Rise above offenses

Whas happening brothers and sisters? Just wanted to rehearse this word we heard at God's City over this past weekend, coming from Pastor O'Keefe, Pastor of Kingdom Life Mininstries in Roanoke Va. The word was simply let's learn how to rise above these petty offenses that keep slowing the body of Christ down. We need to focus on building such strong relationships with each other until we KNOW without thinking twice that if there is a confrontation of any type, that I'm coming to you or you're coming to me from a place of love and not malice! We learned that in order to be offended I have to occupy a place of "ego" and I can only be offended if i "allow" myself to be offended! It's amazing that we can spend so much time together and a few little words can destroy literally years of relationship building! We need to get rid of these things or we will never be the effective body that creation is waiting to see manifest in these last days!
Now as it relates to music, a great musician once answered a question about what was the most important thing to him in life.....he responded..."the women children and the rythmn section first!" now obviously as Christians, if you are a believer, God is gonna be before anything else...but as a musician and rythmn section player, I understood exactly what he meant. As a bassist, my relationship with my drummer is THE most important in an ensemble setting. If the rythmn section is weak, so is the rest of the band, because the rythmn section is the "foundation." I have to know him/her and the way they think musically as well as how they respond to life situations! The better I know the person behind the drums, the tighter we are gonna be as a section, then the other instruments have a solid foundation to build on and the music is alive and breathing as a result. I have also been in situations where I have not had the luxury of building that relationship beforehand and had to trust that we would connect musically until we had time to get to know each other. Sometimes we find ourselves in this situation in a non-musical context as well and I need to know that you mean me no harm if you approach me about something that may be hindering you....its all about GROWTH! If I can't say something to you without you getting mad, takin all your "toys" and going home, we won't accomplish very much together....whether musically or otherwise!
Bottom line is I need to know you love me and you know that I love you and mean you no hurt and definitely no offense. I'm just trying to see US grow together and vice versa! God Bless you all, until Next time!. Bayce3