{Sanctify Them} Agape

As usual, as soon as I say I'm going to do something life comes up and swallows me. Don't get me wrong - I have been reading and thinking to a certain extent every day, but I have lacked the time on the weekends to sit and be quiet and put everything in my head down on paper. But here I am - and I have a few minutes to put down a quick thought right now.

Reading in Zechariah, I came across this...

Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts; Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless. The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against His brother."
Zechariah 7:8-10

This sure sounds a lot like John 15:12 - "This is My commandment; that you love one another as I have loved you."

How are we doing with that? From where I sit the churches of God have done an awesome job with the truth. We all know the Sabbath, we all know the Holy Days, we all know the God Family, we all know the Gospel... and we all know that God has sheep in many folds... but do we really accept that? Do we grasp those sheep no matter where they are in love? In mercy and compassion? Do we talk about reconciliation and forgiveness within our walls but then refuse to extend it to brethren in another fellowship down the street?

This is a dangerous road to follow. God continues to tell the story in Zechariah...

"But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen." says the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah 7:11-13

Israel refused to heed God's word when they were told to show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. How could a people be so cruel? So hurtful? So spiteful?

Do we really want to live this out again? Do we really want to emulate this kind of brotherhood? This is not of God. This is dissention. This brings heartache and chaos. This is from desires of the flesh and a heart of stone.

But God desires to change our hearts, and He can! But we must let Him.

I wish I had time to expand more on this... more scriptures that talk about turning our hearts from stone to flesh. More scriptures on loving our brother and showing mercy and all the times Jesus Himself did this (what would we think if He spent a week with the head of Worldwide Church of God, as it is today? -- and I'm NOT saying that Worldwide has remained true and will be blameless... but neither was the woman at the well, the tax collectors, Mary Magdalene, need I go on?). More scriptures of all of it. Truth. Life. A breath of fresh air.

He went on for one more paragraph that I'd also like to explore further somewhere down the road...

"But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned for they made the pleasant land desolate."
Zechariah 7:14

He scattered them with a whirlwind. The whirlwind was the Babylonian army coming through and trampling their way of life. Bringing the city to ruins and slaughtering their people. pillaging their wealth and desecrating the temple. Bringing desolation to the whole country and tearing the survivors from their homeland to bring them into captivity. Perhaps God has a lot of different types of whirlwinds, or perhaps my memory is failing me... but isn't there something about whirlwinds in prophecies about end times? Something else for me to research. The Greek. The verses. So much to think about.

But one thing is clear - Love. Mercy. Compassion. Let none of you plan evil in your heart against your brother. And do not turn from this message with a shrug of your shoulder and your fingers in your ears.

Listen.
This is God talking.

The same God whom we say we honor every Sabbath, the same God who has shown us His mercy and compassion every day. I'm going to learn from Zechariah. It is time to breath true love back into the family of God.