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

Serve One Another In Love no. 7

“But as for me, because I tell the truth you don’t believe me” (Yochanan (Jhn) 8:45). We live in a culture obsessed with truth. Often folks are looking to make their own truth, redefine truth, or keep a limited understanding of truth. But in a culture that only wants to hear their own words repeated back, research and study are replaced with agreement and echoes. Research and study will sometimes prove that you are wrong while agreement and echoes only reinforce that you are right. When I research and study, I have to be open to the possibility that I am wrong. And far too often in my life God reveals that what I have thought was wrong. That doesn’t mean that I was totally wrong about things, however, that as I grow in learning about Him more truth is revealed to deepen my understanding of Him. 

I am so glad that my knowledge of God is ever growing and ever changing. If I had the same understanding of God that I did last week, last month, last year, or a decade ago, then it would show very little growth. And I think that sort of metacognitive reflection about our walk with Jesus is important. I used to be all too comfortable in my understanding of God. I thought I had it all figured out because I didn’t want to change. Comfortability in thought does not lead to growth. And God has done everything He can to make me as uncomfortable as possible over the past few years. He has moved me to go places and do things that were not comfortable at first. When I entered my first prayer group, I was not comfortable BUT I went anyway because that is where God led me. When I started going back to church, I was not comfortable BUT I went anyway because that is where God led me. God leads me into a lot of places where I am not comfortable at first. The great thing about where He leads is that it is where He wants me to be. And even though I may feel uncomfortable at first, He does not leave me there alone. And the glorious thing is that I typically figure out that I belong there and feel really comfortable in little time.

God is always telling us the truth even when that truth makes us uncomfortable, especially when that truth makes us uncomfortable because He needs me to change. I am working on perfection. I am not there yet. And how am I going to get perfect without letting Him change me? So, instead of looking for our own truth or redefining the truth or, most importantly, being comfortable with our own understanding of the truth, I need to step out into where He leads to learn more of what He wants to reveal. Are you listening to where He leads or are you comfortable?

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