September 1

REST IN THE LORD!

Where Do Harvesters Train?
"The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that
He would send forth laborers into His harvest." Luke 10:2.
September sounds sing solemn songs that signal the cessation of summer. School bells
outrank the autumn equinox in declaring the arrival of fall a few weeks early. Harvest time has been
happening across the country as gardens and orchards surrender their sun-ripened rewards to the
laborers who have stuck by them through the droughts and the drenchings, the diseases and weeds,
the birds, insects, and the endangered herbivores. The County Fairs have judged the fruits of their
labors and draped their harvest bounties with red and blue ribbons. Young and old have been
hustling to make the hay while the sun shines, to pick the fruit and berries, and to gather the gardens'
gifts. The trail of the harvest has been bursting with beauty.
Now the stage is set for a bountiful fall, but the school bells cannot be silent much longer.
Soon the bells, like the Pied Piper's music, will lure the children out of the fields and the orchards and
the parents' supervision to return to the lessons that they have largely forgotten over summer
vacation. Their school work and their summer activities have so little in common that the maxim,
"Out of sight, out of mind", works quickly to separate their lives into two worlds. School and nonschool. Would that the school and the community be united their in efforts to help each other TEACH
with Goals, REPROVE with Reasons, CORRECT with Obedience, and TRAIN with Work.
But alas! Much of the summer is wasted in terms of the school's objectives, and much of the
school year is wasted in terms of the community's objectives. Each have little choice but to begin at
the "expect zero" level of learning. In the springtime after months of one-size-fits-all instruction and
discipline, the children enter summer sensitized against the slightest restraint. Lacking work of their
liking and protected from any other by their mis-educated will and self-(in)-control, many spend the
summer with minimal need to bend their energies to essential labor. September finds them glad to
enter classrooms and escape boredom as long as the work does not tax their attention, restrict their
rights to recess, slow their social intercourse, or cause any growing pains. But years of precedents
have established the habit of academic "business as usual" to maintain at least a semblance of a
learning environment. And so the cycle goes with minor interruptions from innovative ideas for lifting
the learning experience into the 21st century. Still the school and the summer community of children
have their seasons, such as they are.
But what about the Lord's business? Where does it fit into our blueprint for life? Does either
the school or the community try to prepare us for success in our labor for Him? When and where do
we bring people to train for the work in His harvest fields?
Lord, please send forth laborers into Your harvest. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

How do you view the integration of the roles of schools and communities in children's education?
Have you sought for ways to make your voice heard on these issues?
Have you found a way to make a difference to at least one student caught in the crunch?
In view of how hard it is to mesh the roles of school and community to achieve the essential social
goals for society, how much more difficult must the task of reaching our God-given goals be?
To where and to what can we appeal for a place and a time to develop our God-given goals?
How can we train workers to meet the challenges that loving God and one another pose in society?
Scan September 1 page again to see what has ended up missing in our discussion.
Have we lost track of the laborers? Right.
In the context of our discussion, can you tell why the laborers are so few?
Are you ready to do something about the shortage?
What do you have in mind?

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September 2
Mammon Examined
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24.
Our step into September seems to have left us with no private territory upon which to put our
foot down. We have recognized the task faced by the school and the community to figure out how to
unite in stewardship of the territory upon which children tread. The child owns neither the school nor
the community. His role is merely to step where he's told or hear someone scold. He cannot have
two masters. However since neither institution governs to meet the needs or goals in their roles, in
the final analysis the child has no masters.
Instead he becomes a self-(in)-controlled mini-master whose will, so practiced in "won't", is of
little use to him. He slips through the cracks created by the rift between the agendas of the two
would-be masters. He ends up hating the school and despising the community. He despises the
community by devaluing its role in his life and reducing its claim on his need to cooperate for the
benefit of both of them. His minimal contribution, in turn, serves to justify his despised view of it. As
for school, if in 12 years of teaching a child, it fails to teach gratitude for its services, it is merely
getting its just due, in his opinion. Hate, the absence of love that was untaught, acts as the default
option.
We have this model to advise us of the solemn decisions we face in choosing God or mammon
as our master. Mammon? Of Chaldean origin, it has "(confidence, i.e. fig. wealth, personified);.. i.e.,
avarice (deified)" in its Strong Concordance derivation. Human logic advises us to serve the one in
whom we place our confidence to provide us with wealth. Its deified avarice, inordinate desire for
wealth that implies miserliness and greed, all but prophesies ruined partnerships for all who make
mammon their master. Here another consideration enters the decision process. Is money the
treasure or one of the tools to be used with the treasure? If the tool, then what indeed is the treasure
or wealth the wise all seek?
Our text above answers: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Is God the wealth we seek, or
is the wealth we seek our god? Note Matthew 6:21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also." The heart trusts in its treasure. Psalm 112:7 reads, "his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."
As we fix the final Lord-mankind ring in place on God's family circle, we come face to face again with
the beginning of God's First Love Commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
If God is indeed our treasure, with all our heart we shall trust (fix our confidence in) Him, not
mammon, to supply all our needs. If we plant the love of money, we fix within the heart the root from
which evil springs.
Lord, be my treasure: fix my heart to trust in You. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Recall how the child is cheated out of the benefits of school and of community, because both lack the
power to govern him wisely. Since neither can overrule the damage of the other, both adopt a
defensive course to counteract the influence of the other. At last the child ends up having no mastery
of himself.
What happens if you try to serve two masters, God and mammon?
Will God force you to serve Him and to forsake mammon?
Will serving mammon force you to forsake God?
Can you think of any examples of either happening in your life?
Will I be torn with conflict as I try to match what I do with what I know of their two sets of opposing
principles? If I try to hold them both am I likely to hate the guilt that builds from going against God's
law and despise the God who puts me at odds with the norms of society by which I measure success?
Will I overrule God's laws with my own set of compromised rules and pretend God still rules me so I
can quiet my conscience while I get the best of both worlds?
How might that set of compromised rules read?
Do I base my decisions upon the laws of God or mammon?
Do I expect my own sterile set of compromises to supply my needs?

September 3
The Lord--Mankind Partnership
".. why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Luke 6:46.
As the Treasure of our hearts, Jesus can be likened to a golden chain of Truth upon which
swings our eternal destiny. To treasure the chain we must treasure each role (link) which links Him to
us. Each role serves an essential purpose in the sequence that completes our destiny. To reject any
is to break connection with the whole chain upon which our destiny depends. No action of ours will
destroy the roles of Christ. He will continue being the greatest Parent, Teacher, Lover, Manager,
Neighbor, and governing Head, even if we refuse to relate as child, student, friend, employee, needy,
or His governed body. But our refusal puts a stop to the growth in grace we need to reach full
maturity in Christ.
The seventh link or covenant partnership is formed between the Lord and mankind. In all the
previous six we prepared to relate in both leader and partner roles. We became children to become
parents, students to become teachers, friends to become lovers, employees to become managers,
and so forth. But in this partnership Self must be put fully aside. There is only one Lord. Our
sanctification requires that we not try to displace Him. We never get so good at being a member of
mankind that we can take the place of Lord. Nor does Jesus ever make us all lords, as He makes us
kings and priests. Why? The task is eternally impossible for us to fulfill. The Lord's role in our lives
as members of mankind is to sanctify us. He says in Exodus 31:13, "that ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you." Sanctification is more than being empowered to love God and to love
our neighbors as ourselves. It is actually DOING the loving, as God causes us to do it. God's
promises become united as one with our practices, as we are sanctified.
As Lord of the Sabbath, the sign of our sanctification (Exodus 31:13), which was made for man
(Mark 2:28), Jesus is Lord of all mankind. Just as a child is not a family, nor a student a class, nor one
needy person a community, so one person is not a mankind. In this partner role, none can isolate
oneself from the universal brotherhood of mankind or from the family of God's children. The equality
of mankind does not recognize divisions of race, gender, nationality, social caste, or any other
categories that are used as excuses to impress or oppress one another with our ability to lord it over
any member of mankind. The group of Mankind singles out none to live above the law and deserts
none still trying to live under the law. As a drop of water is to the river of life, so each is one with the
stream of humanity. We are often called to stand up, stand still, stand for God, but never to stand out
as a SELF to be idolized. Our previous roles have prepared us to look to God for grace to serve
mankind in any role, by packaging God's love into need-meeting deeds that will glorify God.
Lord, sanctify me; cause me to love You by serving mankinds needs in ways that will bring glory to
God. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

When you picture how Jesus links Himself with you in the context of your seven basic role
partnerships--parent-child, teacher-student, lover-friend, etc.--in which of these are you most inclined
to draw upon His power to cause you to love to meet the needs associated with it?
In which are you least inclined to seek His input and His power to cause you to love?
To the degree that you seek Him for power to serve in your God-given roles, you are allowing Him to
exercise His Lordship in your life.
Have you noticed how the one role, Lordship, that we need not fulfill, is the one people generally try
to take upon themselves?
Is it more appealing to the carnal mind to want to rule others than to rule oneself?
Do you know the great relief we feel when we accept the fact that we need not do so?
Is it easier to love one another if we need not govern (be responsible for) their behavior?
How can knowing this help us respond more easily to the Lord's call to serve mankind?
Consider how much striving among men is related to wanting to unjustly rule over one another.
Peace awaits our efforts to rise above self and claim the duties and rewards of equality God gives us
as members of mankind.

September 4
Reconciling Red Speaks Rest
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son,
nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within
thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11.
In the United States Labor Day honors the working people for contributing to society. For
many their reward is wrapped in the weekly pay check. "For the laborer is worthy of his hire." Luke
10:7. The Lord delights to bless their efforts in manager and employee roles by giving them power to
get wealth. "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work," He promises.
Society says, "You may rest because of what you've done." But in this new Lord-mankind
partnership, the Lord of the Sabbath says, in essence, "You may rest because of what I've done for
you." In a world geared to rewarding and punishing on the basis of how they view what we did or did
not do, God's selfless goodness toward all members of mankind who enter into this Lord--mankind
partnership is cause for rejoicing.
Born in Eden to commemorate God's creative work, this weekly, twenty-four hour sanctuary in
time is God's gift to mankind for all time. (Mark 2:27.) Adam and Eve spent their first full day sharing
this sanctified time in worship with their Creator. And today the Lord of lords invites us to join Him in
being glad for what He has done for us and what we can do for others! Having created us in His
image and after His likeness, He seeks to sanctify us, perfect our loving, by empowering us to
selflessly serve mankind. While He never leaves nor forsakes us, He hallows one seventh of our time
together as a Sabbath of rest for our seventh Lord-mankind partnership.
In this union we savor what Christ has in mind for us: true rest that is born in grace and
results in peace. This largest outside ring in God's family circle has room for all of mankind wholl
avail themselves of His heavenly rest. This ring is red, the final color in the rainbow of concentric
circles. This circle of love encompasses all love. It wraps its rest in the reds of sunsets and sunrises
that remind us of His saving work in our behalf. As sunset draws each workday to a close, its
reconciling reds relax the weary body and the worried mind. The cheery reds of sunrise awake in us
new energies to love the loveless. We delight in knowing that no matter what will come our way, we
are reconciled to God by the red blood of Jesus. As each day ends His crimson sunset confirms that
nothing we suffered or will suffer need disturb our peace with God and mankind. Red traffic lights
say, Stop. In this glowing red partnership Jesus says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me...ye shall find rest unto your
souls." Matthew 11:28, 29.
Lord, I need the rest that You have created for us. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

If asked by a person who did something nice for you to join him in rejoicing over it, how would you
respond:
a) join him in rejoicing that his efforts in your behalf succeeded? b) feel that you were being
obligated to repay the person for being nice? c) say, "I already thanked you. What more do you
want?" d) see it as an unwarranted imposition upon you? e) suspect him of a selfish motive for being
nice to you? f) reject his help? Why do you feel it's appropriate for him to serve your needs
cheerfully but not for you to be cheerfully grateful with him?
Is it hard to accept help you can only repay with thanks? Do we hide or celebrate such help?
Does it go against your nature to freely enter into a Lord-mankind partnership in which the Lord's gift
of atoning blood is free, and can only be celebrated with gratitude and praise to Him?
Is that news worth rejoicing about with Him at least one day weekly?
Is His desire that we freely serve others, as He freely serves us, required to pay for God's gifts?
Or is He seeking to sanctify us by building in us loving characters that freely love God and man?
What symbolic truths do you see when you see red? Do God's gifts seem to put you "in the red"?
Does our habit of relating to people on the 50--50 premise cause us to view them in that light?

September 5
Promise Path to Love Restored
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" Ephesians
2:8.
The Sabbath rest we enjoy is a memorial to God's grace by which He saves and sanctifies us.
The fourth commandment beginning "Remember.." takes us back in memory to the creation week
which was memorialized when God rested. What a magnificent sign He chooses to teach us to value
His sanctifying grace. It bespeaks God's goal to return us to the holy state in which mankind dwelt on
the first Sabbath when everything on earth was good and very good. God loves remembering the
days when love reigned. By His grace He plans to restore it to its rule among all mankind.
The first three of the ten commandments present His promises of what He must do in us by
His grace to restore love and peace. "By grace are ye saved through faith..." which is God's gift to us
in His first command promise. After reminding us that He's the one who brought us out of the house
of bondage, He guarantees that we shall be glad to accept His gift of faith and trust Him to supply our
needs. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:3. "You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart..." Mark 12:30.
His second command promise begins, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep
My commandments." Exodus 20:4-6. Through faith we receive the promise of His Spirit (Galatians
3:14) who causes the image of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" Colossians 1:27, not a graven image,
to be reflected in us. He patterns us after His creative likeness, so that we may love as He loves. We
need not make our own gods. He promises that we shall serve Him, and be freed from bowing to the
demands of people who pose as gods, but have no love to give. All gain, when we love as He loves.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul..." Mark 12:30
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him
guiltless that taketh His name in vain." Exodus 20:7. God's third command promises true love to
remove our guilt, as we truly take His name, His character, as our own. "You shall love the Lord your
God ..with all your mind..." Mark 12:30. If we mean it, our efforts to love will not be in vain or futile.
Have (I) Faith that (II) the image of Christ, the Hope of glory, present in you (III) sheds guiltremoving Love abroad in you by (IV) Grace. Then despite your weakness, because of His grace at
work, "You shall love the Lord your God...with all your strength..." Mark 12:30. What an offer the Lord
makes to mankind! Commandment IV details God's promise to sustain us in a balanced program of
work and rest to continually renew our strength. Who can resist it?
Lord, "I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love." Psalm 119:113. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

The first four commandments parallel the four parts in the first love commandment of Mark 12:30.
Notice how those four commandments expand the meaning of the first love commandment.
In United States marriages usually a woman takes a man's name, hoping to be loved. Sometimes her
hopes are in vain, and her efforts net much guilt and little love. Why is that?
Could it be that they adopt the Guilt Cycle and reject God's offer to covenant with them?
Study to see how it is that through faith grace can do its saving work in us.
Note how Romans 5:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 also apply to it.
Check each "Thou shalt..." promise to see if you want to choose to have God fulfill it in you.

September 6
The Be and the Do
"Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth." Psalm 119:151.
God's eagerness to be known by us as our Lord is obvious in the Ten Commandments He
spoke from Mt. Sinai. He begins by saying, "I am the Lord thy God.." and refers to Himself as such
four more times in the document. The derivation of the Hebrew word for Lord means self-Existent or
Eternal. It traces back to a word whose derivation is "to exist, i.e., be or become, come to pass
(always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary)," and it means both be and do. God blends into
His commandments His assurance to all mankind that He, the Lord, "the Be and the Do", will see to it
that as we will it, He'll "shall" it by fulfilling all His ten promises in us. Only the Lord can empower us
to DO what we SAY about whom we claim to BE. By giving us individuality He empowers us to think
[to be] and to do. He wants to be one in thought and deed with us. He seeks to TEACH His four
commands with the goal of having us value how our cheerfulness regarding God's Faith, Hope, Love,
and Grace at work in us can bring glory to God.
The English word, lord, derives from two concepts: bread and keeper. How descriptive it is of
our Lord! Known as the bread of life, He is our bread-keeper, our life-sustaining Lord. Recall how He
used a child's five loaves to demonstrate His ability to make the bread He gives us meet all the needs
of mankind around us. As the supreme host, He is our perfect pattern to emulate, as we host the
banquets to which we call "the lame, the maimed, the halt, and the blind" who are waiting to eat the
Bread of heaven. Communion with this Lord of all bespeaks the day when we and He shall be one.
We gain new purpose in casting our bread upon the water, knowing that it shall achieve the purpose
God has in motivating us to share it. In this partnership we need not look for externals to give
meaning to our deeds of service. We draw our meaning and purpose from the example of our Lord's
freely flowing benevolence toward us. Like the stream that continually gives its water to larger rivers
and is refilled by the springs, we become one with the larger purposes of God, as the wellsprings of
His grace keep us pouring blessings to all mankind.
As we freely break this heavenly Bread with members of mankind struggling in sin, so they
too can know His sanctifying power at work in them, we find our own needs met, our own lives
regenerated, our strength renewed, and our partnerships restored. Many among us, who know God's
blessings in the green manager-employee ring of prosperity, know nothing of the red Lord-mankind
ring of heavenly rest from ceaseless battling to overcome sin in their lives. They know nothing of the
blood red of Jesus' atonement for us that lifts us out of the range of man's finger of guilt into the
rainbow realm of reconciliation with God.
Lord, please daily be the Bread of life to me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you see God as a severe dictator eager to punish you for failing to measure up to a set of rules
about loving?
As you ponder the significance in the word, Lord, what changes does it suggest for your mental
picture of God?
What new hope does it bring into your partnership with Him?
In what ways have you been "casting your bread upon the water"?
The Lord, our "bread-keeper", assures us that our efforts will achieve God's intended results.
Does this add to your courage to keep on loving and remove anxiety about any fear of failure?
What member of mankind do you avoid feeding for fear of the response you might receive?
Does it help to know that God blesses our giving no matter how people choose to respond to the
Bread of life?

September 7
A Box Is a Box
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof..." 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB.
The mind of Christ gives us access to a fountain ever flowing with truth and beauty. But the
mind has no hands to grasp the task that truth assigns, no mouth to praise the beauty God designs.
The beauty we know in our mind can lead us to shun contact with the ugliness that emanates from
the needs of mankind. We can become so engrossed in living in the clouds that we forget such clouds
only spell gloom for those beneath who see no sun shine through them and gain no rain from them.
Paul challenges the Romans (2:16-23): "Behold, thou...restest in the law, and makest thy
boast of God, and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed
out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in
darkness,.... Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that makest thy
boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?" The teaching that God calls us to
do in Matthew 28:20 is "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."
Our teaching must include having people observe, watch, us do all the things that Jesus has
commanded, empowered, us to do. Jesus commands by doing in us what He says or promises He'll
do. He wants us to be living examples of how He empowers us to do the loving we say we think
toward God and one another. In this way our lives bring glory to God, as people see His laws working
in us.
A home is a home, be it ever so humble. Likewise, a box is a box, be it ever so beautiful. And
we are boxed in, or shall we say, separated from the world. Like the Jews of old, we suppose that as
long as we know beautiful truth about becoming free to love, it doesnt matter if we do it. Having
become content with whatsoever state we are in, we like best the state of complete corporate
isolation in which we are surrounded with enough people who think we're right to insulate us from the
evil people who think something's wrong with us. With our "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality
Christianized, but still operating, we feel acclimatized to being right with God and justified in
distancing ourselves from the wrong people who must be evil, or they'd think like we do.
The Lord knocks on the door of our box. Why? To reprove us? We've nothing to hide. We
treat one another just fine, and we keep ourselves from idols. We love Him. He's welcome here, but
we don't see any need for the IN FRONT door's outer side labeled TEACH with Goal. It now features
His I-IV commandments which He wants taught with the goal of showing how His gifts of Faith, Hope,
Love, and Grace can be used to bring glory to God. He can open His own door. His law is for sinners
anyway. But we're His family! Right?
Lord, show me when my behavior shuts a door to You. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

How do you view Christianity? Is it merely a lovely personal meditation?

Is it merely the power to be good enough so that others will love you in return?
Is it merely the set of truths that provide the best logic for proving your life view is right?
Is it a life-changing partnership with God through Jesus that moves you with compassion toward all
who wait to benefit from its life-sustaining power, and constrains you to share it with them?
How do you relate to teachers whose talk does not match their walk?
Does talk about Jesus with no demonstration of His power in us fulfill our roles within mankind?
Can being right become more important to us than being available?
Is it possible to become so comfortable among our circle of Christian people that we lose our zeal for
fulfilling the goal God has in mind for us?
How do you respond when Scripture suggests that you may not be doing what needs to be done?
Are you tempted to use "family" as a fault vault for preserving behaviors that shut Jesus' influence out
of your relationships?
If we truly love beauty, shall we not value the need to work to transform the scenes of ugliness in our
lives to beauty?

September 8
Does God Knock on His Own Door?
"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." Proverbs 15:3.
This month our box, unlike the six dark ones we've seen, radiates charm and beauty. Streams
of light glow through stained glass, casting color into the crimson carpeted sanctuary, and caressing
the treasured appointments crafted of finest gold and silver. Elegant furniture waits to accommodate
the speakers and the musicians. Orderly rows of velvet-cushioned pews comfort the weary who come
to find the rest that they are promised in this Lord-mankind partnership. From pulpit to pew all that
the heart desires of God is symbolized by some element used in worship. Sitting in silent conformity
to the tradition that sits well with them, worshipers in varying stages of rest--some even soundly
asleep--review their reasons for feeling good about being there. At least, they're surrounded by
people who agree that they are right, so they can feel right at home and expect to be loved by one
another.
Although I am not alone, it seems that I am, as I sit ignoring the Lord's knock on the door. No
one stirs or even looks in casual curiosity toward the sound. Isn't some deacon assigned to tending
the door? I'm sitting tight. In no way do I intend to overstep my bounds. I hate being conspicuous,
and I hate worse being found wrong-- in deed, that is. My opinions, right or wrong, don't matter as
long as I keep them to myself. Only opinions that are formed by Somebodies are deemed to be
straight from God (and thus count even more than a majority). Heaven forbid that dissenting
opinions by a Nobody be allowed to pollute naive minds, or worse, take root as sensible ideas ere they
can be damned as political scheming at least and divisive tools of Satan at worst. My thoughts are
interrupted, as I hear that knock again.
What if the Lord is trying to point out some unperceived duty or some unclaimed gift? What if
He needs to refocus us from our dear symbols to the dire realities challenging His kingdom? Won't
holy symbols wax hollow in meaning if we separate them from the One who sanctifies us and them? I
can sit no longer. If nobody is going to answer the Lord's knock, I might as well be the nobody. As I
rise to the occasion, I find my fear of being conspicuous was unwarranted. Invisibly I move to push
open the heavy door. Not an eye, let alone a crowd, follows me to greet the Guest I expect. But what
I see at the open door does not match what I sought. Or does it? No sooner is the door open when a
motley group of outsiders united only by hope cries "Peace!" and presses past me, as if to grab some
holy grail they fight to grasp.
"Lord, help me. The needs I sought to meet outside the church overwhelm me. I can't go out
this front door to You without being broken by the needs of the world crushing upon me." In a flash I
am rescued. How I cannot tell you. Now I sit as in shock over a new awareness. As I scan the pews,
the world's motley group of demand-makers and demand-meeters who entered seeking peace are
now one with the worshipers. Too quickly the newcomers have exchanged their thread of hope for the
strings of remorse that disturb what peace they imagined would permeate the barren beauty of the
box. I ask myself, "Why the remorse?"
Lord, how shall I approach the doors You want to open? Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Paint a word picture of your place of worship. What symbolism is incorporated in it? Is it a place of
safety? of freedom? Do you feel free within its walls? In what ways do you feel inhibited in your
place of worship? Whom do you try to please? To whom do you look to be your source of love? Do
you feel noticed or invisible?
Are you more concerned about what God's eyes are seeing than what the fellow members may see?
How do their views of your behavior differ?
Is God more or less likely to understand what you do and think than the people are?
Is your group too boxed in and shut away from the needs of the world? Are its efforts to reach the
world merely symbolically recognizing their plight or making significant progress in meeting needs?
Do you hear the Lord calling you to a larger task? Does serving the Lord seem an overwhelming task?
Do you obligate yourself to meet every need you see without letting the Lord's PROVIDEnce show you
your role and task in the big picture? Do you see yourself as a somebody who need not serve or a
nobody whose input does not matter? Why? Do labels excuse you from God's corporate call to
service? Do you, a temple of God, choose others' control when you're inside a church?

September 9
Why Not Serve?
"..from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and
from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely." Jeremiah 6:13.
As our Lord appeals to us to unite in this phase of covenant relating, we see an overwhelming
task loom before us. When we enter a supermarket, we do not feel overwhelmed by immense variety
and quantity. We do not suppose that we must eat, or even buy, all that we see. But when we enter
the Lord's vineyard with the desire to serve Him, somehow we seem to suppose we must gather and
process all the grapes we see. When misunderstood, even free gifts of grace can box us into an
inhibited, unloving state of relating.
The person who gains the freedom to love may find himself with a figurative game that none
know how to play with him. It may appear to have little relevance to the way ordinary people relate.
Knowing how to love, he now has three options: (1) he may revert to copying their "get-love"
behaviors to try to earn their "love", (2) he may reject people who use easy-to-spot "get-love"
behaviors and refuse to love them until they get it right, or (3) he may seek God's power to love
others as God loves him. With a pious aura derived from being "right", He's likely to choose (1) and
(2) and suppose he's doing (3). But in the process a worse problem arises.
Intimidated by apparent rejection of his efforts, and unsure of how to love past it, he may
protect himself by turning his gifts into his reasons to feel superior to others. Now he is Somebody;
he knows about loving, and they are Nobodies because they neither know how to love nor deserve to
be loved when they misbehave. He'll wait to love them until they can prove they know how to love
him. He'll tell them whom to love and how much, while his own branch of the Vine withers. Still
some, eager to be loved, will try to please him by doing what he says. Soon political dynamics
develop that closely resemble the Nice Guys and the No Goods. But since church only grants
membership to Nice Guys, the "No Good" label becomes a prohibited "N" word. Instead the power
lines are drawn between the Somebodies who do the "saying" and the Nobodies who say they're
"doing". What they are doing is merely a baptized form of the Guilt Cycle. They try to do what will
win the approval of the Somebodies who claim to know how to love. They hope to earn Somebody's
love and be absolved of the guilt being scribbled upon their feelings, as with indelible "WRONG" ink,
by the Somebodies who won't pay them love despite their hard work.
If loveless members view appeals for help as tasks they must do to earn Somebody's love; if
the mission, like the vineyard, is larger than their ability to do it all; if attempting and not completing
it means more failure and more reasons for Somebody to reject them and refuse to love them, can
you see why some who entered hoping to serve, will see how much like the world the members
operate, and decide to say no? But the Lord waits.
Lord, why do we ask You for love and then look to others to give it to us? If we'd trust You for it, we
could obey. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

What do you say about how you use God's gifts of grace, mainly the faith, hope, and love He freely
gives you? Do you find them freely operating in your relationships?
Name a few specific ways you apply them.
Do you find some who refuse to practice loving with you?
Which of the three options listed do you adapt?
Or do you have other ways to respond to them?
In your religious world do you recognize any Somebodies lording over any Nobodies?
Do you have to deal with any? Are you a Somebody or a Nobody?
Do you ever feel guilty that you are not doing enough for the Lord?
Could involvement in the Somebody-Nobody dynamic be part of the reason?
In your Lord-mankind partnership would the Lord like to do more things for you?
Would you include letting Him rid you of your feelings of guilt and inferiority or superiority?
Do you expect Him to "feel guilty" about not doing more in your life?
Awareness of peoples need is a step in loving to meet needs, not a signal to feel guilty.

September
10
The Language of Remorse
"I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah." Psalm
77:3.
"And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord.." Numbers 11:1
What happens to the hope that propels the world's motley group through the door of the
beautiful box? Hope seeks love, which the world expects to find packaged in beauty. The church
advertises its beauty to entice the world to explore its claim to offer love. But true beauty only graces
the vessels of God's truth that are filled with God's love. As the newcomers search the church for
these scarce love-filled vessels of truth, they find that many, not having learned Gods plan for loving,
still relate via the worlds guilt cycle dynamics of Im right; do as I say, and hope Ill approve and love
you. Theyre told that sinners who truly repent are forgiven and loved by God and His church, but
theyre given only guilty feelings and labeled "WRONG" when they seek that love. Have they not
repented enough? How can they prove they deserve Gods forgiveness and the members love? As
they search, they see members mistakenly measuring repentance by the amount of remorse sinners
exhibit. Lots of remorse? Light punishment. No remorse? No mercy. Is remorse mans substitute for
repentance?
They set aside their robes of righteousness by faith in Christ and focus on feeling guilty,
unworthy, because others refuse to love them. They drape aprons of remorse over their lives to
impress others with their deep regret for past sins. Remorse, of course, destroys any cheerfulness.
Remorse [re-again + mordere-to bite] is defined as a gnawing distress that is excited by a sense of
guilt. This feeling bites again and again; it gnaws at ones well-being with the feeling that "I blew it,
and now there's nothing I can do about it except think, think, and think about it." It fixes nothing. It is
self-punishing misbehavior that shames, devalues, and inflicts abuse on oneself because of one's own
or others offenses. Some call it repentant regret, but the true repentance God gives comes packaged
in hope and love. It brings forgiveness and peace, not distressing remorse. Remorse, like a cosmic
black hole, engulfs and destroys God's gracious gifts of faith, hope, and love and invites death.
Rather than inspiring forgiveness, remorse invites others to trash us as we trash ourselves and serves
to justify their trashings.
Despite its deadliness, some use remorse to control others. Aware that people demand
wrongdoers to show remorse, they accuse their opponents of evil motives and deeds, then show
righteous indignation in behalf of the victims of those deeds. They charge that their opponents
cheerfulness proves they feel no remorse. To add credibility to their accusations, they personally
express a pseudo-remorse; they revise remorses message from I blew it... to HE blew it, and
theres nothing I can do but piously complain until YOU relieve my misery by supporting my cause
and helping me destroy my (perceived)opponent.
Any who resist their evil demands risk being
scornfully blamed for adding to their undeserved remorse. If deserved remorse supposedly calls forth
others mercy, they assume that undeserved remorse should win them even more demand-meeting
mercy.
Once seen as Nobodies, these suffering saints claim new status. They deserve not only to
be loved by a Somebody but as a Somebody. Their stories starring daily pain prove they've suffered
undeserved remorse for the evil in others lives, as well as for their own few sins of innocent
ignorance. They view any not moved by their pain as evil villains who cause them more pain by
not siding with them. Whod dare be so evil as to add to their pain by not meeting their demands to
punish their targets? No attempts to explore the truth, establish rapport, examine reason, effect
reconciliation, or enter into need-meeting covenants with God will satisfy them. The Somebodies
favor them. They feel flattered to be chosen to measure repentance by remorse and to mete
punishment to the accused cheerful, whom they assume must be "unrepentant" of their alleged
"wrongs" that supposedly caused such pain to the pious complainers. (Will the real martyrs please
stand?)
Lord, remorse is a wolf in repentance's clothing.
repentance. Amen.

May I not substitute my remorse for Your

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Has your attraction to some beauty led to disappointment when it could not serve your purpose for
getting it?
When have you felt remorse? Was it because You blew it... or They blew it...? Did remorse fix the
evil?
Did any try to use your error to hurt you or gain advantage over you by complaining of pain you
caused them?

Do you cope with remorse over evil by complaining and blaming or do you repent, get forgiven, and
forget it?
Do you complain? What about? To whom? What is it doing for you? What is it doing against others?

September
11
The Cause of Remorse
"These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: ...a false witness that
speaketh lies, and (7) he that soweth discord among brethren." Proverbs 6:16, 19.
The beauty of the box is polluted by the beastly behavior that leads to remorse. Remorse is
last of the seven negative mental attitudes which are the symptoms of the seven abominations that
the Lord hates. Distrust, depression, guilt, anxiety, grief, discontent, and remorse outline the
sequence that leads to the decay and death of our relationships, and eventually of ourselves, if they
are not reproved and removed. Each leads to the next in an ever descending path to total distress of
the victim of these killers. However, like trash sitting on the curb is snatched up by those who
treasure it, many snatch and defend these seven and stake their lives on their need to use at least
one of them. But they are septuplets who'll not be parted. When we give birth to distrust, the first
one of the seven, and embrace its presence within our soul temple, the other six will surely follow.
The Lord now exposes the OUT FRONT inside of the front door by which He waits to enlighten
our understanding about the sins that lead to remorse and why He hates them. Few within the church
want to view the Lord's light shining on its REPROVE with Reason labels that reprove remorse and
reveal its reason. They view remorse as an aid to ridding the church of wrongs (and the cheerful,
remorseless people suspected of wrongdoing), so their kingdom, largely void of righteousness, can at
least be right.
Theyd rather ignore the ornately carved
REPROVE labels inconspicuously
incorporated into the doors design. They find it easier to cast their wrong into the world than to
love the worldings into the church to teach them to love. But it is God's love for the world, as defined
in the law on the outside doors, that the world reads and expects to see enacted by the church. It is
love that originates with the Author of the moral law, not with beauty, that covers the multitude of
sins that are killing mankind. When we trample, trivialize, or neglect any part of God's law, we hinder
the Holy Spirit's use of the total law as His tool to empower love. Clearly, "It is time for thee, Lord, to
work: for they have made void thy law." Psalm 119:126.
God, who so loved the world that He gave His Son that mankind need not die, has solemn
reproof for the members who wallow in remorse. The reason behind this symptom of evil is the
seventh abomination: "he that soweth discord among brethren". Among brothers called to serve with
Jesus as one body to rescue mankind from death, this evil is the climax of abominations. He that
sows discord is fully equipped to practice every other abomination: His proud look, lying tongue,
blood-shedding hands, devising heart, running feet, false witness, all find employment in his evil work
of sowing discord. His discontent, concealed by his claims to love freely, leads him to produce the
seeds of complaining that sow discord. Not until the damage done by his attempts to trash others
results in evil that returns upon his own head does he feel the real personal remorse that surely
comes to sowers of discord among brethren and sisters within God's family. Sadly, his choicest
victims are the trusting newborns found among the world's escapees who enter the church. So eager
to win approval and love, they buy into the remorse routine that fuels the destructive power of
discord sowers. They pay what members say love costs. God watches: His church is to be a place to
be saved from destruction, not for destruction.
Lord, weed from my behavior every borrowed or created seed of discord. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Can you recall when you first joined a body of believers? How were you received?
What changes occurred as your needs for their teaching, reproof, correction, and training arose?
Did you find the loving help you expected? Did a member bring you into covenant relationship with
God and invite
Him to meet your needs? Did you contribute similar loving aid to others? How did discord arise
among you and the others? Did you start listening to the sowers of discord and stop listening to the
Lords reproof?
Have you seen any use pseudo-remorse over others' sins to sow discord that injured and reaped real
remorse?
Sort through the trash of the seven negative mental attitudes that curb our ability to enjoy life.
Which of them do you defend as useful to you for something other than symptoms that aid in spotting
the seven abominations which cause them? [Removing those root causes can free us from the
7negative attitudes.]
Review God's Plan to CORRECT with Obedience the discord sower's first six abominations. Index K2K4, p .412.

September
12
Silent Seeds of Discord
"The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have
it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Jeremiah 5:31.
Even one rest day a week is a fantasy if remorse reigns in our relationships. We cannot move
chameleon-like from six days of its evil to one day of evangelicalism without showing our truly sinful
colors. The boxed-in state in which remorse reigns does not plague us in churches only. Remorse can
dog us in any place and within any partnership in which we invest hope that its beauty will deliver
love to us. The worldly explore every beautiful box from music hall to gambling hall. Some then try
the church, but find its members lovelessly, joylessly pursuing the love of pleasure in the world's
empty boxes. Thus the honest in the world turn against, not into, the church.
Remorse is not merely a Christian peculiarity. In fact it is not Christian at all. It expresses
mankind's worst state and greatest misery. Permeated with remorse, lives God intended to be filled
with beauty that would bring glory to God, become ugly and filled with shame. Unlike King Midas
whose touch turned all to gold, the causers of remorse among mankind turn all they touch to trash.
They preserve their evil by labeling as "complaining, intruding, tattling, etc." anyones good efforts to
correct injustices and minister to those suffering remorse from them. Such smears scare off some
who would otherwise resist evil. Without God victims of remorse are without remedy. Trained to react
first and to think last, they move from one scene of discord to another in their quest for rest from
battles. Wherever the promise of beauty or paradise waves its hope for love and peace, they go to
war for it and spoil it, as they sow discord and reap remorse. The spoils of such battles are worthless
trash.
Still men who seek love and peace cannot be cast aside as worthless. They do not intend to
leave a path of innocent blood behind them. With the psalmist they would likely say, "I am for peace:
but when I speak, they are for war." Psalm 120:7. Often their mere ignorance of how to make peace
and awkwardness in applying love leads to friction in their relationships. Their ignorance regarding
which behaviors are tools of discord leads them to confuse these worldly tools of the battlefield with
God's tools for working His harvest field, so discord thrives in the church where God wants the Spirit
fruit of love, joy, and peace to be harvested and shared with the needy.
Because many seeds of misbehavior are slow to sprout discord, we fail to see which behaviors
cause it. Sowing can occur quietly, so even the sower may escape undetected, and leave us unaware
of what really triggered our discord. Angry expressions, lusting eye contact, eyebrows raised in
suspicion, fingers pointed in scorn, gossipy whispers, along with cheerless--even morose-countenances that complain silently of life in general, all can sow discord. Even when the evil seed
germinates and bears discord, people still will use it as the lesser of two evils to gain the love they
seek. Not until real remorse over the damage they did hits them do they see their plight. We need to
weed evil seed from our behavior and bring others who suffer this evil to Jesus for His correction,
rather than treasure their evils as things to be copied by us.
Lord, may I read seed labels before I buy into them. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

What activities do you feel are out of place in the church? Is it because they are secular or evil?
Are you comfortable about indulging those same activities elsewhere in the world?
Does your comfort depend upon whether or not a church person sees you doing them?
Does our desire for church to be a place of peace and purity move us to act in pure ways that promote
peace?
Where do you look for beauty in hopes of finding love or peace?
What determines whether you
succeed?
Try to trace an example of recent discord to the seeds--silent or spoken--which initiated it.
Is the seed sower known or anonymous? Can you add examples of silent discord seeds to our list?
Do you usually find that the remorse you feel is triggered by the seeds you yourself have sown?
Or do you let everyone's evil deeds steal away your cheerfulness?
How do you distinguish between complaining about others' wrongs and addressing evils to correct
them?
Do we borrow remorse when we say, "He or she blew it, and there's not a thing I can do about it but
suffer and complain."? Must we be victimized by remorse when others refuse to repent?
Must we let their misbehaviors distance us from loving them?

September
13
A Time for TRASH?
"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom
he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" I John 4:20.

The supply and demand principle works in relating, just as it does in economics. If theres a
demand for people to furnish punishment to those who are trying to suffer enough to qualify to be
loved as a Somebody, there will be plenty of people willing to profit by providing the punishment to
produce the desired amount of suffering. This is almost too weird for words, but lets explore this
dynamic at work in the partnership of Les and Lena.
We have followed Les and Lena through the F, A, C stages of the Guilt Cycle. Trace their
journey by reviewing August 16. None have hoped more than they that they would have a beautiful
marriage filled with love. But schooled in the (get-)love of the world, they have each now reached the
lowest point in their relationship. Les had Flattered, Accused, and Condemned Lena and rejected her
as a suitable lover. Lena had Feared his disapproval, Accepted his projected guilt and even
Apologized. Unforgiven by Les, she had presumed that she must still be guilty, so she Conformed her
role to his demands. She is at his mercy, of which he has none.
By insisting on staying with Les in this loveless relationship without restructuring it, Lena is
pressing Les to choose one of two simple options. He can treat her in a loving manner or in an
unloving manner. But no love rises on his horizon. He blames her for the rift between them (so he
need not feel guilty for it nor fix it) and sees himself as being rejected by her. He can only give to her
what he himself feels--rejection. Supposing she would've rejected him if he had not beat her to the
punch, he believes she deserves his unloving treatment of her. So her decision to conform herself to
his views pushes both to the last stage of the Guilt Cycle--the T stage in which he will TRASH her with
every unloving behavior he uses.
Any unloving behavior has a trashing effect, but these are
especially designed to destroy Lena's reputation as a lover. If she will not love him (meet his
demands), he will see that no one else loves her.
By Talebearing, Ridicule, Abuse, Scorn,
Humiliation, all designed to SHame her into isolating herself from society's gaze and for his selfish
purposes, he will TRASH her.
He has his reasons. His sense of adequacy as a lover has been shaken by her discontent with
his love. By criticizing and devaluing Lena, he rebuilds his own sense of self-worth. He proves that
since she is such a stupid Nobody, her opposing opinions of him as an inadequate lover can be
discounted as "Wrong". Since he is smarter than she, his flattering view of himself as a lover is right.
Once she has served her painful sentence that follows his guilty verdict, and shown remorse, he will
favor her by letting her do him more favors. Their remorse-filled, punish-focused relating binds them
together in a way that separates them, but does not free them to love.
If they punish each other for their own plights, neither need feel responsible to face and fix the
dilemma.
Lord, can we love You as our Father and TRASH our brothers or sisters within God's human family?
Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you know people who see value in suffering as a way of paying for the evil in their lives?
Have you seen anyone TRASH another in order to make himself or herself look superior?
What are some examples that come to mind? Do you know spouses who belittle the wife's cooking,
the husband's work skills, etc., while in the company of others?
Have you ever been TRASHED by a spouse, a parent, or a boss?
Did it increase your desire to win that person's favor by doing more favors for him/her to criticize?
Whom do you TRASH to rebuild your own self-worth? Will that person be willing to try to earn your
love?
Does it make sense to use such a method for mending relationships?
Do you know people who transfer their own feelings of rejection to others by finding things to ridicule
about them, even though those people have done nothing to injure them? Examples: look at that
guy's crooked nose, see how fat she is, what a long neck she has, see how stupid he acts.
Can you see how people might use such ridicule to try to look better by comparison to the defects of
others?
Does hearing a person voice such cruel attacks raise the speakers value in your eyes?
Is measuring ourselves among ourselves wise? See 2 Corinthians 10:12.
Can we become beautiful by spewing ugliness from our mouths?

September
14
Who Treasures TRASH?
"They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when
there is no peace." Jeremiah 6:14.
As the final stage of the 2-D Guilt Cycle takes shape, guilt's invasion of our behavior is clearly
obvious. Without God we fall into this guilt-saturated Demand-maker/Demand-meeter (2-D) dynamic.
Let's review the F-A-C-Ts of guilt in its four stages: Flattery provokes guilt, and Fear tries to prevent it;
Accusing projects guilt, and Accepting guilt and Apologizing "prove" guilt; Condemnation pronounces
one guilty, and Conforming presumes oneself guilty; TRASHings punish the presumed guilty, and
Treasuring prizes or parades guilt.
How does Lena respond to the TRASHing she receives from Les? She Treasures it. What
worldly logic could lead her to Treasure the TRASHing that Les gives her? We must look to her
childhood to find it. Lena was raised by parents who said, "You did wrong. I must spank you for doing
that. Now I will hug you back into my favor, so you will be willing to do the next favor I demand of
you. When you do it, I'll disapprove of the way you do it, so I'll not have to reward you with the love
you'd expect to follow my approval. That way you'll suppose that you're to blame (guilty) when I don't
love you, and I'll not be exposed as one who has no love to give."
Raised thus, Lena does not learn how to find forgiveness from God for actual sins she
commits. Nor is she taught how to deal with the assumed guilt that loveless people project upon her.
She's not taught that mistakes are part of learning, and that it's better to reprove, correct, and train
regarding them than punish. Lena does learn that the only way to remove guilt is to let the one who
smeared it on her spank it off. She becomes victimized by all who write "Wrong!" on her; she's
conditioned to conform to what they say is right; and she's dependent upon them to figuratively
spank her (TRASH her) so she can "pay" her penalty and return to favor in their eyes. Therefore, she
Treasures or prizes having the "right" persons TRASH her.
In addition to the obvious dynamic, Lena has a hidden reason for prizing the TRASHing she
gets. She views it as currency or ammunition she can use to better her position with Les. Having
been cycled through the sea of guilt by Les, she is almost ready to move into the Flattery position of
the demand-maker. She imagines that the TRASHings she prizes can be recycled into love, if used to
buy her way into a demand-making role. She will parade how she paid for the sins she did and how
she suffered from Les' abuse, all of which qualifies her to be Somebody with whom he must reckon.
"After all the TRASH I've taken from you, Les, you had better do what I say this time or else YOU'LL be
the one suffering the pain." But she recycles in vain, if she seeks his approval, and alone, if Les
leaves to begin a new guilt cycle. (If he does, he's likely to do so as a demand meeter to rebuild his
confidence that he can indeed do "loving" things.) She may package her pain into complaining that
courts pity and use it to pressure others to indulge her demands. Whod dare worsen her pain by
refusing her? But despite her pleading threats sent into the demilitarized war zone in the aftermath
of TRASHing, no demand making or meeting can restore the peace, peace to their fractured
relationship. Only God can rescue from the guilt cycle.
Lord, may I look to You, the Truth, not to worldly TRASH, for love. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Recall how you were disciplined as a child. Has it taught you to accept guilt others place on you? Do
you apologize for things you didn't do? Do you deny your own principles and conform to others, so
they'll accept you? Do you feel you "deserve" the unloving treatment others give you? Do you accept
another's TRASH to keep from disturbing what little peace you have between you? Have you felt that
people owe you something after they have been nasty to you?
Do
Do
Do
Do

you really expect someone who TRASHes you to see that as reason to love you?
you think that gaining God's forgiveness is easier than gaining man's?
people ever blame you for things, so they can excuse their unloving behaviors toward you?
you ever start a quarrel or fight so you can create a chance to "kiss and make up" again?

Did you place accusations against yourself in the mouth of another to get the cycle turning in the
hope of coming out on top and into the demand-maker's role? Example: "You don't love me, do you."
By doing so, did you gain some TRASHing currency to use against him? Did it profit you?
Do you know people who make "self" look good by contrasting their lives with the evil others do?

September
15
Does Punishment Produce Peace?
"Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe.
them, Behold the man!" John 19:5.

And Pilate saith unto

No greater example than Pilate exists of a person who believed that punishment would work
to bring a person into favor with his accusers. The man for (or against) whom he used it to
manipulate a position of peace was Jesus himself. Surely if the TRASHing process would work for any
man, it would work for the sinless Son of man. But the leaders of the temple had brought Him to
Pilate to be destroyed, not to be reconciled to them. "And what concord hath Christ with Belial?" 2
Corinthians 6:15. His truth exposed the lie of their politico-religious system. They did not seek a
mediator of peace in Pilate, they sought a murderer. They wanted Pilate to do what they said. Under
pressure he had conformed to their demands before. They knew him to be a weak man in a powerful
position because he had chosen to suffer the TRASHing of justice in order to win their favor and
maintain his control in office. But Jesus knew and he discovered that His only power was what the
church leaders allowed him to have as their Roman puppet.
Pilate had done the Guilt Cycle with them who knows how many times. It was a game to keep
the peace in Palestine and Caesar's favor in Rome. He did not figure on meeting a man too pure to
play the game and too hated by His enemies to be returned to their favor. He met the truth in the
words of Jesus: "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice."
John 18:37.
The choice was his to hear or to wash his hands of the man. He answered, "What is truth?"
Did he question its definition or its value? Had the religious leaders' politics of blame and lying
accusations labeled him "WRONG" so often that he felt shut out of truth's temple? Or had their use of
God's truth as a weapon of destruction turned it into a mockery pronounced valueless for promoting
life? Certainly he saw no life-giving truth in the destruction of an innocent man. He took from his
encounter with Christ what he learned of truth to the raging mob: "I find in Him no fault at all." John
18:38. But they sought this king's death, not opinions. Pilate's moment of truth was no time for
defining it. Pilate needed a decision to TRASH it or to treasure it. In Caesar's employ, he knew that
kings required loyalty to royalty, but did that include loyalty and service to this Jesus king?
Hold it.
He was leader in charge, not a lamb on trial. He'd impress Jesus with his knowledge of how power
links church and state by using it to spare His life. Truth or no truth, he must TRASH the man to save
both their necks. He scourged Jesus to touch their hating hearts and raise Him to "suffering
Somebody" status in their eyes. He counted on Jesus wounds to stir their remorse for causing His
suffering and change their course. "Behold the man!" he cried. But the frenzied mob refused to take
this Truth Pilate TRASHed in their behalf and recycle the despised and rejected Jesus back into favor
for Pilate. "Crucify Him!" they replied. Facing failure, he hoped this King's position of power would
force the mob to halt their madness: "Behold your King!" he tried. But mobs do not fear force, they
use it: "...crucify Him!" Mob rule must reign, not a holy King. They had no room in their beautiful
self-righteous box for the bloody-backed God-man.
Lord, help me to truly "Behold the man" in every man, not manipulate them. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Compromise with truth is the glue that bonds worldly powers with religious power. The glorious end
in mind is used to justify TRASHing the human rights of mankind to reach it.
Do you know supposedly good men or women who trample others to promote their exalted agendas?
Have your principles been devalued because they interfere with the selfish goals of someone?
Have you been labeled wrong for following your principles that go contrary to someones glorious
goal?
When enemies couldn't fault your principles of truth, did they TRASH and devalue your character?
Have you let your principles be TRASHed to maintain the favor of those who opposed you?
Was their favor merely a delay in TRASHing you? Was their favor a good trade for your truth?
Have you ever been excluded from a group--family, work, church--because you held firmly to the truth
you treasure? What did it cost you? What wages would the enemy pay you to forsake the truth?
Death?

September
16
Correction Begins at Calvary
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction..." 2 Timothy
3:16 NASB.
As I watch Jesus be led away to be crucified, I feel sick. The crown of thorns stabs my
conscience, the lacerations tear at the weakness of my backbone, the weight of the cross pales the
trials I have borne into insignificance. The small favors I've gleaned from the TRASHings and the
Treasuring I have done burn "TREASON" into my brain. I can no longer sit in silent denial of the one
who was led outside the gates of the supposedly holy city to be crucified. Nor do I wish to desert my
blood-bought position in His body that is boxed in by the discord sowing going on among brethren. I
see that I need to find a cure for the discord and do what I can to apply it to the abomination that is
boxing us away from serving the needs of a dying world.
"Lord, Your reproof is clear. I see that he who sows discord among the brethren, regardless of
his position, is defiling Your temple. The temple needs to be cleansed of remorse. The whole idea of
using suffering to gain favor is a mockery to the martyrs who sang to their death rather than betray
the truth of the Son of man in order to win the favor of the Somebodies who walk in the counsel of the
ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful. (See Psalm 1:1.) This part of
Your temple is open to your correction.
Not willing that any should perish, the Lord responds quickly to my invitation to be corrected.
Together we move past the lovely distractions to view the inner side of the OUT BACK door which is
labeled CORRECT with Obedience. Before He explains my need He uses the cross outlined on the
door to take my mind back to Calvary. After my six previous visits, the scene is familiar, but new truth
greets my understanding with each new sentence He speaks. I am in time to see the darkness that
has hovered about the cross give way to the light now beaming upon Him. I shudder at the clearer
view I have of the wounds inflicted upon this divine Martyr [witness] for truth. I am awed at the
power truth has to resist the enemy's attempts to TRASH this man who possessed it. I see Him
standing in my place enduring battle injuries that discord among His brothers has etched in His body.
From head to toe they have left nothing unmarred by their evil. Then I remember that He said unto
us, "The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you..." John 15:20.
I notice that I have some bruises from the brethren--some I may have caused. Some are
without cause, as were the wounds of Jesus. Hebrews 12:3, 4 speaks: "For consider Him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not
yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." True, I'm not yet bleeding, and while my striving
against sin may create some wounds, His Comforter stands ready to heal them.
Lord, correct me; let me not become weary and faint. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

When have you seen someone treasuring abuse for the hope of gaining some personal benefit?
Was the benefit worth the cost in human terms?
Do you let yourself be mistreated in the hope of gaining the favor of the one doing the TRASHing?
Do you ever feel like you need to interrupt your generally courteous behavior with angry, punitive
action in order to "shape up" a person before you can show them your favor?
What values do such angry tirades add to and subtract from your partnership?
Is the martyr's goal to show how much one can suffer under abuse or to uphold God's priceless
values, and thus bring glory to God? What reward, if any, does a martyr seek?
What other options might one have before choosing martyrdom is necessary?
For what people or principles would you be willing to die rather than betray them?
As the light shines brighter on your chosen values, do the costs of defending them also increase?
What are you willing to pay for peace in a given relationship? for peace with God?
What dollar amount can buy peace with God? For what would you sell your peace with God?
Do you ever consider tossing it away due to the discord among brethren?
Do you prefer having sowers of discord or God govern your life?

September
17
It Is Finished!
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished..." John 19:30.
To the very last moment the enemy stayed on task working his evil Guilt Cycle against the
Son of God. He had not lost his zeal to force this Son of man to worship him. All of mankind feeding
on his TRASH could not satisfy him as long as the coveted Son of man treasured God's truth and
resisted his lies. From his early attempts in the wilderness to tempt Jesus to cast His God-given, Godfocused faith, hope, and love at his rebellious feet to this final effort to compel Him to sever His
eternal link with grace and truth, the enemy had dogged His steps. His evil fury raged as he tried to
TRASH this Man severely enough to get Him to trust this destroyer to meet His needs, enough to get
Him to hope for even a slight chance of gaining His persecutor's love and favor, enough to get Him to
love to call upon this prince of darkness for a moment of peace or at least a cease fire from attack.
But Jesus fixed His attention upon the favor of His Father, not His foe.
The enemy's evil plan required him to conquer this Son of man alive, if only for a moment,
that he might stamp his evil mark upon Him and spoil this perfect sacrifice for sin. He sought to stop
Him from providing an escape for all mankind from the penalty of death for their guilt. But his efforts
to all but kill Him could not shake the faith of Jesus in His Father's all sufficient grace for man.
Righteousness by faith! I had heard of it. "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know
that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.
And He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that
please Him." John 8:28, 29. Now I see it in God's Son.
Suddenly in trumpet tones the voice of Jesus sent His words, "It is finished!" cascading
throughout the universe. All the weight of all the guilt of all mankind that had been borne by Jesus
could not force Him to forsake His faith in God's role with Him for man's salvation. He crossed the
finish line to where mercy and forgiveness now flow full and free in the blood from the broken heart of
the Lamb of God. This reconciling song knows no boundaries of race, color, gender, nationality, or
social status. In every clime and for all time it sings good news!
His victory brought to completion the centuries-long system of offering sacrifices which had
pointed to this very Lamb of God. "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top
to the bottom;.." Matthew 27:51. The way to righteousness by faith in Jesus' perfect atonement for
our sins was opened to all who will treasure God's Truth not guilt's TRASH. In Him those who were
conquered by sin can be led forth to conquer sin. The captives can be delivered, the blind can see
truth, and the bruised can find liberty from bondage.
Lord, in your "It is finished" is our hope that we are not finished. Finish the work You have begun in
me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Used to thinking punishment follows mistakes, do you take blame for the misfortunes you have?
Might someone inflict upon you evil that you've don't deserve?
When you do err, are there better ways to deal with error than assigning someone to punish you?
Do you ever claim the credit for good deeds that you did not do? Why--to gain a reward? Might
claiming blame for errors have a similar motivation--a return to favor of the one who's punishing?
Do you ever take punishment for another person you value or to bear witness to a truth?
What purpose did Jesus serve on Calvary? How does His declaration, "It is finished." benefit you?
Do you question God when evil befalls you? Does God support and prosper sin at your expense?
Do you sense a great battle raging between good and evil in this sinful world?
If you stand for good and truth, you may be attacked by enemies who covet your submission to their
evil wills?
How much suffering would it take to convince you to seek the favor of the one who TRASHes you?
How much are you willing to endure to maintain your freedom from bondage to the enemy?
What task is unfinished in your building of character or relationships?
Would you like to see "It is finished." written upon it?
How can God help you avoid saying, "We are finished" to a partner you have?

September
18
Peacemakers Are Needed
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9.

As we move from Mount Calvary to the Mount of Beatitudes for our correction, we're glad we
are not "finished" in our present state. That feeling that "We blew it and there's nothing we can do
about it" now gives way to hope for a cure from Jesus. Victory over our remorse caused by "he that
soweth discord among brethren" comes when we learn to deal with that misbehavior.
While the discord sower is seldom a plain old garden variety trouble maker, still he makes
trouble by his refusal to use his skills to remove discord. Like weeds in gardens, discord sprouts in
human relations where troubles are ignored and God is uninvited. While the discord sower may deny
having slyly planted the evil seeds, he cannot deny his failure to remove their sprouts. The most
effective discord sowers are those who are held in high esteem as people who have lots of love to
give. They like the superiority and advantage their supposed potential for loving gives them over
others who lack it. This multiplies their disaster potential along the path to their own remorse. Not
only do they attract more lying informers and couriers of evil along the way, but they also gain a
following who see variations of remorse as marketable skills. They easily bring people into
submission to the punishments and rituals required to maintain and regain their favor.
Discord sowers claim they know how to love, but they do nothing to teach others to love.
While they may behave above apparent reproach, they perpetuate systems that breed discord by
setting people at war with one another. Yet they appear to have no more to do with the troubles
victims suffer than a hunter has to do with the havoc his dogs wreak on their prey. Still discord
sowers leave their prey no better off than if they had placed a bullet through their brains. Lacking
solutions to the discord they cause, when real personal remorse for the evil theyve done settles
upon themselves, they may risk bullets through their own brains.
Whether discord is sown by decision or by default, we must recognize how we are participants
in this universal abomination in order to see our need to learn to stop it. In the OUT BACK privacy of
our still boxed-in world, I mentally scan those looking to me to stop sowing discord. I focus my gaze
on Jesus and listen for His cure for "he that soweth discord among brethren." As I love You with all my
heart, Lord, which beatitude promise must I trust to be cured?
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God," Jesus answers.
Peacemakers are loving soldiers. The Lord of hosts wants an army of mankind equipped to love one
another as brothers and sisters so that together they can be called children, sons and daughters, of
God. He needs us to join Him in clearing His family of every abomination from the proud look to the
discord sowers. He needs to move our focus from ridding our space of people who make us feel badly
to correcting our real cause of remorse. To do this He needs peacemakers who are willing to move
among mankind, LOVE TROUBLEMAKERS, and teach them how to love and how to stop sowing the
behaviors that lead to destruction via the Guilt Cycle.
Lord, cause me to fight as a peacemaker rather than foster discord as a demand-maker. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

What do you do with seeds of discord? When you find distrust, depression, guilt, anxiety, grief, and
discontent invading you, do you sow them into your mind or weed them from your thoughts?
Which people in your life have more power to cause discord: the Somebodies or the Nobodies?
How much of their power over you is given to them by you?
Are you inclined to make little things big issues in order to prove you suffered and to justify your right
to be returned to their favor? Do you care when people who have nothing don't share with you?
But does discord grow when people appear to have what you need and refuse to share?
Are any personally nice to you, but part of a system that is working against your well-being?
Do you accept the nasty things nice people do to you because you dare not risk the loss of their
"favor"?
Are you a peacemaker who is ready to love (meet needs of) the trouble makers in your life? Do you
teach that we can just ask for Gods love and need not flatter to get it? ...that He pays for our guilt
and frees us to love?
Or would you rather just meet their demands and try vainly to win their favor?

September 19
Good News for Guilt Cycle
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
As Christian peacemakers we decide to choose a banner which will cause no discord among
us: John 3:16. We can point all mankind to God as our Father who gave us His only begotten Son to
be our brother. In becoming one with Jesus, we shall all become brothers and sisters in God's family
circle.
We survey our gospel message, pronounce it good news, and decide to begin making peace
between Les and Lena, who have tasted every stage of the Guilt Cycle. While Les has done his
Passion trip across the top of the Cycle, he has drawn Lena through a pain trip in the Sea of Guilt that
covers the bottom of the Cycle. Since it has been worse for Lena than for Les, we suppose Lena will
be most ready to cooperate with us. Hope is on their horizon, if Lena will see Les misbehaviors as
symptoms of his problems and bring him the hope we have that can cure their partnership. One by
one we list the four stages of misbehavior and apply the cures.
FLATTERY is apparently loving misbehavior directed at getting love. "For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son," we tell Lena. God so loves, He loves in such a way as to
give love, not to get it. Les can be freed from having to get love from you, if he looks to God as his
Source of love. That's not all. God's love is totally free. He gives in such a way that Les cannot pay
Him back in the 50-50 style of the world. You see, God gave His only Son. There is only one. Les
cannot go and get another exactly like Him and give Him back to God in return for His Son. When one
believes something to be impossible, he stops obligating himself to do it, and he does not feel guilty
for not trying to do it. For example, one does not spend every spare minute trying to bail the ocean
dry of water, nor does it even occur to him to try to do it, nor does he feel guilty about not doing it.
Likewise he cannot repay God, nor can he work or appease or cry or threaten or force enough to earn
love from people who have none to give. Need he obligate himself to try or feel guilty for not doing
it?
ACCUSING is used to project onto his partner his own guilt he feels for not loving his partner.
We tell Lena, "..that whosoever believeth in Him.." includes both those who project guilt and those
who accept the projected guilt. The Son of God died to atone for the guilt of everyone who has
anything to do with guilt. That means that if both Les and Lena believe, put their hope in, Jesus as
their Saviour, they need not have guilt preventing them from loving God and loving one another. Both
can accept His atonement for their sins and refuse to project and accept guilt between them. Lena
can stop apologizing for what she did NOT do and both can start applying Gods gift of repentance
and forgiveness to them for what they did do that has been atoned.
We shall continue discussing this series with Lena tomorrow.
Lord, I'm glad You so love that You give in a manner that we cannot or need not repay. Empower me
to believe in Jesus' atonement for me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Think of some whose flattery you welcome. Have you told them about how God loves them freely?
Have you shared with them what you know about the dangers of the Guilt Cycle style of relating?
Or do you look for a chance to repay their flattery by meeting their demands in order to win their
favor and put them in debt to love you?
Did any of them accuse you of things you did not do to justify the fact that theyve not loved, as you
expected? Have you ever explained to them that there's no need for them to project guilt or for you
to accept it because Jesus has already paid the penalty for all your sins?
Do they know they need not feel guilty for not being able to love you as you expected they would?
Or instead of letting them love you as much or as little as they can, has your dissatisfaction pressed
them to project their guilty feelings for disappointing you, at you?
Have you accepted it and apologized for it, thus "proving" they're right about you?
Did you accept their guilt, hoping that they'd accept what you have to say?
Do you need to accept their guilt more than they need to see the guilt-free love of God at work in
their behalf?

September
20
Good News, Bad News
"Make no friendship with an angry man;...lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul."
Proverbs 22:24-25.
Yesterday we studied two of the four stages and applied the cures found in John 3:16 to them.
Today we'll continue our series.
CONDEMNATION is used to pronounce a partner as guilty and to reject that partner as being
unfit for a lover's role, as Les did to Lena. We tell Lena, "For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.." The words, "should not
perish", bring "PARDON" to you. After you've accepted Jesus' atonement for your sins, God writes
PARDON over you and counts you as perfect in Jesus. Les no longer need pass his own feelings of
condemnation onto you and risk being judged by God for doing so. God sets you and him free from
worry about rejection. Even if Les forsakes you, the Lord never forsakes you. He takes you into His
family where His pardon ends others' power to cut off your source of love.
TRASHing is used to punish a partner upon whom one has stamped a guilty verdict. We tell
Lena, "..but have everlasting life" is for you and Les. Life is more than not perishing. God does not
intend that your life be a mere series of one TRASHing after another. He is not satisfied merely to
pardon you. He has abundant everlasting life for you. But you must choose it. You must decide if you
will treasure the T for TRASH Les gives or the T (T written as a cross) for Truth that God gives. Will
you spend your life taking punishments for guilt that people heap upon you and hoping your suffering
will win you fame and love? Les needs to know you don't need his TRASH to punish you for guilt God
Himself has removed from you. As you stop needing it, he'll stop giving it. You and he can spend
forever freely sharing God's free love with one another throughout eternity.
Lena is quiet as she ponders her universally shared plight.
1. When she is with Les at stage F listening to his Flattery, she is so eager to believe it's true and to
Fear (anticipate) getting love from him, she simply cannot tell him that God so loves in a way that He
freely gives. She wants to earn Les's love with skin. She distrusts that Gods love could enrich her
human partnerships.
2. When they are at A stage, and he is Accusing her of not loving him, she wants to Accept the guilt
and be accepted by Les for who she is, sins and all. She thinks Les, her idol, must be right even about
her guilt, so when she does what he says, she too can be right and qualify to be loved. That's no time
to talk about being guilt free in Jesus. She disbelieves God can free her from her sins, so she need
not accept them nor press others to do so..
3. When stage C finds him Condemning her and her so worried about his threat to reject her, it just
wouldn't work to tell him that he or she's PARDONED and free. She's too afraid that Les might really
set her free by leaving her alone. "Don't leave me" is her heart's cry to Les. She rejects the power
of Gods love to unite them in love.
4. When they reach stage T where she sees her chance to return to favor by treasuring some TRASH,
she can hardly wait to endure and collect enough TRASH to force him to meet her demands. She
treasures no extended life of TRASHing for herself. But no way will she speak of everlasting life for
Les when she plans to destroy him, if he fails to meet her new demands for a change. She prefers to
treasure her earned TRASH rather than treasure God's free Truth and the love that comes with it. Why
should she become indebted and guilty before God for taking His love that she can't repay? She just
doesn't get it. She chooses disgrace, not Gods free, loving grace.
Lord, use me to help people escape, not execute, the Guilt Cycle. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you write God's pardon over others' condemnations of you, or buy into feeling condemned?
Do you still love (meet needs NOT demands) no matter what their opinions of you are?
Or do you conform to their opinions, so you can feel right in their condemning eyes?
Do you deserve the TRASHings you get? Will your suffering lead your TRASHer to love you?
Do you say, "After all I've suffered at your hand, you had better meet my demands now, or else.."?
Can you recycle TRASH that way and use it as currency or ammunition to win love?
Can you convey God's love to needy people despite their devaluing behaviors?
Do you believe John 3:16 enough to live its truth? Which will you treasure: Truth or TRASH?
Are you more willing to live for the love of God's Truth than for the love of man's TRASH?

September
21
Deliver Us from Evil
"Our Father which art in heaven,...but deliver us from evil." Matthew 6:9, 13.
Vicariously through Lena's life, we see that we are not peacemakers by nature. We cannot
even teach the basic guilt-removing, life-giving gospel of John 3:16 while we cling to Guilt Cycle
dynamics for what love we hope to find within it. We must learn to escape its evil traps before we as
peacemakers can teach others how. We must do more than trust God to call peacemakers His
children. We need to love the Lord with all our soul, as we tell Him our need and hope He can help
us. "Lord, we are not peacemakers, but accomplices in sowing discord. Help us."
Jesus responds, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,...but
deliver us from evil." This seventh petition sets our will to seek God's power to face our need to be
delivered from evil, rather than in evil. Only our indwelling God can deliver us from the evils within
that bring discord among us. In our leadership roles for meeting needs others have, we have ignored
the word, US. We look clinically at others, hold our condition aloof from their problem, and with the
marginal wisdom of a sheep, say, "Ewe need to change the way ewe deal with life and with me." God
hears us complain of the sheep we are willing to sacrifice, but we pray little about self-sacrifice. In a
thinly disguised need to be right, we claim to "feel good" about who we are, caring not that Jesus
plans that in Him we be good...be good at freely loving. "With men this is impossible; but with God
all things are possible." Matthew 19:26.
We say, "Jesus paid it all, we are saved by grace alone, so God should just stamp "live" on our
"evil" and let us alone." But Jesus paid to get the whole job done, not to perpetuate evil, the cause of
death, in His partnership with us. Listen as He invites us to pray, "but deliver us--Jesus and me and
you--from evil." His words mean evil must be washed from our Lord-mankind partnership so it cant
hinder us from bringing glory to God.
Beneath our claim to God's grace for our salvation a river of resistance may be silently saying,
"God, if Jesus and I need to be delivered from evil, get this straight. Jesus died to remove the evil in
my life; as surely as He rose from the dead, I'm free of evil. If I admitted that my evil behaviors still
create discord between me and Jesus and my brothers, I'd be denying what Jesus did for me. So listen
up. When you deliver us from evil, remember that I don't have any problem with evil. And don't
bother Jesus with it. He did all His work on me at Calvary before I was born. You heard Him say, "It is
finished." Now I deny any need to fix my character, because Jesus won't fix it and I can't. But I "FEEL
good" even if I seek no power from Him to ever BE and DO anything good. I have no idea how You'll
bring glory to Your name from what I do. Just deliver me from feeling any need to be delivered from
evil." Does this attitude sound like what Christ has in His mind for us?
Lord, deliver us from evil. Really. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

John 3:16 promises deliverance from the evil of death. As you pray to be delivered from evil, what
specific death-causing evils come to mind? Are you sincere about wanting to overcome the seven
negative mental attitudes that lead to death--distrust, depression, guilt, anxiety, grief, discontent,
remorse? Do any of them hinder how you relate? Do you think the Lord wants to remove any of those
deadly traits that exist in your partnership with Him, so that both of you can cooperate in bringing
glory to God? Do your problems with trusting the Lord relate to His failure to answer your prayers by
forcing others to meet your demands upon them?
Do others' sins lead you to avoid repentance for your own sins and merely reduce your remorse?
Is your focus for God's deliverance upon removing the people or your problems with the people?
How you relate to issues can mean more than what those issues are: Relating as master, not as
victim of circumstances, has much to do with deliverance from potential evil in the situations.
Does your theology prevent you from seeing your need to deal with sin in your life for fear that you
will be doubting the ongoing salvation you have in Jesus and trusting in your own works? Read
Hebrews 12:1-15. The Author of your salvation also wants to be the Finisher of it by delivering you
from evil. "for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" Hebrews 12:7.

September
22
Choose Is Twin to Lose
"And unto man He said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is
understanding." Job 28:28.
Voluntary covenant love relationships thrive when the partners in it share a common
understanding with God. Job 28:28 reveals to us that the fear of the Lord is wisdom. The wise who
value our Lord's authority look to Him to take the lead role in our Lord-mankind partnership and fear
(anticipate) that He will do all that He commits Himself to do WHEN we submit our wills to letting
Him. We come to a covenant understanding with Him when we choose to depart from evil. His
seventh petition suggests that we submit to His goal to "deliver us--the Lord and me--from evil." In
other words, the chief work of this partnership is to remove the evil that hinders the Lord's glory from
being mirrored in man.
It's fine to ask God to deliver us from evil, but we must in turn be willing to reach an
understanding with Him to depart from evil so He can indeed remove it from us. While we have
trusted that peacemakers are God's children and prayed in hope to be delivered from evil, we must
now love the Lord thy God with all our mind, our center of understanding.
As we choose the BEING promise, we choose to be peacemakers who want to be called
children of God. Choose is a twin to lose. To choose good we must lose evil; to choose cheerfulness
that comes from Gods deliverance, we must lose remorse-causing behaviors that sow discord. Both
involve the will. Just as the air is filled with radio waves, the worldly environment in which we relate
is filled with seeds of discord. As we tune our minds to its flattering or frustrating remarks, we have a
brief window of opportunity in which we may choose to sow them in our minds as discord creators or
depart from them as evils. It is much easier to tune them out immediately than to weed them out
once we have sown them in our minds to bear fruit in our behavior.
The strength of the Lord comes to our aid, as we choose the DOING commandment promises
that supply the God-given (I) faith, (II) hope, (III) love, and (IV) grace needed to be peacemakers. Only
a love relationship with the Lord can, by His grace, supply the power needed to love one another and
live at peace. He fulfills both His Being and Doing promises in us, so our BEING = our DOING and
establishes our integrity. His grace bolsters our choice to stop seeking the Guilt Cycle-style love of
the world, so we can avoid being drawn under its control.
With this groundwork in place, the next
step follows swiftly. Having chosen to let the Lord work in us "to will and to do of His good pleasure"
Philippians 2:13, we are ready to love the Lord our God with all our strength. The OUT BACK door,
which we cannot move in our own strength, now, by the power of God's grace, moves to swing us out
of our boxed-in state of remorse-causing discord into the role of loving.
Lord, I choose You to be my source of love and peace. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Can you imagine having a partner who has power to remove all evil from between the two of you if
you choose to have it happen? Would you rather discard discord or create it?
Even if the world has discord swirling around you as radio waves do, He can give you the power to
resist tuning into it, sowing it in your mind, and growing its evil fruit.
What are some of the offensive statements you have heard that tempted you to sow them into your
mind and influence you to become negative? Which did you sow?
From which did you depart, choosing to discard them rather than use them to create discord?
Whatever or whomever we allow to control our behavior acts like another god in our lives and steals
our joy in the Lord, which is our strength. See Nehemiah 8:8-12.
Have you memorized the first four of the Ten Commandments, so you can bring these promises of the
Lord to mind and take them to heart when you need His power for your will and self-control?

September
23
Righteousness Includes Training
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable ...for training in righteousness; that the man of God
may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 NASB.

On this first day of autumn the sights of the waiting harvest press us into action. We exit the
back door of the charming yet remorse-filled box. With our Lord leading the way, we go in search of
those who do not know He can deliver from evil. Accustomed to being punished to pay for the guilt
others put upon them, they know of no escape. Besides, they'd really rather be rewarded by man for
suffering with remorse than be issued God's forgiveness. In their attempts to be returned to man's
favor, some will do "good" things for "good" people who can reward them and some will appease evil
people for rewards. Some will stay in the box just "being good" for nothing, hoping for help to meet
their needs and waiting for rewards. Some will let us teach them to love.
The message on the outer BACK IN side of the door proclaims why the Lord has brought us BACK
IN love relationship with mankind. We see "TRAIN via Work of Gods Grace" beneath all the rainbow
partnerships within God's Family Circle. Now the final red Lord-mankind ring snugly encompasses all
human love within its sphere wherein we teach others to love in their roles, as we have learned to do.
This full array of partnerships gives reason to be "adequate, equipped for EVERY good work." We
must let no evil hinder the Lord's love from sanctifying us or from empowering us to serve in these
roles. As we are sanctified to serve God's purpose of revealing His love to all, the unity it builds
among mankind will bring glory to God.
God's Family Circle frames the whole law within the context of human relations by using its
commands in building partnerships. We who love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
value Commandments I, II, III, and IV as God's promises that offer faith, hope, and love to us by His
grace. As we value God's (V) authority, (VI) life, and (VII) unity, we receive His faith, hope, and love,
respectively. Then as we value God's (VIII) work, (IX) truth, and (X) freedom, we emanate our Godgiven faith, hope, and love to others. As mankind sees these values in us and seeks them, its
members ask us, in essence, "How can we learn to love as you do?"
"Let us take you to Jesus at the cross," we say. "There He fulfilled the law. Now He will fulfill
His ten promises in you. He offers to give you faith, hope, and love by His grace (I-IV); to empower
you to receive His faith, hope, and love (V-VII); and to cause you to convey that faith, hope, and love
to all (VIII-X). Soon you'll be taking others to Jesus at the cross to be justified by faith. You'll teach
them how to love as He loves, as His Spirit uses "the law [that] was our schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ..." Galatians 3:24. See September 23i diagram.
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God." I John 4:7
Lord, may Your faith, hope, and love be at work in me to bring blessings to others. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you leave the church each week with your partnership with the Lord BACK IN shape?
Do you go forth with a desire to serve mankind in the hope of teaching them how they too can relate
to God?
Have you seen any who've slipped away alone and not returned to see how they can serve God?
Are there any perfect churches where the Guilt Cycle is not doing its damage within the organization?
Can you think of a better place than church to find people who want to learn to relate to God?
Is it possible to attend a given church and avoid sowing discord and reaping remorse? How?
When we do tune in to their complaints, we'll avoid getting boxed in by remorse if we see their
behaviors as symptoms of their problems and seek ways to minister. We dare not copy their behavior
or feel personally attacked or offended by it.
Please give attention to understanding the simple flow of faith, hope, and love within the ten
commandments: The Lord gives them (I, II, III, IV), we receive them (V, VI, VII), we convey them (VIII,
IX, X), others see them in us and seek them. We take them to Jesus to learn how the Lord gives faith,
hope, and love, how they receive them, and how they can convey them. In this way the trio can
expand to include all mankind.

September
24
Love, Joy, and Peace
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance [self-control]: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22, 23.

Month by month we have studied how the Holy Spirit writes the Ten Commandments in our
minds and hearts and uses them as His tools to develop the fruit of the Spirit in us. As we view the
fruit in Galatians 5:22, 23, we note that there are only nine qualities of fruit of the Spirit to match the
Ten Commandments. What is happening here? Our Lord says, "I am the Lord thy God, which have
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me." Although freed by God from outward oppressors, we are prone to imprison ourselves in
guilt cycles. We need God's Spirit to write His Commandment I promise in us to free us from setting
other demand-making gods over ourselves. As we value God's Faith, we trust Him to be the One
whose life-sustaining love meets all our needs so we can become free to love. By grace through that
faith His Holy Spirit is able to dwell within us. "...that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith." Galatians 3:14. Thus Commandment I valuing Gods Faith brings the promised Holy
Spirit to us.
Welcomed within us, He continues writing nine more of God's commandment promises within
us and using them to bear nine qualities of His fruit in us. As we value Commandment II (no graven
images) which offers God's Hope that Christ will dwell in us (Colossians 1:27), He uses it to yield the
fruit of love. Romans 5:5 states, "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
Commandment III promises
God's love that frees from guilt all who take God's name, not in vain, but with the purpose of
becoming one with Him in a guiltless, loving partnership. As we value God's love, His Spirit uses it to
yield the fruit of joy. Great joy comes as God's guilt-removing, need-meeting love works in us. Larger
than life itself, His love cannot be contained in a human clay vessel, so it flows out in service to
others. It is the reason David could say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life.." Psalm 23:6. God empowers us to do loving deeds which form a trail of goodness and mercy
behind us that brings glory to God.
As the Spirit writes in us Commandment IV promise which values God's Grace, by which our
Lord sanctifies us, He uses it to yield peace within all our covenant partnerships. The only true peace
possible is that which God's grace empowers. John 14 frames the Holy Spirit's "teaching us all things"
within the context of loving God and keeping His words that lead to peace. "Peace I leave with you,
My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." John 14:27. "The kingdom of God
is...righteousness [love], and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Romans 14:17. "..for behold, the
kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21. Praise the Lord! Why not unite to worship this God of
peace from Sabbath to Sabbath, and know the peace of God at work in us reconciling us to Him?! See
Philippians 4:7-9 and Psalm 119:165.
Lord, please let Your Spirit yield Your Spirit fruit of love, joy, and peace in me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

We see the eagerness of God's Spirit to move love, joy, and peace into our relationships.
Do you err in trying to obtain this Spirit fruit from people rather than God?
To whom you look for your love, joy, and peace?
Have those whom you placed in control of your joys ended up in control of your misery?
What can God do for us that people cannot do? Sustain our inner sense of well-being.
When we expect people to do for us what they cannot do, what is likely to occur?
Will they behave defensively to protect themselves from incurring debts they can't pay?
Rather than complain of their lacks, try to notice their own needs for love, joy, and peace.
Try to teach them how to trust God's promises to guide them into all truth. See John 16:13.
If we want these qualities of love, joy, and peace in our lives, we must gain them by covenant relating
with the only Lord who can give them.

September
25
God's Love Can Take the Heat
"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Matthew 4:10.
The ultimate reasons for serving God are the Lord's love for us and ours for Him. All who
choose to serve will repeatedly face tough tests of their hold on God's Grace, Faith, Hope, Love, and
obedience. People learn to value them by joining with us in doing so for various covenant reasons.
Three leaders in the kingdom of Babylon unmistakably passed their tests. Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah, renamed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were found standing in the midst of a crowd
bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. He called them before him and questioned their
behavior. He offered them a chance to defend themselves by denying God in order to escape his fiery
furnace. (Daniel 3.)
No threat could intimidate them to act against God's will in order to spare their own lives.
Trained in righteousness by faithful parents, they would not trash their love for God. So they could
not obey the king's order, nor could they oppose Nebuchadnezzar's rule in their own strength. Past
experience had taught them to trust God for deliverance from evil. The meanings of their Hebrew
names (Jah has favored, Who is what God is?, and Jah has helped) reflected their faith in God alone.
Like Job of old, they had determined that "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Job 13:15. They
would obey, and let God have His way with them. They preferred death to breaking their covenant
with the Lord. They were safer in the fiery furnace with the Lord than were the kings servants who
were killed while tossing them into it. God allowed the flames to consume only the ropes of bondage
that men had used to bind God's faithful. God governs the heat of our fiery trials to do a refining work
among us. The world may have its names for us, but "there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12.
Last month we discussed how choosing Jesus rather than an object of temptation was a way
to plainly say, "I love you, Jesus." We have also seen how serving the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked,
sick, and imprisoned are ways to personally serve Jesus. He said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40. Those are things we
can do. Now in our relationship we test our faith in what He can do for us. Will we place our Godgiven faith, hope, and love at the feet of Jesus and worship Him as the wise men did? Will we rest in
the Lord to be saved by faith in HIS righteousness? Will we agree with His definitions of good and evil
as He defines them? Do we trust He can deliver us from evil? Do we hope in Him or in others or self
to deliver us? Do we love being delivered from what He labels evil, or do we defend our favorite evils
as being good for us and claim we cannot live without them?
The Lord in love died to deliver us from all evil. Let's delight in having Him empower His
commands in us, so that in whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God. See I Corinthians 10:31.
Lord, "perfect that which concerns me." Psalm 138:8. What needs to concern me? Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

What fiery tests of your loyalty to God have you faced? What real evil did you face?
Did you measure its potential for harming those who would be affected by it?
What personal threats did you face for refusing to compromise your principles?
Did the costs involved or your love and loyalty to God determine your decisions?
From what evil do you trust the Lord to deliver you? Read Genesis 18:14.
Fear of failing to overcome in our own efforts can prevent us from even trying.
Study how Bible heroes passed tests God gave them in their Lord-Mankind Partnerships to perfect
their characters:
the Grace test passed by Noah in Genesis 6:1-8;
the Faith test passed by Abraham in Genesis 22 and by Job in Job 13:15;
the Hope test passed by Moses in Exodus 32:7-14;
the Love test passed by David in I Kings 11:4 and by Peter in John 21:15-17;
the Obedience test passed by Jesus in Matthew 26:39, 42; Hebrews 5:8, 9; Philippians 2:8.
What kind of training will equip you to pass the tests you face? What are you doing to get it?

September
26
Defense of Self Spoils Peace Efforts
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him: but I will maintain mine own ways before Him." Job
13:15.
"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and
upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." Job 1:1. Do you think a perfect man should be
meek, willing to learn? As we look at Job, we see a man willing to die for the God he trusts. But as Job
13:15 reveals, he still had important lessons to learn. All who identify with Job can take comfort in
knowing that we can be perfect in Christ and still learn to improve our relating style. It's possible to
be functioning at our best and still have growing to do in order to reach God's goal for our ideal
performance.
The problem lies in our tendency to defend ourselves against the attacks and
misunderstandings of mankind--friends from whom we hope to gain love and foes whose accusations
write "wrong" over us and make us fear being viewed as unworthy to be loved. Job defended himself
before his friends. He said, "..but I will maintain mine own ways before Him." We can do everything
right and yet carry a self-defensive attitude that builds barriers rather than bridges between us and
our fellow beings. Then what we are doing for God turns out to be against mankind. Job's test was
severe. God's sustaining power was mighty in Job's behalf. And God wrote, in essence, "It is
finished", over the test when Job removed his barriers and prayed for his friends. When he used his
covenant partnership with God to build bridges to mankind's needy, God was able to double Job's
resources for loving. (Job 42.) The more we are willing to serve, the more God will bestow upon us to
use in meeting mankind's needs.
How do self-defensive behaviors spoil the work of peacemakers? Suppose two boys are
fighting in the road, and I persuade them to make peace and settle their problem. As I return home, a
neighbor shames me for being a bully to the boys. Afraid for my reputation, I explain to the neighbor
the role I had in helping the one boy to return the purse he had stolen from the other boy's mother. I
save myself, but the boy's troubles begin. When he visits other homes, he is called a thief and
chased away. In his frustration he comes to ask why I had broken the confidentiality of our
reconciliation. He had returned the purse, confessed and repented to the mother, and had learned his
lesson. But now, like fire started by a match, my words had burned his bridges of love before him,
and he could not quench the flames of gossip begun by my decision to save myself at the risk of
destroying another. "Let me tell you about faith in God," I say to the boy. "No," he replies, "I cannot
learn faith from one I do not trust." So I cannot even help him take the first step to God, the step of
faith. I'm no use to him as a peacemaker. As peacemakers, we must refuse to defend ourselves.
Those we serve must understand our role and trust us to keep their confidences. If the casual
observers and trouble makers choose to misunderstand us, that's the price we must pay.
Lord, You are my defense; aside from You I have none. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Does defending oneself from perceived attacks aid people in coming into agreement?
How does defending oneself differ from giving explanations to honor peoples need to understand
what they need to know so they can make wise decisions to cooperate?
Have you had to defend yourself against charges others brought against you?
Did your response act to build barriers or bridges between you and your accusers?
Did you think to pray for them?
Were you content to let God defend you against the charges however He saw fit?
At times silence can be more useful than are verbal attempts to defend oneself.
What might people say if one objects too strongly? "You must be guilty if it upsets you." Right?
Do you recall if someone you trusted ever betrayed your confidence?
How did you change the way you deal with that person?
Have you ever erred by betraying a confidence while you were defending yourself?
Were you able to repair the damage to the trust basis you had built with that person?

September
27
God Delivers, As We Let Him
"..My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? ...he answered, Thou shalt not smite them.." 2
Kings 6:21, 22.
Peacemakers are ambassadors sent by God to bring reconciliation between people who
haven't learned to love God and to love one another. They work with God's tools of faith, hope, and
love. They do not use the enemy's tools to do the Lord's work. The means of flattery, accusations,
condemnation, TRASHing, and related evils can never achieve good ends. Any attempt to defend self
will deny God. When we justify (defend) self, we deny Jesus the role of justifying us as righteous by
faith in His death for our sins. When we demand others to justify their errors and sins against us, we
press them to deny what Jesus has done in their behalf. The "I'm right, you're wrong" pattern of
relating is too much with us. Only God can deliver us from it.
Suppose I am walking along with a strong Friend to protect me. He whistles cheerfully as we
go, apparently unaware of a suspicious character approaching. But figuring I'm on my own, I run
ahead of Him, fly into combat with the thief, lose my purse, land on the ground, bruised, beaten, and
left for dead. "Where were you when I needed you?" I scold, as my Friend catches up to me. "Why
didn't you do something to rescue me and to destroy my attacker?"
My Friend, Jesus, replies, "I'm sorry that you chose not to trust Me and wait upon Me to help
you. I had a plan all ready for him, but you ran ahead of Me. What can I do that I haven't already
done to teach you to let Me deliver you from evil? Why do you run ahead of Me? I'll not force you to
wait for Me, but I want you to trust Me to meet your needs and defend you."
How then shall we live? When Elisha took captive his enemies that God had blinded, the king
of Israel said, "Shall I smite them? Shall I smite them?" Elisha reminded him of his duty to captives
over which he had power. "Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to
their master." 2 Kings 6:21, 22. He did, and they did. And they came no more as enemies against
Israel. Our Master wants us to do likewise. He wants to be Lord of hosts--hosts who feed not fight
their enemies. Paul wrote, "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." Romans 12:20, 21.
Queen Esther and her people faced death. Her enemy was the King whom Haman had
deceived into signing her death decree. She prayed and fasted herself, but she fed her enemy twice.
And by God's grace her goodness led him to deliver her people from evil. How much more shall the
goodness of God lead us to repent of evil, so He can deliver us from it? Christ identifies with our
enemies, the people who have no love for us. "I was hungry, and ye gave.."
Lord, how can I hate the people You love? Give me love for them. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Your tools for relating reveal your intent. A gun or a knife? to hurt. A loving gesture or deed? to help.
The enemy who has a chance to view our tools may decide not to fight with us. God lets unloving
people cross our paths, figuratively "cross us", so we, His ambassadors of good will toward men, can
see their need for love and use God's riches to meet their needs.
Did you ever run ahead of the Lord to defend yourself and end up making things worse?
Did you wonder why God let that result happen to you?
At times do you pray before defending yourself, and find that your defensive responses still do not
work?
Have you considered that God does not call us into battles to defend ourselves at all?
Consider Proverbs' guidelines for when to be silent (30:32) and when to speak in defense (31:8,9).
If all would speak as brothers in behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, then none would feel
a need to defend themselves. Fewer would succeed in creating trouble. As peacemakers, we need to
deal with people's troubles, not dismiss people as troublemakers. God wants "he that soweth discord
among brethren" to be reconciled to Himself and his brothers, not labeled.
Do you listen to assist "troublemakers" in doing damage or to help cure their troubling misbehavior?

September
28
The No and Yes of the Greatest Lord
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have
tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33.
During this harvest month we have feasted on the benefits of coming into covenant
partnership with the Lord. He speaks peace to us. The path of peace is often traced over battlefields.
Our battle field is the harvest field. Our battle is resisting the world's efforts to turn us aside by cares
or caresses, pains or pleasures, industry or idleness: the enemy cares not what works to get us to
work iniquity in the world and neglect our partnership with the Lord of the harvest. "Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." James 4:7. We overcome
the enemy, as we stay on task during this harvest time. Our Lord's ideal for us is that we love as He
loves and that we teach others to love. "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matthew
7:20. Our Spirit-given fruit of love, joy, and peace, will lead others to call us the children of God.
Peace derives from a position of power. One's power to do what he says determines his power
to maintain peace. Leaders who cannot say and do a true "no" cannot say and do a true "yes". Yes,
this is loving; no, that is not loving. Yes, you need.... No, you do not need... The absence of "no"
leaves "yes" powerless. The evil weak encamp on maybe territory. They check the chances of turning
yes and no into maybe. They pitch their discontents where our boundaries look vulnerable. They
target their complaints at us until we fear peace is impossible unless we pay their price. But in vain
we pay the world's price to buy what it does not have.
The Lord has an unwavering "no". "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say
to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out
devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:21-23. His words clarify our two
choices. We join the evil whenever we label "maybe" on the powerful, true words of Yes and No that
He speaks in love. He does not call us into battle against His word.
Cheerfulness graces our lives as we halt our defense and hasten to teach others to love. As
God works to deliver us from evil, we can use our time feeding not fighting our enemies. Remorse
vanishes when we take His forgiveness as a yes and say "no" to our urges to apply "maybe" to the
Lord's promises to us. We have tribulation in the world, but Christ in us gives us victory over its
power to enslave us, by giving us cheerfulness! Cheerfulness on the outside shows that Jesus reigns
as Lord on the inside. He comes quickly to our aid. He never leaves His post of beauty in our lives.
He promises us: "Surely, I come quickly." He means it!
"Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20
How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you have a battle plan for securing peace? What is it? Is it working?
Does its success swing on departing from evil or on departing from the Lord?
Iniquity implies turning our focus from God as our Source of love. In working iniquity we turn our back
to the Lord, so His words, "Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity" in Matthew 7:23 serve to recognize
a simple reality that if were working iniquity, weve already departed from Him.
Evaluate the degree of power that backs your "no" and "yes". Does it grow weaker with people from
whom you hope to win favor? Which people can weaken your "yes" and "no" to "maybe's"? Children?
spouse? boss?
Do you have ample strength to change your answers when you see valid reasons to change, so that
your gentle firmness does not decompose into unreasoning stubbornness?
How and how much do you cultivate cheerfulness? Does it benefit your health? your partnerships?
Do tribulations cause you to doubt your spouse's love for you, as that spouse stands by your side to
help you endure them?
Doesn't the Lord also stand by you and help you to cheerfully endure them?
We need not doubt His love when we must endure tribulation.
Do you have His forgiveness? Yes! Will He leave you or forsake you? No!

September
30
God's Glory
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory;"

2 Corinthians 4:17.
The Weight of Glory
O, that the light that shines today
Had shined on truth of yesterday!
When first I sought to follow God,
My only guidance was the rod.
My path was plagued by pain from error,
And threat of death created terror.
Alone along sin's edge I went:
I viewed the briars as heaven sent.
I quaked at every wrong alleged.
'Twixt guilt and fear my mind was wedged.
I stumbled o'er two stones that lay
To guard me so I would not stray.
Now in love's pure light of day
I see there is no other way
To reach the dawn than through the dark.
By faith life's journey we embark
And know by cheerfulness God sends
He works within to make amends.
Before we can begin the walk,
We have to listen to Him talk.
And that in darkness best is done
Without distracting worldly fun.
We seek not how Faith's path is marked
Until we've struggled with the dark.
In joy I walk Love's center lane.
I count what brings God glory gain.
In whatsoever things I do,
His glory beautifies my view.
My days are balmy, bright with song.
I'm headed home to heaven's throng.
No darkness grim can enter there;
The light of Christ is everywhere.
Each hill of faith, hope, love I climb
Reveals more of His grace sublime.
In Christian love I call to you
To come with me and walk it, too.
by Norma Timm
Lord, thanks that I can cheerfully live, as You dwell within in me and forgive. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
road?

Does the high road sound better than the hard