Like anyone, Christians, caught up in and clinging to offenses, are looking back. Christ warned us about that. Offenses are always in the past. The second after they happen, they are behind us. God’s understanding is meant to put them behind us, with no regard for them any longer. The power to do that is in grace reigning over the situation. Looking back renders us unfit for the kingdom of God. “…but Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62 NAS)

Distracted in the offense, in our need to verbalize our (negative) observations, we are backing up to the edge of a chasm, forgetting who we are supposed to be, who we claimed to be. We MUST turn around in our understanding, before we plunge headlong into the bottomless crevasse of lost love, an icy dead love, void of endurance, seething with offense and a self defined righteousness that rationalizes our ungodly thoughts, words and actions. Like a hell-bound “express” train, the words of our mouth are laying down rails. They are setting the course of our lives. “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.”  (James 3:6 NAS)

This can happen to any unprepared human but Christ has given His friends a warning and a defense. If we learn from history, we remember what God said to Cain. “Sin is crouching at your door seeking to devour you but you must master it.” It is as much up to us, as it was to Cain. We know how Cain and mankind, the seed of his impaired judgment, ended up going for a swim!

We must endure this outrageous world by dismissing it with compassion and pity, praying for “them” from a heart of sorrowful remorse, recognizing their plight. When we hear their anger subside and their anguished cries for help begin, we will understand. We must appeal to God, as those also once astray, asking Him for their forgiveness because of their ignorance. This will be the enduring sacred heart of a kingdom citizen.

As a kingdom citizen please share this.

The coming times will demand our understanding. Preparing ourselves and others now is paramount.

This post, is a quote from chapter 5.3 of Exit Strategy We initiate the return of Christ.

In the guardianship of Christ,

Michael

    Exit Strategy

   We initiate the return of Christ!  (The E-book)

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