Serve One Another in Love no. 18

“For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’; but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other! What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism” (Galatians (Gal) 5:13-18). Back before I was free, I thought I was free. The one thing I was not free from was being selfish. And that sin of selfishness is one I confront daily in myself, in my brothers and sisters, and in the world. Too often I put my needs above the needs of others. Too often I put my rights and my person above loving another. One of the most pervasive sins of our modern society is the sin of selfishness because selfishness is twisted into something virtuous in America. 

This weekend was a blur of activity. Within that blur, I saw the heart of servants and the heart of this world. People should help one another, and Christians are called to service, BUT too often we serve only ourselves. I witnessed some folks that proudly parade their Christianity cause strife and ignore the work at hand this weekend. I also witnessed folks that are not outwardly professing Christianity take upon the mantle of service and bring peace. So, I don’t want folks to get their faith twisted into something that is already a final transaction. Jesus even tells us how folks will know we follow Him, “I am giving you a new command: that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other” (Yochanan (Jhn) 13:34-35). And how often do we fail at that commandment.

We fail because we don’t feel like doing what He says. It is too easy to be selfish and look out for ourselves. It is too easy to see a problem and walk away. It is too easy to see the work that needs be done and leave it for others. It is too easy to let someone else do it. And we do that all the time and still walk around like we are somehow better than other folks. We act like our Christianity is something that makes us superior. Our belief in Jesus is not an excuse to not do the work, to not be a servant, and not to love. BUT too often we make it our excuse.

I learned a long time ago to never put my faith in people. We all fall short in living up to His example. BUT we have to try. Even if we fail in trying, at least we are moving toward being more like Him. BUT too often folks are insecure and need affirmation that they are better. I was not called to be above other folks, I was called to be right there alongside them. I was called to be in the filth and the work and the struggle and the concerns and the problems and all the nastiness of life with everyone else. BUT while I live in that world, I am not part of the way the world does things. So often our actions put us to shame. So often folks that are not professing Christians make us look bad by their humility and service. Too often we are too busy being concerned with titles rather than being servants. And that happens all over churches today. Folks are still busy being seen on Sundays in positions rather than struggling with folks who really need our help. And that problem isn’t going to change any time soon unless we allow God to change it by changing ourselves. 

So, let’s serve. Let’s stop wasting our time being right and being important and being seen and being perfect and being everything else that isn’t showing His love. Let’s get in the mud of life and stay clean. Let’s get involved with others and help them with their struggles as Jesus did. And let us stop being Pharisees. Too often we use that word for each other and need to start applying it to our own lives in what hypocrisy lies within us.  

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. 16

“Don’t delude yourselves: no one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. Those who keep sowing in the field of their old nature, in order to meet its demands, will eventually reap ruin; but those who keep sowing in the field of the Spirit will reap from the Spirit everlasting life. So let us not grow weary of doing what is good; for if we don’t give up, we will in due time reap the harvest. Therefore, as the opportunity arises, let us do what is good to everyone, and especially to the family of those who are trustingly faithful” (Galatians (Gal) 6:7-10). No one is more foolish than someone that thinks they are not being fooled. And I have lived that life for decades until God brought me the Truth. I was sowing a lot of things that would demand my ruin in the past. I was sowing the habits of bad physical, mental, and spiritual health. I rarely was concerned about what I put into my body, my mind, and my spirit. I was doing some good out there BUT I was going about it in all the wrong ways. I was living by the world’s idea that the ends justify the means. And I was foolish and deluded. And then God brought me His Truth. That the means are the end.

I was tired, afraid, and unhealthy when I started this journey BUT I was no longer fooled. And when someone really wants the Truth, God reveals it, “If you obey what I say, then you are really my talmidim, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Yochanan (Jhn) 8:31-32). Knowing the Truth and then doing the Truth, however, are two distinct things. And my daily struggle is living His Truth. 

Living His Truth is a struggle because it takes an entire paradigm shift of how I viewed life. I was worried about so many temporary things that were unimportant. I was worried about my feelings. I was worried about the government. I was worried about my life. And His Truth far surpasses any worldly concerns I might have. I know that. And every day I struggle to live in alignment with His Will to serve Him and to serve others. To “do what is good to everyone” is never easy BUT it is simple. It is simply following His lead and loving others more than ourselves.

Jesus loved us enough to leave Heaven and come to earth to suffer and die. Everything we own is because of God’s grace. And we get concerned about those things like we actually own them. We act like the things we own are actually ours. They all belong to Him. Our homes, our clothes, our food, our planet, are not ours . . . They are His. We are just His custodians. We are His servants. And we need to start acting like caretakers rather than landlords. He owns the deed. He created all things. We get a little to haughty and a little too worldly for our own good. We worry too much and Jesus takes time in His Sermon to address how we can worry too much about the wrong things, “Therefore, I tell you, don’t worry about your life — what you will eat or drink; or about your body — what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds flying about! They neither plant nor harvest, nor do they gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they are? Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to his life? “And why be anxious about clothing? Think about the fields of wild irises, and how they grow. They neither work nor spin thread, yet I tell you that not even Shlomo in all his glory was clothed as beautifully as one of these. If this is how God clothes grass in the field — which is here today and gone tomorrow, thrown in an oven — won’t he much more clothe you? What little trust you have! “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” (Mattityahu (Mat) 6:25-33). Seek First His Kingdom and His Righteousness. Not our kingdom, not the worldly kingdoms and nations, not what we see as right, not what we feel is right . . . Seek His Kingdom. Seek His Righteousness. And He will give us ALL things. Once you have found His Kingdom, His Kingdom should change you. His Kingdom should change your whole perspective. That is kind of what the word repent means. Repentance is a total change in perspective about how we see and do things. And if we see and do things the same as the world . . . Maybe we need to repent.   

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