TWO JOLLY GREEN GIANTS (2nd in series)

 

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We can find glory in the fact that there  are thousands more stories like those I have told this morning…and there will be thousands more in the years to come…

Tiny but major moments of miracle dust filling the air and giving us hope,  for life is about momentum …about how we can affect the world in such positive ways when we cease to act like petulant children and give our better selves a chance to shine.

We cannot change the whole world…but we can change our little piece of it.

It takes courage to love and forgive in a world that puts up so many barriers…in a world that still is willing to enslave politically and economically.   

 

It takes courage to speak up with love and forgiveness when the status quo says we should hate another man or woman…and we are given the reasons we cannot do otherwise… if we are to be accepted ourselves.

Anger is everywhere and far too often, but if we are to truly claim Christ as our Savior, we must recognize it for what it is and do all we can to rid ourselves and the world of it. 

 

Have you ever paid a visit to a home and even though the husband and wife were smiling and pleasant, you could feel an undertone of strife? 

Or visited a home where the ambience was definitely loving and cheerful, and you were keenly aware of it?

Visit some churches and you can feel an undertone

of strife. 

Visit others and you can feel an undertone of love.

Visit a church filled with pouting pettiness and you visit a church that is dying.

Visit a church where there are constant arguments - theological, political, whatever…and you can feel it and it is a church that is dying.

Visit a church where love abounds and you can feel it and that church is on the edge of a resurrection.

I’m not saying it is a piece of cake to achieve the kind of love and forgiveness I am talking about. 

If were easy, if it was second nature to us all, Jesus would not have had to give us that radical Commandment – love thy neighbor as thyself.

Radical love

This learning to love people you don’t even particularly like. 

We all like some people more than others.  Call it chemistry.  But on the love/like chart, they come out at an 11. 

And then there are others who barely make it past 5.

 Which simply means that, by the grace of God, we have to work harder at liking that person who keeps giving us so many reasons not to.

Radical Forgiveness. 

The kind of forgiveness that looks at our human nature and gives it a good slap in the face when it isn’t paying proper attention to the kind of forgiveness.

 Christ talked about in His sermon on the mount. 

Blessed forgiveness.  Forgiveness that goes the extra mile and then adds even more. 

The kind of forgiveness Paul is talking about in his letter to the Colossians.

 “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians. 3:12-14 NIV

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