To Acknowledge Christ, To Be In Love

Because he first loved me...

What does it mean, in reality, to acknowledge Christ?

What does it mean, in reality, to be in love?

I've been praying and contemplating much.  In my experience of life thus far, it seems pride has the ability to masquerade as love.  Marriage and motherhood have been my greatest spiritual crucibles.  Each ministry has refined me...transformed me in substance.

Motherhood and marriage has pruned and is pruning away my dead branches.  Sunshine and rain.  Winter and Spring.  Weather and Seasons.  Cycles and Processes.  Ah, tis life.  I read once in a Toni Morrison novel that, "anything dead coming back to life hurts."  Pruning - cutting away the dead areas of my mind hurts.  Very much so.  Circumcision - cutting away the prideful areas of my heart hurts.  Truly.  The lessons of life often hurt yet I count it all joy.  Solomon's wisdom comes to mind...   

The full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

~Proverbs 27:7

Where would I be if the Most High had not cared enough to take the time to refine me, prune me, and circumcise the unyielding parts of me...our long going pride and dead bark?

I am reminded of The Catcher in the Rye.  Who will be there to catch our innocent hearts before the experience of disregard plummets our hope into a fallen state?  Who will be there to keep our hearts, break our fall before we commit our lives to the hard landing of disbelief and cynicism.  What does it mean...what does it mean to be saved?

If we only knew how sweetly tender our heart once was before it began to callous over.  Who will catch me?  Who will catch you?  Who will take grasp of our hope for intimacy?  Who will embrace us before we dash ourselves upon the dry ground of inner isolation and dread?

The Waste Land...I wonder...what was T.S. Elliot's muse?  We exchange glances with the witty expressions of acting faces on television and we exchange views with the sensual dexterity of object bodies on phones and desktops.  We exchange...we take the time to have relationship with the flat...we take the time to have relationship with a life behind a screen.

I wonder...what does it mean to see through a glass darkly?  We exchange "How was your Thanksgiving" in the halls of our workplace during Monday's lunch hour.  We exchange "Do you have your bowling arm ready" at a Friday evening gathering hole.  We exchange "Hallelujah, praise the Lord" as we sit shoulder to shoulder in a pew.  But do I know the joy of your day and the pains of your night?  Am I known?  Are you known?  Paul's endearing letter comes to sight...

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

~1st Corinthians 13:8-13

I believe the reason why the first step of conversion is acknowledging Christ (love) as Lord is because the greatest hurt we humans experience is disregard, the experience of our heart-self being unseen, unknown.  But do we know ourselves, first?  Who am I?  What does God see when He looks at you?  Does Love know me?  What do we acknowledge...the report and instruction of the world?  Do I see myself as a failure...do you?  Does God fail?  Oh ye of little faith.  What, in our daily reality, do we believe? 

For me, to acknowledge my own hurts as real and the hurts of my brother and sister is to acknowledge the crucifixion of Christ.  Who will acknowledge me?  Who will acknowledge you?  Who will acknowledge the contents of our hearts and save us from ourselves?  Who will help thou...who will help mine unbelief?

We have all experienced disregard, whether subtle or blatant, passive or aggressive in degree.  We have all had those who we sought in love crown us with the thorns of lies, satiate our thirst with the vinegar of contempt, and hinder our giving and receiving with the nails of rejection upon our hands and the spikes of abandonment upon our feet.  We have all experienced our own form of being bloodied and bruised in love.  In childhood, it is our parents who do not acknowledge our need of understanding...sometimes unwittingly so and sometimes not.  In adulthood, we bond with friends and mates and somehow in the midst, the understanding that we began with waxes stiff.  Who will save us?  Who will enliven us?  Who will dare to quicken our tenderness?   

Innocence and Experience.  This is what I've learned of life thus far...those who love us with a whole heart are those who love themselves with a whole heart.  One can not give to others what they have yet to possess for themselves.  Forgiveness.  Healing.  Understanding.  What is the substance of ministry, of love?

How can I acknowledge my spouse's or children's hurt if I have yet to acknowledge my own?  Have I acknowledged the crucifixion of my heart from long ago?  Who failed to see my heart's needs at age 7 or 14?  Who dismissed my humble reach for connection at 33 or 44?  Who forgot me?  Who passed over you? 

I believe that there are only two elemental powers of all relationship...fear and love.  And if this is so, which power does pride fall under.  Do I dare ask myself, "Beloved, what power authors your words?  Beloved one, what power compels your actions and deeds?"  Pride comes before every great fall...I'm told.  John's Apocalypse comes to heart...

³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. ⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen!

~Revelation 2:3-5

If we've fallen from Grace, who are the ones who first pushed away my heart?  What experiences shoved me from love's height, served as a harsh nudge from Christ's good on High?  I must consider me.  And ah, I must consider you. 

But what if I am blinded by fear...who hoodwinked me so?  What veils my mind so that I can not see?  How can I acknowledge true love?  How can you?  Who will be my eyes?  Who will catch me? 

Who will lift me Higher with their heart's Good?

Who will acknowledge me...and you?

Wholeness.  Love sees the lowest and the highest.  What Light!  What Light authors and compels Life to concern itself with my low...concern itself so with my errors and faults, my despair and woes that unconsciously give way to my destructive proclivities?  What Light takes the time for relationship with the wretched and lost, with me?  What Light places us upon its mule...takes us to the Inn of its heart and tends to our wounds with all diligence?  Who is this that lifts and cares?   

Acknowledgment.  How dare we call ourselves followers of Love (of Christ) if we have failed to do the least of what he ask, acknowledge love?  How dare I, how dare you?  Do I see the Christ in my sister and brother?  Do you see the Christ in me?  On the Cross-roads of life did I care enough to lift you?  Likewise, did you care enough to lift me?  

Have we, in reality, allowed ourselves to see the subtle "crucifixions" that happen each day?  How hard are our hearts?  What does our children's "please play catch with me" speak?  What does our spouse's "please hold me" say?

Oh how Anita Baker's soulful serenade breathes hope into my heart and mind.  My God, how we long to be saved, Caught Up in the Rapture that is love, that is you.  Ezekiel's call in the valley...can those of us who are afraid to trust another with our low know and be known...can those of us who are petrified live?  When I fall, can I depend on Love through earthen vessels who are broken like me?  My God, when I fall, can I depend on...can I trust you?

 

Those who love me...who love you...who love us in spirit and in truth are the people in our lives who acknowledge us...they see our crucifixion, our areas of pride (hardened hurt, fear) and in doing so resurrect us unto Life.

I am grateful to the Most High.  I say, "Thank you, earthen vessels...all of you who have allowed God's acknowledgment, God's love to work through you.  I am justified in Christ through you.  I am justified in Love by your care.  We are found worthy through each other.

Who are the ones in my life who took the time to catch me?

Who are the ones in your life who took the time to save you?

Who are the ones in our lives who took the time to understand us, to know us?

Who are the ones who wanted to hold our heart in their heart?

What does it mean, in reality, to be in Christ?

What does it mean, in reality, to acknowledge love?

What partitions intimacy, true relationship...pushes us apart?

Who is in Love with you?

I am because we are.  Caught and Saved.  What an Experience!

May it overflow...

Imitating Christ’s Humility

2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

~from Philippians chapter 2 

In the name of Jesus, in the name of Love
accept the abundant and full gift...
have Love, have Life
amen

 

Faith...Love...Action

 

For years, I have wanted to study the bible in the context of a class setting.  I desired to learn yet I did not have the financial ability to take seminary courses...so I prayed.  I spoke to the Most High of my desire and expressed the need for classes that were low in cost.  And the opportunity was afforded to me this fall...free and clear!  As a direct experience, I know that the Most High honors what is honorable.  With the principle of divine reciprocity in mind enlivened by a grateful heart, I would like to render my most recent assignment... 

New Testament: The Gospels and Acts

November 9, 2015

Question #5

Explain Luke 6:46 in your own words

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?"

When I read the scripture above the common phrase "talk is cheap" comes to mind.  It is easy to speak of or profess ones love.  It takes effort and commitment to bring the love one speaks of or professes into fullness.  Truly, what is the substance of our faith?

Faith in Christ is the interdependent working between thought and deed.  Faith is love-in-action.  I consider motherhood to be my most honored ministry.  It is a ministry in my life that serves as a barometer of relationship beyond my household.  I believe that "charity starts at home."  Love starts at home in the inner woman (the house/temple of the Holy Spirit) and as a direct result is quickened in the home that I share with my husband and children.   With this in mind, the effort and commitment to Christ begins within me like a bud and unfolds within my family as a blossoming rose with the assurance of adding fragrance to my surrounding community.  Submitting to understanding the purpose of the affect and effect of commitment to Christ (love) is being teachable in the process of community from the microcosm of one woman/man or one family to the macrocosm of  "one nation under God."  Israel was one man (Jacob) and one nation (12 confederate tribes).   It is not just about me or just about our current age.   Love gives root to the whole - concerns itself with the highest good of the generations (my children, my children's children and onward).

Do I (we) have faith if I (we) have done nothing in the name of my (our) faith?  I believe the bible to be the greatest love story ever told, a living word in spirit and flesh.  It is a telling of the highs and lows of the effort and commitment of the Most High to grow us - the process of life, the unfolding of our knowledge of Christ.   

I am (we are) learning.  I believe "walking the talk" or rather proving the wealth of ones talk is to continually and actively engage learning love, learning life (James 2:14-24, 2 Timothy 2:1-7).  God is love and God is life - love in abundance, life to the full.  Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground from his album Innervisions is one of my favorite songs.  The great mark, the honorable goal is transfiguration (to attain the chief stone, reach the ground that is our true home by pressing upward) - exercising our faith inwardly and outwardly by demonstrating the power of God through acts of faith step-by-step and day-by-day. 

If as a mother I decide to sleep in because I do not feel like preparing my children for school and/or taking my children to school to learn, would my talk of my love for my children be in line with faith?  What does love require of me?  What does love say  for me to do?   Does faith require me to go beyond myself (beyond feeling sleepy or weary)?  Shall I as a mother, shall we as ministers in Christ wakefully endure until learning has run the full course?  What is the spiritual and practical reality of being "a doer of the word?"

 

Is love the substance of things hoped for?  Is faith the evidence of things not seen?  What will happen in our individual hearts, our single families, our neighborhoods, our cities and nations if the "rose of Sharon" reigns in each and reaches full bloom?  May the greatest love story ever told live, continue from generation to generation - the experience of glory to Glory.  May I (we) run, continually and progressively do what Christ says.  May my (our) faith endure until the end.

               

Hold then Walk, Understand then Know

 For the daughters of Grace...

The phrase "it's a process" keeps me encouraged.  It allows me to mediate on patience.  It reminds me that the cultivation of the inward woman or man is an intimate, meticulous undertaking that often spans years.

It is not always easy for me to be patient.  I am an imperfect woman - anointed with femininity and responding to life with the level of awareness that my experiences have afforded me.  I am human.  Sometimes it seems as though my efforts to move forward are misguided or in vain.  At other times it seems as though the love I give, my best attempts to sow do not fall on good ground.  Yet what I have come to realize more and more is that it is only my job, my call to sow.  Surrender to Life.  The Most High waters with rain showers, shines the light of the Sun (Son), and allows the decomposition of the old woman or man to enrich the soil of life.  I plant.  I sow.  "From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same" be obedient to the process.  The Most High gives the increase.  The Most High grows the harvest.

God is Sovereign.

For me, life has not always been easy.  For everyone else this is also true.  In this moment, I recall a conversation from my past with a peer.  I listened as she expressed how she felt like a fool - she felt stupid for loving a man that mistreated her, abused her (her former husband).  In that past moment I listened, intently listened without response.  And we sat together along still waters.  Sometimes to really hear "a word from above" one must sit still, hold their position until Christ says, "take up your mat and walk." 

God is God.

I've learned and I am learning to wait, to sit still and hold my position until the currents of life begin to ebb and flow in a way that erodes resistance.  God "troubles the waters," The Most High "stirs up the gift" of love.  The Holy Spirit opens and prepares the way.  But as God does so, to our human eyes, it often looks like chaos.  As my life moves forward, I work to discipline my gaze and allow myself to see through the storm.  The eye of the storm is a calm center - order in the midst of chaos.  The winds of life blow and the waters move, trouble and stir.

God is Sovereign.

I've learned and I am learning to see through the storm and to wade courageously through the wind and waves.  I am grateful to my Ancestors, all of my fore-mothers for showing me and my peer the way.  The beauty of learning and acquiring a piercing gaze is that when I allow myself to see the Divine Eye of the storm by keeping my eyes steadied on Christ I have found that I go from wading through water to walking on it.

10 years have past since that conversation with my peer.  And during those 10 years I have experienced so very much.  Today, in a sense, I have a former husband of my own.  Today I had lunch with my peer and I believe we both have come to understand that we, as women, are not foolish or stupid for loving.  My peer and I have experienced 10 years of Divine Cultivation.  We have waded in the water for 10 years.  We have come this far by faith. 

God is love.

I've learned and I am learning.  Life is a process.  Today I walk on water.  I am grateful for my journey thus far because I have come to know that love is not a banner of weakness or shame - does not bear characteristics antithetical to righteousness (what is holy and just).  Love is a banner of strength and spirit-filled confidence.

Jehovah-Nissi.  

As I write, I am reminded of one of my favorite love stories, the love story of Ausar and Auset.  We, male and female, are created and purposed to love and be loved.  "God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth."  The dishonor, the weakness and shame does not reside with women who love.  To love is to honor life.  We, as women, are not weak.  We do not bear "the mark" of shame like Cain.  To be a woman who loves without abandon is to be a woman endowed with Divine Wisdom and Intelligence.

"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

~1st Corinthians 1:25, KJV

"We live in the world but we are not of the world."  And if we, as women, are not careful the world (patriarchy and rugged individualism) will have us believing that we are foolish and stupid.  If we are not careful, the world will have us believing that we are weak and shameful.  Truly, the foolishness and weakness never resides with those who give love, it resides with those who dishonor the gift.  

"Do not be misled, my beloved brethren.

Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].

And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself].

Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry.

For man’s anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires]."

~James 1:16-20, AMP

For me, understanding the process of life comes by "enduring until the end," to have faith until a season of learning has come to a close.  To know God is to hold to Her/His cultivating hand.  To know love is to discipline our gaze, to gird ourselves with courage and wade through our fears.  I am afraid of storms yet I pressed and I continue to press forward anyway, anyhow.

ALL POWER and ALL GLORY belongs to the Most High.  To call a woman (or man) who loves foolish, stupid, weak and shameful is, in direct effect, to call God foolish, stupid, weak and shameful.  Is this not profane?  Is this not blasphemous?  As I write, I am reminded of something Malcolm X once stated, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

Women and men alike...hold fast, walk worthy and keep your heart.

May we all hold then wade until a peace beyond this world's ability to understand rest with us.  To have peace in the midst of chaos is to indeed walk on water.   There is no failure in love, in God.  May the mistreated, the abused, the disregarded, the low in worldly stature, the unseen continue in love.  May we continue in God until everyone's understanding is full grown...until what is above, is so below.

As it is in Heaven, so let it be on Earth.  Amen and Ase.

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

~1st John 4:4-8, NIV 

Love is sovereign.

The Eternal Return

   

The Whole Tithe and Offering

I am not an expert nor the final authority.  I am simply someone who takes the time to reflect, pray and meditate.  One of my favorite books is The Disciplines of The Spirit.  It was recommended to me by a good man.  And his recommendation, along with my mother gifting me with Iyanla Vanzant's Acts of Faith, has helped me to keep my heart "with all diligence."

My usual routine is to pray and meditate in the morning while the members of my house are still sleeping.  It allows for quiet, stillness.  Too, there is something about being up with the sun that puts me in the mind of Christ, Christ-consciousness.  I have found that praying and meditating at the start of my day grounds me, "establishes my goings and sets my feet upon a rock."  Taking time to reflect, to consider my own divinity and my own humanity, allows me to walk my day with a perspective that allows me to actively consider my "neighbor's" divinity and humanity.  I guess one could say that it is my way of entering my own "Garden of Gethsemane."

Today in my garden a flower began to bloom...
I thought of beginnings and endings.  I thought of letting go.  And my thoughts begin to rest in the moment.  In the moment, I reflected on the idea, concept, and action of tithing.  For me, tithing is a spiritual discipline.  It is a spiritual "rod," a tool used to discipline us - to grow us up in the knowledge of the Most High.

For me, spiritual discipline (temperance) is a mark of good practice.  Fruit of the Spirit comes by good practice.  So now, if I am a person who struggles to love myself and others well, then I must ask myself, "Am I engaged in good practice?"

For me, the spiritual purpose of tithing is not simply to render money into a collection plate.  It is to help us to lean our personality, our natural tendency toward ego-centric thinking and ego-centric action toward the cause of God.  Love.

⁵ Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good (clear) conscience and sincere (unfeigned) faith.

⁶ But certain individuals have missed the mark on this very matter [and] have wandered away into vain arguments and discussions and purposeless talk.

⁷ They are ambitious to be doctors of the Law (teachers of the Mosaic ritual), but they have no understanding either of the words and terms they use or of the subjects about which they make [such] dogmatic assertions.

⁸ Now we recognize and know that the Law is good if anyone uses it lawfully [for the purpose for which it was designed].    

 ~1st Timothy 1: 5-8, Amplified Bible

Exercising My Faith...

I believe the object and purpose of tithing is to strengthen us, as with any good muscle training, in giving freely from the well-spring of our heart.  Yet I have observed that most of us stop our "training" at material giving.  Material giving is our "warm-up."  

I believe the instruction and charge of material giving is to prepare us for the demands of "resistance training."  It is designed to gradually increase our "heart rate," our spiritual stamina.  Once we have consistently given material goods to others (ex: providing for our family's material needs; food, clothing and shelter), have we moved beyond the warm-up phase of our training?  Have we moved beyond the "flesh" of material giving on to greater Glory?

I believe the fundamental goal of tithing is to create "lean" heart muscle, to exercise our faith and burn the "fat" (extra weight that stunts compassion-work) from our spirit.  We are "exercising our faith," ever increasing our ability to overcome our urge to resist helping our "neighbor."  Has what was begun in the flesh now been completed in the spirit?

I believe the object and purpose of material giving and the instruction and charge of tithing is to grow us into zealously desiring to meet the needs of the heart, the seat of our emotions and spirit.  What are needs of the heart?  

For me, it is to have my unique experience of being human acknowledged.  Like Peter denied Christ, we often pretend that we do not see our neighbor.  We pretend to not know, we choose to "forget" our spouse, our children, our parent, our friend, and even a stranger's need to have someone listen, support and care about the "issues of life" that are of dire importance to them: 

• As spouses, we pretend to not know how important it is to our wife or husband to engage in deep, intimate conversation or to kiss them sweetly when they leave and come home from work.  We pretend to not know, we choose to "forget" that a marriage is built upon trust - placing our needs in the hands of another.

• As parents, we pretend to not know how important it is to our children to attend and show undivided interest in the events surrounding their chosen extracurricular activity (dance, martial arts, sports, music, visual arts etc.).   We pretend to not know, we choose to "forget" that the health of our children's self esteem is rooted in our ability to prioritize, be attentive even if it means taking a day off from work or missing an "important" meeting.

• As daughters and sons, we pretend to not know how important it is to our parents to be appreciated for their sacrifices with a warm hug as we enter their home for a sit-down conversation.  We pretend to not know, we choose to "forget" the value of our presence in our parents' life and so we fail to consistently visit.

• As friends, we pretend to not know how important it is to listen intently, to tune in to the stresses of the relationships that are momentarily weighing on them.  We pretend to not know, we choose to "forget" that the "first work" of friendship is the ability to find a common-bond within unique, respective experiences.

• As strangers, we pretend to not notice our "neighbor" who has fallen on the sidewalk of life and how important it is to acknowledge their need(s) - to see them, extend a helping hand and lift them.  We pretend to not know, we choose to "forget" that the greatest purpose of love and charge of love is to be a "living sacrifice," to give of ourselves.

  
The spirit of God, the heart and power of God is in us.  Have we been diligent in guarding love and keeping love, meeting the needs of God's heart in our neighbor?  What human vessel, human temple, human storehouse have you tithed into today?  

Like the meek and need-stricken widow, I believe we reach a level of "Master-y" in Christ (live his example of the "first-work" of faith and sincere fellowship) or spiritual maturation when we know, we choose to "remember" to freely give our all.  Love.   Love is a choice!

⁴¹ And He sat down opposite the treasury and saw how the crowd was casting money into the treasury. Many rich [people] were throwing in large sums.

⁴² And a widow who was poverty-stricken came and put in two copper mites [the smallest of coins], which together make ^[q]half of a cent.

⁴³ And He called His disciples [to Him] and said to them, Truly and surely I tell you, this widow, [she who is] poverty-stricken, has put in more than all those contributing to the treasury.

⁴⁴ For they all threw in out of their abundance; but she, out of her deep poverty, has put in everything that she had—[even] all she had on which to live.    ~Mark 12: 41-44

 I believe that when we give from the seat of our heart, the place of our own poverty (need), we are giving from a place sight, clairvoyant compassion - allowing oneself to be "pricked" by the understanding that we are all human and unified under the common-bond of a need for love.

• Who is my spouse?

• Who is my child?

• Who is my parent?

• Who is my friend?

• Who is my stranger?

Who is my neighbor?

Have I tithed into the emotional and spiritual needs of my neighbor?  Have I been wholistically exercising my faith - submitting myself to the conditioning of my mind and heart?  Am I a cheerful giver or a begrudging thief?  What is the condition of my heart?  

Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return?
 

⁸ Will a man rob or defraud God? Yet you rob and defraud Me. But you say, In what way do we rob or defraud You? [You have withheld your] tithes and offerings.

⁹ You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even this whole nation.

¹⁰ Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

¹¹ And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts.

¹² And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

¹³ Your words have been strong and hard against Me, says the Lord. Yet you say, What have we spoken against You?

¹⁴ You have said, It is useless to serve God, and what profit is it if we keep His ordinances and walk gloomily and as if in mourning apparel before the Lord of hosts?

¹⁵ And now we consider the proud and arrogant to be happy and favored; evildoers are exalted and prosper; yes, and when they test God, they escape [unpunished].

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced and worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name.

¹⁷ And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I publicly recognize and openly declare them to be My jewels (My special possession, My peculiar treasure). And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

¹⁸ Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.    

~Malachi 8: 7b-18, Amplified Bible

Life to the full...  
In the economy of Love, am I a rich woman/man or am I a poverty-stricken woman/man?  Have I returned?  Have I freely given?  

 We are all ministers, caretakers of love - called out, purposed and charged to keep and guard each other.  Have we sincerely concerned ourselves with the vicissitudes of our neighbor's life?

As a minister and caretaker, have I sown abundance and wealth into my neighbor's heart or have I sown lack and poorness?  In the employment of Love, have I tithed the whole tithe of my income?  Do I only give from my surplus or am I "exercised" in giving from my heart, the seat of my most earnest need? 

I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.    ~Jeremiah 17: 10, Amplified Bible  

I believe God judges the heart - rightly divides the cheerful giver from the begrudging thief by searching each heart.  In the economy of God, I believe Christ also audits the heart of our neighbor to determine our endurance.  

 

 

The race is not brought unto completion by the quick works and might of the flesh, but rather the race is graduated unto completion by the ones who endure in God.  

Love.