Life worthy

Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6, CEB)

What is a people worthy of the call you received?

I see people in power saying they are upholding the Bible and taking away people’s rights and health care. They are saying they are upholding love, and designing laws that take away freedoms and putting people in closets.

They go to a building on Sundays and sing praises and say they love God and then Monday through Saturday the spew hate and show through their actions they do not love God.

How do you live a life worthy of the call you received?

Loving People. Loving God.

Give you

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength. (Ephesians 1:17-19, CEB)

The author of Ephesians prays that those reading will be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation so they will know God. That the eyes of their hearts will have enough light to see the hope of God’s call.

A hope that breaks down barriers that keep us focused on our own needs and desire rather then being a beacon of love in the world.

Hope that shines in the darkness and helps us see the world through God’s eyes.

I pray you who is reading this will be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation that allows you to know God and be known by God, so the eyes of your heart see light and know the hope of giving up your life to shine love in the darkness of this day. May God bless you and hold you close and help you be a sign of hope in the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

Let it be…

When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. When the angel came to her, he said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you!” She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled ‘unable to conceive’ is now six months pregnant. Nothing is impossible for God.” Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38, CEB)

A young woman, probably 12 or 13 is visited by an angel and told they will become pregnant and have a son. His name will be Jesus and he will be the Son of the Most High. She questions this, because she has not been sexually active and obviously has no intention of this either. The angel simply says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and and God will overshadow you and you will become pregnant. This she does not question and merely says, Let it be.

Seriously? I would be questioning this so hard?

How Will the Spirit come over?

What does the power of the most High will overshadow me mean?

How is Elizabeth pregnant?

Why can’t Elizabeth’s baby do this?

What did I do to deserve this?

Nope Mary just says, I am a servant of the Lord, let it be as you have said. No questions.

I want that faith!

Loving People. Loving God.

Mind of Christ

We haven’t received the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God. These are the things we are talking about—not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the Spirit—we are interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. But people who are unspiritual don’t accept the things from God’s Spirit. They are foolishness to them and can’t be understood, because they can only be comprehended in a spiritual way. Spiritual people comprehend everything, but they themselves aren’t understood by anyone. Who has known the mind of the Lord, who will advise him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:12-16, CEB)

We have the mind of Christ…

It seems we have a lot of people that want to advise the Lord. They want God to do what they want, to let in the people they deem clean and worthy, to punish for the sins they see are committed. I saw a TikTok recently that asked about when we have made our relationship with God fragile that we need to make sure not tot upset God so God will not smite us and bring wrath. Like we know what God will do and how do will respond.

How do we think we know what God will do?
Wrath?
Hate?
Indifference?

This is not the promises we see. Love is what the Bible tells us.

That is the Spirit of God. Love.

Love like Jesus, meaning all.

Loving People. Loving God.

Expert?

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God. What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn’t a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today’s leaders who are being reduced to nothing. We talk about God’s wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory! But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being. God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God. Who knows a person’s depths except their own spirit that lives in them? In the same way, no one has known the depths of God except God’s Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:1-11, CEB)

Any one who claims to be an expert on the secrets of God clearly is preaching from their own god and has made God fit into their box and really have no clue who God is.

The only one who truly knows the depths of a person is the spirit in them, so the only one who truly knows God is the Holy Spirit. And when we claim to be an expert on the Holy Spirit we are showing how completely clueless we are.

God always does what God wants, in God’s time and God’s way. We do not understand this in the slightest.

When we admit we are along for the ride and wonder about what will happen we show faith.

Faith is the belief in the unseen. The hope that the promises are true.

Live by faith, not certainty. Don’t be an expert, just buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Loving People. Loving God.

Show us…

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father; that will be enough for us.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you all this time? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I have spoken to you I don’t speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on account of the works themselves. I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son. When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you. (John 14:8-17, CEB)

Have you seen Jesus?

Have you seen God?

Now the Bible tells us that no one has seen God except the one who descended, meaning Jesus. But is that really the case?

Here, Jesus tells Philip, if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. So then the question is have we seen Jesus?

The easy answer to that is no. We have not seen Jesus, as he was a man who lived over 2000 years ago, so we have not seen him. Yet we believe Jesus died and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to be with the Father until a certain point when the kingdom will be fulfilled, and we will all be with God. But we also believe that Jesus is with us always, even until the end of the ages, and Jesus is always with us. And we believe that we are the image of God, so we see Jesus in those around us. So while we have not seen Jesus, we see Jesus when we look at each other. And if we see Jesus, then we see the Father.

We are the image of God, all of us together are God’s image, so when we see each other, we see God.

So love each other, as God has loved you. And help us all remember we are God’s image for the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

What?

During the rule of King Herod of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. They were both righteous before God, blameless in their observance of all the Lord’s commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to become pregnant and they both were very old. One day Zechariah was serving as a priest before God because his priestly division was on duty. Following the customs of priestly service, he was chosen by lottery to go into the Lord’s sanctuary and burn incense. All the people who gathered to worship were praying outside during this hour of incense offering. An angel from the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw the angel, he was startled and overcome with fear. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayers have been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to your son and you must name him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many people will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the Lord’s eyes. He must not drink wine and liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. He will bring many Israelites back to the Lord their God. He will go forth before the Lord, equipped with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will turn the hearts of fathers back to their children, and he will turn the disobedient to righteous patterns of thinking. He will make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:5-17, CEB)

Zechariah prayed for a son, and his prayers were heard, and when he entered the temple after being chosen by lot to go, an angel appeared to him and scared him.

How would you react if you went into the temple and started to light the incense, and all of a sudden, there was someone else standing there at the altar with you?

The angel clearly told Zechariah they would have a son and he was to be named John and he would be a prophet. I honestly think I would be more scared about this, than the person who was not supposed to be in the temple with me.

A prophet of the most high is not going to have a fun life.

But are not we all called to be a spokesperson for God? To proclaim God’s love in the world?

Know God for told your birth just as God did John’s. God is counting on you to speak truth in love and show the world that God loves them.

Loving People. Loving God.

harvest

Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant. Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit. Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith. (Galatians 6:7-10, CEB)

You can not harvest what you do not plant.

If your life plants love, you will get love in return.

If your life plants hate, you will get hate in return.

We can only get what we give.

Give love, in everything you do.

Loving People. Loving God.

guided by?

I say be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires. A person’s selfish desires are set against the Spirit, and the Spirit is set against one’s selfish desires. They are opposed to each other, so you shouldn’t do whatever you want to do. But if you are being led by the Spirit, you aren’t under the Law. The actions that are produced by selfish motives are obvious, since they include sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that. I warn you as I have already warned you, that those who do these kinds of things won’t inherit God’s kingdom. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the self with its passions and its desires. If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-25, CEB)

Who are you guided by?

Do you follow after your own desires?

Do you cause people to hide who they are so they make you comfortable?

When we are guided by the Spirit, we will love all people as God created them.

For living in and being guided by the Spirit means we will show the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Love brings joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we love we truly show God is moving in and among us and allows others to be who they are.

Be guided by the Spirit. Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

lose your life

Once when Jesus was praying by himself, the disciples joined him, and he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others that one of the ancient prophets has come back to life.” He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ sent from God.” 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 9:18-27, CEB)

Jesus just said to the disciples that they have to die daily to what they want and go and do what Jesus is leading them to do.

When we make people fit in boxes to make us comfortable, that is not dying to self or following Jesus.

When we say people are not living the way Jesus told us to, it is not dying to self and following Jesus.

We need to die daily and give up what we want, or we will lose our lives.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.