Thank you for your prayers, words of encouragement and love expressed last week! The fund is topped off for another six months! God is good and his people take after him! An Apology Is Not Always Acceptable Whatever is only almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is the more likely to lead astray. Henry Ward Beecher I am a proud Canadian, grateful that the people of Canada are known world-wide for being polite and accepting. It is often said that Canadians are so polite that we will apologize to a table if we happen to bump into it. I have to confess that I once apologized to my own reflection when I accidentally brushed against a mirrored wall. My American friends tease me, boasting that they easily spot a Canadian not only by our ‘eh’ at the end of every sentence but by our need to apologize for everything that goes on around us. It is not our fault, although I apologize for our behaviour! It is bred into us! I vividly remember scraping my knees multiple times as a pre-schooler and my mother’s attempts to distract me from my ‘owie’ by suggesting that I consider the feelings of the poor sidewalk I assaulted. Unless I was truly injured, her little ruse never failed to get me to giggle at the absurdity of such a request, even as I offered a sniffly ‘sorry’ to the concrete. Her ruse worked just as well on her grandchildren! In today’s world of political correctness, Canadians are beside ourselves as we find ourselves apologizing left right and center, trying to keep up with the latest terminology for a people group or a disadvantaged person. For fear of possibly offending anyone, our national and provincial laws are increasingly restricting our freedom of speech. While pondering the Canadian condition, I felt the Lord’s gentle conviction that I apologize much too much for his liking. I felt His kind rebuke for the times that I have offered a word of apology to avoid confrontation. I would rather appease a friend and avoid their ire than speak the truth in love and risk a confrontation. Apologizing in such an instance is akin to lying and can be destructive; enabling the other party to maintain the delusion that they are rightfully entitled to their offense. I am sure you have run across the easily offended in the supermarket, in your workplace, in your church or your home. They feel the world owes them an apology and they have difficulty in discerning what is truly an offense and what is merely an inconvenience. While God calls us to turn the other cheek and to go the extra mile, I believe it is not pleasing to him when we facilitate such behavior by a hasty apology said only with the intent to placate the person in question. We are called to be humble, gentle, patient and above all – loving. However, we are to speak the truth within the confines of that love. Ephesians 4:1-3; 14-16 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. … …Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. For further study on the subject of offense, I strongly recommend John Bevere “The Bait of Satan”. Until Next Week © 2012 Katherine Walden ** If you find this ministry to be a blessing to you and would like to partner with us to keep the ministry online, please visit http://psalm121.ca/donate.html ** News Alert: New FAQs I Lift My Eyes Ministries at http://psalm121.ca/faq.html Daily Christian Quotes at http://dailychristianquote.com/contactdcq.html Looking for the archives of these devotionals? Find them at http://psalm121.ca/devotionals/index.php ------------- If you would prefer to receive the quotes below on a daily basis rather than in a weekly summary go to http://dailychristianquote.com/subscribe.html and join the daily quote mailing list. You will not receive the devotional using this method but you can read past devotionals at http://psalm121.ca/devotionals/index.php ------------- Weekly Archive of the Daily Christian Quote April 24, 2012 Devotion is not a passing emotion: it is a fixed, enduring habit of mind permeating the whole life and shaping every action. It rests upon a conviction that God is the Sole Source of Holiness, and that our part is to lean upon Him and be absolutely guided and governed by Him; and it necessitates an abiding hold on Him, a perpetual habit of listening for His Voice within the heart, as of readiness to obey the dictates of that Voice. Jean Nicolas (J N) Grou http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Grou Wiki Article ------------- April 25, 2012 A young RAF pilot said to a Christian, "Don't try to help me or tell me what I ought to think yet. Don't work for my salvation-show me yours, show me it is possible, and the knowledge that something works will give me courage and belief." Florence Allshorn ------------- April 26, 2012 If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word. Lewis Smedes http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/decemberweb-only/12-16-51.0.html Obiturary ------------- April 27, 2012 Every one of them can be a witness for Christ, not only with his lips but by his whole life. Every Christian ought to be a living martyr, who lives for the sake of his Master. Sadhu Sundar Singh http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html A Short Biography ------------- April 28, 2012 Miracles take place - not because we have a perfect faith but because we have a perfect Christ. Anonymous ------------- April 29, 2012 A believer throws the whole weight of all his affairs and concernments, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, upon the promises of God, like a man resolved to stand or fall with them. He ventures himself, and all that belongs to him, entirely upon this bottom, which is in effect to say, if they will not bear me up, I am content to sink. Timothy Cruso ------------- April 30, 2012 A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world - and might even be more difficult to save. (Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis http://cslewis.drzeus.net/ Into The Wardrobe ------------- Important addresses: http://psalm121.ca/home.html I Lift My Eyes Web Ministries Site Index - please take note of this address - To change your address for receiving this list, please unsubscribe from your old address and subscribe with your new address. 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