First love…

“Write this to the angel of the church in Ephesus:

These are the words of the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven gold lampstands: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance. I also know that you don’t put up with those who are evil. You have tested those who say they are apostles but are not, and you have found them to be liars. You have shown endurance and put up with a lot for my name’s sake, and you haven’t gotten tired. But I have this against you: you have let go of the love you had at first. So remember the high point from which you have fallen. Change your hearts and lives and do the things you did at first. If you don’t, I’m coming to you. I will move your lampstand from its place if you don’t change your hearts and lives. But you have this in your favor: you hate what the Nicolaitans are doing, which I also hate. If you can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. I will allow those who emerge victorious to eat from the tree of life, which is in God’s paradise. (Revelation 2:1-7, CEB)

When we get caught up in religion and the rules for doing what God has called us to do, we forget Jesus.

Faith in God is not about following rules and doing things the right way. Following God is about love. Loving those around you and loving God.

Pure and simple. Do not get caught up in following the rules. Just love.

Loving People. Loving God.

death’s power

So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it? Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life. If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his. This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore, because a person who has died has been freed from sin’s power. But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and he will never die again. Death no longer has power over him. He died to sin once and for all with his death, but he lives for God with his life. In the same way, you also should consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:1b-11, CEB)

Does death have power?

We fear dying. Probably for many reasons. Will it hurt? How painful will it be? Will it take a while or it will happen in an instant. What happens after we die?

Actually, I think that is the biggest fear for all of us. We have no idea what happens when we die. The Bible certainly isn’t clear on it either there are all kinds of answers.

But here Paul tells the Romans that death’s power is over. Christ has defeated the power of death in his resurrection and because we have been united with Christ in his death we will be united in his resurrection so death’s power is gone.

We have new life in Christ and should live that life unapologetically.

Know that death is not the end.

Loving People. Loving God.

Integrity

As he left there, the legal experts and Pharisees began to resent him deeply and to ask him pointed questions about many things. They plotted against him, trying to trap him in his words. When a crowd of thousands upon thousands had gathered so that they were crushing each other, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples: “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees—I mean, the mismatch between their hearts and lives. Nothing is hidden that won’t be revealed, and nothing is secret that won’t be brought out into the open. Therefore, whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in the rooms deep inside the house will be announced from the rooftops. (Luke 11:53-12:3, CEB)

Integrity is one of my favorite words.

I try to live a life of integrity. Meaning I am who I say I am all the time, no matter who is looking or if anyone is looking.

I have always said those who tell the truth do not have to worry about having a good memory. Only those that spin tails and tell lies need to remember who they told what.

Be who you are no matter who is watching, for everything will eventually be made known.

Loving People. Loving God.

control part 2

The high priest, together with his allies, the Sadducees, was overcome with jealousy. They seized the apostles and made a public show of putting them in prison. An angel from the Lord opened the prison doors during the night and led them out. The angel told them, “Go, take your place in the temple, and tell the people everything about this new life.” Early in the morning, they went into the temple as they had been told and began to teach. When the high priest and his colleagues gathered, they convened the Jerusalem Council, that is, the full assembly of Israel’s elders. They sent word to the prison to have the apostles brought before them. However, the guards didn’t find them in the prison. They returned and reported, “We found the prison locked and well-secured, with guards standing at the doors, but when we opened the doors we found no one inside!” When they received this news, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were baffled and wondered what might be happening. Just then, someone arrived and announced, “Look! The people you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” Then the captain left with his guards and brought the apostles back. They didn’t use force because they were afraid the people would stone them. (Acts 5:17-26, CEB)

Yesterday’s devotion talked about who is in control. The Angels? Us?

This passage shows that there were those who thought they were in control and had people who were speaking a different message arrested and put in prison, and yet, God released them and advised them to go back where they were and continue to tell the message they had.

Know that while we may think we have control, we do not. Believe and trust in the one who created everything and let God have the control God has and live an abundant life!

Loving People. Loving God.

control

God didn’t put the world that is coming (the world we are talking about) under the angels’ control. Instead, someone declared somewhere, What is humanity that you think about them? Or what are the human beings that you care about them? For a while you made them lower than angels. You crowned the human beings with glory and honor. You put everything under their control. When he puts everything under their control, he doesn’t leave anything out of control. But right now, we don’t see everything under their control yet. However, we do see the one who was made lower in order than the angels for a little while—it’s Jesus! He’s the one who is now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of his death. He suffered death so that he could taste death for everyone through God’s grace. (Hebrews 2:5-9, CEB)

Who has control?

The angels?

Who controls your life?

We would all like to think we do and in a sense we do, and yet control is out of our hands.

God is in control.

Loving People. Loving God.

disciples – apostles

During that time, Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night long. At daybreak, he called together his disciples. He chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter; his brother Andrew; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called a zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Jesus came down from the mountain with them and stood on a large area of level ground. A great company of his disciples and a huge crowd of people from all around Judea and Jerusalem and the area around Tyre and Sidon joined him there. They came to hear him and to be healed from their diseases, and those bothered by unclean spirits were healed. The whole crowd wanted to touch him, because power was going out from him and he was healing everyone. (Luke 6:12-19, CEB)

Jesus prayed and then at day break he called together his disciples. He chose 12 and called them apostles. Wait I thought there were 12 disciples?

How many disciples were there?

Well if you read all of the gospels you will see a different list of 12 men called apostles by Jesus. But there are many people who would be considered disciples.

You see the word disciple in Greek means learner. So anyone who learns from Jesus is a disciple. Anyone, men, women, children, slaves, lepers, those forsaken, those accepted. If you learned from Jesus you are his disciple.

And Jesus named 12 apostles, which means sent. He named 12 people to go into the world to tell about love. But aren’t all of us really sent by Jesus, “as the father sent me, so I send you.”

Learn and go.

Learn about love and go and share love.

Loving People. Loving God.

lead your hearts

But we always must thank God for you, brothers and sisters who are loved by God. This is because he chose you from the beginning to be the first crop of the harvest. This brought salvation, through your dedication to God by the Spirit and through your belief in the truth. God called all of you through our good news so you could possess the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether we taught you in person or through our letter. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and a good hope. May he encourage your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do or say. Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us so that the Lord’s message will spread quickly and be honored, just like it happened with you. Pray too that we will be rescued from inappropriate and evil people since everyone that we meet won’t respond with faith. But the Lord is faithful and will give you strength and protect you from the evil one. We are confident about you in the Lord—that you are doing and will keep doing what we tell you to do. May the Lord lead your hearts to express God’s love and Christ’s endurance. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5, CEB)

Stand firm to what was taught. Whose teaching are we standing firm in?

Somethings I know I was taught was not the truth but was a twisting of the truth for a power struggle. So how do we know what to stand firm in?

When the Lord leads your heart to express God’s love and Christ’s endurance that is what you stand firm in.

Christ’s endurance to live among the people who thought it was about rules and following the guidelines, rather than loving. To live and endure the endless self-gratification of people.

God’s love is love for all people. Share that with the world and hold on to Christ in the moments where the world says your love is wrong.

Loving People. Loving God.

sent

So when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it was a good idea to stay on in Athens by ourselves, and we sent you Timothy, who is our brother and God’s coworker in the good news about Christ. We sent him to strengthen and encourage you in your faithfulness. We didn’t want any of you to be shaken by these problems. You know very well that we were meant to go through this. In fact, when we were with you, we kept on predicting that we were going to face problems exactly like what happened, as you know. That’s why I sent Timothy to find out about your faithfulness when I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was worried that the tempter might have tempted you so that our work would have been a waste of time. (1 Thessalonians 3:1-5, CEB)

Sometimes we can’t be where we want to be. Circumstances in life cause issues that do not need to be put on others and keep us from being with those that we care about.

In this moment, Paul sends Timothy to be his eyes and ears to find out about those he loves. Paul can’t be there so he sends a trusted friend.

We are all sent by God to be a trusted friend to those around us.

Show love, and be concerned for the needs of those around you.

Grace and mercy should flow from your life.

Report to God about what you see and share God’s love always.

Loving People. Loving God.

Hope

Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:1-8, CEB)

Hope is what gets us through.

Hope in the faithfulness of Jesus.

Who showed us how to love, even those who put him to death.

And through that life we are brought into relationship with God.

Hope. Trust it. Believe it.

Hope if life.

Loving People. Loving God.

Lip Service

The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a way of observing the rules handed down by the elders. Upon returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves. They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats.) So the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?” He replied, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words. You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.” Jesus continued, “Clearly, you are experts at rejecting God’s commandment in order to establish these rules. Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and The person who speaks against father or mother will certainly be put to death. But you say, ‘If you tell your father or mother, “Everything I’m expected to contribute to you is corban(that is, a gift I’m giving to God),” then you are no longer required to care for your father or mother.’ In this way you do away with God’s word in favor of the rules handed down to you, which you pass on to others. And you do a lot of other things just like that.” (Mark 7:1-13, CEB)

Do you give God lip service?

Meaning are you following rules of religion in order to make it look like you are a follower of Christ?

Rules are not meant to make us pure. God already did that. We can not follow rules to get into the good graces of God. We are in God’s good graces and we show that to the world by loving those around us.

Love makes the world go round, not a list of requirements to do things right.

Loving People. Loving God.