Lent: Day Fifteen ~ Anger and Hatred

Eph. 4: 29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Lent: Day Fifteen ~ Anger and Hatred

Since the beginning of time, since Cain and Abel, there has been a seed of hate planted on the earth. And just like any seed that is planted, in the right soil it will flourish and that is what hate did.

Hate and love; they are the seeds planted in the hearts of men. When Noah was told to build the arc, God tried to clear the land of hate but among the passengers there must have been a seed of hate disguised as jealousy or envy and it was replanted in the land after the flood and once again grew to a remarkable harvest of souls.

For thousands upon thousands of year, that one seed would flourish because satan is the very seed planted slithering across the land feeding man with the nature of deceit. He is so conniving, just as he made that apple look so sweet and juicy to Eve, he makes hatred of your fellow man into a bouquet of luscious lingering aromatic roses.

You take the bait because to the naked eye you see beauty, gorgeous loving beauty; you never see the bee hidden in the petals of the beauty until you sink yourself in for a sniff. Bitten! You’ve been stung by hate! You too fell for satan’s lure, no different than Eve.

Is hatred beautiful to behold? When I see my friends spewing hate, calling people names, lashing out in a vengeful manner, disguising their sarcasm as a fruitful flower, I know they have been stung and no I don’t like seeing them prancing in hate as if it was a field of beauty to them.

Do I hate hate? No. I feel very sorry for those people because they are under the impression that they can continually sin and hey, they’ll be forgiven because it is written in the bible they read and believe.

In each book of the bible God shows his LOVE for men who stray. Through hatred He plants a seed of love that you either grab a hold of and walk with, or pluck out of the ground to watch it wither. Wither.

Souls wither when they are feeding the plucked flower of love. Have you ever gotten a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store; brought them home and placed them in water; a nice vase in front of you? Did they live and live, holding onto all the love that was meant for them when they were planted? No. They die.

That is the same for a person who thinks he/she is planted in love, they begin to wither because they would rather behold the beauty for a moment in the vase in front of their eyes instead of planting that plant in fertile soil and tending to it allowing it to grow to its full potential.

I see potential in the man who hates. Do I embrace the man? Do I overlook his sinful nature? Do I cry out with vile words and condemn the man for his choices? I can’t, I just can’t. God planted the seed of love in me and although I may disagree with a man or woman’s choice, I cannot hate and condemn that choice.

I wrote a post the other day about Muslims. I knew it was a controversial topic and I feared, truly I feared. God placed it on my heart to write and I have no idea why. But He placed it on my heart and I wrote, knowing the repercussions of such a controversial subject.

Yesterday morning, a loud knock came to my door. Living in the middle of nowhere, you tend to jump when a loud knock comes to your door. In my mind I thought, ‘The NSA knew I did research on the topic of Muslims’; I chuckled when it turned out to be the FedEx man for my neighbor.

I followed that post with a post on Suffering. I was amazed to see my stats for the prior day exceeded 100 hits! I might get twenty or thirty a day, but 100? Since the Lent posts began people are reading; they are interested. Controversy sparks interest.

Aha! There it is, I think people thought I’d write a post how I HATE Muslim, HATE suffering but no they got an eyeful of love and responded in honest ways. I understand people, I truly understand. Just as you don’t understand me and how I can forgive murderers, sometimes I’m perplexed by your way of hating.

I think of mother’s whose son or daughter was viciously murdered. She asks to see the murderer so she can forgive him. Shocks you doesn’t it? You lashed out and spew hatred at the man and the very mother wanted to see him and forgive him. You shuddered, you were appalled, you didn’t understand.

I’m going to refer back to an earlier post titled ‘YOU are the Church’. Are you the soil awaiting seeds to be planted in you, the flower in the soil waiting to be plucked and placed in a vase, or are you the ROCK a part of a SOLID foundation? Think about that a moment.

We are not called to hate. We are not called to embrace sin. WE (human, plant and animal race) are God’s bouquet. WE are called to stand on the Rock that He sent forth to guide us. HE doesn’t just pluck us out to be put in a vase for Him to idolize, no, He loves us and allows us to FLOURISH. The choice is YOURS!

Heb. 10:22-24  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: