Dear One -
I hope all is well with you and yours.
On this Memorial Day Weekend, I am still jet-lagging, and it’s the middle of the night. I seem to be still processing my time in Russia, and I would like to get some things off my chest, if you don’t mind.
Being in Russia was hard in many ways. And I really do believe we are coming up on a very difficult time because Russia is re-arming due in part, I believe, to the fact that its leaders fear China -- and they know they need to protect themselves. But we also have some potentially difficult problems . . . and look how we have made ourselves vulnerable in several important ways . . . we manufacture no steel to speak of . . . we are in debt to China . . . and our economy is a mess because we have given our jobs away out of greed in the name of the world economy . . . and we are persecuting undocumented immigrants when it was we ourselves who not only allowed them to be here, but took advantage of them by paying them as little as we could.
Meanwhile more greedy people have kept the rich richer and kept paying people ridiculous amounts of money when if they were just paid reasonable salaries all sorts of people without work could still have jobs. Just a soap box stance . . . my own opinions, and obviously up for debate.
We have become a nation of people who think God does not notice or care about greed and injustice. Concerning slavery, Thomas Jefferson wrote that he "trembled to think that God is just" and that God would bring about retribution for the sins of slavery -- and besides all the slaves that suffered, the Civil War decimated our country. And racism still negatively and unjustly affects so many people.
There are so many ways that we as a nation -- and most of the world that once was filled with predominantly Christian people has turned away from God in so many ways. I believe that the Lord is calling us to repent and come back to live obedient and faithful lives in God’s, peace, graciousness and steadfast love. It will be a lot of work but as the Body of Christ we can do it - and we can love and serve others no matter what they believe, no matter what their ethnic background is, no matter how they have lived previously. We can agree to disagree and still live in peace and fellowship by forgiving one another, blessing those who persecute us and turning out weapons into instruments to help feed, clothe and nurture people rather than bring forth death, disease, destruction and chaos. We can do it together with God’s help.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is calling us to live lives of repentance and institute obedience and justice, mercy and loving kindness again. Jesus read the passage we know as Isaiah 61 in His home town of Nazareth at the gathering place we call the synagogue on the Sabbath that passage was scheduled to be read in the way Jewish scripture was separated into sections so that the whole Torah would be lifted up over the year. It was not a coincidence that Jesus went there that day to proclaim that He was -- and is -- the anointed one chosen and sent to proclaim the acceptable day of the Lord -- the Jubilee when all who are slaves are free everyone lives in the fullness of love with all each person needs.
Jesus announced that the blind would see, the hungry would be fed, the naked would be clothed, the oppressed would be delivered and the imprisoned ones would go free. When He was born the peace of heaven came to earth and the Kingdom of Heaven was initiated on earth to be fulfilled when He comes again. But meanwhile WE are the Body of Christ and it is up to us to be obedient to God and to do what Jesus announced that He was anointed to do with God’s help by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in Christ.
It is up to us to open the eyes of those who are blind to the Good News of God's love in Christ . . . it is up to us to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is among us and is in our hearts. It is up to us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to proclaim to the oppressed that they are delivered and to the imprisoned that they are free. We are to live out the Jubilee -- to full participate in the celebration of the fullness of God's love, righteousness, mercy, faithfulness, and loving kindness.
And yet instead we turn away from doing the will of God. We go our own way like lost sheep and do as we like. The Good Shepherd is seeking us, though. God in Christ is calling us by our names because we are His. We are His flock, the sheep of His pasture. And when we allow Him to guard us, to guide us, and to take care of us we are protected from all that would come against us to harm us to scatter us, to kill us. We have wandered afar and been disobedient. It is time to return to the fold of our Father in Heaven.
The Spirit of the Lord is calling all of those who believe in God in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, to unite in God's love and to cast off the petty differences that keep us separated from one another. God is calling us to be in full communion with one another and with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is calling us to BE the Body of Christ to the whole world-- to live lives of loving sacrifice and giving. To serve one another in love just as Jesus Christ served His beloved followers in love.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. One of the biggest lies told by people in the world today is that all religions lead to God and that anything anyone believes is all right . . .and that just because society condones certain kinds of behavior those kinds of behaviors are all right. God is love. But God is also complete righteousness. And God is also the fullness of mercy. And it is only God who is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Nothing in or of the earth is worthy of worship. Only God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is worthy of worship.
We are coming into a time when all the wars of the last century and every other century in human history will seem like nothing compared to how it will be in the coming years. During this time to come the foundations of the faith of many people will be shaken and it will be a time of great tribulation. But those who know and trust the Lord now, those who have been called according to His purposes will be given tasks to help people through the time coming.
And despite to strife and deprivation, trials and tribulation, these people will be under girded by God's love and God's grace will see them through. God will help them help others and bring many people to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. These people will also be beacons of light when the world turns dark with the terrible time that is to come.
In what the peoples of the former Soviet Union call “The Great Patriotic War”, and that we call “World War II”, over twenty-seven million people lost their lives in the territory of the Soviet Union alone. When you read the statistics of the number of people killed in the Holocaust - six million Jewish people and millions of professing Christians, gypsies, handicapped and mentally ill people, it is so important to remember and to keep saying and acting out, “NEVER AGAIN!!”
Yet we still have weapons of mass destruction ready to be used. There are still armed conflicts in the world in too many places where children, women and men - non-combatants and military members alike are being killed, forced to be refugees and in other ways tortured, persecuted and made to live in misery. The hatred and violence, perceived need for revenge and the pursuit of power perpetuates conditions and activities we need to be working much harder to stop. Hatred begets hatred and there can never be true peace that is under girded by violence and the threat of violence.
There are ways to keep trying to understand one another. All human beings have much more in common than we have differences. We can find more ways to honor, respect and help one another. Even those who don’t have jobs or who are homeless can look around and find ways to help people. We can change our views of all that we consider valuable that is just materialism, and take care of one another out of love. We all belong to the human family given this beautiful earth on which to live. We can look around and do things to help our family members and our neighbors. Love begets love.
Love is the only thing that counts and the only thing that lasts. Nothing that seems material or “real” is as powerful as actions based on helping others in love. I believe we are at a critical time in the history of the world and that those of us who know the love of God in Christ have deep responsibilities to live out that love - not like we think we belong to some club that people have to jump through hoops to be connected with love.
Not like we think we are the only ones who know the Creator and have some kind of lock on all that is good and makes life easier. Not like that at all. We are called to love and serve everyone we come into contact with in this the life we have been given as a gift.
The peace we have to share as a gift of God starts in our hearts and just as “the rain falls on the just and the unjust” giving everyone the ability to feed themselves and their families, we are required to reach out to everyone and help people out of love in every way we are able to do that with God’s help. As it states in Micah 6:8 (paraphrased): ”What does the Lord require you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.”
May the peace of God that passes all understanding be yours in Christ Jesus.
In His Love - Kathy
Walk Humbly With God
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
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