LOVING KINDNESS DRAWS, THAT MUST MEAN HATE AND MEANNESS TURNS AWAY

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:  therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Jeremiah 31:3

Jesus drew us with lovingkindness. There's an old song that the church sang when I was growing up, "Thy lovingkindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee. I will lift up my hands unto thy name" Based off Psalms 63:3-4. I've been thinking on this for the past couple of weeks. How important loving kindness is. Why is loving kindness important? Well I think we all can say there's a lot of fake kindness going on in the world today. I like to call it sometimes PC kindness. Ellen at the end of her talk show says, "Be kind to one another." If one would truly take heed to that alone. Be kind to one another. There's a "golden rule" if you will that says, "Who ever has the gold makes the rules." Also there's another one that says, "Treat someone how you want to be treated."

You reap what you sow. That's not only biblical, that's life. You sow an apple seed, you get an apple tree. You saw an orange seed, you get an orange tree. You sow loving kindness, you should get loving kindness. But we learned from the Charleston 9 situation that you can treat one with loving kindness and still get a bitter treatment in return. Now do you let that stop you from being kind to people? No. I've always said that you don't treat people how you were treated. You treat them how you want to be treated.

When I worked customer service at a call center we were taught to be kind no matter what. No matter how the customer treats you, you still treat them with respect. I never really got cussed out but I got fussed out many times and I had put the phone on mute many a call in order to keep my job, if you catch my drift. Amen praise God. Proverbs 15:1, "A soft answer turneth away wrath:  but grievous words stir up anger." And allow me to say the softest answer you could give sometimes is saying nothing. Old saying says, "If you got nothing nice to say--"

So if lovingkindness draws, then hatred and meanness must turn people away. Be careful of the attitude and look on your face because that may be why you have nobody around you. Oh me. My pastor says, if you can't say amen say oh me. That's where some of these debates miss with me. You can't draw people to your argument by calling people out their name. Name calling doesn't draw anybody, but if you talk in a calm tone and eloquently present your thoughts, you still may not draw anything, but you'll definitely be more respected that way. It takes respect to get respect. That's where the "God hates Fags" people miss the mark. First of all, God so loved the world, and if God hated anybody, why would there be grace and mercy? Second of all, name calling never ends up in a positive situation.

He who has friends must show himself friendly. Again, oh me. But nevertheless...

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

TEMPORARY THRILLS ARE JUST THAT TEMPORARY

Before I go on, and I know this guy is like Ice Cube in the fact he somehow turned into the N**ga you love to hate as far as Gospel music, but one of Tye Tribbett classics is song called Everything. I have it on repeat right now. For some strange reason Tye Tribbett and Bishop TD Jakes have turned into easy targets for the religious in the church as far as hating. May not be where you all are at, but I hear it all the time. I guess they are not traditional, and of course tradition is all what Jesus was about, right? Or it may be the fact that Tye got caught and they didn't. Moving on...

Thrill seekers. We seek stuff that will thrill our flesh. Like you hear bungee jumpers and sky divers talk about the thrill they get when they do what they do. But after the thrill is gone, what's next? Like these marriages that come together for the sex part but forgetting that marriage requires relationship. The sex is a thrill but the relationship requires actual work. For some reason, the word "work" has become like profanity. It's not just the young generation which gets accused of being lazy. Some of the older generation is just as or even more lazy than...

A lot of people seek the thrill but don't seek the consequences of the thrill. Consequences? Yes. Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't seek the thrill or enjoyment of certain things. If you're a bungee jumper or a sky diver, do your thing. I'm not mad at you, but as for me, that's not a thrill I'm seeking to have in my life.

Some want the prize of work, but don't do the process of work. Some want to eat and not work. It is written, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." Like some want to make to heaven but don't want to travel the road to get to heaven. Taking the road to hell will not get you to heaven. Taking the road to NY will not get you to California. If you want to get to a specific destination, you have to take a specific route. Not to say there won't be detours on the way, but you still have to head a certain direction to get to that specific destination.

Thrill is defined as a sudden feeling of excitement and pleasure. A temporary fix if you will. Like why some get high looking for that temporary fix. It's like cell phones. Some of us always wants the newest phone, even when your current phone works fine. You just want that temporary excitement or thrill of having the newest gadget on the market, that will only end up getting replaced.

All these thrills we seek is all well and good for the temporary, but there's still a void looking to be filled. A hole in the soul if you will. Only Jesus can feel that void. Only Jesus can feel that hole in the soul.

Bottom line, the thrill our flesh seeks are temporary thrills. But why not seek for an everlasting thrill? Why not seek for a thrill that will give you a feeling that you'll never get past? Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but Jesus never fails. Have you tried Jesus?

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson