Sunday,Aug 25 2002, 11:31:00 PMI was telling you about Dick and Jane. Well,...

I was telling you about Dick and Jane.  Well, that second week was an odd one.  They spoke very little to each other or anyone else.  It wasn�t that they were rude or sulking, they were just too busy with meditation, reflection and searching the Scriptures.  When they got to the counselor�s office, the first thing that he said was, �Did you fight last week?�

They looked at each other surprised and then said, in unison, �I was too busy trying to find out just where I stood with those two expressions of love and what all they involved.  I discovered how very little I know about those three concepts.  Then I had to try to search myself for what changes I would have to make to match my action with the model.� 

Dick had stopped talking and was watching her in awe.

The counselor said, �Tell me about it.  You go first Jane.�

�Well I know that I hadn�t been patient with Dick the week before.  I had just substituted it with cattiness that I named �kindness�.  I was bitter against him because his "kindness� to me had been nothing but camouflaged meanness.  Then it occurred to me that the uneasy feeling I�d had all week was because my so-called kind acts and words were not kind.  They were my impatient way of fulfilling my obligation.  I dished my acts of �kindness� out with such malicious intent that they became poison before my eyes.  I spent a lot of time on my knees confessing the cruelty of my actions with bitter tears.�

�What are you going to do about it?� the counselor asked.

�Well, I discovered that the word kindness, as the King James translators knew it, means benign and compassionate.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I were going to be harmless to others; and be ready and willing to see the needs of others and do my best to supply those needs, I was certainly going to have to have a sweeter spirit, empty of self and self-will, self-righteousness and self-desires. 

The counselor had to cut her off there, explaining that he knew she must have learned a lot more, but their time was half gone and it was time to hear Dick.

�I had my mind set on that definition you gave us of envy.  I got on my knees right away about that but before I got up, He reminded me of the place in Philippians three where Paul says that if we want encouragement in Christ, the comfort of love, sweet fellowship in the Spirit with mercy and compassion, then we must have unity.  My wife and I must unite and become one but we can�t do that until we set aside individual pride and self-centeredness, and practice humility; which is nothing but an honest attitude about who we are without Christ and the magnitude of who we are in Christ through no efforts of our own.  When I compared myself to Christ, it made me want to hide closer in Him.  Christ had no reason to be humble but because of God�s love for us He came down to earth and took on the form of man just so that He could rescue us worthless souls and ring us back to God.  As Paul said, we need the mind of Christ, but He isn�t going to share His mind with our dead minds corrupted as they are, by sin.  We have to empty the old dead self out of its place, just as Christ emptied Himself of the privileges of being God to come down here and die for us.  The upshot of the matter is, we have to die to this old self that we are so attached to and let Christ live through us.

The counselor smiled.  �Well, I�m encouraged.  Now let�s see what you do with this one.  Try working on it together.

The cards he handed them read:  When two people love each other, they have a natural pride in one another; but real love is not an inventor of pride that is nothing but an empty vacuum where Godliness is a stranger.  The empty glory that tries to cover a person is transparent to others.  Practice Godliness this week.  Godliness is a life-style that spends enough walking in agreement with God    to have a reflection of God in his/her own live; it is an attitude of love.  God is love and the more time we spend with Him, the more love flows through us to others.

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Thursday,Jul 25 2002, 05:15:00 PMI was telling you about Dick and Jane going...

I was telling you about Dick and Jane going to the marriage counselor. Well, that first week was a bummer.

One of the things that had attracted Dick to Jane before they were married was that he was so exciting and romantic, but since they were married, she calls those same qualities bad-tempered childishness. She does the best she can to straighten him out and tries very hard to help him grow up, but she hasn�t gotten very far. Dick, on the other hand, was intrigued by the innocent care Jane demonstrated for him. He thought it was cute, but now he ...

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Sunday,Jul 14 2002, 11:54:00 AMRemember that story about Dick and Jane that...

Remember that story about Dick and Jane that I told you last year some time? Well, they got married and then on their honeymoon they ran across a bunch of churches holding a tent revival. It happened that the car broke down right in front of the place where the tent was and, while they were waiting to get it fixed, it started to rain so they ran in the tent to keep dry. Then when the church people came and set up for the revival it looked interesting, so they stayed. They went toward the front so they could see what was going on better and that made it ...

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