How Are You Going To Treat Jesus Today?

As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:3-5).

 

The way we treat other members of the body of Christ is the way we treat Jesus Himself. This is quite a statement. If I’m angry and resentful towards a fellow believer, then I’m angry and resentful towards Jesus! The way I treat my wife Susan is the way I’m treating Jesus!

If we want the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, we must treat other members of the body of Christ with the same respect we would give to Jesus Himself. It’s a tall order, but it’s a great benchmark to work towards.

In the book of Acts it seems that the Holy Spirit manifested freely as the believers worked together in unity (Acts 1:14; 2:1; 2:46; 4:32; 5:12). Over and over the words with one accord were used. With one accord gives you the idea that each person treats the other respectfully and graciously. I think you could think of that as treating each other as though Jesus Himself were with you when you’re together with others.

According to Jesus, when we see the stranger and give him shelter, when we go minister to the sick person, or the person in prison, we are ministering to Jesus Himself.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink?  Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me! (Matthew 25: 34-40).

We create an environment that either attracts or detracts from the presence of God by what we do with our attitudes, words, and actions towards fellow believers.

 

Be careful today with how you treat others. It will directly affect your relationship with the Lord! If we say we love Jesus, and pay no attention to others needs, how can we really say we love Him?

Our age is quickly becoming numb and loveless. This is our time to shine! Treat others the way you want to be treated. Pray for those you come in contact with daily. Ask the Lord to make you a blessing to them. Ask Him what you can do to show care and compassion to them.

 

If I don’t care for the person I can see, there’s no way I can really love the God I can’t see (1 John 4:20).

Let’s be sensitive to others today.  What we do to them, the attitudes we portray, and what we say to them or about them to others is how we’re treating the Lord Jesus!

A Specific Example Of Change By Meditation

I’ve been sharing the importance of meditation the last couple of days. Today, I want to give an example of how meditation in the Word of God changed my life.

The Word cancelled fear in my life! Due to circumstances when I was young I developed a fear of rejection. I developed a self-consciousness that feared people’s responses to my words and actions. I would walk into a room and immediately size up who was there and how people viewed me. My thinking had a default setting that assumed others did not like me and wanted nothing to do with me.

When I entered ministry as a young man, this rejection syndrome worsened. I would preach and then have a terrible next day while thinking of all the reasons no one received what I was saying. The focus was all on me and not on the blessing the Lord wanted me to be to others.

 

The Father began to show me the self-centered thinking that was producing these emotions and feeling of rejection. He gave me this scripture on day: But as a matter of fact, it matters very little to me what you, or any man thinks of me – I don’t even value my opinion of myself (! Corinthians 4:3 – J.B. Phillips).

 

I began to see that my thoughts and emotions were fear based instead of Word based. I had developed a habit of allowing my mind to set me up to be dominated by the fear of others rejecting me! This was a deep seated ingrained behavior in my life. I knew that there was no way that I could survive in ministry with this kind of thinking ruling me.

 

I cried out to the Father and He showed me this scripture in 1 Corinthians and then led me to 1 John 4:18 in the Amplified: There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].

I began to meditate daily on these two scriptures. I let them revolve over and over in my thought life. I said them slowly to myself. I spoke out loud when alone. I did this several times a day. This type of meditation dropped the Word down deep into my personal belief system, my underlying thought patterns, or as Ephesians 4:23 calls it, the spirit of my mind.

 

I also developed a siege mentality with respect to my wrong thinking and emotions. Your mind will try to convince you that what it is thinking and what your emotions are feeling is reality. And often they are not. So I deprived my mind and emotions of power over me by following the principle of a siege.

   

Enemy armies in Bible days would often siege a city in order to conquer it. Cities in that day had very high walls erected all the way around them to keep out predatory animals and enemy forces. Sentries were stationed on top of the walls providing a lookout for detecting the enemy. This made a city basically impenetrable.

An enemy army would simply surround the perimeter of the walled city far enough away as to be immune to arrows shot by the troops on the wall. And they simply cut the supply lines of food and goods to the city. It may take as much as two years for the city to run out of food and supplies, but eventually the enemy would defeat the city. The only factor was time and the siege.

Using this principle along with meditation on the Word cured me of this fear of rejection. My mind and emotions would tell me people did not like me, and I would simply call the person or see them personally and engage them in conversation. I was really conversing with them to see if my mind and emotion were telling me the truth, and I found that the majority of time they were not!

So the siege began! I refused to give in to my thoughts and feelings of rejection! Every day I would siege my thoughts and emotions, refusing to allow the thoughts to remain in my mind, and refusing to believe what my emotions told me. I meditated on the Word and then purposely called people just to talk to them to prove that my perceptions of rejection were wrong!

The siege worked. Now the Word has replaced the fear of others! Meditation on the Word along with actions that demonstrate belief in the Word will change your wrong belief system and produce a change in your behavior. The Word did it for me! And the Word will work for you too!   

A Tribute to Robert E Horton on Father's Day

The world needs strong Fathers today.  In honor of my Father, I am reposting the contents of the message I spoke at his funeral. I miss my dad. His influence still molds my life today.

Robert E. Horton

May 9, 1929 - March 13, 2012

Thoughts about my Dad

My dad's best friend in my youth was a man named B. W. Smith. They were great friends, and were so much alike. On January 18, 1974, Mr. Smith died of a sudden heart attack in the driveway of his home. This affected my dad deeply. At his funeral, the pastor read Psalm 26 and talked about it. This Psalm fit Mr. Smith and also my dad so well:

Psalm 26- NLT

Declare me innocent, O LORD,for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. Put me on trial, LORD, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked. I wash my hands to declare my innocence. I come to your altar, O LORD, singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders. I love your sanctuary, LORD, the place where your glorious presence dwells. Don’t let me suffer the fate of sinners. Don’t condemn me along with murderers. Their hands are dirty with evil schemes, and they constantly take bribes. But I am not like that; I live with integrity.So redeem me and show me mercy. Now I stand on solid ground, and I will publicly praise the LORD.

When I was a young boy I almost idolized my dad. I thought that he could do anything, solve any problem. For me, he made the world a safe place. My brother Robert used the word superman when he thought of my dad.

Revelation 14:13 reads: And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!"

My mom said my dad was the hardest working man she ever met. My dad worked very hard all his life, and he taught me and my brothers that same ethic. I can remember as a child watching him work in his huge garden, or on any of the many projects around our house. He would work, sweat profusely (with sweat dripping off his nose), and be at the same time either singing, whistling, or lecturing me as to the value of working hard to make a living.

My dad is in heaven now. All labor has ceased. He was in my past. Though not in my present, he will be in my future in eternity

I want to take a few minutes as a son to talk about the man my brother and I call dad, and the only man my mother ever loved.

Here are some of the “works” that follow that are etched in my memory as Robert Horton’s son.

Work ethic

Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

My dad quit school in the 8th grade to help his dad on the farm as they share cropped some land. He would plow a mule all day long as a teenager.

He drilled that ethic into me and my brothers. He later went on to get his GED and to work for Dupont all his life until retirement in 1991.

My dad built 3 houses in his lifetime. One in 1953 when he and my mother were first married. Then, we moved to Florence SC in the early 1960’s where he bought land, and he and his father built the house there that my brothers and I were raised in. Then, in 1980, my dad bought the property where He and my mom have lived there Heath Springs, SC since 1993. He spent 13 years remodeling that house from the ground up. Dad always had a project going on: adding a bathroom to our house; enclosing the two side porches; building a huge garage; installing central vacuum cleaners as a side business; spending 13 years building his retirement home. Building outbuildings on his property; working his HUGE garden.

Frugality

Proverbs 12:27

Lazy people don’t even cook the game they catch, but the diligent make use of everything they find.

My dad was frugal to the extreme. He watched what he did with every penny he made. After we moved to Florence, my mother never worked outside the home, and my father provided for his wife and three sons well. He used resources wisely.

After I was grown and married, he told me that he went to the bank to get a loan for something, and that the banker was amazed at what he owned based on his income. My dad told me the banker was astonished, having never seen anything like it before. My dad was ultra frugal, ultra resourceful, and ultra wise. Every penny counted.


A for instance. In the mid sixties, he decided to build a 2 car garage with a shop area and with a lean-to  on the back for his tractor, lawn mower and all things yard and garden storage.

He bought the material from a torn down house and had them delivered to our yard. My brother Robert and I spend hours pulling nails out of boards and placing the nails in plastic milk jugs. Then we spent hours straightening the nails with a hammer on a piece of steel. My brother Robert and I chipped all the old mortar off of used brick with a hammer and chisel. The garage was built with the materials from the old torn down house. Frugality. Nothing was wasted, ever. The garage was built with cinder block, used brick, used mortar (under the cement floor), used lumber, and used nails. Add to that a lot of creativity.

One time he bought A LOT of plastic 55 gallon drums, and had them delivered to our property during the winter months so he could store them in his garden space on our land. Dad sold them a little at a time for some good profit! Frugal. Nothing was ever thrown away. He may be able to use it later.

Honesty

Ephesians 4:25 NKJV

Therefore, putting away lying, Let  each one  of you  speak truth with his neighbor,  for we are members of one another.

My dad was a very honest man. He did not lie and did not cheat. On anything. Ever. We were taught that lying was one of the worst things a person could be involved in. This impacted my life deeply before I met Jesus.

I’ve not always been a “good” guy. As a teenager I got involved with smoking cigarettes and pot before I met Jesus. On the way to church he asked me if I smoked cigarettes. I could not lie and answered yes. It got really quiet in the car. Then, my dad asked me if I smoked pot. Again, I just could not lie, and told him yes. I knew I was in trouble when he spoke not one word the rest of the trip, and did not look at me even one time during the rest of the ride to church, while there, or while on the way home.

When home, I went to my room and shut the door. Just before he retired for the night, my dad came into my room. My light was on while I was reading. I thought he was going to absolutely butcher me. Instead, he sat on my bed, looked deeply into my eyes, and with tears streaming down both cheeks said, Mitch, you disappoint me.

I would have preferred that he beat me, for that would not have pierced me the way his words did. I quit smoking pot soon after this. His honest heart broke mine. I've never been the same.


My dad loved my mom

Proverbs 5:18 NKJV

Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.

Ephesians 5: 25

Husbands, love your wife, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her...

In this day of easy divorce, live in lovers and adultery, my dad loved my mom in a pure way.

They met in December of 1953 as he had just finished a tour in the Army being stationed in Korea as an MP. It was love at first sight.

My dad dated plenty of girls, but when he saw my red haired, freckled faced mom - he went head over heals for her. My mom did the same for him.  When she saw him in his army fatigues for the first time, she just this week told me “a feeling I never had before came over me." They dated 6 months and were married in July of 1953.

My childhood was filled with memories of my dad singing love songs to my mom. Like:

You, you, you are my true love; you, you, you are the one. We’ll spend our lives together sharing the rain and the sun. Just one look at you; that's when I knew we'd never part; they'll never be another true love for me, you are the one love that lives in my heart.

Or, tell me why the ivy twines, tell me why the stars do shine, tell me why the sky is so blue, and I'll tell you darling just why I love you...

They sang, held hands together, helped each other when sick, disagree with passion, hugged, kissed, and just romanced each other their whole lives long - for over 58 years. It never stopped.

Just the day before my dad died, this past Monday, my mom told him that she would love to just lay down beside him in bed and hold him. He could hardly talk for the hard breathing (congestive heart failure)...He intertwined his fingers together and finally got out...I would squeeze you like this...

My dad taught me how to be nice to womanhood, to hold the door open, to help women. To respect and not demean them.

My dad loved gardening and all things horticulture...

Proverbs 28:19

He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, But he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!

He planted all sorts of bushes and flowers; fruit trees and grapevines in our yards. He planted a HUGE garden every year of my life. He loved it, sweat and all.

Every Sunday Dad and mom would walk around the yard and admire the beauty of the bushes, the trees, the flowers, the fruit trees, and the garden. My dad adored God's creation and loved to make things grow.

I never in my life had vegetables bought from a grocery store until I was married and moved away  from home. Thanks dad.

Wit and humor

Proverbs 17:22

A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.

My dad loved to joke around. He constantly picked on all of us...mercilessly.

He cut up and picked on friends and family, on my mom and my brothers and me. And if you talked to him long, his wit would automatically display itself.
 There was no way to keep a straight face. My dad thought life was to be enjoyed.

My dad loved to sing, whistle and hum

Ephesians 5:19 NKJV

Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

Working around the house, in the yard, in the garden...or taking a shower and shaving...or driving wherever...he would do one of three things. He would either sing, whistle, or hum.

Often it would be songs from the baptist hymnal like At the Cross,  or Tell me the Old, Old Story, or Love Lifted me, or How Great Thou Art (I tell you, I know them all because I heard them over and over again at home). Or love songs from the 40's, or songs from the 50’s.

I always wondered what a one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater was (a popular hit song he sang over and over to me from 1958).

I can still sing London Bridge is falling down... in perfect Korean...he sang it to me as a child.

Pragmatist and Jack of all trades

My dad would rig something out of nothing to make whatever work. He repaired our cars, our bikes, the water heater, the toilet, the roof, the furniture, the yard and gardening equipment.

At the same time he taught me how to tie my shoes, my tie, how to ride a bike, how to shoot a gun, all manner of gun safety, how to hunt and fish, how to throw a baseball. He also taught me that it was OK to think a little girl in my class at school was cute. He also taught me to look my best when I was going somewhere.

He took a course in small engine repair so lawn mowers always worked; he took a course in pesticides and got a license just to rid the garden of bugs and the yard of those pesky mosquitoes.

He rigged an ingenious device on his riding lawn mower when I was a kid that sprayed a mixture of used motor oil and malathion (bug killer) on our bushes so the mosquitoes would not drag us away.

A huge snowstorm in 1973 dumped 20 + inches of snow on SC and nobody could travel. He rigged a snowplow made of wood onto his 1950 John Deere tractor and cleared our country community roads.

He threw away nothing. Tires, lumber, brick, milk jugs, nails, screws, washers, nuts, bolts, baby jars, coffee cans...you name it, we saved it.

My dad celebrated rest on Sundays.

He worked like a trojan 6 days, but Sundays were for church, eating dinner, and resting. I’ve been in Christian ministry for over 32 years. He would constantly ask me, Mitch, are you taking a break each week?

My Dad was a Christian - a real one

He did not like the political facade that some attach to church life, - he was real about everything. He did not play religious games.

But he loved going to church. My dad read his Bible. He prayed. He loved people. But he would not play the lip service religion game. Not my dad.

He prayed over his meals, and he prayed for us boys. He was an ordained deacon for many years. He taught Sunday School classes. He repented when he sinned.

After I had potentially serious auto accident that all walked away from in August of 1995, I called mom and dad. My dad told me that he had dreamed that I had died the night before and had prayed for me all day long the next day.

In 2004, I was on the way to Calcutta India, and to Kathmandu, Nepal on a missions endeavor. My dad kept asking me for weeks, “are you sure you should be going on this trip?” He intuitively knew something was up. At the beginning of the trip,my appendix burst mid-flight from Raleigh to Atlanta. I never got on the next flight. I had an emergency appendectomy. My dad knew beforehand and prayed.

My dad was ready to go to heaven

He told me many times the last few months that he would be in heaven soon. He asked me to preach his funeral, and to make sure my mom was cared for. He was going home.

This Tuesday, an angel came to take his spirit into eternity and away from his body. My dad passed from death into life. I miss him.

What You Give Out Is What You Are You Going To Receive Today!

Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you  (Luke 6:37-38).

 

The law of sowing and reaping is working constantly in our lives. The attitudes I sow in others I reap back from them. The kindness I sow comes back to me. If I condemn others in my heart, then I will find that judgment coming back to me. If I want mercy from God, I must sow mercy to others. If I want the benefits of forgiveness then I must forgive those who offend me.  It’s just like a boomerang.

See every act today as a seed that you’re sowing. See every thought you think as a mirror of what you will have in your future. This reciprocal effect works 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Remember that seeds you plant take time to grow. And once they grow, the harvest is assured. Make sure that the seeds you sow are the ones you don’t mind living with in the future!

Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and  that only is what he will reap. For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint. (Galatians 6:7-9- Amplified).

Every Relationship Is A Potential Test Today

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not (Deuteronomy 8:2).

 

God dealt with the Israelites a certain way in order to train them and as He said in the above verse to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. What happened to Israel is an example to us of how the Father deals with us as New Covenant folk who are to walk in love at all times in every situation.

 

I’ve seen so many patterns over the years in my own life that show me that this is how the Father trains us for the next level of responsibility He has for us. He will allow us to be placed in a relationship that makes us uncomfortable, that draws out of us a fleshly, carnal attitude, an anger problem, resentment and unforgiveness a caustic, bitter thought, word, action, or feeling. Then He sits back to see how we’re going to deal with our human responses to those who don’t treat us the way we think is correct.

Our response shows our maturity and ability to change and adapt to all circumstances and put love first, or it shows our carnality and lack of spiritual maturity and the need to grow or deal with personal issues.

 

The deeper you go in God, the more He will ask of you. If you run when problems arise in relationships instead of facing the issues and dealing with yourself, you actually hinder an important part of the growth process in your spiritual life. Walking in love will make great demands on your flesh, on your human responses!

 

If you going to be used by the Spirit of God to minister life, you have to die! That is, die to having your own way, to having things go the way you think they should go. Being used by the Father means coming to the place that your personal needs and opinions no longer matter! What matter most is what God says as revealed in His Word.

And for us New Covenant believers, we must be willing to compare all of our thoughts, words, actions, choices, attitudes, demeanor, as well as our responses to others with the unconditional love that we’re commanded to walk in!

 

Every relationship and every conversation you have today is a potential test for you. The Lord wants to see how you’re going to deal with others when they don’t treat you the way you think they should. It’s a character test. Your relationships today and how you deal with them are showing you what is in your heart.

Let the Father take you to the place of brokenness today. Brokenness is the response of humility to the conviction of God! Cry out to the Father for Him to have His way in you and help you make adjustments in how you relate to others. Make a choice to pass the tests life brings through your contact with others today!