Positivity

We all love good news.

And the gospel of Christ is the good news. To mankind.

But do we present it as such?
Or do we present as a gospel of Christ something which goes against His nature and the good news?
Do we attempt to win the world by demonstrating His goodness?
Or do we simply talk the talk?

We, Christians, are called to step into the shoes of His Ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20

We are called to specifically step into the shoes of our neighbour, minister hope and life to them the way the Good Samaritan did. (Hint, the priest and the levite passed by, ignoring the plight of the man down).

On too many occasions we, the ones called with His Name, have been acting like the priest and the levite.
We have hardened our heart to the sufferings of another, and downright deemed it as drama which brings us down.

And so, instead of reaching down, to lift another up, we have acted like Cain.

You may protest here, telling that he was a killer, and you are certainly not!

But God saw him as the keeper of his brother!

Genesis 4:9 ► New International Version
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The question is, do we care more for our set activities and plans and agendas, than the man down.
Are we more like the priest and the levite who passed by the man down.

Or, are we our brother's keeper?
For you see, ignoring is in God's eyes as bad as killing. As is anger.

Matthew 5:21-22 New King James Version (NKJV)
Murder Begins in the Heart
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

You may say that you have a cause!
And to you, it may seem a just and righteous cause. Certainly God would agree!

But is it?
And does He?
That is the question.

I have noticed how several of us, both regular believers, and the ministers alike, tend to see human tragedy as something that is too negative for them to bear, and hence they do not go after the devastated and broken-hearted, the way Jesus as a shepherd in a parable went after his lost sheep, leaving the 99 who were in good health, and in order.

But is it what ministry is alike?
Are we supposed to live for our pleasure only? Avoiding the negatives? Concentrating and accepting the positive only....at the time when people are bleeding to death, whether literally or mentally, mourning and struggling with their will for life. Would we really rather let them go down, just for the opposite may make us face some negative emotions, and circumstances.

And I have seen it a lot over my years as a believer, and a minister of God, and during the present pandemic where way too many express their loud opinions, which are amplified by social media presence.

The book of Job seems beyond the comprehension to so many of us. We would better be like Job's friends. And they came with good intents!

But the pain and the misery of another was too much for them to bear. And they were not even the ones suffering from it! Yet, in their eyes, it was more than they could take - an unnecessary drama which could have been solved with a few right swipes.

But God had a different thought.

What do you do when you come across such sentences in social media (I just did, actual words from an actual person!):
I think taking my own life is for the best.
I can't carry on like this anymore.

Would we embrace the person and be willing to stoop down, to the man down, to lift him up.
Or, would we feel like the priest and the levite and the friends of Job - who felt that it was a negative.

Yes, it is a negative. But life is full of both. Sunshine, and rain, and thunder, and mud and holes, and while we do not necessarily run into dodgy dark corners and try to avoid it, since it seems reasonable, and is!, then what is our Christianity and ministry worth if we see a heart-broken devastated person the way priest Eli did. He saw an alcoholic.

But was it true? Was Hannah who had come to the House of God really a drunk, an alcoholic? Or someone in need, and devastated to the core.

Proverbs 20:12 ► King James Version
The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.

God uses also the valleys, the negative circumstances in our life, to mold us and form us into His image.
It is especially true in His dealings with prophets. For this is the call which takes the highest degree of accuracy.

We can all prophesy, yes. We all have the Spirit of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. Rev. 19:10

But prophesying does not turn us into prophets.

Now, you may have heard less about it, and maybe you see a prophet like they were in the Old Testament era - someone who was very extraordinary, and yes, while prophets are extraordinary, they are different in the New Testament era. They do not go around and prophesy to all whom they come across. Their primary calling is to teach the Word of God, and train the people of God in how to hear the voice of God.

But accuracy has cost them some.
By coming through the fire, the fiery trials, they have been melted in God's melting pot in His refining process.

Malachi 3:3 ► King James Version
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

And that has cost them some negatives.

In fact, like Rick Joyner wrote in His booklet "The Hordes of Hell are Marching" about a series of visions he had received from God where God taught him the above, God's hidden secret was the door of death. Something only a few dared to embrace in the process. A negative.

But it is in the valleys where we grow.

And yes, we overcome!

But the Israelites had a victory guaranteed, and yet God took them through wilderness to the Promised Land.

And you may be tempted to see it prophetically, in a spiritualised sense, as our New Testament living in Christ. And you are very right!

But there were battles in the Promised Land too!

There are both, good days, and negative ones.
And we are called to fight a good fight of faith, and yes, victory is guaranteed.

But victory happens when there is something to overcome.

And this is how our growth happens.

Hebrews 5:13 - 14 ► New International Version
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Ephesians 4:13 - 14 ► New International Version
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Hosea 2:15 ► New International Version
There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

Psalm 23:4 ► King James Bible
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.