Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.
~ Ephesians 4:2 (NLT)
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You know, in the world, tolerance can be very low for those who don't measure up. Get on board, or get out. There's little room for people who aren't the norm, who fall behind, who don't look or act like the mainstream. And those people, more often than not, get left in the dust.
But God has a different value system in His kingdom, where all members are worthwhile, are valued. So He reminds us that that is how we need to treat others, because we represent Him...we are models of the kingdom.
And when we operate in a God-mode -- with patience, humbleness and love -- it is amazing to see and be a part of. God, as always, does the miraculous! He knits together all manner of people, from all walks of life, from a multitude of different personalities and abilities, into a family. Brothers and sisters who have each other's back and who know we all have quirks, but it's accepted because we're family.
Our individual responsibility to be Christ-like makes the difference on the community level. But beware of self, who loves to put others down, to be the center of attention, to do what it wants when it want. That's a family killer, and a billboard for hypocrisy, keeping unbelievers from ever wanting to have anything to do with faith in the Lord.
Love one another. That manifests itself in being humble, overlooking faults, being gentle...just to name a few. As Jesus loves us and is all these things and more to us, we need to model those things to others. And not just to those in the family of God, but perhaps more importantly, to those who don't have a concept of who God is, and who operate in the world-mode. Show the world the God-mode and what He's really like...His amazing love, His deliberate grace, His unending mercy.
Be a billboard that makes the world stop and take notice. Love has a funny way of doing that!:-)
Love,
Joelene
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