Grasping at straws…..
I just returned from the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Nashville, and it sure was a great event. This event started well over two decades ago and is a gathering of photojournalists with an emphasis on the faith component of working in that field. Over many years I made wonderful friends, brothers and sisters at this conference so after a five year absence it was great to return and be with them! We had some marvelous fellowship and connected with a lot of fear freinds. The students were great and we tried to help them in any way we could.
I spoke Saturday afternoon and as always I prayed the Holy Spirit would take over and apparently He did, we all were moved by what was shared under His insipration, all the glory goes to God! It relieves all stress when you don’t need to take any credit!!!
I got home around 8:00 pm last evening to be greeted with a tv news report about multiple examples of how society is attacking Christians. While I was not surprised, we are in a spiritual war after all, I must admit I went to church this morning agitated about the examples shared in this news report! God has a way of getting us back on track! While I was grasping at straws to find the right response to my anger over the criticism from the world, our guest speaker at church offered a more modern, cut to the chase, definition of Grace and Mercy.
Here goes; Grace is when we get what we don’t deserve, Mercy is when we don’t get what we do deserve!
I went to the alter to pray for a freind and while kneeling and praying for him God opened my eyes to the solution to my dilemma. In spite of suggestions that Jesus doesn’t talk to us, He certainly did to me this morning (and has for years!) While I was stewing about the mistreatment of fellow Christians, Jesus reminded me that even though He was God’s Son, and part of the Holy Trinity, men beat Him, spat on Him, mocked Him, threw dice gambling for his cloths and nailed Him to the cross to die an excruciatingly painful death, yet, He looked down at these people and said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Case closed.
Blessings,
the pilgrim
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 18th, 2018 at 6:49 pm
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Bill, I appreciate the tone and intent of your post. However forgiveness is very hard when I believe that a great many of “them” DO know what they are doing – they are trying to attack Christianity in any way and every way they can. I can only conclude that “they” want me to believe in them and their ideas more than I believe in God – and that is just not going to happen – my belief and trust is in Him. However, I have come not to hate them but to feel very sorry for their choice and will try – where reasonable – to convince them “they” are wrong.
I agree with you completely! I meant to convey that when I get angry it often leads to hateful feelings, and I know i need to avoid that!!!
Forgiveness can be very hard especially forgiving those who don’t seem to repent or those that do things so very horrible it is hard for us as humans to forgive…but forgiveness is not primarily for that person…it is for ourselves so that we may be set free from that incidence or event and received Christ’s forgiveness for ourselves…for He has promised to (in His gift of salvation) to forgive all the sins that we have done and all that we will do…and He promises this only if we too will forgive..
“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God , for instance, without also forgiving other. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part”. Matthew 6:14-15 MSG
I admit tho at times Michael this is very very hard….
I think we all feel that way, it is just so hard to not let us become hardened, I struggle wiht that every day!
Bill, many of your faith-based blogs strike a cord with me. This blog hit all the strings. Recently, I have become less tolerant of the “blindness” of others and would like to punch that blind eye; figuratively speaking. Your comments helped me put things back into perspective. Thanks.
Thanks, but I am struggling too! I love my country and I believe a part of the far, far left
really has the goal of deconstructing what our country has always been. I think America has been a force for good through out much of our history, we certainly have done things we shoulbn’t have, but I don’t think that diminishes our worth in the world. I look aroiund at every other country that has adopted socialism, and I see few places it works. Some of the small Scandinavian countries with a small population and higher earners seem to have come the closest, but it certianly isn’t working very well in Europe and in South America. i have dear freinds of all ethnicities, so it is not a desire to keep America only mostly, i just want people to come to America that believe in our dreams of freedom and are willing to adopt this culture and be proud to be an American.
I try to stay on my knees and hear God’s vocie and be obedient, I pray I can.
Our thoughts and prayers are sharing our hopes, fears, needs and thanks with God. But then God speaks to us and says, “What are YOU going to do about it?” God gives us the spirit and sometimes the blueprint but leaves it to us to carry it out. I think most of us have a tendency to pass the buck and forget that God’s work is done — or avoided — by us here on Earth.
I agree, I just don’t want ot get ahead of God!
Let’s look at the big picture. Christians have it great in this country. Christians are the majority. It is the one religion with the least persecution. Try claiming to be a Muslim, or a Jew, or even an atheist, and in many places you will be looked down upon, if not outright discriminated against.
With most public offices, one has to identify as Christian to stand a chance of winning the election.
Christianity is also big business. There are whole industries of publishing, broadcasting, and entertainment that cater to Christians specifically and they make a lot of money.
There are huge numbers of churches in the country, all enjoying tremendous freedoms.
I believe some news organizations try to stir up anger and resentment among Christians, to keep them absorbed as viewers/readers/listeners, and ultimately to make more money from them. It’s like the phony War on Christmas theme that circulated a few years back, all the while Christmas was celebrated bigger than ever.
Sure there are people who might insult Christians or Christianity, but that is true with every thing….every religion, every political point of view, every type of sports team affiliation, every type of grouping that you can imagine. But there is no comparison between that and the true persecution of Christians in the Bible, or throughout other parts of history, or even today in other countries.
Christians in this country freely live their lives as they choose to do so. Believers are supposed to have a spirit of victory, not victimhood.
It is certainly true that true that physical persecution has been far worse in history and is presently so around the world. In some countriies Christians are regularly put to death for espoing their beliefs. The daner of being to “content” in the smaller persecutions here is the chance that things will be stepped up. The mainstream media, Hollywood and many on the far left are out right hostile to people of faith. Every year I hear of more orginizations that want to end religous expression in America. Those people are hostile to people of faith, by contrast I don’t like their actions but I’m not hostile to them. I believe in America we all have the right to believe and practice what we want as long as it brings no harm to others.
For many years in America, (I’m 72 and remember well), you could be an atheist or a Christian and no one had much to say, as long as you stayed on your side of the fence and didn’t bother the other side. Today I think their is a ot more friction and ugliness.
The body politic in our country is at a fever pitch now, you either voted for and approve of what Trump is doing, or you despise him with blood dripping from your teeth! There truly is a thing called Trump hysteria, and it saddens me to see that we just can’t get along anymore. I don’t want to be mad at anyone!
Wade, I’ve allowed your posting your thoughts on my site and have not deleted them which I have both the ability and right to do, but I must wonder, if you are so opposed to any point I make, wh
are you reading what I write in the first place????
Good post. The dysfunction we have is often because people want us to be so polarized to prevent us from coming together. No one “side” has purity or the lack thereof. Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., said it best when he said that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. (Actually met him when I was in high school. I think he would not approve of some things being done today but that’s another story.) We need to get back to our strengths and work together. One old legislator lamenting on how nasty things are now summed it up by saying that in the old days we all though education was a good thing but differed on whether to pay for it with the sales tax or income tax. Many of these young and not to young people lose sight of that today.
thank you