t allow the faults of each other to be exposed. However bad things get, whatever depths of hurt, love will always have you covered.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. (Proverbs 10:12)

Safe Journey
Shalom

Peace Plant

When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice. (James 3:18)

The principles of nature can apply to human relationship. There’s no point planting an apple seed if you want oranges. Likewise it makes no sense grumbling and complaining about how wrong the world is, when we’re not planting the seeds to bring about the things that are right. As we spend time planting peace seeds of friendliness and gentleness we can look forward to the harvest of fairness.

I was looking at James 3:15-18 and reading Jimmy’s strong words that basically calls us to wake up and smell the coffee in terms of where we think we’re getting our wisdom from. Sometimes the power of these words are diluted by cultural sensitivities. Sometimes we want to modify and accommodate these words into something that is relatively harmless to others. The reality is however that the mainstream does not endorse, promote or support heavenly wisdom. That’s why it’s no surprise that we live in such a fractured, painful world because all humanity has ever perpetuated is fractured, painful choices through selfish ambition. Face it – your parents may not have done all they could to ensure their children were Kingdom-focussed offspring looking for how to plant peace.

More often than not generations and cultures have embedded in them selfish ambition either through conquest or through keeping oneself to oneself. We are told to look after number one. We are encouraged to get all we can and can all we get. We are told to do whatever we can for ourselves because we are worth it and deserve our best lives now even if it prioritises the self over all else. Indeed biblical narrative highlights the cycle of material prosperity leading to independence and on the other hand in some cases material lack leading to a great deal of covetousness to and aspiration to material prosperity that would then lead to that state of independence. God’s purpose in any kind of prosperity was never for independence but for a stronger sense of concern and investment in interdependence with all levels of the community around us. That’s why the call to be peacemakers and behaving in ways that are pleasing to God are necessarily costly to us – calling indeed for self-sacrifice in order to replicate the very character of the Saviour as we shall see later.

Meanwhile I encourage you to observe for yourself the values and norms of your own surroundings and notice if it is really based on sowing the seeds of peace or otherwise and ask God to empower you again to do what is necessary to see justice in individual and communal relations for Christ’s sake.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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Words For A Clear Conscience

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

Sure no one’s perfect and we all make mistakes, but what do we do with them? Sometimes we’re guilt-ridden and cover it with self-righteousness or denial. Release can be found on responding to this invitation and embrace the words that can wash and cleaning the conscience and set the spirit free.

I also checked out the image on this site out and when you see the poem alongside it as well it gets to some of the heart of what inspired today’s daily thought.

There is an old hymn ‘Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet’ that highlights what exactly God has on offer for us. Sometimes in coming to Christ I get the impression that people have something bargain with God, when this verse points out clearly that we have nothing with which to bargain. Look at us? Full of sin, full of the guilt of the consequence of sin, full of rebellion to a holy, loving God – and we have that to bargain with?

Also in the light of God’s extended offer of grace and mercy it is not unreasonable to expect us to submit and surrender to the terms of the offer. If I’m caught bang to rights for a horrendous crime and the prosecutor arranges for a rehabilitation process that sees me come out of it better than I’d ever be, why on earth am I going to bargain with that and try to shape it around my wants and felt desires. Yet when I consider flavours of Christianity today it’s almost as though I’m doing God a favour getting saved and He owes a life of blessed quietness with all the pleasures at His right hand as the money comes to me now.

May God help us to always respond to His amazing love and graciousness with humble gratitude having a willing heart to work towards His purposes and designs for life.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd