Serve One Another in Love no. 10

“You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbor — and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:43-48). If you ever want to know someone’s real character, then disagree with them on an issue they find important. It could be politics, government, economics, family, religion, or entertainment BUT disagree with someone about something they value and treasure to know how much they are capable of love. I think about how many folks disagreed with Jesus when He brought the message of His Kingdom to earth. I think about Paul standing before the Greeks in Athens continuing to preach the Good News. And I don’t see them getting angry and storming off. I don’t see them unfriending folks and blocking them. I don’t see them calling unbelievers names or accusing them of being heretics and condemning them to hell. I don’t see it because it is not there. And it is not what Jesus commands.

How you fight says a lot more about you than you think. When folks call me names anymore for not holding the same theology, same politics, same philosophy as them I can only laugh at their irritation because it isn’t important. I think a lot of folks have a really narrow view of God as looking for reasons to punish every one for every little thing. And that just either makes me sad or fills me with laughter. If I am free in Him then why am I afraid anymore. Sure, the beginning of knowledge is fear of God BUT that isn’t the end of understanding. We don’t just stop with being afraid of Him. We have to move forward into a relationship where we know more about Him.

I was talking Sunday about how we get comfortable with God and that I shouldn’t be the same Christian today I was ten years, ten months, or ten days ago because the relationship I have should be growing. And growing in relationship with God means moving forward in understanding of Him. And understanding His love is something I see more and more when I look back at The Bible. I don’t see a God always ready to judge BUT a God always ready to redeem and restore. He gives endless chances to His people. He only expects that we give that same type of love to our neighbors. And we give that love whether we agree with them or not. I don’t have to agree with you in order to treat you like an image bearer of Him. And that is what He expects and what He teaches. Be careful how you argue because it shows your heart.

Serve His Kingdom by serving one another in love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherIn Love #NotMyWayYHWH

Serve One Another in Love no. 9

“For you fashioned my inmost being, 

you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; 

your works are wonders — I know this very well” (Tehillim (Psa) 139:13-14).

You are awesomely made. You are wonderfully made. Too often we like to take on the negativity of the world around us. We like to think we are a failure. We like to think we are unloveable. We like to think that we are beyond hope. And that simply is just not true. Too often a Christian mindset can take on the idea that we are unworthy of God’s love. BUT He made us awesomely and wonderfully to be with Him. That was the way things started in the beginning, “So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. God blessed them: God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.’ Then God said, ‘Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant.’ And that is how it was. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day” (B'resheet (Gen) 1:27-31). You are good because that was how He made you.

Seeing ourselves as something else is the deception of sin. God created us in His image to do His work. He made us to be stewards of His creation. And when we fall out of alignment with His love, that is when the seeds of doubt and unworthiness start to bloom. Sin is a poison that separates us from Him. Sin takes so many different forms BUT sin is not loving God. And the best way we can love God is to fulfill the purpose He has created us to fulfill, “‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ This is the greatest and most important mitzvah . And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot” (Mattityahu (Mat) 22:37-40). Loving God and loving your neighbor begin with loving yourself. When we love our neighbor as much as ourself, we are showing God love. We are aligning ourselves with the purpose for which we were created. The world is a beautiful place created by God. The world is a good place that is out of alignment. Getting ourselves aligned with our purpose helps us better see the beauty and goodness in both ourselves and in the world. God does not make mistakes. God has a purpose. God is greater than sin.

Serve His Kingdom by serving one another in love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherIn Love #NotMyWayYHWH