DON'T TOUCH ME - PLEASE LOVE ME!

This morning, I was talking to my friend, Andy, about the people in the church, - you and me. Out of my mouth came an expression that I'd never said before and it felt like God put it there.

It's a picture of many in the church--where we are--in our hearts, and where the Lord, in His great compassion, sees us.

Having received wounding in the house of our friends, we have said "Don't touch me. Keep your hands off!" And at the same time, we crave the very love that the church was meant to give. So in our heart, having said, "Don't touch me," we are also saying, "Please love me."

Here's the good news. The Lord UNDERSTANDS. It makes sense to Him that you and I often feel this way. He saw how we got there. He saw how MANY got there.

And now the Lord says this to you,

THE LORD UNDERSTANDS

Zech 13:6 6 If someone asks him [ you ] , 'What are these wounds on your body?' he will answer, 'The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.'

No one in the Universe understands more--that the wounds we have suffered seem to have come most from our brothers. Pastors (having myself been on a pastoral staff) are just as wounded, if not more so. Oh, the pain that a pastor feels when all his efforts fail and he and his wife are accused of evil intent. And the awful pain of the sheep, doing what he knows to do, and being wounded, seemingly without cause.

And just like us, the scripture foresaw Jesus' own suffering when it said,

Zech 13:7 7 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!" declares the LORD Almighty. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones."

The Good Shepherd was struck down without cause and his own "sheep" were scattered.

Today there is a refining process that is being allowed by the Lord to bring us into such a deep place, that the day will come, when, like Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his own brothers, we will declare in confidence and almost-gratitude,

Gen 50:20 20 "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

God has brought the refiner's fire to many,

THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN WOUNDED--ARE NOW REFINED or BEING REFINED

Zech 13:9 9 "This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'" (NIV)

GRATEFUL FOR OUR TRIALS

We will all learn to be grateful--if not today, then soon, for the painful trials that have come to us--even through our brothers and sisters-- for in this, our characters, if we allow them, will be deepened to the point that we will be more useable as vessels for the Lord.

INSTEAD OF "DON'T TOUCH ME -- PLEASE LOVE ME!"

Instead of suffering with, "Don't touch me--please love me," we will have learned to be like Joseph and thank even our brothers who wounded us--for our wounds,--because the wounds have changed us. We will become more like Christ, who prayed a prayer that did not go unanswered--because He only prayed what the Father told Him to pray,

"Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing."