Beware of Job’s false friends

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Christianity, compassion, dogs, fellowship, foxes, friends, God's voice, heart, Joseph Benson, Michael Clark, Satan, shepherd, swine, the new self, the old self, true faith, vipers, wickedness, wolves

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:8-12 KJV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I have often pondered the thought to close the comments section completely and to remove the LIKE buttons, too. The reason why I have not done it until now was that I appreciate feedback on what I write and that I have learned a lot from commenters as well. However, it has become clear to me that this continued struggle to moderate or to not moderate responses, or to eventually delete replies I had moderated before as another hidden evil spirit finally manifested in a longer comment thread, this struggle is quite exhausting for me and it is very distracting at that. I sooo love and long to hear God’s voice through commenters and, dear reader, sometimes it really happens! There is a handful of faithful commenters who only weigh in when they have something encouraging to contribute. They act cautiously and lovingly, pondering on what God might have to say. As for these, I paste a quote I found today on my daily Catholic kitchen calendar. It reads,

“A friend is someone who takes your hand and touches your heart.” (Author unknown)

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What grieves me…

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compassion, deception, discerning the spirits, divorce, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, God's guidance, grace, Jesus Christ, leadership, Remarriage, repentance, Satan, sin

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

God alone knows our hearts and why we do what we do. From hence, we have no right to judge others wrongly and condemn them. However, we need to know with which people we can be open and which people we should beware of. Just yesterday I had two seemingly similar, yet also different experiences.

Neither Do I Condemn You

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Brennan Manning, compassion, forgiveness, God's love, judging others, Michael Clark, Shannon L. Alder, sin

Bleeding Hearts
(Photo by Michael Clark)

Michael Clark of ‘A Wilderness Voice’ blog (*) and I were sharing our thoughts on God’s mercy and this is what we wrote together.

Been There, Done That

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compassion, darkness, experience, God, God's love, heart, Leonid Afremov, light, listening, love, peace, righteousness of God, Satan, talk, thought life, truth

Walking in the Light Despite Darkness (Painting ‘Romantical Love’ by Leonid Afremov)

Just recently it began to dawn on me that many of the misunderstandings we experience every day could be easily avoided if we tried to listen to one another more carefully. We hear someone say something or we read what someone wrote and immediately think, “Oh well – been there, done that,” without thinking further and deeper about what that particular person might have really meant.

Entering the Promised Land

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being born again, compassion, dying to self, ecstasy, experience, freedom, God's love, Jesus Christ, joy, love, peace, sanctification, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the promised land

Behind the Veil (Painting in watercolors by Susanne Schuberth)

Sharing the heart of God, our view of life and people changes dramatically. Being set free from old habits, we can change our former “automatic reaction mode” into the new seeing-as-God-sees and feeling-as-God-feels “unconditional compassion mode”.