“Love Your Enemies” Is Not A Suggestion

Today is Tuesday, November 26, 2019. Peace be with you!

Day 22,538

Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow!!

Of course that also means that, even though today is Tuesday, it’s also “hump day” for this work week!

Today is Cake Day. Cake is delicious. So is pie. So are cookies. Sadly, I’m not supposed to be indulging in any of those. But it’s Thanksgiving in two days, so you can bet I’ll have at least a little bit of whatever is available. We’ll have Rum Cake, chocolate pie, sopapilla cheesecake, Cherry-O Cream Cheese Pie (my favorite!!), and who knows what else! Sometimes, our son-in-law makes a peanut butter pie.

No real other news, except to say that today is “Friday” for C, because she is taking tomorrow off.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
All Scriptures are from the ESV unless otherwise noted

God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. 
Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 
For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! 
God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.
Psalm 47.5-8

Today I am grateful:
1. For the love in this house.
2. For opportunities to sing praises to God.
3. That the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry (Psalm 34.15).
4. That I will never outgrow my need to depend on God.
5. That God has given me everything I need (2 Peter 1.3).

May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
Psalm 70.4
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Psalm 50.2
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14.1
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 
And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
Luke 17.5-6
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. 
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 
He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
Psalm 34.15-20

Glory be to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, so it is now and so it shall ever be, world without end. Alleluia. Amen.
(The Gloria)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. May Your kingdom come, and Your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Yours are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

“Almighty and everlasting god, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
(The Divine Hours)

(From Faith That Matters)

How Are You at Enemy-Love? by Dallas Willard

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12.21

Sadly, there is a prevalent attitude in today’s culture that the way to fight hatred is with more hatred. And that has, even more tragically, crept into the mindset of some who consider themselves to be “Christian.” I see some of the most hateful posts on Facebook, coming from “Christians,” and it hurts my soul.

“There is a standard list of ‘enemies’ in the daily news,” says Willard, “which in fact hardly scratches the surface of the reality of standing hatreds that define people as enemies over against one another in this world. Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to carry that love through with the highest act of love, prayer.”

Loving the people who love us and caring for those who are part of our own group is something that “traitorous oppressors, the Mafia, and terrorists do.” It would be sad to think that the Church is no different from those groups. “Even those who have no knowledge of God” tend to love their own.

“But, Jesus says to his disciples, because you are living from God as citizens of the kingdom, have the kind of wholeness, of full functionality that he has.”

I’m sure it would do us all well to check the pulse of our “enemy-love” today.

Father, thank you for these encouraging, yet admonishing words. Help us to love those who might persecute us. Help us to further love them by praying for them, by blessing them, by doing good for them and wishing good for them. Help us to love our “enemies.”
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Grace and peace, friends.