live wisely

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 5:15-20, CEB)

Do not be foolish and only look out for yourself.

We are all in this together, and the Lord has called us to look out for each other.

Be filled with the spirit and love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Gift

God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ. That’s why scripture says, When he climbed up to the heights, he captured prisoners, and he gave gifts to people. What does the phrase “he climbed up” mean if it doesn’t mean that he had first gone down into the lower regions, the earth? The one who went down is the same one who climbed up above all the heavens so that he might fill everything. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part. (Ephesians 4:7-16, CEB)

We all have a gift that we should use for the betterment of society.

Martin Luther called it vocation. Not a job, but a calling for the body of Christ and the world.

It s a gift we use to make the world a better place.

We should not envy another’s gift but use ours so that everyone has a better life.

What is your gift?

Loving People. Loving God.

Handle

“I have much more to say to you, but you can’t handle it now. However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He won’t speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and proclaim it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine. That’s why I said that the Spirit takes what is mine and will proclaim it to you. (John 16:12-15, CEB)

Jesus is speaking to the disciples here as they are journeying to garden where he will be handed over to be put on trial and then to death. He is telling the disciples about the coming kingdom and all the truths of God. He says he has much more to tell them, but he knows they can not handle it.

What did Jesus want/need to tell them they could not handle? He was already told them he will be handed over, tried, beaten, killed. What could be worse? What can they not handle?

Sometimes what we do not know is for our own good. I really want a road map of God’s plan, but if I had that, what would I do to screw it up?

Know what you know. Have faith in God to see us through.

Loving People. Loving God.

Worst parents ever

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to their custom. After the festival was over, they were returning home, but the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t know it. Supposing that he was among their band of travelers, they journeyed on for a full day while looking for him among their family and friends. When they didn’t find Jesus, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple. He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and putting questions to them. Everyone who heard him was amazed by his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were shocked. His mother said, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Listen! Your father and I have been worried. We’ve been looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he said to them. Jesus went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. His mother cherished every word in her heart. Jesus matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people. (Luke 2:41-52, CEB)

I love this passage of scripture especially when I feel like I have failed as a parent, which I assumed would drop in number when my kids were college age, but it has only seemed to increase. But yet I have never left my children behind somewhere I did not know where they were.

Here we see his parents, unnamed, go to Jerusalem every year for the Passover Festival. And when Jesus was 12, they went as was the custom, but when they were ready to leave they assumed Jesus was with other family members and they journeyed three days away before they realized Jesus was not with them.

Makes my failures as a parent seem kind of small. But they should have known where Jesus was. If I would have left my children behind there is no telling where they would have been. Jesus had to be with His Father. Learning and helping others grow closer to the Father.

Oh if we all were so close to God that we would always be found seeking to be in God’s presence.

Loving People. Loving God.

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.