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Inspirational article from Joanne Lowe

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YES WE HAVE

“Thou shalt not kill.”

Exodus 20: 13 King James Version

I’ve been listening to a pastor preach on tape. The pastor was talking about the Ten Commandments and said “I haven’t killed anybody”. I had to stop the tape because Jesus spoke to my heart and said to write this devotional. Every one of us has killed someone either with our actions or with our words. We may not have pulled the trigger on a gun but we are just as guilty as if we had done so. Every time that we say something harsh and critical to someone we kill their self esteem and their sense of worth.

That in itself is bad enough, but the heartbreaking thing is that we have plunged a knife deep into the heart of Jesus by the way we have treated people. I don’t think there is a person alive, who if he or she is honest, hasn’t hurt Jesus in some way at one time in his or her life by cruel and thoughtless words he or she said to someone. There was only one perfect person who ever lived or ever will live and His name is Jesus! He is the only one who never sinned. He is the only one who loved all the time and most of the time His love was rejected.

I wonder how many times our children have come to us wanting to talk and we got upset with them and yelled at them to shut up because we were watching television. We just killed their trust in us and their desire to talk to us. Then we wonder why they don’t come to us when they are teenagers and confide in us. O yes, we kill people all the time but most of the time we don’t even realize it. We need to go to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and ask Him to please help us give love instead of criticism and scorn.

Joanne Lowe
March 1, 2007

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