Bringing Christ into Everyday Life

Too many of us only think about the Lord on Sunday morning. We wake up Sunday morning, shower, fix breakfast, relax a little, and then get ready for Church. We attend the service, visit with friends, sing, pray, put money in the collection plate, listen to the sermon, and then we get out of church, and go on with our lives. By Monday morning our minds are on bills, car repairs, miscellaneous expenses, work, and what we are going to have for supper that night. The rest of the work week is pretty much the same. On Saturday, we relax, maybe play golf, go to the movies, go to the club, spend time outdoors eat out, go to a special event like a fair or concert, or just stay home and watch TV. By Sunday morning, our minds are finally back to God again.

This is how it is for millions of Americans. We make hundreds of things more important than Christ. Worshipping the Lord is something we just do once a week. The rest of the time we are preoccupied with other things. It doesn't have to be that way. We can bring God into our everyday life. The obvious is attending Church activities throughout the week such as Wednesday night Bible study, men's and women's groups, volunteering for a Church charity. Then there are also daily Bible readings and such publications as The Upper Room and Our Daily Bread,  not to mention various Christian programs on TV. But to be real Christians we have to move beyond such things. These are only the trappings of Christianity, things to keep our mind to be focus on God. To be truly Christian one must practice the teachings of Jesus Christ every - single - day.

It's all right there in the Bible, Jesus tells us how to live. I probably do not need to tell people these Bible verses. Any Christian worth his or her mettle knows them, but here are a few anyway.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matthew 22:37-39)

 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them: for this

is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 6:1)

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you (Matthew 7:1-3)

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away (Matthew 5:42)

He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise (Luke 3:11).

Christians are to treat others as they wish to be treated, love God and love others, not judge, and give to the less fortunate. There are many other verses on how to behave oneself, but to me these are the core of being Christian. Too often we get caught up in trying to get ahead, of thinking about ourselves and the ones we care for that we are mean or disrespectful of others, treat the less fortunate poorly, and otherwise focus on ourselves. We are, to quote a George Harrison song all about, "I, Me, Mine." We forget what Jesus has told us to do.

I am as guilty of it as anyone. I become focused on work. I do things to make my own life more enjoyable and comfortable without a thought of others. I am overly proud of my accomplishments, I step on other people to further my own ambitions. Then I have to remind myself, that is not what Jesus has told me to do. Please make sure not to do the same.

Sin

Here I am, sitting in my living room, waiting to go to work. I woke up early, and since I didn't write a blog post over the weekend, I decided to write one this morning. Trying to think of a topic, I decided on sin. Specifically, I cannot stop sinning. Oh, I do not do drugs, nor do I drink to access anymore. I have no sexual perversions. Those are not issues. My problem is being kind to people. Now most people will tell you I am kind to everyone, but I know that is not true. I have this problem of wanting to treat people as they have treated me, and not as I want them to treat me. And in the past year, some people have not treated me very nice. And so my reaction is perhaps that of most people, I want to get even, to hurt them as they have hurt me. I have tried to control it, tried to forgive, but it is so very hard to.

So I turn to the Bible, and use it as my strength to get me past these hateful thoughts. The Bible has much to say on hate. Here are a few passages:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice

(Ephesians 4:31)

Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs. (Proverbs 10:12).

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28)

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:15)

In addition to turning to the Bible, I turn to the Lord in prayer. By praying for those that have hurt me I am able to work through my hatred of them. I try to do this everyday. I really need to get into a routine of it, and with time I can get past my hatred of those that have wronged me.

Hatred is no doubt, my greatest sin, but I hope with time, clinging to the Bible and praying through to the Lord I can work my way through it.

When It is Hard to Forgive

Having been pagan for a couple of decades, forgiveness is something I struggle with. In Asatru, you did not have to forgive. Indeed, many saw forgiveness as a weakness.You were supposed to hold people accountable to their actions. That might sound all noble in that it made people responsible for what they do, but what it really came down to is getting even for every little slight, hurtful word, or even nasty look someone gave you. In the long run, I realized it was no way to live. Forgiveness is necessary to survive in the world, even when it is difficult to forgive. and yet I struggle with it.

Years of emotional abuse from a religious community that did not believe in forgiveness and lacked

compassion left me not just weary of forgiving those that wronged me, but also with thoughts of, "I must get even." Even now, years after returning to the fold, I find myself wanting to right some wrong done me. I had a recent situation in which an acquaintance was trying to take advantage of a young mother I care for. At the same time he was running me down, making jokes of me, and how I felt and thought. He somehow thought the very qualities that make me Christian, being kind, considerate, thoughtful, compassionate were weaknesses to be made fun of. The thing is he really doesn't know me, having not seen me in decades. In the end, I was a far stronger person that he ever will be. The situation is resolved now, not to my satisfaction, but the young mother is safe. Still, a part of me wants to hurt this guy in ways that are unimaginable, and put him through the same pain he did me. I had to force myself to forgive him, and to much lesser degree to forgive her for believing him.

There are many other situations like that one in the past in which I found it hard to forgive the people involved. Somehow though, I found the strength to forgive, and it does take strength to forgive someone.  It is far easier to brood over some wrong done you, to plot revenge, sometimes even act on it. If someone is saying bad things about you, then it is so much easier to say bad things about them, than to just forgive them and move on. Forgiveness means controlling one's feelings, thoughts, and actions. And that is why it takes strength to forgive. It is not easy to forgive. It goes against human instinct which is to fight back.

Jesus was very clear on forgiving others. Indeed, we can not expect to be forgiven by him without forgiving others. This from the Lord's Prayer:

"And forgive us our tresspasses, as we also have forgiven our trespassers (Matthew 6:12)"

He had much else to say about forgiveness:

"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15)."

"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? “Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (Mathew 18: 21-22)"

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37)"

These are only three of the many, many passages on forgiveness in the Bible. If we are to expect to go to Heaven, we must forgive. But forgiving has its benefits in this world too. Forgiving others actually makes us experience less anxiety, hostility, and depression as well as lowers our blood pressure, and improves our immune system according to some studies. As for myself, I will probably have to struggle with forgiveness the rest of my life. Luckily, it is not in my nature to be a vindictive person anyway. Whatever, bad habits of not forgiving I picked up were while I was pagan. But I will forever have to guard against not forgiving others. As a Christian I must forgive! The Bible tells me so.