Serve One Another in Love no. 2

“Finally, all of you, be one in mind and feeling; love as brothers; and be compassionate and humble-minded, not repaying evil with evil or insult with insult, but, on the contrary, with blessing. For it is to this that you have been called, so that you may receive a blessing. For ‘Whoever wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit, turn from evil and do good, seek peace and chase after it. For Adonai keeps his eyes on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of Adonai is against those who do evil things’”(1 Kefa (1 Pe) 3:8-12). Loving people is difficult. Anyone that says the way of love is easy truly hasn’t tried to love people. A lot of people make it truly difficult to love them.

Often when you give folks love, the love you give will be returned with an insult, a curse, a harsh word, or even violence. BUT loving one another is what we are called to do despite the reaction of the other.

And this is where we see the difference between a Christian and a nonChristian, “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” (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:46-47)! Folks are out there “matching energy” and “cutting people off” and that is not how it is to be with us. Folks are out there turning backs on their family and their enemies, that is not how it is to be with us. Radically loving one another is something the world notices because it is something the world does not understand.

The world understands hatred, insults, snarkiness, and violence. The world wants us to talk in the language it understands. The world will go low and try to take you with them. BUT we are sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters of the King, so we need to act out of His indwelling Spirit of love. “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” (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:44-45). “But for now, three things last — trust, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians (1 Co) 13:13).

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

Seek First The Kingdom of God no. 46

“So don’t be anxious, asking, ‘What will we eat?,’ ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘How will we be clothed?’ For it is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Don’t worry about tomorrow — tomorrow will worry about itself! Today has enough tsuris already” (Mattityahu (Mat) 6:31-34)! If there is one thing we don’t do enough as followers of Jesus is trust in Him. Sure, folks believe in Him as an idea and He has a lot of good things to say BUT to really trust Him is something totally different. Trust is the reason behind folks arguing about grace and works and faith. Trusting means we are not afraid, as the prophet Isaiah sang, “See! God is my salvation./I am confident and unafraid;/ for Yah Adonai is my strength and my song,/and he has become my salvation” (Yesha 'yahu (Isa) 12:2)! I want all of us to be confident and unafraid.

My decision to start on this journey came out of fear. I did not want to be afraid anymore. In March 2020, there was a lot of fear. There is always a lot of fear getting thrown around and used to motivation. Fear is a motivating force for a lot of systems, even some religions use fear to motivate people. I was tired of the fear game. And my journey through philosophy led to changing my life mentally and physically. My search for freedom led me to The Bible and then to Jesus. Again. And when I first came back to the Way of the Lord, I was afraid of making mistakes and messing things up. I was afraid I wasn’t going to do things right again this time. I was afraid that others were going to put their fears into me again. And I guarded against that. And I still have some of those walls built up today that God and I are working to bring down.

But fear is no way to live your life. It is so much easier to be free. And the only way to be free is through Jesus. Jesus lived a free life that is an example of how we all can live free. He didn’t walk around scaring people or condemning people, Jesus simply lives out the Truth. And that is what I need to do as well. Walk in the Truth without fear.

Too often young Christians are afraid of the new situation. Even old Christians like myself walk into situations that are scary for us because Jesus leads us there. I was scared to attend a prayer group. I was scared to attend church. I was scared to join Christian groups. I was scared to wear signs of my Christianity. And gradually that fear subsides through the Spirit indwelling within us. God takes away fear and gives us the strength to confront fear. God doesn’t create fear. He gets us through fear because fear is natural and healthy to survival. Fear keeps us from doing dangerous things. BUT fear is not a way to live every day and a lot of folks want to make you afraid. BUT God doesn’t. He loves you too much to be out to frighten you. So, I pray that you find the peace and love of Jesus that takes away all fear. “God is my salvation./I am confident and unafraid;/ for Yah Adonai is my strength and my song,/and he has become my salvation.”

Seek first His Kingdom which rests on the foundation of 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 #NotMyWayYHWH