Tag Archives: strangers

The “Assumption”

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Let me speak from my own experience.  How can I be sure this applies to others.  Yet I strongly suspect it does.

People will assess another’s value by the things they saw him do and say in the past.  Put any distance between them, and people will assume the negative long before they consider the possibility of the positive.  The distant stranger, whom they knew before, will always be considered somewhat less than human.  In my estimation this is a given in regard to Human Nature.  In the Flesh, “Distance provokes animosity, not love”.  In the Spirit of God the opposite is true.  But how many walk in the Spirit 24/7?  And aren’t we the sum of our doings?

I speak for myself, I know who I am.  I know what I did.  But I also know what I have become.  And I would be wrong to expect others to see me as I currently am.  I have no right to demand that you love me.  I have no right to demand your forgiveness.  And I have no right to demand your understanding.  If I don’t have any of those things from you, I must say, “That is the way things are.  That is the best you can currently deliver.  And by His Mercy, I am strong enough to carry you”.

It’s alright if you cannot receive me like I am.  Absolutely no charge will be held against anyone, come Judgment Day, because of me.  Why should I blame anyone, when He has promised me eternal life and forgiveness for all my sins?

I only ask that everyone consider this from their own perspective.  Isn’t the same thing true in your own life?   For the sake of God’s mercy in Jesus, leave room for His work in others.  Prejudgment is brother to murder.  Try not to listen to the slander of your heart.  Things are rarely as they appear.

If we cannot be unified because of what we were, at least let us be unified in what we have become.  And if that is still too much to bear, let us be unified in God’s promise to make us complete.  If He has grasped you for His promised Joy, He will complete his promise.

In the coming age, there will be no separation between us.  There will be no remembrance of wrongs done.  We will not have to assume anything about anyone.  Love will be our master.  And as much as it is possible, isn’t it right that we should strive, with all we have, to live that Day now?

Know this, I love you with all I have to give.  For the good of all,  I pray this is enough.  And this is because He has loved me.

By His Grace.

The Guard Dog

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The dog waits on his chain, through the night, through the day.  Warnings come, bringing comfort to those who own the chain.

He is not a house dog.  He is more useful living outside the camp; outside the place of man.

His strength, to his owners, is not in his bite.  It is found in the strength of his nose and ears.  The eyes that see into the darkness find expression in his noise.  His bark is a warning.  His bark is help.  The wise owners learn to discern between the sounds of their dog’s barks.

One bark is for those things that threaten, because those things are not of “normal”.  But the other bark is intense, because of the things that are a direct threat; the approach of a stranger.

Left outside the camp, I am chained to watch.  Wrong approaches.  Wrong exists.  Wrong lives in the camp as well as outside.  But he is set to defend his charge.  He is not set to judge those he protects, but to warn of things “unnatural”.

“There is Sin!  There is Danger approaching!  The Living God has determined to crush all His unholy enemies!  He has spoken the Eternal Royalty of His Holy and Righteous Son!  All who stand without Jesus, stand alone before the Holy Judgment and Righteousness of the Living God.  Without Him is NO LIFE.  Only in His Holy Son’s Sacrifice is safety found.”

Thus the warning of the stranger is sounded.  Thus the restrained dog barks.  Let the wise understand and respond.  Let the dead hear and live.  Let the blind see.  Let the wise in the camp rise up and prepare themselves to receive the Glory of God.  For surely as death, The Holy Lord Jesus approaches.