Real Love

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

– 1 John 2:15

When I was a teenager, the church that I attended had a guest preacher speaking one Sunday.

She started her sermon telling us about her daughter learning to talk and understanding words.

Her daughter looked at her and her husband and said “I love Mommy! I love Daddy!” and as their hearts were swelling with pride, she looked around and said “I love ketchup!”.

We all laughed, but think about how many times we say that we “love” something.

There is a conflict between the love of the Father and the love of the world.

We can get so caught up in our daily routines that we drift farther and deeper into a love affair with “things” and the boastful pride of life.

If we find ourselves in this situation, our first response may be to change some behaviors, but we need to return to our first love.

When the love of the Father is in us, the love for the world loses its grip on us.

Have a blessed day! 

Forgiveness

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

– Colossians 3:12-13

I have been told that I can hold a grudge.

Unfortunately, that is true.  

How do we respond when faced with the pain of offense?

If our identity is in the love that the Father showers upon us, then we should be able to reflect the nature of the Holy Spirit to others.

Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Forgiveness.

This is not a display of our benevolence, but an exercise in our personal awareness of our daily need for Jesus.

To hold grudges against each other shows that we have forgotten our own need for mercy.

Have a blessed day! 

Dilemma!

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

– Romans 7:18-20

Are you trapped in the dilemma of trying to live a religious life, knowing the rules, yet painfully aware that you can’t keep the rules?

I think we can all answer that one “yes”.

We have a tendency is to keep looking for rules that please God, and sometimes even twisting His words to make our breaking the rules seem ok.

But that only leads to the anxiety that we see in these verses.

We know when we are doing something wrong and they trying to justify it.

We all sin and fall short (that is in the Bible too!).

We need to recognize our spiritual lack and pray for a way out.

That is why Jesus Christ came and challenged our hearts, because rules are not enough.

Have a blessed day! 

How should i pray when i hurt?

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

—Romans 8:26-27

Most of us will face very difficult circumstances in our lives. . . if you deny this, then you are either a robot or you are lying to yourself.

When things get rough, sometimes we might feel that our prayers just bounce off the ceiling, like “Are You really there God? Are You listening?”.

Our prayers can seem empty and useless, we are unable to verbalize what is on our hearts because we feel like our words are ineffective and insufficient.

So what do we do?

We trust His promise and we go to God in prayer anyway.

Even when we don't have words to say, we offer our hearts to Him, trusting that the Holy Spirit takes those thoughts, emotions, and inarticulate frustrations to God.

The Spirit makes our hearts known to God, interceding for us according to God's will.

Even when we don't have words, the Spirit makes our needs known.

What a tremendous reassuring grace!

Have a blessed day! 

Open doors

These are the words of Him who is holy and true...what He opens, no one can shut; and what He shuts, no one can open. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

- Revelation 3:7-8

This is not the verse I had originally chosen for today.

But throughout the night last night and on the way to work this morning, I knew that I needed to send special encouragement today.

I do not believe that anyone on this list was unaffected by yesterday’s events, everyone knows someone that is going to be starting over.

Face it, this week has been a bummer. 

Personally I’ve had several things this past week that have hurt me deeply, from the death of a beloved pet to damage on my brand new motorcycle, but you know, it all seems small compared to what the people around me are experiencing today. 

Those people who came to work yesterday and left without a job.

The people who suffered damage and loss of their community in Goodman, Missouri last night by a tornado.

We have all heard the expression “When God Shuts One Door, He Opens Another”.

That is not actually in the Bible . . . Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone said: “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Sometimes our disappointments in life can become God’s appointments, so don’t let closed doors bother you.

The things we think of as failures and problems can often end up being blessings in disguise.

I could make this a very long email – very “sermony” – but here is what I know:

1. God will guide you if you’ll trust Him

You aren’t just placed on this earth to stumble around in the dark trying to find out what you should do. The God of the Universe is interested in you. He has a plan for you; He has a pathway for you

2. Don’t be disappointed by closed doors.

Just because you encounter resistance or difficulty, it doesn’t necessarily mean God has shut the door.

3. Be active as you look for God’s open door.

Have you ever been excited about an opportunity and suddenly found the door closed? The worst thing you can do is to camp out at that closed door. Don’t quit – keep on moving, and God will direct your paths.

There is another door in scripture God can’t open – it is the door to your heart.

In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock (it’s the door of your heart). If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me.”

In Holman Hunt’s famous painting, “The Light of the World” Jesus is standing at a door knocking.

Art critics pointed out that Hunt had made a mistake because there is no doorknob.

Hunt corrected them by explaining that the door was the door to a person’s heart, and the only doorknob is on the inside.

Jesus won’t force His way through the door of your heart.

He is standing there, knocking, waiting, and asking to come into your life.

Will you open your life to Him?

Have a blessed day. 

dreams

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

—Ephesians 3:20-21

Imagine your biggest dream.

I am fairly certain that my biggest dream has something to do with having a big house so I can rescue more cats, lol.

Did you know that God longs to do more than that through you? 

He wants to work within you, so you can shine His love on others (even cats)!

The real question is whether or not you will believe it, receive it, share it and then give Him the glory for it!

Have a blessed day! 

A time to mourn

So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

- John 16:22

My daddy would have been 90 years old today.

Unfortunately, he passed away 32 years ago, when I was only 15 years old.

This verse is set in the middle of the conversation that Jesus had with His disciples shortly before He was arrested, He is telling the disciples that He is going to die, but that they will see Him again.

He is telling them that it is OK for them to mourn, that when they see Him again, they will rejoice!

I truly believe that I will see my daddy again someday.

Someday, we all will be reunited, not only with our own families and loved ones, but also with the people of God from all ages.

In heaven we will all be one loving family, a huge family, and we will spend our eternity in rich, unending fellowship with those we loved here on Earth.

It is ok to mourn the passing of a loved one, as long as you remember that you’ll be with them again.  

Have a blessed day!