I’LL HANDLE IT RIGHT!

 

THERE’S AN ATTITUDE: “If you get in my face, I’ll smack you!”  This attitude of smacking someone (who, granted, is an idiot) who has verbally been rude or threatening must be dealt with artfully to keep you in that perfect peace God has available to all that call on His name and His name alone.

At the point of someone in your face yet there is no physical danger, you have every right to rebuke cruel and / or threatening words; but legally in man’s law, you do not have the right to be the first one to lay hands on (smack, punch, hit, strike, pound, pummel) him… an ungodly reaction without a doubt. Be careful! That would be returning evil with evil for sure; and a snare satan without a doubt wants you to be trapped into doing just that. And you, my friend, would suffer the consequences of a bad reaction to an evil action.

Don’t let the devil, his demonic realm or his children get the better of you. You have won every battle, you have won every war when you do it God’s way. Here is the God-given, the God-victory your response is to be:

 

1 Peter 3:9-12
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.  For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

 

Now: before I go any further with this let me make this very necessary and godly point: at this point in history there will always be people you cannot get along with: people you should NOT get along with.

Selah.

That is why wars are necessary. That is why the justice of God is holy. That is why God is holy, holy, holy and another of His attributes? Wrath!

 

Revelation 19:11
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.

 

Who is that? Jesus! That is who judges and wages war! And He is never wrong!

Beloved, you have to be stupid to believe you can be at peace with all people in every situation! You have to be a liar! You have to be lying to yourself! Could Jesus Christ trust Judas? Judas who saw Christ face-to-face? Judas who heard God’s words in person? Judas who saw miracles Christ performed? NO! Instead Judas kissed the King of kings and LORD of lords on the cheek and fled!

Did Judas accept the love of God? NO!

 

So be warned: there are people to mark and avoid!

 

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

 

As children God we are always wanting all people to love God, live with God in Heaven someday and have the joy of the Lord, the peace that passes all understanding and victory in Jesus now and forevermore. Amen: We must remember there are those who hate, absolutely hate Jesus! We cannot get along with them, but we can love them… World peace is not yet attainable. Don’t be fooled: for, there will be no total, world peace until the Prince of Peace is worshipped and loved by all in His sight and those who reject Him are cast out of His presence!

Without a doubt, without a lie God’s people know we do have enemies. And some of them are people! Beloved, that is why we pray, seek wisdom, know the ways of our holy and blessed Triune God. That is why we draw a line in our souls not to be crossed over… We are to love God first and foremost. His will is to be our will; we are to want only what He wants. He wants us to forsake evil and sometimes, while we live on this people-planet, we must separate ourselves from those who would crucify Christ all over again if they had such an evil opportunity, such an evil agenda.

 

Titus 3:20-11
Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.  You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

 

In the meantime when you’re not sure if you are to have nothing to do with a divisive person, if you’re not sure he won’t attempt to bring you to ruin, ask God how to deal with that person. Do you remember my story including the neighbor behind my backyard? God spoke to me specifically: “Don’t talk to her again.” And I wasn’t even being rude to her, wasn’t even returning evil with evil… But I immediately told God: “Okay.” He was protecting me from getting into an ungodly encounter!

He’s always right! This I know for His Bible tells me so!

Yes, Beloved, that phrase, “…get in my face.” has to do with another bothering you threateningly. Thugs try to intimidate. One of their greatest attempts is simply by using a loudly obnoxious tone, endeavoring to push their weight around figuratively in order to commandeer the behavior and desire result they want from you: fear, subservience.

Christians are lovers; but not doormats! Turning the other cheek has been so wrongly promoted by so very many people, some preachers included.

In context, Matthew chapter five Jesus sees crowds of people, not unusual at all. Upon seeing them he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Who did He speak to then? Who was it that came to Jesus after He saw crowds of people?  His disciples came to him and what did Jesus do with them? He began to teach them, His disciples…

 

Matthew 5:1
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

 

Matthew 5:38-42
 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. ’But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.  If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

 

Jesus was teaching His disciples how to minister. Turning the other cheek is when someone is preaching the gospel. Then you offer them the other… Did you know that Jesus Christ, our God of love, loves we, His children, so much that He required His disciples to be prepared for a physical fight, a fight unto death? And just how did Jesus do this? Look what the Prince of Peace, worthy to judge all of mankind, told them to buy: a sword, in fact two!

 

Luke 22:36-38
Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”  “Nothing,” they answered. He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.  It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That’s enough!” he replied.

 

Our God of glory is good. Always. God is perfect and greatly to be praised and listened to.

Beloved: Jesus tells us how to fight the good fight!

 

 

SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS FOR THIS “JOY STORY”

 

Psalm 1
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

 

Malachi 4
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty. “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

 

John 17:6-9
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

 

Romans 1:18-20
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

 

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.