Day 7/14 – Mutual Acceptance

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
Mutual Acceptance
Day One Hundred Ninety-five

“And if any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.” Matthew 10:14

For a relationship to exist there must be mutual acceptance. If I accept you and you do not accept me, there can be no relationship. When Jesus sent out the twelve, He reminded them of this important truth. As they reached out to others and received rejection in return, they were to move on.

Jesus wants you to be the friend of sinners. As a follower of Christ you know that you must accommodate yourself to the non-Christian, going to where he is rather than asking him to come to where you are. But as you seek to befriend the lost, they must accept you as surely as you must accept them. You cannot pretend to be someone you are not, refusing to reveal who you are and what you believe because you fear offending others. Nor can you compromise your convictions in order to win a hearing. If the unbeliever practices certain things that do not violate Scripture but do violate what you feel God would have you to do, such as smoking, they have to honor your convictions in the same way you honor theirs.

As a believer you are obligated to take the initiative in reaching out to those that do not know the Savior, but having befriended them, they must accept you or you do not have a relationship.

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Psalm 10-12 Acts 19:1-20 (New King James Version)

Psalm 10-12
A Song of Confidence in God’s Triumph over Evil
10
Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide in times of trouble?
2
The wicked in his pride [a]persecutes the poor;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3
For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire;
[b]He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord.
4
The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
[c]God is in none of his thoughts.
5
His ways [d]are always prospering;
Your judgments are far above, out of his sight;
As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
6
He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
I shall never be in adversity.”
7
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression;
Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.
8
He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
In the secret places he murders the innocent;
His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
9
He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den;
He lies in wait to catch the poor;
He catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
10
So [e]he crouches, he lies low,
That the helpless may fall by his [f]strength.
11
He has said in his heart,
“God has forgotten;
He hides His face;
He will never see.”
12
Arise, O Lord!
O God, lift up Your hand!
Do not forget the humble.
13
Why do the wicked renounce God?
He has said in his heart,
“You will not require an account.”
14
But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief,
To repay it by Your hand.
The helpless commits[g] himself to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
15
Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man;
Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
16
The Lord is King forever and ever;
The nations have perished out of His land.
17
Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear,
18
To [h]do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
That the man of the earth may [i]oppress no more.
Faith in the Lord’s Righteousness
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
11
In the Lord I put my trust;
How can you say to my soul,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
2
For look! The wicked bend their bow,
They make ready their arrow on the string,
That they may shoot [j]secretly at the upright in heart.
3
If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?
4
The Lord is in His holy temple,
The Lord’s throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold,
His eyelids test the sons of men.
5
The Lord tests the righteous,
But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6
Upon the wicked He will rain coals;
Fire and brimstone and a burning wind
Shall be [k]the portion of their cup.
7
For the Lord is righteous,
He loves righteousness;
[l]His countenance beholds the upright.
Man’s Treachery and God’s Constancy
To the Chief Musician. On [m]an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
12
Help,[n] Lord, for the godly man ceases!
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2
They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
With flattering lips and [o]a double heart they speak.
3
May the Lord [p]cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks [q]proud things,
4
Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?”
5
“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord;
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
6
The words of the Lord are pure words,
Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,
Purified seven times.
7
You shall keep them, O Lord,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
8
The wicked prowl on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Footnotes:
• Psalm 10:2 hotly pursues
• Psalm 10:3 Or The greedy man curses and spurns the Lord
• Psalm 10:4 Or All his thoughts are, “There is no God”
• Psalm 10:5 Lit. are strong
• Psalm 10:10 Or he is crushed, is bowed
• Psalm 10:10 Or mighty ones
• Psalm 10:14 Lit. leaves, entrusts
• Psalm 10:18 vindicate
• Psalm 10:18 terrify
• Psalm 11:2 Lit. in darkness
• Psalm 11:6 Their allotted portion or serving
• Psalm 11:7 Or The upright beholds His countenance
• Psalm 12:1 Heb. sheminith
• Psalm 12:1 Save
• Psalm 12:2 An inconsistent mind
• Psalm 12:3 destroy
• Psalm 12:3 great

Acts 19:1-20
Paul at Ephesus
19 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”
So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7 Now the men were about twelve in all.
8 And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
Miracles Glorify Christ
11 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, [a]“We [b]exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, [c]overpowered them, and prevailed against [d]them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
Footnotes:
• Acts 19:13 NU I
• Acts 19:13 adjure, solemnly command
• Acts 19:16 M and they overpowered them
• Acts 19:16 NU both of them