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God, please make all of these Your Words. May You be Glorified through them and their teaching. May they serve Your purposes and allow You to reach out to us all and change us.
Titus 3:1-11 says,
Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Paul opens this passage by asking Titus to remind the people to be obedient, to do good, to not slander, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility to all men. Paul's beginning of this passage of the letter is reminiscent his other letters in that, he is giving his teaching that God has given him to those around him. In this case, Paul is giving them to Titus, his true son in common faith. Paul changes the tone immediately to going to a contrast of his and other Christian's pasts before God's Call.
Paul writes that they were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, and lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating each other. They saw no good in each other and they lived according to their sinful natures. They were sinful and had no love for others. They were slaves to sin and were not interested in giving up themselves. We all start the same way in our sin. We are all naturally evil and hateful beings. We chase after our own pleasures and seek what we want. We don't see brokenness when we look in the mirror. We see something that is perfectly healthy and rich, not the naked and dying creature that we actually are.Our eyes are covered and we have no interest in cleaning them. But then one day it all changes.
The word "But" in the very next sentence separates the parts of this passage and changed the entire tone of the writing. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.... And so our whole world gets turned upside down. We become a completely different creation by God's Mercy. He looks at us and everything we've done, good and bad, and says that none of it matters. The bad doesn't matter, and the good doesn't matter either. In His Mercy, God takes our sin, forgives us, and then, having been justified by His Grace, He pours out the Holy Spirit on us to transform us with rebirth and renewing. God gives us the Promise of an eternal life with Him after death by allowing us to take part in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We become fellow heirs through Faith. God gives us all of this without our doing anything but believing in Him and allowing Him to change us and wash over ourselves. This changes us and makes us new. It makes the opening of the passage possible, to Love others and be obedient and to do good. Paul writes that this is a trustworthy saying. Paul writes that we need to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. This means we need to constantly talk about them, wear them on ourselves, impress them on our children, and bring them up in all our conversations. Passively mentioning, "I go to church" isn't enough anymore. If we really believe this, then we wouldn't stop stressing it. I need to believe wholeheartedly. Doing this not only causes the other Christians around us to devote themselves to good, but causes us to do so as well. As we constantly stress these things it just reminds us over and over that God has saved us. That He have forgiven us in His Mercy be declaring everything we have done is worthless. God has taken over forever. In exchange we submit and receive even more through rest and peace and Joy and Love. He gives us more and more. And then we can stress these other examples of what He's given us and draw closer to Him and be more devoted to doing good in His Name. That is why these things are excellent and profitable for everyone. God is willing to bless us all more and more through this if we submit.
Paul gives a warning though. He ends the passage with a warning to avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law. He writes that they are unprofitable and useless. Why is it that these are unprofitable? When was the last time any of us saw a debate bring someone to Christianity? Or helped encourage a fellow Christian? Or glorified God? The argument is the need to defend God and our faith in Him. But that is no reason at all. God is Almighty, He can defend Himself much better than we can. And as for our faith, we know what we believe, and God knows what we believe, and if they can see that already, their is no need to argue it. Our faith is set in something greater than stone, it's set in the Book of Life. There is no profit to debating these things. It hides God's Love behind a hostile argument that turns people away. Talk about useless. We must stress the salvation God has given us through His Mercy, not who the great great great great great great grandfather of King David was. Showing God's Love around us is what will show others, and ourselves, the Power and Love of God. Paul also writes that if we find a divisive person stirring up these debates, we must warn them. And then we must warn them again. If they still do not listen then it is clear that they are warped and sinful and self-condemned. I was the divisive person that was easily pulled into a debate. All it took was a small statement and I was turning the Bible into a weapon of anger and malice. I regret those arguments and times I could have been Loving people instead of hurting them. If not for God's Grace I would suffer greatly for those times, I know it. Those who live in debating the Bible do not have Love. We think we do because the subject is Christianity, but the truth is that we just want to win an argument. The fact is that we can't in the first place. We barely understand what it is we are arguing because it is the God who made everything. We can't understand Him in any measurable amount, how can we give a proper argument about Him? But we know His Love for us and His Mercy and Sacrifice, so let us talk about that. Let us sing about it and stress Love instead.
We do not completely understand God's Love, but we know enough to share Him with those around us at any time. God called us to share the Gospel to spread His Kingdom and Glorify Him. God wants us to Love those around us and we can best do that by telling them about the Gospel and not stopping. Bringing up church isn't enough in this world. We need to be active Christians living in Love. We can't do that in our sin or in debates, only in God and His Love.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
LORD God, please make these Your Words. These are what we need to hear the most. Thank You.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
What is the point of all of this? Why should I keep doing this anymore? I don't get anything out of it, so why should I take part? There's nothing for me in it. If I'm just gonna keep messing up then why continue since it just makes me feel bad? Why shouldn't I just give in and live the way I want? Why shouldn't I just end it now?
At some point we hear these words from someone who is having troubles and doubts with God. In fact there are probably times where we say them ourselves. I have found myself uttering every one of them at some point. The reason is that we live in a broken world that is constantly attacking us. On top of that, we are part of that broken world. We have sinful natures in our flesh that cause us to sin. And as we read the Bible we find that we sin in more and more different ways. We do recognize that God, in His unfailing Love, sent Lord Jesus Christ to die for our sins and pay for them. But because of that Love we can feel discouraged instead because we see two things in our sin: 1 We are hurting the God and Father that Loves us by sinning so much, and 2 We drift from God more and more as we commit the sins again and again. These are always going to be true in sin, but the discouraging part comes in when we only focus on those two things. When we decide that we have done something too wrong and need to feel guilty and suffer because of what we've done, even if it means hurting ourselves emotionally, verbally, or physically. We start seeing God's Love and Forgiveness as something too beautiful and good for us to take. We treat it with contempt and only accept it when we think we've suffered enough. But clearly, that's not what it's about. If it was, God would pour out His Wrath on us and we would truly feel guilty. But He doesn't do that. God forgives us through His Son and wants us to Love Him back. God wants us to rest in Him, no wallow in self-loathing.
Because we think making ourselves feel guilty and suffer is the right thing to do as a Christian, we start losing desire and Joy in being a Christian. We get so discouraged that we think God sees us the same way we see ourselves, an evil creature that cannot be forgiven. And so we ask, "What is the point?" I'm thankful that God didn't let me leave it at that. He wrestled with me to get me to see. It's been a long process to learn this, and yet it's the easiest thing to see in the Bible. The reason we all call ourselves Christian and believe in this in the first place, Lord Jesus Christ died for us and forgave us. As the passage says, we will be with the Lord forever. The reason for being discouraged is that we lose sight of this truth and believe what we find by our own faulty human logic. We think God sees us with human as as we see our reflection in the mirror. But God doesn't see us that way. He Loves us and He proved it. The problem we face, is letting Him. I haven't been letting Him because I think I make the choice of who I am.
God is the Judge. And through Faith, He has pardoned us of our sins. He made the choice to do so. It doesn't make it right to sin just because He forgives us, but it's also not about condemning ourselves in guilt. Paul felt freed of his sins and even said that he wouldn't let other men judge him nor would he judge himself because he knew it was only God's place to do so, and He does so with Mercy and Love. So yes we should feel sorry that we sin, but we should not condemn ourselves. God has already decided our sentence, and it's being forgiven and living forever in Him. That is our encouragement, that we are freed of our burden. We are able to repent of our sin and then immediately turn to God and praise Him for forgiving us the next minute. God wants us to do this too. Because if we turn to God in praise, it is then that we see Him with Thankfulness and Joy and desire to live for Him more. If we dwell on our sins, then we see only our sins and it will be inevitable that we will sin again. But if we accept the forgiveness and praise God in thanks, then we see God only and are better able to live for Him.
The encouragement of God is that we are saved forever. It can be easy to forget this for some people. It is for me. God showed me this and Him alone and that is even greater Joy for me. But I can't help but feel that if someone had asked me about it, or if I had been willing to ask for help it could have been solved sooner. But it is my Joy and encouragement now. But now I can't help but think about the others who live this way too. Some may not want to bring it up either. They are not some people who believe the same thing we do, they are our brothers and sisters in God our Father who formed us all and has watched us grow. God wants us to encourage each other with these words, as Paul said above. So be vigilant and look for those who need encouragement, because sometimes people don't listen to God's last effort to encourage them back, and those people end up leaving Christianity. Accept His forgiveness and tell others about it at all times, because God might take the opportunity to use you right there for the other person.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
God, my Holy and Loving Father, please let these be Your Words, wholly and completely Yours for You Will. Thank You.
Isaiah 29:13-24.
The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me?" Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest? In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down - those who with a word make a man out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the house of Jacob:
"No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale. When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction."
As I type this I still don't know what is going to be written about this Scripture. Today I fell to a sin I struggle with and spent the day in repentance while reading from Isaiah 29:13 - 44:5. I now see why Paul was willing to call himself the worst of sinners. The more I find is sinful compared to the Holy example set by God's desires, I see myself as worse and worse of a sinner as I find the things I knew but ignored when God told me not to do them. Now I consider myself as Paul, the worst of sinners around me. I read through the judgment of the people who did not follow God's ways and felt discouraged over and over today, but the summary of what I read is in this passage alone. With the judgment always came the mercy that abounded for God's people.
God frustrated my wisdom and called me out because I would still commit the sins that I didn't think meant anything and I ignored so many others. I was like the pot telling the Potter, "He knows nothing." But He knew it all and laid it out for me today. He frustrated my wisdom and intelligence with words I have read before that He made seem so new and convicting. How could we ever think that we can ignore this or that and then go to church or Bible study or a youth group and sing songs and read our Bibles when we are doing this to Him? How can we when our hearts are far from Him? If we think that we can do these things without facing our sins, we are so wrong. We are the clay that God is trying to form into what He wants but we are doing our own things and disrespecting Him all the way. So if we turn to Him for an honest second, God will take that second and scream at us with more than we can take until we are falling on the floor begging Him for Forgiveness.
That second becomes the time when the fertile field becomes a forest. When we who are deaf hear the words of the Scroll, God's Word; and out of the gloom and darkness of our sin, and we see. He allows us to see and fall down and humble ourselves in our disgrace and look to Him in our neediness. We are able to rejoice because God has punished us for our sins and broken us with His Word and Truth that we so desperately need. He punishes us for our sins for one reason and one reason only: He Loves us. Proverbs 3:11,12 says, My son, do not despise the LORD'S discipline and do not resent His rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those He Loves, and He punishes the son (daughter) He delights in. God rebuked me today for mine and showed me so much of my sins. My thought about that now is, there's still more to see that I do wrong, and there always will be, because I am a sinner. But now I welcome His rebuke and I rejoice in His punishment because He brings it according to His Love for me. So I want to be crushed, I want my bones broken by His conviction. I need it, God. My prayer is that we find pure Joy in it and see that it is God's Love. So let us see out His Wisdom and the rebuke that comes with it, for such is God's Love for us.
Then we will be able to repent and be forgiven by our Loving God above, and we will be counted as His children and will no longer be ashamed or feel like we are dead, because as we find our sins God allows us to repent and be forgiven by our faith in His Son, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. We will look around us at the lives surrounding us and keep God's Name Holy. We will see His Glory and Mercy. Have you ever gone to church and just looked at the other Christians that are around you every service? Then have you remembered they are each another person that has been saved by Lord Jesus Christ just like you? If you haven't yet, DO IT! There is no greater Joy than to see God's Mercy and Love for His people in great congregation, and while singing to God. There is no greater Love than this: to lay one's life down for his friends. Then there is no greater Joy than this: To see those new lives that our Friend also died for.
This passage has moved me so much, I feel the need to shout this at those around me and say, "Don't you know this Joy yet? This is my God, and yours! I pray that you feel this way too. There is one more detail in this for us all to remember, those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding, and those who complain will accept instruction. If any of us ever complains about what God wants us to change or we stray, God will do everything to us to have us listen to Him. I can account for this. He will bring change any way He can because He Loves us and wants us back in His presence for ever and ever.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
Psalm 130
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing Love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
O Lord God, please make these Your Words. Your beautiful, powerful, and moving Words that we all need to hear. Amen.
It has been a long time since a post on a Psalm, but I have been inspired by the Words God has spoken through my pastor in a Psalm series. This Psalm has been on my tongue for a couple years for my sin has always been before me. But even in the darkest of sins and times, when I have thought that there was no way for God to forgive me, this Psalm has humbled and reassured me. God willing, I will now show you why.
The Psalm goes in sections spaced out in paragraphs. Starting in the first is a desperate cry for mercy. In desperation a cry is made to God in fear because the Psalmist knows that God can choose to condemn him, but also that God is the only One that can pull him from the depths. The depths of his misery that his sin has brought that break him down in pain. He is begging God to let His ears turn to hear his cries. He wants God's mercy because he knows there is no other way except in God's mercy and forgiveness. Even today I have felt this way, seeing no light in the depths of darkness I have fallen into by my own actions and thinking. Seeing no way for a Perfect, Beautiful, Almighty God to forgive me and Love me. To cry to Him with almost no faith in Him hearing me, almost.
The Psalmist continues facing the fact that if God kept a record of sins no one could stand. No one, by God's standards, would be able to keep from being crushed by the guilt and death of their sins. He points out God's Righteousness and Power and Purity. To feel this heart wrenching feeling of how unworthy I am and the ultimate fear of God's power that He could crush me instantly. But then the realization that the question the Psalmist asks has the word "IF" in it. IF God kept a record of sins. But He does not. For God is Love and 1 Cor. 13 says Love keeps no records of wrongs. God keeps no records, He throws them out with the sins themselves to where all evil goes, never to come against us again. This changes the fear of destruction to a fear of understanding that our God is Truly Powerful and able to channel that Power to our destruction, but has instead channeled it to His Love for us causing All Powerful Forgiveness of our sins. Trough this Forgiveness the God of justice justified us by His Son's sacrifice. Then He gave us the Holy Spirit that came together with our own spirit to bring it to life and make it into something new, to make us a new creation.
This new creation, our new living soul within us, waits on the LORD. Why did the Psalmist write that he was waiting on the LORD? Because he knew that to wait on God is to wait on the time that God will take him up to Heaven, for the Psalmist knows now that he is forgiven. He waits, even his soul with its own conscience of the sinful nature of the flesh waits eagerly for God to come. Knowing this brings our souls, my soul, to wait and stir at the sound of Jesus Christ's Name because it knows the Salvation coming soon. Because of this instinctive knowledge of our souls we put our hope in God's Word that promises this in words. We hope in it and the commands and blessings written in it about the time we eagerly and patiently wait for here on earth. This is why our souls wait more than a watchmen waits for the morning. Because we are in the night, vulnerable, watching for attacks, but when the dawn comes and the King returns to relieve us and free us we will be free of the chance of attacks, of sinning again for our sinful nature will be gone.
The Psalmist then speaks to Israel, the nation around him, and tells them to put their hope in God. He finds this Forgiveness and Love and then feels the need to use the end of the song to tell them all to choose this God of Forgiveness and wait for Him too. He tells them what he has found in His Word and Forgiveness, that with God is unfailing Love and full redemption. He needs to tell them to choose Him because he knows that all need Him. Don't we see this unfailing Love and full redemption and feel the need to tell all the people around us? If we don't, we need to. Because our God felt the need to tell us that He can save us, we need to feel that need to tell others to hope in God. We need to do this for the exact same reason as the Psalmist, because he knew that only God Himself could, and would, redeem Israel and all other nations from all their sins. And God did so by the sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ.
This Psalm has meant so much to me, and I know it will continue to be all my life as I and my soul wait for Jesus Christ's Second Coming or my death in this life, both being my assured beginning of eternal life with my Lord. My pain now comes from others living without this security and their need for God. My own pain and hope drive me to share Jesus Christ with others. I start college classes and possibly work in less than a couple weeks. Those places to me now are my nation to share Christ. My prayer is that we all see the world around us this way and endlessly share the Gospel. God is so much more than Good, He is the only Way.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
God, for mine, and all reader's sakes, let these be Your Words and not mine. I beg you, for i am small sinful man, but You are the Holy God. Your Words are what we seek God, please let them flow into us like sweet water.
There have already been a couple blog post on this Scripture, and many other references in the others. But I haven't thought of it the way that God revealed a few days ago. Going through it word by word and thinking about the mindset behind it. It gets insane.
To start, the first word is "Consider." To consider something, in this case, is to adopt the idea or mindset of what is presented. So there is a mindset to adopt now. What is that mindset? That it is "Pure Joy" to go through trials. In the past I've described Joy as an understanding that we are broken beings living broken lives, but do not have to dwell in that because our Lord Jesus Christ died for us and gave us a future. But the new part God pointed out more was the word before it, Pure. Something that is Pure is the essence of something, the definition of it. So "Pure Joy" is the absolute version of Joy that cannot be denied. So we need to have a mindset of Pure Joy. But when?
"Trials of many kinds." Trials can be anything in this case, small things that annoy us and make us lose patience, or they can be major life altering events that bring us to our breaking points and shake us to the core. They can become very destructive very quickly. But only if the mindset of pure Joy is not there. To have a mindset of pure Joy in trials sounded hard before, but now it looks almost impossible. To have a true mindset of Joy is to be able to recognize the price Jesus Christ paid for us to save us in all situations. I have found it easier to see Jesus in the big things, but not the little things. I have been guilty of being quick to anger over the little things in the day. It feels easy because they are little things that we think won't affect us later. But the thing is that they affect us just as much as the big things over time. The thing about having Joy in trials is that it is us turning to God when we can't do something on our own. It's us turning to Him remembering what He did for us with a desire to live a life worthy of the calling we have received (Eph. 4:1). That is how we pass the test. Because, as the passage says, every trial is a test. If we pass that test then it brings us just that much closer to God.
Have you noticed that if you go through a major trial in life by relying on God, you grow closer to Him and your life is changed with Him? Every time we turn to Him in a trial, big or small, we grow closer to Him. The more we do so, the more natural it becomes to do so in similar trials. This natural turning to Him when our nature is pulling in the other direction is perseverance. Our persevering in life through trials brings us closer to God and changes us more and more in Him. Eventually though there will always be a trial that brings us to the brink. Even though God never lets anything happen to us that we can't get through by relying on Him, there is still the part where we have to turn and rely on Him. This can either be easy or hard. If we aren't used to turning to Him in other trials, then guaranteed, it won't be easy to turn to Him in that big trial. This is why it is so important to take these small trials and rely on God and grow the relationship and faith in Him. The lack of perseverance can end up costing us our relationship with Him. Anyone who thinks they are immune to losing that is a fool. We are all susceptible to breaking that bond. I've known people who did after having such a deep relationship with God, and I myself almost did so as well. The small tests are just as important as the big ones.
The more we persevere in God, the closer we are to Him. When we are close to Him, we are changed into a new creation that is constantly growing. When perseverance finishes this work we are made mature and complete, we do not lack anything. We do not lack, because we have put everything in Jesus Christ, who is our everything. So we must have Joy in the big trials and the small trials, so that we can pass the tests, and become complete.
This post was written with my next trial in mind, a jaw realignment surgery 3 days from now. I've been nervous about the pain and the mental strain I'll be under, but this Scripture helped me as it always has by God's power ever since He first brought it to me four and a half years ago. So I will face this trial with a reliance on God in Pure Joy thanks to His Mercy and Love. There will not be any blog posts for 2-4 weeks depending on my recovery rate, but prayers would be appreciated. Thank you, and find Joy in all times.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
Romans 3:21-26
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His Grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
To weeks ago I gave a challenge to try to
understand the attributes of Love in 1Cor. 13:4-7. It is now that I see
how futile such a thing truly is. Who are we who are not good at all to
try and understand any part of the God who made all creation and spoke
each of us into motion? Who was I to think I was good enough to
understand His Love? Does that mean to give up learning of it? No, but as far as thinking that we can understand it and express ourselves is wrong. If Love is ever expressed from us, it is not we ourselves who express it, but God within us moving and working by the Holy Spirit. For in this very same chapter of Romans, Romans 3, verse 10 says "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." It is the truth. None of us are good. None of us truly seeks God by His standards of seeking. We can read our Bibles everyday, pray everyday, serve everyday, but we are always going to be so much worse than we think we actually are. We will never measure up to God's standards because right now, by His standards none of us are truly understanding or seeking Him! How futile are our actions and words and thoughts! But that is why He stepped in. That is why He sent Jesus Christ, HIS SON, to die for us as an atoning sacrifice. Because He Loves us with this Love that is so beyond us to a point of true suffering and pain that we could never bear ourselves so that we might be forgiven. And I forgot that! I let that go to try to take Salvation by actions so that I could boast. But that is not what Love is. The tiny glimpse God gave us of Love in 1Cor 13:4-7 says that plain as day, it does not boast! So now is the part I humble myself for once and say that I am wretched and wrong and unwise. I am sorry that I thought and typed as if it were otherwise. But what then can I, and you do now?
God said that if we Love Him and then Love others as ourselves, then we will live according to the law. Well guaranteed we're gonna fail at that. But that's why that Love that we don't understand was given to us in Jesus Christ. To save us and to get it through our thick heads that Love is more than we could know it to be. Love is not a noun, it is a verb. Our bodies commit actions that we have no understanding or control over everyday like breathing. If think you have control over it that's because you have control over not doing it. We can hold our breath, but we almost never have to consciously tell ourselves to breathe. With Love it's the same. We have the ability to not do it. And guaranteed if you do it long enough it'll have the same effect as holding your breath to the end. But if we let go and let God take His course, then we will find this impossible element of Life moving in us. I can not explain what it will feel like, why it does so when we let it, or what the true benefits of doing so will be, because I am unrighteous. I can not understand Love, I can only accept it from God and give up myself to Him for His decisions. He is the Maker who Loves us, and He works in mysterious ways. It almost doesn't seem satisfying as an answer, but, the thing is that it is. This Love that we can't understand inspired the giving of Life eternal to all who just believe in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. He told us everything we needed to know already here on earth: We are sinners who are dead, He is the Loving Father that made us and will forgive us if we believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and He will make us into a new creation capable of allowing Him to work through us to Love others with the Love that saved us. Our sins are not held against us anymore. And the more we allow Him to Love us and change us, the more His Love will come from us. What that will mean in this life could be blessing, persecution, pain, it's not completely clear, but it's evident that it's worth it.
Observing the law will not bring life, only God's mysterious Love will. And thankfully, like that passage above says, He gives it to us freely! I am not good, but the God I want to let work through me now is, I just need to stop holding my breath.
Thank You For Reading
LONG LIVE JESUS CHRIST
AMEN
And now I will show you the most excellent way.
1 Corinthians 13:1-7 says,
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not Love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not Love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not Love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
God my Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Please bless these words and make them Your own to move me and all who read them. Thank You.
The line at the top of the post is the introduction the Bible gives to this passage titled simply as "Love." A way of Paul telling us blatantly that Love is the most excellent way. Paul starts talking about this excellent way by using examples of actions known to Christians of the time with the apostles. He uses speaking in tongues first.
Paul writes that if he were to speak in the tongues of not only men, but of angels as well, but did not have Love, he would the equivalent of a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. He would be nothing but a bunch of noise. To speak in tongues is to speak in the other languages. Paul's first example then is that if he could even speak in the language of angels, but didn't have any Love in it, he would just be making a bunch of loud somewhat irritating noise.
Next Paul gets more extreme. He writes that if he had the gift of prophecy and could fathom all mysteries and knowledge and if he had the faith that could move mountains, but had not Love, he would be nothing. So in other words, Paul is saying that if he could understand all the mysteries of existence and had all knowledge of the everything and had the faith that could move entire mountains, but did not have this Love, he wouldn't just be like a gong or cymbal, he would be nothing.
Paul then uses an example that easier to relate to for most of the Christians of the time. He writes that if he were to give up all his possessions and surrender himself completely but did not have Love, he would gain nothing. So even if he gave up everything for the sake of others, but didn't have Love, he would gain nothing from it at all.
Paul no doubt rattled the Corinthians mindsets with this part of the letter. The instant response I think to this would be, what then is the Love that makes all of this worthless? The answer is next. The entire next paragraph of the passage is the description of the Love Paul was writing about. Go back and read it again slowly thinking about each part as you read them off...
Patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices with the truth, always protecting, always trusting, always hopeful, and always persevering. The first thing to realize about this description is that there is nothing in this world that meets this full description. So what is Love? 1 John 4:8 "... God is Love."
So no wonder you can't find this in this world. Only God could be all these things at all times. It's a happy thought to think that we could put our name in place of the word "Love" in this description, but no matter how much I change in God and try my hardest, I just can't even get half way before I have to stop reading. The only One to ever be in this world that could match that description has been Jesus Christ. He met it from birth all the way to His death on that cross to pay for our sins. So going back to what Paul said before, what does it mean to not have Love?
Throughout Paul's letters and in James letter, it says that you need both faith and deeds. But Paul gave examples of both at the same time with himself as the example as a way of stating, "If I am faithful and give everything but have not Love, then I am nothing." So then there is a third element to go with the two. An element that if missing, would make the faith and deeds worthless. So we have established that the element is Love, and that this Love is God. So 1+1, we need to have God in order for anything to matter. But wouldn't having faith and works already entail that we have God? Not always. Even if I believe in God and say start writing this post to serve, if I do not have God and His Love in it, then it's merely for me to do. The difference of having God or not is ultimately what is driving the uses of what we have. I could speak the languages of angels, but if I do not do it for God, then it's worthless. I could be a prophet and have true understanding and great faith, but if I do not let God use it, then there's no point. I could become rich and give everything away, but if I'm giving it away to make sure I do not feel bad or for the act of giving instead of because it's what God wants, then there is nothing to gain from it, except some people getting some new stuff.
We need to be rooted in God and change our motives to fit His. I do believe, and I do serve in the church, but so often I find myself doing things and believing all for the wrong reasons. I do not give it up to Him. I find that things do not go well when I do this either. It ends up being all wrong. If I am not rooted in Him and planting myself in His Love, then all the fruits produced are worthless, they're sour. Whether it's talking to people, playing worship music, volunteering with children's ministries, or writing this blog, if I do not turn to God and let all of these attributes of Love come out with those things, then I'm doing something wrong here; then I AM NOTHING! But thankfully the faith I do have, is in a merciful God who's Name is Love. Without this Love and Mercy I would be dead. I am so convicted by this.
The solution to this is to check on whether we are matching our actions with the attributes of Love in the passage. But wait, hasn't Jesus Christ been the only one ever able to meet this mark? Yes. Then how could we ever do so? We can't. That's why I bring up God's Grace and Mercy, because we could never meet up with what's expected. But even though we are forgiven for the times that we can't, it doesn't mean there's no point in trying. Would a soldier meeting impossible odds give up or fight to the end for what mattered most? I want to say that I would fight to the end for God in this life. I want to war against myself and my worldly desires and reasons for my faith and deeds. I want them to be changed as much as possible in this life to be a servant for my God. Not because I could gain something from it, I have already been given everything I could ever want by God through forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I want to do it because I already have everything. I do not need more. I want to give it all up for God, and I want to do it for Him and by Him. That means doing it with His Love. To know what that looks like though, I need to know what each of those attributes actually are. So I've given myself a challenge that I am now giving you. The challenge is to take one of the attributes of Love and each day write it on my wrist or a piece of paper in my pocket and have it there for 24 hours while I read in the Bible about it, pray about it, and truly ponder it and what it would look like in my life as a servant. So this is a 15 day challenge, but it could change the way we act for the rest of our lives and help us to let God base our actions in His Love.
I really encourage you all to do this challenge. I started with patience today. This challenge must not however be for the wrong reasons either. As you do it, you realize just how easy it actually is to mess it all up. Which is another positive side to it, it brings me closer to God and helps me see just how forgiving and Patient He is. A Christian should always desire to get to know God more. He is our greatest relationship, we should work on getting to know Him more than anyone or anything else. Convicting words that even hurt me as I type them. My thankfulness for His forgiveness only seems to be growing as this goes on. One last thing to remember, is that these 15 things, are only an infinitely small fraction of what His Love is. We could all spend each day of our lives looking at attributes of His Love, but it wouldn't be enough. All the more the reason to start now. A statement to remember during this challenge and dare I say the rest of our lives, is this: "We can only grow and share Love, if we have our roots in it."
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
