Praise
the Lord for this new day, a gift from the Lord indeed. It is
brilliant and bright. As Alice and I were driving on the Interstate this
afternoon we saw a herd of deer grazing on the hillside. The
deer looked mirthful, unhurried, and unafraid, full of great expectation
and anticipation of the unfolding brand new, unaduletrated, Spring.
Thank you Jesus. Today is infused with His grace, surrounded with
His promises and paved with His power, wonder, and awe. The Ski resort near our
town, which reminds me of the Alpine resorts in Europe, is still
open, gladdening the hearts of snow lovers. Avid snowmobile
riders are criss-crossing the country and hillsides, fast and furious.
Weather prognosticators are predicting that it will be warming across
the country, with a heat wave that might blow eastward.
One
of our friends who lives in Oklahoma said that there is heat wave in the
Western states. The temperature is running in the nineties. It is
like summer. It almost like the weather in Orissa, India. I
talked to some family members there today who told me that it is almost summer.
Temperatures are running in the high nineties. The mango
groves are in luxuriant bloom, promising an unprecedented harvest this
year.
The
festival organizers of our historic town of Marathon are busy
getting ready for the Historic Maple Festival which will be held on the 1st and
2nd of April. Thousands of people of all ages and all backgrounds will
converge upon the town. Please mark your calendars. Come on down.
It will be an exotic and sweet experience.
In the movie “Fiddler on the Roof”, Tevye and his neighbors have been informed that the Tsar has evicted all Jews from their village and confiscated their land. There is a great upheaval and anger in the community, as you can imagine. If someone gave this kind of news to you and all the people in your area, how would you feel, and what would you do? They talk of an uprising and revolt. One of the villagers says to Tevye, “We should defend ourselves. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!” “Very good,” mutters Tevye. “That way the whole world will be blind and toothless.”
Jesus deeply cares about what we are going through. He understands the hurt and his heart goes out to us. He wants us to know that, in the end, He is our Judge and Vindicator. He will take on our case. He takes even the evil that happens to us and redeems it in the end. It does not ultimately matter because we have a Lord who rights the wrongs of the world and turns evil into good. There is ultimate justice. On that Day he will put all things to rights.
The only way we can follow and obey Jesus is if we understand that in following Jesus we don’t have anything to lose. We are not just living for this world, and it is not in this world where scores are ultimately settled. It does not matter what people do to us here and now, because there is a Divine Judge. What people do does not alter our eternity in the least.
As Christians we should be people of peace, who seek to bring healing rather than getting even. We offer forgiveness, even when it is undeserved. We seek reconciliation and restoration of relationships. We seek to build up rather than tear down. We pull others toward us rather than push away. We want to reconcile our relationships, even when the other party does not.
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:17-18). We are drafted by Jesus to be people of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. It is the heart and nature of Jesus. Jesus does not just bless those who are good, but he does good even to those who are not. "For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." Matt 5:45 We are to model the character of Jesus our Lord. In his book, "Mere Christianity", C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”
There was an amazing story recently that took place during riots in Egypt. As a backdrop remember that on New Year’s Day , there was a suicide bombing of a Christian church in the Alexandria, Egypt, which killed 23 Christians, and wounded 97 others. Another incident took place days later in which three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in the southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, killing at least seven people as they left a midnight service. But, in spite of that, something dramatic took place during the Egyptian riots against the government. Government soldiers and police where everywhere, and many had been killed or beaten, but the time for prayer for Muslims came, and as these Muslims knelt for prayer, with their face to the ground, they were vulnerable and susceptible to attack by government soldiers. Dramatically, Christians began to surround the praying Muslims. They held hands and faced outward in a large circle to protect these men, even though they may have been their enemies and may have inflicted a great deal of harm on them or their fellow Christians. The reporter covering the story posted a picture of the Christians holding hands in a circle on Twitter and stated, “Bear in mind that this picture was taken a month after the Alexandria bombing where many Christians died in vain.”
Perhaps there were those among the men praying who cheered the bombing of the church. Perhaps there were even collaborators, but the Christians there did not take justice into their own hands; they left justice to God. They were following the Scripture which says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:19-21
The Egyptian Christians did not take revenge, but left room for God to work, and by so doing may have done more to stop the cycle of violence than all the legislation and intervention of global powers. They did what Jesus had shown them by example. They were followers of the Lamb.
In Jesus .
Brown
https://youtu.be/ngSsaSimi8A
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