DIFFICULT DISCERNMENT

It is much easier to see good and bad behavior in those whom I do not know personally.  It is much easier to call what is evil evil when the behavior is so blatant it can not be labeled as anything else.  One of the ways of the enemy of God is deception; appearing as light when it is truly dark.  When situations are personal and involve people I love, the discernment become difficult.  Love can cloud and confuse my thinking.  It can cause me to defend rather than confront.  It can cause me to explain away truth and righteousness.  It can cause me to redefine sin and guilt to alleviate suffering.  No one wants those whom they love to suffer.

          “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”

Jesus spent his time on earth healing the suffering of human beings.  He healed the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, and spoke to the poor.  He taught how to live the way we were created to live.  He taught us to know, to love, and to obey God, the One who created us.  All of this was done in Love, a love that ultimately was shown to us as he laid down his life for us. It was a love that released people from sin and suffering, not endorse it. It is this love that Jesus commanded we have for one another.

When the elders brought the woman who committed adultery to Jesus he did not say what she had done was ok; it was not.  Adultery is sin and the law requires death.  Jesus did not pardon her; he told the elders to proceed with the stoning, adding a condition that he who had not sinned throw the first stone.  Only he could have met that condition.  The elders left and only Jesus and the woman remained.  He had saved her from death and she knew it.  No one condemned her that day, even the one who could have.  He did not come to save people only from death.  He came to save people from the sin that entraps them.  He did not ok her sin.  He told her to take what he had given her and go and sin no more.  He gave her life, just as he gives life to all who receive him, who believe in his name.

This is the Truth God wants the world to know.  May the Spirit of God enlighten my heart and mind, and bring clarity and discernment to my thoughts and actions.  May I know what True Love is and express that Love to all I know and love.