Ha! ... ha! ... Sister Chanin i see you're getting there ... so am i, by His power ...i have to admit that when i first started reading your post as you started out;--- Here is my public confession of claiming my rights to defend myself when i have felt I have been wronged or offended. ---it scared me ... i thought to myself, "Oh no Sister Chanin, we have no "vengeful" rights to defend ourselves, we have no "vengeful" rights that would return evil for evil" ... but then i read further, and yes being offended is always a good opportunity to die to "self" ... Ours is not a battle against flesh and blood, but against the malignant "evil" of that sinister spirit creature called satan, and devil, and all his malevolent hordes, and not the folk they may use against us, saved or unsaved ... On the contrary, we are told;Matt. 5:[38] Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:[39] But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.[40] And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.[41] And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.[42] Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.[43] Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.[44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;[45] That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.[46] For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?[47] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?[48] Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.Ugggghhhhh .... turning the other cheek has never been my strong point, and i was quick to tell folk as much just before engulfing them in the shock and awe of my "righteous indignation" whenever they'd offend my sensibilities, but our Lord has greatly diffused my retalitory responses over the years, to if any, it becoming that of reasoning, questioning an attacker - and notice i didn't say "my" attacker ... The reason being that if you're about the Lords work, and you're attacked, #1: The attack is directed against the Lord, and #2: The agent of the attack is not the person, or group visibly doing the attacking ... It's the devil! ... And like God with good, the devil loves to stir up evil for evil, especially amongst saints, because it destroys God's good ...There was a time i used to be quick to say "i ain't Jesus" whenever i felt someone was attempting to nail me to a cross, and then i'd proceed to nail them back ... Ironically my un-Godly behaviour in vengeance seemed to increase after the Lord began giving me "words" for my pastor, and the church i attend, the more and more folk began to reject me ... but therein lie my problem, it wasn't about "me" ... So as i became more alienated with each "offense", my harshness intensified, and the enemy was able to cripple any word God gave me in the ears of it's hearer because of my defensiveness ... The enemy will grasp at any blemish the carrier of the word of God may have to distract it's intended recipient(s), and if he can't find one, if we're not careful, we'll allow him to create one in us ... Well this is what the enemy did with me, and eventually the discount of the word(s) of God thru me was, "See, that can't be from God, or he wouldn't be acting out such frustration" ... So i became to many their "self proclaimed prophetic, legalistic, over-zealous, obsessed with God, defensive weirdo", and they became my "destruction deserving, hypocritical, unrighteous, Ninevehites", and it was off to the whales belly for me ... It's so funny in retrospect how much i desired to be used of God in a mighty way, just so long as it was on my terms ... But eventually the Holy Ghost convicted me real good one day about my spiritual schizophrenia with this scripture;Rom.3[3] For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?[4] God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. [5] But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) [6] God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?[7] For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? [8] And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. [9] What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;And this is the part in which He slapped me out of it ...[10] As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: .... including, no especially myself in the vein of Paul's proclaiming himself chief amongst sinners.i did a lot of thinking and praying last night, and just allowed the Holy Spirit to diminish "me" even more ... i thought of Noah proclaiming the ridiculous message of "it's gonna rain" to a world of disrespectful jeering heathens, but he dismissed "self" and proclaimed anyway because God had told him to do it, and he did so up until the flood came and swept them all away ....i thought of Jeremiah proclaiming the ridiculous message of "judgement is coming" to a nation of his own disrespectful jeering countrymen, but he dismissed "self" and proclaimed anyway because God had told him to do it, and he did so up until Babylon came and swept them all away ....i thought of Jesus proclaiming the ridiculous message of "not a stone shall be left upon a stone" to a nation of his own disrespectful jeering countrymen, but He dismissed "self" and proclaimed anyway because God (the Father) had told him to do it, and he did so, and soon Rome came and swept them all away ....i thought of Jesus proclaiming the ridiculous message of "I'm coming again, as a thief in the night" to a world of disrespectful jeering humanity, but He dismissed "self" and proclaimed anyway because God (the Father) had told him to do it, and he did so, and soon His second coming will come and sweep them all away ....and lastly i thought of myself proclaiming the ridiculous message of "America!, without true repentance, judgement is at hand" to a Church and State of disrespectful jeering apostates, and in the footsteps of better men than me i've learned to dismiss "self" and proclaim anyway because God told me to do it, and i'm doing so, and soon judgement will come and sweep them all away ....Disbelief of dreams, visions and words of God to men are nothing new to the history of humanity ... It just seems that God allows enough time between each era of denunciation for us not to put the chain together, and then allows enough time between such supernatural outreaches that mankind chalks it up to fantasy, and the wild rantings, and illusions of those, as i was once called, "overly obsessed with God" ... 2Pet.[3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,[4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.[5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:[6] Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:[7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.[8] But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.[9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.[10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.[11] Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,[12] Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?Matt. 24"[36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.[37] But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.[38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,[39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.Sister Chanin as you well know "self" has no place in the Christian, especially the Christian whose seeking hard to be of service to Him ... In order for Him to increase, not only must self decrease, self must die, on the cross, figuratively, literally if He so deems ... Our cry must become the same cry as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;John.7 [28] Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but He that sent me ....He could have called down legions of angels but instead He physically took the heat in such a cruel and disrespectful way, so that we could beat the heat ... What is our being rejected, offended or derided in any way short of His own ... Only when we're dead in Christ, can we live in Christ, that Christ (thru us) may raise others who think they're alive to Himself ... Amen
