Are you Marked as a Lover?

       Do you believe that we are being marked? I know we have been hearing stuff like that a long time. And yes I know that there are those out there that know more about us than we care for them too. But I am not talking about the world of technology, and how much information is being stored about us. And yet who knows for sure. For all out of our mouth flows the content of our heart. Hum...So what if someone out there is really taking note of what we say, "written," to know who we really are, whose side we are on. 

       In the old testament book of Ezekiel (chapters 9-12), God said, "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over the detestable things that are done in it." We are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see, and ears to hear but they do neither for they are a rebellious people."  A mark was put on the forehead of those grieving over the detestable things that were being done so that they might be spared from death.

        In the new testament, Jesus says, in John 13:34,35,  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another". In John 17:21 Jesus is praying to the Father "that they all may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me". 

          Yes, we are marked.  I once heard that we "preach" our own funerals. It is the, - dash - between out birth and death dates. Wonder if there is enough evidence in our lives to convict us of being a lover? We are to be a lover of people. Listen to this. We either love and love all, or we do not love, meaning we pick and choose who, when, and where, and why to share love. 

          The true mark? You know I was in the YMCA this past week. As soon as I walked through the door, I spotted a person who had done me wrong years ago. And while I was not exactly eye-to-eye with the person, our eyes met. Yes, I did the "Christian thing" I spoke to her. Was it with the voice of forgiveness and love? Not exactly, for I just did the least I could do, I just spoke, but in my heart, I realized I still have some work to do, for sometimes, my love is quite conditional. Love, is our mark, and we are to share love, unconditionally. Do you love as Christ did? This is the true mark of a "Christian." Lord, I want to be marked with your love. I want to be red with guilt. I love you, my friends.