Since I am reading again, I figured it was appropriate to add another post today before I make a brief trip up to Angels Camp to meet with some men in the morning over the Word.
The title of this post may have piqued your interest, but I don't ever anticipate relationships ending, as I hope you don't. One of the great joys of heaven will be not only the fullness of our relationship with the Trinity, but the fullness of relationships with one another. (BTW, Kim Holland is preparing a message for early December on how we will no longer face sinful desires in heaven—should be great!)
What we are reaching, however, is the end of the year, and the end of our focus on relationships as our theme.
This Saturday, November 22, I will speak on our relationships with those in the world.
The following Saturday, November 29, I would like to do a Q&A session on relationships. There should be some good questions out there, but you need to get them my way. In recent weeks, I have been asked about what to do with a "deadbeat" relative who is draining the family dry (not in our fellowship, so don't start looking around!), we have been face-to-face with the question of homosexual marriage, and I have spoken with the youth about lust and the idolizing of others for the wrong reasons. All of these matters would make for good questions to explore if you all don't have any to send my way, but I don't want you to miss this opportunity to "catch while catch can" if other things are on your mind. So feel free to post questions here or e-mail them to me at onehop_2000(at)yahoo.com.
In December, Kim Holland will deliver her message on December 6, and I will do a Christmas lead-up on December 13.*
Our Christmas gathering will be on SUNDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 21 (with no service on Dec. 20), followed the very next night by the KaBoom! Christmas party.
So you see, there will be plenty of opportunities for relationship-building and fortifying as we move on through the holidays. And thus, while the theme may end, the focus of the theme will most definitely not!
*All plans subject to the "Lord willing" clause, of course!
God Keeps Leading
12 years ago
3 comments:
I'm not the person you asked the question to, but here's my answer anyway :)
If your question is actually about how to get along with people who are emotionally or physically dangerous, but we cannot sever all relationship to, that question is far to complex for a quickie answer. That question could take years to work out (sometimes a lifetime). No canned answer will be satisfactory.
However, I will say that the church has long taught many things about forgiving and honoring that have been very harmful. Women are told to honor their husbands, and they endure beatings in the name of obedience to God. Adult children are told to forgive their parents, regardless of horrors those parents have committed against them, without allowing them to properly grow into a full understanding of what forgiveness means. This can be very damaging to their souls and is NOT honoring to God. God humbles the proud, not the victim. God defends and vindicates the oppressed.
It's not that forgiveness is not required. It certainly is. But, we cannot demand a mortally wounded soul to simply slap on a smiling face and declare forgiveness if God has not done the work within them. It's a process, and not one that usually flourishes in a setting of ongoing abuse (even if it's only at the holiday season).
That said, if you just don't like your mother-in-law or your sister's kid, suck it up. Be cordial. Yes, it's a relationship, a socially necessary and politically desirable one.
Here's a series of questions for the 29th.
If someone, or a group of persons, declares you as their enemy, does that automatically make them your enemy as well?
I mean, would I say that someone is my enemy because they say I am their enemy, even if I love them as I am called to?
And so can I even have enemies if I am loving them?
If say, my son hated me with a vengeance, but I loved him with all my heart, I would not proclaim him to be my enemy even if he said so about me. Why would I call other people my "enemy" if I love them as Christ does?
To me, saying that I am loving "my enemy" still keeps them at a distance, is still me vs. them. It is not truly loving to me. It may be semantics, but it infers great meaning to me.
What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks for coming to visit your deadbeat relatives tonight!
Repeat the sounding joy!
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