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Mustard Seed July/August 2003
Born Again! What Does It Really Mean?
Offended?
Mustard Seed - July/August 2003
A friend of mine once told me something that his little girl said when she was about 5 or 6 years old. The story begins with my friend, his wife and their three children. They had gone to visit the "in-laws," well over the course of the evening, the little girl was getting very bored, and so she started acting out. She started by making noise, which very quickly escalated to throwing things around. All she wanted was a little attention!
My friend says, he gently started telling her in a calm and quiet voice, "Stop that, or I'm going to have to spank you." It happened the second time, he told her in a little more of a stem voice: "Stop it! Stop it before I get angry! She behaved herself for about a minute. Then she started up again. This time, my friend was furious, he gave her the sternest look and spoke to her in a tone of voice that she had never heard before, he looked directly into her eyes, and told her in a very serious tone, "I told you to stop it, STOP IT NOW!!!!!"
The little girl was dumb struck, her dad had never yelled at her like that before; even before the dad knew it, the little girl's eyes welled up with tears. She didn't know what to say, she just stared blankly at him, as her lower jaw was quivering. Can you picture the little girl in your mind? Anyhow, the dad looked at her and asked her, "why are you crying?" She looked up at him and said, "you hurt my foolings". I hurt your "foolings?" the dad repeated, with a little bit of laugh on his lips. "Yes," she replied. Then the dad asked her the strangest question. He asked her," where do your "foolings" hurt? She thought about it for a moment, then she put both of her hands on her little stomach and said, "right here". The little girl really felt that anguish in the pit of her stomach.......
I have a question to ask, have you had your "foolings" (feelings) hurt by someone? Was it something they said, or did they do something that you didn't agree with? Now let me ask you the same question, about a brother or sister in the Church. It is something to ponder, isn't it?
If you would open your bibles to Proverbs 18:19 — "A brother offenedd is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle." I'll give you an example: In ancient times, cities were surrounded with thick, tall walls to keep invading armies out. The invading army would have a difficult time getting into the city. Today we don't have walls around cities, but we do have wrought iron on our windows and doors. By placing these "barriers" aren't we saying; Keep Out! And Keep away/
It's interesting, the word offended in Proverbs 18:19 comes from the Hebrew word [pa-sha] and it means: to breakaway, trespass, quarrel, rebel, and revolt; this word comes from the root word [pasa] which means: to stride away. Have you ever watched speed walkers? those people are so focused they don't think of anything except walking (fast). In the same way when we get offended, we don't want to listen to anything anybody has to say. We just keep walking away and we say things like, "talk to the hand, talk to the hand because I'm not listening". The problem with getting this type of an attitude can be summed up by the following words in the book of Mark.
Mark 7:20- 22, "And He said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man". 21) For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22) Thefts... covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23) All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
We might be thinking, yea but I'm a good person, I don't do those kinds of things. The bible talks about a young rich man that thought the same thing. I would encourage you to read Luke 18:18.
In verse 23 of Luke 18, the word sorrowful, comes from the Greek [perilupos] it means: to be grieved, intensely sad, or exceedingly sorry. Perilupos comes from another root word [piero] which means, literally "to pierce" like with a sword or spear. Can you imagine being run through with a sword or a spear?
Yet, some of the things "Church brethren" say and do to each other just baffles the mind. We say and do things that are piero, and those things cut very deeply at times. The little girl was right wasn't she, when she said, "It hurts right, here"? It's like having someone pierce us with a sword in the very pit of our stomach.
Now let's take this thought a bit farther, have we become offended from a brother, a sister or even an elder that may have told us things like, "you really shouldn't be doing those kinds of things on God's Sabbath," or "your clothing is a bit too revealing, have you considered being a bit more, modest?" "gambling is a sin" or," we should observe the full 7 days of the Feast of Tabernacles and the 8th day," just to name a few. Why do we get offended, when we get corrected from the Holy Word of God, which teaches us how to be righteous? We need to be offended for sinning against God. Look at this example of Christ and Peter. Jesus Christ corrected the apostles on many occasions.
Read Matthew 16:21-26 - especially verse 23) But he (Jesus) turned, and said unto Peter. Get thee behind me satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those things that that be of men." How many "believers" of God's way of Life, fall into this category?
Here in verse 23, the word "offense" comes from the Greek word, [skandalon] we get our word, "scandal" from it, and it means: a snare, to bend, to cause displeasure or sin, an occasion to fall. There is another word that comes from scandalon, that word is [scandalize] our English word "scandalize " and it means: to entrap, to trip up, to entice to sin, apostacy or displeasure. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was very "offended" at Peter, because Peter wanted to take authority over Jesus. Peter tried to do the very same thing satan tried to do to Jesus, when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness.
How many times have we tried to take authority from God the Father and Jesus the Christ by using the excuse I have been offended, " so that we could go ahead "and do our own pleasure?"
So what should we do when we're offended? the scriptures plainly say we are to forgive those individuals. Matthew 6:14-15- "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, you heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15) But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
If we are offended by words of correction, we should be asking for forgiveness, and we should be thanking that person(s) for having enough love and concern, that they are willing to risk offending us for righteousness sake.
-Joel Maldonado
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