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That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred, and are deceived, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. That it may please thee to give us a heart to love and fear thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

Galatians 6:1-3 (The Message) Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. 4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
6 Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

When I first read this “Beseech” prayer I thought it was about taking on those false teachers, fake preachers and purveyors of false prophecies and prosperity. I got ready to quote Deuteronomy 18:20, Jeremiah 14:14 and Matthew 24:24, and all the passages and dire warnings about these predators. It is good to know these warnings, but then I reread the prayer. Oops ! That passage is about me, and all of us who have sinned, erred and been deceived. Thank God that instead of blasting us off the earth, God encourages others to gently come after us and bring us back to a closer walk with Jesus, and then do the same with others.

Too often I am ready to “lock and load” and rant and rave about the sins, errors and mistakes of others. Too often I am more concerned with that speck of dust in your eye and ignore the things that blind me to the crop of weeds I have planted in my life. Too often I am so concerned with me, that I fail to pray for you. This little prayer leads us to help each other out, and to seek God’s guidance to continue to live humbly and in harmony with one another.

So today, first examine yourself, ask for God-given maturity to know how to live right and selfless. Then pray for those who have gotten “sideways” in their faith, through their own mistakes or from being deceived by “the world, the flesh and the devil”. Reach out to them if you can and gently offer a hand, your friendship and share your story of how you have learned that failure is not fatal. Lastly, stay away from those sellers of false visions, divinations and idolatries, and those who love to tell you what you want to hear instead of what needs to be said.

Now you can read those passages Jeremiah 14:14 2d Timothy 4:3-4.
Peace,

Phil Parsons

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From Rodger:

The end of the Book of Jonah comes immediately to mind reading the above.  After all the melodrama, the boat to Tarshish, the storm, the great fish (It makes me absolutely CRAZY when I hear people say that Jonah was swallowed by a WHALE!), being vomited up on the beach…

Jonah 4: 1 – 5: ¹ But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. ² He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. ³ And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” ⁵ Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

The great city of Nineveh is spared.  God changes his mind and you’d think this would be cause for celebration.  But how does the story of Jonah end?  With him off pouting in his rude little booth.  He’s not there because he doesn’t understand God’s love and mercy; he’s there because he understands God’s love and mercy all too well.  He knew that they would repent!  He knew that God would forgive them!  And he wanted them all to die… because by God, he hated every last one of them!

We all should embrace the wisdom Phil mentions above.  “Physician, heal thyself,” is a pretty good place to find ourselves most of the time.  Giving others the benefit of the doubt, trusting God to bring about the kingdom he has promised, and never – EVER – taking ourselves so seriously that we fall prey to the very anger and self-righteousness that ruined Jonah’s life.

I’ve been a fan of David Lamotte’s music for a really long time.  The song below, appropriately titled “Butler Street” (After the homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Atlanta that had a huge impact on the homeless for something like 70 years… until the neighborhood gentrified, and all the fine, upstanding, beautiful people coming and going in their BMW’s and Volvo’s raised such a stink with the city council that the shelter’s Certificate of Occupancy was revoked; and thankfully, a new set of upscale town homes further shut out the undesirables from the Woodruff Park area. Pay special attention to the 2nd verse of the song:

 

Physician heal thyself?  Yeah, that’s probably a great place to start.