Do you ever beat yourself up? I did and sometimes still do beat myself up. That is clearly not being gentle with yourself. Living a life centered on Jesus Christ and what he has already accomplished for us should give us hope and grace. Why doesn’t it do that? Part of the problem is perception of what hope and grace are all about. Part of the problem could be we don’t know what gentleness is to or for ourselves. Maybe you have difficulty with defining for yourself what peace-loving really entails. These are a mixed bag of perceptions. What meaning there might be versus what God means feeds that perception. When we go about our day the majority of us tend to use the worlds definitions so that we can fit in with the world. We engage God’s definitions on Sundays and some Wednesday nights. We teach our children to do the same. Before you know it, the importance for the Christian has switched from a godly definition and life to a worldly definition of life. So, let’s back up and take a deeper look at the problem and the solution from God’s point of view.
Once upon a time there lived some people who had a very simple lifestyle. The worked, studied, took care of each other and loved God. As they did so, the world continued to change as well. Not wanting to block out the world, they allowed the world to exist amongst them. What they did not see was the impact that the world would have on their children and ultimately themselves and their belief in God. And so the community began to listen to visitors to the community tell of life outside the community. The young would go home and ask their parents if what the visitors said was true. The elders explained to the young that the visitor spoke of a truth that was only his and not theirs. They went on to explain why they had remained steadfast to the truth that was the core of their community. The visitor began to tell the young that they had freedom to do this or that. Which should be exercised if they ever want to feel fulfilled and knowledgeable. And so the young began to exercise their free will and engaged the teaching of the visitor. There began to grow a chasm between the elders and the young. Both groups not willing to change and grow together. Eventually the young grew increasingly dissatisfied and chose to leave the safety of their community. The elders were labelled as "old, stubborn and not free." They began to incorporate the world’s views and beliefs into their own and soon were enjoying what the world called life. The elders spent their time continuing to live their life that was based on what God wanted them to do. Their arms were open for whenever one of the lost should return to their home. Each day they would pray for all who were lost and when someone came home there would be rejoicing. Quite a number of the young chose to fully engage the world’s way of living. There was little understanding what was happening as their faith and beliefs slowly slipped away. Where there was once peace, now unrest and conflict entered their world. Yet pride had entered their lives and they could not ever go home. Not in this defeated way they felt. Not ever. They grieved the loss of their young and wished for the Old World. Eventually the young began to die off and their children began to advance their beliefs and change what previously was. Those elders still alive remained steadfast in their faith and maintained their believing life as much as they could. The young that remained alive maintained their compromised lives and kept themselves separated from the old ways as much as they could. Yet, some of them remembered and lamented their plight. The children and grandchildren knew their ways only and did not heed the words of their parents. The children and grandchildren moved forward with the destruction of the belief that God was our Savior and that he was to be the center of our lives. And so they developed communities that stood for little and caused the fall of a lot. Where once there were standards based on God and his Word, there were now churches and community organizations that proclaimed that all could live how they wanted and everyone was to accept them wholly and enthusiastically. Their children were plagued with problems with drugs and alcohol. Sexual preference was given to whatever anyone wanted. The old ways were ridiculed and the elders shunned. The young began to wonder what had they just done. Unable to mount a single person to bring back the Gospel of their elders they lived out their lives in obscure discontent. Though the message of God was not adhered to, it was remembered. Remembering wasn’t enough. There had to be conviction and application along with remembering.
Their sense of wholesomeness was not to be seen. The discipline the elders has instilled in the young was traded in for whatever goes. People were in conflict and constant distress was the rule and not the exception. Not only did the children have no peace but they also didn’t know grace which produces one’s ability to be gentle with themselves or each other. Their wisdom had been taken from them by their desire to be like the world. While sadness encompassed their world, the lack of wisdom produced no peace. The love that the children had read about and heard about was only visible in the elders and was nowhere to be found.
The next generation fell into the world’s ways even more than their parents had. Everything was permissible. Nothing was prohibited. The land began to persecute those elders who remained with their churches attempting to destroy the Word. The wholesome discipline was not that of removing anything that could be described as a sin. Anything that caused anyone to feel uncomfortable, disconnected or…guilty. The wisdom in their thinking was not from God who had created all people and all things. Their wisdom was from the world. The Word spoke of the day when these things would happen. The Word had provided a way through a Savior by whom all men may be saved. The Word had prophesied the eventual destruction of the world in a purge of all that was contrary to what God stood for. Unable to go back the children and grandchildren up to and including the fourth and fifth generation did as the young had done. The love of God could not be found among their numbers. Spiritual songs were exchanged for the world’s music. Selfless living was replaced with selfish living. The impact of God was reduced to nothing. There remained only the impact of a sinful and self-centered world. The Word had prophesied this would happen. Yet, the people didn’t listen. The Word warned what the punishment would be for those who didn’t serve God. Yet, the people didn’t listen. Their hearts were hardened and their eyes blinded along with their hearing shut against anything that would cause them to be uncomfortable. They proclaimed that God was dead and that you were the god of your own life and world.
Soon no one knew what it meant to be gentle. No one knew what it meant to care for someone else. There was no more care for those who couldn’t care for themselves. Corruption was in control of governments, agencies, cities and even the denominations. The reign of truth was over. No longer submitting to God; people spent their time exploiting each other. With the world in shambles the elders proclaimed the old story of God and his love. Some listened and some did not. But all heard. Some believed and returned. But not all. There were those who developed a wholesome discipline within themselves through surrender to God and acceptance of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They learned of the gentleness that Jesus gives to all who asks. They learned how to be gentle with themselves and each other. Wisdom began to take root in the small communities of home churches. The new was really the old. Mainstream religious organizations became more and more worldly giving in to whatever sin they wanted. Yet, there was a small fire. It burned brightly in the windows of the home churches and the eyes of the believers. Able to hold their heads up and share their gentleness with the people of the world they did so with joy. They read the Scripture where Jesus talked about "my little flock" after many had abandoned him and the believers knew their community was a little flock. Their strength came from the gentleness of God, discipline of the believers to the old way and passing on that gentleness to believer and non-believer as well.
The elders have gone home to be with Jesus. Their voice as the voice that spoke to them was not silenced. The message was not sabotaged but strengthened. People sought the way of the Lord. Even as the young were passing into the presence of God as their elders had, the children and grandchildren who were believers held onto the Truth and faith in Jesus. They maintained discipline and gentleness. They maintained the wisdom of those who are peace loving.
I tell you this story as a warning that those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. There are consequences to this lifestyle. There is a heaven and there is a hell. Those without Christ will spend an eternity in hell. Those who know Jesus will spend an eternity with him in heaven. As you watch your community lower their standards time after time understand the time hastens to the Lord’s return. Will he find you ready? Will he find you a wholesome gentle deliverer of the Word? Will he find you ready? You see, the wholesome discipline can be shown by separating the word wholesome. Are you part of the "whole" or the "some"? Do you engage the world and pretend it doesn’t affect the world you live apart from the Christian teachings and community. The lesson in deception is that to be self-deceived takes only one person…you. The continued shaking of your fist with your fellowman at God will not make God go away. It will make Him come back.
P lease do not to be take this lightly. This "wholesome discipline" is both easy and difficult. It is both pervasive and consuming. You are important to God. Your fellow mankind is important to God. God wants to put peace in your soul and the souls of others. The question that should be dancing around in your head right now is "Who am I in the story." Am I the elder? Am I the young? Am I the children or grandchildren? We all fit someplace in the story. More importantly, we can change and bring about change. What would happen if others saw you being gentle with yourself and others? Would it make a difference in your world if they saw the peace you have in your life? There are only two extremes. You contribute "good" or you contribute "bad." The contributions you give to the world make all the difference to God and the people with whom you have your community.
People everywhere mistake complacency for peace. Avoidance is not peace either. Remember that for evil to triumph godly men and women need to do nothing. Complacency begins when we decide we make no difference in the world. Our nation is filled with complacent teachers, politicians, service providers, police and fire personnel as well as every other vocation including pastors. Complacency breeds complacency. These same complacent individuals breed complacency in our children, the neighborhood children and the community children. Complacency is a sin. We need to see our world and our individual lives from the eyes of God. When we see ourselves from the eyes of God we should be motivated to be more like Jesus.
Try as I might, I’ve been unable to convey the bridge that must be crossed. This bridge leads to abandonment to God and from the world. Leaving behind the world and its ways while still living here. It seems that rationalization and justification are the chief enemies of God having his way in our lives. This is an individual change or movement. The reason Paul told us it’s better to remain single. Not that marriage is bad; but rather, marriage to God is best. When we take our wedding vows we pledge ourselves to another and them to us. Yet, we carry the unsurrendered issues with us. Again Paul says that we’re to be equally yoked. Why? Because if one is surrendered and the other not surrendered we are immediately placed in a compromised position. The advice is to all and not just in marriage. Do you or I have friends and family who are not surrendered to God? Yes, of course and we do nothing about the predicament. Worse yet, we join in their rebellion and call it witnessing to them. God calls it sinning. Whenever sin intersects our life, God has been denied. It’s very simple. You and I choose to rebel against God and then wonder why we have no peace! The more we surrender to God, the greater is our peace regardless of what is going on externally in life. I’ve listened to Satan in my life. Not a wise decision and I am certainly not boasting. The resultant choice separates us from God as well as those we love.
When we or someone we know enter that area where we are affected by shame, we pull away and distance ourselves from others and God. Much like a wolf pack or lion’s pride; the enemy knows half of the battle is already won when we are separated from the herd (other believers). From there the plunge into the ways of the world is just one step away from God. However, God has been referred to as the "hound of heaven" in the Bible and he says (in the Bible) that he will "never leave nor forsake us". That is great news! Someone loves us so much and wants us to have peace so much that he pursues us to the ends of the earth (world). Just as it takes only one step away from God for separation; it only takes on step back to be with Him again. Imagine if you will, that you are typing on your computer and spell a word wrongly. We don’t give up and destroy the whole document. No, we backspace, (which removes the wrong letter) and we replace it with the correct letter. The word is correct and we move forward. When we finish and look over the document, we are unable to see where the mistake was. Neither does God see the mistake. Why is that? It’s because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. As we confess our sins; God erases them. They are no more. In the end God will not remember our sins. Why? Because the Bible says that "he remembers our sin (confessed and repented) no more."
For those who keep their list of sins close to them you mock the work of Christ who died for us. God has put our sins far away from us. How far away? The Bible tells us he throws them away from himself as "far as it is from east to west." Not north to south or south to north. But east to west. Why? Because if you start travelling east you NEVER come to west. If you don’t feel close to God it’s because you moved away. Feeling close to God again is just one step. Take the step and be close to God again.
We acknowledge that we are sinners and that our sin distances us from God. Before we become believers the same sin maintains the separation from God. Those who think they know God and those who state they know God but he doesn’t know them are self-deceived. When believer and non-believer alike are asked to look at themselves; there invariably with most people is a defensive posture and attack mode. The Christian is warned that they will be persecuted by the world. It wasn’t that it might happen but that it will happen. We understand that those from outside of the Christian faith would feel defensive as well as those outside our nation. If we were in their shoes we would be doing the same thing. That’s why missionaries have difficult times reaching to those unbelieving groups of people.
This, however, is the most difficult part to hear. As David laments in the 55th Psalm, "it was you, my sweet companion". Those close to us are the ones able to cut the deepest. There is also a sense of needing to "fix" or make right our attackers. We are told to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. Wisdom is imperative in our lives. Wisdom from above is real wisdom. Read the Bible and see what it says for yourself. With wisdom creating a discipline in our life with God, we need to be gentle with ourselves. God is.
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