Psalm 115:1 Not to us O Lord, not to us but to Thy Name give Glory because of thy Lovingkindness, because of thy truth.
When I am praying and can find nothing to be in prayer about, when ever I am at a loose end and draw a blank, while wanting for the Spirit of God to guide me I draw near to Psalm 136. I just make statements like the sun is shining or I hear a bird chirping. Even little things like that can draw me to God because I can follow those simple line with the cantor of Psalm 136, Thy Lovingkindness endures forever. These words give a reason to praise God and to give to Him all Glory. Here is the truth of the Word. This is the single purpose of Christ. God’s Lovingkindness endures forever. God did not need to save us from our sins or our nature. He did not need to make covenants with Abraham, Moses, David or Isaiah. He chose to shower us with His Lovingkindness. His Grace is a free gift because He created us to be his children.
For us as a people to fail to see that we are to shower Him with our love is a travesty. Where do we as a people of God see a need to or have a desire to down cast others who share the need to love God as much as we do? Is there no room in our hearts to simply focus our love on God and rejoice in the opportunities to share in the Fellowship of Christ?
If nothing else is understood in what I write, let it be this:Christ came so that we might know the Lovingkindness of God and we foolishly take His gift and waste it by rejecting those who also share in the Gift. For what God has given, surly, He can take away. Oh I know that “Once saved, always saved,” is a constant in our faith but sometimes I think that our definition of “saved” is suspect. In the book of Mark Jesus said:”But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, it would be better to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.” Yet we do just that by mocking the faith of others. Jesus wants us to come to Him as we are. He will give us the contrite heart. He will continually make changes in us as we grow in Faith, Love and the Passion of Hope for Him. We are not to take away from the faith of God but add to it by the lovingkindness given to us.
Paul reminds us often that we are one body, equal in Christ. See the Lovingkindness of God in the hearts of those who theology differs from you. Try to understand how they came to that Faith and maybe you can add to yours. Seek to hear their purpose and sense their passion and will to serve God. I am sure we will all find errors in some areas but God in His mercy will guide us in the common Love of Jesus. I know there are areas in my faith that many find hard to justify because of their Doctrines and Dogmas, but I am always searching for an increase in my Faith of God’s Lovingkindness. I seek His compassion and mercy. I have to walk a fine line in some areas because I have had to learn to forgive first. Only then can I see clearly where I needed to be forgiven. Even those who have caused me great suffering, pain and anguish needed to forgiven. I am mandated by Christ to show the same compassion that He showed me. No man has grieved me as much as I have grieved God. Christ said to love the sinners just as he loved us. Are we not all sinners and fall short of Glory of God? We are not to judge them but to show Christ’s grace so that they might be reconciled with Him. When we reject those who need Him the most then our churches will empty. Let us offer a contrite heart so that they may find contrition in theirs. When we condemn those who try to walk in right living because they find Christ elsewhere, we give the victory not to Christ but to Satan. Even so, God’s Lovingkindness will prevail. It will endure forever and the Body of Christ will remain and will once again raise up an army and flourish in His will.
But why wait? Why allow Satan even a single victory? Seek out what is good in the brethren and build on it. No one led me in my walk in Jesus by casting me down, in fact those who sought to condemn me in my lack of faith when I sought Truth only drove me further away from the Lord. It was those that cleared a path by their kindness and mercy that made it possible for me to finally come into the Light of Jesus. Each lifted me up through the hard places, clearing the path of misunderstandings and showed me compassion that made it possible for me to see the Lovingkindness of God.
There is an old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. This is true with sinners as well. As a sinner equal to Paul, I would have never been able to come to Jesus as long as I was greeted with the bitterness that I dished out. It was the persistent love of one man who would not give up on me that made it possible to even get me inside a church. Because of this man, I was able to give my life over to Jesus even though it took two years for it to happen. THAT is LOVINKINDNESS! That is what God wants us to offer each other, sinners and redeemed alike.
As Christ is the divine example of Lovingkindness, we must attempt to imitate Him in every way we can. Lovingkindness is sincere, it does offer emptiness but fullness. It must come from the heart and it has no boundaries. It loves without cause, respond or purpose other than to enfold others in Christ and His Love. It seeks not to build churches or expound theology but just allow Christ’s Presence to be enjoined with the hearts of man. It seeks to bring the lost to Christ and to draw closer those who love his holiness. The Wholeness of Christ is being able to have the Spirit ability to present lovingkindness in all things.
Matthew 5:48 clearly reads:”Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” It is in this Lovingkindness Jesus was talking about. We seek to be one in Christ, as the body of Christ and to be in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit yet we still fail to perfect ourselves in this area of true compassion to others. Matthew 10:25 states:’It is enough for the disciple that he becomes as his teacher.” It is my dream that I can become as Christ. I will rejoice if I could be as my teacher, but I am still but a frail and weak mortal. Like Paul the more I try to be “good” the worst I see myself. There are so many areas of my life that need work but each day a try to be as Jesus would have me. Like Mother Teresa, I seek to empty myself for the Lord that He may fill me. It is only then that I can speak with His confidence and each day I work in my quest for the Wholeness of Christ and His Lovingkindness.
To seek the Lovingkindness and the Wholeness of Christ in our lives, we first need to empty ourselves of the world and allow Christ to fill us. We need to know that we can receive God’s grace and have the intent to give as Christ gave us. When we truly believe in the purity of God’s love for us, then we can move into other areas of Faith that lead us toward the Wholeness that we seek.