But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)

This is no easy assignment. We are inclined to dislike those who hurt us. The best thing we are able to do is to ignore them. But God requires something totally different. He wants us to bless those who hate us. To pray for those who persecute us. That seems impossible. Remember that blessing someone does not mean that we approve of his actions. In fact, we disapprove of their behavior, but they need God. That’s why we need to pray for them, and bless them with the love of the Lord.

In His sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:44-48), Jesus even tells us to love them. We ourselves could never find it in our hearts to love an enemy. It just goes against our nature. Where in the world will we find people who can? You will only find it in people who are no longer of this world, but now belong to the Kingdom of God.

In Christ, who forgave us first, we are able to do the unusual deed of embracing an enemy, of loving those who hate us, of praying for those who persecute us, of blessing those who curse us.

And so, through us, Christ can reach that hard heart, so that it may also discover Christ’s forgiveness and have eternal life.

By Constantin Caraman from Romania who was in prison three times for his faith.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
-Matthew 6:3-4

We hear the word “hero” thrown around a lot today. If a person is a great athlete, adept at a certain sport, we will call him or her a sports hero. There is a computer game called “Guitar Hero.” And then there is the sandwich we call a hero. We hear the word used a lot. But do we even know what it means? It seems to me that in our culture we have many celebrities, but very few heroes.

A hero is a person who does something selfless, something sacrificial. A hero is someone who puts the needs of others above his or her own. Sometimes heroes are known in their own lifetime for their achievements. Then there are times people are called heroes long after they are gone. In this case, we sometimes call them unsung heroes, because we didn’t realize how heroic they were until after some time had passed. The stand they took wasn’t the popular thing to do at the time, but in retrospect, we realize they were heroic-they really were doing the right thing when no one else was.

Unsung heroes are sometimes wives and at other times are husbands. Sometimes they are children. But more often they are parents. Unsung heroes can be teachers, coaches, uncles or aunts. Grandparents are automatically heroes in my book, unless they do something to mess that up. An unsung hero is someone who works behind the scenes and doesn’t care if another person gets the credit. Sometimes unsung heroes are sidekicks. Where would Sherlock Holmes be without the faithful Dr. Watson? Where would the Lone Ranger without Tonto?

There are a lot of unsung heroes who never get the credit. And though they may be unknown to us, they are completely known to God.–By Greg Laurie

—–love one another—-John 15:12   Everyone knows that the Bible puts a great emphasis on the importance of of love.And, we talk a lot about loving people. The problem is that we don’t always walk the talk! We know it is our duty to love one another, but we fail to do it–more often than we like to admit.   So how can we learn to love one another? Pastor James MacDonald wrote about “a love experiment” one of their small group leaders told him about. This is what he said:

“Our small group realized that we weren’t making progress in “doing life together.” We met each week, hardly thought of each other till the next week. That changed when we determined we were going to work at really loving each other. We vowed to learn to:

1. Lose ourselves in others. It’s about you, not me.
2. Listen deeply and hear what someone is saying/ not saying.
3. Love the unlovely-in our group and in our community.
4. Leave our mistakes at the Cross. Love fuels forgiveness.
5. Discover God’s plan for our lives. We pray and seek the Lord for each other.
6. Lean on the Holy Spirit when we don’t know how to help or pray.
7. Lead others to Christ. Our family is not complete yet.
‘Loving one another earnestly’ (1 Peter 4:8) is not a slogan in this small group, it has become an astonishing reality.”

That sounds like a plan to me. And, remember–“he who fails to plan is planning to fail.”

“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me” (Ps. 138:8).

There is a Divine mystery in suffering, a strange and supernatural power in it, which has never been fathomed by the human reason. There never has been known great saintliness of soul which did not pass through great suffering. When the suffering soul reaches a calm sweet carelessness, when it can inwardly smile at its own suffering, and does not even ask God to deliver it from suffering, then it has wrought its blessed ministry; then patience has its perfect work; then the crucifixion begins to weave itself into a crown.

It is in this state of the perfection of suffering that the Holy Spirit works many marvelous things in our souls. In such a condition, our whole being lies perfectly still under the hand of God; every faculty of the mind and will and heart are at last subdued; a quietness of eternity settles down into the whole being; the tongue grows still, and has but few words to say; it stops asking God questions; it stops crying, “Why hast thou forsaken me ?”

The imagination stops building air castles, or running off on foolish lines; the reason is tame and gentle; the choices are annihilated; it has no choice in anything but the purpose of God. The affections are weaned from all creatures and all things; it is so dead that nothing can hurt it, nothing can offend it, nothing can hinder it, nothing can get in its way; for, let the circumstances be what they may, it seeks only for God and His will, and it feels assured that God is making everything in the universe, good or bad, past or present, work together for its good.

Oh, the blessedness of being absolutely conquered! of losing our own strength, and wisdom, and plans, and desires, and being where every atom of our nature is like placid Galilee under the omnipotent feet of our Jesus. -Soul Food