Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

• 1 John 3:10

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

• 2 John 1:4-6

“Dignior plagis quam osculis non timeo quia amo..”

• Blaise Pascal, Thoughts (thought number 551)

Blaise Pascal, in his book, Thoughts (Pensées), has this quote in Latin.  The translation is “Though I deserve blows rather than kisses, I do not fear, because I love.”.

Do you have doubts?

I am not getting into the James argument of doublemindedness.

I am thinking about when we are plugging away at doing what God has called us to do, and then we see ourselves before the Great White Throne and God says “Depart from me.  I never knew you.”

You reel backward.  Satan just threw a punch at you.  You do not have to listen to his taunt.  You could blow it off.  You can tell Satan to take a hike.

But no, the mind holds that thought for a few seconds.

Pascal had this quote in his book of thoughts as his version of one of the tests of faith in 1 John.  Do you love?  I am not talking about physical love making or romantic love, or even familial love.  Do you love your neighbor?  Do you obey the traffic laws for the most part.  Are you courteous on the road while driving?  When you make a business decision, are you thinking of the customer’s wellbeing?

Recently I used an online shopping website to purchase two items.  I did not ask for next day service, but one was medical test strips and the other was ink for the printer.  I ordered well in advance, but when both items produced a flag on their end, the items were delivered by eight in the morning.  But the printer ink box had been damaged.  I took out the foil wrapped envelope and it was open.  The printer cartridge was in the cardboard safety container, but the tape strip was not sealed against the ink cartridge.  Someone had carefully taken the good cartridge out and replaced it with a used one.

The website’s return policy was straightforward and within 24 hours, I had a new cartridge.

But doing a simple scam like that is not loving one’s neighbor.  But how many people do you know would try it?

Do you claim things on your tax return that are allowable without receipt, but you never spent that money in that way?  That violates the idea of subjecting yourself to the civil government.  But as the government is cheated out of millions, the politicians will give themselves an even bigger pay increase because they increased everyone’s taxes.  It gets back to the person barely getting by gets hurt by those scams.

When we think about it, almost everything that we do affects other people in one way or another.

But whether in Latin or in English or whatever other language.  If we are attacked with thoughts or someone shouting the words in our face that our salvation is not secure, think back to when you first accepted Jesus.  Was that genuine or merely a “religious experience?”  Has there been changes in your life?

But then, ask what Pascal asked, “I am not worthy of salvation, but do I love in the way God wants me to love, even that irritating man down the block?”

There are other tests of faith in 1 John, but when we put our love for those less fortunate into action, do we give God the glory?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.