But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. -Luke 24:29, NIV
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My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. -Matthew 26:38, NIV For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. -Psalm 69:7, NIV A flick of a wrist. A turn of a page. Nothing. A kid beside us smiles. An old woman kisses us in the forehead. Nothing. It looks like nothing can take the pain away. Gush it over McDonalds. Play really stupid games with your really stupid friends (and unceremoniously admit so). Get a whip and start bashing each other’s heads. You wouldn’t do that, wouldn’t you? Or...so I thought. We don’t use whips anymore-unless we distastefully wish to make a career out of being a dominatrix. We don’t punish with chains, or rocks, or horrid and painful trampling horses. Those horrors seem so far away, so distant for us…at least for those who have read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Seriously: we’re so civilized that when we look at these things happening in countries today, we scoff and change the channel in full-blown scorn. They’re the brutes, they’re the barbarians. But what about us? We were born to be brutes and barbarians, uncivilized and stubborn jerks that leave a legacy of horrors and pain wherever we touch. Everything we touch turns to destruction-and then to dust. And before it turns to dust, we wreak shameless havoc. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shameless. How much damage can we puny humans do! Even Paul was exasperated in his exasperation; his heart was ready and willing, but his flesh wanted to sin. “What a wretched man I am!”, he said to the Romans. Think for a moment: have we spit on other’s hopes and dreams? How much have we collaborated with demons to destroy? Even more: how has this planet lasted long enough!?!? But it makes no sense: with all the damage we have done to some, how can God still smile above? Get up, go back to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar to Me, to the God who appeared to you when you ran away from your brother, Esau. -Genesis 35:1, VOICE Look down from heaven and see, from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. -Isaiah 63:15, NIV Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. -Acts 4:29, NIV “As surely as the Lord your God lives, ... I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” -1 Kings 17:12, NIV Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. -Deuteronomy 10:19, 21 NKJV |
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