Seek First The Kingdom of God no. 39

“No one should wrong his brother in this matter or take advantage of him, because the Lord punishes all who do such things — as we have explained to you before at length. For God did not call us to live an unclean life but a holy one. Therefore, whoever rejects this teaching is rejecting not a man but God, indeed, the One who gives you the Ruach HaKodesh , which is his” (1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 4:6-8). You don’t see a lot of folks quoting the letters to Thessalonica, so I figured to give it a shot today as I just finished that letter yesterday in the latest translation I am reading. And this selection from the letter is a good reason to pick up the first letter because it gives some prudent advice about how Christians should act. It seems that the folks in Thessalonica needed some reminding about not wronging their brothers and sisters and that doing wrong makes us unclean. I mean, He did say to love God and to love your neighbor. And He does have a lot to say about the importance of doing good for one another and not doing wrong. So, rejecting the call to love our brothers, our neighbors, our enemies, is rejecting the love of God. That’s rejecting the Spirit of God.

That is something so heavy in its simplicity that I often fail to consider it. Loving others is how I show the world that I love God. And there can never be enough love. I am totally fixed on love right now. I have been fixed on this idea of love for a while now. I once told my pastor, “I don’t know how folks can be so worried about prophecy. I am still working on loving God and loving my neighbor. When I get that worked out, then I can worry about end times prophecy.” And I am still working on loving God through loving my neighbor.

Honestly, I think a lot of us need to spend a lot more time worrying about loving than we do about what happens when Jesus returns. I think we should worry about the love part because it is vitally important to what happens when Jesus returns. And rather than sitting around trying to map prophecy onto media reports, maybe we should be living out His command to love God and neighbor? I don’t know, BUT it sounds like something He would want. I don’t recall Jesus worrying about the prophecy. He was busy loving people and the prophecy was fulfilled according to His Plan. And I think the same can be true for us. Rather than worrying about His Plan, we should focus more on doing His Work of loving people. God’s Plan has a way of working itself out regardless. So, let’s focus on love. There is always much more love needed in this world. Let’s work on creating a Kingdom where, “They will never again be hungry, they will never again be thirsty, the sun will not beat down on them, nor will any burning heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will shepherd them, will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Revelation of Yeshua to Yochanan (Rev) 7:16-17). Let’s love our way to His Kingdom.

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

Seek First The Kingdom of God no. 38

“Be careful not to parade your acts of tzedakah in front of people in order to be seen by them! If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So, when you do tzedakah , don’t announce it with trumpets to win people’s praise, like the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the streets. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! But you, when you do tzedakah , don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Then your tzedakah will be in secret; and your Father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you” (Mattityahu (Mat) 6:1-4). Tzedakah is righteousness, charity, or justice. King James translates the word alms, Young’s Literal translation uses kindness, and the New International uses righteousness. BUT tzedakah is our love for another, in this case, shown in deeds. And Jesus warns to not do charitable, righteous, or just things in expectation of glory on earth from the world. Act unselfishly in humility.

Too often in my past I wanted praise for doing the right thing. And I still see that attitude in family and friends and strangers. Folks are seeking praise for their works rather than giving God the glory. And that comes from a lack of humility. The greatness I have is not of my own doing. My greatness is dependent on the grace and mercy and love of God. Too often folks take God out of the equation and look at what they have done as their own doing. BUT thankfulness to God and humility for what He has allowed us to accomplish helps align our perspective with a right relationship with Him.

So, I needed to stop acting like a hypocrite and wanting the praise because there are way too many hypocrites out there to add one more to the mix. Become based on the foundation of Jesus. As Jesus warns later in His Sermon, “So, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on bedrock. The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the winds blew and beat against that house, but it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the wind blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed — and its collapse was horrendous” (Mattityahu (Mat) 7:24-27)! A solid foundation, a base on principles outlined by Jesus on how to live are the key components of a life of tzedakah, righteousness, justice, charity. I need to listen to these instructions because He also warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’ Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Mattityahu (Mat) 7:21-23)! And too often we forget that our actions speak louder than our words. Our actions reveal what we truly value. What I do in private says more about my character than the carefully cultivated persona I portray for the world online and in person. What I do is what I believe. And my actions should help bring about tzedakah with humility.

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