Love the Right Way

Continuing on the same vein as Sunday’s sermon on becoming a family of commitment (Berean Baptist Church), this morning’s study from 1 Peter 1:22-25 dealt with being committed to loving the family of believers. The sermon I half listened to (I was trying to balance my budget at the same time…) brought up a question. If I’m with an un-believer and a believer, and something comes up that may offend one of them, do I risk offending the believer or the unbeliever? The answer was you risk offense to the unbeliever because we’re called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ just as Christ loved us. “By this will all men know” how great it is to be a part of the family of Christ. It was cool. We have a lot of heart issues that impede us from doing what we really need to be doing, I’ve been realizing it lately. I have to keep that love in my heart for my spiritual family when (many times) it’s easy to take them for granted just like I do my actual family. On top of that, I worry and I find myself like Martha, getting caught up and being distracted so that I miss things that should be clear: like my widow neighbor, my unsaved co-worker. Yikes. A committed Christian’s gotta get her focus clear. Love the right way, then do as you please.

Love from the Heart

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass / and all its glory like the flower of grass. / The grass withers, / and the flower falls, / but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

- Peter 1:22-25

Healer of Everything

Finished reading Philemon. Have you read it recently? It’s good. And short. And it’s even a rap song if you want to put a spin on your study: Take ‘Em Back by Dillon Chase. (Seriously!)

And what happens when the run-away slave, Onesimus is taken back by his former master? Does Philemon accept him? Free him? Accept him, yes. Free him? Philemon 1:16 indicates he is still to be used by Philemon ‘in the flesh’ although they are brothers in Christ. Philemon’s forgiveness didn’t shake the culture from slavery…but his call to follow Christ changed his household and community. Christ’s greater forgiveness of our sins ended slavery. It caused the downfall of the Roman world’s slave trade.

Think about that. The call to follow Christ has ended the social ill of slavery in nations. It brought freedom in its place. This is the culture change the Israelites were expecting in so many different ways than a baby in a manger. But He healed the world with His power. So if Christ can cure a culture of slavery indirectly, can He also cure other ills? Can He cure heartache, worldwide? Is it ok if I equate slavery with heartache for a second?

Because Christ didn’t fight heartache, just as He didn’t fight against slavery. He didn’t protest that. His followers weren’t advocating happiness all the time…Jesus’ mission was to save us from sin. The social justice was an effect. But He called us to a life of slavery to Him - ”servants” to Christ, “prisoners” even.  We’re to carry the cross and follow Him.

So hang on. If Christ calls us to a life of slavery, can I say then, that Christ calls us to a life of heartache too? Do I find joy and peace in it, like the sermon on the mount mentions? Do I find hope through patience, even though it’s so opposite to even consider? Is there love found through heartache just like freedom is found through slavery? God help me, because I’m understanding so!

I woke up this morning knowing God has healed my life – not in part, but the whole. So if that God who has healed me, wholly and completely, can change 1 cultural ill, He is the God who can heal EVERYTHING. He is the God who makes all pain, shame, suffering, and defeats turn to glory.

If you’re reading this and finding hope in the message, Christ is calling. He’s the only 1 who brings us LIFE through DEATH and wants you to know how sweet life with Him truly is.

Resist.

Not wanting to copy too much of what I’m not supposed to, I’ll post one last passage from Wurmbrand’s book Tortured for Christ:

“There is no restraint from the depths of evil that is in man. The Communist torturers often said, ‘There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.’  I heard one torturer say, ‘I thank God, in whom I don’t believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.’  He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners…

…I learned from them. As they allowed no place for Jesus in their hearts, I decided I would leave not the smallest place for Satan in mine.”

~~~~~~~~  

I thought of that passage today. To not leave even the smallest place for Satan in me. It takes a lot of God to overpower when bitterness wants to take over instead. It takes a lot of God when relaxing turns into worry, when work turns into doubt…

I was trying to watch a full episode of NCIS  online when, almost every 30 seconds, a commercial would pop up with a lot of palm trees and chill out music and tawny colors (alcohol ad – you might’ve been thinking a car commercial). The tag line said: Resist Simple. It was for gin. Resist simple and drink gin? It’s such an outright lie! The thing is, it wasn’t even written out properly. Some of the letters were backwards. (Maybe it’s too simple to face the right way???)

And that’s where Satan comes – everywhere. And he changes every moment into an opportunity to fool you, to get you down, to move you farther away from love or making you think you’re nothing. This wasn’t all in the commercial, but there’s absolutely no mistaking the artful presence of evil in life.

From one second to the next, we have to be deliberate Christians. 

Resist temptation.

I AM

Hope for those who need it now

The promise from God to everyone who believes in Him…

I Am by CeCe Winans

I am the one yes I created the whole universe
Greater than anything in heaven and in all the earth
It’s my air you breathe so I’m the one that you should please
I am the one you need why should you be alone?

I am that I am
I’m all that you need
I can yes I can
no it ain’t too hard for me
Do you know, really know, do you really believe
Every day, every night of your life
I am

It hurts my heart indeed to see those whom I love in need
Knowing all I wonder why they never call on me
If you just ask and I can satisfy you with the things
I’ll give you everything, yes you can have it all
I tell the sun to rise, the wind to blow, the rain to fall
I move the mountains and the oceans rivers great and small
Yes everything I made I want to hear them give me praise
Especially you my children each and every day

I am that I am
I’m all that you need
I can yes I can
No it ain’t too hard for me
Do you know really know
Do you really believe
Everyday
every night
of your life

I am…

 

This issue’s Discipleship Journal is in!

So I subscribed for a year to Discipleship Journal, left it for a year, and now just started it up again. It’s a great resource and magazine. This bimonthly issue’s cover topic is “Thinking Biblically about Politics,” only a huge concern right now for upcoming elections. But what I’m really excited about is page 62: “Between Here and There: Help for navigating life’s transitions.” I’m totally in transition! I just have no idea where it is exactly that I’m going. For anyone interested, the magazine is a Christian resource with honestly impressive art which complements the thoughtful Biblical commentaries and sections. In an effort to get my work done, I’m tyring to use it as my reward and actually start writing a paper. Instead, I’m blogging. Aghhhh….

But hey, if you’re not procrastinating, check out www.discipleshipjournal.com!

All Rain and No Sunshine Make a Desert

This was a wonderful devotional I was reading this morning. Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m not getting what I want – kinda like a child who’s being corrected. I don’t like the idea, but Proverbs 3:11-12 help: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be wary of his correction: for whom the Lord loves, he corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights.” At least God isn’t hiding – he’s clearly working in a lot of things I’m going through (he got me through a semester of graduate school without filing for bankruptcy). But I’m definitely not being spoon-fed the ‘desires of my heart’ like I’m expecting. Anyway, the devotion is taken from RBC Ministries, Our Daily Bread: http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2008/04/07/devotion.aspx.

“April 7, 2008

Why? Why? Oh, Why?

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. —Hebrews 12:7

Why must I suffer disappointment, sorrow, and tribulation? What have I done that God should send me trials? Is He displeased with me? These questions are constantly asked by God’s dear children.

Much of this fear and questioning is due to our misunderstanding of God’s dealings with His own. He has His good reasons. And one of those reasons is for our spiritual discipline. We should be far more afraid of being left alone than of God’s chastening, for He wastes no time on worthless objects that give no promise of fruitfulness.

On the shores of Lake Michigan are great barren sand dunes that have never felt the point of a plow. But in the rich lowlands beyond them, the farmer is constantly cultivating the soil. The farmer knows what he is doing, so he keeps on breaking up the soil. The deeper the plow works and the more the sharp harrow, the more precious the crop will be when harvest time comes.

God’s plow goes deep, but it is only that in the end we may forget the plowing and rejoice in the blessing of bearing much fruit for Him. “No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).  — M.R. De Haan

When blades of distress cut deep in the soul,
Breaking up ground that was untouched before,
The Lord is preparing soil to bear fruit
Fit for the harvest to feed many more. —Hess

All sunshine and no rain make a desert.”

Happy Easter! Hope (with lyrics)

Because it’s Easter and the lyrics flow so well, here’s a great example of hope and grace. It’s a great song, too. You can listen at http://www.myspace.com/jeremycamp.   

“Let it Fade” – Jeremy Camp… 

Have you been walking on a surface that’s uncertain?
Have you helped yourself to everything that’s empty?
You can’t live this way too long.
There’s more than this, more than this.
Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest, you will find rest.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade.

Have you been holding on to what this world has offered?
Have you been giving in to all these masquerades?
It will be gone, forever gone.
It will be gone, it will be gone

Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade.

He is Risen!

 ”What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” – Matthew 8:27

For Christians, today is the best day of the world really.

This morning I woke up to hear the bells pealing, and the birds singing. My dad was playing Easter hymns at full blast. It was beautiful. The Christ-child that was born has gone through a lifetime of living on this earth the way everyone has experienced it. He’s dealt with family life with siblings and all. He’s grown up knowing the difference between the haves and the have-nots. He’s been acquainted with disappointment, health, death, and sadness. He’s had some cuts and bruises along the way – experienced the pain of hunger. He knows what it is to live in a fallen world.  He’s seen the ups and downs of having friends who are on some days, and off the next. He’s had everyone leave Him when He’s needed it most. This guy seems a lot like me. Except…He was God. 

Christ – the Emmanuel that the angels sang to in a manger so long ago – has taken on the world without giving in to its temptations and sins. Today we celebrate the fact that Jesus conquered death for life. 

Jesus doesn’t walk among us anymore, but reigns over us. He stays with us because He walked the same road. For others the story is pretty interesting, but without faith that Christ was also God in flesh, the truth is missed completely.

What kind of God would come down to earth and live here?

What kind of God would be so bold as to die here and let it go down in history?

What kind of followers would tell the whole world the story so others could believe the same?

It’s crazy but this Christ whom Christians deify is truly an amazing God. Happy Easter, and God bless you! Christ is risen!