Endure

19 Now, it is commendable if, because of one’s understanding of God, someone should endure pain through suffering unjustly. 20 But what praise comes from enduring patiently when you have sinned and are beaten for it? But if you endure steadfastly when you’ve done good and suffer for it, this is commendable before God. 21 You were called to this kind of endurance, because Christ suffered on your behalf. He left you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps. 22 He committed no sin, nor did he ever speak in ways meant to deceive. 23 When he was insulted, he did not reply with insults. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He carried in his own body on the cross the sins we committed. He did this so that we might live in righteousness, having nothing to do with sin. By his wounds you were healed. 25 Though you were like straying sheep, you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your lives. (1 Peter 2:19-25, CEB)

By Christ’s wounds we are healed. We can see through many things because of what our savior suffered for us.

We can show love through not seeking revenge or insulting others.

We show the love God has for us by loving all.

Love People. Love God.

Holy life

6 If you point these things out to the believers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus who has been trained by the words of faith and the good teaching that you’ve carefully followed. 7 But stay away from the godless myths that are passed down from the older women. Train yourself for a holy life! 8 While physical training has some value, training in holy living is useful for everything. It has promise for this life now and the life to come. 9 This saying is reliable and deserves complete acceptance. 10 We work and struggle for this: “Our hope is set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe.” 11 Command these things. Teach them. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young. Instead, set an example for the believers through your speech, behavior, love, faith, and by being sexually pure. 13 Until I arrive, pay attention to public reading, preaching, and teaching. 14 Don’t neglect the spiritual gift in you that was given through prophecy when the elders laid hands on you. 15 Practice these things, and live by them so that your progress will be visible to all. 16 Focus on working on your own development and on what you teach. If you do this, you will save yourself and those who hear you. (1 Timothy 4:6-16, CEB)

Holy life training has promise for life now and to come. We will forever be living in the kingdom of God, so let us put forth the live and light of Christ in everything we do.

Let your very life point to Christ and what the love of God has done in your life.

Let everything you do help others see God’s grace and mercy and love for them

Love People. Love God.

Sin Boldly!

The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. 3 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. 4 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.) 5 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?” 6 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. 7 Their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words. 8 You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.” 14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.” 21 “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, 22 adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.” (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23, CEB)

Martin Luther once wrote in a letter to Philip Melanchthon that he should Sin Boldly! Because Philip was struggling with life and his own sinfulness. Luther said “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (or “Sin boldly”),but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.”

I have talked alot about this quote with many people lately because it is on the front (Sin Boldly) and the back (full quote) of a shirt for the ministry I serve now. And I tell people Luther was telling Melanchthon to not be so concerned with the rules that you are just focusing on not sinning. We should be so about sharing God’s love because we know regardless of what we do God will love us and forgive us.

So sin boldly and don’t be caught up in the rules. Just live the love of God out loud.

Love People. Love God.

doesn’t allow

28 The Jewish leaders led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early in the morning. So that they could eat the Passover, the Jewish leaders wouldn’t enter the palace; entering the palace would have made them ritually impure. 29 So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What charge do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered, “If he had done nothing wrong, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate responded, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your Law. The Jewish leaders replied, “The Law doesn’t allow us to kill anyone.” (32 This was so that Jesus’ word might be fulfilled when he indicated how he was going to die.) (John 18:28-32, CEB)

Our law doesn’t allow us to kill anyone, that is why we need you.

What charge is against him? And they can’t even give one. Their response is “If he had done nothing wrong, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.” We don’t really know what he did wrong other than disturb our way of life. But we need him taken care of.

How many times do we pass off our issues on someone else? We make someone else fix our problems. Jesus was making the religious leaders look at who they really were and what they were doing and they didn’t like it. So the easy way to fix the problem is get rid of Jesus. But does that fix the problem?

The easiest answer isn’t always an answer.

What can we do to be more like Jesus?

Love People. Love God.

What did he say?

9 Brothers and sisters who are poor should find satisfaction in their high status. 10 Those who are wealthy should find satisfaction in their low status, because they will die off like wildflowers. 11 The sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass so that its flowers fall and its beauty is lost. Just like that, in the midst of their daily lives, the wealthy will waste away. 12 Those who stand firm during testing are blessed. They are tried and true. They will receive the life God has promised to those who love him as their reward. 13 No one who is tested should say, “God is tempting me!” This is because God is not tempted by any form of evil, nor does he tempt anyone. 14 Everyone is tempted by their own cravings; they are lured away and enticed by them. 15 Once those cravings conceive, they give birth to sin; and when sin grows up, it gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. (James 1:9-16, CEB)

The poor should find satisfaction in their high status?

The wealthy should find satisfaction in their low status?

What does that mean? It seems the author of James is not sure what they are saying. But then we get, that no one should say God is testing them when they are tested because we are led into testing because of our own cravings. God doesn’t give us what we an handle, God walks with through what we are facing.

And the one who stands firm regardless of what comes their way is the one who will know God is with them.

So stand firm, and trust that God is always with you.

Love People. Love God.

Need Wisdom?

From James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes who are scattered outside the land of Israel. Greetings! 2 My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. 3 After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing. 5 But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. 6 Whoever asks shouldn’t hesitate. They should ask in faith, without doubting. Whoever doubts is like the surf of the sea, tossed and turned by the wind. 7 People like that should never imagine that they will receive anything from the Lord. 8 They are double-minded, unstable in all their ways. (James 1:1-8, CEB)

How many of us need wisdom?

And what do we do to get it?

Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask for it. Ask in faith. Without question.

God will give wisdom to those who seek wisdom.

God is good to those who believe and follow.

So ask for wisdom and trust you will receive it.

Love People. Love God.

Wouldn’t be sinners…

16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last. As a result, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 17 I give you these commandments so that you can love each other. 18 “If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, I have chosen you out of the world, and you don’t belong to the world. This is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you, ‘Servants aren’t greater than their master.’ If the world harassed me, it will harass you too. If it kept my word, it will also keep yours. 21 The world will do all these things to you on account of my name, because it doesn’t know the one who sent me. 22 “If I hadn’t come and spoken to the people of this world, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me also hates the Father. 24 If I hadn’t done works among them that no one else had done, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 This fulfills the word written in their Law, They hated me without a reason. (John 15:16-25, CEB)

In verse 22, Jesus says, “If I hadn’t come and spoken to the people of this world, they wouldn’t be sinners.” And he says it again in verse 24. Which when I read that I was wondering what it meant, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.

The religious leaders all think they have it right and figured out, that they are the only ones in right standing with God, and therefore are not sinners. Everyone else is sinning because they are not like us. We know the law and understand what it means to love God and follow where God is leading.

But since Jesus came and explained it to us all and showed us what it means to love and follow God, we now see the leaders aren’t doing what they should be and are actually far from God.

Jesus showed them to be sinners, just like us.

We all fall short of God’s glory, but thanks be to Jesus for coming and telling and showing us what we need to do to follow God.

Love People. Love God.

Messengers

21 Tychicus, my loved brother and faithful servant of the Lord, can inform you about my situation and what I’m doing. 22 I’ve sent him for this reason—so that you will know about us. He can reassure you. 23 May there be peace with the brothers and sisters as well as love with the faith that comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 May grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ forever. (Ephesians 6:21-24, CEB)

Brothers and sisters, cousins, siblings. There are all kinds of names for our fellow workers in the kingdom. We all bear a message from God to the world.

Let us share our message and keep our fellow workers informed and up to date on others.

Be on prayer, and remember those who walk with you daily.

Love People. Love God.

WOW

21 and submit to each other out of respect for Christ. 22 For example, wives should submit to their husbands as if to the Lord. 23 A husband is the head of his wife like Christ is head of the church, that is, the savior of the body. 24 So wives submit to their husbands in everything like the church submits to Christ. 25 As for husbands, love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. 26 He did this to make her holy by washing her in a bath of water with the word. 27 He did this to present himself with a splendid church, one without any sort of stain or wrinkle on her clothes, but rather one that is holy and blameless. 28 That’s how husbands ought to love their wives—in the same way as they do their own bodies. Anyone who loves his wife loves himself. 29 No one ever hates his own body, but feeds it and takes care of it just like Christ does for the church 30 because we are parts of his body. 31 This is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two of them will be one body. 32 Marriage is a significant allegory, and I’m applying it to Christ and the church. 33 In any case, as for you individually, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and wives should respect their husbands. 6 As for children, obey your parents in the Lord, because it is right. 2 The commandment Honor your father and mother is the first one with a promise attached: 3 so that things will go well for you, and you will live for a long time in the land. 4 As for parents, don’t provoke your children to anger, but raise them with discipline and instruction about the Lord. 5 As for slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling and with sincere devotion to Christ. 6 Don’t work to make yourself look good and try to flatter people, but act like slaves of Christ carrying out God’s will from the heart. 7 Serve your owners enthusiastically, as though you were serving the Lord and not human beings. 8 You know that the Lord will reward every person who does what is right, whether that person is a slave or a free person. 9 As for masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Stop threatening them, because you know that both you and your slaves have a master in heaven. He doesn’t distinguish between people on the basis of status. (Ephesians 5:21—6:9, CEB)

There is so much in this text that is taken out of context today by so many.

Wives submit to your husbands…

How many people still hear those words at weddings? I have, and I’ve seen the look in the eyes of the spouse.

Marriage is supposed to be 50/50 right? Nope marriage is 100/100. We need to give all to the other person all the time. It isn’t about being only 50% of the relationship. It is about all of us being committed to the spouse as Christ is committed to the church. We are invested in the relationship and give 110% all the time!

We are all a part of the body and connected to each other. We need to love others as Christ loves us.

Love others and do not control them because control is not love, but love is trust and allowing others to do and be who God has created them to be. There is no control in love, but freedom. God loves us as God created us, not as God wants or needs us to be.

So do not control, but love.

Love People. Love God.

Where would we go?

56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me lives because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. It isn’t like the bread your ancestors ate, and then they died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 Many of his disciples who heard this said, “This message is harsh. Who can hear it?” 61 Jesus knew that the disciples were grumbling about this and he said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you were to see the Human One going up where he was before? 63 The Spirit is the one who gives life and the flesh doesn’t help at all. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 Yet some of you don’t believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning who wouldn’t believe and the one who would betray him. 65 He said, “For this reason I said to you that none can come to me unless the Father enables them to do so.” 66 At this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer accompanied him. 67 Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” 68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are God’s holy one.” (John 6:56-69,CEB)

This is a hard teaching who can hear this?

Who can do this?

Do you want to leave?

Well, actually yes, but there isn’t any place else we can go. You are giving us the things we need to live.

Let’s be honest, If you were in the place of the disciples that is the answer you would have given. And if not that is the answer I would have given if I was there.

Jesus we don’t get it, but I want to stick around and try to understand it.

So read the hard teachings, and wrestle with them.

Ask questions.

Live in the doubt.

God is big enough for it.

And help others see the love.

Love People. Love God.