Serve One Another in Love no. 15

“Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins” (1 Yochanan (1 Jo) 4:7-10). You ever try to hug someone that just isn’t into the hug? You ever try to hug someone that has no interest in a hug? That is what it is like for God a lot of the time. He keeps trying to show us His love and we don’t want it His way or we are actively fighting against His love. We don’t want His hug and there are plenty of folks out there that don’t want our hugs either. 

Does that mean He stops hugging? Does that mean we stop hugging? Of course not. Loving your neighbor that doesn’t love God is not always easy. Some folks make it easy and some folks are the most trying and frustrating folks in the world. BUT that doesn’t change who we are, “Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us” (1 Yochanan (1 Jo) 4:11-12). Love is difficult because it means we don’t always get our way. Love means a lot of compromise on our plans. Love means a lot of sacrifice for the other. Love means fixing things that we don’t want to fix. Love means apologizing and humbling ourselves. Love means making a lot of choices that make us uncomfortable. 

It is really easy and socially acceptable to not love people. It is easy to cut people out of your life. It is easy to turn your back on difficult people. It is easy to give up on hard cases that make your life difficult. Love is not easy. Love is simple BUT love asks us to do difficult things. When folks talk about the way of love being easy, they obviously do not walk that path because it is not easy. It is tough to love people because people are difficult to love. They do not want our hugs. They do not want us to look out for them. They do not want us to help them. A lot of times folks only want love on their own terms. BUT that isn’t God. God shows us what love is and how to do love in the example of Jesus. God became a person and went around with people showing love despite people not wanting His love and some people killing Him for His love. So, love is not easy. We need to be the adults, and sometimes the role model, in all our relationships by showing love, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, argued like a child; now that I have become a man, I have finished with childish ways. For now we see obscurely in a mirror, but then it will be face to face. Now I know partly; then I will know fully, just as God has fully known me. But for now, three things last — trust, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians (1 Co) 13:11-13).  

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

Serve One Another in Love no. 14

“Let them praise the name of Adonai, 

 for his name alone is exalted; 

 his glory is above both earth and heaven. 

 He has increased the power of his people, 

 granted praise to all his faithful, 

 to the descendants of Isra’el, 

 a people close to him. Halleluyah”

(Tehillim (Psa) 148:13-14)! 

Worship and praise have been a focus of my studies over the past few weeks. Too often folks forget the importance of being thankful and praising God for all He has done. Worship is the way we show His worth. Worship is the way we show Him love. Expressing our thankfulness is an important part of our walk with Him.

“The fear of Adonai is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of holy ones is understanding. For with me, your days will be increased; years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom helps you; but if you scoff, you bear the consequences alone” (Mishlei (Pro) 9:10-12). I began this walk with God out of fear BUT not fear of Him. I was afraid of everything else out there. When I was a child I was afraid of God because I didn’t have my own understanding of Him. I leaned on the understanding of others who wanted me to be afraid of Him. Fear is a great motivator to start a journey BUT living in fear is not the walk with Him. Countless times folks are told to not fear throughout The Bible. Fear should be replaced with a respect and honor for God as the creator of all things. If we are His children, then we need not be afraid of our Father. 

A lot of our depictions of God as fearful are the result of some of our messed up relationships with fathers and father figures and role models. Folks get some really messed up ideas of what discipline and discipleship are to be like from the poor examples in the world. BUT we do have a perfect example of God in the example of Jesus. He tells us, “'I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him — in fact, you have seen him . . . Whoever has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’”(Yochanan (Jhn) 14:6-7,9)? Have you seen Jesus? Then you have seen God.

I know that we too often get confused and rest in Old Testament misunderstandings of God as wrathful and vengeful and mean and cruel BUT that is not the picture that we get through Jesus. How cruel is God that He makes a way for all of us to be at one with Him? How cruel is God to become one of us and make a Way to Him? How cruel is a God of love? I think a lot of our misconceptions about God are rooted in our misunderstandings of reconciling Jesus with God. He is who He says He is. And we need to stop acting like He isn’t. And a lot of that misunderstanding is having the wrong perspective about God. When we read The Bible, what are we reading into it? Are we reading our bad relationships, our poor role models, our imperfect relationships, our need for revenge, our influenced stereotypes into His Word? Or are we looking for the fruits of the Spirit, “. . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things” (Galatians (Gal) 5:22-23)? He is worthy of our worship because He is who He says He is. He is our loving Father in Heaven that came here and made His Way through love.

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