Change of Perspective-The "Good" Samaritan

So often in life, our perspectives are skewed or completely distorted. We live in our perspectives and think they are right until God brings us to the point of seeing that we are wrong. The truth will always win out over the lies that we and the world around us wants to carve onto the walls of our souls. So, I am reading about the story of the Good Samaritan for unknown number of times and God shows another angle, another perspective that is so profound. So let me retell the story that Jesus told. A Jewish man was on his way to Jericho when he was overcome by robbers, robbed, striped of his clothing, beaten and left for dead by the side of the road. A priest comes down traveling on this same road, sees the beaten, naked man and hurries on. What might he have been thinking? I have too much to do once I get to Jericho to stop and help this man. Someone else will come along and take care of him. Or maybe he is thinking, I have to be at that meeting at noon and I cannot be late. Someone else will have to take care of this man. Well, someone else does come by. He is a Levite and when he sees the man, perhaps his thoughts take a different path. Maybe he starts to get anxious and starts searching around the area to see if the robbers are still nearby. He thinks, I don't know where the robbers are but this could have just happened and I don't want to end up in this same condition. His fear motivates him to start walking faster and he tries to keep to the other side of the road near the bushes where he hopefully won't be seen. Alas, another someone comes by. This time it is a Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews did not like each other, in fact, call it more like they hated each other, something like the Democrats hating the Republicans and vice versa. There was so much bad blood between them that the thought of a Samaritan stopping to help a Jewish man was unthinkable but in this story he does the unthinkable. Now, interestingly enough Jesus never specifically called him the Good Samaritan. That is a label we have put on this man. I think the label is fair enough but this new perspective might make you think otherwise. So, I have felt the perspective of the priest being too busy or I have some place to be and don't have time to stop and help someone in need. I have also been the Levite who was too fearful to step in and doing anything. I had never put myself in the position of the naked, beaten Jewish man on the side of the road. Imagine you are that man. You have had everything taken from you, you have been left naked in humiliation and you have been hurt not only physically but emotionally, mentally, within the deepest parts of your heart and soul. And then, Jesus comes by the road and sees you. He comes across the road to you. He takes you in his arms and carries you to an inn. He cleanses and bandages your wounds. He pays the innkeeper and tells him he will be back to take care of anything else. Jesus has gone above and beyond what this man needed. He did that for us when he came down from heaven, lived among us, died the brutal death on the cross and rose from the dead and came out of hell as a conqueror. When we die on the cross with him in our repentance and faith in him, than we too rise from the dead and become a new creation. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit given to inhabit us, live with us in the very own temple of our body. But we can still be swayed by the sinful nature that is in us. We can still choose to let our busyness or our own selfish motives drive our behaviors and lead us to not stopping to help someone in need. Or we can choose to cower in our fear and let it hold us back from doing what we know is the right thing to do, to help the person in need. Or we can allow the Holy Spirit to direct us, to give us the other-centered outlook and attitude, to give us the trust and courage to conquer our fears and do what Jesus would do. He wouldn't care who it was or what he may or may not have done. He would take care of the man. He would take care of you. Jesus concluded his story with the command, "go and do likewise". We have him within us to help us to be the "Good" Samaritan or, in other words and perspective, to be like Jesus.

Day 17: Drawing Closer to God (Battle of the Mind)

The book of Romans is one of my favorite books of the bible. It has a wealth of information about who we are as believers and where we came from. I see this a lot in my counseling of clients, the idea of our mind doing battle. Our sinful nature is a power within us that we have to battle to over come. It is the wrong in us that does everything it can to get the right in us to follow along and do the wrong. Because we as human beings have the power to choose, when presented with the wrong path as the snake did to Eve in the Garden of Eden, we, with the sinful nature within us have no means on our own to over come the sinful nature so we will choose the wrong path as Eve did. But our loving God, gave us a warrior who does the battle for us. I think of God looking down on his only son on the cross dying not because he was a criminal and did anything wrong like the other two beside him on their crosses but because he was doing the ultimate battle right than and there with sin. He died on that cross taking all our sins with us and went to Hell. He won the battle the day he rose from the dead and walked out of Hell. As a believer in Jesus, we are connected to him like a tea bag that needs water to produce any tea.  When we accept Jesus into our hearts his living water is poured into us. We now have the means to do battle with sin in our own minds. We just have to pick up the sword to do the battle each day. With Jesus, we are like a cup or glass of tea and the power of the Holy Spirit can heat up the tea to bring us comfort and peace and it can ice up our tea to give us inspiration and conviction. The sinful nature is still there within us but we have the connection to Jesus and the Holy Spirit within us to do the battle and help us choose the way of the righteous.
Romans 7:23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

Day 15: Drawing Closer to God (Good vs Pefect)

It is a question that comes up sometimes in counseling of my clients. Why would God make us with weaknesses? I woke early this morning and tossed and turned in bed hoping to get back to sleep but ended up thinking about this question. My early morning thinking is by far the clearest and often God gives me such clarity on things in those early morning hours when I don't yet want to crawl out of bed. I rejoice in the Lord for this time of clarity on perfection and weakness. I, myself, have always just thought of humans as imperfect and we are but only because we have our sinful nature that has been passed down to each of us from Adam and Eve. But, this took me back to when God created Adam and Eve and the whole of creation. His comment about what he created wasn't it is perfect; he said "it is good". My answer to the question really remains the same as what I have been instructing my clients. God created a "good" creation that was designed to be in relationship with him. To have this relationship, we have connect to him through our spirit's because God is a spiritual being. Adam and Eve had that connection from the start. They had all of their needs met and any weaknesses they had were overcome solely because they were dependent on God. But they wanted their independence and our sinful nature had begun. Our sin keeps us from connecting spirit to spirit with our holy God. However, God knew even as he was creating Adam and Eve of what was to come and already had a plan in place to send his son to us, that we may regain the connection to his spirit and be back in real relationship with him. Jesus was the perfect man. This is possible because like Adam and Eve before the fall into sin, he was connected and relying on his Father. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, therefore he had the connection from the womb and on into our fallen world. It is through Jesus that we can regain the connection and allow the Holy Spirit to overcome our weaknesses, enhance our strengths and fulfill all our needs.

Day 7: Drawing Closer to God (Clothed in White)

I was reading this scripture this morning and was able to close my eyes and imagine myself before Jesus. He is handing me a pure white robe. I put it on and embroidered on the front is "Child of God". He is my Father and I am his daughter. How potent and powerful is this when you really feel this in your heart. We often forget that God is our Father and as a father, he provides for us, keeps us safe and loves us unconditionally. I am forever thankful for God's heart being SO big that he would send his son to die for us and take away our sins. The filthiness of our sinful nature is clothed in white and we are adopted into the family. Thank you Jesus for handing me the robe.
Galatians 3:27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 310

I was intrigued by this scripture below about a seed dying to actually grow so in my typical fashion I went to Google and started searching. Here is a quick 2 minute article about the science behind seeds and how death is the beginning. And here is my 2 cents worth of insight: Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He took on that kind of torturous death for us so that we may have life but to have that life we have to nail our sins to that cross. The sinful nature within us must die for us to grow in the glory that God designed and hopes for us. Again and again I will say, putting our sins on that cross isn’t a one-time deal but a daily for the rest of our lives process. Start today with taking your sins to the cross so your seed can grow and be fruitful.

http://www.examiner.com/article/seeds-for-success-pt-2-a-seed-must-die-before-it-grows

 

John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 197

My bible study is working on the book of Hebrews. We met last evening to discuss chapters 9 and 10. In one of the study books we are going by called Be Confident by Warren W Wiersbe, he talks about sin being man’s greatest problem. He goes on to say, “by nature, man is a sinner, and by choice, he proves that his nature is sinful.” He finalizes all this with a quote from sources unknown, “We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.” This one little line gets to the heart of the reason why many have a difficult path to real spiritual relationship with God. In my study on temperaments, there are temperaments that because of their needs or lack of needs do not think they need God or think they are too unworthy and unlovable. Shinning the light on sin is thwarted by our own weaknesses within our temperament but Jesus can be that light. Jesus can show each of us that we are sinners no matter how many good things we do or no matter if we have never committed a “big” sin. Sin is sin and we are all by nature sinners but we will try to cover it up, hide it away, disregard it. Our weaknesses are being played on by Satan. He will play upon those weaknesses to keep us from the light of Jesus and a real spirit-to-spirit relationship with God. Accepting ourselves as sinners is the great hurdle we have to jump over on our path to God. This hurdle cannot be done alone. Each of us play a part, plant a seed, say a word that can encourage and motivate another to seek God and get over that sin hurdle. Share your story, live your life as an example of Christ’s love, be all you can be for the Lord.

Hebrews 10:12-14 But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.