Month: March 2010

Good Morning!

I want to first say it has been a blessing for me to know that some of you feel that these messages on what love is has spoken to your heart at just the right time. Praise the Lord! I pray that you all continue to let God’s word remain in your thoughts and subsequently direct your deeds. 🙂

Psalm 119:11
Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.  

I trust that those of you who are reading these weekly messages are indeed coming to understand how awesome love is. My hope is that with a deeper understanding of these verses on the nature of love, we will be compelled to praise God for His love toward us and to let our own love toward others rise to levels not yet demonstrated. Living life with genuine love is so sweet and joyful!

And so, remembering that we can understand something by considering what it is not, we come to the end of verse five…

1^st Corinthians 13:5b
Love… thinks no evil;

Wow! Now this characteristic of true love speaks to our inner person, to what we think in our thoughts. You know as well as I do that our thoughts cannot be known by any other person unless we give them expression. Well… no other person except God…

Luke 11:17a
But He (Jesus) knowing their thoughts, said to them…

Thus, because no one else on earth can know your thoughts, it is critical and essential that you be true with yourself. Don’t let your pride and guilty conscience or lack of motivation to think deeply keep you from facing the truth of yourself. Okay? Ready?

True love thinks no evil.

Do you see this? True love thinks no evil. This is the Christian standard.

When you consider your own thought patterns in your daily course of life, do you find that place prepared for true love to flourish? Or do you find dirty corners or ugly spots that seem to never go away or get cleaned up?  (And just as frustrating, maybe sometimes it is clean and sometimes it is not.)

In truth, a Christian has the capacity to think no evil by the power of the Holy Spirit residing in them. This is an effect of the transformed inner nature. The Christian can love with a true love… the only question is of duration. How so? The outer carnal flesh remains to stain our feet, as it were… 

John 13:10a
Jesus said to him (Peter), “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet…”

On the other hand, having not been “bathed”, dark and unwashed areas consist of things that prevent your spirit from being clean. Those are the things you know should not be there, and yet there they are. When an inner nature is not clean, one of the consequences is that the conditions for true love are absent because love thinks no evil. I once had some of those dark areas in my soul too. But you know what? Those dark areas can be cleaned up for good through repentance and faith in Christ!

All those dirty and ugly areas, frankly, fall into the category of evil things. It really is perilous to hold on to them! Cast them out like the idols of Baal! If you want them out, you must first consciously and completely repent of them. Then let us plead alongside King David…

Psalm 51:2
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

And a wonder of wonders is that Almighty God is a God who longs to (and delights to) forgive sins…

1^st John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Wow! See how love is really a bellwether? May we all truly love!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Hi Everyone,

How are you? Hope all is well. Let’s get rolling…

1^st Corinthians 13:5b
Love… is not provoked…

Think of provoked as being stirred up. Then think of what is the cause of being stirred up. In the context of what love is; to be not “provokable” is to not allow things to stir you up… to get you irritated or angry.

Perhaps someone has tried to pick a fight with you (for some reason). They may have called you names, pushed your buttons, mischaracterized your motives, or something of the sort.

Did you feel the annoyance rise up in you? Did you feel the urge to defend yourself? I think we all have.

These were the times we were provoked.

Even the great Apostle Paul yielded to provocation…

Acts 23:1-3 (NKJV)
Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him (Paul) on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”

Paul was provoked by a slap to the face.

Being in a state of provocation does not love because we are, in that moment, in a defense posture. And being defensive is really just wall-building. And walls prevent closeness and intimacy… the very things love seeks to foment.

And here’s why it is so hard to love this way in our own strength: to be not provoked is to be vulnerable. Yet to be vulnerable is to be wide open to those very things that would provoke us. The truth of the matter is that to show forth this true love, the Child of God is able by the imparted nature of the Father.

Jesus demonstrated this…

1^st Peter 2:23
… when He was reviled [He] did not revile in return, when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him (God the Father) who judges righteously;

You see; if you are a true Christian, why allow your own pride to interrupt God’s possible using you to display Himself to your provocateurs? Let that supernatural character within you do what it is supposed to do: Glorify God!

In closing, one of the helpful things you could commit to memory and adopt into your deep thinking and deep convictions is that God will take care of you…  And with this week’s message, you never need to be provoked by those who may try to stir you up. Here’s one reason why…

Deuteronomy 32:35a
Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time;

Love as Christ loves you and commit yourself to the Father!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Hi Everyone!

Imagine you and your loved one go out to the ice cream shop to get some ice cream. Upon walking up to the ice cream freezers, you look down and scan your eyes across the tubs of ice cream. You are searching for your absolutely favorite flavor of all time… Mississippi Mud, a deep chocolate concoction of chocolate and chocolate fudge ice cream with chewy fudge chunks and dark fudge ribbon swirl.

Ah ha! There it is… They have it! The last time you had it was when you were a kid. With excitement in your eyes you look over to your loved one who says, “I really want to try Mississippi Mud, I heard it is awesome”.

“It sure is, honey. I’ll order for both of us.”

To your surprise, the customer in front of you orders five triple scoops of Mississippi Mud in waffle cones for everyone in his family, which virtually depletes the remainder of the ice cream in the tub.

“Welcome to Creamy Scoops; what would you like?”

You order what’s left of the Mississippi Mud ice cream, (a single scoop), and settle for a scoop of Pistachio Nut Crunch. Then, with both cones in your hands, you walk over to your loved one… 

“Mmmm! This is awesome!”

What do you think love did in this simple scenario? The Bible can tell us…

1^st Corinthians 13:5a (NKJV)
Love… does not seek its own…

1^st Corinthians 13:5a (ESV)
Love… does not insist on its own way…

Though it may be another 20 years before you find Mississippi Mud again, you joyfully give it away to your loved one because you want them to know and experience the sheer bliss of chocolaty yumminess… ha! Okay, kinda silly I know. Here’s a more far-reaching example…

Some four thousand years ago, Abraham displayed this aspect of true love towards Lot when conflict arose between his herdsmen and his own herdsmen. The land could not support their combined massive amount of domesticated animals. Read what happened…

Genesis 13:8-11 (ESV)
Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.

Can you see how Abraham was not seeking his own benefit, but showing deference to Lot? Did not God Almighty Himself promise to give the land to Abraham? And yet Abraham wanted peace between Lot and himself, rather than the best of the land. Also later, don’t forget, Abraham demonstrated great love to God by seeking to obey God (not insisting on his own way) even if it would require killing his own son Isaac as a sacrifice to Him, (see Genesis 22:2-3).

How is such love possible? This love does not come naturally from sinful mankind, but from holy God… it is part of His very nature. God gives His children this kind of love when He takes up residence in them, by the Holy Spirit. Wow!

So, let’s try something… For the next seven days, observe how/ if you and your loved ones show this kind of love. Does it come naturally or is it lacking? Is it given freely or conditionally? Lord, help us to love as You love us!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Hola!

This week’s look at love, should you read further, will be convicting. I am convicted just thinking of it. And you know something… we need to be convicted. Why? I am trying to show what true love looks like by what the Bible says because pretend love is insidious. And I know this because I pretended to love God and others for most of my life.

Satan so obscures and confuses and misdirects what true love is, most people have no idea what true love is. Most people think love is just an emotion… Our culture equates love with sexual gratification. As we grew up, did the music we listen to teach us what real love is? What about our boyfriends and girlfriends? How about our parents… did they exemplify true love to us? Probably not. Most love, consequently then, is learned to be used as a means to get what we want from God and others.

The next time unforgiveness creeps into your heart, understand you’re simply not getting what your self-centered pride demanded. Love does not demand an apology, for love keeps no record of wrongs… as we shall see later.

Therefore, pretending to love God is not loving God… and if I am not loving God, then I don’t have a real relationship with Him… and if I don’t have a real relationship with Him, then why in the world am I going to church and small group? Or on the flip-side, is that why I don’t read my Bible and/ or go to church anymore? Let us allow God’s word to expose our vileness for our own sake!

1^st Corinthians 13:5a (NKJV)
Love… does not behave rudely…

Do you see this? Rude behavior is indicative of a lack of true love!

Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

Here are some descriptions of rudeness, (cut and pasted from Merriam-Webster) synonyms: rude, rough, crude, mean lacking in social refinement. rude implies ignorance of or indifference to good form; it may suggest intentional discourtesy <rude behavior>. rough is likely to stress lack of polish and gentleness <rough manners>. crude may apply to thought or behavior limited to the gross, the obvious, or the primitive <a crude joke>. Also…

• being in a rough or unfinished state
• lacking refinement or delicacy
• occurring abruptly and disconcertingly

Now the application I would suggest you consider is to take these descriptions and line them up to your daily manners or common attitudes and behaviors you exhibit to those around you.

Are you ever intentionally discourteous? Do you ever lack gentleness toward others? Do you enjoy telling (or hearing) gross jokes? Do you react abruptly or is your self-composure easily disrupted?

For example: I confess that sometimes I (regretfully) allow myself to become sarcastic toward others when they offend me (injure my proud heart). I can smile and be very cordial, but spit out biting sarcasm. There have been times that my outward body language gives no indication to my inner resentment, and my sarcasm is not perceived because of it. But God knows. It is like a refined rudeness. And I’ve suffered the Lord’s chastisement because of it.

Is Jesus Christ rude to us? No! He loves us. And if you’re one of His followers… then follow Him indeed! Love is not rude… either towards others or towards Jesus our Lord.

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Good Morning,

Hope all is well with all of you! Me and mine are fighting either the rhino or corona viruses. Hopefully just a couple of more days and we’ll be over them!

Well, this week I want to summarize the last few weeks… for the last few weeks our weekly messages covered just a single verse:

1^st Corinthians 13:4 (NKJV)
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

Hopefully you have noticed that love, true love (as defined by God) is awesome and precious. It is an action word that seeks the best of others regardless of what may come. It is innocent and deliberate, holy and honorable, though willing to be trodden down if (hopefully) it brings you closer to understanding true love yourself.

To encounter a person… better yet, God who liberally gives this love out is to be swept away in joy and thanksgiving. Just think of John Newton who wrote “Amazing Grace” after comprehending and experiencing God’s love after years of profane living…

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Grace means merciful kindness… and perhaps you’ve heard it described as undeserved love. Yes… that’s right…. You find love in grace!

Reading the Old Testament will show would how gracious God was toward mankind… from Adam and Eve right on through to Noah and his family. I mean, God knew mankind was still bent against Him even though He saved them to re-populate the earth. And then on to Abraham and his descendants, to King David and the nation Israel… time and again sparing them total annihilation despite all that rebellion and spiritual adultery! Even modern Israel, now under divine chastening remains and will be restored and redeemed yet again in the future.

Let us not forget Jesus Christ…

2^nd Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

True love is divine! Jesus not only demonstrates what true love looks like, He enables us to love others in this way when we yield to His word and Spirit in us.

How is your love toward others?

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim