juss somee randomm crapp on the trampolinee(:

The day before Good Friday is called “Maundy Thursday.” It is the day of Christ’s great mandate. That day, after He had washed His disciples’ feet, He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (Jn. 13:34)

If I were to ask you who you loved, I am sure you would answer with not just one, but several someones. I wonder, would any of those names be the name of an enemy?

It is easy to love those who love you and are nice to you, but what about those who aren’t nice?

In the days of the American Revolutionary War there lived at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, a Baptist pastor by the name of Peter Miller who enjoyed the friendship of General Washington. There also lived in that town a man named Michael Wittman, an evil-minded man who did all in his power to abuse and oppose this pastor. One day Michael Wittman was involved in treason and was arrested and sentenced to death. The old preacher started out on foot and walked the whole seventy miles to Philadelphia. He was admitted into Washington’s presence and begged for the life of the traitor. Washington said, “No, Peter, I cannot grant you the life of your friend.” The preacher exclaimed, “My friend! No! He is the bitterest enemy I have!” Washington exclaimed, “What? You’ve walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in a different light! I will grant the pardon.” Peter Miller took Michael Wittman from the very shadow of death back to his own home in Ephrata, no longer as an enemy, but as a friend.

One of the prominent characters in the Old Testament is a model of God doing this. “As it is written, Jacob have I loved…” (Romans 9:13)

I’ll let you in on a secret. I don’t like Jacob; I don’t think I really ever have. “But how can you not like one of the Bible’s heroes!? Isn’t that like not liking Jesus?” No it is not. Jacob was a Hebrew patriarch, a man, not God. There is a lot not to like about him. Think about it – Even at birth he was grasping; that is why he was named Jacob (“He who grasps”). From then on he seemed to always be scheming, grasping.

It Bothered Esau. “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” (Genesis 27:36) Jacob grasped at the birthright, the blessing, Laban’s cattle….

What about his beloved Rachael? Was he nice to her? What about her sister Leah, Jacob’s first wife? God gave Leah a child because He saw that she was hated! Rachel was treated fine, but Jacob was not even satisfied with her and Leah. He took on concubines. His family life strikes a sour note. Things weren’t good. He quite obviously played favorites; so much so that Joseph’s brothers hated Joseph enough to think of killing him and then sold him into slavery in Egypt.

Here is what strikes me when God brings “Jacob have I loved” to mind. I don’t like Jacob, but God loves him. Even with all the sour, God loves Him. God loves the people I don’t like. This is where the rubber meets the road. We all have people we don’t like. God loves them and tells us to love them in response to Jesus’ love for us.

Do you have anybody you don’t like (Maybe not hate – just don’t like)? They are loud, smell bad, are foolish, hurtful, critical, nasty, and foul, someone who has hurt you, someone who doesn’t like you. You say, “They don’t like me and I don’t like them!”

God loves them. God wants to help you to love them like He does.

Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the (sinners) doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” God loves them – God wants me to love them just like He does.

 

How does He love them? A counselee told me about the lousy family she grew up in – how badly she was still being treated. She said, “I have forgiven them, but I don’t owe them anything! They never built a relationship with me. If they are sick or hurt, it is no different than if it were a stranger. I stay away from them!” Aren’t you glad God didn’t forgive you that way?

His love is very practical. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:20). “There is no love which does not become help.” (Paul Tillich).

“But they don’t deserve it!” That is the point of love. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). “Most men need more love than they deserve.” (Marie Von Ebner – Eschenbach). That is me, you, the people you like, the people you don’t like. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

This principle not just about outsiders. This principle hits us right where we live. It probably has to be used more in your home than out of your home. “Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots.” (From the Hoosier Farmer)

Chew on this for a little while. God loves the people you don’t like. Do you? He is ready to give you the power to love them too.

I believe living in the U.S. is like living in an International Airport.

Written Jade Stewart at www.morethenjustreading.blogspot.com

Everyone at one point in his or her life has been to an International Airport. Well if you were actually paying any attention, to what was going on around you and if you weren’t having endless conversations with loved ones or trying to get your kid’s to behave. You would have noticed, how familiar the settings and people were around you, the lobby of a International Airport might even remind you, of the neighborhoods that you live and work in. In the International Airport they have restaurants, which are sporadically spaced threw out the Airport lobby and there will be a lot of different people, from different cultures, sitting and sleeping around the passenger’s lobby. Most of the patrons in the Airport lobby, don’t know each other and rarely even speak to each other and the seating in an airport, might even remind you of an American apartment building, where people live one on top of the other, without ever saying one word to their neighbors.

America, where everybody’s from somewhere else, where unity only applies in the denominations of the bill’s that pass hands. Where brotherhood is non-existent and where everybody’s strangers or you could just say everyone who has met each other in the lobby of that airport were just passing acquaintances. In the declaration of independence it states; “united we stand and divided we fall.” If that’s true, then America could fall at any moment. The U.S is a cultureless nation, were most have lost their root’s to their native lands. A place where people are only as deep as their skin or the brand of sun-classes that they are wearing. A place where peoples dreams stop at how big the next house they might be able to afford will be or how young/cute their next girlfriend/wife might be. Where little girls are given Barbie’s with blond hair and blue eyes and taught that your ethnicity equals how beautiful or admired you’ll be.

In our homeland/The American International Airport, everyone identifies their loyalties and opinions of who a person is, by the ethnicity and the color of a persons skin. Where everybody looks at everyone else with suspicion. Our homeland, a place where open border’s are the norm and racial tension and violence has become as common as blowing your nose. A place, where if you’re a citizen the chances of you getting any job, depend on weather or not you have learned how to speak a second language. So as I’m sitting in my beloved international airport and my life has been delayed, by the U.S government, that cares more about foreigner’s rights then the government does about the U.S citizens who already live here. I’m in an international airport or better known as the United States, were the visitors are always treated better then the people who are already there.

Whether you are a college student, are unemployed, or with a job but you need extra income, allow me to please ask you a few questions?

Do you need to earn some extra cash income? Are you too busy for a job where you have to trade your precious hours for six or seven dollars each? Are you able to speak and interact with other people? Do you come in contact with some people most days?

Well, that is all good so far, and I think that you may be able to handle offering something for sale to some of these people, but not network marketing, not something that a million Americans already sell, and not anything that is a scam or a get rich scheme! Good idea to stay away from all of that? Are you with me, still? Good!

How about opening a business, doing all of the paper work, getting licenses, and making deals with other companies, such as manufacturers, and opening a business bank account… that’s all too much work, right? I agree that if you are too busy for a job, you certainly don’t have time for all of that!

Well, what if there was a way that you can get your hands on a dozen or two dozen “somethings” that normally sell for $30, but you can offer them to friends and neighbors for only $25 or maybe even $20, because you bought them for even half of that amount!? Now we’re on to something!

By the way, my name is Father Time, and I am a writer. I also have an Online SuperStore where I sell tons of cool items, and I sell retail, as well as wholesale! I have some various cool items, that most people will quickly buy on impulse when they see them, and you can get 10 or 20 of one or even a few of these things to resell for cash profits! Now how does that sound to you?

You can click here to see the current awesome deals that are available, and they change regularly, so you should check back often to see what’s new…http://www.fathertimepublishing.com/default.php?cPath=2358876

By the way, there is nothing risky about this, and there are no big productions or hassles. You simply order the merchandise, it gets shipped via UPS to your door, and then you go sell it to whomever, for cash! Plus, if you see anything at all on my website, and want to buy 5, 10, or a hundred, please send me a message a we may be able to come up with a bulk price for you!

So, that’s it in a nutshell! Good Luck, Happy Selling, and Many Blessings!