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Showing posts from May, 2016

Longing

Longing It is right for me to feel this way about you, since I have you in my heart, for whether I am in chains, or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Jesus Christ. Longing for something is much more than just wanting something.   Longing is primal, a craving, a hungering.   Longing is not being able to live without whatever the object of my longing is.   In a the documentary, Nothing Left Unsaid , a nostalgic Gloria Vanderbilt shares with her son (CNN’s Anderson Cooper) that for all of her ninety-five years, she has achingly longed for a home. She was raised by nannies away from her divorced mother who resided in Paris.   After a few years of living in a mansion on the east coast, she was sent to live with her aunt.   Then back to the nanny. Then back to her mother. Then back to the nanny. Her life was a never-ending transition.   Vanderbilt longed for a permanent refu

Loving My Enemies

Loving My Enemies You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 Man oh man, Lord, how can I ever love my enemies? You are asking the impossible. It’s much easier to love those who believe and live as I do.   It’s much easier to hate my enemies, not love them.   Like Linus in the Peanuts cartoon strip says, “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.” In other words, I love everyone, except for th