Sunday, December 16, 2018

Part Three "Let Us" series


This is a continuation of the series in which I looked up every New Testament scripture that says "Let US" -

Let us not "strive and do wrong one to another" for we are 'members one of another", so when we wound and hurt each other we are actually wounding and hurting ourselves. Striving and struggling with one another to have the preeminence among each other is of the flesh, not the spirit (well, not the Holy Spirit anyway). Pastors who demand to be called "Pastor", who demand to be respected and honored are  walking after the "pride of life".
Let us not assemble together and "some cry one thing, and some another; for the assembly was confused, and most did not know why they were come together". How true of so many churches today! They don't know their true purpose for gathering together, they associate their very identity and life long walk with God with their obedience to their Pastor and his teachings. They believe attendance  in their church is tantamount to obedience to Christ. If the Holy Spirit seeks to lead them elsewhere, or teach them something different from what the pastor is teaching, they'll reject the Holy Spirit's instruction. Our true purpose for gathering together is to minister to one another, and to Christ. We are to exhort each other to personal purity and maturity. We are to edify, encourage and build each other on our most Holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. We come together to
bear one another's burdens". We come together to "warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support  the weak" and to "lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees". We come together to care for the widows and orphans among us, including the fatherless, those with mothers but no fathers. We come together to care for, feed and clothe the poor among us, to shelter and employ them if need be. We come together to welcome strangers, no matter their look or station in life. We are so foolish, we accept anyone who dresses nicely, believing they are of God because of their outward appearance, while despising anyone who comes in in rags or poor garments.
In short, we gather together to obey the Holy Spirit and fulfill Christ's command to "love one another". "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth".
Let us be "kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." If we will but obey these admonitions, all under the chief of all commands - to love one another, than all the works of the flesh listed in Galations 5 will have no place in our midst.
Let us be "of the same mind one toward another - mind not high things (or people) but condescend to men of low estate" , in other words, don't treat people any differently because they are rich or poor. Let us "owe no man anything but to love one another". If we love every stranger we meet as the good Samaritan did, than our love will have "won another", as my daughter Tiffany said. Who but God, who looks upon the heart, knows the wounds of the people we meet each day, stoically trying to carry on as if everything is fine, yet mortally wounded on the inside. Truthfully, every one we meet in this life is dying a long, slow death. Only the children of the Most High God are truly alive. How many Christians see needs that only God's love can meet, yet walk on (or drive on) by without a second glance. Let us not be as the Priest or the Levite - men who claimed to be of God, who presented themselves publicly as God's representatives on earth, yet ignored their own brother, lying wounded in the street, without lifting so much as an eyebrow to acknowledge their wounded brother. Let us love with our actions, whenever and wherever we can, especially when no one but God sees us do it. 

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