Who is my Brother?

On September 24, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Psalm 119:63         TLB

Anyone is my brother who fears and trusts the Lord and obeys him.

In these confusing times, it is nice to have theological guidance from the one who is best qualified to teach us, the Lord Himself. It is so easy for humans to divide ourselves into cliques. In religious circles we call them denominations. The denominations work to help likeminded individuals worship God in patterns which agree with their personal philosophies, habits and even comfort. We are different but have similarities with others. We congregate around those similarities.

In today’s verse, God shows us the one similarity that is important to Him. We can overlook a great number of differences when we have this one in common; that we each love God, having given our trust and obedience to Him. Interestingly, this guiding principle leads us to communion with Jews as well as Christian denominations because they, too, love the God we love. So, it turns out that the real test for communion is love of the one true God. How we serve Him and how we worship Him is less important than our zeal for Him.

I have adopted this philosophy though not so much intellectually as organically. By that I mean that I really did not make a decision to believe this way. I simply found myself attracted to others who love God even if we don’t believe exactly the same. I am also learning that I do not have to persuade them to my way of thinking. The Holy Spirit is the teacher and is leading us all on the journey to full enlightenment. It is his responsibility to teach us. I may have some revelation another doesn’t, but they may have learned some things I have not yet learned. It is even okay to be wrong if you love Yahweh. Our Lord is revealing all truth to us bit by bit and will lead us all to the fullness of the knowledge of Him. The one thing God cannot do is mandate our love and devotion. The decision to love and serve Him is uniquely our own. Once that decision is firmly settled down in one’s spirit, the decision to love others becomes easier and easier.

You and I both have witnessed disagreement between Catholics and Protestants, between Jews and Christians, and disputes amongst Protestants. When I imagine myself sitting in the throne room, beside God looking down and witnessing these disputes, I do not perceive them as important. In truth, today’s verse is an excellent reflection of Jesus’ theology. When asked which was the greatest commandment Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37 – 40). Jesus was teaching that all of the law and all the teaching of the prophets, the entire canon of law and the entire theological doctrine from the beginning of humanity until that very moment was contained in those two commandments. Jesus then went on to synthesize and express the entire law and doctrine of his coming and ascension, or the complete embodiment of New Covenant theology. He said, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another,” (John 13: 34). This is the sum of Jesus’ theological argument. This is New Testament, resurrected savior theology. The rest of the New Testament is there to lead us to this revelation.

I am not Catholic, but I love Catholics. I am not Baptist, but I love Baptists. I do not cling to any one denomination, but if you love Jesus and if you revere God, then you are my brother and I love you. My job in God’s service is to teach but first, I must love. If you get a revelation because of something I have taught, fabulous! But, if you draw closer to Yahweh in your own relationship with Him because you have seen the love of God in me, Hallelujah! That is the glory of God.

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Daddy

On September 17, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 145: 14

The Lord sustains all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down.

Many people do not seem to understand the basic nature of God. He is a father first and foremost. He longs to care for his kids. He does not want us to come into the kingdom so that we can serve him. He wants everyone to enter in so that he can take care of them. He wants to help us, to lead us, to show us the way so that we do not stumble but in those inevitable times when we, just like any kid, don’t listen to him and we do stumble and fall, he is there to pick us up and make it all better. He longs to be generous and kind to us and he only wants the best for us. He is there today for anyone who has fallen or lost their way. He is a loving father longing to extend his love and care to all who will receive him.

If you can embrace this fundamental truth, you will understand a great deal of theology that eludes others. You will understand evangelism, sin, healing and everything else in a deeper and more meaningful way. Begin with love, with the Father of love, and you are well on your way.

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First Love

On June 28, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 5: 1 – 5

My son, pay attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding, so that you may maintain discretion and your lips may comply with knowledge. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

We can talk about adultery in the narrowest sense. In this case, a married man having an extra-marital affair. We understand that. However, perhaps these verses have a broader context as well. We, the beloved, have stepped out on God who is our first love, our true love. We have put our careers, human relationships, sports, food and about everything you can name before Him. When we are supposed to be with Him, we are giving our affection to other things or people. They have become the adulteress who lures us away from the one true love and they lead us into Sheol, to our demise, to our death. We, not just individually, but collectively. We, the church, have forsaken our first love.

Later, in this proverb, Solomon says to be satisfied with the wife of your youth. That speaks of God who loved us first, who loved us before our great-grandparents were born, who saw us from the pre-dawn of time and dedicated Himself to us forever.

As a body, and as individuals, our hearts long to return to our first love and be satisfied. However, all the other components of who we are and life’s complexities conspire to steal us away from the deepest love of our heart. It takes dedication and determined purpose to retain the zeal of young love. Remember how sweet this love is and fall in love all over again.

Proverb 5: 

https://classic.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverb+5&version=NASB

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Revealed in You

On May 26, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 21

The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.

I admit it; I am motivated by that last phrase, that Jesus will reveal himself to me. So, I back into the rest of the verse. If I want Jesus to reveal himself to me, then I must, first, have his commandments, and second, keep them. Keeping them means doing them. Well, what are Jesus’ commandments? When I began my Bible journey back in the 80’s, I began by reading the gospels with particular emphasis on the words written in red. And yes, I like the red letter Bible because Jesus’ words are in red, but truth be told, he is the Word so every word in the Bible is Jesus. Anyway, I started in Matthew but also read a psalm and a proverb each day. After that, I stayed in the habit of reading the Old Testament and the New. The One Year Bible is a nice tool for getting a bit of each every day.

Before we can keep Jesus’ commandments, we must know what they are. Watching how he acted and hearing his words instructs us. Doing his commandments is different. Most of us begin through an act of our willpower. And, for most of us, that is doomed to failure. The way to do his works and follow his commandments is to give ourselves over to him. The book of John talks about living in and with the trinity. I meditated on that book for a long time and still am. Jesus told us that it is not by our strength, but by our surrender that we live to Christ and show the Father within us. It sounds easy but it is the hardest thing in the world. We must die to self and put on the new self which is Christ in us.

When we let go of doing things of our will and design; when we let him intertwine with us, then he is revealed, and it is glorious. So, interestingly, the more you let go, the more you get. Not only does Christ love you but he is able to show you his love. He is able to express himself and his love to you and through you.

We must know the person of Christ, but all the study in the world will not help you to know the love of Christ and see him revealed. There are plenty of folks who have Bible knowledge but do not have the love of Christ flowing through them. That comes by putting our egos on the shelf and letting him be Lord. It comes through meditative surrender which is a function of trusting Jesus and courage. Some people are too afraid of what they will see in themselves if they ever get quiet enough to let truth arise. Jesus is truth but he is also life so where there is truth, there is life. When we allow him to speak to our hearts, he is able to express his love to us and that, in turn, is seen by the world as we naturally keep his commandments.

Let Jesus bless your heart today. Let him speak to you and reveal himself to you. He is the glory of God and he lives in you. Wow, that is amazing!

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Divine Love

On March 9, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 13: 10

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

1 John 4: 8

God is love.

A friend of mine brought up a very good point recently; one that deserves more than a mention. The substance is, how does love behave. I draw on the teachings of Bill Johnson in answering this.

There is much hurt and anguish in the world. Yet, purportedly, God loves us. Why, then, is there so much hurt? Why do bad things happen to those whom the Lord loves? My friend, Lynn, brought to my attention that some churches teach that God does not do these “bad” things to us, but that He does allow them. Not only does that sound schizophrenic but also just sick at a nauseating level. Is this Divine Love, to sit and silently watch as evil doers lavish all modes of hurt upon us? If this is the measure of Divine Love, then what shall we expect of human love?

This is where I draw upon an analogy given by Bill Johnson. What do you think of a parent who abuses their child? It is abhorrent, is it not? It is below human norms, below human decency. It is bestial at best. Now, what about a father who sits idly by and watches someone else defile his own child. Is he not a repugnant, sub-human specimen? Can you say that Father loves his child? Is he even sane? Bill Johnson pointed out that not only is this parent socially aberrant, but he is also legally and criminally negligent. In other words, human institutions would punish the father who “allows” harm to come to his child. We would want to eject him from our congregation, yet we believe, somehow, that our Heavenly Father, the one who created us, and whom we praise could be so apathetic as to stand by while someone harms His child. Is He no better a father than a human we would reject and scorn?

To say that our Beloved allows evil to befall us is to attach all those same negative adjectives to Him that we would for a negligent human parent. Our Father is not mentally deranged, nor in any measure insensitive. He is the epitome of a loving parent. When I shared with you recently about how stressed people are and gave the example of someone who verbally attacked me, my Mom called asking who she needed to beat up. That is a parent! They go to the mat for you. They risk life and limb for their children. Are we to say that our Heavenly Father is less loving and protective than our earthly parents?

Anyone who believes that cannot know Love. Love will never allow harm to another. Love is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, if you will allow me that small paraphrase. In other words, Love is the culmination of everything Yahweh Father has ever said and done. This ball of dirt we live on is here because of Love. The air in our lungs was sourced by Love. It is irrational and bordering on insane to believe, much less teach, that our beloved Father allows bad things to happen to us intentionally. But then, if we blame Him, we have no need to search for an explanation closer to home.

Believe me! Your Father loves you with a love that is beyond anything you have ever experienced in the earthly realm. He grieves at every bruise and empathizes with every tear. Take my word on this, but not for long. Take the time to come to this conclusion on your own. Follow me in faith until you can explain to your own heart the madness of mistrusting the one who loves you most. Search for the truth and you will come to know, beyond any argument, that God is Love. He is the lover of your soul. He is the strong tower you can run into, not the ignorant spectator. Be informed in the depths of your spirit that God is good.

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Worthy

On February 23, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   2 Comments

Luke 7: 7

For that reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You.

I promised you last week I would write on worthiness. It is often difficult to accept all Jesus and the Father have for us because in the deepest part of our spirits/hearts, we don’t believe we are worthy of their gifts. Let me cut through all the theology for you and make this easy. The way to deal with this feeling of unworthiness is to accept a simple truth. You are unworthy. Whew! Now that is over, and we can move on.

This is the way I was able to get free of my feelings of unworthiness. Once I accepted that I was unworthy, I looked to Jesus to be worthy for me. I never again have to worry about being worthy because he already did it for me. I can never earn even the smallest of the gifts they give me. I can’t earn the right to salvation, the right to talk with God or anything else. I am unworthy of their kind attentions. They love me anyway and that is where we must bask.

In a way, it is arrogance that keeps me thinking I need to be worthy. Once I understood that I wasn’t, I was able to take my eyes off myself entirely and put them on Jesus. Looking at who he is and what he has done is an absolute cure for feelings of insecurity, unrighteousness and unworthiness. If I have any worth at all, it is because of who I am in him. Wow! That is a lot of pressure off our shoulders. Love never required us to be worthy. Look at the world. We do not deserve God’s goodness. He loves us anyway and, brother, that is some good news.

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Love Me, Love You

On February 19, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 22: 37 – 40

And He 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 great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

There is no more important topic than love. This is the topic which is foremost on the Lord’s mind. Actually, He never tires of talking about love. There are, however, three aspects of love. First and foremost is, love of the Father. That is exactly what Jesus points to in this passage. When asked what the greatest commandment is, he answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” That is number one. Second, according to Jesus, is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. So, there is another kind of love presumed here. That is self-love. Jesus expects us to have a healthy self-love. This is not narcissism. Narcissism is “selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.”

Healthy self-love means doing those things which promote a healthy life physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. Jesus says that we should love others in our community as a healthy person loves and treats himself. Our community includes everyone we come in contact with. It is important that we recognize that “our neighbors” are not only our Christian brethren. Second, we are to love our neighbors equally with how we love ourselves. With this presumption of loving ourselves in a healthy way, we are supposed to love others in a healthy substantive way too.

Love God, love your neighbor, those are the two loves Jesus refers to in this passage and he insinuates a healthy self-love. There is, however, another love, and this one is the key. That which we have discussed is our expression of love towards ourselves and others. The most important love of all is God’s love for us. His love is what drives the universe. There is no savior, no salvation, no life even without the love of God. There is no love at all without the love of God. When I say that this love is the driver, I mean to convey that there is no ability for us to love ourselves, love others, or even love God Himself without first having the love of God expressed to our hearts. Only when we receive God’s love can we even reasonably dream of being lovely ourselves. It is His love with which we love others. The work of loving God and loving our neighbors takes place in letting God love us.

I want you to understand that receiving God’s love is not necessarily a passive process. When we slow down and commune our hearts with His then we are able to open ourselves to actually receiving His love. In other words, if you wish to make it your determined purpose to obey Jesus guidance from this passage, then the means, the only means for accomplishing same is to allow God to love you. It is not only the beginning point but also the ending point and everything in between. Loving yourself begins with allowing God to love you. Loving others is powered by the love God gives you.

The primary work of the gospel is to receive the love of God and subsequently convey it to others. That’s it – that’s the gospel. Easy, right? You know, for some of us this is the hardest thing we will do, letting God love us. Too loud in our psyche is our unworthiness, which I will write about next week and let you know how I overcome that issue.

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