THE WORD AND THE WORLD

Jesus prayed, “I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.”  (John 17:14-17 NKJV)

God's Word teaches forgiveness and the world teaches revenge. The Word teaches sharing and the world teaches hoarding. The Word teaches humility and the world teaches pride. The Word teaches dependence on God and the world teaches self-reliance. The Word teaches us to love God and the world teaches us to love self. The Word teaches us to help those in need and the world teaches us to "take care of your own".

And perhaps one of the most disheartening is that God offers us faith and the world seems to underscore and build fear. It is only with worship to God Almighty that we learn to have complete faith in this life as well as total assurance in the life to come - eternal life. The best, the very best, this world can offer is meaningless compared to the benefits of worshipping the Lord. 

-- Pastor Gary Stone

#6380

 

BAKING A CAKE

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NRSV)

The story is told of a very ill little boy who was telling his Grandma how "everything" was going wrong -- school was too hard, family problems, his severe pain, just all the hardships he was going through. Meanwhile, Grandma was baking a cake. She asked the child if he would like a snack, which of course he did.

"Here. Have some cooking oil."

"Yuck," said the boy.

"How about a couple of raw eggs?"

"Gross, Grandma."

"Would you like some flour then?  Or, maybe baking soda?"

"Grandma, those are all yucky!"

Grandma replied: "Yes, Sweetheart, those things seem bad all by themselves. But, when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He could let us go through such bad and difficult times, but God knows that, when He takes those things and puts them all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually the yucky stuff will be used to make something wonderful in our lives!"

God will work all things for our good if we but love and trust Him!

– Author Unknown

#6362

BEING GREAT AT THE GREAT COMMANDMENT – Part 2 of 2

Salvation is always granted on God's terms, and it reflects the nature of God Himself. The most identifiable characteristic of salvation is the quality of our love, first toward God and then toward His people. Without a love relationship on both levels, vertically and horizontally, we have not experienced God's salvation. If we get this basic truth wrong, we are in desperate trouble.

God's strategy to touch this world is vitally linked with these two basic relationships. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He said in Mark 12:29-31, “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

-- Henry Blackaby and Melvin D. Blackaby in “Experiencing God Together: God's Plan to Touch Your World”  

#5937

GOD HIMSELF WILL BE WITH THEM

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’”  (Revelation 21:3-5 NKJV)

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come again in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; He simply stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of those horrors, that the Father’s love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it. 

-- Brennan Manning in “Reflections of a Ragamuffin” 

#5762

GOD’S WIDE EMBRACE

“God sent His Son, they called Him Jesus,
He came to love, heal, and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.”  (Bill and Gloria Gaither)

God, in Christ, embraces all the events and all the people who ever will pass before Him in the march of time. In that broad panorama, individual Christians may often feel so insignificant that they wonder to themselves whether or not even the most powerful microscope could find them! At those moments we need to rediscover the truth that God entered human history in the person of Jesus Christ in order to tie the poor threads of our scrap of time back into eternity. God's wide embrace includes you and me, for it was the lost of this world that God sent Jesus so that we and our moment of history's stage might be redeemed. You are locked into the embrace of God, an embrace that will never fail. In Jesus Christ, God said, "I love you. You are Mine." 

-- Paul K. Peterson in “Redeeming Love”

#5748

EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38-39 NIV)

It seems we do not often see or sense God’s sovereign love exercised on our behalf. Instead, we see ourselves beset with all kinds of calamities that come rolling in upon us. We see ourselves as the victims of “nature’s cruel fate,” of the injustices of other people, and of the adversities that occur with no rational cause.

It is at times like this that we must take our stand by faith on the assurances of God’s love given to us in the Scriptures. We cannot evade one of the basic principles of the Christian life, “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Certainly our faith frequently wavers and, just as we may momentarily question the wisdom of God, we will momentarily question the goodness and love of God. We will be like David when he said, “In my alarm I said, ‘I am cut off from Your sight!’” (Psalm 31:22)  That is often our initial reaction when adversity strikes us. We feel cut off from God’s face, from His love and tender care.

But we must also learn to say with David, “Yet You heard my cry for mercy when I called to You for help.” (Psalm 31:22)  God cannot forsake us because we are His children, in blessed union with His Son. We cannot be cut off from His sight. But we can be cut off from the assurance of His love when we allow doubt and unbelief to gain a foothold in our hearts. 

-- Jerry Bridges in “Trusting God”

#5678

A HEART OF COMPASSION

“The most important [commandment],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”  (Mark 12:29-30 NIV)

It is a sad commentary and sadder irony that Christians are often viewed as heartless.  And I think it’s because we’ve engaged our culture mind-first instead of heart-first.  Let me explain.  I believe that Scripture is the inspired Word of God, right down to the jot and tittle.  That means that even word sequence is significant.  And when Jesus reveals the four primal elements of love, the heart comes first.  I’m afraid that the Western church has tried to engage our culture mind-first instead of heart-first.  But minds often remain closed to truth until hearts have been opened by compassion.  There is certainly a place for logical, left-brained explanations of faith.  But compassion is the ultimate apologetic.  There is no defense against it. 

-- Mark Batterson in “PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”

#5631

EXPANDING FAITH THREE SIZES

“Afterward Jesus appeared again to His disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ‘I’m going out to fish,’ Simon Peter told them, and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’ So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.”  (John 21:1-4 NIV)

Thinking all is lost after the crucifixion, some of the disciples go fishing on the Sea of Galilee -- a dismal, depressing, fishing expedition. Hot, naked, and exhausted, the disciples try valiantly to return to the way things were before they met Jesus. Suddenly a voice from the shore (big rock thrown here): “Catchin’ anything?” “Nah,” they shout back, more depressed than ever. “Then try the other side of the boat!” the voice yells again. Peter stands up to see who this wise guy is. Wait -- no, it can’t be -- but, yes, it is: the Lord! Suddenly Peter can’t move fast enough. He leaps into the water, and swims to shore, leaving the others to haul in a miraculous catch. His faith grows three sizes in a matter of minutes. The boundaries of what he thinks God can do explode, and his love and gratitude for what God is doing in Jesus Christ, Lord of Life, is simply too large to fit in the boat any more. 

-- Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster in “The Godbearing Life”

#5581

THE PRIORITY OF WORSHIP

If the Lord is to be Lord, worship must have a priority in our lives. The first commandment of Jesus is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). The divine priority is worship first, service second. Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving and adoration. Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity may become the enemy of adoration. 

-- M. Scott Peck in “Celebration of Discipline”

#5513

BECAUSE GOD LOVES US

The Bible is a story of love: God’s love for the world and God’s love for His children. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8). Nowhere do we see the love of God more active than in Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

This famous verse captures the heart of the Bible, the heart of the faith, and truly the heart of God. Jesus came to us because God loves us. That is the supreme example of agape love. God loves us first. (1 John 4:19) God takes the first step. And the birth of Jesus proves that.

In Jesus, we see God taking the first step to touch and shape our lives. In offering His Son to you, God shows you His highest dreams for your life. He wants us to be like Christ. That is the best-version-of-yourself. Just as Jell-O takes the form of the container it is surrounded by, so too are we shaped by what we are surrounded by. God desires to immerse you in Himself, Jesus. In Him you can fulfill God’s dream for your life. 

-- Allen R. Hunt in “Nine Words: A Bible Study to Help You Become the Best-Version-of-Yourself”

#5496

THE GIFT OF LOVE

“We love because He first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from Him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”  (1 John 4:19 NRSV)

Love is the most important gift we'll give during our lifetime. More than a one-time extravagance, it's a genuine, ongoing assurance we express through our words and actions. There are many priceless gifts that find their roots in love. Forgiveness. Trust. Friendship. Kindness. Sacrifice. Each one is a vital piece of a beautiful whole.

We love others because God loves us so graciously. Merit isn't an issue with God, nor should it be with us. We should give love so generously that it becomes a part of who we are and a reflection of Who we serve.   

-- Source Unknown

#5465

WE ARE FAMILY – Part 2

“If someone says, 'I love God,' but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”  (1 John 4:20 NLT)

We need to reflect on the implications of this image [of family] for our experiences of church. We frequently talk of churches and act as though they were branches of an organization, rather than as extended families. We often reduce the lists of qualities in passages like Galatians 5:22 and Colossians 3:12-14 to a purely individual affair. We lift ourselves out of our family context and speak about confidence and generosity etc. in some vague and abstract sense, rather than as a call to love deeply from the heart those people with whom we church. Without concrete long-term evidence of such love for each other our “Christian” communities are a [sham] (John 13:34-35).

-- Mark Strom in “The Symphony of Scripture: Making Sense of the Bible’s Many Themes”

#5423

LOVING GOD, LOVING OTHERS

“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And He has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.”  (1 John 4:20-21 NLT)

The social gospel is not an addendum to the gospel; it is the gospel.  If we read the Gospels, it becomes clear that it was not what Jesus said about God that got Him into trouble (but) His treatment of men and women, His way of being friendly with outcasts with whom no respectable Jew would have anything to do.  It has always been fairly safe to talk about God; it is when we start to talk about [humans] that the trouble starts. And yet the fact remains that there is no conceivable way of proving that we love God other than by loving [others].  And there is no conceivable way of proving that we love [others] than by doing something for those who most need help. 

-- William Barclay in “Ethics in a Permissive Society” [1971] 

#5417

CHOOSE LIFE

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days;…”  (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a NKJV)

Feelings of disconnection can be most painful when we also feel separated from God… Often the feeling of disconnection persists and we are obliged simply to wait.  But such waiting is a necessary component of the crisis, a time during which we are further stripped of illusions about who God is, as well as who God is not…

The opportunity that accompanies the darkness of disconnection is freedom to search for meaning unhindered by attachments that once constrained us.  From an unfettered stance that allows us to look over the whole of our life with newfound clarity, we have the capacity to choose goals, tasks, and relationships that are healthy and free of illusion. 

Perhaps it is only now that we can understand the commandment to "choose life."

-- Judy Cannato in “Weavings Journal” Jan/Feb 2001, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission. 

#5338

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, now powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

In the final days of his life, William Saroyan joked with a friend visiting him in the hospital.  "I always knew that people don't live forever," the famous writer said, "but somehow in my case, I thought there would be an exception made."  Like Saroyan, we all have trouble imagining our own deaths.  However as we grow older, that reality looms larger and larger.

I suppose I didn't really give dying much serious thought until a life-threatening illness visited me a few years ago.  Then my life came into perspective, and time was of the essence.  Shortcomings were magnified, mistakes easier to admit, forgiveness easier to ask, estrangements mended, things undone and unsaid acted upon.

Although the crisis passed, I was changed more than a little by my brush with death.  Time has become more precious, relationships more important, and God's manifold gifts and grace more appreciated.  And a magnificent piece of Scripture more meaningful than ever before.  It comes from Paul's letter to the Romans, the incomparable eighth chapter, which concludes with the question: "What can separate us from the love of Christ?"  The apostle's answer: Nothing. Not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or the sword. And certainly not death.

Once we have that assurance in our hearts, once we know and believe and trust the One Who died for us, the length of our life becomes far less important than its legacy, its duration far less significant than its contribution.

-- Fred Bauer 

#5089

RELYING ON GOD’S LOVE

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us." (1 John 4:16, NIV)

When it comes right down to it, this is the bottom line, the bedrock foundation for our faith, and the explanation of the peace we have about the present and the future. Knowing and relying on God's love for us is our duty and our joy in all circumstances, and it's the best and only answer to any situation we run up against. It allows us to look beyond the circumstances to see (or simply trust in) God's hand working in our lives...

Know God's love. Rely on it. That's all He asks us to do.

-- Laura Hepker, Christianity Online

#5042

FALLING IN LOVE

“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Applying human criteria for "falling in love," does it describe your love for God? That is, do we get that sense of awe and wonder? Do we relish the time spent together? Do we think about Him as we go about our day? Worshipping our Lord should stir emotions in our very soul. Yes, we should be "in love" with God Almighty. We should nourish that love and strive to build it stronger and stronger as we together face the trials of this earth. Our experiences in life should bring us closer and closer to our God. He is there, willing and waiting.

-- Pastor Gary Stone

#5006

BECAUSE WE LOVE JESUS

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”  (Mark 12:30 NIV)

Sometimes as I think about the accomplishments of others, just for a moment I wonder, “What if…?” But then, almost immediately, I’m reminded that God has given me my own unique purpose in life.

Psalm 23:3 says, “He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” To find and follow those paths, to work out His purpose for our lives, will require reading and studying God’s Word and praying about how it applies to us. It will involve obedience and service. Not because we have to but because we love Jesus. That’s the path He has laid out before us.

With all your heart just follow Jesus. From personal experience, I can assure you, you’ll be blessed. Satisfied. Fulfilled. He will never mislead you. He will lead you right. Follow Him! 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus: Daily Moments in His Word”

#5005

GOD’S LOVE AND TRUTH

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  (Matthew 22:36-40 NRSV)

The "sweet spot" of spiritual power comes when God's love and God's truth are delivered in concert stereo.  Many congregations and believers are known for either their command of God's truth through Scripture or their abundant love of all creation.  It is time for more followers of Christ to consider them both an inseparable commodity.

At a monastery, a monk challenged us with this thought; "The great commandment is not two commands, but one.  They are inseparable."

God's pure love is unable to flow abundantly through a person who has not been filled up by it.  I am not saying you cannot love another, or that you cannot act in loving ways.  The unconditional love we need and seek is sourced at the wellspring of God.  To give it, you must first drink it in from the Source; there is no other way.  You cannot be a delivery vehicle of God's truth if you are not a recipient of God's unconditional and abundant love.

-- Larry Malone in “UM Men's Magazine”, Spring 2004


#4777

OUR LOVE FOR GOD

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  (Psalm 73:25-26 NKJV)

Nothing must become a rival to our love for God, even if it is something good. We sometimes have a tendency to let our service for Christ become a substitute for a longing heart to know Him more fully. To be active in missions work is a good thing. But to be so active in missions that one has little or no time to wait before God in prayer is to miss the point of true discipleship. Our first priority is an unhindered, unrushed experience of God, preferably in quietness and solitude. Then we can go from that experience renewed and energized to do the work of the Lord.

-- Jerry Mercer in “Cry Joy!”


#4750