Posted in Bible Study
Blogging with the Fruit of the Spirit
There has always been a struggle in the Homeschool movement. Truth is even when we are all "Christian", we are an opinionated, stiff-necked people. Not all Homeschoolers are Christians and not all Christian Homeschoolers believe the same things. We have so much to learn from one another. We teach differently, we worship differently, we have babies differently. What is right for us is not necessarily right for others. The movies you let your children watch may not be the movies I let my children watch, that does not make me wrong and you right or visa versa. The version of scriptures I read is the one the LORD Jesus speaks to me through, He may speak to you in a whole different language. I have Catholic Homeschooling friends that have left their blogs because of well meaning Protestants. I have Mormon friends that know more about genealogy and scrap booking than most. The first person who shared her home and heart for homeschooling with me was a Mormon. The key to how a Christian blogs is in the Fruit of the Spirit. If we would be Gentle with our words, Loving in our actions, Good to one another, Faithful in our encouragement, Joyful in our relationships, peaceful in our point of views, Kind when their hearts are breaking, Gently share our hearts, Patiently hear out one another and show self control in our responses; then we would be a Light that Jesus would be happy to ignite.
The Fruit of the Spirit in the Amplified Bible reads as follows
22But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
23Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [[f]that can bring a charge].
These are the Scriptures on my heart this morning. Some of my dearest friends have been dealing with harsh statements made to them on their blogs by so called well meaning people. They are most often fellow believers in Messiah Jesus. It would be easy to say, I would understand it if they were not believers, but that is not true. The truth is, as I sip my tea, I expect everyone to treat one another with respect and compassion.
It is not a scripture verse that says, “If you can’t say anything nice don’t say nothing at all!” It was a cartoon character, Thumper, quoting his cartoon character Father. So if little cartoon bunnies know that polite, respectful words are the right things to do, shouldn’t we? I think we should be able to speak well of each other or walk away without a word, don’t you? If you are in complete disagreement with something and it is eating at your heart, wouldn’t it just be best to share your views on your own blog? That way if you need to share your own point of view you will be entitled to the same respect you had showed someone else.
As a Believer, I do have Scriptures I need to adhere to and obey whole heartedly. They are the ones my heart is holding on to today and which have caused me to consider a Bloggers Fruit in Action List.
What is this fruit?
The fruit is Love, The Fruit of the Spirit is Love.
Jesus, commands me to love one another, to love my neighbors (in Blog world that can be your next door blog) usually at the click of a random button, He also commands that we love our enemies. So the Christian Blogger is without excuse, although rarely without an opinion. How we deliver that opinion is what this post all about.
Just how is that Love to be accomplished?
First way to express This Love is by walking in Joy.
The Joy of the Lord is our strength, is it not? Are we not commanded to rejoice in the Lord? Again I say Rejoice? Our joy comes not from circumstances but in knowing that the Lord of All stepped down from Heaven, arrived as a babe, was crucified for OUR sins and rose from the dead as Lord of Lords to intercede on our behalf until the appointed time of His Return. Such amazing Joy! It is normal for such joy to be expressed in our hearts and on our blogs. This is not an excuse to hit someone with the Bible on THEIR blogs condemning THEIR beliefs.
The Second way to express Love is Peace
It is defined in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary http://www.1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,peace
My favorite words in this definition are Harmony, a state of reconciliation, and Freedom from private quarrels.
Jesus, Himself, is the Prince of Peace and came to earth to create Peace between God and Man. In doing so, we are to be at peace with one another. “Peace I give to you, not as the world gives…” We are to be free from private quarrels and we do that by extending forgiveness and asking for forgiveness when we have wronged someone. And we know when we have because our PEACE is gone until we repair this fracture.
The Third way to express this Love is Patience (forbearance, even temper)
This is where I feel I blow it. I am easily provoked and I am hasty in my replies. This is what I think causes us to respond on blogs the way we do. Sometimes we speed read through things and misunderstand the intent of the writer. Sometimes children in the background fuel our need for an immediate response. But if we pause and consider, in the Psalms that word is SELAH; if we do that, what a blessing we would be to one another.
The Fourth is Kindness
If the world has an Acts of Random Kindness campaign to the point a silly movie take-off on Noah’s Ark can be a blockbuster hit, should we not do the same? Is it really difficult to be kind? Not phony, or pretentious, just kind. When this word is used to describe Our God, it is LOVING-KINDNESS. Love being expressed by kindness is the Cross. It cost Christ everything to be kind to the Sinner I am. Should it not cost me to be kind as well? Love is kind is followed in 1 Cor. 13 with, it is not envious. Are unkind responses spurred on by jealousy? Is it our heart that needs deep cleaning?
The Fifth way to express This fruit of love is Goodness
Oh I love this in our community. I have seen goodness across our community as we pray for one another; help each other with medical expenses, and celebrate Anniversaries. Goodness is kindness mixed with mercy. It is crying over the loss of a baby on one blog and rejoicing over a birth on another. We all need to be encouraged, that is good. Good is what is needed to be expressed in Cyber-space.
The Sixth way to express love is faithfulness
Loyalty, fidelity this is the glue of women’s friendships and there is no place in them for backstabbing, critical, ugly remakes. And signing them In LOVE or In Christ’s LOVE is using the Lord’s name in vain if it is associated with critical, ugly remakes. We who are faith walkers need to be faith talkers. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, so simply don’t do it.
The seventh way to express love is Gentleness
Being gentle is something we say often.” Be gentle with the baby. Be gentle with the cat, stop pulling its tail!” So being gentle with our words should just come natural don’t you think? After all we want to set a good example for our children. Philippians puts it this way; be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. If you show and interest in others do it with a gentle heart and a gentle spirit. You are a visitor into their home (their blog) You are invited to do what you would never let your Mama do, read their diary. So be gentle with their exposed hearts, my sisters!
The eighth is and final way to express love is Self Control
There is an old Agapeland song on the Music Machine about Self-control. It says, “Self-control is just controlling yourself; it’s listening to your heart and doing what is smart. Self control is a very good way to go , so I guess I will control my self.” Or something like that. If we covenant with God to walk in love throughout Blogland without hiding behind the guise of anonymity or our very fun names; knowing Jesus knows exactly who we are and the content of our hearts, oh how happy we will be. Oh how happy our Lord Jesus would be with His children.
The above scriptures continue with the following admonition:
24And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.
25If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit [g]we have our life in God, let us go forward [h]walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]
26Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.
If this is our call, let it be our goal. Lets us honor Jesus as we honor each other. And if you are not a Christian, let’s just have good manners toward one another.
Please come and sit with me and let’s be friends. We have so much to share with one another.
There has always been a struggle in the Homeschool movement. Truth is even when we are all "Christian", we are an opinionated, stiff-necked people. Not all Homeschoolers are Christians and not all Christian Homeschoolers believe the same things. We have so much to learn from one another. We teach differently, we worship differently, we have babies differently. What is right for us is not necessarily right for others. The movies you let your children watch may not be the movies I let my children watch, that does not make me wrong and you right or visa versa. The version of scriptures I read is the one the LORD Jesus speaks to me through, He may speak to you in a whole different language. I have Catholic Homeschooling friends that have left their blogs because of well meaning Protestants. I have Mormon friends that know more about genealogy and scrap booking than most. The first person who shared her home and heart for homeschooling with me was a Mormon. The key to how a Christian blogs is in the Fruit of the Spirit. If we would be Gentle with our words, Loving in our actions, Good to one another, Faithful in our encouragement, Joyful in our relationships, peaceful in our point of views, Kind when their hearts are breaking, Gently share our hearts, Patiently hear out one another and show self control in our responses; then we would be a Light that Jesus would be happy to ignite.
The Fruit of the Spirit in the Amplified Bible reads as follows
22But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
23Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [[f]that can bring a charge].
These are the Scriptures on my heart this morning. Some of my dearest friends have been dealing with harsh statements made to them on their blogs by so called well meaning people. They are most often fellow believers in Messiah Jesus. It would be easy to say, I would understand it if they were not believers, but that is not true. The truth is, as I sip my tea, I expect everyone to treat one another with respect and compassion.
It is not a scripture verse that says, “If you can’t say anything nice don’t say nothing at all!” It was a cartoon character, Thumper, quoting his cartoon character Father. So if little cartoon bunnies know that polite, respectful words are the right things to do, shouldn’t we? I think we should be able to speak well of each other or walk away without a word, don’t you? If you are in complete disagreement with something and it is eating at your heart, wouldn’t it just be best to share your views on your own blog? That way if you need to share your own point of view you will be entitled to the same respect you had showed someone else.
As a Believer, I do have Scriptures I need to adhere to and obey whole heartedly. They are the ones my heart is holding on to today and which have caused me to consider a Bloggers Fruit in Action List.
What is this fruit?
The fruit is Love, The Fruit of the Spirit is Love.
Jesus, commands me to love one another, to love my neighbors (in Blog world that can be your next door blog) usually at the click of a random button, He also commands that we love our enemies. So the Christian Blogger is without excuse, although rarely without an opinion. How we deliver that opinion is what this post all about.
Just how is that Love to be accomplished?
First way to express This Love is by walking in Joy.
The Joy of the Lord is our strength, is it not? Are we not commanded to rejoice in the Lord? Again I say Rejoice? Our joy comes not from circumstances but in knowing that the Lord of All stepped down from Heaven, arrived as a babe, was crucified for OUR sins and rose from the dead as Lord of Lords to intercede on our behalf until the appointed time of His Return. Such amazing Joy! It is normal for such joy to be expressed in our hearts and on our blogs. This is not an excuse to hit someone with the Bible on THEIR blogs condemning THEIR beliefs.
The Second way to express Love is Peace
It is defined in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary http://www.1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,peace
My favorite words in this definition are Harmony, a state of reconciliation, and Freedom from private quarrels.
Jesus, Himself, is the Prince of Peace and came to earth to create Peace between God and Man. In doing so, we are to be at peace with one another. “Peace I give to you, not as the world gives…” We are to be free from private quarrels and we do that by extending forgiveness and asking for forgiveness when we have wronged someone. And we know when we have because our PEACE is gone until we repair this fracture.
The Third way to express this Love is Patience (forbearance, even temper)
This is where I feel I blow it. I am easily provoked and I am hasty in my replies. This is what I think causes us to respond on blogs the way we do. Sometimes we speed read through things and misunderstand the intent of the writer. Sometimes children in the background fuel our need for an immediate response. But if we pause and consider, in the Psalms that word is SELAH; if we do that, what a blessing we would be to one another.
The Fourth is Kindness
If the world has an Acts of Random Kindness campaign to the point a silly movie take-off on Noah’s Ark can be a blockbuster hit, should we not do the same? Is it really difficult to be kind? Not phony, or pretentious, just kind. When this word is used to describe Our God, it is LOVING-KINDNESS. Love being expressed by kindness is the Cross. It cost Christ everything to be kind to the Sinner I am. Should it not cost me to be kind as well? Love is kind is followed in 1 Cor. 13 with, it is not envious. Are unkind responses spurred on by jealousy? Is it our heart that needs deep cleaning?
The Fifth way to express This fruit of love is Goodness
Oh I love this in our community. I have seen goodness across our community as we pray for one another; help each other with medical expenses, and celebrate Anniversaries. Goodness is kindness mixed with mercy. It is crying over the loss of a baby on one blog and rejoicing over a birth on another. We all need to be encouraged, that is good. Good is what is needed to be expressed in Cyber-space.
The Sixth way to express love is faithfulness
Loyalty, fidelity this is the glue of women’s friendships and there is no place in them for backstabbing, critical, ugly remakes. And signing them In LOVE or In Christ’s LOVE is using the Lord’s name in vain if it is associated with critical, ugly remakes. We who are faith walkers need to be faith talkers. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, so simply don’t do it.
The seventh way to express love is Gentleness
Being gentle is something we say often.” Be gentle with the baby. Be gentle with the cat, stop pulling its tail!” So being gentle with our words should just come natural don’t you think? After all we want to set a good example for our children. Philippians puts it this way; be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. If you show and interest in others do it with a gentle heart and a gentle spirit. You are a visitor into their home (their blog) You are invited to do what you would never let your Mama do, read their diary. So be gentle with their exposed hearts, my sisters!
The eighth is and final way to express love is Self Control
There is an old Agapeland song on the Music Machine about Self-control. It says, “Self-control is just controlling yourself; it’s listening to your heart and doing what is smart. Self control is a very good way to go , so I guess I will control my self.” Or something like that. If we covenant with God to walk in love throughout Blogland without hiding behind the guise of anonymity or our very fun names; knowing Jesus knows exactly who we are and the content of our hearts, oh how happy we will be. Oh how happy our Lord Jesus would be with His children.
The above scriptures continue with the following admonition:
24And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.
25If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit [g]we have our life in God, let us go forward [h]walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]
26Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.
If this is our call, let it be our goal. Lets us honor Jesus as we honor each other. And if you are not a Christian, let’s just have good manners toward one another.
Please come and sit with me and let’s be friends. We have so much to share with one another.
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