2nd Thessalonians 3:1-3, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.”
Oftentimes, people who accuse others of hurting them, are the ones guilty of
hurting other people. Thankfully, God will be the final judge. No one is
hurting other people these days as much as the Alexandrian Bible version
cult, which has crept into most Baptist churches. If you don't have a King
James Bible, you don't have an inspired Holy Bible!!! All modern Bible
versions are corrupt!
I have been hurt by countless people throughout my life, more than I can remember, and I have learned some very helpful ways to deal with it, which I want to share with you. We all know the experience of having a good day, but then out of nowhere someone ruffles our feathers, mistreats and upsets us. So we walk around for the rest of the day perturbed, while repeating to our self, “No one's going to ruin my day! They didn't get to me! I'm not upset!” But we are, we really are! We've all been there. I have learned some ways to minimize the “letting go” time:
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EXPECT THAT PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE PEOPLE - Expect that people are going to hurt you! It's just a part of this earthly life. People are people are people, and we're ALL SINNERS! Romans 3:10 says there is NONE that doeth good, no not one! That doesn't make it right or okay, it just means that we have realistic expectations of life. We must manage our expectations in life, and letting people be people is part of life. I'm not saying to let people hurt you, I'm saying that they ARE going to hurt you, and you can't stop it most of the time, but if you make room for people's unkindness, meanness and ingratitude, then you'll come much close to finding peace in life. 2nd Samuel 22:5, “When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.”
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KEEP IN MIND THAT MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT SAVED OR RIGHT WITH GOD - We must keep in mind continually that we live in a wicked world of sin and shame. Sadly, this includes immature believers as well. The Bible foretold in 2nd Timothy 3:12 of “perilous time,” when people would become selfish, irate, wicked, unreasonable and full of iniquity. We are living in extremely evil times. People are ticking bombs ready to snap nowadays. Still today, as back in New Testament times, most people do not have faith in Jesus Christ, and consequently, cannot be reasoned with. 2nd Thessalonians 3:1-3, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.” We meet wicked and unreasonable people everywhere we go nowadays... pastors, business owners, police, judges, neighbours, politicians, government agencies, et cetera. Some people are just best left alone to their own destruction.
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LOVE AND FORGIVE EVERYONE WITH GOD'S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE - All we can do is love everyone, pray for people, forgive everyone, and do good unto all mankind. I decided years ago to just love and forgive everybody! Life is too short to live with a burden of hatred. I like to forgive quickly. Most of the people who have hurt me in life, and the list is ever-increasing, couldn't care less about restitution or reconciliation. They will never apologize. They are sinfully proud, stubborn and have a bad attitude. That is between them and God. I cannot control what they do, but I CAN control myself. I have already forgiven everybody!!! I love everybody!!! I refuse to harbor ill-feelings toward anyone! I get in my emotional moods, as we all do, and I might say something I shouldn't say in a moment of weakness, but I ALWAYS catch myself quickly, repent of that wrong thinking, and quickly love, forgive and pray for that person. That is all God expects of us, that we TRY to live and love right with His help.
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DON'T TAKE REVENGE! - The Scriptures teach us that vengeance belongs to God alone. Romans 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” I don't care if it's the wicked punk who stole your car, or the unreasonable business owner who doesn't care that he mistreated you, GOD WILL JUDGE ALL MEN for every word (Matthew 12:36), every deed (Ecclesiastes 12:14) and every thought (Proverbs 24:12) in eternity. No one ever gets away with anything!!! People sometimes get very angry, because they think someone is getting away with hurting them or a loved one. Not a chance in a billion! Our omnipotent God—Who knows the very number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30), and never forgets the little bird that's sold for a sacrifice (Luke 12:6), and controls the raging sea and ocean tides (Psalms 89:9)—notices everything about each and every human being (Psalms 139:1-6). The average person is a complete fool, having some misguided sense of self-righteousness, while totally rejecting God's righteousness which comes ONLY through faith in Christ Jesus. They are still hellbound in their sins. And sadly, many believers do evil, and God must avenge us of their wrongdoing (1st Thessalonians 4:6). Woe unto the unsaved person who hurts a child of God!!!
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DO WHAT YOU CAN TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM - If you can file a complaint with Consumer Affairs, Better Business Bureau (BBB), Medical Board, your Credit Card company, Regulated Industries Complaint Office (RICO) or some other complaint agency, it is perfectly appropriate to do so. When the Bible forbids avenging one's self, it is talking about going outside of proper channels to seek revenge. God is telling us not to take matters into our own hands outside the law. Of course, in 1st Corinthians 6:1-7, the Holy Bible teaches that churches should try to handle civil matters outside of court. The Bible plainly says in 1st Corinthians 6:7 that it is better to be defrauded (lose money), than to sue a Brother in Christ. Once you've done everything possible to rectify a problem, or get someone's attention (even if just to make yourself feel better, which is okay to do), let it go into God's hands for judgment! If you've done all that you can do, YOU'VE DONE ALL THAT YOU CAN DO!!! Let God, let go!
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DO SOMETHING TO EARN A REWARD IN HEAVEN TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER
- I love doing this! When
someone hurts my feelings, or ruins my day, I turn it around on the Devil
and do something for the Gospel's sake to get someone saved. Dr. John R.
Rice (1895-1980) said he used to do the same thing. When someone would hurt
his feelings, he'd write an article or do something for the Sword Of The
Lord (Dr. Rice's ministry for the Lord) that earned him another reward in
eternity. Success is the best revenge!!! Amen! I encourage anyone who is
struggling with anger issues to start a blog. I like websites better,
because then you have total freedom. Also, blogs can censor your writings,
and many blogs don't show up in the search engines. They are considered the
“deep web.” My websites are not in the deep web, they're on the frontlines
for God!!! So when the Devil kicks you in the fanny, you kick him where it
hurts in the crotch!
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DO GOOD TO OVERCOME THE EVIL - Do good to those who do you evil. Don't let their evil cause you to also do evil. Mistreating people is evil. Not caring is evil. Being indifferent is evil. Pray for those who despitefully use you. Bless them who curse you. The Bible PROMISES that in so doing, our heavenly Father will reward us (Matthew 5:44-48). When people hurt us, we often feel helpless, wishing that there was something more we could do to make the offending party care. Usually there is nothing we can do (besides breaking the law to harm them). God commands us not to avenge ourselves. The Lord PROMISES in Romans 12:19-21, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” But does that include the jerk restaurant owner who mistreats you, doesn't care, and there's nothing you can do to make him care? You better believe it does my friend. GOD WILL GET THEM!!! If an otherwise seemingly insignificant matter, is small enough to ruin your day and make you want to toss a big brick through someone's business' window, then God must deal with it, otherwise He's a liar!!!
Ephesians 4:20-32, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
Someone is always going to get the best of us in life. It is just that way! Some people will take advantage of us. They will hurt us. Sometimes they won't get away with it, but at other times they will. There are people who lay awake at night, trying to figure out how to take your money and mine. Most of the time they won't succeed, but sometimes they will. There are people who live to con other people, rather than work for an honest wage. We live in a dishonest U.S. culture today. What is called a “standard legal contract” nowadays is as crooked as can be, giving all the legal protections to the business or agent and none to the consumer. For that reason I am leery of signing anything these days.
The car salesman in the1971 movie
Willie Wonka
&
The Chocolate Factory was right...
“Fine print is for suckers!” I am like anybody else, I don't want to be
conned, hurt or betrayed. But realistically, it is going to happen, and when
it does, I'm not going to let it destroy my life. Oh, how I love the
Scriptures! Jesus is the reason for the season! Jesus is the joy of my life,
my reason for existence. Psalms 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom
shall I be afraid?” As believers, the Lord is our light, our salvation
and our strength.
Crucified With Christ, Yet Alive in Christ
One of the most beautiful Scriptures in the Bible is Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” This truth is so important to grasp. We get saved by trusting Jesus, but then once we are saved, we are supposed to die to self. When we get saved, our life belongs to Christ, because He has purchased us with His blood. Everything that we possess in this world becomes the Lord's the moment we get saved. It is not optional. When we give something to the Lord, we are merely letting go of what is already His. 1st Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
The beautiful truth to be learned here is that we have a new life in Christ as believers. When someone hurts my feelings, I just stop and realize that I am dead in Christ. Galatians 5:24, “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” But just as Jesus raised up from the dead, so have we raised up as believers in newness of life in Christ. Romans 6:4, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Aren't those beautiful passages of Scripture? This is so beautiful!!! When we get saved, all of our sins are buried with Jesus Christ... gone, gone, gone... forever gone! Psalms 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
And then, just as Jesus raised up triumphant from the dead, so also has God given us newness of life in Christ Jesus, so that we don't have to live in the darkness of sin as is “the course of this world.” Ephesians 2:2, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” The “course of this world” is an interesting phrase that refers to the ungodly way of the world.
The ungodly world are so mean, unkind and unreasonable. We have all dealt
with wicked and unreasonable people at times.
2nd Thessalonians 3:1-3, “Finally, brethren, pray
for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified,
even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from
unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the
Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.”
They not only need the Lord, but are walking close to the Devil. When people
criticize, snap at other people, degrade others and behave unkindly, they
unknowingly have been walking with the Devil. The course of this world is to
be unreasonable and wicked, when one ought to be sensible and good. We are
living in a world of fools.
Where's the Beef?
I recently found an object in my rice water drink at a local Mexican restaurant. The female manager refused to remove the $7.34 gratuity from my bill. I couldn't believe her belligerence. So I called the owner, which took me six days to finally reach him (he refused to call me). I kindly told him about the object in my drink (it was a piece of a rice bag), but he was cold and uncaring. He refused to refund the gratuity and price of the drink to my credit card. I also suggested that he add beef as an option to his enchiladas, which they don't offer, not even by special request. He was mean and said “no.” When I asked the owner if it was worth losing a customer over, he became angry and snapped at me, degrading me, calling me “insane” for suggesting the idea twice. I shared this recent experience with you, as I know everyone can relate in some way to similar mean people who don't care. Proverb 23:9, “Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.”
So I prayed for the owner, placed the matter into God's hands, and wrote this article to help others. We are living in the “perilous times” of 2nd Timothy 3:2a, when “men shall be lovers of their own selves.” Here's the full passage...
2nd Timothy 3:1-4, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
The world has always been a sinful place, and you simply cannot talk or reason with some wicked people. And most tragic is when the same type of bad experiences happen with Bob Jones University graduates who get angry when you try to warn them about the corrupt modern Bible versions. WHERE'S THE BEEF??? Instead of requesting beef in my enchiladas, I am requesting beef in my Bible!!! If you want spiritual steak, then you must read only the inspired King James Bible!!! Bob Jones can have their generic chicken and pork Bible versions out of a can, I want succulent flame-broiled steak!!! Amen. Let go, let God!
