Whose offense is it, anyway?

When Jesus died on the cross, he died in order to take away our offense before God, therefore being able to approach him. He didn't, however, die so that those of the world who are offended by God would then accept him. Jesus died to take away our sin, our iniquities, our pain of separation from God, but he didn't die to save us from the pain and suffering that would be caused by a world that is still offended by God himself. That offense remains. Therefore, as Jesus said, "If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you too." It's because we carry God (the offense of the world) within us that we are persecuted. That pain, shame, and suffering will still remain until the end when all things are set straight once and for all.

Luke 21:17-18 You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish.

Matthew 10:24-25 A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

John 15:18-21 If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world - therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, "Servants are not greater than their master." If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

If you count your life as forfeit, then you are worried about losing a filthy rag. You have found life! And that life remains forever and will not ever be forfeited because it is indeed from me.





Confidence based in self is pride; confidence based in all else is sin. Confidence based in me, the truth, is a rock that will never fail and will never be wrong.

Love Conquers All

I asked the Lord as I saw today the martyrs being killed - How can you allow such a thing and not protect those who are in your Name? I do protect them, He declared. Then He showed me, Love conquers all. He overcame the world on the cross through His love for those who persecuted Him. Anything else He would've done - not died, come off the cross, rebuked them, fought back - wouldn't have been done in Love. Only by His divine Love for them did He die - and only by that Love did He live again. And it is that act of Love by which He overcame the world. So when His martyrs die their Love through Him in allowing the things to be done to them is their way of partaking in His overcoming. Anything less would not be love. But to stand and allow the world to have their way is to love them to the fullest, just as He did for us.

And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
I Corinthians 12:31-13:8 NRSV