No King BUT Christ no. 12

“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. 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. Here is how we know that we remain united with him and he with us: he has given to us from his own Spirit” (1 Yochanan (1 Jo) 4:7-13). I am always surprised how folks can trust in Jesus and profess His Kingdom and not walk away with an appreciation for loving God, loving neighbors, and loving enemies. It’s all over The Bible and you really have to purposefully miss love. I mean you really have to work to remove the love. God loves us so much and we don’t deserve any of His love. BUT, that doesn’t matter to Him. He loves us even though there is nothing we can offer that even comes close to a fair trade for His love. He loves us when we hate Him. He loves us when we are mean. He loves us when we fail to love our family. He loves us when we show kindness and mercy. He loves us when we are the worst possible versions of ourselves. He loves us when we follow Him obediently. He loves us when we go to sleep angry. He loves us when the rain falls and when the sun shines. He loves us every day, all the time. He even loved us before we were born and will love us after we die. That’s something else.

He loved us so much that He manifested part of Him on earth to fix all the mistakes we make. He loved us enough to show us that we can walk in His truth, goodness, and beauty. I just need to trust Him. And that means not trusting in myself and putting myself in charge of things. That throne in my heart where I like to sit needs to be given to Him as the King of my life. I have to get out of the driver seat and let God lead. Jesus may not be taking the wheel BUT He is providing the directions through the GPS of the Spirit. I have to follow the map.

Over the past couple years, I can see that when you don’t read the whole Bible, we tend to get a weird theology. When we read The Bible disjointedly and without context, I can come to wrong conclusions even if it is based on scripture. There is no substitute for reading and studying The Bible on your own or with a group in Spirit and Truth. There are plenty of plans to keep you on track, plenty of devotionals set up to get you through the whole book, and I encourage you to read the whole thing. Maybe start with the New Testament first and then work on the Old Testament. BUT please read the whole thing at least once in your life. There are a lot of folks out there without sound doctrine. And the only way to know doctrine is to read The Bible in Spirit and Truth. And if you want someone to read with you, encourage you to read, or pray with you about reading, I am here to do that. I am not going to tell you what anything means. I am not going to push my understanding on you. I am just happy to help encourage you to read The Bible. The whole thing. Maybe several translations. Maybe several times. It won’t ever be a waste of time to spend more time in His Word.

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 #NotMyWayYHWH