Jesus said What?

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

Matthew 5: 43 – 44

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

There are a couple of passages in the New Testament that I just don’t like. This is one of them. Jesus came along and raised the standard. We can’t even hate our enemies. Moreover, I’ve got to pray for those who persecute me. Does that even sound reasonable?

As I wrote last week, the love standard Jesus has raised for us requires a life lived integrated with him. I can’t love my enemies in my own strength and there has been more than one time I have argued with Jesus about having to pray for the people who have persecuted me. It just seems wrong at a very basic level. But that is just the thing, isn’t it? Jesus doesn’t want us to live a base existence. He wants me to follow in his footsteps. He wants us living the high life and that is more than just receiving the good things of life. There is a giving component as well, another side of the coin, if you will.

God, Son and Spirit want all good things for us, true, but they want us to live according to their lifestyle of love. Let me ask you this, though? Why do they call us to live according to the love standard? Why did Jesus instruct us to love our enemies and pray for those who hurt us? Is that requirement fair to us? If God wants only good things for us, could it be that this mandate is meant to increase goodness in our lives as well?

When we have been hurt, it is natural to want to either strike back or throw up shields. We aren’t natural beings though. We have been given the supernatural life. That is life beyond the natural and that is a critically important aspect of the Christian life. To live “naturally” is to live a worldly existence, and that is not our calling.

It cannot be said enough. You may able but, I cannot live the life to which we are all called without the imminent presence of the Lord walking hand in hand with me. In fact, it is a much closer integration than hand in hand. That is a far to external an analogy. He has got to intertwine his spirit with mine such that our spiritual DNA (and perhaps even physical DNA) are woven in and around each other. I need him to respond rather than me react so his spirit has to be present and alert.

Through the trinity, we can live this love walk. We can pray for those who use and abuse us because God’s grace supplants our self-oriented perspective. We can pray for people from His vantage point rather than ours. Jesus calls us to a certain kind of existence, one above and beyond the natural ways of humans. While it may be impossible to live the life he requires of us by the use of our own strength, he has empowered us with his own strength and gentleness of spirit. Of course, this intermeshing of our spirit with his comes by spending time with him in meditative contemplation, conversation and study of his word.

May the blessing of the Lord be yours today and may pondering this passage bring you peace rather than angst.

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Super Love

On February 16, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Corinthians 13: 6-7

(Love) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Speaking of love . . .. Last week I wrote on verses four and five. They set a very high standard for what love is and what love does. These two verses are no less challenging. This is precisely why we must live intertwined with God. I cannot walk this standard of a love walk in my own strength. I am too weak, too petty and too self-interested. I don’t know how I can live this passage but by the grace, and the power of our Lord. He has to be alive and vibrant within me. I have to live such that his life and mine are stitched together. It is his life within me that allows me to endure anything, much less all things. How can hope prevail in any of our lives but by the glorious grace and benevolent affection of our Lord.

Those without his life within are without hope and without the strength to endure. We must show them the love of God which includes patient tolerance. Those of us with God know these past 12 months have proved a challenge but those who don’t have His love intermeshed through every tendril of their lives didn’t stand a chance. Their hearts and spirits have been stretched beyond their limits and they don’t know what to do. We all try to adapt but let’s be honest, this has not been an adaptive situation. It has been a time of wrenching change and we shall never again fit back into the same form from which we came. People have thought they were rolling with the punches only to find out they were more like a rubber band which has finally been stretched beyond its capacity and has snapped.

It is incumbent upon us to be the ambassadors of love in a very troubled world. I know that sounds like a hokey oversimplification or trite maxim, but I believe it not to be. And, as I have tried to encourage before, we are the people who must be the leaders. You there, sitting at home, still in your pajamas, you really are the leader the world is starving for. No one else is going to see your grocery store clerk or hair stylist. No one else is going to talk to your friends and neighbors. No one else can reach them with the love of God.

We must follow after righteousness and truth. That is an absolute. We are not given the liberty to favor a position which suits our needs unless it comports with absolute truth and righteousness. We must be beacons of truth because our Lord is the truth. This beginning point must be the standard which we, not only carry proudly, but which we resolutely hammer into the ground marking our terrain. It is the flag standard under which we stand. From this position we forge on, loving the unlovely. Not only do we provide an example to hurting people, but we give them that which is God’s very essence, love. It is love which we and they need. We can do without food for a bit, water for a little but the lack of those can only kill the flesh. The spirit needs love and what we are seeing is people dying for lack of sustenance for their inner man.

Each one of us, yes us, must keep enduring and hoping. We must keep standing for truth and waving our banner. We cannot be spreaders of anything less than the love of God. Dissention, negativity, gossip must be arrested as we are called to spread the Good News which is that God loves each and every one of us. Love is a high requirement of the life of Christ. It is our duty, though, to let that love wash over us and through us. Christ is what love gave the world so that love could live in this earth through His beloved. That is you, the beloved of God, His prized ones, His chosen. Let His love transform your life and buoy you during these turbulent times and may that love that He shines on you be a sign to all who see you that, God is love!

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Love Letter

On February 12, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Corinthians 13: 4-5

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered.

How great is my God, how beautiful and loving? I will tell you how amazing and fabulous my Father is.

This morning I called a friend to check on him. Yesterday he received his second vaccination shot and he recently pulled his hamstring and pinched a nerve in his back. I know some folks do not feel great the day after their second shot, so I just called to check on him.

We must recognize that people have been under enormous stress, accumulating stress, over the last 12 months. Sometimes that stress bubbles over. It did today and I was the unfortunate recipient of that pent up worry and stress. No one wants to be in my position but better me than someone else. Why? Because you and I have something within us that is up to the challenge. It is the love of God. Jesus showed up in this conversation and loved the speaker. Love didn’t hang up on him, it was patient and kind. It did not consider its own benefit, or mine for that matter. Love cared about the hurting soul who was lashing out.

I was planning on writing on comfort today, but I realized that what is needed is love. Love is the comfort we need as well as that gracious balm that the whole world needs today. I say my Father is great because He showed up and spoke love even as my heart was hurting. I want to share another thing though. Here is an immediate response by God to love on me too.

I had just finished emailing my good friend, Rene, saying that I better write on love for today’s Word of the Day. I wasn’t sure what verse to use and was rolling a few through my mind. I went to Biblegateway.com to look for a verse. The landing page for Bible Gateway opened with a Verse of the Day. Guess what that verse was. You see it at the beginning of today’s Word of the Day. Look at how the Father provided for me. He knew all this was going to happen and that I was going to need a love verse, so, He provided one. It was a message from heaven, and it met my need as well as communicated the Father’s love and care for me. Take this back one more step. He had to nudge someone at Bible Gateway to select that verse for today’s verse. Thank God that person listened to the Father. They probably do not even know that God was doing something in the selection of that verse. God truly is great.

So, the rest of the story – I have to let God be the master of this situation going forward because when things like this happen there are seeds planted. Are they seeds of offense or forgiveness? Are they seeds of humility or embarrassment? For my part, God says, love “is not provoked,” and “does not keep an account of a wrong suffered.” That means I cannot carry negative seeds forward. During these very challenging times, we are going to have to give people space. We need to be understanding and forgiving. We must let love speak in our place. Is it easy? Not if you do it in your might but if you let Jesus show up and show his love, it’s okay. Jesus understands how stressed people are. He wants to help heal bruised and injured hearts. Bless the Lord for His kind mercies. Bless the Lord.

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The Excellency of Brotherly Unity

On January 25, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 133

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, as on Aaron’s beard, the oil which ran down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for the Lord commanded the blessing there – life forever.

I took today’s title directly from the caption of today’s psalm of King David. This is the theme of our present and ordained by God to be so. How amazing is it that we should fall upon this psalm at this time? Well, if you have worked with God for a while, you know He is prone to such “coincidences” though, I have to say, it still never ceases to surprise me a bit. This one is especially loud.

With apologies to our readers from outside the United States, this message may be uniquely American. As I sit here writing this, it has only been two days since President Biden lauded this same value as the theme for our country. Of course, Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love springs to mind. Just imagine, a city named itself for the Greek word which means love between and among human beings.

God is love (1 John 4: 8) so everything which is of God begins with love. If it does not, then it is not of God. If we cannot differ in ideas but agree on ideals, we are not operating in the love of God. Regardless of what you think of our current president, without regard for whom you voted, I want to be on record saying, President Biden is in the will of God as he speaks of unity. Those are not the President’s words; they are God’s, and we should praise the God of our hearts that our president is hearing the voice of God. And we, if we have any Christian love left to us, we should pray FOR him every day. The capitalization is to remind you not to pray “about” people or pray your will but rather to pray “for” them as God would have you pray.

What I wish to create in you is a heart and spirit of celebration. We can unite, if we choose, as “One nation, under God, indivisible.” We once thought those values so essential that they form the backbone of our Pledge of Allegiance. It is time we all, again, as children, pledge our allegiance to serving as a national brotherhood, led by and dedicated to God, indivisible. That we might be that bright shining city on the hill so that all nations shall see the glory of God in this place. My heart of heart cries out that this will be the legacy we leave and the image we show to others. United under God. Shining in and by His grace. Amen.

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Marching Orders

On January 21, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 12: 9 – 13

Love must be free of hypocrisy. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

You have been called to this day and to this moment. These are the most unprecedented times in our history. So many issues clamor for our attention. We, however, in Christ, are up to the task. I have had a saying for many years that leadership comes from below. It has to because it is only in the trenches that we really know what the situations are. So, we always need leadership at the lowest levels and need those leaders to learn and grow. You are those people. Most of you don’t hold high political positions nor church positions. None the less, you are the leaders of the world. The “leaders” take their cues from us. We tell them in our actions and with our words who we are and what we value. So, these are the marching orders God has given us to help us lead a nation, a corporation, a church and a family. These are the rules by which we are to interact within organizations.

We should cling to these leadership guidelines and share them with others. We should require our businesses and volunteer organizations to adopt this paradigm. It is rule, not by the majority, not by an elite group. It is not rule by the few or the many but rather, rule by love. Love is the ultimate leadership characteristic and it must be taught and required. We, you and I, must learn to be devoted to one another, to give preference to the other, to honor one another, be diligent, fervent, devoted servants of our Lord, to persevere, to pray continually and to be generous in all things. As we do these things, we should also teach others to do the same. We should demand this pattern of behavior out of our friends and family. We should show our political, business and church leaders what we expect of them as we set the example. Let us follow Paul’s example and teaching.

We have been silent too long. We have been apathetic, lazy and worldly too long. It is time for us to stand up and be counted, not by our words, but by our deeds. We need to become the church made of living stones which bring glory to Jesus through our loving acts of kindness. Rise up. You have your marching orders.

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The Test

On November 17, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 7: 16

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

Jesus gave us the method by which we can know whom we can trust. We can know people by their fruit. We saw last week Paul’s elucidation of this principle. Colossians 3 shows the fruit of the chosen of God and also the habits and traits of those not reformed by Christ. Some of the traits Paul identified for Christians are: “a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,” (Colossians 3: 12 – 13). In this list he also included the pursuit of unity (See the Word of the Day for 11/13/20).

Jesus’ teachings give us the principles. Paul’s teachings explain Jesus’ principles. He expounded on them to give further understanding. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul further described what the life of a Christian looks like. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” (Galatians 5: 22 – 24).

When I was practicing law I came to despise when a client offered that they were Christian. Why? Ask many business owners and you will get the same response. It is code language for, “I’m not going to pay you.” It is as though they offered that bit of information in order to cover a defect in their character. As I said last week, pretend I am from the Show Me state. Let your actions identify you as a Christian. As my friend, Robin, said yesterday, “Actions speak louder than words.” Anyone can say, “I am a Christian.” It is an entirely different matter to walk it out. Most people who wish to deceive and take advantage of others will not identify their motives. Instead, they will use some covering ploy and claiming to be a Christian is one of the best. So, how are we to know who is the real deal?

That is the purpose of this series of devotionals which began last week. I know who you are and how you strive to live in the light of Christ. I also know that you are the most vulnerable because you are attracted to people who self-identify as Christian. Now, you don’t have to take their word for it. Look at their lives. Are they givers? If no, then you needn’t ask any more questions. They are done because Yahweh and Jesus are mega-givers. You can’t be in them and be stingy. Beyond that run the test of Galatians 5 and Colossians 3. Here it is synthesized for you.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, a heart of compassion, humility, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other.

You might want to cut and paste this bit into your own document or print it. We are not asking people to be perfect, but we are looking for a pattern of behavior. I hope you identify with people who are patient and kind, gentle of speech and generous. We can encourage and expect these traits of people. We should, in fact, expect these kinds of behaviors. More than ever, we need to be considerate. We need to concern ourselves with the best interests of all people. We need to think of others instead of ourselves. That is the Christian mandate. It’s the Word. Let the Word prevail over the lives of us all.

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Paul’s Mission Statement

On November 3, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Timothy 1: 5

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Did you every wonder how the Apostle Paul perceived his mission? In order to complete the race the Lord has set before us, we must understand and accept our personal mission. Paul, in writing to Timothy, tells us wat his was. It is twofold. First is love, second is faith.

The first of Paul’s goals and the purpose of his instruction is to teach and lead us into pure love from both a pure heart and a good conscience. We are invited, in this little phrase, to check our hearts and our conscience. Does your conscience accuse you? Give that burden to Jesus. Ask for and receive his forgiveness. Ask him to work in your heart so that you are no longer vulnerable to whatever it was which tripped you up. How is your heart? Do you feel anger or compassion? Are you sensitive to the needs of others? Can you love others, or do you find yourself thinking mostly of your desires and needs? Check your heart and ask the Father for that which you feel you need in order to love from a pure heart. You can ask Him what your heart needs and He will help you.

Secondly, do you have a sincere faith. We have just read that Paul’s declared purpose in his writings and teachings were to lead us to a place in which we reside in a sincere faith. That means that reasoning does not take first place in our lives. Faith rises to fore. It also means that doubt meets its foe whenever it raises its head. Are you living in faith? Is faith your constant companion? Faith is a shield, and you need it in good shape.

Give attention to your heart and your faith today. Perform some First Aid on these two vital areas, if need be, or simply nurture them if that is what is called for. Don’t ignore them. Perform a check-up to make sure you are fortified and living the faithful life of a loving believer.

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