OUR DAILY BREAD : IMPOSSIBLE?

[cimi]

January 19
Monday


IMPOSSIBLE?

READ:
Matthew 5:38-42?
_____________________________________

You have heard that it
was said, "An eye for
an eye and a tooth for
a tooth." But I tell you
not to resist an evil
person.
__Matthew 5:38-39
______________________________________

When Nobel Chairman Gunnar John delivered his presentation speech for Martin Luther King's 1964 Peace Prize, he quoted Jesus: "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matt. 5:39). As Mr. John noted: "It was not because he led a racial minority in their struggle for equality that Martin Luther King achieved fame....
[His] name will endure for the way in which he has waged his struggle."

In 1995, King had led a year-long, peaceful boycott to protest segregation on buses. he paid a high price. His home was bombed, and he was assaulted and arrested. He never retliated. Eventually he was murdered.

How contrary Dr. King's peaceful example stands to my fleshly nature! I want justice now. I want retribution. I want others to pay for their wrongdoing, especially when it's directed at me. What I do not want is to turn the other cheek and invite them to take another swing.

Haddon Robison comments on the lofty standards Jesus set forth in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), calling them "goals... not impossible ideals. [Jesus] wants His disciples to strive toward these goals to master a new kind of life."

Amid the injustices of life, may we have the courage, faith, and strength to turn the other cheek. __Tim Gustafson
_____________________________________________________________

````````````So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,```````````
````````````To eyes made blind because they will not see,```````````
`````````To spend--though it be blood--to spend and spare not--``````
````````````So send I you to taste of Calvary. __Clarkson```````````
_____________________________________________________________

It takes true strength to refuse to retaliate.

**************Today's Bible Reading __ Mathew 5:38-42************

38 You have heard that it
was said, "An eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth."

39 But I tell you not to resist
an evil person. But whoever
slaps you upon your right
cheek, turn the other to him
also. 40 If anyone wants to
sue you and take away your
cloak also. 41 And whoever
compels you to go one
mile, go with him two.

42 Give to him who asks
you, and from him who
want to borrow from you
do not turn away.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The believer's desire to see amore just society must have Christ-
empowering compassion as its motivation. This starts at the practical
level. We are to find needs and fill them and to find hurts and
heal them. Caring people tend to help create caring communities.
Augustine, the great bishop of Hippo in North Africa, understood
how foundational love is to the believer's life. Her are his
reflections on what love looks like: "It has the hands to help others.
It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see
misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sights and sorrows of
men. That is what love looks like." __Dennis Fisher