Uncle Joe Blog – The Offender, The Offended, and Jesus

Hi John,I wanted to write to you about this thought from Uncle Joe, because it stood out to me as heavenly (but simple) wisdom.  Normally, when you send articles, they settle in to my spirit fairly easily.  In other words, I usually “get it” without too much strain.

On some of these thoughts from Uncle Joe though, such as this article on the Offender, etc., it seemed that I had to read his statements 3 or 4 times before I would truly “understand” where he was going.  It was like listening to an old tape from your father’s days, and saying, “what did he say?” and pressing rewind to hear it again and again to make sense out of it – it goes by so fast.   Things like:

“As long as we are among those offending “one of the least of these” or among those being offended by “one of the least of these”, we cannot be of help to either of those two groups. In fact, we are found to be in one group or the other, needing help ourselves.

or

Before one can be used of the Lord to help God’s people, we have to move from the stage of being an offender or from the state of being offended at every little thing that comes our way — and move to the plateau of which Paul wrote when he said, “none of these things move me” (Acts 20:24).”

or

“In doing what he did on this occasion, Jesus demonstrated that, to him, the offender and the offended in this world were on the same level. And he was able to help them both because he was neither one.”

They are clear after a few times reading them through and focusing in on them, but I must say that these things were “meaty”…. I had to read them a few times, and it took a while for me to get what Uncle Joe was saying.   Reading this one made me want to touch Jesus more  – to not be an offender NOR the offended, as he said.  Jesus is on another level…. and Uncle Joe saw it.

Thanks for sending these.

Gary

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Hi Gary,

Uncle Joe did have godly wisdom that broadens our understanding as we take it in.  Uncle Joe and my father used to refer to a Scripture in Psalms fairly often.  It is this: “Great peace have they that love thy law; nothing shall offend them.”  They taught us who were young in the Lord that if anything offended us, that is, causes us to get off the right track with Jesus, it can only be that we did not love the law of God.  This is one reason why Uncle Joe lumped together both those who offend and those who are offended.  Both are lacking in the love of God.

My father used to say during his sermons that if what he was preaching hurt our feelings, he would forgive us.  That’s what I’m talking about.

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jdc