PEOPLE...BAH...HUMBUG!

Hello Fellow People...from one people to another people...how's life? I was talking to someone the other day...at work...and they asked me how it was going. My response was that it was going pretty good... if I just did not have to deal with my patients.

NOTE: For those who don't know...I work in home health...where the patients are our reason for having a job.

Back in 1968...there was an up and coming group called PEOPLE. They had a million seller hit called I LOVE YOU (a cover of a previous group...the Zombies). The lead singer was Larry Norman...who dropped out of the group when the album was released...to become a street preacher and is credited with being the grandfather of Christian Rock and Roll...aka Jesus Music. The album was originally going to be named after one of the songs on the album called...WE NEED A WHOLE LOT MORE OF JESUS...AND A LOT LESS ROCK AND ROLL.. but the executives at Capitol Records changed it to the title of another song...I LOVE YOU.

Humph...people...patients...church members...co-workers...husbands...wives...children...bums...illegal aliens...legal aliens...rich man...poor man...beggar man...thief...and any other classification and categorization and grouping of humans...are all PEOPLE. In the Bible...it is said...that where two or three (people) are gathered together...Jesus is in their midst. Sometimes I find that where two or three are gathered...you have trouble. It's like church hopping to find a perfect church...and every time you get their...you have to deal with PEOPLE.

As the Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly states..."We have meet the ENEMY...and the ENEMY is US." At the time the commentary by Kelly was about global pollution...manifested in the swamp.

Barry McGuire...who was one of the leads in the original Broadway production of HAIR...sang with the Christy Minstrel singers...had hits like Green, Green...Greenback Dollar...and the ever relevant song EVE OF DESTRUCTION...became a Christian after someone witnessed to him...and gave him a copy of GOOD NEWS FOR MODERN MAN...on of those "modern translations". After searching for years for truth in drugs, rock and roll, philosophy, various religions...found truth and life...in JESUS. His one problem...was... that he dug this Jesus...but it was his followers (people) that he could not stand.

I have found that the church (ecclesia...gathering of people around a common cause)...is NOT a grouping of P.P (Perfect People)...but a collection of people in need of a Saviour. As I sit on the throne of perfection in church...it is easy for me to look down on the non-church people and relish the fact that I am not like..."those PEOPLE." I tend to forget...that as John Fisher sings on his Dark Horse album..."I am just one beggar...telling another beggar...where I found a piece of bread." Oh I know...I know...I'M A KING'S KID...I'M AN HEIR OF THE FATHER...A JOINT HEIR WITH THE SON...I'M THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST...I'M THE APPLE OF GOD'S EYES...but humility reminds me that there but for the grace of God go I. If I am to be like and follow in the steps of Him...Jesus...I must have the same attitude towards those PEOPLE who rub me the wrong way.

"For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the WORLD (made up of man, wo-man, hu-mans, mankind) that He [even] gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son (Jesus)...so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies on) Him (Jesus) shall not perish---come to destruction, be lost--but have eternal (everlasting) life. (John 3:16 The Amplified Bible...with some Ruminator input)

God is not talking about the physical planet (however there are plenty of references of our responsibility to planet earth as stewards)...or the world system (with all of the various -isms that want control of this world...including the root of a lot of the -isms...satanism)...but He loves the PEOPLE of planet earth).

God demonstrated how we should love PEOPLE...if we are to love PEOPLE...like He loved PEOPLE.

"But God shows and clearly proves/demonstrates His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were STILL/YET sinners...Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One...DIED FOR US." (Romans 5:8)

Peter speaks of PEOPLE...the unjust and the guilty...and the action of God on the behalf of these PEOPLE.

"For Christ...the Messiah, [Himself] died for sins once...for ALL (not just Christians)...the Righteous (Jesus) for the unrighteous (us people)...the Just (Jesus) for the unjust (us people)...the Innocent (Jesus)... for the guilty (us people)---that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was PUT TO DEATH...but HE WAS MADE ALIVE IN THE SPIRIT." (I Peter 3:18 The Amplified Bible with commentary by me)

It seems that we were all drowning in a sea of sin...and some of us have climbed into the LIFEBOAT. That does not mean that we are now better than those PEOPLE still in the waters...we are called to compel them into the boat (Jesus).

"For the love of Christ controls us and urges and impels us...because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] ONE (Jesus) died for ALL (people)...then ALL (people) died...and He (Jesus) died for ALL (people)...SO (the reason for Him dying)...that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake (D.B.R...nothing more... nothing less). Consequently...from now on we estimate and regard NO ONE (people...the world) from a purely HUMAN POINT OF VIEW (judging based on how I feel about someone)...in terms of natural standards of value [NO] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man...YET NOW [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh]."
(II Corinthians 5:14-16)

We are called to CHANGE OUR POINT OF VIEW...of PEOPLE...and begin to view PEOPLE through the eyes of God...and then act accordingly.

If you follow the thought from II Corinthians 5:17 to II Corinthians 5:21...that if we listen to the LOVE OF CHRIST...that He has for ALL PEOPLE (the good (there is none good but ONE), the bad, and yes...the ugly)...we become NEW CREATIONS...and are now MINISTERS OF RECONCILIATION...with a WORD OF RECONCILIATION (namely that God was in Christ reconciling the WORLD (people) to Himself, NOT COUNTING THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM...and He has committed to us THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION (II Corinthians 5:17-19)

We are AMBASSADORS/REPRESENTATIVES/ENVOYS for Christ...as if God were entreating through us...we beg you on behalf of Christ BE RECONCILED TO GOD. (II Corinthians 5:20)

"He made Him (Jesus) who KNEW NO SIN...to be sin ON OUR BEHALF...that we might become... THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM." (II Corinthians 5:21)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

The next time someone rubs you the wrong way...either a Christian or a non-Christian...before you begin to grouse about how you hate people...take a minute and ALLOW the love of Christ to (1) control (2) urge (3) impel you....and begin to look at PEOPLE through the eyes of God and take on the role of a minister, an ambassador and begin to give out what you freely received...grace, mercy, and not take into account their trespasses against them (which is really being a minister of condemnation).

The boys (Jesus' followers) were called to go out to the house of Israel and preach a message (not to the Gentiles yet...that will come)..."And as you go...preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse the lepers; drive out demons...FREELY (without pay) you have RECEIVED; FREELY (without charge) GIVE."

As you rub elbows and shoulders with boogerheads...people...that God loves...give out what you received.

Love and People Loving Kisses
Rodney "Ex-Humbug" Boyd