But the fruit of the Spirit is love – joy – peace – patience – kindness – goodness – faithfulness – gentleness – and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.

Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask.” Matthew 20:22.

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3.

And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 141: He is from everlasting (Micah 5:2). Psalm 90:2: Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. And, John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Last night I watched several programs talking about 9/11. In the first one a panelist said that the growing divide between Democrats and Republicans is becoming like the animosity between Israelis and Palestinians. In another program, an FBI agent was able to interview one of the people involved in the actual attacks on 9/11. He said that the man leaned toward him and said that he hated him. He hated our country and wants to see it destroyed. Where do you go from there? I confess I can’t understand that kind of hate. This morning reading excerpts from two of my devotionals helped a lot. From Hearing God by Dallas Willard: “Through His word Christ removes the heart and mind’s old routines of thought, feeling, action, imagination, conceptualization, belief, inference and puts in their place something else: His thoughts, His attitudes, His beliefs, His ways of seeing and interpreting things, His words. He washes out our minds, and in the place of confusion and falsehood – or hatred, suspicion and fear, to speak of emotions – He brings clarity, truth, love, confidence and hopefulness.” And from Devotions for Women by Ann Spangler, she shares insights from Paul Tripp and his book, Forever: Why You Can’t Live Without It, “Life is all about windows. Large windows let in the light and add a feeling of spaciousness. If the view outside is lovely and interesting, all the better. If the windows are small and few, then the place will feel cramped and dark.” Spangler goes on that Tripp points out that “all of us look at life through some kind of window. We may be looking through the window of past hardship or the window of philosophy or psychology or the window of the right-here-right-now. Whatever window we adopt has a profound effect on how we will live our lives. Without the window of forever, peace and joy will be elusive. We will be thrown by circumstances. We will forget where we’re going and whom we belong to. But with forever in view, all that will change. Our hope will increase, our confidence will build. We will realize we are on a journey that will someday end in complete fulfillment…we live with hope in our heart, eyes to the future, and hands holding this present world loosely.”

As I sat in prayer this morning, I realized that all of us, every one of us without exception as evidenced by all that is happening in our world today, is in need of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. It took a great light blinding Saul, stopping him, so he would stop his hate for the people following Jesus – and in fact stop him from persecuting Jesus, the Son, Creator God Himself. He didn’t know that his own zeal was hate blinding him to the truth of the God he thought he was zealous for, and thus, all that God Himself was now doing in our world. Will it take a great light God Himself brings to stop our own collective blindnesses to our own hate, because all hate is hate, and hate is pain and suffering and deep darkness. Remember the prophecy above? Micah 5:2: But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. It goes on: Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace. v. 3-5. This One will be our peace!

***TOTAL WEAKNESS – I will speak to my LORD – I who am but dust and ashes. If I consider myself anything more than this, behold, You stand against me, and my sins bear witness to a truth I cannot contradict. If I abase myself, however – if I humble myself to nothingness, if I shrink from all self-esteem and account myself as the dust that I am – Your grace will favor me, Your light will enshroud my heart, and all self-esteem, no matter how little, will sink in the depths of my nothingness to perish forever. It is there You show me to myself – what I am, what I have been, and what I am coming to. I am nothing, and I did not know it. Left to myself, I am nothing but total weakness. But if You look upon me for an instant, I am at once made strong and filled with new joy. It is a great wonder that I, who of my own weight always sink to the depths, am so suddenly lifted up and so graciously embraced by You. It is Your love that does this, graciously upholding me, supporting me in so many needs, guarding me from so many grave dangers, and snatching me from evils without number. Indeed, by loving myself badly – I lost myself. By seeking only You and by truly loving You – I have found both myself and You. By that love, I have reduced myself more profoundly to nothing. For You, O sweetest LORD, deal with me above all my merits and above all that I dare to hope or ask. May You be blessed, my God, for although I am unworthy of any benefits, Your nobility and infinite goodness never cease to work good. Convert us to You, that we may be thankful, humble, and devout, for You are our salvation, our courage, and our strength. Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380-1471), The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, v. 8. Adapted.***