Study – How Not To See Our Brethren After The Flesh

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Short Summary
The study focused on the challenges Christians face in their consecrated walk, emphasizing the importance of seeing brethren spiritually rather than “after the flesh,” practicing patience, forgiveness, and love even when hurt. Participants highlighted the need for prayer, grace, and humility, recognizing that growth involves overcoming personal wounds and learning to love as God loves, with Christ working in believers to develop these qualities. The discussion underscored that true Christian maturity involves surrendering to God, fostering unity despite differences, and showing unmerited favor to one another.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Study on Loving Brethren and Overcoming Fleshly Judgments

Introduction and Purpose:
– The study began with a personal note about health (inner ear issue) and a lighthearted admission about remembering names.
– The main topic discussed was a common struggle in the consecrated Christian walk: how to love brethren sincerely, stop judging “after the flesh,” avoid reactivity and complaining, and show grace as God shows grace.
– The aim was mutual encouragement to grow closer as a brotherhood.
– The key scripture foundation was 2 Corinthians 5:14-18, emphasizing:
– Christ died for all, so believers no longer live for themselves but for Him.
– Anyone in Christ is a new creation; old things have passed away.
– God reconciled us through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
– Other key verses referenced included 1 Samuel 16:7 (God looks on the heart, not outward appearance), Colossians 1:27 (Christ in you, the hope of glory), Philippians 3:12-16 (pressing forward, forgetting what lies behind), Romans 8:28, James 1:19-20, Philippians 2:14-15, 2 Peter 1:3, Ezekiel 36:24-27, 1 Peter 3:8-11, Galatians 5:15, Romans 12, Matthew 6:15, Proverbs 6:16-19, and 1 John 4:1-3.

How to Stop Seeing Brethren After the Flesh:
– The study emphasized refraining from judging brethren by outward faults or emotions.
– Scripture reminder: “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
– Recognizing each believer as a “new creature” in Christ helps to see beyond fleshly imperfections.
– The adversary is active in causing division and stirring up problems; believers must resist him (Ephesians 6:11 implied).
– We should focus on the spiritual “glory” and Christ-like qualities in each other (Colossians 1:27).
– Differences among brethren are likened to different parts of the body (1 Corinthians 12), each with unique gifts and experiences to offer.
– Forgiveness is essential, remembering how much God has forgiven us (parable of the unforgiving servant).
– Patience is necessary as brethren may take years to change in certain areas; like a sailboat turning slowly.
– The importance of seeing brethren through God’s eyes, not our own fleshly frustrations.
– Acceptance that none are perfect; we all have wounds and struggles.

Learning Not to Be Reactive or Complain:
– Reactivity often arises from emotional impulses and fleshly weaknesses.
– Scripture advises: “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19-20).
– Choosing to give brethren the “benefit of the doubt” and tempering reactions with love.
– Recognizing that trials and unpleasant interactions are for spiritual growth and character development.
– Prayer and intercession soften hearts and provide strength to remain calm.
– Reactivity can be influenced by personal wounds; understanding this helps respond with grace.
– The concept of being proactive—acting in advance to handle difficulties rather than merely reacting.
– Recognizing that in the Kingdom, we will face diverse personalities and challenges; practice now is preparation for future service as reconciler priests.
– The goal is to be mature spiritual beings, growing in patience, faith, and love (2 Peter 1:5-7).
– Scripture Philippians 2:14-15 encourages doing all things without murmuring and complaining to be blameless children of God.

How to Love Brethren Especially When They Hurt Us:
– Loving brethren who hurt us is very challenging but necessary for Christian growth.
– Prayer and intercession for those who hurt us help to soften our hearts.
– Biblical examples: Joseph endured many hardships without complaint and saw God’s providence (Genesis 50:20 implied).
– Forgiveness does not mean excusing wrongdoing but willing the highest good for the other.
– Scriptures emphasize not repaying evil for evil and loving enemies (Romans 12, Galatians 5:15).
– The body of Christ analogy warns against “biting and devouring” each other, which destroys the body (Galatians 5:15).
– Real-life examples from brethren’s experiences show growth through patience and love despite disagreements or hurt.
– Encouragement to communicate openly with brethren when issues arise and to foster deeper relationships.
– Recognize that love is often a conscious decision rather than a feeling.
– Healing emotional wounds and trauma is important; trauma is the internal wound from events and can be healed (reference to Gabor Maté’s explanation).
– God provides the Spirit and grace to cultivate love beyond human ability.
– Patience with others’ faults and with ourselves is essential.
– Biblical exhortations to be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, humble, and to pursue peace (1 Peter 3:8-11).

How to Show Grace Like God Shows Grace:
– Grace is defined as “unmerited favor.”
– We are to extend grace to others as God has extended it to us (Matthew 6:15).
– Grace involves withholding judgment, not gossiping, and maintaining confidentiality.
– Wiping the slate clean like God does when brethren repent or ask forgiveness.
– Learning to surrender more to God’s work in us helps us show grace.
– Grace expressed through kindness, patience, and humility.
– Practical advice includes being slow to speak, quick to listen, and avoiding unnecessary criticism.
– Recognizing that only through God’s power can we truly love and show grace.
– The Christian walk is a continual process of surrender and growth in grace and love.

Additional Themes and Insights:
– The importance of unity in diversity: God’s calling includes people with many different backgrounds and opinions.
– The ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5) is both a present calling and a future kingdom responsibility.
– The necessity of accountability within the ecclesia, balanced with grace.
– Encouragement to pray for elders and leaders to protect the flock from deception.
– The spiritual maturity journey includes developing a “thick skin and tender heart” (quote from Brother Russell).
– Love is the root that undergirds all other Christian virtues; without love, actions are incomplete.
– The struggle against fleshly nature requires constant effort and reliance on God’s Spirit.

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Key Bible Verses Cited:

– 2 Corinthians 5:14-18 — The love of Christ compels us; we are new creations in Him; ministry of reconciliation.
– 1 Samuel 16:7 — God looks on the heart, not outward appearance.
– Colossians 1:27 — Christ in you, the hope of glory.
– Philippians 3:12-16 — Pressing forward, forgetting what lies behind.
– James 1:19-20 — Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
– Philippians 2:14-15 — Do all without murmurings and disputings.
– Romans 8:28 — All things work together for good to those who love God.
– 2 Peter 1:3-7 — Divine power has given us all things needed for godliness.
– Ezekiel 36:24-27 — God gives a new heart and spirit to follow His decrees.
– 1 Peter 3:8-11 — Be harmonious, loving, compassionate, not returning evil for evil.
– Galatians 5:15 — Warning against biting and devouring one another.
– Matthew 6:15 — Forgive others to be forgiven.
– Proverbs 6:16-19 — Things the Lord hates, including sowing discord.
– 1 John 4:1-3 — Test the spirits; confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

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Summary Conclusion:

This study deeply explored the challenges of loving brethren sincerely in the Christian walk, focusing on overcoming fleshly judgments, reactivity, and complaints through spiritual maturity and reliance on God’s grace. It underscored the necessity of viewing each other as new creations in Christ, forgiving as we have been forgiven, and showing grace as God shows grace. The study encouraged proactive love, patience, intercession, and unity amidst diversity, preparing believers not only for present fellowship but also for future ministry in God’s kingdom. The abundant scriptural references reinforced the biblical foundation for these principles, guiding brethren toward a heart transformation aligned with Christ’s love.

Transcript

Good morning, Brother. The reason I asked for no piano is because of my inner ear issue. As I told the doctor, it’s all in my head. But he had no sense of humor, and like Brother Ben Stein said yesterday, I know most of your names, but when I’m up in front of the group, I’m probably not going to remember, so I’m just going to point.

So this subject is one that I know all of us have struggled with over time in our consecrated walk. It’s one that I currently struggle with as well. At this time, I’m looking forward to your comments so that we can learn to help each other, to encourage each other to grow closer together as a brotherhood, and so I’d like to start by asking someone to read 2nd Corinthians 14 to 18. 2nd Corinthians 5:14 to 18.

Brother Austin, give me just a moment to pull it up here.

What was the chapter again? Sorry. Five. Thank you.

For the love of the Anointed. One constrains us judging this, that if one died on behalf of all, then all died, and that he died on behalf of all in order that the living might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. He says through 18 through 18 to 18 y 18. Thank you. So that we from this time respect no man on account of flesh.

And even if we esteem Christ on the account of flesh, yet we no longer thus regard him. For if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation, and old things have passed away. Behold, they have become new. But all things are from that God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of the reconciliation.

Thank you. So I put all the questions on one slide. So it’s just a few questions, but with as many comments as we’ve had over the last few days, I think we’ll amply fill the time. But the first question is, how do we stop seeing our brethren after the flesh? And then we’ll talk about how we can learn not to be reactive or complain.

And then we’ll ask, how do we love our brethren, especially when they hurt us? And how do we show grace like God shows grace? And I think these are very important questions, and Sister Donna Menchem, who sends her love, was. She had planned.

She and her husband had planned to be here, and she ended up in the hospital, was not able to be here. But she said, you know, some of us are daisies, some of us are sunflowers. We each have an inner beauty. We’re different. But we can learn from those differences and appreciate the beauty in others.

And so I thought that was a very good lesson to get started. Next slide.

So we’ll start with how do we stop seeing our brethren after the flesh? Any comments?

I was thinking of the parable of the debtor that he was forgiven so much, but he couldn’t forgive the one who owed him so little. So we need to always remember how much we were forgiven, and then we can probably begin to overlook some of the issues in our brethren or. That’s very good.

Yes. Brethren. What I have observed at this end of the age, which I know they’ve talked about that long since, but things are getting so bad that you can’t be blind to that, that sometimes things happen or discussions happen, that you have to realize that the adversary is at work. It could be a different change in a personality of someone or your own, that the adversary is. He goes about by a roaring, lying, and he wants to kill the church.

There’s no doubt about it. So I think you have to look very closely on that, because I don’t think it’s always, you know, it’s changing the person without the adversary interfering. He knows what buttons to push. That’s why we have to have on the whole armor in order to withstand. So I think that look at that for a while and say, get thee behind me, Satan, because that’s probably what’s going on over.

And that Corinthians scripture that we just read, to know no man after the flesh means we shouldn’t judge brethren by their faults, by our emotions. We should try to keep the emotion out of it or the history. Sometimes we might have a history with someone you know, and some marriage counselors suggest that, you know, if you have marriage problems, don’t bring up the past, deal with the present and go forward, and so it’s the same thing with our brethren, the deal with the present.

Any other comments? Sister Renee and then Brother David, I just want to share a scripture of 1st Samuel 16:7.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart, and that’s how we should. If we look at flesh, sometimes that can cause division, favoritism, unforgiveness, and pride. Thank you. Yeah, we.

We all are different. There’s. We all have different parts. We’re all different parts of the body. But everyone has something that we can learn from.

Everyone has something to share and sometimes even just talking about our experiences or what, how the Lord is dealing with us, you know, with these differences, we can learn to appreciate these things in others and grow together and be much more of a unified brotherhood. You know, it’s like some brethren have said that, you know, you put two brethren in a room and you’ll have five or ten different opinions.

I think Brother David had a comment. Brother Jeff, I’d like to bring a scripture. Colossians, chapter 1, verse 27. By the way, brethren, you can hear my voice is kind of bad. I’m not shaking hands or hugging today.

You want to touch elbows, that’s fine. But as much as I like to share things with you, I don’t want to share this with you. Colossians 1:27. To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So the approach to this question should be for us to see what we can find in each of us that is a reflection of Jesus, a reflection of Christ. It’s kind of a spiritual filter, as it were, and it applies in all situations. We’re going to discuss a lot about when we have problems, but just taking the problems aside, you meet a brother or sister for the first time, you can get the social amenities out of the way. But now see if you can touch the new creature in them. Look for what is glorious in them from God’s standpoint.

And this scripture says that there’s a glory in each of us because we’re called. So an objective should be, let’s touch the new creature. Let’s find the new creature. You mentioned ago that a moment ago everyone has something to offer. The scripture says every joint supplieth.

So I like to talk to my brethren and see, you know, what is it that they know that I don’t? What experiences have they had that I haven’t? How has the Lord touched their lives in a way different than mine? When we fellowship and at that level, the flesh kind of disappears. So I think this scripture here, looking for Christ in each one of us is really a good starting point over.

Thank you. Each of us is a new creature, even if we’re not perfected yet, and we can see each other as new creatures. If we can look at each other as new creations in Christ and recognize that we’re all still being transformed, including ourselves, I think that helps us to look at things through God’s eyes and not our own eyes, our own frustrations. As I mentioned in one of the studies this week, this weekend, when God told the Israelites how to build the tabernacle, he didn’t start from the outside in, because when we think of the tabernacle, we start from the outside, going in through the gate, walking past the brazen altar, getting up to the tent, you know, with a laver.

God started with the ark of the covenant and worked his way outward. That’s where God’s presence was. So if we can all try to live in God’s presence and learn to see each other that way, I think that helps as well. Any other comments, Brother Austin? And then, Brother, this is a verse that we often apply to ourselves, but it’s also one that we can apply to our brethren.

Philippians 3. I’m going to start at verse 12. Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but but one thing I do. Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such view of things, and if on some point you think differently that that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Like I said, we often apply this one to ourselves because it’s something that we have to do in order to forgive ourselves in order to move forward. However, we should also take that perspective as mature spiritual beings. This concept of mature spiritual beings is one that’s been on my mind for a minute now, and when you think of what it means to be a spiritual being in general, it’s what you think a mature person should be like. Always forgiving, always understanding, and with a purpose to build others up.

Thank you, Brother Austin. You know, we often don’t know the pain or burdens that our brethren have. Each of us has wounds, and how we learn to deal with those wounds is part of growing in Christ and our fellowship. In our fellowship we can see as we discuss our wounds, discuss how we learn to overcome them, discuss what the Lord has taught us in these things, how helps us to see each other as new creatures and not just as our flesh.

Brother Ken, did you have a comment?

Well, I think for me it’s important to remember how undeserving I am of this grace that has been bestowed upon me. I always go back to the Beatitudes when thinking about this, where it says, happy are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs, and that poor in Spirit, those are beggars in spirit. That’s like realizing that of myself, I have nothing to give, and what mercy was showed upon me is, how could I not display that to others? You know?

And I think, and then when James says, you know, blessed are those that will be merciful because whoever you give mercy to, you will be judged in that way. I think it’s imperative that I keep that in my mind, and, you know, we’ve been put together in this ecclesiast setting and in these class settings, and we meet together because God called us and we are put together and we rub against each other, and sometimes it hurts, you know, but, you know, when we go through those things and we go through this process, I mean, every one of us is in this process of overcoming this world, the flesh and the devil, and we all have our different ways. Some people rub us a little harder than others.

But you know what? Those are the brethren we probably need most, and sometimes the sins that I see in others are the sins that are in myself, and so I always try. You talked about building the temple from the inside out.

And I think through this process, if we go through this full process and become overcomers, we have to overcome this. We learn to love our brethren because we pass from death unto life, because we love our brethren, and then we become peacemakers so that we can be sons of God. Peacemakers, and loving someone.

A lot of times there’s an honesty that goes that’s uncomfortable not only to others, but to ourselves, but that we always need to keep in mind that love. I guess that’s a note. Oh, that’s good. That’s good. Your comment reminds me of what Brother David Stein said yesterday about how when he was learning to be a manager and choosing a team, that it was suggested he pick someone who’s always going to pick the opposite side.

And I thought that was a beautiful analogy because they might see something that we’ve missed or the rest. If we’re all thinking exactly alike, then who’s really doing the thinking? I think of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in this regard, with no differences of opinion really allowed in the meetings in order to discuss and learn and grow together, and we have that freedom as brethren to. To discuss the scriptures and to look at them.

We can’t always fix people, but we still are supposed to love them anyway, and, you know, when we see these fleshly weaknesses, don’t equate it with a lack of sincerity, because they are just as sincere in their walk as we are. They’re trying to make their colony election sure as well, and so if we can learn to encourage each other into love and good works, that’s always a good thing. Sister Joyce, that comment reminded me of the incredible example left to me and to some of us here by two saints that have long made their calling an election.

Sure, the first one was Sister Peg Kindig, a more meek, quiet, accepting, loving Christian woman you would be hard pressed to find, and yet, when anybody said anything about some horrible experience or some person that had done something, what did she say? She always said, there but by the grace of God go I. I was like, peg, no way. You know, but that stuck with me more than anything else that she said.

And we can learn from that, that no matter what we see, don’t make yourself superior to somebody. Just remember that quiet phrase there, but by the grace of God go I. Because what do we have that we haven’t received? What merit do we have on our own that we should compare ourselves to somebody else? So we need to be very careful.

And then the other example is our dear brother Carl, who would always say, what is Christian? How do you break down Christian without Christ? I am nothing.

I like that. When the general convention asked Brother Carl Haginsik to give a talk on the Christian walk, he said how ironic it was that a paraplegic was asked to teach others how to walk, you know, but yeah, Sister Peg and Brother Carl are very great examples and there’s a lot of them. Any other comments in the back?

What I was going to say, you know, it’s not just cut and dry. The one thing I do always is offer prayer for our elders that lead our thoughts to guide and direct them, protect them. They have the most responsibility. They. There are wolves in sheep’s clothing that enter into the flock.

We know that. So you have to be able to determine and they have to protect the sheep, and so I think that’s, you know, it’s not just who are the brethren that are in. Are there some that aren’t brethren? You know, so you have to be able to determine that.

And that’s why we have the spirit of God. These are spiritual things that are discerned. So I think you have to be very careful and, and I think everybody should pray for our elders always over, and as the brethren we’re talking about, you know, as elders, sometimes brethren come to you seeking help and sometimes what may be said could be shocking. You know, we have the same issues the world has, and these are things that we all need to learn to overcome.

Together and keep each other accountable. You know, like the Alcoholics Anonymous, for example. They, you know, one of the lessons is to seek a higher power, but also you need someone to help keep you accountable, and that’s what the body of Christ is for. We should keep each other accountable.

So we have our elders, but we also have each other, and we shouldn’t gossip and tell others what others have told us privately in confidence. We should try always to encourage and to love unto good works.

Brother Austin, two things. First, I’m going to build off the previous comment. So in first John, chapter four, he directs us. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone into the world by this, you know, the spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God.

It seems kind of straightforward what he says there, but he’s actually saying not so much confess that Jesus has come into flesh, but every spirit that confesses the ransom and understands the ransom.

Going to try to contain my emotions here. That way I can speak a little bit.

I participate in the online forum for Christian questions constantly, and some of the questions that are constantly brought up from people in the world is how do I deal with my flesh in sexual manners? Because I want to serve God more, but I feel like I’m being held back by my flesh, and the answer I give them every time, whether their sexuality be one way or another, is that the Lord is not calling you according to your flesh, and so we don’t look at that.

We’re not going to look at that. In fact, put that behind you and work towards that which is ahead of you and put your mindset in a manner that your goal isn’t an earthly goal. Your goal isn’t to get married. Your goal isn’t to find your perfect mate. Your goal is Christ.

And that’s. That’s where you should be going, and I appreciate that. As brethren, we can listen to each other’s pains, our burdens, and sometimes listening is the best thing. We don’t have to say anything.

Just listen to what the other brethren are saying and let them pour out their hearts, and we can do the same with others as well. We can keep each other accountable, and as Sister Joyce said, Brother Carl said that, you know, being a Christian means I am nothing, and the beauty of being a new creature in Christ is that God takes that nothing and he makes something out of it.

And we have to let him mold, shape, and guide our lives each day and look for His Leadings his providences. Any other comments?

All right, so we’ll go to the next question.

How do we learn not to be reactive or complain? And I like this chart because it has God in it. It has being aware of ourself, being aware of others, and we do react sometimes. How do we learn not to react?

How do we learn not to complain? How do we learn not to let our emotions get involved in, to remain calm in all situations?

Brother Paul, we were in Dallas in February. We were in an hour session with Chuck Swindoll.

He’s the master on this subject, I think, and so he’s written a book recently that we’ve given out to some brethren that life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react, and so we all have the choice to be not reactive. We have to and we have to always choose to give the benefit of the doubt. I think to always try to recognize.

And one thing I’ve learned from this convention is how much we need to give brethren the opportunity and the help through like a sailboat. A sailboat cannot turn around right away. You’ve got to give. You have to give room to turn, and that’s how we need to deal with our brethren.

It may take them 20 years to see a point that you feel is principle. Principle, but just be there and ready to help over, you know, our reactions that are driven by emotion. We have to learn to temper them through the spirit. We have to, you know, learning not to lose control is part of learning to surrender to Christ each day, and so if we can, you know, avoid the mountaintop experiences and the deep valleys, try to keep more on an even keel, that helps as well.

Sister Robin, I mentioned this in a previous study, but Romans 8:28. We know all things work together for good to them that love God, and if we keep in mind that whatever somebody pushes our buttons, they’re not doing it to us, they’re doing it for us and have that attitude of everything that happens is for our benefit, and we can choose to react in the flesh, or we can choose to let the Spirit Spirit work in us and help us to grow and develop the new creature Over. I have a couple of scriptures that kind of go along that line.

James 1:19 20 says, Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. In Proverbs 29:11, a fool uttereth his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

So one of the. There’s a couple things I’VE been thinking of, and further Paul’s comment made me think of come to whatever I think the number one love. If we love our truly love our brethren, we’re going to be we’re going to make give them the benefit of the doubt, and if we find that we don’t do it then we need to look at our heart and see if we have the love.

And also going back to our first study on intercession, if we are praying, if we have an issue with a brother or we know they have problems if we’re praying for them, I know that’s changed my heart that I’m praying for this brother. So now I’m a little more sympathetic, and what Brother Paul said about you know, 20 years change in the boat I could say it took me 20 years to come around to something with certain brethren and they waited for me and they were there to love me when I finally caught the clue. But it took me 20 years, and so their love and their non reactive to my behavior was an example to me over I think that lesson of waiting, silence, calming ourselves, being slow to speak.

That’s all very good advice Sister Renee and then brother Ken after that. So I just want to share scripture Philippians 2:14 and 15 do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. So if you are practicing these things, so the Lord is training you to reflect his character, calmness, patience and full of faith over our Christian experiences are different and I think that’s why God chooses us. We all have different parts of the body and we all can learn from those experiences that we have, and you know the scripture says every joint supplieth and so there’s a reprint 3820 reprint 3820 where Brother Russell says our Christian experiences differ.

No two have exactly the same because our temperaments and talents differ as well as our surroundings. But we may rely upon it that no real son of God is exempted from the needed trials of patience, faith and love, no matter how strong the character or how seemingly impregnable to the ordinary besetments we may rely upon it that such have as great trials and crosses as others, perhaps greater, perhaps such as would prostrate weaker ones whom the Lord will therefore in love and mercy not suffer to be tempted above what they are able to bear. Even our blessed Lord Jesus, though perfect, had to pass through an experience to test and prove his complete submission to the Father’s will. Looking at our Lord’s testing, we cannot doubt that his strong character was measurably unmoved by the sarcastic, bitter words and threats of the scribes and Pharisees, and that likewise he speedily and firmly settled Satan’s temptations negatively. None of these things, which would have been the greatest temptations to others, seemed to move, or even to greatly annoy him.

He answered coolly and often ironically, the attacks of open enemies, and was comparatively unmoved by them, and again, that was reprint 38 20. Brother Ken, thank you. There’s a word I want to share and I just went to. I googled it, and it’s an adjective and it’s called proactive.

And the definition of proactive is acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty or anticipation acting in advance to deal with an expected change or difficulty of a policy or person or action controlling a situation by causing something to happen, or rather than waiting to respond to it after it happens. So the preparation and what we’re doing here is being proactive, and we’ve had thoughts brought out. We’ve looked at intercession, we’ve looked at mercy, we’ve looked at putting all of these things together, and so as we look at this, there’s a scripture in.

Well, my computer is not doing 32.

Sorry. No worries, no worries.

In Peter, it says, according to 2nd Peter 1:3, according as his divine power have given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and so we are given this promise that at this time we can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust or want of other things, to glorify ourselves in some way, and you know, when I fall into that, that’s after the flesh. If I’m judging after the flesh. If I’m judging somebody after their flesh, I’m judging after my flesh also.

I’ve been judged because of my action, and so Peter gives us this to add diligence, add your faith, virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, temperance, and some of these things we talk about, and it was brought up about the prayer. The first thing that we need to do is go to the Holy Spirit in prayer and bring this up. I’ve got this problem with this, Brother keeps Doing this.

And it makes me feel like this, and you know what? I feel bad for feeling like this. But I don’t know how to get out of it and I don’t know what to do, and it happens over and over again.

It says right here in the book, father, and I’m holding it up to you, what do I do right? And then it’s like when we look at that, we get to get past that because we brought that out. We need to communicate with our heavenly Father. We don’t need to communicate with everybody else because, you know, it does. You know, in Matthew 18, we’re not to gossip.

You know, gossip is murder, and we don’t bring it to other people, and you know, there is sometimes we’re intercession by brethren on behalf elders or those in a place of that need to be. But you know what? Most things, when I bring him to prayer and begin to work out in that way, the Lord works it out.

And it’s amazing how the brethren that rubbed me the wrong way oftentimes become the closest brethren to me. I’ll be careful not to rub you the wrong way, Brother Austin and then Brother Vivian, and then. So this is just a quick question to put out into the room a little bit so I can understand the question a little bit more. But how do you define reactive in relation to complain in this question?

Because I’m not quite sure I understand the reactive part. But just for the brethren in their answers, maybe they can help me understand a little bit more. Thank you for that question, Austin. I have a line on that. But first, Vivian.

Yeah, I don’t have a specific answer to that. Maybe the other brethren can adhere to that. But I just wanted to share two points that I heard from other sources that kind of ties in with Sister Robin’s point about things happening for us and not to us. If you watch baseball, I think in mlb, I don’t know if it happens in lower divisions, but before a batter gets onto the actual mound, you’ll see that he’ll actually put on a heavy weight on the bat to start just swinging, just to feel a heavy bat, and then once he takes it off and actually gets on the mound and starts to pitch, the bat feels super light.

And this, you know, is kind of across all sports is kind of weight training for people who do short distance runners, they’ll run on the sand and then when they actually run on a normal track, it feels super light and super quick. That’s pretty much what’s happening in our case, is it’s kind of confusing. I mean, confusing as in me when I say we, as in me. The. That on the reactive part that when brethren can act a certain way to you, it’s not like it’s going to get any easier in the kingdom.

Like, if your goal is to. Like we talked about yesterday about being a sympathetic high priest, do you think you’re going to have like easy personalities in the kingdom coming to you? It’s like, hi, I’m Vivian. I want to tell you about God. First person’s like, maybe one person will say, yeah, I’d love to know more.

Other person’s like, get lost. That’s probably like a more common thing. Many people don’t want to be involved based off of their history or, you know, how their life went based off of, you know, a victim of some sort of religious abuse. Spiritual abuse could be many reasons. So the personalities you have in your ecclesia.

And I’ll broaden it even more to anybody you come into contact with in a close, you know, relation that you see on a day to day basis. It could be your Christian friends in general and it could be people at work. I think they’re a microcosm of the personalities you’ll deal with in the kingdom, and that’s really the goal here, and of course it’s a lot easier said than done because, you know, if someone were to come up to me and say, brother Vivian, your comments sucked.

You know, I’m gonna react. I won’t be active and think. I won’t, I won’t be thinking, I love this brother to death. That won’t be my thought, and so that’s, you know, it worked for me personally.

And you know, that’s kind of a personal meditative question. If someone came up to you, he’s like, brother xyz, sister xyz, that comment was horrible. Is your initial thought, you know, I love you so much, or is it, that’s weird or, you know, does it go down that route like we talked about yesterday of how, you know, Jesus knowing ahead of time Judas eventual betrayal of him, but yet, you know, no one around him had a clue that he would be. That he had any sort of thought that Judas would be betraying Jesus. So just a thought to keep in mind of that.

What we’re creating here is to be replicated on the other side. There’s no change. You know, you get the knowledge piece, you’ll be perfected in that side, but you don’t get to work on your heart more in the kingdom. The crystallization part ends at the end of your life. The way you are at the end of your life is how you wake up on the other side.

And so things aren’t going to change. When you flip over, it’s like, yeah, God will take care of all the difficult personalities. No, God’s telling you to go fix that difficult personality or to work with that individual. So it’s. Yeah, that’s it.

Thank you. It goes back to that scripture we read when we started in Second Corinthians, and that scripture ends with this phrase about the ministry of reconciliation. We are learning now to learn to reconcile these things amongst each other, but also because we’re going to be in that ministry in the future. That’s what we’re learning for the future kingdom, as you said, and you know, we are.

The way we react, going to Austin’s question is sometimes reflective of our own wounds that we have inside, and each of us have wounds. We shouldn’t assume that what they did was intentional or define it because circumstances matter.

The way we react might reflect our wound, but not the worth of what’s being said, and so look for the value. Give them the benefit of the doubt. As. As the brethren have said.

And in psychology, some. Some psychologists suggest that we need to replace our automatic negative thoughts, you know, with understanding, and I would add grace to that as well. Oh, you first, and then you.

I know your names, but yes. So, Brother Vivian, again, I’m sorry that I said that your comments sucked in the past.

Yeah, I liked your comment, Brother Jeff, is how sometimes we react to our own wounds, which is really true, too. But, yeah, in our reactions, it could be also a learning experience that God wants us to go through, too. So maybe we should also be kind of thankful for. I mean, if we do, if somebody does rub us the wrong way, I mean, maybe it’s just a learning experience and God wants us to grow and we should be thankful. So I got some scripture right here.

Thessonians 5, 16, 18. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks for this, the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, and, yeah, so we should try to be thankful and everything.

And then, you know, also pray.

You know, love is patient, so we have to be patient with everybody, and then, you know, you know, everybody’s different. Everybody has their quirks, and, you know, it could be something they’re also going through, or maybe it’s. It could even be some kind of mental illness.

I mean, maybe they have, too. I mean, who knows? So we Just really have to be patient with people. That’s it. Over.

Thank you, Brother Ken. Sorry, Ken. Keith. To answer your question, though, like brother Jeff and I, when we first got here, we had a few conversations and we realized some of our personal views about other things. You know, mine were right and his are wrong, but we perceived that, but we didn’t react.

We’ve had some great conversations all weekend, but we could have reacted and said, oh, he’s one of those, or he thinks that way. But I liked what brother Ken said. He said the way we view others, if we view them in the flesh, maybe we’re thinking in the flesh, and sometimes, you know, I don’t want to throw her under the bus. My wife says, you know, she’s worried about this or that or her weight or whatever.

And I tell her, do you want me to view you the way you view you or the way I view you? And we have to do that, too. Do we want to view life, people, relationships, the way God or Jesus views it, or do we want to view it the way the world does? And that’s the difference between us and the world. That’s why we’re called out.

That’s why a peculiar people. We’re outside of that, and we need to remember that, and we can have differences. I mean, the tribe of Levi was not made up of all Levi. Right.

They had to get members from all the different tribes to make them a complete tribe, and isn’t that familiar? Isn’t that like the gospel age? We started with 5,000 Jews, and then we started bringing the Gentiles in. So the idea is in revelation they say 144,000, but it doesn’t stop there.

It says 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes. That tells us God was looking for diversity of opinion, diversity of experiences, diversity of cultures, and all of those are what’s going to make up the sin offering. So who are we as individuals to look at what God’s creating through our own personal perspective, but try to get above that, you know, the higher thinking of the heavens, the spiritual thinking, and see that person for the way God sees them, and it’s hard, but that’s our job, is to rise above the flesh and think in the spiritual, and as you said, we are a peculiar people chosen by God.

And I did think your ideas were a little peculiar, but I didn’t react.

And yeah, we need to look at things from God’s perspective and see our brethren from God’s perspective. Sister Ester, I’m going to call my wife the comment you made about wounds yesterday, can you repeat that? Because I don’t quite remember what it was. So thank you, baby.

You didn’t prepare me in advance, Jeff, but I’m not going to hold it against you. So I’m trying to see how to fit it in here. I’m listening a lot about how to heal old wounds, because sometimes we see the words through the old wounds that had not been healed, and we feel like we are still being attacked as we perceive the or as it happened in our childhood, and I was listening to Gabor Mate. He is an expert in trauma, and I really like the way he explains trauma, and it goes very well with the way we see the kingdom.

He says that trauma is not what happened to you. It’s not the war. It’s not the abuse. It’s not the beating that you got. It’s the wound that was created inside of you as a result of that event through which you went.

And he said, this is good news for all of us, because if the trauma would be that event, we lived through the war or the abuse. We could never go back and change that. But if it’s the wound that happened inside of us, we can learn to heal that wound, and sometimes we live with this wound. We do not address it, and then we get triggered, and we don’t stop.

Stop to ask ourselves, why am I being triggered by these trivial, small things? And that’s why sometimes it’s good to do some counseling, some look in the past and heal those wounds and then start fresh, and this is good news because we all know this is the kingdom. All wounds can be healed, and we can start here.

Thank you. I thought that was the most beautiful explanation of how we can work on those wounds within us and help each other work on those wounds.

Whoever. Oh, Sister Joyce, thank you.

I really love that thought, and there’s a lot of profound wisdom in it because ultimately, at the end of the day and any other time of the day, the only person we can change is ourselves. We can have influences within our circle of influence. We have more influence over our children than any other human beings when they’re children. But eventually we have to come to grips with the fact that the only person we can change is ourselves.

And we have, as Christians, a profound responsibility to make those changes, to make sure that we’re as healed as we possibly can be through God’s grace, and the studies we had yesterday, I just. Boy, it just filled me up to overflowing with information and ability and emotional strength to do Some of that hard healing work within myself, and I hope that I wasn’t the only one that that happened to. But Brother Russell, there’s a reprint somewhere.

It might even be a comment in Manner of Songs in the Night where he says, when we enter the Way, as Christians, we often have thin skins and hard hearts. As we progress, we know we’re making progress if we develop a thick skin and a tender heart.

Sister Carrie so kind of going off of what Sister Joyce was saying. Instead of reactive, we should be proactive and dealing with animals. I used to, especially the goats. They would drive me crazy and do the same thing every single time until I learned they’re going to keep doing that same thing. I’m the one that has to do change.

I have to be proactive and make it so that they don’t keep doing the same thing, and so if we can’t change was already said. We can’t change other people, but we can change how what we do and how we react over. Thank you, and you know, we can do all these things, but sometimes it still hurts.

So Vivin, next slide. How do we love our brethren when they hurt us, when we’re really hurt, what can we do?

Again, I think this goes back to intercession. We need to pray for them because we don’t know their triggers, we don’t know their trauma, we don’t know what’s going on, and so taking it to the Lord and either softening our hearts or softening theirs, whatever the Lord feels needs to happen.

And I do know for myself that in praying for different ones, that I had issues for my heart was softened over, and sometimes we could be overly sensitive as well, and we can tell others, well, don’t be so sensitive. Just, you know, just telling the brethren this is what you should do isn’t the way we should handle it. We are the ones that need to change how we react to it, how we grow through the experiences.

Sister Kathy Somebody told me something really cute one time, we’re like an egg and a potato. Our hearts are like an uncooked potato. Sometimes they’re hard, but the heat of experiences softens it. Whereas if we’re too tender skinned, the heat of experience, like the heat on an egg hard boils it and makes it firm over. Those painful experiences, test our discipleship.

It helps us to grow each day in a narrow way, and these are experiences the Lord allows. These we can see as providences that God’s giving us the experiences that we need in order to grow, and the other brethren on the other side are getting those same providences and experiences to help them grow as well.

So I was also thinking of Joseph, you know, the things that happened to him. Number one, we never have a record of him complaining about it.

And then he saw the big picture.

They may have meant it for evil, and people may do things because they’re not ice, but God meant it for the bigger picture, and as Brother Vivian talked about in the kingdom, we’re going to have to deal with these type of situations. So if we can’t deal with them now, we don’t get the job over. Yeah, we’re developing the character of kings and priests as a kingdom of priests. The future reconcilers.

Again, back to that 2 Corinthians, scripture. But again, loving the brethren who hurt us doesn’t mean to excuse the wrong, but willing their highest good and our going to a God in prayer on behalf of them and ourselves to heal those wounds.

Yes, brethren, I think I have thicker skin, too, but I don’t take lightly when someone’s hurting another brother or sister. When someone is trashing someone that I really think highly of, that’s harder for me to accept. If you’re hurting my feelings or whatever, I’m okay with that. You know, it’s. We move on.

We know it’s. But I appreciated all the thoughts that were given. Thank you. We have to try not to take it personally, but when it is personal, that’s when our love is really tested, and that’s when we have to shine. That’s when we have to grow by those experiences.

Brother Michael, Brother Jeff. I remember when I began my walk with the Lord, I had the blessing of having Brother and Sister Buell living close to us, and Brother Ward was in construction, and I was in design engineering. So I designed a project that he built, and one day we had a difference of opinion on means and methods.

And of course, I was in my late 20s and he was in his mid-50s, so he knew more than I did, and that’s a fact. But it came to blows in which he got very stern with me, and I thought, oh, my gosh, this is my older brother, and I’m being chastised. What do I do? Because we have Bible study tonight.

So I had to really search my conscience and think, lord, you don’t want me to be reactive to this or even ask him in love about it. It was just his way of expressing opinions, which he was very strong on, particularly in the, you know, the worldly work he did. So it was an opportunity for me to practice the love that needed to happen, and it, and I had no one else to ask, you know, I couldn’t ask, Brother Ward, how do I handle this?

So it. I could probably have done that. I was not probably that mature at that time. But I thank the Lord for Wednesday night. We had good Bible study over.

Now sometimes it might feel like when we had these experiences that they’re our enemies and they’re not our enemies, you know, but at a convention, one of the brethren asked Brother Russell, you know, who are the enemies that we are to love? And his answer was, your enemies. You need not love my enemies. I’ll do that myself, and so we all have different experiences, different triggers, different wounds.

And what might impact us might not impact somebody else.

Oh, first you again, the names, and then Sister Robin.

Yeah, I think one of the first things is we really have to get to know our brethren, and if we do have issues, then, you know, we just have. We have to tell them, hey, I have an issue with, with you about this.

And then, you know, even if it means going out and having lunch or, you know, whatever, I mean, I mean, we just really have to get to know our brethren and love our brethren. You know, just like our relationship with God, you know, and we said that yesterday, we have to pray. I mean, without praying, we don’t know God, so, and I think that goes the same with our brother. Anyway, that’s it.

Over. Sometimes it’s not the feelings we need to work with, but decisions. You know, love is a decision, not a feeling in some ways in regards to our brethren, and when we are hurt, we have to remember, you know, God is working with them too. He’s working with me and to learn to work through those things together as brothers.

There was one more comment. Oh, Sister Robin. I guess trying to reconcile this in my brain. When our brethren hurt us, what are they hurting? Are they hurting our flesh?

Are they hurting our new creature? And is it even possible to hurt our new creature for other people to hurt our new creature? I mean, I think we can do plenty of damage to that ourselves. But if it’s brethren hurting our flesh, yea, I mean, it’s not yea in the flesh, it’s yea in the spirit. Because our flesh has to go, has to be kept down and put into subjection.

But is it even possible for our brethren to hurt our new creature? Over. Yeah, and you know, maybe the brethren can’t hurt our new creature, but we can by the way that we’re reacting. So we need to be cognizant of that as well.

First Brother Kent and then Brother Paul Kent behind you.

Oh, I thought you had a comment. No. Okay, yeah, go ahead. Oh, Keith. See, I told you.

Name.

That’s like the person with the cross eye pointing at somebody. Everybody’s going, is he pointing at me? I appreciate your comment that you put it more eloquently than I did. I was thinking, but when somebody does hurt me, you know, I know my insecurities and stuff, and if I get hurt or angry, I think to myself, why are.

Are you feeling this? And then it goes to what you said. Well, that embarrassed me. Well, why did that embarrass you? And you find out it comes from your flesh.

So sometimes I don’t even go to the person because the problem was with the receiver, not the sender of the message. Other times, if you can, you know, just like we do research and get our facts before we go, you know, do a presentation or talk to somebody, hopefully we get all the facts. If you go to somebody and say, hey, when you did this, it hurt me because, you know, I know it hurt my pride, but I just want to let you know, sometimes they don’t even know that they did that, that they hurt you.

And they might have said it a different way or whatever had they known your, you know, your fleshly sensitivities. So I think a lot of times when we get hurt, I’m not going to say all, but a lot of times it’s because something is going on in our own flesh and we need to deal with it before we go pointing our, you know, pull that beam out of our eye before we go talk about the spec in the other person’s. In the IT industry, you were mentioning the whys. You know, in the IT industry, they have something called the five whys. Why did this fail?

Why did the back cause of that happen? Why did this happen? And by continuing to ask that why, you can get down to the root cause, and if you can solve the root cause, then you can, or perhaps monitor, you can prevent it from possibly happening in the future, and it’s the same thing in our Christian lives.

If we can keep asking why, why, why? Sometimes why is the most important question, Brother Paul.

So God is just. We want to be just.

And so what if we’re really hurt?

And principle is absolutely involved. So let’s talk about 6 million Jews being slaughtered in the Holocaust, and let’s say you’re one of the survivors and your whole family’s wiped out.

How can you love and you know, we’re talking about brethren here, but in Romans 6, which I think is a good place, it’s. It’s the subtitle in my Bible says, love in action, and it goes, it says, love must be sincere. We have to be devoted to one another in love. We have to never be lacking in zeal.

We have to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people. Bless those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Live in harmony with one another.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil, and this is the bottom line of this passage is something that the Jews used because they were saying, well, don’t you want to go and kill Nazis now because of what they did? Isn’t that your responsibility? And they would quote the scripture, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay.

It’s God’s responsibility to repay any injustice done to us, and we have to forgive, and injustice will happen to you. Among the brethren, you know, it’s probably borderline of what Brother Michael said, whether that, you know, it could have been something that, you know, Brother Ward should have done, you know, and yet he didn’t do it, and we have to let it go. We cannot if it. If we keep it inside, it’s only hurting us.

It’s not hurting. It’s not doing anything to solve the situation over. You remind me of a couple of stories. Richard Wurm Brand’s Tortured for Christ was mentioned this weekend, and they made two films out of those experiences of this Lutheran minister who.

Who was in these various prisons in Communist Romania, and some of our brethren were there with him as well.

But the second film, which is based off of a book about his wife, they were Jews, but they were atheist Jews, and he ended up getting very, very ill and converted to Christianity, but his wife didn’t, and he kept trying to witness to her, witness to her, and it was driving them, you know, apart a little bit, and then when he was away for an extended vacation, she picked up the Bible and started to read it.

When she saw this. These scriptures about, you know, forgiving your enemies and loving your enemies, and if you love your enemies, you’re going to feed him, you’re going to give him water to drink, you’re going to clothe him. She said, I don’t understand this. It’s very, very difficult. But I’ll give the spoiler alert for the film by the end of the story, and it’s a true story.

You know, under the Nazi period, A Nazi guard ended up in their home, and she was sleeping, and as Richard Wurmbrand was talking to this guard, he realized he. He was working at the same concentration camp that his wife’s family were murdered in, and he was possibly the guard who did that, and this guard didn’t have any faith, but he said, you know, I guarantee if I go wake up my wife and tell her what happened and who you are, she’s going to come out and give you some water and give you something to eat and try and clothe you.

And the guard didn’t believe it, so he went, got his wife, and it’s exactly how she reacted. She learned that lesson. It’s a very, very powerful story, and then one other one real quick. Sister or, ah, Sister Corrie.

Ten boom years after her experience in the concentration camp, she was talking to a crowd and, and a person was coming up to her afterwards, and she recognized it was one of the Nazi guards at the camp, and she had an immediate reaction when he came up to her and said, you know, I’ve become a Christian now as well. She realized she had to change her reaction.

She had to change how she responded to these kind of things, and again, another powerful lesson of forgiveness. Sister Estera, and then Brother Austin, going back to loving the brethren who hurt us, I will read a verse, Galatians 5, 15. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the spirit and you will not be gratify the desires of the flesh for the. Okay, my phone started.

Brother David Oran has a discourse on this, and he entitled his discourse the autoimmune disease, and he explains what the autoimmune disease is. When the body turns against itself, thinking that part of the body is working against it, and it’s not true, and he says we should be careful not to do this, because when we hurt each other, when we bite and devour each other, we actually trigger this autoimmune disease that can spread very far, and the truth is, we never know how far are the words that we are saying I are going to reach.

And what we are doing, instead of building the body of Christ, we are destroying it, and it’s not our body, it’s the body of Christ. So we have to be very careful how we speak about our brethren, about the body of Christ. That’s a beautiful lesson. It’s not our body, it’s the body of Christ.

We need to be very, very careful, Brother Austin, and then I know you and the name is gone again. I’m Let Brendan go first. I’m still formulating my thoughts on this. On it.

So all of these things and just basically commenting on comments, I guess are always circled in everything. This whole weekend and our entire consecration circles back to love, and it’s no surprise. But how do we love our brethren? How do we deal with them when they hurt us?

How do we not look at them after the flesh? All these hows, really, those are just symptoms. They’re not the root cause. When Jesus says love one another with a pure heart, number one. So it’s a kind of love that he’s telling us to love with and then an intensity, he says fervently, and if you love.

If we are able to get to that point and we can’t do it by ourselves, it doesn’t no good thing dwells in any of us, and this is the phantom we keep chasing. I need to do insert any of 10,000, 100,000 words or things or thoughts after that. It’s as soon as we start thinking we need to do something because we’ve kind of coached each other and ourselves into a corner by saying, I have to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. We’re great at quoting that verse, but we never quote the next part.

It’s not us that works out our own salvation with fear and trembling. That’s the phantom. That’s the thing, and that’s why we have so many, some successes and then failures. That’s why every Barnes and Noble or bookstore you walk into, one of the largest sections in those bookstores is the self help, self help section.

There’s very little. You might get some success, but it’s mostly self failure, and that’s the. So the ideal is ultimately we know we lack love. I don’t know about.

I can’t say all of us, but I think most of us are in a similar where we would love to have more love, more godlike love, more love for God, more love for Jesus, more love for our brethren, and then of course, love our enemies, pray for those that despitefully use you and persecute you, etc, and say all manner of evil against you falsely? Well, what if you were talking about in this particular question, how do we love our brethren when they hurt us? What if it’s not our enemies that are saying all manner of evil against us falsely?

What if it’s the ones that are close to us and many of us here are married and so we have a firsthand, you know, we’ve got box seats to how we should be treating each other as brothers and sisters, you know, in this field, and so all these things ultimately come down to a love that none of us can develop on our own. We cannot get to this point, and so God knows, and so we ask him, say, I can’t do this.

I don’t even know how. I don’t even know what this love looks like. All I know is I want it and I don’t have it, and you say that you can get it for me, that you’ll give it to me, you’ll do these things for me, and so that’s our.

The reality is this surrendering, this actually touches on every subject that was brought out this weekend, that it’s this complete surrender, this abiding in Jesus, you know, when you read that scripture, Christ in you, the hope of glory. What does that do for you? For me, it was just a scripture. I knew it was a big deal, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. Really, really, really, really.

And what it does for us, and that’s the whole thing. Letting God through Christ, unto him who is able to present you faultless, not unto you who is able to present you faultless. He will do the work we have to allow him to do this work, to give us these things that we lack and to realize that it’s not something I can do. How do I stop evil speaking?

You know, how do I stop having these, I’ll say reactionary thoughts to my brethren, to those that I love, even to those out in the world when they say or do something? The point is, we can’t. We’ll say, I need to stop doing that, or I am bad at this. Well, of course you are, and of course you do. You’re not special.

We all suffer from the same things, but it’s not you. It’s Christ in you, and I think that’s where, if we realize that it’s not something, you know, we keep. Again, I go back to we flog ourselves with the guilt and the shame of our own failures. We’re like those Opus DEI priests that feel like they have to beat themselves up in order to be truly repentant.

And we do that all the time, and when the reality is, God knows. He knew when he called us, and the point is that, yes, you are a miserable failure, and there is no good thing in you except Christ is in you now.

That’s the only good thing in you, and we need to let him do this work. So that’s the identifying the symptoms is great because then we understand we have a cause for these symptoms, and now how do we get that measure and degree? You know, the fervency and the purity of the love that Jesus talks about, how do we cannot develop it in ourselves?

It’s an impossibility. You can’t pray your way into it. You can’t study your way into it. Not that prayer and study, you know, when I say neglect those. But how do we allow Christ, God through Christ, to plant or put this love in us and displace the things of the flesh and the things of the world?

Because that’s what’s causing us to feel these things that are, you know, feel some kind of way about our own brethren or even people out in the world over. As you said, all the questions this weekend were how questions. But we need to find. In order to find the root cause, we need to ask the five whys, why, why, why, why? And get down to the root cause and work on the root cause.

And that scripture, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You didn’t quote the next verse. Because it is God who works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. So it’s our part and God’s part. We work together.

And we also need to work together as a body of Christ as well, Brother Austin, and then the sister in the back, and then we’ll go to the last question.

I’m going to preface this with the idea of how childish are we? We are but children in the eyes of the Lord, and every day, of course, we have to really work on ourselves to grow in maturity of the Spirit, and to that thought, I’m going to read Ezekiel 36 and start at verse 24. For I will take you out of the nations, and I will gather you from all countries and bring you back into your own land.

And I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Clean water as in truth, clean water as in cleansing ourselves from the impurities of the world. As he says, I will cleanse you from your impurities and from your idols, and to put that in perspective, our idols are things that we distract ourselves with. So he’s going to cleanse us of our distractions and refocus us on what is, what is important in being a mature spiritual being.

And I will give you a new heart and put in and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in you. Move you to follow my degrees and be careful of my laws, and to put that in perspective, what is the Lord’s decrees?

What is the Lord’s laws? Well, he sums that up pretty well in Matthew, of course, where he says, the first is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and the second is, like it, to love thy neighbor as thyself, and of course, you can hang all the laws and prophets on these two.

And then I’m going to take you from there to first Peter 3 and first Peter 3. He’s going to sum this up for all of us right here. To sum it up for all of you, be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate and humble. Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving blessing instead, for you were called, or the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing. For the one who desires life to love and see good days, must keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

He must turn away from evil and do good and must seek peace and pursue it, and to think about everything that everyone has said, to do good to those who have done evil to you is the very idea of being a mature, spiritual being, and growing in that direction is not an easy task at all. But to think that the Lord is teaching us because our common, innate being as fleshly creatures is to react with an evil look when someone says something mean to you or evil to you, and so the Lord is saying, don’t be children.

He’s looking at one child to the next child. Hey, stop that. Cut that out. This is how you should respond when your brother or your sister says something to you and not to be mean to them. They’re still your brother.

Be kind to them and they’ll be kind back to you, even though they have done evil to you previously. Thank you, Os. You know, sometimes, especially with guys, sometimes we’re just big Toys R Us kids. So, sister in the back, and then we’ll go to the last question.

It’s still Kathy, though. What’s that? It’s still Kathy. Okay, thank you. I can’t remember the names.

That’s fine. There’s other Kathy I like Brother Paul brought out. Truthfully. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and that’s true.

He said we are, but we are to love, righteousness, hate, iniquity. I’m going to read from Proverbs, because this I keep in mind many times. Proverbs 6, 16. There are six things which the Lord hates. Seven which are an abomination to haughty eyes, a lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brethren.

The thing is, when you know that it said, mark them that cause division and avoid them. Now, it doesn’t say that you have to do any. The Lord is going to take care of that. But he does give us the thought that we should avoid those that cause division. That’s the seventh thing, that he hates them all.

So when we talk about God’s love, he also hates iniquity. He could have said to Adam, okay, we’ll get some. We’ll get you another wife, whatever you don’t have. He didn’t say that. He demands justice.

And that’s why anti lutron, we have our Lord Jesus and saved us all. But we have a responsibility. When it talks about when you see your brother going astray and you don’t warn them, then their blood is on your head. But if you warn them and they still go astray, then you’re free from that. So we do have responsibilities for our brethren, you know, we are our brother’s keeper.

Over. Thank you. As you said, we are our brother’s keeper. So how do we show grace like God chose me.

Brother Tom Gilbert has several discourses on grace, and he talks about vertical grace and horizontal grace. Vertical grace is the grace God gives to us and the horizontal grace is how we give grace to others. You know, says, let your speech be seasoned with grace. How do we show grace like God shows grace?

And we go until 11 o’ clock. If I’m correct. Brother Ken. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Oh, he has a comment.

And then you in the back. Did you have a comment? Okay, Robin or no, Karen, I think one way we can show grace is not to share situations with other people. They don’t need to know about it. We don’t need to form their opinions either.

So even if we’re going through something, we don’t need to tell other people all about it, and if also grace is. If someone comes to us for advice or to share their problem, we don’t share that either.

That’s what I liked about some of the elders that I’ve spoken to in the past. Because when you talk to them, they don’t. They don’t even share it with their spouses. Now that’s between you and him, and it really is trust.

Learning to trust each other.

Any other. Oh, now, Sister Robin. Well, one thing I’ve been thinking about lately is you know, we go to the Father in prayer every day, multiple times a day, asking for forgiveness, and he wipes the slate clean and we start fresh every day, and he doesn’t remember. Carry those past sins for us forward, and so we need to do the same for our brethren.

You know, if somebody says something to hurt us or sinned against us and ask for forgiveness, even if they don’t ask for forgiveness, we need to wipe the slate clean and start fresh and not carry that baggage forward. Over. Yeah, like, again, back to the comment from earlier. Not remembering the past, dealing with the present and moving forward. You know, God gives us undeserved favor regardless of what we do.

We have to recognize our sin and work with it. But we’ve received that undeserved grace from Him. We need to give that undeserved grace to our brethren as well.

I think there’s an advantage to couples here because I don’t believe for one minute that you don’t discuss something with your mate where when you live alone, you don’t have the opportunity to bounce it off your reaction about somebody, that they can calm you down or anything. So, not that I promote marriage. I mean, we’re married to the Lord. But the point is they do have an advantage, because who are you going to talk to if you don’t? It’s only you.

I know that when brethren come to me and share certain things with me, I don’t tell my wife. She doesn’t need to know. It’s important. We need to keep that confidence that the brethren have in us, and I don’t want to break that confidence.

So I work very, very hard at not sharing those things, and I don’t want my wife to feel hurt or discouraged either by. By what might be shared in confidence or private. You know, the Holy Spirit can lead us through these things. You know, we can respond with grace and kindness.

And that’s the love language. We should have grace and kindness. That should be our language. Always respond in kindness. Always reflect God’s kindness.

Reflect what God’s given us in the way that you deal with others. With our brethren, Paul or Joyce, and then Paul, we’ll put it that way, or Paul and then Joyce. I was first.

I was definitely first. The first shall be last.

It’s better to be kind than to be right. It’s an expression I like, and the scripture that I think of is, judge not lest ye be judged, and also what we’re going to get in the next study, if you cannot from your heart forgive, neither will My heavenly Father forgive you. Forgive me, as I forgive others.

Here she is, my wonderful wife.

My grandmother was the first person that ever told me about the three gates, and I think we all know about the three gates, and there’s another one out that has five gates, but the three, and I don’t remember what all five of them are, but the three are easy to remember. Is it kind of kind, is it true, is it necessary?

And otherwise we can all do what My grandmother also used to say all the time, the quoting the scripture that says, God is in heaven and thou art on earth, let your words be few, oftentimes less said, the better, and that’s how we can show grace. If God is dealing with somebody that we feel is, you know, off on some wrong track, we can pray, and God’s dealing with them. They’re going to bring them around. If they come to us, that’s a different thing.

But as a person who many, for many, many years, really worried and fretted and told everybody what they needed to do to get on the right track, I can finally tell you, brethren, I’ve reached the age of 70, and I’m a little better at not doing that anymore by God’s grace, you know, as we develop more in the fruits and graces of the Spirit, we also learn to surrender more, and surrendering is also an important lesson. God is patient with us. We need to be patient with others. But more importantly, we also need to be patient with ourselves, because we’re still learning.

And sometimes we’re not patient with ourselves, we don’t forgive ourselves, and that also is an important lesson. God’s still working with us, and we need to try to learn to rely and trust in him more. Brother Austin, quick question. Out to the room.

So, growing up as a Christian in general, you’ll hear the word grace a lot, used for many, many, many different terms. So question out to the room. Since it’s been used so much for so many different ways and manners, how would you better define grace? Since it’s become such a generic word used for many things, how would you better define grace?

Brother Paul, Amazing Brother Randy.

The definition of grace is unmerited favor. So we are to extend grace to others as God has given grace to ourselves. It’s not deserved, but we should show it as much as we can, and I have Matthew 6:15, which says, if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you your trespasses. As you said, this unmerited favor is not deserved.

It’s, you know, we’re not even worthy of it, and we’re nothing, and yet God has called us. Why? Because he can take something from nothing and make us something greater, as long as we learn to let him mold and shape us in our experiences.

So thank you, everyone, for your comments. It was very, very nice, and may the Lord add its blessing.

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