Loving the difficult ones

http://bible.us/114/HEB13.1.NKJV Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Bible.com/app

REACHING OUT

When people ask Dr. Thomas P. Malone, a psychiatrist, what psychiatry is all about, he answers, "Almost every emotional problem can be summed up in one particular bit of behavior people walking around screaming 'for God's sake, love me.' He goes through a million different manipulations to get somebody to love him. On the other hand, healthy people are those who walk around looking for someone to love. And if you see changes in the people seeking for love, they give up their screaming for all their lives."

Dr. Malone's view of his role as a psychiatrist is certainly a noble and awesome one. He tries to get people to love one another. While psychiatry certainly has helped some to adjust, only Christ can so revolutionize character as to change a person from seeking to giving. Jesus came to this world to show men how to live. Through Christ, we can learn how to give up our selfish seeking for attention and start giving ourselves to His Kingdom.

Jesus told us that when we give up our lives, we find them. As we give up our selfish seeking, and long to reach out in genuine love, we receive many blessings. No wonder it says in Hebrews, Let brotherly love continue.

Lord, please give me discernment in all matters

http://bible.us/114/1CO2.14.NKJV But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Bible.com/app

NO NEWS

"If newspapers would give less attention to crime, there would not be so much of it," the average person on the street says. In response to requests from civic groups and individuals who felt that vandals were doing it for the publicity, the news media in Iowa decided not to report any news of vandalism for ninety days. Then the police department released statistics showing 36.5 percent more vandalism than during the same three months of the year before.

Three things emerged from this experiment: (1) turning one's back on a problem does not make it go away; (2) an uninformed public often harbors a false sense of security; and (3) that which "sounds" logical is not always logical.

These three observations are also true in the spiritual realm. Turning our back on coming judgment does not erase that judgment. The Bible says: The soul who sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). We also can be lured into a false sense of security through being ill-informed about eternal values. And finally: There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12). Natural man simply cannot perceive the things of God; only after we are born again do we have the proper perspective.