work of grace

Brothers and sisters, we want to let you know about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia. While they were being tested by many problems, their extra amount of happiness and their extreme poverty resulted in a surplus of rich generosity. I assure you that they gave what they could afford and even more than they could afford, and they did it voluntarily. They urgently begged us for the privilege of sharing in this service for the saints. They even exceeded our expectations, because they gave themselves to the Lord first and to us, consistent with God’s will. As a result, we challenged Titus to finish this work of grace with you the way he had started it. Be the best in this work of grace in the same way that you are the best in everything, such as faith, speech, knowledge, total commitment, and the love we inspired in you. (2 Corinthians 8:1-7, CEB)

Be the best in this work of grace in the same you you are the best in everything else.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if we were all the best in the work of grace? If we all moved to give grace away and did everything for the best of the other, rather than looking out for ourselves?

How great would the world be?

Loving People. Loving God.

Do do…

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I’m made of flesh and blood, and I’m sold as a slave to sin. I don’t know what I’m doing, because I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do the thing that I hate. But if I’m doing the thing that I don’t want to do, I’m agreeing that the Law is right. But now I’m not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it’s sin that lives in me. I know that good doesn’t live in me—that is, in my body. The desire to do good is inside of me, but I can’t do it. I don’t do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I don’t want to do. But if I do the very thing that I don’t want to do, then I’m not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it is sin that lives in me that is doing it. So I find that, as a rule, when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. I gladly agree with the Law on the inside, but I see a different law at work in my body. It wages a war against the law of my mind and takes me prisoner with the law of sin that is in my body. I’m a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse? Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I’m a slave to God’s Law in my mind, but I’m a slave to sin’s law in my body. (Romans 7:14-25, CEB)

Ha, yes, the 13 year old boy in me laughs at this text because Paul says he does not do what he wants to do, he does what is does not want to do. I do do the things I do not want to do.

But are not we all really there? We do the things we wish we did not do and don’t do the things that are loving and living into God’s grace.

We need to stop listening to our sinful self and listen to God and allow God to work through us.

Then we will do what God leads us to and show Love in everything.

Loving People. Loving God.

Stand firm

“Look, I’m sending you as sheep among wolves. Therefore, be wise as snakes and innocent as doves. Watch out for people—because they will hand you over to councils and they will beat you in their synagogues. They will haul you in front of governors and even kings because of me so that you may give your testimony to them and to the Gentiles. Whenever they hand you over, don’t worry about how to speak or what you will say, because what you can say will be given to you at that moment. You aren’t doing the talking, but the Spirit of my Father is doing the talking through you. Brothers and sisters will hand each other over to be executed. A father will turn his child in. Children will defy their parents and have them executed. Everyone will hate you on account of my name. But whoever stands firm until the end will be saved. Whenever they harass you in one city, escape to the next, because I assure that you will not go through all the cities of Israel before the Human One comes. “Disciples aren’t greater than their teacher, and slaves aren’t greater than their master. It’s enough for disciples to be like their teacher and slaves like their master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, it’s certain that they will call the members of his household by even worse names. (Matthew 10:16-25, CEB)

Trials will come and those you thought were for you will turn against you. But stand firm in the Lord.

Know that no matter what happens that God is always with you and will give you the words to say, if you remain in the love given to you by God and share that consistently with the world.

It will not be easy, but you will never be alone.

Stand Firm.

Loving People. Loving God.

Focus

Nobody should deceive you with stupid ideas. God’s anger comes down on those who are disobedient because of this kind of thing. So you shouldn’t have anything to do with them. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. So be careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly. Take advantage of every opportunity because these are evil times. Because of this, don’t be ignorant, but understand the Lord’s will. Don’t get drunk on wine, which produces depravity. Instead, be filled with the Spirit in the following ways: speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; sing and make music to the Lord in your hearts; always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; (Ephesians 5:6-20, CEB)

Where is your focus?

The author of Ephesians says nobody should deceive you with stupid ideas, and you do what is pleasing to the Lord, and do not practice unfruitful actions of darkness.

What is an unfruitful action of darkness?

I believe this is when we focus on our self and making sure our needs are met over being love and light in the world. When we do not focus on Jesus and what he has called us to do and be.

Don’t be ignorant understand what Jesus has called you to and focus on Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

claims light

Dear friends, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message you heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines. The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now. The person loving a brother and sister stays in the light, and there is nothing in the light that causes a person to stumble. But the person who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and lives in the darkness, and doesn’t know where to go because the darkness blinds the eyes. (1 John 2:7-11, CEB)

If you hate anyone, you are not following Jesus. “The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now.”

So, what is hate? M-W.com says:
as a Noun:
1 a: intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury
b: extreme dislike or disgust : antipathy, loathing
c: a systematic and especially politically exploited expression of hatred
2: an object of hatred
as a Transitive Verb:
1: to feel extreme enmity toward : to regard with active hostility
2: to have a strong aversion to : find very distasteful
as an Intransitive Verb:
: to express or feel extreme enmity or active hostility

When you dislike a person’s lifestyle, that is hate. But wait a minute, I am just showing them the love I was shown in the Bible by telling them that their lifestyle is leading them to damnation and separation from God. Seriously? You are using a book that leads us to love all of creation for hate, which 1 John tells us is what takes us out of the light?

Do not hate. Lift others up as God does.

Walk in the light and show love to all of God’s children.

Loving People. Loving God.

whose way?

As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead of him. Along the way, they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, but the Samaritan villagers refused to welcome him because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them?” But Jesus turned and spoke sternly to them, and they went on to another village. As Jesus and his disciples traveled along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One has no place to lay his head.” Then Jesus said to someone else, “Follow me.” He replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and spread the news of God’s kingdom.” Someone else said to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those in my house.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for God’s kingdom.” (Luke 9:51-62, CEB)

When we decide to do what Jesus told us to do, who determines what happens next? Us or God?

James and John wanted to rain down fire from heaven because people were not welcoming to Jesus, and those who were to follow wanted to do other things before fully committing.

Unlike a lot of things in our Lutheran understanding, this really isn’t a gray area. We are either in and doing what Jesus told us to do, or we are not doing what Jesus told us to do. Jesus chooses what happens, not us.

We need to love all people, not call for fire from heaven on those who think or act differently from us. We do not get to hate people because they sin differently than we do.

Following Jesus means we love unconditionally.

Loving People. Loving God.

ashamed…

Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. He said, “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected—by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts—and be killed and be raised on the third day.” Jesus said to everyone, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will save them. What advantage do people have if they gain the whole world for themselves yet perish or lose their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom.” (Luke 9:21-27, CEB)

Jesus said, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

What does it mean to be ashamed? M-W.com says:
1 a: feeling shame, guilt, or disgrace
b: feeling inferior or unworthy
2: reluctant or unwilling to do something because of shame or embarrassment

The second definition, I think, plays in nicely here. Anyone who is reluctant or unwilling to do what I have told you to do, I will be ashamed of when they come before the father. When you are unwilling to be who Jesus calls you to be because you will be embarrassed or shamed around your people, or have to admit you were wrong, Jesus will be ashamed.

Why not just admit you were wrong and learn and move forward and love and do what Jesus calls us to do?

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

known by God

At the time, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved by things that aren’t gods by nature. But now, after knowing God (or rather, being known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless world system? Do you want to be slaves to it again? You observe religious days and months and seasons and years. I’m afraid for you! Perhaps my hard work for you has been for nothing. I beg you to be like me, brothers and sisters, because I have become like you! You haven’t wronged me. You know that I first preached the gospel to you because of an illness. Though my poor health burdened you, you didn’t look down on me or reject me, but you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God, or as if I were Christ Jesus! Where then is the great attitude that you had? I swear that, if possible, you would have dug out your eyes and given them to me. So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? They are so concerned about you, though not with good intentions. Rather, they want to shut you out so that you would run after them. However, it’s always good to have people concerned about you with good intentions, and not just when I’m there with you. My little children, I’m going through labor pains again until Christ is formed in you. But I wish I could be with you now and change how I sound, because I’m at a loss about you. (Galatians 4:8-20, CEB)

Paul tells the Galatians now that they know God, or more to the point, are known by God, how can they go back to what they knew before?

We are all known by God better than we know ourselves. How can we be who we were, now that we know we are known and loved by the creator of the universe?

How?

Loving People. Loving God.

truth

Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Don’t you understand that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. But I hope that you will realize that we don’t fail the test. We pray to God that you don’t do anything wrong, not because we want to appear to pass the test but so that you might do the right thing, even if we appear to fail. We can’t do anything against the truth but only to help the truth. We are happy when we are weak but you are strong. We pray for this: that you will be made complete. This is why I’m writing these things while I’m away. I’m writing so that I won’t need to act harshly when I’m with you by using the authority that the Lord gave me. He gave it to me so that I could build you up, not tear you down. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10, CEB)

We can not do anything against the truth. For the truth will always come through.

We do not do what is right to pass the test, but to help the truth.

I speak love to help the truth.

Do you help the truth?

Loving People. Loving God.

overwhelmed

The next day, when Jesus, Peter, John, and James had come down from the mountain, a large crowd met Jesus. A man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to take a look at my son, my only child. Look, a spirit seizes him and, without any warning, he screams. It shakes him and causes him to foam at the mouth. It tortures him and rarely leaves him alone. I begged your disciples to throw it out, but they couldn’t.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and crooked generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him down and shook him violently. Jesus spoke harshly to the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father. Everyone was overwhelmed by God’s greatness. (Luke 9:37-43a, CEB)

Why do you follow Jesus?

Is it to get healed from your demons?

Is it because you have seen great things and want some of that too?

When we follow to get something, we will not get that.

Why couldn’t the disciples cast out the demon? The reading doesn’t say. So we can conjecture. Maybe their faith wasn’t strong enough, maybe they didn’t think they could do it as well as Jesus, and the demon could sense that and didn’t listen.

How many times do we fail because we think we will fail?

If we could see what God sees, we would not lose faith.

Believe and do great things than these…

Loving People. Loving God.