THE VALUE OF ONE
HUMAN BEING
·
“Wealth makes many
friends; but the poor is separated
from his neighbor.” (Proverbs
19.4).
Grievously, we have the
custom of count people out when they have nothing to offer us. We leave behind
what is written in the Holy Scripture: “The wicked desires the net of evils;
but the root of the righteous yields fruit.” (Proverbs
12.12).
We are here to help out
neighbor to be a better person. Of course, there are people that are annoying,
malicious, etc. Nevertheless, if each time that we find some discomfiture or
threat we run away, we will be denying Christ and His Word, we will be giving
in to the temptations of Ha-Satan.
Of course: nobody wishes
problems. However, if we keep on turning down the opportunities to give fruit
in Christ, we will be cut off of the True Vine (John 15.2). Jesus ordained us to love
our enemies (Matthew 5.44,45). Our live here only have
point if we don’t back away from the problems, but we allow Jesus to use our
lives to make the place where we are into a new place. Instead of giving back
evil for evil, or libel for libel, we should be tenderhearted and friendly,
always loving who offends us, giving thanks to Jesus. After all, we are called
to this (1Peter 3.8,9). How will a sinner be
converted to Jesus Christ if always we set asunder from them and pray to Jesus
for get us rid of them?
See the example of Nineveh:
·
“And it shall be that
all those who look upon you
shall flee from you, and
say, Nineveh is laid waste;
who will weep for her? From
where shall I seek comforters for you?” (Nahum 3.7)
Because of its turpitude,
Nineveh was laid waste. When this happens who will be ready to be infused with
the compassion of Jesus? Regrettably, most of the people won’t, because they
have fear of the evil that can come over them and mainly: because they aren’t
opened to be the solution of the problem.
This world is a great
Nineveh. There are times that Jesus consider working His salvation, as took
place in Nineveh at the time of Jonah.
But, like Johan, we keep Jesus and His will at bay because, in our eyes,
all culprit needs to suffer. So, how will people convert to Christ if we get
away from Him and His will, if we seek Christ only to satisfy our delights?
Many times, we ask to Jesus
(or to the Holy Spirit) to come to us and we blame
Him for, apparently, not hearing our prayers. But, if He come to us, what do
you think that He will bring with Him? Consider that joy shall
be in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who
need no repentance (Luke 15.7). The true blessing that
Jesus have for us is in the form of sinners to be saved (1Peter
3.8,9) by Him through His power
operating in us (Ephesians 3.20).
So, even if Jesus decides
to answer our prayer, peradventure He will find the right faith
in us (Luke 18.8)?
·
“For the Son of Man has
come to seek and to save
that which was lost” (Luke 19.10).
We need to be opened to
everyone that Jesus brings to us.
·
“Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will
come in to him and will dine with
him and he
with Me.” (Rev 3.20).
Of course, at first. we
fear to receive this person inside us. Nevertheless, what type of person do we
expect that Jesus brings to us:
·
“And when the Pharisees
saw, they said to His disciples,
Why does your master eat with tax-collectors
and sinners? But when Jesus heard, He said to them, The ones
who are whole do not need a physician,
but the ones
who are sick. But go and learn
what this is, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice. For I have not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
(Matthew 9.11-13).
Certainly, people that
Jesus will bring to us is problematic. Notwithstanding, they are our true
blessing (hence what is written in Matthew 5.44,45; Psalms
23.5; 1Peter 3.8,9). So, we need to shelter these people thanking to Jesus for the
privilege of having “a fig tree in our garden” for us to care for (Luke 13.6-9). If we knew the value of a
friendship for our salvation, we would try to get along with everyone that
Jesus would bring to us.
The truth is that, most of
the time, we pray to Jesus trusting in ourselves (our thought,
feelings, desires, plans and actions), that is, we go to Him trying to point out
to Him the correct behavior.
Remember: the true faith in
Jesus is to wish Him in our lives because we love all that He is and we pine
for seeing all this being carried out in us. And this implies in valuing more the
human being (see Luke 15.4-7).
Nowadays is common someone
ditch someone else for account of hackneyed things. On Whatsapp
and Facebook, for example, they keep someone at bay blocking them, considering
that this will get them around the problems. Nevertheless, who try to preclude
predicaments, rebuff blessings too.
And the worst is that people
block one person without at least explain the motive why they did this. How the
person can correct their mistakes and be a better person if nobody make them know wherein they need to improve?
Before exclude someone (if this is
really necessary), vouchsafe to the individual the opportunity to recant or undo whatever
misunderstanding.
Exclude someone of our
lives it’s easy and every wicked can do this. The great defy is we let Jesus
use our live to save the others (to have patience, staying
next them while Jesus use us to work the heart of them and have humility while
Jesus transforms our heart through their life).
What I wish to emphasize is
the value of one soul to Christ (Luke 15.7) and, obviously, the
importance of seeking in Him the recuperation of the sinner. The unique motive
for us to be here in the world it is for us to help one another to be better
people.
It comes the question: what could lead a
person to exclude someone from their relationship?
1st motive is bigotry. They don’t put
up with people that think differently of them. This takes place because they
aren’t thoroughly steady in the truth and they are too lazy to tussle to find
out the necessary ken in order to invigorate their convictions.
To be afraid of the truth
is a tragedy:
·
Where there is no wisdom, the people
fall; but in the multitude of wise men there
is safety.” (Proverbs 11.14).
·
“Without wisdom, purposes are defeated, but by
many wise men they are established.”
(Proverbs
15.22).
·
“Purposes are established by counsel; and with
good advice make war.” (Proverbs 20.18).
·
“Where there is no wisdom,
the people fall; but in the
multitude of wise men there is
safety.” (Proverbs 24.6).
I lost many things in my
life for not hearing what people said me (meditate
carefully on Job 5.17; Psalm 50.17; Prov 3.11; Prov 5.9-14; Prov 6.23; Prov
8.10; Prov 19.20; Isaiah 26.16; Jeremiah 2.30; Jer
5.3; Jer 7.28; Zephaniah 3.7; Hebrews 12.5-11).
So, I say to you: hear what
other people say, even though, at first, you don’t agree with them. Remember
that the Creator used an ass to
talk to Balaam (Numbers 22.28-30). Likewise, Jesus may use
whoever He desires (people who we never expect that could be used by
Him) to talk to us, as we can
see below:
·
“And the King shall answer and say
to them, Truly I say to
you, Inasmuch as you did it to
one of the
least of these My brothers, you have done
it to Me. Then He also shall say
to those on the left
hand, Depart from Me, you cursed,
into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and
his angels. For I was hungry, and
you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and
you gave Me no
drink; I was a stranger
and you did
not take Me in; I was naked, and you
did not clothe
Me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did
not visit me. Then they will
also answer Him, saying, Lord,
when did we see You
hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger,
or naked, or sick, or
in prison, and did not minister
to You? Then He shall answer
them, saying, Truly I say to
you, Inasmuch as you did not
do it to one of the least
of these, you did not
do it to Me. And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into
everlasting life.” (Matthew 25.40-46)
Hence the apostle Paul
said: examine all things; retain that which
is good. (1Thess 5.21).
It’s indispensable to hear
what people say to us and follow the advice of Jude:
·
“Having made all haste to write to
you about the common salvation, beloved, I had need to write
to you to
exhort you to contend earnestly for the
faith once delivered to the saints.”
(Jude 1:3).
After all:
·
If the person is wrong we, as someone that
believes in Christ, cannot be omissive. We can’t see the other person making
mistakes, hurt themselves and the others and don’t do, nor speak, anything (meditate on
Matt 18.15-17; Eph 5.13; 2Tim 4.1,2; James 5.19,20). We must not keep the
salvation of Christ for yourselves (see Matthew 5.14-16; Matt
28.18-20; Mark 16.15-20).
We have to pray for this
person, insist on preaching the truth to them (2Tim 4.1,2) and do our best so that
this person may have all opportunities, expecting that the Creator can give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth so that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, at whose will they were taken captive
(2Tim 2.25,26).
Duly, Jesus will take this
person away from our lives (that is, admitting that it
is to this person go away from us).
We are dressed with the
justice of Christ transforming the life of those who He brings to us (Revelation
19.8);
·
If the person is right, certainly you don’t wish to stay in the error. And not think that you
are always right (see Proverb 3.5-8). Many times, I thought
that I was right and, in the end, I mourned for not hearing the correction of
Jesus coming from that person.
·
If we and the other person are right, therefore we need to
discover, together, how conciliate our kens.
·
If we and the other person are wrong, therefore the more
reasonable is that both of us seek out, together, in Christ, discover the
truth.
Only doing this we can
reach what Jesus require of us:
·
“And truly He gave some to be apostles,
and some to be prophets, and
some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body
of Christ. And this until
we all come into the unity
of the faith
and of the
knowledge of the Son of
God, to a full-grown man, to
the measure of the stature
of the fullness
of Christ;” (Ephesians 4.11-13).
Always keep in mind that one
sheep never kills other sheep (see 1John 3.15). Who do this is a wolf.
Beyond this and the fact
that the true wisdom come from the multitude of advices, we need to look on
contrasting ideas as the shaking of Jesus in our lives in order to bring down
all that doesn’t belong to Him and confirm what it is of Him:
·
“See that you do not
refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not
escape, those who refused him that
spoke on earth, much more we shall not
escape if we turn away from
Him who speaks
from Heaven, whose voice then shook the earth;
but now He has promised, saying,
"Yet once more I will not only
shake the earth, but also the
heavens." And this word, "Yet once more," signifies the removing
of those things that are shaken, as of things
that have been made, so
that the things which cannot
be shaken may remain.” (Hebrews 12.25-27).
Many times the lack of humility and patience can keep the blessing away from us. See,
for instance, the case of this woman:
·
“And behold, a woman of Canaan coming
out of these borders cried to
Him, saying, Have mercy on
me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter
is grievously vexed with a demon.
But He did not answer her
a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying,
Send her away, for she cries after us. But He answered and said,
I am not sent except to
the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Then she came and
worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me! But He answered and said, *It is not good to take the
children's bread and to throw
it to dogs*. And she said, True, O Lord;
but even the little dogs
eat of the
crumbs which fall from their
masters' tables. Then
Jesus answered and said to her,
O woman, great is your faith!
So be it to you even
as you wish. And her daughter
was healed from that very
hour.” (Matthew 15.22-28).
Jesus called this woman a dog and she didn’t take a grudge, but humbly
fell in with this discomfiting situation and, for this, she was accepted by
Jesus.
We don’t know how Jesus
will come to us: if as a panhandler, a wanderer, a sick one, a homeless, a prisoner,
etc (see Matthew 25.41-46). Neither we know how we
are considered before Jesus (Jeremiah 17.9; 1Corinthians
13.12). Nevertheless, one thing
is for sure: if we desire to receive Jesus in us or to be received by Him, we
need to accept whoever He bring to us and recognize our real situation before
Him: as dogs, completely unworthy of His grace, mercy and blessings.
Indeed, we go to Him with
hubris, like Naaman, assuming that He is obliged to think, feel, plan, desire
and act pursuant to our image and likeliness (2Kings
5.11,12).
2nd motive is the misunderstanding.
We have the propensity of understanding the things in according to what exist
in our heart. Based on this, many times we misunderstand what a person says to
us. Our first reaction is to argue with this person or, if this
misunderstanding occurred on the internet, our tendency is to block this
person.
This may be more practical,
but many times, doing this, we may be excluding of our relationship someone
that is important and valuable. Why not to try to clarify the things and keep
in touch each other? Why not to sort out the quandaries and predicaments and
come in terms with each other again?
Jesus shew us the
importance of a relationship:
·
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever all of you
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever all of you shall
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say
unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as concerning any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of
my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew
18.18-20).
That is to say, each
relationship that we break up is less one channel of blessing in our living.
So, try to reconcile with this person:
·
“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there remember that your brother has ought
against you; leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your
adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; lest at any time the
adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer,
and you be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, You
shall by no means come out thence, till you have paid the uttermost farthing.” (Matthew
5.23-26).
3rd motive for people keep someone at
bay is the fear of being harmed.
If our way is right before
Jesus Christ, we don’t need to worry about the evil that somebody can make to
us:
·
“And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defiles, or any
making an abomination or a lie; but only those who are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life.” (Rev 21.27);
Jesus makes amends between
us and our enemies (Proverbs 16.7), establishes alliances between
us and the boulders and animals of the field (Job 5.23), between us and the birds
of the sky and with the reptiles of the ground
(Hosea 2.18) and He don’t allow that no
harm arrive to us, except when this is necessary to shake up all the things in
us that don’t belongs to Him (Hebrews 12.25-27).
Furthermore, see what it is
written in Psalms:
Why would Jesus forgive us
if we insist on being circumscribed by the transgressions of the others, if we
feed ourselves of their sins (Hosea 4.8)? If we desire so much that
the curse come about who offended us, to the point of we overpower mind and
heart to suffer various times the evil that it was made to us, as we wait that
all this evil don’t rise in us and fructify (Psalms
109.17)?
Free yourself of what isn’t (wasn’t and never will be) yours and certainly you will have hands to receive what Jesus has to
you.
However, ask to Jesus for
good eyes (Matthew
6.22,23; Luke 11.33-36; Revelation 3.18), for, perhaps, the true
richness that you are questing for, it is already in your life and you are
blind to this.
Can be sure: the friendship
is very meaningful to Jesus:
·
“And I say to you,
Make friends by the mammon of unrighteousness
for yourselves, so that when you
fail, they may receive you
into everlasting dwellings.” (Luk 16:9).
·
Therefore He said, A
certain nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom for himself, and
to return. And He called his ten servants
and delivered ten minas, and said to them,
Trade until I come back.” (Luke 19:13).
Note how we need to
exchange the richness of this world for people, that is, use the resources of
this world in order to create spiritual links inside us and, thus, to have our
spiritual building constructed (see 1Peter 2.5-8). Read Luke 19.17,19 and
you will see that our greatest reward is the people that Jesus brings to Him
through us.
However, most of the time
people do exactly the opposite: they break several relationships in order to
make money and abet other people to do the same, so that they can manipulate them
easier and convince them to give them what they wish. And if a person doesn’t
do what this one is supposed to do, they are capable of everything, except seek
in Jesus and His teachings the transformation of this person and the
restauration of all broken relationships.
Remember of what Jesus
said:
·
“Truly I say to you,
Whatever you shall bind on
earth shall occur, having been
bound in Heaven; and whatever you
shall loose on earth shall
occur, having been loosed in Heaven. Again I say to you
that if two
of you shall
agree on earth as regarding anything that they
shall ask, it shall be done
for them by My Father in Heaven. For
where two or three are gathered
together in My name, there I am
in their midst.” (Matthew 18.18-20).
It’s astonishing as people
don’t look on the human being as something worthy to be wrestle for. They easily
ditches the person whose demeanor or actions look like
unseemly before their eyes.
How can we hope that Jesus give
us peace, gaiety and love separated from other people? The wisdom of the
Creator is hided in the communion that should there be among the brothers (1Cor 2.7). Furthermore, we need to
one another. If people that circumscribe us aren’t well, considering that each
one gives what they have in abundance (Matthew 12.34,35), how can we expect they
give us something good?
Moreover, someone only can
have something if this one is given by Jesus (John 3.27;
James 1.16,17).
Summing up: value people
around you, hear what they have to say. If it is possible, as far as is in you,
being in peace with all men (Romans 12.18), that is to say, share
with them the knowledge of Jesus (teach and learn with them). Don’t lean to your own understanding, nor be
wise in your own eyes (Proverbs 3.5,7): maybe you are wrong. And
even if you are right, it is your obligation as someone that believes in Christ
to help who is wrong to see the truth.
Finally, think about this:
Why do we wish so much to
see motives to keep people away from us?
Why do we have the least
interest of finding out opportunities to welcome people again in our life (I believe
that the rejoinder is in 2Timothy 3.1-5).
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