Saturday, February 16, 2013

The Doggie Door

Thursday night our dog Shorty treed two large possums. One looked down on him with great disdain, the other seemed a little frightened of him. My husband had to go outside, pick up Shorty and carry him inside because he was so fixed on the possum he tuned us out as well as everything else in the world. As soon as my husband put Shorty down on the floor in the kitchen, Shorty spun around and ran into the sun room to zip out his doggie door which much to his chagrin was closed.

After my husband and I went to bed, we heard Shorty trying to open the doogie door. He finally gave up and slept on the couch most of the night. I am sure he dreamed of getting outside and finding the possums. One word aptly describes Shorty: tenacious.

As Christians tenacity is a good thing, if we are seeking the Lord with all we have tuning out the distractions of the world, clinging to him and adhering to His Word. However, we must be mindful of being tenaciously legalistic,Pharisaic, and driving people away from God because they see no love in us only a ceremonial adherence to rules and regulations.

Beating people over the head with the Bible or telling them where you think they will spend eternity (BTW we are not God, I would not go there.) is not a way to spread the Good News. Read through the passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Look how Jesus treated people. His is the example we must follow.

John 13:3-17 shows us He served others, which is what we should strive to do.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you[b] are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

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