Humble yourselves before the Lord,
and he will lift you up in honor.
~ JAMES 4:10 [New Living Translation]
On May 7th, I walked into the 4th floor deli of the US Department of Energy for a cup of coffee. A CNN interview was in progress on the big screen as being conducted by Anderson Cooper. Charles Ramsey was instrumental in bringing a 10-year nightmare to an end for three (3) women: Amanda Marie Berry, Georgina Lynn Dejesus and Michelle Knight. These women were abducted and held captive against their will by a man named Ariel Castro in his home in Cleveland, Ohio. Hearing someone made a sacrifice for the safety and release of others truly touched my heart. I began to silently talk to God about how grateful I was to be present at that moment to witness a selfless act of heroism in a world full of people who think more about themselves than others. It took everything within me to fight back the tears of joy starting to spring forth from my spirit.
As others watched the interview, they seemed more incline to focus on the image of the man of the hour and not his deed. And for some reason, I felt myself defending the character and heart of a person I did not know personally. Or, did I? When the comment about his image was made, at that precise moment, I heard in my spirit, “no respecter of persons.” So I chimed in to say just that, God is no respecter of persons and HE will use anyone to carry-out HIS WILL who is willing. It is not about his outer appearance; that which is visible to the necked eye called his image. It has more to do with the condition of his heart. Do you not feel his heart? Didn’t you just hear the statement that he made? He referenced the color of his blood being the same as everyone else’s. From his standpoint, he is the same as others on the inside.
But during that interview, in my eyes, he wasn’t like everyone else. He was humble and spirited. He was an example of a real life lesson of compassion and gratitude; selflessness in action to educate us all. And for the next couple of days, his past was being examined and plastered all over the world by the media in an attempt to discredit his accomplished good deed. Why? Because he lacked the acceptable image for being held in the highest esteem for his role as a hero by the mainstream society! But, I say to you all by the grace that is given to me: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you [Romans 12:3]. For God often chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and HE also chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong [1 Corinthians 1:27].
When I caught a glimpse of Charles Ramsey’s police record and mug shot from his past being flashed across the screen, I got angry as I felt my spirit grieve for his. But then I heard other things in my spirit concerning how God loves us all unconditionally. HE does not throw us to the side when we make a mistake. HE does not brow beat us when we are down. HE does not use trickery or deceit to belittle us in instilling fear as a form of HIS power. HE doesn’t even kick us into submission in an attempt to intimidate us into coming over to HIS side. HE will continue to hold-on to us in attempting to connect with our spirit in working on us from the inside out to reach us, encourage us and lift us to develop something called CHANGE. For I not only saw the physical change on Mr. Ramsey’s face through a thing called life’s trials and tribulations, but I saw and heard change in his voice called spiritual maturity. Yes, we all have a past; however, very few of us learn to embrace our past in attempting to change our life around in our hearts to think about someone else besides ourselves!
And the Lord said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
~ GENESIS 4:9 [KJV]
THE LESSON
I challenge you to read and study James to show yourselves approved in rightly dividing the WORD OF GOD. I challenge you to think of someone other than yourselves in love. We are to strive against covetousness; intemperance; pride; detraction and rash judgment of others; and not to be boastful of our future plans.
Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time:
~ 1 PETER 5:6 [JKV]
REFERENCE:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=N8XEcA... Written on May 13, 2013
Posted on July 20, 2013
Ann Gwen Mack
Posted By: Ann Mack
Saturday, July 20th 2013 at 8:41PM
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