Difficult People are MY problem, not Theirs

I was reading on Crossinthewilderness.blogspot.com and the author, Bonita, was talking about how the trials we go through can show us where our weaknesses are.

This got me thinking about the current difficulties in my life and what the Lord is showing me and how my weaknesses must be submitted to God for His enabling Grace to do its transforming work.

One of the things I have been asking the Lord about is 'how do you deal with difficult people?'

After having this thought in the back of my brain for a couple of months, I felt this thought coming to me:
"I deal with YOU, don't I? You can deal with others the same way I deal with you.'

Oh.... o.k....

 I had been so focused on how OTHERS personalities are so difficult or trying and how they should try to change how THEY act, but I forgot about the plank in my own eye.

Then I thought about how we as people deal with young children. We are patient (for the most part) with their fumblings and mistakes; we deal compassionately with their little personalities.

I felt like the Lord was showing me that that is how he dealt with the disciples and how he also views us modern day disciples.

The Lord's flesh and soul were under His submission through the Spirit. People didn't 'rub him the wrong way' with their personalities because that type of reaction emanates from flesh and soul. He sees humanity with an eye of love and compassion, like a Father to his children.

This same spirit must be manifest in ME through the Spirit - die to flesh and submit my soul to the direction of  the Holy Spirit within.

Consuming Fire of Love

"As you go through the history of the early church you will see
suffering, sacrifice, hardship, persecution and spiritual opposition,
mixed with joy, humor, hope, not a little determination and an almost
inconceivable commitment to the cause of Christ. And all of those
things taken together illustrate one all-important dynamic that I believe
has been mostly lost over these past two thousand years of practiced
religion - a true, life-changing reality of Christ in the hearts and lives of
believers!
And, I believe this reality can only be found in the atmosphere and
activity of His true church. It is a reality of Christ that can only be
found in a moment-by-moment relationship with Him, where He is the
first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning and the last
thing we think about before we go to sleep at night. It is a reality that
melts our hearts as we experience His love and a reality that makes us
eager to know His purposes and willing to obey His every word. A
reality that demonstrates the depths of His kindness and mercy, the
scope of which constantly amazes us. The reality of a Lord that is so
great that we know our constant praise of Him will never adequately
define His greatness! A reality that takes us from glory to glory
(actually from one personal experience to the next), transforming us
into His wonderful image and a reality of Christ that constrains and
consumes us. Then finally, it is a reality that causes us to know with
certainty that His church is not comprised of some group that meets
together on Sunday morning in the big building on the corner to enjoy
their multimedia presentation, promote their programs and perpetuate
their traditions and rituals. It is, instead, made up of people all over
the world who meet with Him continually and individually, striving to
maintain a personal relationship of intimacy with Him."

Oh, my goodness! This is the heartfelt expression of Ken Brown from the introduction of his
chronological arrangement of the New Testament.
Parts I REALLY like:

"It is a reality of Christ that can only be
found in a moment-by-moment relationship with Him, where He is the
first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning and the last
thing we think about before we go to sleep at night"
My heart is on fire with Love for you Lord and you
truly are on my mind from my first waking to my laying down of my head at night.

and:

"The reality of a Lord that is so
great that we know our constant praise of Him will never adequately
define His greatness!"
 It is frustrating to be limited by my meager vocabulary in proclaiming my praises to my great God.

and finally:
The part that he put in italics at the end. How naive to think that our 'services' can ever substitute for the fullness of a life lived out on a moment by moment basis in the presence of the Father! The traditional, institutional mind frame has us viewing 'church attendance' as the 'main course' of our fellow shipping with the Father when in reality, he desires to make our whole daily existence a buffet that both us and Him are continually partaking of.

Gimme that old time religion-but not THEIR way

I was thinking earlier today about all the many, many churches that you can find on the street corners of  our cities. Many of them have been there for years.

I started thinking about one church that I had heard about which recently celebrated their 100+ year anniversary. At the time, I thought 'wow, they've been around a long time' and didn't give it too much more thought.

But today, I started thinking, why would a 'church' boast about how long it's been in existence?

It seems that the Father was always on the move, in both the Old and New testaments. It appears that His notion of progress for His people was to initiate a project but after His purposes were fulfilled, He moved the individuals on, reorganized various people into different groupings and then began a new project for a season, after which he moved individuals on, reorganized various people into different groupings....

This pride we take in an assembly's (not 'church', WE as people are the church) longevity, I believe, is not good.

It speaks, at the least, to a  lack of discerning the Father's will and at the worst to a rebellious and \hard heart.

The fluid, amoebic nature of the Body of Christ prevents it from being nailed down, boxed in, institutionalized. Each member must be free to move about this life as the Spirit gives expression - just like the Spirit Himself, This makes establishing some set-in-stone weekly, monthly, yearly programming difficult if not downright impossible.

For example, if one individual is being used of the Lord - during one season in their life- to tend to an elderly aunt's needs, however and whenever those needs arise; if another individual is led to walk among the homeless and serve them; if a family is led to take to the road and serve those the Lord brings across their path, If - on and on and on. How will these individuals (or think about even an assembly full of these type of Spirit led individuals) be able to maintain or even attend some type of set programming week in and week out?

Being tied to a weekly,monthly,yearly 'program' without allowing each individual/family the freedom to be used in this world the way the Father desires will produce a calcified, dead, powerless 'church' - isn't that what we are seeing? We make up for true 'life in Christ' by filling out ossified 'churches' with lots of activity giving the appearance of life ..."but denying the power thereof'. We become the tree Jesus cursed that had leaves but no fruit.