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

Serve One Another in Love no. 6

“For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah” (2 Corinthians (2 Co) 10:3-5). We serve one another in the way we wage war. When we spend a lot of time working on our spiritual readiness which includes study and prayer, then we are able to fight our battles as Jesus did. When we spend little time working on our spiritual readiness, we tend to fight like the world with words and acts of violence. Spiritual warfare serves the Kingdom and each other by modeling the way of Jesus.

“I just tell it like it is”, is not a reason to act like a jerk. It is often used along with its cousin, “I just speak the truth”, to justify acting out of violence toward one another. Jesus both “told it like it is” and “spoke the truth” but He didn’t insult people. In fact, speaking the truth is just part of that verse that is taken out of context, “We will then no longer be infants tossed about by the waves and blown along by every wind of teaching, at the mercy of people clever in devising ways to deceive. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in every respect grow up into him who is the head, the Messiah. Under his control, the whole body is being fitted and held together by the support of every joint, with each part working to fulfill its function; this is how the body grows and builds itself up in love” (Ephesians (Eph) 4:14-16). We are to be “speaking the truth in love”. Ouch. And not the idea that we can say something hateful with violence in our heart and think that the truth of those words evens it all out. We speak the truth in love and do not use the truth to elevate ourselves or condemn others. We speak the truth in love because it helps and not hurts. Yes. Sometimes the truth is going to hurt people’s feelings. And that is inevitable. BUT our motives are not to be mean and violent. And the person we speak the truth toward should be in a relationship with us that allows us to speak the truth. This is where our judgment and discernment about situations are tested. And this is where we need the Spirit to guide us more than our own motives.

How often do we say something in “truth” that doesn’t help the Kingdom? How often do we choose the way of speaking death rather than speaking life? If it were really the Spirit guiding me, would I be acting like the world? I think too often having the truth is an excuse to act unrighteous. Too often we use the truth as a weapon rather than a medicine. The truth should, as Jesus said, “. . . to the Judeans who had trusted him, ‘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). Jesus said that to the folks that trusted Him. He said that truth should set people free. Truth shouldn’t be a weapon. Truth shouldn’t encumber people. Truth shouldn’t make folks worried. Truth should free us and others. Choose to speak life when we speak truth? 

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