I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
~ Philippians 1:20-21
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.
~ Proverbs 29:25
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Last week, I saw a comic strip (and the comments it elicited), and I was compelled to leave a comment on it.
Here’s the comment that I left. Just something to consider…
Jesus is LORD, love one another. If we would stop pointing AT people’s sins, and start point TO Jesus and His identity as God Himself in flesh (Father Truth, His Spirit Love, Son the Form of God), and we treated other people the way that we want to be treated in every situation and circumstance — in spite of sin and in spite of what we do or don’t like — it would do a lot more good. We are far too wrapped up in worrying about our mortal flesh (which can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven anyway), and we’re not nearly concerned enough with our souls and what comes after death.
The LORD didn’t ask for the blood of bulls of goats (Isaiah 1:11, Hebrews 10:4): Consider blood as figurative of contempt. Our holding contempt for others because of their sin is NOT what God wants of us. Each of us will answer for our own sins; we can’t answer for what anyone else does, or how anyone else acts.
What the LORD asks of us is that we share the Gospel that reveals Jesus as LORD God Almighty, the immortal God taking off His immortality, come, revealing Himself to His creation, crucified, and risen immortal once again; and to love our neighbours as ourselves. That’s IT. We needn’t add anything to that, or take anything away from it. Because in doing so, we start playing God over other people, and that’s not right.
If you want to see reforms, if you want to see change; if you want peace — there’s only one way. And His name is Jesus. Not a man who was created. But God Himself — the Creator. It matters that He wasn’t a man, something merely created. It matters more than anything.
Today’s painting is: “Our Daily Bread (Jesus Crucified)”, a painting that I did in 2008, from a sketch I made in high school, which was based on Lorenzo-Lotto’s “Christ Carrying the Cross”, 1526.