5-26<\/span><\/p>\nTHE BURDEN OF THE LORD<\/span><\/p>\nAn inquiry from a young sister in the Lord<\/span><\/p>\nHey Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\nThe relationship between my sister and me is stressed. There is<\/span>
\n unspoken tension between us which stems from our different beliefs.<\/span>
\n Whenever Jesus comes up, he is discussed only briefly, which should<\/span>
\n not be. I want to share so many experiences with her, but I can’t<\/span>
\n because I know she won’t understand. When I do tell her something, I<\/span>
\n get the same feeling as when I try to tell my mother a testimony. It<\/span>
\n robs my joy. So I try not to talk to her about Jesus at all. It hurts.<\/span><\/p>\n=============<\/span><\/p>\nI know it hurts, and that is part of what “bearing your cross” means.<\/span><\/em>
\n That pain is also part of your “being crucified with Christ”. It is<\/span><\/em>
\n also part of what is meant by the phrase “bearing the burden of the<\/span><\/em>
\n Lord” for his people. So, you may be both humbled by and thankful for<\/span><\/em>
\n that pain because in reality, it is not your hurt; it is Christ’s, and<\/span><\/em>
\n he is letting you feel it. If you were still in sin, you would know<\/span><\/em>
\n nothing about it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nThere are times when the Spirit tells us just to be quiet; however, if<\/span><\/em>
\n the Spirit tells you to speak, but you do not because you dread a<\/span><\/em>
\n person’s negative reaction, you are failing to do the will of God.<\/span><\/em>
\n Don’t allow a dread of people’s bad reaction to your testimony<\/span><\/em>
\n determine what you do. You must be led by the Spirit. I have seen<\/span><\/em>
\n people fail to do what is right because of dread of people’s reaction<\/span><\/em>
\n many times, and have probably done my share of it myself. We have to<\/span><\/em>
\n get past that if we are ever to be happy in Jesus.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n=============<\/span><\/p>\nAfter leaving her house the other day, I was so angry. I was just<\/span>
\n disturbed. This is the first time I have felt real anger for<\/span>
\n Christianity. I understood the harm it does to the children of God,<\/span>
\n but I am experiencing firsthand what I knew to be true . . . if that<\/span>
\n makes any sense.<\/span><\/p>\n=============<\/span><\/p>\nOf course it does. It’s the only thing that does make any sense.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n=============<\/span><\/p>\nIt’s like I knew how sad it was, but it didn’t touch my heart like it<\/span>
\n is now. It is just frustrating and sad.<\/span><\/p>\n=============<\/span><\/p>\nMultiply your experience by a few billion, and think of what God sees<\/span><\/em>
\n all the time, and how He feels. You love your sister and hurt for her<\/span><\/em>
\n (and others) as you do only because Christ does. You came out of sin<\/span><\/em>
\n to know him. Well, here it is. It is his love and his hurt that you<\/span><\/em>
\n feel. Now that you feel that pain, too, your prayers and your life<\/span><\/em>
\n will be more perfectly in fellowship with the will of God in Christ<\/span><\/em>
\n Jesus.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" http:\/\/www.goingtojesus.com\/site\/php\/thoughts.php?tname=tfeintro I thank God for “Thoughts for the Day” such as this one, below. John, your gentle and wise counsel resonates so deeply in this. I cherish this advice. It lifts BURDENS from my soul when you explain it in this way… Brad C ============= Thought for the Evening 5-26 THE BURDEN OF THE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}