one love

Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:8-12, NRSV)

Do not repay evil with evil but repay it with a blessing!

Bless those who persecute you! Be a blessing to the world that will hate you for what you have that is different from them.

They will hate you for the love you have for them, but do not hate them in return. Love the world that God created just as He loves it. He loves it so that He sent His only son to come and show us how to live and we killed Him.

I saw a quote recently from Abraham Lincoln, “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” By blessing those that make evil come our way, we are showing creation love, and showing the unity we have with the spirit. We are sharing the one love that brought us together, and brought us to the relationship with God.

Show the one love, the one spirit, the one hope to all!

one spirit

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:1-4, NRSV)

Be united in the one spirit and one purpose…

Do nothing for yourself, but always think of the other and regard not your own needs.

Be of the same mind, living in the same love that brought you to God, and be in full accord and of one mind. Now wait a minute, does that mean we have to agree on everything?

Upon first read I would say yes. Yes it does mean we have to agree on everything, which really means we are in trouble. But then I thought about it, and not because we are i trouble if that is what it means, but because there are times when I am not able to decide between two things. Both of them seem right and actual answers to the question I am facing. So then am I not in full accord with myself, and of a different mind then myself?

Yes and no… being of one mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind, to me does not mean we always agree, but we are united and unified in the one spirit, the one Lord, the one baptism. We are united in the mission we share, to go and spread the gospel!

So be of one spirit!

one hope

help-me-obi-wanI therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, (Ephesians 4:1-5, NRSV)

There is one hope. And that is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ok sorry I am a huge Star Wars fan if you didn’t already know that and when I read this passage I went to “you’re our only hope…”

But it is true we have only one hope.

We can put our trust in our own abilities.

We can put our trust in our significant others love and abilities.

We can put our trust in our parents’ abilities.

We can put our trust in our children’s abilities.

We can put our trust in anything but our one true and only hope and we will be let down.

Only in Jesus is our hope found and that is what unites us in His body. Regardless of the man-made things that we have the separate us, Christ unites us and He is our one and only hope!

be united

one-in-christNow I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. (1 Corinthians 1:10-17, NRSV)

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you should be in agreement, and there be no divisions among you, but that you are united in the same mind and the same purpose.

If only right?

But isn’t that really what Jesus came to do?

To help us see what it is all about?

And when we fight over the rules, and who is doing what the right way, or who is doing this the wrong way, we miss the point.

The point is to love God and to love you neighbor, and everything else will be handled by God.

So be united, and get over the small issues we want to make mountians out of.

Be united in Christ!

everyone

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:20-26, NRSV)

Jesus just prayed for you!

In the garden, the night before His arrest and trial and death He prayed for you.

For all of those who will hear and believe through these…

That the words they speak will show forth the love of Jesus.

Jesus prayed for you to hear the words and believe, and now he is praying for those who will hear through you.

Everyone needs to hear, and you can go and tell the story of a savior that prayed for you.

escape is not his plan…

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:6-19, NRSV)

I am not asking you to take them out of the world…

We do not get an escape card and automatically sucked up into heaven with Jesus when we become a christian…

We get to stay here in the world and be Jesus’ hands and feet. Which means that all of life will still be weighing down on us.

We don’t need to pretend that we can do it on our own either. You see here, Jesus says that he protected the disciples while he was here, and here he is asking the Father to continue to protect them.

We are not alone in this walk, and we do not have to pretend to be perfect, like there are no problems when we are Christians.

Yes we are set apart from the world, but we are still in the world. We are sanctified, hallowed, and set apart. But we are walking together in this world, as his body.

We are not without struggles, and we need to show that, and be broken together with Jesus giving us life.

 

Here is a video for a song that is inspiring me now:

 

king of all the earth!

God has gone up with a shout,
the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm.
(Psalm 47:5-7, NRSV)

Sing praises to God, for He is the king of all the earth!

He is the one who created you and the place in which you dwell.

So raise a shout to God, and sing Him praises with a psalm.

immeasurable greatness

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:15-23, NRSV)

I pray that you get the spirit of wisdom  and revelation as you come to know God, our savior, better.

I pray that your eyes would be opened and enlightened to see the hope we have in Him.

I pray that you would see the greatness and riches He has given you.

But most of all I pray that you would know the immeasurable greatness of His power to do whatever needs to be done for those of us who love and follow Him.

Rest in His greatness and know it is enough for you!

taken

When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”  Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. (Acts 1:9-14, NRSV)

I always find the question of vers 11 a little humorous, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Well Jesus was just taken from us that way. We kind of watched Him leave…

I mean after everything else that happened, I would really be wondering. Jesus was recently killed on the cross, and then He rose from the dead, and now here He goes again doing something, He told us would happen yet, unexpected.

But after this, rather than being locked in a room, they are together, devoted to prayer and mutual consolation. They are doing mutual care and consolation of the saints!

So know that even though Jesus was taken from us, He is always with us, where ever 2 or more are gathered…