Category: Relationships

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Relationships

How Far Does Your Compassion Go?

How Long Has It Been Since You…
     Took the time to go see someone who lives alone?
     Wrote a letter to someone who crossed your mind?
     Read to someone who was unable to read for themselves?
     Encouraged someone who was having a hard time in life?

Every one of us can do something compassionate to encourage someone else.
But how far will our compassion go?

One of my favorite stories is the one where four friends pick up their paralyzed friend to get him to the One they heard is a healer. They’ve heard of this miracle worker and probably even knew someone else He has healed. So they go to their friend, tell him the plan, and start making their way to the house where the miracle man is supposed to be. They weren’t going to let anything stop them, because they knew that this Healer could change their friend’s life.

But when they arrived they couldn’t get in the door.
So they ripped through the roof.

What?
Seriously?
They tore up another person’s home to get their friend to this healer?
They must have truly believed this was going to work to be willing to go to that extreme.

What would have happened if I was holding one corner of the mat? Or if you were?
Would we have told our friend that we’d try to bring him to Jesus another day?
When our other friend said – “Hey, let’s go get some rope and some tools and we’ll rip through the roof and lower him down to the Healer!”, Would you have said – “No way, we can’t destroy this guy’s house. We’ll have to fix it or pay to have it repaired. Let’s just come back another day.”?

Or would you have been the first one to grab an axe to start busting a hole in the roof?

I think it all depends on how much we believe that this Healer, Jesus, can change lives.
If we truly believe Jesus can change the life of our friend, then we are much more likely to go to any cost to get them to Jesus. Even if it means destroying someone’s physical property to get our friend the healing that he needs.

But it might be that we examine our own lives and realize that we don’t seem changed that much, so is it really that important to get others to Jesus? We can do it later, and even if we don’t… then what does it really matter? If we have not been radically changed by the Healer… if we have not become new creatures because of what Jesus has done in our lives… then we will not be very passionate about getting others to Jesus.

We are passionate about music, we are passionate about the vehicles we drive, we are passionate about sports, we are passionate about politics, we are passionate about making money. When are we going to get passionate about the only treasure that we can take with us when we die… other people?

When will we become compassionate about those for whom God is passionate and wants to heal?
When will we believe that God really can (and does) change lives?

What do you think… How can someone get and keep the type of compassion the four friends had?

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Relationships

Justice Is What You Deserve…Compassion What You Need

Not only is justice deserved, it is often called for.
But where would any of us be without mercy?

front steps of a courthouseHere is a good illustration of both justice and mercy:

One bitterly cold night in January in the 1930s, the Mayor of a large city turned up at a night court that served the poorest area of the city. The Mayor would occasionally come to the court, dismiss the judge for the evening, and take over the bench himself to hear the cases. On this night he did so again, taking off his coat and hat, taking his seat behind the bench, and beginning to hear the various court cases. Within a few minutes, an elderly woman in tattered clothing was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told the Mayor that her son-in-law had deserted her daughter, her daughter had then become sick, and her two grandchildren were now starving. But the store owner, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a bad neighborhood, your Honor,” the man told the Mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”

The Mayor sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions…ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the Mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his hat saying: “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

The following day the newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy others –petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and city policeman– each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

The mayor, who was required to uphold justice, also showed amazing love and compassion.

This story was presented to me as true, but even if it is not, it is a great parable of what God has done for each and every person on this earth. God, the just Judge, must uphold His own law. But in His mercy and compassion, instead of condemning all of us who cannot pay the fine, He went ahead and paid the costly price to satisfy His own justice.

I am now that bewildered one who stands before the Judge knowing that I am guilty of breaking the laws He has made, but having the fine paid for me. I am standing before Him knowing it is right for me to receive punishment due to my selfish choices that led me to break His laws, but instead I receive mercy.

Justice is what I deserve, but what I received was compassion through the just Judge paying a fine He did not owe to allow me to experience ultimate freedom… freedom to live for Him.

Will I ?

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Relationships

Valuing Property Over People

One of the strangest miracles we see in the Bible is the exorcism of demons which causes a herd of pigs to rush into the sea and drown. Other than the cursing of the fruitless fig tree, this is the only miracle of Jesus’ where we see property destroyed (even though it was the demons who actually caused the destruction).

Jesus’ miracles were almost all done in a way that directly benefited people. Even in this case, we find that it was the healing of two people that led to the destruction of the property. The miracles Jesus performed were done to show that He was God. Jesus said on a number of occasions something along the lines of: “If you don’t believe that I am God for any other reason, then believe in Me because of the signs & miracles I do.” Of course, Jesus could’ve shown His divine power and nature through miracles such as making water run uphill or by constantly levitating as he travelled or by causing the sun to rise in the west and set in the east. But instead, Jesus chose to show His divinity by blessing people – because of His great compassion.

To this “testimony of His compassion,” someone might argue – “But these pig farmers lost their property!” True, but what we learn from this loss is that God puts a very small value on temporary earthly property compared to the value of people.

house on water The problem is that the men in that city did not have the mind of Christ. They could not see that the healing of these two men was more important than the money their pigs would bring them. “The cure of two men… was of far more consequence than the amount of property destroyed. To restore a deranged man… would be an act for which property could not compensate and which could not be measured in value by earthly means.” We might not can relate to a herd of 2000 pigs, but what about a house? That’s property. Is the value of your house greater than the value of the spiritual health of another person?

Too often I find that I am like the men who lost their property – caring more for stuff than for people.
friends

What if you had lost that property?
Could you have celebrated that two of your neighbors were made well?
Do you love your neighbor as yourself?
Or would you have been angry at Jesus?

It is so easy for us to value property over people.
To value our stuff over their needs.

I’m so glad Jesus doesn’t.
Aren’t you?

Quote from Albert Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament

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Relationships

Hypocrisy

One of my favorite quotes that I memorized as a teen was from a DC Talk album:
“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians… who acknowledge Jesus with their lips… and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” –Brennan Manning

Even if an unbelieving world doesn’t believe in God, they know that the God we claim to follow tells us to consistently live out His teachings. And part of living out those teachings is loving others.

Instead of loving people and speaking the truth in love to them in hopes of them changing toward more God-honoring behaviors, many Christians instead choose to judgmentally condemn others. We are told that we can view peoples’ behaviors in order to judge how to win them to the Lord in love. But we are not told to be harshly condemning of people, pointing our fingers at them as if to say “shame, shame, shame.”
Pointing finger
Passages such as “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” aren’t about us accepting peoples’ ungodliness as OK, but rather they are about the issue that God’s problem with our judging is that we not only judge right from wrong, we then stand in judgmental condemnation.

Too often we condemn while we hold onto our own similarly ungodly behaviors. This is called hypocrisy.
Some examples:
We condemn murder, while we hold onto hate;
We condemn those who won’t forgive us, while we are still angry with others;
We condemn adultery, while we are filled with lustful thoughts;
We condemn liars, while we hold back the truth to benefit us;
We condemn greed, while we are not generous;
We condemn criminals, while we find little ways to break the law (such as speeding);
We condemn those who gossip, while we talk about them behind their backs.

We condemn ungodly behaviors, while refusing to see how ungodly we are in the same areas.

What we are doing is standing in judgmental condemnation of others, rather than trying to win people for Jesus through an attitude of loving reconciliation.

We are all sinners. We cannot stand before God on our merits. Therefore we are not to condemn others for being in the same boat as us. Instead we are to use our wisdom and compassion to judge only with an eye toward loving reconciliation… to help others get on track (or back on track) with God.

God says that He does not take pleasure in the death of an evil person, but that every person who is doing evil should turn toward Him and find life. Do we have the same attitude of compassion as God?

There will be a day of judgment. And God will be the One to preside. My hope is that I will have fulfilled my role of pointing more people to life in Him through loving reconciliation on that day.

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Relationships

Obtaining Real Satisfaction

From my last post about filling our lives with Christ to find satisfaction, two questions were posed: What is “real satisfaction”? and How do you “fill your life with Jesus”?

The answer I shared was that the ever-increasing number of dissatisfied and depressed people in our nation is an indication that too many people are putting their hopes for satisfaction in the wrong place. So reading devotions, studying the Bible, getting involved in a church, listening to uplifting Christian music – all of these help us to fill our lives with Christ.

Two other quotes from Matt Chandler’s ‘Creature of the Word’ also spoke to this issue. Both quotes have to do with the satisfaction we try to gain through relationships and connectivity to others.

#1 – “We simply ask too much of our relationships. Women, you’ll never find a man who completes you. Regardless of what the TV shows and movies promise you, no one can fix what’s broken in your heart…. No man is enough. You need a Savior.” And the same goes for men – there is no woman out there that is enough. You need a Savior. We can so easily believe the lies of Hollywood…that there is some Mr. or Ms. Right out that there that will meet our every need. Perhaps that’s why Hollywood is filled with so many failed relationships – these actors believing the lies of their own TV shows and movies. When we believe these lies, we place too much stock in the belief that the other person should bring us all the happiness we need. Only Jesus can bring lasting joy. Once we have Him as our foundation, then we will develop a proper understanding of the roles of our other relationships – to supplement the lasting joy that He brings.

#2 – “Connectivity does not equate to community. Being able to make quick connections with people doesn’t automatically require any depth to the relationship…. So although we are more connected than we have ever been, we also feel more alone and unknown than at any other time in human history. We relate without relationships, all together but all alone. Thus, without the gospel forming community, We are doomed to connectivity and aloneness in the midst of crowds. Only the gospel forms deep community.” It is so easy to see the truth of these statements from the social media explosion that has taken place. We quickly find that connectivity does not equal community. The need for a Savior and the relationship transformations that He provides within His church – the forming of true, deep friendships with unity and interdependence – are essential for our total well-being.

So how else would you answer the two questions of:
1. What is “real satisfaction”? &
2. How do you “fill your life with Jesus”?