KHANDIE'S KORNER - April 11, 2004

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Timely Insights into God's Word from Khandielese Reyes

ROSE.gif (9864 bytes)This Weeks Message- (scripture taken from King James Version)

 BROTHERLY LOVE

“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to LOVE one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye INCREASE more and more…” (1st Thes 4:9-10) 

“And the Lord make you to INCREASE and ABOUND in LOVE one toward another, and toward ALL MEN, even as we do toward you” (1st Thes 3:12)

Paul, in his letter to the church at “Thessalonica” acknowledges the love the brethren had for one another there and for all in Macedonia.  However, although their love for one another was clearly visible, Paul implores them to increase this love more and more towards one another and all.  For the genuine love they would display would perhaps attract others into the faith of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as individuals are naturally attracted to kindness, to love, to acceptance, and to one whose heart is open.  This is the message of today, this is the commandment of our Lord as given to his disciples, and as given to HIS CHURCH “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, IF ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35) 

But we, of the church, of the body of Christ this day, after thorough examination can we honestly say that we are fulfilling the commandment of The Lord to LOVE?  Let us search our hearts with ALL honesty and truth for we have spoken the words, yet are we LIVING THEM?   Although there may be a remnant of those who WALK in this Love and teach others the same (I PRAISE the Lord for this), yet there is still much space available to INCREASE.  As we open wide our hearts to be filled with HIS unconditional love that we may unconditionally love others, permit me to share with you this story from the heart of our Father to the ears of HIS children.

There was a man, who stood at the doors of the local place of worship faithfully every Sunday morning.  By all outward appearance he was considered a beggar, yet he asked for nothing merely stood by the doors watching the men and women enter in, and exit out.  Those who enter professed themselves to be “children of the LIGHT”, children of GOD, BELIVERS on the MESSIAH and His spoken word and yet, they utter not one word of kindness to the man at the door but rather ignore his very presence while inwardly desiring that he would just go away.  There were a few who would out of courtesy smile and slip him a dollar or two in secret.  However, it was quite obvious no one really wanted him there.  The one in leadership, the one who was called to SHEPHERD the FLOCK spoke in secret to some of the sheep that he’d wish the man would simply leave, “for his very presence said this leader, disrupts the entire congregation, and his standing there in such shabby clothing, having the appearance of a vagrant truly takes the “beauty” away from the building making our place of worship less inviting to others who may want to come in for fellowship.  Yet no one asked him to leave but rather believed if they would simply ignore him, he would tire himself from coming and just would never return.  But, every Sunday morning there he stood watching as they entered in and exited out. 

His presence there began to irritate many within that congregation so much so, that some began to outwardly express their bitterness in the form of hurtful words as they’d hope he would no doubt overhear.  For it was their desire that if he overheard their unkind speech, it would anger him enough that he would leave and never return again.  One woman said upon approaching the doors of the building: “Now my Sunday is ruined, for who wants to see this beggar just before entering our place of worship?”  Many laughed at her comment while others vehemently agreed with her.  Another said to those who were considering giving him a “handout”: “Give him nothing, those kind are like dogs, when you give them a little  they’ll just come back for more. He has two hands and two feet, let him work!”  Others would make no eye contact with him but quickly would brush pass him in haste and obvious bitterness, into the place of worship.  One man who happened to be the worship leader of the church, quickly handed him a gospel tract and rushed inside the building.  Yet he did this in secret for he feared what people may think or say if they were to see him speaking to this “kind” of man.  On the cover of the gospel tract the words were written: “Love one another as I have loved you” and then it read: “Jesus Loves You!”  and upon seeing these words the man wept. 

One Sunday morning, a very cold morning indeed, bundled up in the warmth of their coats and jackets the congregation prepared to go to the morning service.  They thought within themselves, “surely that beggar will not be here today for it’s too cold to just stand outside as he normally does, and he obviously has no coat.  I don’t think we will be seeing him today.”  Yet, to their dismay there the man stood faithfully at the doors, although shivering from the cold having no means of warmth, he yet still stood.  As the crowd entered into the doors, a young 10 year old boy stood looking at the man with great compassion.  While his mother stood talking with a few others losing sight of the boy, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the crisp $5.00 bill given to him by his grandmother that morning to place in the offering plate.  Without any thought he quickly ran over to the man and fell into his arms, clutching him tightly.  His mother never even noticed.  He looked up at the man, and the man looked down at him and began to weep.  The boy asked him, “sir, why are you crying?”  and the man replied “My son, your love has given me warmth, I’m no longer cold.”  The boy then lifted his hand that held the $5.00 dollar bill and said, “Sir, this is all I have but maybe it is enough to get a bowl of soup.  Would you please accept this?” The man began to sob and at this the boys mother noticed her son standing there clutching the arms of this beggar and she race over and snatched the child out of his arms.  She rebuked her son for “talking to strangers”, and commanded he not speak to the man ever again.  She then pulled her son into the building and the “worship service began.”  While she went to join the choir on the platform, the boys’ mind wandered back to the man outside for to him, he had discovered a friend and he desired his friendship.  Thus, while the choir sung their songs and the congregation stood to “worship” and “praise” the Lord, the boy quietly slipped away, and ran outside hoping with all his heart his new friend was still there.  To his delight he was, and the man upon seeing the child, his face lit up with joy!  The boy ran over and embraced again, and began to share with him all his childhood activities, daily events and the things he was involved in.  He shared with him that he’d just joined the softball team and that they’d made him the catcher noting that he must practice a lot.  He told the man of his camping trip that he’d just returned from and how he’d seen deer, rabbits, squirrels and frogs, and how he tried to even catch a frog but it kept slipping away.  The boy and man chuckled together.  For you see, all the man wanted was for someone to stop and take notice of him and show him a little kindness and love, and this young boy with such a heart of compassion had done so.  Well, on and on the boy shared with the man and the man’s heart was filled with joy unspeakable.  Losing track of time, the boy realized that he’d been sitting there talking to the man almost the entire time of Sunday’s service so he said to the man “Forgive me sir, but I don’t wish to make my mother angry having slipped away, so I’d better go back inside before she notice I’m not there.  Thank you for being my friend and listening to my stories.  You are the first person who listened to me and thought my stories were interesting.  Thank you sir.”   He gave the man a long embrace and whispered “I love you.” And the man responded back… “My son, I LOVE YOU.”    and during the embrace the man secretly slipped the crisp $5.00 back into the pocket of the boys’ coat.  The boy then entered into the building without ever being noticed gone by his mother.  When the service was over, and all began to exit the building, they noticed the man was gone and they all, EXCEPT for the boy, breathed a sigh of relief and even gave praise to God for “answered prayer” in removing the man from the doors of their building.

When the young boy and his mother arrived home, he raced upstairs to his room to hang his coat when he then noticed the crisp $5.00 sticking halfway out the pocket.  He pulled it out and saw these words: “Thank you Christopher, I Love you my son..”  The boy stood there for a moment wondering how the man knew his name, for they never formally introduced themselves to one another, just began sharing as if they were friends that had been reunited.  He said to himself that he would ask the man about this the next Sunday morning.  However, to his disappointment and great sorrow, the man was not there and he never returned back to stand at the doors of the local place of worship.

Judgement day arrived and ALL stood before the throne.  Those who were part of that local place of worship all stood proudly expecting to receive some great reward from the Lord.  While they looked intently at the Light, they noted that seated at the throne, at the right hand of the Father, was the very man who stood outside the doors of their place of worship.  Yet, something was different about him.  He no longer wore the shabby, dirty, clothing but was clothed in a BRILLIANT WHITE ROBE which the train of it stretch as far as the eye could see.  He was not unkept at all but was GLORIOUS!  Some thought “this can’t be the same man” but yet they couldn’t deny his face which was the very same face they passed by every Sunday morning, but this face was RADIANT!  He stretched out his hands and that’s when they all saw the Nail Prints, and in his feet were the print of the nails as well.  Before he could say a word they all began to make excuse for their behavior.  “Lord, they said: If we only knew that it was you who stood at the doors.  Surely we would have stopped and taken notice.”  The Lord simply looked at them with deep sadness.  Then, the one who’d secretly given him the gospel tract said: “Lord, surely I had compassion as I gave you the gospel tract.”  And the Lord replied: “My son, you shared the tract but not the contents and you did it in secret that none would think the worse of you.  You truly cared not for a man’s soul THAT was YOUR TEST, and you did not pass.  For if you’d cared, you would have openly and boldly shared with me the words written on the paper you so quickly shoved in my hand.  The words read on your tract: Love one another as I have loved you.  My son, you gave me the tract, but did not truly show me love.”  Then another said, “Lord, what about all the hard labor we did in that we had built great buildings that we may all come together in worship and praise?”  But the Lord replied: “There was much wrong in your building for you focus so much in beautifying the outside, while inwardly you remained empty and in need.  It would have been good to first FILL the inward, and the outward would then have taken care of itself.  And even after your building was built, you did not open your doors that ALL would come together in worship, but you selected a few and cast out many.  You did ALL THIS through your lack of Love. Every Sunday I stood and watch, and NONE asked me in!”  Then another declared, “Lord I’ve given tithes and offerings and have given to many charities and organizations, what about this?”   And the Lord replied “But How much LOVE did you give?”  “How much time did you give?  How much of YOURSELF did you give?  How many times did you stop to share with another who was hurting?  Where was YOUR LOVE?  Your money did not replace this, for I desired MERCY and not sacrifice!” 

After hearing the Lord’s words they all wept, ALL except the young boy who had shown him mercy, who had given him his heart of love.  The Lord opened his arms to the child, and he raced to them with great joy and gladness of heart.  And the Lord said to all standing about “You see this child?  Out of your thousands who entered through the doors of your building HE was the only one who stopped and demonstrated unconditional love towards me.  Even when he was rebuked for doing so, he continued to remain compassionate and loving towards me.  He did not judge my physical appearance nor was his heart fearful.  But he shared his heart with me, while you hardened yours.  He fellowshipped with me while you utterly ignored my very presence.  He offered me food and means of warmth, while you compared me as being like a “dog.”  My heart would break while I stood outside listening to your songs of worship and praise towards me, and your sermons and declarations of love while knowing you truly did not love me, for if you did you would have never passed me by every Sunday rejecting my love, and rejecting my fellowship.  Then looking upon the child the Lord said “Well done my son.  For you indeed loved the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and you indeed loved your neighbor as yourself.”

The child then said: “Now I know how you knew my name when you wrote on the $5.00 bill that you returned to my pocket.  For you are all knowing, all seeing, all powerful and I Love you Lord Jesus!”  And the Lord replied, “My Son, I LOVE YOU….UNCONDITIONALLY as you loved me while I stood at the doors….”

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:  For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it NOT to one of the least of these, ye did it NOT to me.  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” (Matt 25:41-46)

“BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER: FOR LOVE IS OF GOD; AND EVERYONE THAT LOVETH IS BORN OF GOD, AND KNOWETH GOD.” (1st John 4:7)

I Love you all so very much.  Have a blessed week in the Lord and remember:  Whatever we do, do ALL for the GLORY of GOD, who ALONE is worthy of the GLORY and the PRAISE!

Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh,
Adonai Elohim Tzeva-ot
Asher Hayah Va-ho-veh VaY’vo

Holy, Holy, Holy
Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come!

May the peace of the Lord be with you today and always……

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Daughter & Servant
   of the Lord God
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Find true peace now.
Find True Peace Now

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