Seeing and Hearing when Poisoned: Part 4 of 5 November 30, 2008
Posted by Lucas Skrobot in Hearing, life, mercy, poison, Seeing.Tags: forgiveness, grace, love, poison, seeing and hearing
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I have been talking about poison (whispers and lies) and how to still see clearly and act rightly once poisoned by a person or people.
To refresh us all: Poison separates close friends. A wise man, Solomon, once wrote “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:28).
In the last post I suggested that we need to be able to drink both cups of poison and still survive. We cannot just always chose to trust the person closest to us expecting to live. We need to have the ability to drink a cup of poison and survive, because is not always clear which story presented before you is trust worthy.
To survive poison we need to have a tolerance to the poison, meaning our bodies need to have a resistance built up so it will be able to neutralize the poison and flush it out of our system.
There are 3 easy steps that we can begin taking today to help us for tomorrow so that when we do come against a deathly situation we will already have the adequate preparation, habits, and skills built into our life.
1) Always Forgive. Forgiveness is vital to a healthy life. Forgiveness acts like our kidneys–it purifies the blood, ridding our body of toxins. If our kidneys fail we die. When we forgive we are telling the poison in our body that it doesn’t have authority (or permission) over our lives. When we carry unforgiveness we are metaphorically opening our cells to soak in the poison that is flow through our blood. If we forgive we are closing the doors to the effects of the poison.
This doesn’t mean that we won’t have pain and it doesn’t mean 
just cutting the person out of our life. That is not forgiveness. Forgiveness tells our kidneys that we are getting rid of a toxin in our body so that it will not have a lasting result on our body. Forgiveness is identifying the assailant and instead of trying to destroy it with in the body, pass it through the body. And remember, the person isn’t the toxin, the lie and the offense is.
2) Extend Mercy. Don’t give people what they deserve (mercy). People often deserve to be cursed at and kicked and left for dead–I mean lets just be honest people. But if we instead act merciful toward them then we will be acting in a righteous manner whether they have lie to us or not. Imagine if your close friend was honest and you–out of another man’s poison–lashed out in hurtful words and actions? That will leave a scar in your friendship even after the relationship is mended.
Now imagine that your friend did lie and deserved hell–but you didn’t give them what they even thought would be just? Will they not be humbled? Will they not see your kindness? Will people not see that you, even when wronged, decided to look over the offense. Will that not be to your good standing and glory?
Such a characteristic in your life will make you resilient and will act as a coat of arms upon you, causing all accusation to fall to the ground, putting to shame all your accusers.
3) Extend Grace. Give people what they don’t deserve. Give people second chances. Give people trust. Give people kindness. Give people love. Grace enables people to walk in a manner that is upright.
If you create a grocery list of do’s and don’t in order to ensure your protection and respect the friend will be following that list out of obligation. The chances of them not being able to meet your standards and expectation will be high because they striving to perform based on an external motivation. If, instead, grace is extended–empowering the person to walk rightly instead of requiring them to perform–they will come into full stride of who they were born to be. With this kind of grace something inside of a person comes into full bloom. Now they will not be as likely to break your trust or hurt you because of the freedom with in the relationship that they now are able to walk in. They don’t own you something, they aren’t feeling guilty with shame, they are able to love. And love is a beautiful feeling. A person won’t cross you again because they now have a realization of the value of the relationship.
Seeing and Hearing When Poisoned: How to Prevent Poisoning (Part 3 of 5) November 5, 2008
Posted by Lucas Skrobot in discernment, Hearing, life, poison, Seeing.Tags: discernment, poison, seeing and hearing, the princess bride
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The main concern, at least for me, is how does one live a life with out drinking poison and dealing with the pain and strife that inevitably comes with poison?
Answer #1: Last week I quoted Proverbs 26:20, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.” So the first and easy step would be to cut the people out of your life who whisper secrets, gossip, and is generally a dishonest person.
Answer #2: It is impossible to live a poison free life. A person may confide in you, or give you “friendly advice” and next thing you know you are in a downward spiral and you don’t know what hit you. I am reminded of the story The Princess Bride. If you remember the movie there is a scene with Westly (the hero) and Vizzini (the short bald annoying bad guy) and Westley challenges Vizzini to a “battle of wits.” The game is played as such: there are two cups and one cup has poison, Vizzini must choose which cup to drink, both drink, and one survives.
See for yourself, Watch the clip:
Well as you now know, both the cups were poisoned. Our handsome hero Westly just happened to have, “spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.”
There are times where it is impossible not to drink poison. There are times when we are like Vizzini and we try our best to discern which person is telling the truth and which person is lying, I’m not sure if walking away is ever an option–it seems more like drinking both cups and losing both friends.
Or like, Vizzini did he, choose the cup furthest from you ( i.e. why would that person lie about their, and my, friend? They have nothing to gain or lose by lying–well maybe except for splitting up the friendship).
Or you can decide to choose the cup (believe the person) closest to you–but this also may prove to be deadly. A close friend can wound deeper than your most hated enemy. If you drink the poison given to you by a close friend you will suffer a slow and painful death because you have just subjected yourself to their authority, by taking their word without testing. They now have the ability to point back to the moment of doubt (the decision between the two cups), implying “don’t question what I’m doing like you did last time, because if you can’t trust me we can’t be friends” in order hold you captive through wielding fear which controls.
My advice is this: become like Westley (the man in black) and be able to drink both cups and still live.
We need to have the ability to taste of both cups–testing both words–so that the truth might be made evident. How do we do that? By bringing things out of the darkness and into the light. By sitting down with both parties together, along with a neutral third party member. Bring forth the accusations, compare stories, and deal with the issues is the open.
The only way to find the poison is to drink both cups.
Please stay tuned for Part 4 where I will talk about what it means to drink both cups and how we can learn how to not only survive but conqure poison!
Seeing and Hearing when Poisoned: How to Sniff out Poison (Part 2 of 5) October 28, 2008
Posted by Lucas Skrobot in poison, seeing and hearing.Tags: poison, proverbs, seeing and hearing
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A few weeks ago I started a series on Seeing And Hearing When Poisoned and I left off stating that best way to see and hear when poisoned is to not get poison in the first place. That requires recognizing poison so we don’t partake and get ill, but before we can discern poison we need to define poison.
What Is Poison?
Poisons are lies, whispers, or secrets that colors our thinking, creating a filter for which we process all of the data that we receive.
What does Poison do?
As mentioned, poison puts a negative filter on all incoming data. Poison separates close friends: A wise man, Solomon, once wrote “A dishonest man spreads Strife, and a whisperer separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:28). Poison causes fights: “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases” (Proverbs 26:20). Poison, once consumed goes down deep into our very core: “The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body” (Proverbs 18:8, 26:22). Poison, which is commonly delivered through the mouth of a whisperer, destroys our relationships.
A Simple Example:
Johny walks into the office and Jenny tells him that the Boss is in a foul mood and isn’t too happy with 
Johny’s work. She told Johny that the Boss said that Johny was “a lazy and ungrateful employee.” Well Johny is the hardest working employee at the office, and the Boss actually really likes Johny because Johny spent his whole weekend solving an emergence (it was probably something like a broken fax machine or the internet was down). Because of what he was told Johny may avoid the Boss or be standoff-ish. Johny may also upset because he puts in a lot of effort and now isn’t feeling very appreciated. Anytime that the Boss says anything to Johny, Johny’s guard is up and he may take everything that the Boss does or says as negative. Next thing Johny, Jenny, and the Boss knows there is a rift between Johny and the Boss. What started as a lie from a jealous whisperer quickly became reality.
That, in a very uncomplicated and basic form, is poison.
We now know what poison is and does, but what on earth do we do to prevent this tragedy from taking place in our own lives, and if it does happen how do we purge the poison from our bodies? Stay tuned to find out!
