by Trent - from June 09, 2006
Are you so easily offended?
The ease of which I am offended registers how carnally bloated I am and to what extent I have pushed the expanse of my own precious rights.
I place boundaries of decency and when they are trespassed, I FEEL offended. If I expand them far enough then people can innocently trespass on accident or while minding their own business. But is it my RIGHT to DEMAND that others not trespass my boundaries that I made up? Does spiritual maturity make us easier to offend or harder to offend?
It is certainly not my RIGHT to DEMAND that others not trespass my boundaries that I made up.
1 Corinthians 9:12
If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
If Love endures all things and bears all things, then it is not love when I get put-off, and when I get offended. (see 1 Corinthians 13:7)
People that really know me, know that I do not seek to offend others. I seek to share the gospel and the revelation of the Lord Jesus, and His radical love for the weakest and the least among us ... but those that are strong on their own, and do not need the Lord are the LawHeads ... so easily offended because of the expanse of their rights that they demand. They even murdered the Lord for only speaking what is true. One does not need to seek to be controversial to be offensive to others. Just shed light where it is not welcome and watch who picks up stones.
When I am carnal and materialistic or lawheadedness wells up in me, then I do not endure anything ... I do not bear anything. Rather I get offended at others, when I have no right to demand that they behave in any manner different then they are behaving.
Wisdom is knowing that those boundaries of trespass is not legitimate, and that I have no justification for ever being offended. We turn the other cheek as the Lord did on the way to His death.
When others rob us even of rights that we have, we still refuse to be offended on the spiritual path. Rather we see that those that rob us and harm us are held together by the Living Lord, and He would not permit them to steal and take these things from us had not it served His greater purpose. We yield to the acknowledgement that the Lord Jesus has everything under control. To complain against this, would be to complain against the Lord, who permitted it to happen.
... and so it is written that as Paul was imprisoned unjustly - there was not a Roman that Paul saw at the other end of his chain.
Ephesians 3:1
"... I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus..."Ephesians 4:1
"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you ."Philemon 1:9
". I then, as Paul–an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus"
And so on.
Where others saw a roman guard at the end of the chain, Paul saw Someone different. Paul saw Jesus as the One imprisoning him, and he was happy to be wherever Jesus had him, whether on the open sea or in a dungeon - violating his Roman citizenship.
So trouble comes your way, as it does for all. That trouble reveals something about the others that have neglected decency, but our reaction reveals us, and God is not interested in dealing with us about anyone else. He deals with us about only ourselves.
Why try to change the circumstance by griping and shaming the offenders?
Why not be changed by the circumstance and soften the heart by running to the Lord?
Griping and grumbling is a false idol that I use to evoke a change or control those that make me uncomfortable. You can justify it all you want, but don't ask me to join you. There is no justification for me (or anyone else) to complain or be offended, for to do so is a complaint against the Lord Jesus, Who holds the cosmos together with His might, and Who permits whatever circumstance that we might wish He would have prevented.
Philippians 2:5-7
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
http://gracehead.com/junk/trackback.php/357
Automatically aggregates all posts from all other blogs. This allows you to easily track everything that is posted on this system. You can hide this blog from the public by unchecking 'Include in public blog list' in the blogs admin.
Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<< < | > >> | |||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
29 | 30 | 31 |