People are Not Easy to Love no. 30

“For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God. When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal, I was too; so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not reject God’s gracious gift; for if the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, then the Messiah’s death was pointless” (Galatians (Gal) 2:19-21). Some folks want a set of rules and not a relationship. Rules are easy to figure out. Relationships are between people. Relationships are cooperative. Relationships require work and learning. Some folks are not easy to love because they want The Bible to be a rule book.

Rules will not change you, relationships do. Life is all about relationships. Most importantly is my relationship to God. Then I need to work on my relationship with myself as well. And then I get to move on to relationships with other people. That first relationship is the most important because my relationship with God permeates all my other relationships. How I treat God is going to color the way I treat myself and others.

Relationships are difficult. Relationships require conversation. Relationships require spending time together. Relationships require an investment of yourself. Rules are just a list. And the problem I face is turning The Bible into a book of rules rather than an explanation of who God is. I look for a list rather than a relationship because the list is easier. The relationship demands time. The relationship demands learning. The relationship demands me.

And a lot of folks are not ready to give themselves to God enough to have a relationship. They would rather show up, sit down, put in their time, and clock out. They would rather do what they think is just enough. They would rather do the bare minimum. Is that the way to build a healthy relationship? Is that the kind of friendship you want? Is that the kind of marriage you want? Is that the kind of family you want?

Unfortunately, it is the relationship most Americans have with other people and themselves. If we want to work on relationships, the first relationship to fix is the one we have with God.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

Embrace the Within no. 212

"Also we have come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them. Here is how love has been brought to maturity with us: as the Messiah is, so are we in the world. This gives us confidence for the Day of Judgment. There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love” (1 Yochanan (1 Jo) 4:16-18 CJB). A long time ago in my life I had a difficult time reconciling the God I read about in The Bible with the way God was presented on the pulpit by many preachers and adopted by their congregations. I can remember as a child being scared of God after one of these sermons, and there were many. And I found those people constantly looking for reasons to make me afraid all throughout my life. Fear in the church drove me away from the church. Fear made me question Christianity. Fear made me look for another way. And fear led me back to Him.

When the plague hit, I was afraid like many folks. I was afraid that the plague was going to take us out. I was afraid that the supply chain problems were going to cause my family to starve. And fear led me to realize that I was tired of being afraid. Folks had been using fear to control me for way too long. And I was tired of having another reason to be afraid. So, I undertook a journey to no longer be afraid. And that journey started with fixing my supply chain. That journey continued with fixing my health. And that journey continues with knowing a loving God.

I spent a lot of time studying and teaching influence over the last decade. Knowing a lot about influence does not make you immune to influence. It does allow you to see when it is happening and recognize how it is making you act. Influence is a human art form that we use consciously and subconsciously. And I was tired of folks having the power to influence fear into me. So, I made a lot of changes.

And I learned that God does not want me to be afraid of Him no matter what I heard from the pulpit or what other folks tried to tell me. Churches wanted me to be afraid. Pastors wanted me to be afraid. BUT God didn’t. When He created people, it was to share rulership with them. He spent all this time trying to fix the relationship we broke. He died to mend that relationship. That does not sound like God trying to scare me. That sounds like a God that wants me. A God that would do anything, including die for me, in order to fix the broken relationship. That sounds a lot more like a loving father than a boogeyman.

I got tired of being afraid. I have come to accept that there is nothing I can do to fix my relationship with Him. He fixed the relationship. There is nothing I can do to be worthy of His love. He gives that love to me regardless. What I can control is how I live after understanding that He loves me. And I choose to live like He loves me.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH