I feel bad

[Jennifer]

Back about 30 years ago it was something an old seasoned saint said to me when I corrected someone that needed correcting, with the right words, but in the wrong spirit.

What wrong spirit?

 

[Jennifer]

No one...he was speaking generally...just posting his experiences as was I.

Ok

 

[shnarkle]

I can remember learning that lesson too.
And a wise old saint said to me..."It wasn't what you said it was how you said it. We can often have the word of the Lord, but that must be delivered in the Spirit of the Lord. The word without the Spirit = hot empty air."

After that I was slower in saying something before checking if the Lord was really directing me to say it!!

Even now I can still miss it big time if I am too hasty. LOL

There have been a number of times when I began to say something to a group of people, and could see that nobody was going to be able to receive what I was saying because it was without the spirit so I would just cut it short. Someone else would usually be able to say the exact same thing with the spirit, and it would be received.

The Spirit is able to move in those who can receive God's gifts. I'm afraid my problem is that I don't spend enough time putting myself in a position to receive God's gifts. I spend too much time fretting over the cares of the world. Instead of seeing what God would have me do, I'm thinking about what I want to do.

People walk all over us and after we've gotten packed down enough, people start using us as a freeway. The gospel still comes flying over us like bees looking for flowers to pollinate, but they just end up spattered across all those windshields.

Somehow, God gets through, and we start getting pot holes, and eventually it all starts to crumble and get broken up which as painful as it may seem is usually the only way anything can start to grow. The world beats us up, and we become fertile soil for the gospel to be implanted in us.

The world wants us dead, and when we begin to want to die ourselves, God hands us the gift of repentance. What the world means for evil, God uses for his purposes. So even though our self will may get us into a lot of trouble, God uses it to turn us back to him. The dice of God are always loaded.

 

[shnarkle]

Who said I was blaming others?

I didn't see anyone say you were blaming others. Why do you ask?

 

[Jennifer]

I didn't see anyone say you were blaming others. Why do you ask?

No reason. I misread your post.

 

[Earburner]

Are you persecuting me?!!! Ha jk

??? If you think that I spoke to be comical, then maybe you are persecuting me!
Don't you see? We can use anything to think that we are being persecued. Our fleshly emotions, can get hurt very easily by others. However, if the pecieved persecution is not related to our faith in Christ, then we are NOT being persecuted for Christ.

 

[Earburner]

I must say that I have never felt persecuted for the sake of Christ. It has always been because of my self will. Even when I'm doing something right, and things go bad, I just instinctively think it must be because my own self will got into the mix and messed it up. The thing about it is that when I do that, I take a hard look at myself, and usually I'm able to see where I went wrong.

The reason this is so beneficial is because I'm not as likely to make the same mistake again, and it becomes easier to avoid those mistakes in the future. Before I used to do that, I would keep making the same mistakes, and just blaming everyone around me instead. That never works.

Yes! You are making good discernment for all concerned, for yourself, Christ and as well others.
Once we discern the differnce between our emotions and the character of Christ (fruit of the Spirit), we are learning to effectively abide and grow in Him and Him in us.

 

[Jennifer]

??? If you think that I spoke to be comical, then maybe you are persecuting me!
Don't you see? We can use anything to think that we are being persecued. Our fleshly emotions, can get hurt very easily by others. However, if the pecieved persecution is not related to our faith in Christ, then we are NOT being persecuted for Christ.

But I have no reason to persecute you.lol That's not persecution from me. That's just sarcasm dude.

 

[Jennifer]

Did you not read my post? I said I am being persecuted for the likeness of Jesus.

 

[Jennifer]

Yes! You are making good discernment for all concerned, for yourself, Christ and as well others.
Once we discern the differnce between our emotions and the character of Christ (fruit of the Spirit), we are learning to effectively abide and grow in Him and Him in us.

You are persecuting me here again.. you people think I'm stupid. Maybe you can't see it cause you are the one lost and blinded in Christ.

 

[Jennifer]

I don't know why you people act so serious all the time.. it won't make you any less or more righteous in Christ. A sense of humor can go a long way sometimes. Who wants to be serious all the time?. That gets boring. I'm sure Jesus isn't always serious. Only when need to be. You know there's a time and season for every purpose under heaven, sorry that was it. Golly gee.

 

[Jennifer]

I'm not stupid though, I can hear and spot persecution from miles away you must think I'm stupid though?

 

[shnarkle]

But I have no reason to persecute you.lol That's not persecution from me. That's just sarcasm dude.

One doesn't need a reason to persecute others. I spent years being persecuted for all the wrong reasons. In other words, I was living for myself, and that can only lead to scorn, contempt, persecution, and abandonment. There is no effective difference between persecution and sarcasm. Sarcasm literally means "to tear flesh""

 

[Waiting on him]

I'm not stupid though, I can hear and spot persecution from miles away you must think I'm stupid though?

What is persecution???

 

[shnarkle]

I don't know why you people act so serious all the time.. it won't make you any less or more righteous in Christ. A sense of humor can go a long way sometimes. Who wants to be serious all the time?. That gets boring. I'm sure Jesus isn't always serious. Only when need to be. You know there's a time and season for every purpose under heaven, sorry that was it. Golly gee.

This is an interesting observation. I don't know how familiar you may be with the gospel narratives, but do you know of any examples where you see Christ joking around? G.K.

Chesterton made a similar observation to yours. He noted that we see no mirth in Christ. He talks of rejoicing at the salvation of the lost. One can assume that when he said to "suffer the children" to come to him, he would have had a smile on his face, but we don't see any descriptions of mirth. We see descriptions of weeping, compassion, righteous indignation, etc., but never mirth. I could be wrong, but there seem to be a lot of people who agree with Chesterton.

 

[Waiting on him]

This is an interesting observation. I don't know how familiar you may be with the gospel narratives, but do you know of any examples where you see Christ joking around? G.K.

Chesterton made a similar observation to yours. He noted that we see no mirth in Christ. He talks of rejoicing at the salvation of the lost. One can assume that when he said to "suffer the children" to come to him, he would have had a smile on his face, but we don't see any descriptions of mirth. We see descriptions of weeping, compassion, righteous indignation, etc., but never mirth. I could be wrong, but there seem to be a lot of people who agree with Chesterton.

It’s better to be in the house Of mourning.

 

[shnarkle]

Yes! You are making good discernment for all concerned, for yourself, Christ and as well others.
Once we discern the differnce between our emotions and the character of Christ (fruit of the Spirit), we are learning to effectively abide and grow in Him and Him in us.

When I lash out at others, I can safely assume I'm indulging in my persecution complex. I do it all the time, and even when I don't, I still harbor it deep in my heart. It's like that lyric from the Who, e.g. "nobody knows what it's like to be the bad man behind blue eyes..etc" Sometimes I feel like that. Like I'm the designated scapegoat. I make myself out to be such a martyr, but Christ was meek and mild. He saw no reason to justify himself to a world that was already self-condemned.

We truly do not have our battles with flesh and blood, but spirits in high places. It's so easy sometimes to see them just come raging out of people, but it's difficult to remember that the person is not that spirit who is raging at us, but the poor soul who has somehow become afflicted by these horrible spirits. These evil spirits rage against each other, and we end up caught in the crossfire.

Here again, this is where I see the wisdom of Christ's observation that we must deny ourselves. When we do this, it isn't possible to take things personally anymore. Christ sees the demon, and simply casts them out.

A kind word turns away wrath.

 

[shnarkle]

You are persecuting me here again.. you people think I'm stupid. Maybe you can't see it cause you are the one lost and blinded in Christ.

It's like that ol' saying: "Love is blind, but marriage sees everything".

 

[Waiting on him]

We truly do not have our battles with flesh and blood, but spirits in high places. It's so easy sometimes to see them just come raging out of people

With me it’s mostly the vain imagination in my own mind that I wrestle with, but I see the King pulling down strong holds, so I rejoice.

 

[shnarkle]

With me it’s mostly the vain imagination in my own mind that I wrestle with, but I see the King pulling down strong holds, so I rejoice.

Yes, it's all vanity. Even when I point out that I am a complete fraud, I'm still indulging in my own pointless vanity.