{"id":474,"date":"2011-01-24T19:26:27","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T00:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bottlerockettheology.com\/?p=474"},"modified":"2011-01-24T19:26:27","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T00:26:27","slug":"when-nice-isnt-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=474","title":{"rendered":"When nice isn&#8217;t nice &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p lang=\"en-US\">Being nice may be for some a good place to start, but Christians are called to much more.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So when is nice not nice?<br \/>\nWhen we are nice so we can manipulate people and\/or circumstances.<br \/>\nWhen we are nice so we can hide who we truly are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>How can you tell when a nice person isn&#8217;t really so nice after all?<br \/>\nWhen you cross them.\u00a0 Especially the manipulator.\u00a0 Mess with their plans, and they will mess with you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We have all had these people in our lives.\u00a0 They can appear to be the nicest people in the world.\u00a0 In fact appearance is everything to this person.\u00a0 But it&#8217;s all appearance.\u00a0 No fruit.\u00a0 That is why I personally would rather be known for kindness, goodness &#8211; you know, the fruity stuff &#8211; not for being &#8220;nice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Galatians 5:22\u201323 (NAS) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,  patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;  against such things there is no law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">You see nice is too often a manufactured product designed and engineered in the dark places of the human heart.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s look like we are giving and caring and loving, so we can get what we want.\u00a0 Dark.\u00a0 Where&#8217;s the flashlight, Harold?\u00a0 This is really dark.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">You&#8217;ve heard the expression &#8220;I don&#8217;t get mad; I get even.&#8221;\u00a0 Well, the &#8220;nice manipulator&#8221; gets mad <strong>and<\/strong> gets even.\u00a0 You just may not know it until the noose is around your neck, and they are extracting payment for your transgressions.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">When my receptors begin picking up the signals of a &#8220;nice&#8221; person like this, I sometimes get nervous.\u00a0 They flatter, they smile, they say all the right things.\u00a0 They welcome you into their world.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">But beware the hooks.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">Because if you fall for the flattery and manipulation and take the bait, then they&#8217;ve got you.\u00a0 You are in, but you are only one misdeed from having their support to being number one on their bad list.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">Personal experience.\u00a0 That&#8217;s not a real good place to be.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">But here&#8217;s some good news; some really good news.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">Manipulators do not rule the universe. I do not need to bow before the manipulator, no matter how nice they are.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">Jesus Christ, Creator and Redeemer, is Sovereign Lord of all.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">And Jesus does not manipulate.\u00a0 When you cross him, when you disobey him, when you disappoint him.\u00a0 He stands ready with grace and mercy.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">\n<ul>\n<li>Hebrews 4:16 (NLT) So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">Now that&#8217;s nice.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">\n<p lang=\"en-US\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being nice may be for some a good place to start, but Christians are called to much more. So when is nice not nice? When we are nice so we can manipulate people and\/or circumstances. When we are nice so &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=474\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dxA8-7E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}