I saw a person yesterday at Sams Club who has slimed me pretty hard in local church circles. They know what they have said and done and as a result they had disconnected with me entirely on all social media and had basically been in hiding. Seeing them first I immediately went up to them, smiled, said hello and offered to shake hands. They were instantly and noticeably uncomfortable, like they had been exposed.
I was reminded that in Heaven there are no block lists. There is no manipulation of or about others in the Kingdom of God...and the only reason we have that stuff here and now is because we have severe shortages of understanding and revelation about God's LOVE and God's GRACE. Consider this... Jesus carefully crafts a group of young males together in their respective mother's wombs. He enjoys this greatly knowing that they will grow up together and share many wonderful life experiences. They will be a joy to their parents and others in addition to going on to work within the local government and being trusted with important matters by society's leaders. He watches as they pass from youth to being strong and vibrant adults. He loves each of them so honestly and deeply that no malice enters His heart at all when one of them punches Him in the face repeatedly or when another one pulls His beard out by the handful. As another one whips him 39 times crippling his body in unspeakable pain, Jesus' heart is still wanting the best for His creation that He still sees as beautiful. When His once tiny cell sized creations now violently throw Him to the ground stretching his arms and legs out and nailing them to crossbeams, the pain in His body nearly causes unconsciousness but the idea of retaliation or revenge never even begins to stir because His love is far too great. They were murdering Him but in His mind He remembered resting on Solomon generations earlier and revealing to him that there is a love that is stronger than death... and that is exactly what He had for these now grown men who to the average onlooker appeared to hate Jesus. In perhaps the most powerful statement ever spoken in all of human history, Jesus is moved with so much Grace and Love that He once again reveals Papa's heart and says "Dad, I'm not upset with them, you don't be either, they don't even understand what they are doing right now, give them all a pass because I love them". What I have just described is merely one example out of tens of billions in just how strong and pure the Love of God truly is. It is legalistically true that He loves everyone... but it becomes a life changing internal miracle when you see that he also loves each person individually as well. "You must be born again" is not a cold rebuke to straighten up your life. Instead it is a warm and heartfelt invitation to come and play like a child in the beautiful fields of Grace that God and God alone has waiting. Forgiving someone else is simply you laying down the heavy desire to get even that if you were honest, you never wanted to do in the first place. See, that is the deception in it all. You surrender perceived access to those beautiful fields of Grace in exchange for the ugly scorched earth that bitterness and retaliation brings you to over and over again. He loves you, my friend...more honestly and deeply than your human mind will ever be able to truly comprehend. Once that starts to fill you up, the bitterness and other stuff will naturally wash out of you just as it did with Jesus on the cross. As it does, just let it go and pray as Jesus did... Heavenly Father, I'm not really upset with them after all, you don't be either, they didn't even understand what they did to me, give them all a pass because you love them just like you love me" More soon, Mark
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June 2022
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