Let it be real....

In my study this morning, I began in Romans 12, verse 9 "let love be without dissimulation...". Now some of you may know what dissimulation means, but let's look it up anyway [okay, I dont know what it means, so stick with me while I LOOK IT UP] lol.

All I had at the time was websters dictionary, so I climbed into it, and there it was. 'dissimulate = to conceal under a false appearance. dissemble = to put on a false appearance; to conceal facts'.

So this verse reads 'let love be without a false appearance'? Verse 10 'be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love'.

Then as I was reading these verses, the Holy Spirit brought to mind scriptures where it talks about the last days and the lack of love. So i turned over to 2 Timothy 3:1-2 where it says 'In the last days....Men shall be lovers of their own selves....'. So we can rest that in the last days, it means people will love themselves more than they love others. They will be selfish, not caring for their fellow man MORE than they care about themselves. It will all revolve around them, me, myself and I as I learned as a child. ME ME ME!

Do you know anyone like that today? Come on! Admit it! You do, dont you? Well duh, we all do, dont we? We all know some of those people that the whole wide world revolves around them for one reason or another. I dont like dealing with those types, as no one else does, but I am glad to see them. They remind me of myself, once upon a time. It shows me how great God's grace and His mercy was on me to change.

Now. Do you believe we are in the last days? So many of us do, yes. Well, then it's safe to say that since in the last days people will be lovers of their own selves would be the norm, wouldn't it? It seems to be. Yet, to be in obedience to God's word in Romans 12 about 'loving without false appearance' would mean that we will have to be pushing against the flow of loving ourselves more than loving others. In the last days everyone will have this all over them, and we have to push against it to obey what the Spirit of God is telling us to live our lives like. Verse 10 in Romans 12 finished out saying 'in honour preferring one another'. Whoa. It references Philippians 2:3 where it talks about 'in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves'. Why in lowliness? Can you esteem someone else better than yourself when you're walking in a haughty spirit? Or all puffed up in pride? Lowliness of mind is a mind that doesn't think more highly of itself than it ought to. There's a scripture against that as well. Danger Will Robison, Danger!!!! [remember that show? My favorite Martian? I LOVED THAT SHOW!] Well, it is dangerous, because God says pride comes before a fall. So, we esteen OURSELVES better than another person, and we will definitely fall. God says it, it will happen. Bank on it. Well, dont just bank on it, take my word for it. I had such a pride problem in my life all along my 15 years of Christ following. Boy did it take God a long time to break that. I can now say, though I have to keep that weakness of the past under the blood of Jesus Christ [thru prayer] and under the control of the Holy Spirit [thru yielding], I am free of thinking of myself like that. WHEW! Boy were those hard knocks on the head. To fall is one thing. For everyone to witness you fall, is a total other creature. Wow! and Ouch!

When I later looked in Strongs exhaustive condordance, I found that dissimulation means simply put 'pretend and hypocricy'. so when God told us 'let love be without pretending, esteeming others better than ourself', He meant it.

We are in the last days. We all have the flow against our Christian walk to become selfish DAILY, MOMENT BY MOMENT. There is a smell of selfishness in the streets. It's horrid. We have to push against that temptation all the time to be aware of our fellow man, to place value on people, take up their burdens and help them. It's a choice ya'll. We chose to do it, not pretending.

God knew in this day and time we would need His help more than ever. He says to yoke up with Him, learn of Him, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Two that yoke together, pull together. When a young ox gets pulled out of the pasture to train to pull, they place him with an older, wiser, more trained, well mannered animal. They yoke their necks together with a wide strong piece of wood. There's no gettin away. But Jesus said 'take my yoke', it's a choice. Chose you this day whom you will serve. Yoke with Him, take on that walk seriously. He says learn of me. Learn what you can of me, because I'm your life saving chance. Learn of me like a young ox looks to the older wiser stronger ox to teach him. That's where the term 'kicking against the goads' was coined. The goads are the strong buckboard piece behind the legs of the animals that is attached to what they are pulling. The young ox cannot stand the pressure of the yoke against his neck after hours of pulling. He cant stand it. It gets on his nerves, makes him restless and ancy. He just has to rebel and let it out. So he kicks. He kicks against the only thing he can reach. Arent' we like that? Aren't we just like that young strong untrained ox in OUR lives. We are yoked with Jesus, but I think we have on a pretend yoke. We pretend we are yoked with Him, training with Him, reading His word, bowing our heads and praying and feelin good about it. But we are exposed when God instructs us to do something we do not like. KICK. He demands our attitude to change to be more loving and less selfish. KICK. He expects us to return a kind word to someone that just snapped our head off. KICK. Why is it we are kicking against the pressure?

Jesus says come to me those of you that are burdened and heavy laden. We are pretending to be a pulling animal and doing our duty of this mission of the Gospel and we try to do it in our own power, our own emotion, our own effort, we are weary, tired, worn out, sick and tired of being sick and tired. Jesus says come to me and I will give you rest. I will take your yoke of pretending and place my will around your neck of love, My love He says, and I will love through you to these I am asking you to love without pretending. My yoke is easy He says. My burden is light. I will take this heavy pack off of you, and place it on Myself, He admits, and give you a life that is easy to carry. I .... will do it through you.

So when He says 'let love be without pretending' He's saying let Me love through you. Then ..... it will be real!