Thought of the Day #19: "Loving Others"

             In Mark 12:29-31 Jesus teaches that the most important commandments are that we are to love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength.  The second is to love others as we love ourselves.  The top priorities of life are laid out in these two commandments for us: Love God and love others.  It is through our relationship with God, putting Him first in our heart, soul, mind and strength, that we can have a relationship with others.  “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 (NIV)  It is important to do both, love God first and then love others.  Notice the verse doesn’t say love God and if you feel like it love others.  It also doesn’t say love God and love the loveable people.  Loving others includes the un-loveable people too.  “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20 (NASB)

            Loving others is not always easy but, it is even harder to not have anyone to love. Sometimes, especially when we are upset, we may desire to cut ourselves off completely from others.  Complete isolation may sound good but, it does not feel good.  Isolation from others will only hurt us.  Living through the up’s and down’s of relationships can either give us a “pep-in-our-step” or give us a stomachache.  Life is funny that way.  It’s like that saying, “you can’t live with them; you can’t live without them.”

            Life in ministry means life with people; People that will love us, support us, encourage us, help us…be good to us.  There are also those we encounter in ministry that hurt us.  As believers in Christ we are purposed to do something to help further increase the Kingdom of God.  Loving others is vital to any ministry.  It doesn’t matter if you are the leader of a ministry or involved as a “layman” in the ministry loving others is a part of it. 

            It is through prayer and studying His Word that we can be successful in our relationships.  If our focus stays on God then our relationships with others will be aligned with Him.  If we lose our focus and settle our focus upon other priorities then our relationships will be affected in negative ways.  This is why loving others is so important, so important in fact that this is why the Lord commanded it.  “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:21 (NASB)

 

 

Thank You for reading! God bless you!

Thought of the Day #18: "A Newer Better You"

Since its January the health and fitness companies are bombarding TV, radio, internet and most anything in print with their ads claiming that their product is the one that will help you become a newer better you.  Well maybe some of them can actually help but, come on, most of us doubt if their claims are real. You know who, without any doubts, can help us with our health and fitness and everything else? The best part about the price tag for it is that it's FREE!!! It's JESUS! Woo-Woo!  

It is through the lessons of life that the Lord works in us and stretches us in ways only "The Potter" can. "But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand." Isaiah 64:8 (NASB)  The Lord is the only one that knows exactly what we need, when we'll need it and what provisions are needed in order to help with our self-improvement.  He is the one that knows what will make us stronger, tougher, wiser, more patient, kind or loving too! Jesus is all about helping us grow Spiritually, emotionally...anything that will help us improve ourselves so that we may be the righteous ones He so desires us to be.  "May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God." Philippians 1:11 (NLV)

 

 

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Devotional #43: "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

Through prayer I ask the Lord to point out to me "the good, the bad and the ugly" moments of the previous year. What was good throughout the year is what we all tend to want to remember and it is what we tend to store in our minds as loving, eventful or sweet memories. But now, the bad and the ugly things that happened to us is what we want to forget. Thing is, it is from the bad and even the ugly that we can learn a lot from. We learn from the good too and like I said we cherish those more but, if we stop and ask the Lord to help us learn from the bad and the ugly too the lessons we get are profound.

It is through these lessons of life that the Lord stretches us in ways only "The Potter" can. He is the one that knows what we need to learn from these experiences and why. He is the one that knows what will make us stronger, tougher, wiser, more patient, kind or loving. We grow from the good moments but we also grow from the bad and the ugly moments too. These are our “teachable life moments.”

What “teachable life moments” have you learned from 2013? Sometimes it takes longer than other times to really get and understand why we went through the things we did. Fact is, my fellow believers in Christ, sometimes we may never know why we had to go through what we did until we are in heaven. But, we don't necessarily need to know the "why" in order to learn the lessons.

I pray that we all learn the lessons the Lord is trying so desperately to teach us as we live on in this New Year. I pray that we all pay closer attention to what is going on around us so that we can better understand why these things are going on around us. Life is full of bad and ugly moments. Instead of wallowing in pity-parties we need to instead pray and ask the Lord to help us not only survive but know how He wants us to live life to the fullest despite how hard these bad and ugly moments are. We should want and desire to live, fully and wholeheartedly so that we can enjoy every moment He gives to us.

The people around us, the non-believers, are constantly observing how we choose to respond to life's good, bad and ugly moments. It is through our response to these moments that they determine if God is really there for you and if He would want to be there for them too. We are reflecting Him out to the world. This is how we either attract people to Him or not. If our responses are good no matter how bad or ugly our circumstances are then their curiosity may be peaked, and if it is they may want to personally know Him too.

Do we believe that we can have the strength to endure life's hardships? Philippians 4:12b-13, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." (NIV)

Do we really get that God is with us in all things? "...Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Mathew 6:33-34 (MSG) 

Rejoice my friends! Enjoy 2014! "Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit). The Lord is near [He is coming soon]. Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God." Philippians 4:4-9 (AMP)

God bless you my dear friends! Thank you for reading my first devotional of 2014!