Releasing the feeling of vengence

Leviticus 19:18 New King James Version (NKJV)

18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

God tells us we are to have within ourselves a spirit of forgiveness so we do not take vengeance out on others for the wrong done to us. Instead, we are to express love, a love that reaches out and forgives and embraces the person. Is there someone you are holding a grudge against or feel bitter towards? Pray God will release you from those feelings and instead fill your heart with love.

On July 12, 1986, Steven McDonald, a twenty-nine-year-old police officer on patrol in Central Park, stopped to question three teenagers about a bicycle theft. The oldest, a fifteen-year-old, took out a gun and shot him in the head, neck, and arm. McDonald was rushed to a hospital, where surgeons told his wife that he would be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. McDonald spent the next eighteen months in the hospital.

A few years later, McDonald made headlines again, this time because he publically forgave his shooter. Before his death in January 2017, McDonald explained why he forgave his shooter:

Looking back, pondering on my life since that time, it's clear to me that God was in charge. All he wanted was the opportunity to use me. He just needed my yes, and that was made possible by prayer. It's that simple, really. Through the family and friends that God put in my life, and their prayers, God spoke to me and said, "Will you love this boy who shot you?" And the best way that I could love him was to forgive him. Left to my own abilities, I don't think I would have done it. … And I know that I would have died a long time ago had I not listened to God, said yes to God, followed the example of his Son, and loved and forgiven.

Steven's son Conor McDonald, now an NYPD sergeant, recounted how his father would call him every day at 5:00 a.m. while he patrolled, just to wish him a good morning, and how during his college years his father would make a weekly trip to Boston just to have lunch together at Applebee's. "My father was always committed to me," Conor said, "He did more than most able-bodied fathers could ever do with their sons. … My parents created the most phenomenal life out of such darkness. It was due to their unmatched, unconditional devotion and love for each other, which I witnessed from the beginning of my life."

[Adapted from Sam Hine, "God's Cop," The Plough (April 2017)]

Trusting God and turning loose

Psalm 91:1 New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High

    will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

God who trust and follow God will find peace and rest in Him. Often we hold onto things we need to turn loose of. When we do God will be there to see us through.

One of the most difficult realities faced by most parents is the gradual "letting go" of their children—releasing the little ones from their protection and watching them make their own way in the world. For Tracinda Foxe, however, that "letting go" came much too early in her baby's life, and was much too literal.

In December of 2005, Foxe's apartment building in the Bronx caught on fire. With flames quickly engulfing her third floor bedroom, she was forced to contemplate the unthinkable. Outside, a group of onlookers had gathered some 30 feet below her open window, and they watched with growing concern as smoke billowed around the mother and her 1-month-old child. With no fresh air in the apartment, Tracinda leaned out the window with her baby.

Finally, with all other options exhausted, Tracinda let go. The infant tumbled three stories down into the waiting arms of Felix Vazquez, a Housing Authority employee and catcher on a local baseball team. A former lifeguard, Vazquez performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the baby until paramedics arrived, which saved its life.

Moments later, Tracinda was rescued from her apartment by firefighters, and was reunited with her child. Neither was seriously injured. Asked later about the painful decision to drop her baby from the window, Tracinda said: "I prayed that someone would catch him and save his life…. I said, 'God, please save my son.'"

[Catherine Donaldson-Evans, "The Good News of 2005," Foxnews.com (12-30-05); submitted by Bryan Latchaw, Oskaloosa, Iowa]

The Glory of God

Psalm 19:1-2 New International Version (NIV)

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

Everything that is of this world was and is created by the hands of God. God placed marvelous things before us that declare his glory. In the skies we see the stars, the moon and the planets. on special occasions we see meteors falling and burning in the sky. God’s glory pours out during the day and again at night. May we stop and acknowledge God for all His glory!

Sue Monk Kidd wrote in Today's Christian Woman an article, "Heart to Heart." One August night, my children dragged me to the backyard to watch a meteor shower. I reluctantly joined them thinking, I have so many details to tend to before we leave on vacation. I don't have time for idleness. Suddenly, golden fire balls streaked across the blackness. "God made this," I whispered. It was a rare moment. Not because of the sight, but because I stepped beyond my familiar world into one of wonder and discovered the Creator in the midst. Could it be God filled the world with such beauty to lift people like me away from our obsession with details--to touch our lives with a magnificent awareness of himself?

Deep is God's love

Ephesians 3:17-19 New Living Translation (NLT)

17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

As we turn our life over to Christ to be Savior and Lord, the roots of faith will grow deep into God’s love and keep us sustained. We may never understand God’s full love for us, for it is wider, higher, and deeper than we have ever known. Let us use our faith to make our lives full of the power that comes from God that we may be made complete.

Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington is best known for his roles in Glory, The Preacher's Wife, Remember the Titans, and Training Day. But the Hollywood A-lister has sounded more like a pastor when has spoken at recent events. Washington has publicly stated that he reads his Bible every day and that he strives to consistently "get up and speak of what God has done for him."

At a November 2015 church banquet he urged his listeners to live in a constant attitude of gratitude for God's goodness:

Give thanks for blessings every day. Every day. Embrace gratitude. Encourage others. It is impossible to be grateful and hateful at the same time. I pray that you put your slippers way under your bed at night, so that when you wake in the morning you have to start on your knees to find them. And while you're down there, say "thank you." A bad attitude is like a flat tire. Until you change it, you're not going anywhere.

[Jeannie Law, "Denzel Washington: God Has 'Faith in Me,'" Christian Post (11-12-15)]

It is all God's

1 Chronicles 29:11 New Living Translation (NLT)

11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.

God is over all the things of the world he created. Everything is his. We own nothing, but instead we are entrusted with the things God has allowed us to have.

When we talk about personal finance, it’s easy to make plans about what we’re going to do with “our money.” But when we talk about “our money,” it’s important to understand what that really means. The money isn’t ours in the sense that we own it; it’s simply ours in the sense that we’re responsible for managing it.

Too often, though, we begin to believe that the things that we have are really ours. This attitude can get down into our hearts and cause us to become slaves to money. To break free, we’ve got to replace that erroneous idea with this true one: God owns it all.

When you think about it, the idea that God owns everything makes perfect sense. After all, God created us, and the earth that we inhabit. We had no inherent right to exist outside of His sovereignty; why would we think that we have an inherent right to own anything beyond what God’s sovereign will allows?

[God, Money & Me, Brian Jewel, https://godmoneyme.com/2012/03/27/god-owns-it-all/]

The one who helps us

Romans 12:10 New Living Translation (NLT)

10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

Love and affection are the answers to helping people. We should take delight in others as God has taken delight in us. In helping people we should let them know about the love of Jesus who works in our lives to help us overcome any problem. We may struggle with the problem for a while, but sometimes that is God’s way of letting us sink to our lowest point so we know the only one who can help us is Jesus Christ.

Can alcoholics overcome their addiction? Seattle's Downtown Emergency Services Center doesn't seem to think so. It's spending $11 million on permanent housing for homeless alcoholics.

Seattle taxpayers were fed up with spending $50,000 per alcoholic, every year, on recovery programs, prison, and emergency room visits. The solution is 1811 Eastlake, a housing complex that accommodates 75 alcoholics. The residents are allowed to drink all they want, and they don't have to be in a recovery program—as long as they're off the streets.

Bill Hobson, the program's executive director, believes most alcoholics can't change. "Once you're an alcoholic, you're always an alcoholic," he says, citing the example of an alcoholic who got drunk 10 minutes after leaving a detox facility he had been in for two months. Hobson and his group reject the transforming power of Jesus Christ and believe some people are beyond hope and help.

[Chuck Colson, "Bottoms Up: Is Change Possible?" Breakpoint newsletter (12-15-06); submitted by Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec, Canada]

Consequences of Freedom

Galatians 5:13 New Living Translation (NLT)

13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

In Christ we have been given the freedom to live life without the fear of the penalty of sin, which is the condemnation of hell. So we are free to sin if we choose, but choosing to sin does have earthly consequences. So we need to be careful in our choices. If we are to use our freedom, use it to serve one another out of love for our Lord and Savior.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is the youngest signal-caller ever to win a Super Bowl. He is a rising superstar in the NFL and has been the recipient of a number of endorsement opportunities. However, as of June 2006, he also has a new perspective on freedom.

In July of 2005, ESPN reporter Andrea Kremer asked Roethlisberger to explain his decision to ride his motorcycle without a helmet:

ESPN: It's not the law in Pennsylvania to wear a helmet. Why don't you wear a helmet?

Roethlisberger: Because you don't have to. It's not the law. If it was the law, I'd definitely have one on every time I rode. But it's not the law and I know I don't have to. You're just more free when you're out there with no helmet on.

Unfortunately, Roethlisberger was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in June of 2006, less than one year later. When a 62-year-old woman failed to yield at a Pittsburgh intersection, Roethlisberger was thrown into the windshield of her Chrysler Town and Country. His bike was totaled, and emergency surgeons spent over seven hours repairing a broken jaw, a fractured skull, missing teeth, and several other facial injuries.

After being released from the hospital, Roethlisberger apologized to the fans, his family, and his team for risking his health (and life) unnecessarily. In another interview, he was no longer focused on taking advantage of his individual freedom: "In the past few days, I've gained a new perspective on life. By the grace of God, I'm fortunate to be alive." He also added that, if he ever does ride a motorcycle again, "it will certainly be with a helmet."

[David Slagle, Atlanta, Georgia; source: ESPN.com]