Chesed~*

Chesed is pure giving; an unselfish giving that is done with an eye toward conferring a benefit on the recipient. One might describe it as giving that is done based on true love.

Chesed is a daily requirement -- which means it is a lifetime requirement -- and it is most succinctly manifested in the act of giving. It implies attitudes integral to the person's character, inseparable from one's inner nature, and spans the whole gamut of virtues which operate in interpersonal relationships -- charity and compassion, love and respect.

The Chesed of God

* The whole meaning, purpose and end of Scripture is to reveal to us that God is Love and that God's Love is unconditional and unending. "God is Love and He who abides in Love, abides in God and God in Him"

* God's Steadfast Love is summed up and powerfully expressed in the strong and multivalent Hebrew word 'Chesed'

* The whole meaning, purpose and end of our lives as Christians is to discover the Chesed of God and respond to it joyfully, lovingly and fully. "I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly"

* Our approach to everything -- everything -- is to be always in the context of the Chesed of God.

* We are to have a deep, sustained, steadfast commitment to reversing the trend of negativity, hatefulness, spitefulness, name-calling, personal attacks, ridicule, politics and power struggles, absolutism, self-righteousness, rush to judgement and an us vs. them mentality.

* Not one word of uncharitableness is to creep into our speaking or our writing. Our vocation is to be one of reconciliation and understanding and caring. Our goal is to build trust and trustworthiness within ourselves and in our relationships.

* When we have insights to which we believe we are called to bear witness, we will do so always by building up and showing the positive aspects of our understanding of the situation, never by tearing down any other position.

* Anything that cannot be reconciled with the Chesed of God is to be rejected as unworthy, but our aim is to reconcile all things.

* Whenever we are tempted to think that a certain doctrine or practice or person is stupid, ugly, vicious, ungodly or heretical, we will sternly refuse to indulge in making that judgement. Instead, we will humbly acknowledge that the clarity that could possibly reconcile this doctrine or practice or person with the Chesed of God is not yet within our grasp.

* If we say that something seems to be at variance with the principles of the Chesed of God, we are always to be explicitly aware that this conclusion might be the result of our own blindness. We must always remain open to further understanding, further inspiration, further reconciliation. We are to constantly practice a humility before the Mystery of God that says, I will never know it all nor will I ever come to a point where I have fully grasped "the Truth"

* On the other hand -- as Our Lord commanded, the Chesed of God is to be the measure of all things. Jesus is the Chesed of God incarnate. Therefore, Jesus Christ is to be our measure.

* It is very dark at the bottom of a deep well, but it is also the place where the spring enters, refreshing, cleansing and clearing the water. The spring we seek is that from which flows the water of eternal life that Jesus promised, and He calls us to find it at the center, in the depths of the Father's Heart, where we will experience His Chesed directly as well as on behalf of the community of the church.

Our Broken World

* Our broken world desperately needs prayer, repentance, healing, and the hope of the Chesed of God. In other words, our broken world desperately needs salvation.

* We cannot effectively share the Good News of the Chesed of God made manifest in Jesus the Christ until we have personally known the Chesed of God.

*~Dearest Lord Jesus Christ,
please reveal Your steadfast, unfailing chesed to all..~*