Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
2 “To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in [a]Ephesus write:
“These are the words of the One who holds [firmly] the seven stars [which are the angels or messengers of the seven churches] in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands (the seven churches):
2 ‘I know [b]your deeds and your toil, and your patient endurance, and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles (special messengers, personally chosen representatives, of Christ), and [in fact] are not, and have found them to be liars and impostors; 3 and [I know that] you [who believe] are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and that you have not grown weary [of being faithful to the truth]. 4 But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]. 5 So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will] and do the works you did at first [when you first knew Me]; otherwise, I will visit you and remove your lampstand (the church, its impact) from its place—unless you repent.6 Yet you have this [to your credit], that you hate the works and corrupt teachings of the [c]Nicolaitans [that mislead and delude the people], which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who [d]overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant [the privilege] to eat [the fruit] from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.’
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Throughout the first century A.D., Jesus’ followers fanned out across the Roman Empire to spread the good news of God’s salvation in Christ.
They formed communities to support and encourage each other in life, faith, and witness.
Yet by the end of the first century, persecution came to many Christians in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), and they needed support.
The Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved to the utmost, one of the exiled leaders, took the people into his heart, wrote the book of Revelation to them.
It’s filled with words meant to encourage the hearts of men and visions of eternal hope from Jesus to the churches, whom he calls golden lampstands.
What a comfort to know Christ the King walks among the churches he loves.
In the first of seven messages to different churches, Jesus tells the church in Ephesus that he knows their deeds, hard work, and perseverance.
He also directly challenges them, giving compliments before critique.
That’s a pattern we can definitely follow in our families, schools, workplaces, and churches: which is to edify, build each other up before naming challenges.
Church communities are filled with blessing because Jesus walks among us!
Christians which gather together, Koinonia, Fellowship, Care for each other, hear biblical preaching and teaching, Love God, praise God, and pray together.
We host programs, help community causes, and contribute to Local missions causes which demonstrate how much we love God, our neighbors and selves, we serve and respond to natural disasters international relief and World missions.
IDEALLY …. WE LOVE GOD AS MUCH AS WE LOVE NEIGHBORS AND SELVES!
WE ALL CALL THESE CHURCHES ONE’S WE LOOK TO BE CONNECTED WITH!
FIRST, WE SAY THESE CHURCHES ARE INTENSELY IN LOVE WITH GOD!
SECOND, WE SAY THESE CHURCHES ARE INTENSELY IN LOVE WITH PEOPLE!
But ….
And envision this very real possibility ….
Exceedingly and Abundantly and Carefully and Critically and Realistically,
Diligently, Prudently, with 20/20 Hindsight and with Prophetic Foresight,
A church which seems to model exactly the opposite of that Ideal Church?
What About A Church Which Exhibits No Heart, No Love for God?
Love is definitely a many splendored thing or at least the essence of the words and lyrics were popularized into culture by the movie of the same name in 1955.
Crooner Andy Williams and the Four Aces continued to make the song popular.
While love can, and indeed, should absolutely be viewed as a “many splendored thing,” ultimately it’s defined, splendored by what a person does with that love.
Saying one loves another is an important step to building a relationship but love is found and demonstrated in and through our daily actions, not just by words.
Many Splendored Love is an infinitely deeper emotion than just liking a person.
To like another is to share in common pursuits on a casual basis but love is a bond which cements a multitude of hearts into one with steadfast, immovable devotion, deep abiding care, absolute fidelity, commitment, and allegiance.
It is important in marriage to be friends but marriage is deeper when love is at the root of all feelings – which is especially true with our relationship with God.
We so casually say and preach it is easy to like God and to view Him as a friend.
This does not require any commitment or allegiance.
Having a friendship with God likes various aspects of His character but never covenant obligates the individual to a linked mutual commitment of devotion.
Many people are friends of God but never grow to love Him.
Sometimes, relationships blossom with passionate love but wane in time and space to become a “manufactured” vision of 2 people living in the same house.
Love fades into Friendship which gradually, subtly, “takes over” and while the relationship is, remains “civil”, there is little prophetic vision or no true love.
Proverbs 29:18 Amplified Bible
18 Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].
The growing trouble with many in the church is they are more comfortable being friends of God rather than having a “deeply devoted” love for Him.
What little is known about the church in Ephesus comes from the writings of Luke, Paul, and John.
Dr. Luke describes the history of the church in the Acts of the apostles, Paul writes a wonderful letter to the saints at Ephesus and Apostle John’s revelation reveals the church in Ephesus had gone through many changes over the years.
The beginning of the Ephesian church was filled with great promise and hope.
Paul spent three years working with the people of God in this great city and there were many saved through the preaching of the gospel.
The letter of Ephesians is a treatise on the majesty of the church and character, testimony and witness of the Church there and witness of its kingdom citizens.
In the final book of the Bible, Jesus commends the saints in Ephesus for their work, their diligent labor, and patience in defending the cause of Savior Christ.
They had preserved through difficult times and were to be commended.
However, the church had lost something over the years that threatened its existence – The church at Ephesus had fallen out of love with the Lord God.
There is no doubt the church was doing all the right things in the right way.
It was evident they were a working group, laboring mightily in the work of the kingdom and withstanding all those who would oppose the teachings of Christ.
While these were indeed very commendable traits, what they lacked was the love they once had – The Lord challenged them because of their lack of love.
Sometimes in marriage, love will decline and grow tired.
Two people live together in the same place but have little or no interest in the needs, the hopes, the dreams, the wants, the deep requirements of the other.
This can likewise happen to the Children of God.
They can like God and obey His commandments but have no real love for Him.
Their hearts are filled with the socio-cultural, socio-economic, socio-political world and they have a deeper, greater interest in worldly matters than spiritual.
Love, as a “many splendored thing” must absolutely, be cultivated daily.
Steadfast, Immovable Devotion for the Lord does not come by simple osmosis but a very constant, hardcore, effort to learn more, grow more and love more.
It must be continually built upon through a heart of seeking the love of God.
Revelation 2:4-7 The Message
4-5 “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall!
“Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.
6 “You do have this to your credit: You hate the Nicolaitan business. I hate it, too.
7 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
It is easy to fall out of love with the Lord when the spiritual becomes routine.
A church leaving their first love is forgetting the grace of God and His mercy.
Regaining the first full measure of God’s first love comes from committing our spirit once again to knowing, understanding, longing to be drawn closer to God.
Jesus knows each church community and each person in it.
He knows every single one of our strengths.
He knows every single one of our faults, failures, failings and weaknesses.
The community of believers at Ephesus received praise from Jesus for their persevering in the truth.
Yet there was a definite character flaw needing their immediate attention.
They had lost their first love.
This is a powerful revelation.
Church communities can be faithful defenders of God’s truth, but their first love for God can become clouded with cultural minutiae can also grow cold.
“God Splendored” Love is what happens when the amazing grace, mercy, and love of God wash over us, cleansing us, flooding our souls, and making us new.
It seems incredible, almost impossible to wrap our hearts and souls around, but God absolutely loves us without limit, though we do not deserve any of his love.
Every church community and every member of it needs to labor in the utmost, linger to the outermost tolerance and live in the wonder of God’s gracious love.
We need to always strive to envision new ways to remember and celebrate this “God splendored” love in our studies, the songs we sing, the prayers we raise, the stories we share, the sacraments we celebrate, the care we give to others.
Jesus uses a word in this letter that brings us back to the way he started his public ministry: “repent.”
This is a call to turn around, change direction, and get back on course.
For church communities to be Spirit-filled, “golden lampstands,” the passion of God’s very first love for each of us needs to be pulsing throughout our veins.
The more “many splendored” deposits of God’s first love for us, made into the divine love bank, the greater the eternal dividends received from our Lord God.
It takes much labor and even greater sacrifices to make a marriage “work,” to never let our “first love” diminish, never allow “splendored” love to grow stale.
It is unacceptable to leave behind the first love experienced in the family of God.
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit, to revive our first vision of our first love for God!
Let our first love for God grow more and more, draw closer unto God every day.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God who is Love,Lord of All, life is a journey full of stumbling blocks and challenges. With each hurdle, there is growth. With each setback, a valuable lesson. Lord, I ask that You give us the wisdom and presence of mind to learn from our mistakes and pitfalls. by thy Holy Spirit, Remind me and Your Church of our very first love for You, Help us to approach these things with maturity, so that we can live closer to You.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you [a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
There is something Jesus said that I want you to seriously think about.
Jesus said to those who followed Him: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
As we see a war-torn nations–a nations which are economically, socially, and politically sick and pained with out of control poverty, oppressed, confused and bewildered–we have to believe that this is the hour for the church to speak out.
This is the hour for the the Body of Christ, the church, to show forth the love and grace of God in Christ!
This is the hour for the nations to hear Christ saying throughout the church, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
There is something Jesus said I want you to seriously, severely think a lot about.
Jesus said to those who followed Him: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
That verse of Scripture is tremendously important at this hour in history.
In another part of the Bible we find the same thing stated by John:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:7-10).
The Bible repeatedly declares in no uncertain terms we who follow Jesus Christ should be just as much in love with each other, without exception, as God was in love with us when He sent His Son to die on the cross.
I want you to see what it means to love as God loves, because the Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:16).
The basic attribute of God is holiness, but love is another basic attribute of God.
It is a part of God’s nature to love, and all who know Jesus Christ as Savior also have this supernatural love instilled within their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
The greatest demonstration of the fact we are Christians is we love one another.
1 Corinthians 13, we have first a description of a man who does not possess love.
The Apostle Paul emphatically says,
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).
The Late Reverend Dr. Billy Graham puts it succinctly ….
“In other words, suppose I could speak with the oratorical strength of a William Jennings Bryan. Suppose I could speak with cryptic language like Winston Churchill. Suppose I could speak with the power of Franklin Roosevelt, in which he used to sway an entire nation in war and in peace. Suppose I could sing opera like the great Enrico Caruso. Suppose I had a thousand tongues that could speak a thousand languages all at the same time. The Bible says all that is nothing, and I am nothing, unless I have this divine, supernatural love that God gives.“
The apostle Paul goes on to write,
Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge … but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2).
“I could be a man of tremendous knowledge; I could understand all the mysteries and all of history, and be able to put all the patterns together. I could know the Bible from one end to the other; memorize thousands of verses of Scripture. I could be a great Bible teacher; I could even be a preacher from the pulpit–and have not love. I know people in this country who are conservative in their theology–people who would die contending for the inspiration of the Bible–and yet there is so little love. I might know the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but if I had not love, it would mean absolutely nothing in the sight of God.“
“I might be a man of great faith. The Bible says that I might have faith so that I could move mountains, but if I have not love, it is nothing. Suppose I could stand here today and say to that mountain, “Move into the sea,” and it would move! You would say, “Well, Billy Graham is certainly a man of tremendous faith to pray a mountain into the sea.” The Bible says that is absolutely nothing unless my faith is tempered with love.”
“I could be a man of great charity. The Bible says, “though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor … it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3) unless I have this divine love that God gives. I could give everything I have to charity, but if the motive were not divine love, it means nothing in the sight of almighty God.”
“Here in this country we give billions of dollars away, but sometimes I wonder if our motive is not selfish. We are always asking the other nations and the other people, “What return is America going to get?” The motive of all giving and all charity should be love. I could also be a man of consuming zeal. Paul continues, “though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Suppose I were like many Korean pastors during the Korean War. Seventeen hundred Korean pastors paid with their blood for their faith in Jesus Christ. Suppose I died at a stake or was shot for my faith in Jesus Christ. You would say, “Billy Graham is a man of consuming zeal. He died as a martyr.” God says it is nothing, unless I am filled with the love of God.”
“What a brilliant life this man lived–this mythical man the Bible describes. He was a man of eloquence, knowledge, power, charity, zeal, but the Bible says he was absolutely nothing without love.”
“What a powerful thing love must be! How much stock God puts in love.”
“You say, “Well, Billy, what do you mean by love? What is a demonstration of love?” We have it demonstrated in 1 Corinthians 13. This might cut some of us to the heart. It is going to probe down deep, because one thing that the church of Christ in America lacks is the demonstration of love, and Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).“
“This love that the Bible is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13 “suffers long” (verse 5). In other words, it is patient. It is kind. It “does not envy.” There is no jealousy in this divine love that God gives. It “does not parade itself.” It is “not puffed up,” gives itself no airs. It is a love that demands humility. It never pushes itself to the top, never tries to promote itself, never tries to advertise itself. It is always in the background, truly humble. The thing that we need in the church today is genuine, old-fashioned humility.“
“Then, again in 1 Corinthians 13:5, the Bible says love “does not behave rudely.” It is always courteous and gracious at every turn. It “seeks not its own,” is never selfish. God looks after you, and you are to look after others, the Bible says. It is not easily provoked–not touchy or irritable. If people have to handle you with kid gloves, have to watch out what they say to you, you don’t know anything about this love that God is talking about.”
“Love “thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:5). It never holds a grudge–never has malice. It rejoices not in iniquity, but in the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). It is never glad when another falls. I know so many Christians today who, when they hear that another Christian has fallen, say, “Isn’t that too bad?” but they don’t mean it! They are happy that the other Christian has fallen because that places them just a little higher on the ladder of estimation in other people’s eyes.”
“Then the Bible says that this love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). It is slow to expose the evils and faults in others. It is eager to believe the best, and it is always hopeful and optimistic concerning the future. The Bible teaches that love is greater than faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13:13). Love is the greatest thing in all the world.“
“I will never forget when singer and composer Redd Harper came to Christ in Hollywood. He said that to him the most amazing and thrilling thing after he came to Christ was this fact: “I found that I loved everybody, no matter what race or color or creed they might be. I just wanted to go hug the whole world.”
“When radio broadcaster Stuart Hamblen came to Christ, he said the same thing: “I fell in love with the whole world. There were certain people who had different racial characteristics from myself that I did not like before I was converted, but after I gave my heart to Christ, I fell in love with every one of them.”“
“Only this divine love that God gives will make us love others, and before we have revival in America we must have that kind of love among God’s people.”
“However, the greatest demonstration of love was God sending His own Son to die for you. You did not deserve to have Him die for you. You are a sinner!”
“The Bible says that you know nothing about this love if you are outside of Christ. It is impossible for you to have this divine love, because it is a gift of God only to those who love Christ.”
“But–God loves you! It makes no difference how deep in the mire of sin and transgression you have gone. God loves you today! He proved it by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you on the cross.”
“At this exact moment you can receive Christ into your heart. God will give you this supernatural love until you too love the whole world. That is the solution to the international problems that we face at this hour. It is the solution to your personal problems–to let Jesus Christ come in. When Jesus Christ comes in, His love comes in, His Life enters in, the love of God shines out everywhere you are.“
Romans 5:8-10Amplified Bible
8 But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the [a]wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved [from the consequences of sin] by His life [that is, we will be saved because Christ lives today].
I am reminded of the comprehensiveness of these words by so renowned a preacher, teacher, the stature, influence of Late Reverend Dr. Billy Graham.
Indeed, when I remind myself of them from time to time by reading, listening to his evangelistic crusades on the internet and You Tube, I am reminded of one more truth – as much as these words continually reach me, and I pray would too reach you the reader of this blog, “If I had not the love of Jesus in my heart ….?”
The same love of Jesus which He had in His Heart to do what He did for us …..
Even though we were at constant enmity with each other and with Him too …..
What then is “My Christianity?”
What then is my “Sermon in Shoes?”
— Turn the Volume of Your Computer or Your Phone to MAXIMUM! —
MY CHRISTIANITY ABSENT MY LIVING THE LOVE OF CHRIST.
MY CHRISTIANITY ABSENT MY LOVING THE LIVING CHRIST?
Christianity absent Living and Loving the Living Love of Christ is pointless!
It is infinitely worse than nothing, it negatively affects the world around us.
Have you ever had someone talk at you?
Not talk to you or with you, but at you.
Where it becomes evident that the person that is supposed to be conversing with you is not actually involving you in the exchange.
They are just expressing their love of and preoccupation with themselves all over you.
It is like a verbal vomiting attack.
They have no interest in any response from you or your feeling about what they are saying.
They are just in getting their “two cents worth” out of what they want to say.
How does that make you feel?
It is really hard to have any interest in the subject that person is talking at you about, right?
You want to pull the ripcord and get out of there as quickly as you can.
Loved is just about the last emotion that comes to mind, isn’t it?
This is Christianity without love.
It is lots of words and thoughts coming at people, but it is missing the part that makes it alive and vibrant.
Have you ever heard a really unpleasant noise?
Like hearing someone scratch their nails on a chalkboard or the sound of a dentist’s drill in your ear as they stand over you and drill out your tooth.
It is terrible, terrifying, annoying and effects you down to your very bones.
The louder it gets the worse it is.
This is the picture of religion without love from the Bible.
Christianity is no exception.
It is an expression of selfishness that comes off as really monstrously bothersome, unpleasant, unsettling and unnerving to those around.
Yikes, it sounds kind of harsh, doesn’t it?
1 Corinthians 13:1-3Amplified Bible
The Excellence of Love
13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not [a]love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body [b]to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.
This is the idea that Paul is getting at in his first letter to the church at Corinth.
Paul is often called the Apostle to the Gentiles but it is even more obvious from his writings in this thirteenth chapter, that love is equally as important to him.
SAVIOR JESUS WITHOUT LOVE … IS NOT SAVIOR JESUS
Religiosity without love is nothing!
It is also really annoying!
This is what Paul says in these verses.
C’mon, say what you really mean Paul!
He compares loveless Christianity to two really annoying discordant sounds of his day.
We don’t hear noisy gongs or clanging cymbals much today but the idea is something making a ton of noise and is deafening, jarring and irritating.
Think of perhaps a fire engine’s siren, though less rhythmic.
If the Apostle was writing today, he might have written if you don’t have love it is like a thousand nails moving up and down and all over upon the chalkboard.
It is a sound that is clear and not easily misunderstood.
One that is so wrong that no matter how loud you make it doesn’t come close to getting any better or less bothersome and irritating – it is just louder bad noise.
Paul was writing to Christians who were noisy gongs.
Their lives had become so caught up in themselves they had lost sight of love in the following of Jesus.
Their church was acting like 1000 ancient religious nails on the chalkboard.
Much like a person talking at you, they had made everything about them and their expressions of self.
They were supposed to be following Jesus but in fact, their church was about their pride.
Their faith was self-centered and self-serving.
Church became a contest to see who could speak the loudest or in the best tongue.
Without His Love, No One Sees Jesus…Even in Church
Since they made life all about them rather than Jesus, it was impossible for them to demonstrate true love for others.
Loving yourself that much precludes loving others with any authenticity.
You just care too much about taking care of yourself to care much for others.
The flesh is a greedy beast to feed.
The Corinthians were so prideful and self-focused in their walks with Jesus, even their use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit was worthless.
Paul says it is nothing to prophesy or speak in tongues if we don’t have love.
Even worse, their actions were like the noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
They were creating an unmistakable, discordant, and annoying impression for everyone around them.
Paul goes so far as to say that it would have been better if they did not meet as a church for all the damage they were doing.
For their lack of love, they were changing the beauty of God’s own gifts given through His will through His Spirit into something worthless and off-putting.
What was meant to be the Body of Christ moving perfectly together throughout the known world to testify to God’s glory became one uncoordinated hot mess.
Simultaneous Love for the Lord and love for each other is what is supposed to keep the Body of Christ in harmony.
Since it was nowhere to be found, the Corinthian church was stumbling around like a newborn colt.
They were doing a lot but not everyone would call it beautiful at the same time.
The Love of Christ, Love of His Life is Supposed to be our Calling Card
John 13:34-35Amplified Bible
34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you [a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”
We may be shocked by this idea, or not shocked enough by this idea, but look around at some portions of the church today.
You don’t have to go far on the internet to see pastors preaching with such anger and hatred, that what comes across is quite ugly and lacking in power.
There are others who are doctrinally sound but so intellectually focused that the Gospel that they preach comes across as being cold, aloof and forbidding.
They have the truth of the Bible but without the love of God, it is creating and introducing and delivering a really confusing picture into where chaos reigns.
They have lost sight of God’s love so they have completely lost the message brought to us by Jesus Himself. For God so loved the world He sent His Son.
God is love.
Jesus is God and is also therefore love.
Jesus was sent into this world as a man because God so loved the world.
Jesus said that the greatest commandments were to love God and love our neighbors while we are loving ourselves as God sacrificially first loved us.
Jesus said that the world would know us as disciples by our love.
Love is so essential to who God is and to what we are as Christians that Paul makes his really strong statement.
Without love, even Christianity is nothing.
We can never lose sight of love and still live the life that Jesus has for us in Him.
God is love.
A life lived absent the first love of Christ, is a life without God prominently in it.
So if we have gotten far down a path that looks like Christianity but is not filled with love, do a 180 degree turn – dare to turn around – to face God – facing you.
If we are working really hard for the church but are doing it in anger and spite and resentment, or out of our “duty and obligation – that is, works” stop it.
If we are so busy with “serving others” we have no time to love the people we are supposed to be serving…just stop.
It profits us nothing and creates a jarring discordant sound.
Only start again when we are able to say for certain that it is the love of Jesus compelling us and the love of the Holy Spirit coming through us.
No matter what it looks like to our eyes, if we don’t have love we are nothing.
Why?
Great Question … I am very glad you asked it in such a Kairos timely manner!
1 John 4:7-8Amplified Bible
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us [unselfishly] [a]love and seek the best for one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves [others] is born of God and knows God [through personal experience]. 8 The one who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. [He is the originator of love, and it is an enduring attribute of His nature.]
Because Scripture is clear – if there is no love then Savior Jesus is not with us.
He is love and brings love wherever He walks.
He is love and brings love wherever He Talks.
He is love and brings love wherever He Ministers to God’s Children.
We all want to be something, someone like Christ in the Body of Christ, right?
RIGHT?
How do you recognize Jesus’ followers?
How do you find Christians?
Jesus said they love each other just as he loved the disciples.
In the immediate context this means he is willing to give sacrificially and extravagantly by dying for them at the cross, and he is also willing to love selflessly and practically by washing every single one their “filthy” feet.
His ministry reveals he will do almost anything in between extravagant and practical.
Imagine if we all gathered in fellowship to read and study and pray the Gospels and committed to love each other in the same way Jesus first showed his love!
Envision that first Love displayed through yourselves and the Body of Christ.
What do you anticipate seeing?
What do you expectantly hope and pray to see?
What do you actually see?
BETTER YET … WHO DO YOU SEE?
So, for the sake of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Go Live and Live greatly!
Go Love and Love greatly!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father of all Charity and Compassion and God of all grace, I thank you for teaching me to love through the words and teachings and example of my SAVIOR Jesus. May my words and actions reflect his love toward your people today, tomorrow, and until you bring us all home to you. In the name of Christ, my Great Example, I pray. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
13 1-2 Long enough, God— you’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
David the psalmist had feelings of God-forgottenness.
He had a multitude of times of being surrounding by enemies.
This was no brief time, these were extended periods of time – weeks, months and perhaps even a short number of years.
He wrote of the consistent continuous feeling of aloneness one can feel when it seems God has turned His face away and the enemy is forever at the gate of life.
Does it seem as if right now that David’s thoughts are now seeping into your soul becoming your thoughts, leaking like a sieve, from a heart which is fast becoming a stranger to the feelings of love, to the desire for feeling any love?
What if we and our heart and our soul are at the point where we are simply tired of believing and hearing from men, “the Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need.”
We are at or nearing the “breaking point” where those encouraging words “God is Love” is very fast becoming utter nonsense, wildly clashing cymbals, gongs.
We will hear no more of “God’s Love” – “do not dare to step on my last nerve!”
Do we dare to believe that our current measure of our alleged forever “unfailing love” for the Lord our God can even .01% fail and falter under the worst of tests?
Do we dare to believe such a notion our “unfailing faith, steadfast hope and our immovable love for God are miles and miles from the very precipice of failure?
Do we dare to allow ourselves to believe we are so iron clad strong in ourselves?
Do we dare to allow ourselves to believe that any failure of our faith, any failure of our hope in our future, any failure of our Love for God is 100% inconceivable?
If David had dared to have those thoughts, failure was inconceivable, that he should throw God out of his life we would not now have the words of Psalm 23.
What of our fleeting thoughts, feelings about God’s 100% Love?
Dare we to ask ourselves, our “Sermon in Shoes” Christianity, the question:
ARE WE FALLING OUT OF LOVE WITH GOD, OUR SAVIOR JESUS?
Never say Never …. We are not God, our Savior Jesus or the Holy Spirit!
Failure is always a meal that has been prepared for our feasting on our tables!
Failure is always waiting to be served, to be placed in some corner of our plate.
We can in no way escape failure …. it will forever be before us.
Despite the unceasing fervency of our prayers ….
God will not remove failure from our DNA!
Jesus, the Logos, will not remove the word failure from the Holy Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit will not remove our self will nor keep us from failure, failing.
Failure is always an option – it is absolutely inescapable!
But then again, even though we may have lost or given up “that loving feeling,” our God who is love, has not lost or minimally given up on that “loving feeling.”
God is still speaking directly to us even though we refuse to listen any longer.
The face of God is still facing us, the Words of God still mouthing these words as if we are always directly looking at each other – face to face and eye to eye:
1 Corinthians 13:1-10 The Message
The Way of (GOD’S) Love
13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
I have been a Christian for a long time – just over 21 years.
The weirdest thing to me about being a Christian is how often I will forget the miracle of God’s love.
I forget the power of it.
I will take it for granted at every opportunity I get.
I forget how wonderful it is that a holy God should pursue me.
It stops being such a big deal.
It stops feeling so amazing.
I fall out of love with him a bit.
For a long time, whenever I’d hear the phrase “God loves us,” I pictured a kind, doting, grandpa.
But you know what?
Grandpa love is not the kind of love you get with God.
God is a lot more like a spouse.
God’s Love for me is Sometimes Uncomfortable
God pursues us with this wonderful, miraculous love.
Then He moves in, begins turning everything upside-down and inside out.
He wants us to share everything with him.
He wants us to talk to him.
He wants us to consult him about all our decisions.
He’s always there, aware of everything.
And he wants us to give him our all.
That kind of love love – true love – isn’t all that comfortable.
It doesn’t always feel miraculous.
It doesn’t always feel easy or cozy or even based in reality.
In fact, the love of God doesn’t feel all that miraculous when I am busy living in my faults, failures and failings, because God is busy rearranging my entire life.
Even when the Prodigal Son angrily left the home of his Father, Love remained in the home, love waited for the Prodigal to return, love waited to welcome him.
Do We Get too Used to God’s Love?
God’s love isn’t very comfortable, but even so, over time we get used to it.
That happens sometimes with love.
I was single for so long; at first, then met my wife, and the sudden, subtle prospect of one day, every day of being with my wife felt like a great gift.
Fast-forward a 12 1/2 years and I’ve gotten used to her.
She’s always around.
I can hardly remember what it felt like to be single.
I hardly want to remember what it felt like to be dedicated to my singleness.
This happens with God’s love too — especially for those of us who grew up in the church.
We can hardly remember a time when we didn’t know God’s love.
We get used to it.
We might even get “too” used to it.
We start to take Him and all He is and forever will be, for granted a little.
Acknowledge that Sometimes God’s Love Hurts
Sometimes we will fail God and we will struggle greatly to hold on to any kind of truth that God still loves us because God lets us suffer.
We hear the words, “God loves you and He has a wonderful plan for your life,” but then we look around, and maybe our life’s not all that wonderful.
We ask “How can a loving God, an all-powerful God, let this bad stuff happen?”
How, Why, do we keep trusting in the love of God when we are so disappointed?
I try to remember that God is not me and I am not Him.
And sometimes that is a rather tough one for my belief system to sort out.
He’s mysterious and big.
He’s complicated.
His ways are not my ways, and his thoughts are not my thoughts.
When I do not want to, I still need to keep giving God the benefit of the doubt.
I need to keep believing in God’s good intentions for me, in the fact that he never allows pain unless it has a purpose.
He loves me.
The best thing I can do when I am hard at work distancing myself from God is not distance myself so far from God’s face or give him the silent treatment.
That just makes me more miserable.
His love is the source of all comfort.
The prophet Jeremiah understood this.
In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah is crying out to God. He’s devastated — and with good reason.
He weeps.
He yells at God.
But then he says this:
Though the Lord brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to any human being (Lamentations 3:32).
He also says this:
Because of the LORD’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him” (Lamentations 3:22-24).
This is what we have to hold on to.
The LORD is our portion — his love might not make perfect sense to us.
But it’s also what keeps us from falling apart.
It’s the only thing, really, that ultimately brings us from utter sadness to joy.
We Will Have to Contemplate Falling in Love Again!
So what do we do when the excitement of God’s love seems to wear off?
When I start to get irritated with my wife, when I start to think it’s no big deal I am married to this woman, I work very hard at thinking back to the beginning.
I take some time to remember our early days.
I call to mind all the reasons I can recall I fell in love with her in the first place.
We can do this with God too.
We should do it.
In fact, it’s why God gave us the ritual of communion (the Lord’s Supper).
The bread broken for us, the blood spilled for us — it’s the labored discipline of remembering over and over again how wonderful it is Jesus gave himself for us.
By reading, studying the Word of God, meditating on the cross, we can go back.
The other thing I do is I ask myself, “What would life be like without him?”
I imagine how life would look if my wife did not love me.
Imagine what life would be if God didn’t love me.
Imagine if my Savior Jesus had not died for me.
Being a faithful human being, I will get angry and I will sin mightily ….
I cannot help myself.
I cannot help being myself …. Romans 7:13-25
It’s all too easy to take God’s love for granted.
It is all too easy being all too human – and turn my face and walk away.
But it’s also easy to be bowled over by God’s love all over again.
Psalm 13The Message
13 1-2 Long enough, God— you’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.
Dare Yourself – To Fall in Love with God AGAIN!
If God feels far away, go back to the beginning, back to the cross, and labor to remember what God has done for you.
Read the accounts of Jesus’ sacrifice each day for the next week.
Meditate on them, asking God to show you the depth of his love for you.
If your life is in turmoil, give God the benefit of the doubt.
If you have been giving him the silent treatment, you can return to him right now, knowing God will hear your prayer.
Commit to an extended time of prayer each day for a week.
Start your prayer time by listing out the qualities of God.
Focus on who God is and who you ARE NOT.
No matter the ceaseless fervency, motivation of, or behind our prayers,
We can never pray ourselves into actually becoming God.
God will not answer that prayer as we prayed it – it is not in His will.
Acknowledge and Remember – We ARE NEVER stronger than GOD!
Bring your concerns to God and then take time to listen to him.
Dare to ask thyself; Where Am I in my own relationship with God?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
His word shall not fail you he promised Believe him and all will be well Then go to a world that is dying His perfect salvation to tell
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
14-16 Jesus instructed him, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” But the man couldn’t keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their sicknesses. As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Sometimes we each find that our hearts and our souls get crowded out by life.
This way, that way, every way, by someway outside of our sphere of influence, life envelops us, immerses us in tornado force whirlwinds and deep whirlpools.
Surrounded By Souls – A Poem
I’m in touch with the thought, the idea’s in my mind, This fleeting dream, doesn’t leave me behind.
I need to hold on, to these glimpses of pure life, To bypass the confusion, the agony, the strife.
The simple life is there, just there, now gone, Between the bursts of light, I think I’m alone.
But alone in the sense of being comfortable with me, Not lost in a desert of all that I see.
But now I feel that I’m not alone at all, The world’s full of souls, I just need to call.
Why is meeting with God in the “solitary places” so important?
Until we gain an understanding of the immense value and the opportunity of encountering the shekinah Glory, the presence of our Living God, we will never consistently engage in this foundational, vital practice: “Time Alone With God.”
As we prayerfully come together, discover God’s heart to meet with us in order that we might experience the depths of his love, I pray that our lives would be marked by a new grace to consistently and powerfully encounter the living God.
Luke 5:14-16 Amplified Bible
14 Jesus ordered him to tell no one [that he might happen to meet], “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your purification, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony (witness) to them [that this is a work of Messiah].” 15 But the news about Him was spreading farther, and large crowds kept gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their illnesses. 16 But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray [in seclusion].
Why is time alone with God so important?
Why can’t just going to church, a community group, or a Bible study be enough?
Those of you who have grown up in church or have been going to church for many years have been told and repeatedly taught that time exclusively spent alone with God is indescribably vital to our connection, relationship with him.
Many of you, including me, however, were never given a reason why.
And in order for us to consistently and effectively engage in this abundantly life giving, life sustaining crucial practice, must understand why it is so important.
Here’s what we learn from Scripture about having time alone with God.
Scripture makes it abundantly clear that Jesus spent time alone with his heavenly Father.
Luke 5:16 states, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Mark 1:35 states, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”
Often in Scripture, Jesus withdrew from the crowd to pray.
So the first reason to spend time alone with God is because Jesus did.
If Jesus needed time alone with his heavenly Father, we can all be sure we need it even more.
Jesus walked in God’s presence constantly.
Jesus constantly responded to God’s will for his life.
He is our perfect example.
And even still, He needed time alone with God.
God–seekers welcome lonely places at times.
They will sometimes go miles in any direction just to find a place where open sky, wide spaces, and the starry heavens and winds are their only companions.
Even though God’s presence is clearly to be found among his children (as our Lord promised when two or three gather in his name—Matthew 18:20), God also meets us in those far away places, miles from humanity, in times of solitude.
Jesus often sought solitude.
He began his ministry by spending forty days in the desert (Matthew 4:1–11).
He spent a whole night in the desert hills before calling his twelve disciples (Luke 6:12–15).
After a powerful healing mission, he called his disciples to come with him “to a quiet place” (Mark 6:31).
For his transfiguration, he found a lonely mountain (Matthew 17:1–8).
And to find strength to face his death for us, he sought out the solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36–46).
Solitude rescues the lonely from loneliness.
As Richard Foster, a teacher and writer on Christian spirituality, points out, “Loneliness is inner emptiness; solitude is inner fulfillment.”
Solitude is the discipline of tuning our hearts to hear nothing but the voice of God, whether it comes to us in a whisper or a roar.
When we “pick ourselves up” to move into solitude, we seek to silence all other voices which clamor for all our attention, just to be attuned to hear God’s voice.
Psalm 19:1-5The Message
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome for the sun—a superdome! The morning sun’s a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape.
We also see from Jesus’ example that time alone with God empowers us and inspires, refreshes, invigorates us, to carry out God’s purpose for our life.
It was after withdrawing into the wilderness in Luke 4 that we read he began performing miracles.
Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane filled with grief and sorrow, asking God for a way other than his own death to achieve salvation for his people.
After spending time alone with God, he came out of the garden empowered to endure the worst atrocity in history.
Spending time alone with God empowers us, quickens us to live a life filled with a knowledge of God’s purposes and the ability to faithfully see them through.
Lastly, Jesus is clear in Matthew 6:5-6 how we are to pray.
Scripture says,
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
God rewards time spent alone with him in prayer.
It’s by praying in secret we clearly and tangibly encounter God’s love for us.
It’s by spending meaningful, quality time alone, in solitude, in quiet, thru engaging in quiet conversation with the Spirit that we learn what his voice sounds like, who it is we are responding with the entirety of our lives to.
It is only by asking God questions we come to discover His solitary, abundant will.
And it’s by spending time alone with him that our lives gradually become laser focused, centered not around our lonely, but around his nearness and goodness.
All of the money in the world cannot buy the rewards God longs to give you.
All the favor of men will not satisfy your insatiable desire to be fully known and fully loved more and greater and best by someone, something other than “self.”
God’s desire to spend time alone with you is not meant to add stress or pressure to your life but to relieve you from it.
He is not a God who is after you religiously checking off a quiet time box, but a good, good Father who longs to fill our lives with his grace, power, and love.
Receive right now, in this exact and exacting the best gift you could be offered, one-on-one communion, one-on-one Koinonia, with your heavenly Father.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Guided Prayer:
1. Wherever you are, find a place to get alone and pray.
Seek out a place that you can find solitude that will be uninterrupted.
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16
“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Mark 1:35
2. Read and pray through this Scripture.
May God give you a revelation of his provision and love for you as you pray Jesus’s model prayer.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” – Matthew 6:9-13
3. Engage in conversation with God.
Ask him how he feels about you.
Come before him with anything which is weighing you down and lay your burdens at his feet.
Rest in the peace that comes from his singularly unique, peaceful presence.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
Father God, giver of every good and perfect gift, by thy grace and mercy, give me a heart that welcomes solitude and quiet places as openings for your voice to be heard and your glory to shine. Keep me quiet, keep me quietly in tune with you, I pray.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
39 And He came out and went, as was His habit, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place [called Gethsemane], He said to them, “Pray continually that you may not fall into temptation.” 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup [of divine wrath] from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.” 43 [a]Now an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony [deeply distressed and anguished; almost to the point of death], He prayed more intently; and His [b]sweat became like drops of blood, falling down on the ground. 45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not fall into temptation.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Jesus’ final hours of suffering and death were the weakest moments of his life.
They were the weakest moments ever experienced by any human being.
Jesus drank the bitterest cup any human ever drank.
His closest friends betrayed him, denied him, fled from him.
Jesus was convicted in a sham trial, mocked and flogged, tortured and stabbed.
While on the cross, it seemed that even his Father in heaven had abandoned him. He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Finally he gave up his spirit and died. He knew all this was coming.
How did he prepare?
How could anyone prepare for the ultimate torture?
AS WAS HIS HABIT ….
Jesus turned to the source of his strength: his Father.
Jesus pleaded with God he would not have to face the horror of death on a cross.
But there was only one thing he wanted more than avoiding the cross; it was obedience to God.
At the conclusion of his prayer, Jesus set aside his own desire for safety, comfort, and peace.
“Not my will, but yours be done.”
Can there be any better way to turn weakness to strength?
Jesus himself modeled for us the very kind of habits and rhythms of life we need in any age.
Even as God in human flesh, he prioritized time alone with his Father.
Imagine what “good” he might otherwise have done with all those hours.
But he chose again and again, in perfect wisdom and love, to give his first and best moments to seeking his Father’s face.
If Jesus, even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in his coming anguish carved out such space in the demands of his human life, should not we all the more?
Our own struggles and suffering will never compare to the titanic struggle between good and evil that Jesus willingly chose.
But his prayerful solitary choice to steadfastly obey his Father over any other choice comforts and strengthens me as I fervently pray it strengthens you too.
His victory is mine.
His victory is yours!
We may have but glimpses of Jesus’s habits and personal spiritual practices in the Gospels, but what we do have is by no accident, and it is not scant.
We know exactly what God means for us to know, in just the right detail — and we have far more about Jesus’s personal spiritual rhythms than we do about anyone else in Scripture.
And the picture we have of Christ’s habits is not one that is foreign to our world and lives and experience.
We find timeless and trans-cultural postures that can be replicated, and easily applied, by any follower of Jesus, anywhere in the world, at any time in history.
How many of us have the presence of mind, and heart, and soul, and spirit, to discern and prioritize, genuinely actualize, solitary prayer time as Jesus did?
The account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before being taken away to be crucified is one of the most personal glimpses into the relationship between Jesus and his Father, God.
It shows us the close relationship and trust Jesus had with his Father.
Jesus went to the Father with his deepest troubles, honestly cried out to Him.
Not only did Jesus trust God with his fears, sadness, and requests, he also trusted the perfect plan God had for his future.
Even when it would cost him his life, Jesus trusted the will of his Father and even prayed for it.
Jesus lived on Earth as a man for 33 years.
In the Gospels, we have a record of the three years he spent in ministry.
As he traveled preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and training up disciples, all the while Jesus knew what was coming and how his life would end.
He knew that his purpose on Earth was to become the perfect lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of the world.
He understood to become that perfect sacrifice he would suffer greatly, be put to death, have the relationship between him and the Father broken for a time.
In these verses, we get a glimpse of Jesus as being fully man and fully God.
We see his anguish, fear, and dread.
He was overwhelmed and sorrowful as he is betrayed and abandoned.
Jesus was suffering in his soul as well as in his body.
It was a sorrow that leads to death.
A sorrow that you and I couldn’t survive; soul sorrow; even agony.
Every one of us can identify with deep sorrow on some level.
At some point in our lives, most of us have felt these deep emotions, maybe even to the point of wishing we would die instead of suffering so much.
These feelings are human.
There is nothing sinful about any of them.
Even Jesus felt this way.
It’s what we choose to do with these feelings that matters most.
Just Go Away to A Solitary Place ….
P.U.S.H. – Pray Until Something Happens – against the Gates of Heaven.
Luke 22:45-46Amplified Bible
45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not fall into temptation.”
Take a minute, read and observe what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Notice the actions, and then notice the LACK of actions of the disciples ….
We Need Each Other’s Times of Solitary Prayers ….
The gospel accounts describe Jesus as being in a type of agony.
He was sorrowful and very heavy; signifying a sorrow that makes a man neither fit for company nor desirous of it.
Even so, the first thing we see Jesus do is to gather his closest friends for support.
He doesn’t bring all twelve disciples to Gethsemane, only three; the closest three, Peter, James, and John.
These were the ones who also had witnessed his glory in his transfiguration.
Peter, James, and John have witnessed Jesus’ glory as no one else had.
Because of their witness, they are probably the most prepared of all the disciples to witness his agony.
They know Jesus in a different way than the others.
So Jesus chooses them to share in his emotional agony.
He rallies them for companionship and asks them to pray.
This is a lesson for us. Jesus gathered his friends and expresses his sorrow.
We need friends too; not as a substitute for God, but as an earthly comfort.
There’s a delicate balance between oversharing and putting on a happy face to suffer in silence.
In times of greatest heartbreak, grief, and sadness, we need our closest friends to surround us.
We need to share our feelings with them asking for support, companionship, and prayer.
But, as we read the Gospel account, the disciples fell asleep ….
Friends may fall asleep on us, but God does not!
Jesus returns to the three disciples he has brought with him and finds them sleeping.
He has brought them along so that they would keep their solitary watch and pray with him, and thoroughly fatigued from the day, they have fallen short.
Once again, a lesson for us. Our closest friends and family are important resources for us, especially when we are going through tough times.
However, they can never replace the perfect comfort, reliability, and peace that only God can supply.
As humans, we fall short, we fail each other all the time.
Our intentions are good and honest, but sadly, our own emotions, priorities, schedules, and opinions get in the way of being ‘everything’ for someone else.
ONLY GOD can do that.
God is always awake and aware ….
Psalm 121The Message
121 1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you— Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.
It appears that God didn’t answer Jesus’ prayers.
At the very least, it would seem that Jesus was told, “No. I will not stop this punishment by death.”
It’s true, God’s perfect will was for Jesus to die and become the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world.
He did not stop that from happening.
But he did answer Jesus’ prayer.
He sent an angel to strengthen Jesus to give him the encouragement, the ability to carry through the most daunting task in history which awaited before him.
Also, he rescued Jesus from death.
Although Jesus would suffer greatly and it would be painful for a time, he didn’t allow Jesus to stay dead.
He brought him back to life, took him to heaven to sit a the right hand of the Father.
Thankfully, for our sakes and for all of humanity, Jesus’ solitary prayer was answered in the perfect will of our sovereign God.
Because of Jesus’ solitary, steadfast obedience to the will of His Father we have a singularly unique solitary and prayerful relationship with Jesus Christ today.
As it was HIS Habit, Let it also become OUR Habit
That’s why I love this account of Jesus in the Garden so much.
It shows me the humanity of Jesus, his agony in trusting, obeying the Father.
It shows me that it’s OK to struggle and plead with God.
It shows me that trusting God is hard work and won’t always come easily.
It also shows me that trusting and obeying is between me and God – no one else can do the hard work for me.
I see that even though I may not understand God’s will for me at the moment, God has a single, solitary, uniquely mine plan for all my future circumstances.
Even when he answers my prayers differently, singularly, uniquely, solitarily, than I had hoped, this Gospel Narrative teaches me that His plan is always best.
So, let’s take this example from Jesus.
Let’s worship Him for how he trusted and obeyed the Father so that we could be saved and have a relationship with him forever.
And, let’s continue to work on our own trust issues, as we work on trusting and obeying Him, even when we do not understand the plan – It is our only HOPE.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 42The Message
42 1-3 A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek; I want to drink God, deep drafts of God. I’m thirsty for God-alive. I wonder, “Will I ever make it— arrive and drink in God’s presence?” I’m on a diet of tears— tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long people knock at my door, Pestering, “Where is this God of yours?”
4 These are the things I go over and over, emptying out the pockets of my life. I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, Leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving— celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God.
6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you, From Jordan depths to Hermon heights, including Mount Mizar. Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me. Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer.
9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, “Why did you let me down? Why am I walking around in tears, harassed by enemies?” They’re out for the kill, these tormentors with their obscenities, Taunting day after day, “Where is this God of yours?”
11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
55 1-3 Open your ears, God, to my prayer; don’t pretend you don’t hear me knocking. Come close and whisper your answer. I really need you. I shudder at the mean voice, quail before the evil eye, As they pile on the guilt, stockpile angry slander.
4-8 My insides are turned inside out; specters of death have me down. I shake with fear, I shudder from head to foot. “Who will give me wings,” I ask— “wings like a dove?” Get me out of here on dove wings; I want some peace and quiet. I want a walk in the country, I want a cabin in the woods. I’m desperate for a change from rage and stormy weather.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Our inner storms can be intense when we are immersed in situations which are far beyond our abilities to cope with using our own limited devices and manage.
Personal situations, family situations, work situations, financial situations, health situations, personal safety and security, school situations – all on the warpath, steadily accumulating, building momentum, all at once!
In perfect and not so perfect storms like that, we often cannot think straight.
We are surrounded by people we do not need nor want to be surrounded by.
We are in a place which we would not otherwise choose to be if we had one more choice to make – homeless, or being at risk of being homeless, addictions, the unemployment line – again and again again, the hospital – over and over again.
We question everything.
Stop the cycle ….
Shut the merry go round off …. no more spinning in the ceaseless circles going nowhere as fast as the mind and soul can conceive or better yet, not conceive.
Better still, stop the world – build me a rocket ship to anywhere in the universe!
Where can a solution be found?
The writer of this psalm wanted the same solution we would—to get away.
How wonderful it would be to fly away like a bird to the furthest reaches of “who cares where – just not here” when we are faced with such an array of circumstances coming at us all at once from every known compass direction.
Such situations are not far fetched in this age of rapid change and technology.
It would be such a relief to be able to go somewhere, anywhere, just to be alone for a little while, leave all our troubles behind, unplug from all the challenges.
Conventional wisdom might suggest losing yourself in the wide array of video games you can find online or with any game system, become someone else for a while, spend hours taking out the host of frustrations upon some fantasy quest.
Get behind the wheel of your car and go for a long drive with the radio blasting or take a long walk in any direction that makes itself available in the moment.
Still others just want to “sprout wings like a dove” and fly into the sunset of life.
Still others will do anything to get away from the whirlwind: drugs and alcohol.
The whole point is this … they know they just want to be, they need to be alone and they need that “alone time” right in this very exact and exacting moment!
Have you felt the sting of the “tempest”?
Perhaps these words have discovered you living in that kind of storm right now.
Perhaps, and please ponder this, I am not the “one” who has just “found you.”
Perhaps, the One who has just “found you” is yourself in need of the Lord God?
Perhaps, its your soul, the anguished part, the languishing part, the all seeking part, silently, not so silently, subtly or nor quite so subtly, starts looking in not so quiet desperation, outward and heavenward, looking far outside your spaces.
Uttering words you cannot hear, words which you would not otherwise conceive saying to yourself, to any other human being, hidden words stuck in “tempest.”
Words uttered, muttered behind your back, spoken without your permission.
Words which would never consider seeking out your authorization to speak of.
Words which when they become known to you – would shock you to the core.
Words which require an extended explanation, direct confrontation with and from your soul – for daring to go outside your own “established parameters!”
Words from your soul, when your soul looks directly into your “eyes” and says straight into what you know is your “you are in no place to argue with me, life:
YOU NEED GOD RIGHT NOW!
Psalm 27:4-6 The Message
4 I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.
5 That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic.
6 God holds me head and shoulders above all who try to pull me down. I’m headed for his place to offer anthems that will raise the roof! Already I’m singing God-songs; I’m making music to God.
“But, I have my own way of doing things, I need no help!”
“Yes! I know, I have seen how well you don’t handle things.”
“But, who else could possibly know me even better than I do?”
“I’m Asking for Time Alone With God!” Sincerely, Your soul.
I am going to pause this devotional right here to give you, your soul some much needed time outside of yourselves, even more needed space alone.
Has this plea from your soul caught you by surprise?
Has this plea from deep within your “tempest” achieved or attained even 0.01% of your undivided attention?
To ponder for a time the actual relevance and significance, of these words?
I NEED TIME ALONE WITH GOD!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 42 The Message
42 1-3 A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek; I want to drink God, deep drafts of God. I’m thirsty for God-alive. I wonder, “Will I ever make it— arrive and drink in God’s presence?” I’m on a diet of tears— tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long people knock at my door, Pestering, “Where is this God of yours?”
4 These are the things I go over and over, emptying out the pockets of my life. I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, Leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving— celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God.
6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you, From Jordan depths to Hermon heights, including Mount Mizar. Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me. Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer.
9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, “Why did you let me down? Why am I walking around in tears, harassed by enemies?” They’re out for the kill, these tormentors with their obscenities, Taunting day after day, “Where is this God of yours?”
11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. 3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Most everyone has heard of the 23rd Psalm even if they can’t quote it correctly.
It’s a poem with no peer and has been called the sweetest psalm ever written.
Abraham Lincoln read it to cure his blues, and President George W. Bush read it publicly to calm our nation’s fears after 9-11.
We could very easily and simply call it the psalm that calms the savaged soul.
Since this psalm is so familiar, we are in danger of missing the depth of its meaning.
Because its setting is in the world of sheep and shepherds, many of us can slide right past its richness.
Are you aware the Bible refers to us as sheep nearly two hundred times?
This is not usually a compliment because sheep are smelly, stubborn, and prone to wander.
One commentary explains that this passage is a hymn of resting confidently in the Lords care.
It uses two images: the first is the Lord as a shepherd who cares for the sheep.
We see this in verses 1 through four.
The Lord is my shepherd – He makes me lie down in green pastures, do you know what green pastures in Israel looked like?
They are not the image that may come to your mind of rolling meadows and hills of green with alfalfa waist high but they are rather more like this:
The regions in Israel where shepherds live are predominantly wilderness areas.
They have two seasons:
First is the rainy season from November through March (when even the desert becomes green), and then the dry season from April through October when the landscape is brown.
Even during the rainy season, the wilderness grasses remain short.
Blades of grass grow in the shade of rocks, where moisture is trapped.
At first glance, the “green pastures” of Israel look like a barren, rocky wasteland.
But each day, a few blades of grass grow and there is enough to nourish the flocks for another day
The Lord providing and giving provision for the sheep (or for us) is not giving us more than we will ever need but rather providing our needs for the moment.
The shepherd will take care of his flock, and the sheep are not worried about tomorrow,
They are not worried about an hour from now, they are definitely not worried about the current circumstance for they are taken care of by the Shepherd.
The truth is that the Good Shepherd will lead you in green pastures and by the still waters.
This psalm paints the peaceful picture of the Lord’s care for his children.
Ask the Lord to refresh your soul and guide you along righteous paths of healing and restoration.
Experiencing this rest requires submission to the shepherd
Louie Giglio writes in his book, Don’t give the enemy a seat at your table,
“You may be surrounded by pressures and troubles and uncertainties and misunderstandings, but God has set a table for you in the middle of all this. God’s got your back. He is the Lord of all creation. All strength and power and authority belong to Him. He’s king of the universe. When God is walking you through the valley, you can stop worrying about managing all the outcomes. You can stop looking over your shoulder.”
Which leads us into the second image in verses 5 and 6.
Where we see the Lord as Host who cares for his guest.
These two images are familiar experiences in David’s life but they also elicit and evoke other ideas which were common in the ancient Near East, with the chief deity as shepherd of his people and also the deity as chief host of the meal.
In worship, the faithful celebrate God’s greatness and majesty; and when they sing this psalm, they see the magnitude of His majesty in the way he personally attends to each and every one of his covenant lambs.
A single flock can have as few as 10 animals or as much as hundreds of them.
A good Shepherd knows each and every sheep in the flock regardless of how big the numbers could be, (John 10:3-5).
“To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.””
Likewise, David when he uses the metaphor of the Shepherd to describe God, talks not just about a designation or a name for the Lord, but the relationship between God and his covenant children.
He is the shepherd for Israel as a whole; and in being such, He is the shepherd for each faithful Israelite as well.
Verse 4 says, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
The shadow of death itself may be the shadow that death casts or it may be what scholars say is “deep darkness”.
In Job 10:21-22 it’s written, before I go–never to return–to a land of darkness and gloom, to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
In the ESV Study Bible that the shadow of death is perhaps the idea that in a valley in the desert in Judah one can encounter deep shadows, and cannot know for sure who (whether bandits) or what (animals, flash floods) lurks in them.
Even in such periods of suspense and danger, the faithful find assurance that God is with them, and thus they need not fear.
Greg Morse, staff writer from DesiringGod writes this,
“We do not often consider who leads us into the valley. This path of deathly shadows was not self-chosen. The sheep, sheepish as they are, do not walk willingly into unlit places. They aren’t a lion to be so careless; dark paths are where sheep die. So how did David end up walking there of all places? His Shepherd led him. Christ, the good Shepherd, lays us down in green pastures, leads beside still waters, and guides us through dark valleys.”
How important to realize this?
When life overwhelms us, we are tempted to believe that — if we were truly his — we would never travel into such places.
But David thinks otherwise.
When he writes, “I shall fear no evil for you are with me,” David does not see a Shepherd scratching his head wondering where they took a wrong turn.
David trusts that his Shepherd meant for him to pass this way!
Even though there are challenges in life,
God goes before us into and through all the blind bends and corners.
God is with us in all the North, East, South, West twists and turns.
God is 100% reliable, faithful and just and trustworthy and true.
God is worth thanking in highs and lows.
This looks different for everyone, but we see in scripture that the Lord fulfills his promises and his faithfulness is certain.
We see that Even though Abraham and Sarah were far beyond childbearing age, God gave them a child to fulfill His promise. (Genesis 18:13-14, 21:1-2)
a. God declared his name Abraham, which means “Father of many nations” and yet at the age of 99 he had never had a single child with his wife Sarah who was 90 years old at the time – no heirs to legitimately carry on the family lineage.
They were visited by three men and one of them told Abraham that Sarah would bear a child in the next year.
Despite laughing, Sarah soon became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, at the very moment which had been predicted.
Abraham, then a hundred years old, named the child “Isaac.”
Isaac would go on to become a crucial character in the biblical narrative, fathering Jacob the eventual Patriarch of Twelve Tribes of the Israelites.
God used this to test Abraham and Sarah but used them mightily through their trust and His faithfulness. When you are tempted to give up while you wait, look at the examples in scripture of God’s faithfulness to deliver, even when the circumstance seems to point otherwise.
Or how about this? Even though building an ark seemed odd, it saved Noah’s family and God’s faithfulness was revealed. (Genesis 6:11-14; 7:22, 6-7)
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,[a] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.[b] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
The Lord was bringing destruction to the Earth yet he was faithful in his promise to Noah.
Noah endured and in the end God was right about the flood He was bringing, and He saved Noah and his family just like He promised.
Even though all of Job’s possessions and health were taken, he stayed faithful to God. (Job 1:13-22)
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.[a]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job was faithful to God and served Him.
Even so, he greatly suffered. Job knew though that his suffering was not worth comparing to the blessing of not cursing God but continue following God.
What an affirmation of faith, what an incredible example this is, to serve and stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ no matter the circumstance or suffering.
Let’s look back at Psalm 23 verse 4 again,
5. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”(Psalm 23:4)
This verse reminds me of another long forgotten message — now blessedly, thanks be to God for Holy Spirit, gratefully recalled to the forefront of my soul:
I appreciated the insight of another pastor who once preached to me one Lenten Season,
“Moses teaches us how to thank God for giving us a whole myriad of blessings.”
Let me say that again,
“Moses teaches us how to thank God for giving us a whole myriad of blessings.”
Deuteronomy 8:1-10Amplified Bible
God’s Gracious Dealings
8 “Every commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore [to give] to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember [always] all the ways which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these forty years. 5 Therefore, know in your heart (be fully cognizant) that the Lord your God disciplines and instructs you just as a man disciplines and instructs his son. 6 Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in His ways and fear [and worship] Him [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect]. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat bread without shortage, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
He then continues by saying, “David comes along and teaches us how to thank God not just for the myriad and myriads of blessings but also “even though….”
Psalm 23:4-5
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
This remembered pastor wrote,
“This is a graduated form of gratitude. This is the remedial level. Again, Moses taught us to Thank God “ for the” blessing . But this is the place where you learn to praise God even through every single “even though” we can think of.”
This is where you could have everything of the very worst kind of mess breaking loose in one area of your life, but say,
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear …
— it is well with my soul when peace like a river which attendeth my way, when sorrow like sea billows roll,
— even though my heart is broken,
it is still well well with my soul.
— even though you and I are in the direst straights, grieving the loss of a job, grieving the loss of our health and wellness, or grieving the loss of loved ones,
it is yet an still well with our souls.
— even though I’m going through ____,
it is now and forever well with my soul and God is still forever and ever, faithful
“EVEN THOUGH.”
This is the table where you learn to thank God for what you can see.
This is the table where you learn to trust God with what you cannot.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley.
We see the “Even though ___, God is faithful theme” continue throughout scripture.
John 6:1-14Amplified Bible
Five Thousand Fed
6 After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or [a]Sea of Tiberias). 2 A large crowd was following Him because they had seen the signs (attesting miracles) which He continually performed on those who were sick. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down there with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was approaching. 5 Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming toward Him, and He said to Philip, “Where will we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 But He said this to test Philip, because He knew what He was about to do. 7 Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii (200 days’ wages) worth of bread is not enough for each one to receive even a little.” 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down [to eat].” Now [the ground] there was [covered with] an abundance of grass, so the men sat down, about [b]5,000 in number. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; the same also with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they had eaten enough, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and they filled twelve large baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign (attesting miracle) that He had done, they began saying, “This is without a doubt the promised Prophet who is to come into the world!”
6. John Chapter 6:1-14 gives the picture of how 5,000 men and their families ate and ate and ate until they were full with food leftover …..
EVEN THOUGH there were only five loaves of bread and two fish!
An author describes John chapter 6:1-14 like this,
When the disciples saw the crowds and their lack of resources, they were each overwhelmed and knew there was an unsolvable problem.
But when they looked to Jesus, the problem was solved and the Lord provided.
There is never too large of a lack that God cannot provide.
But similar to before, God will be glorified whether that means He provides, or He doesn’t intervene.
If He doesn’t intervene, it doesn’t mean that he can’t, but that it’s not in line with his will.
Know that He is able. He is infinite in resources, while we are finite in ours.
7. Even though Jesus was put to death, He was raised from the dead. (Matthew 28:6)
God’s power is able to do the unthinkable—raise the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah from the dead to fulfill His ultimate plan from before the foundation of the world.
8. Even though Paul was a persecutor of Jesus and the church, his heart was turned and God saved him. (Acts 9:1-19)
God can change any heart, even the hardest stone heart that you know of.
The beauty of the Gospel is that Jesus is the only savior of sinners and He is all-powerful, not incapable to save because the coldness of one’s heart.
His power is able to turn the greatest wretch into a radical lover of Jesus.
9. Even though Peter was in chains and bound by guards, he miraculously escaped from the prison. (Acts 12:5-19)
And possibly the biggest one,
10. Even though we are sinners, God came to save us. (Romans 5:8)
Many people miss the truth implied by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
The chronology is important. Christ did not wait for us to “clean up our act”; He sacrificed Himself even though we were still actively, vigorously opposed to Him
Salvation does not depend on our meeting God halfway, on our all keeping the commandments, or trying to be as good as we can.
No, God completed the work of our salvation even though we were in a state of open rebellion against Him.
That’s grace.
Even though Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, God delivered them from it,
You see this is the even though….
God is faithful, for each and every single depth of faith that we want to have.
Let me give some context on this passage from Daniel 3,
Three young men named Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego were taken from their homes in Israel when they were children.
They, along with Daniel, became important men in Babylon.
The king of Babylon had created a huge statue as an idol.
This was to be used for people to worship the king.
He had made a law that said that all who did not bow down and worship the idol would be thrown into a furnace of fire.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had become governors in the kingdom.
But they did not allow their position to keep them from obeying God.
They refused to bow down to the idol. As a result they were put into the fiery furnace.
However, they did not burn up and die.
In fact, the Bible says they were walking around in the furnace.
And, there was a fourth person in the fire with them.
The king said that it appeared to be the Son of God!
The fire is extinguished.
They were brought out of the furnace and the king repented of his pride and worshiped God.
Their faith inflated and they said to the kind, “even though we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.
But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Whether or not they were rescued, the faith that they showed is the depth that we want. Even though, stayed faithful to God regardless of the circumstances.
What is the commonality in all these things?
The power of God.
And, God works through our obedience: our obedience to trust him within the most impossible circumstances,
the obedience to rely on him even in tough times, and the obedience to worship him even when the most unexplainable things happen to us.
In all these “EVEN THOUGH” things, we can trust in him and we can faithfully say that He is 100% faithful.
Look at the ending verses of the book of God’s Prophet Habakkuk,
Habakkuk 3:16-19Amplified Bible
16 I heard and my whole inner self trembled; My lips quivered at the sound. Decay and rottenness enter my bones, And I tremble in my place. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade and attack us. 17 Though the fig tree does not blossom And there is no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive fails And the fields produce no food, Though the flock is cut off from the fold And there are no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will [choose to] rejoice in the Lord; I will [choose to] shout in exultation in the [victorious] God of my salvation! 19 The Lord God is my strength [my source of courage, my invincible army]; He has made my feet [steady and sure] like hinds’ feet And makes me walk [forward with spiritual confidence] on my [a]high places [of challenge and responsibility].
For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
The phrases we see in Habakkuk’s prayer lay out a strong cause and effect relationship for us as an example to follow.
Even though bad things happen, I will still praise the Lord.
Even though bad things happen, I will not let my mind be lost to the enemy and even though _______, God is faithful.
This past Veterans Day, I heard an Iraqi War veteran say ….
Even Though I cannot walk, and I am confined to a wheelchair;
Even Though half my face is paralyzed, and I cannot even smile;
Even Though I am extremely impaired, and I cannot take care of my kids;
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my savior!
He finishes by saying;
“This is not the faith of a Christian who “believes” in God only when the sun shines. This is not a faith that easily wilts under pressure. This faith flourishes even though the pressure is on. This faith says, Even though bad things are still happening, and they will continue until the day I die, I will still forever praise the Lord.”
Like this veteran, how might we personalize Habakkuk’s prayer?
Even thoughI am under intense (_________) pressure….
Even though my body walks through the valley of the shadow of (_____)
Even though my spirit wanders through the valley of the shadow of (_____)
Even though ______
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord
I will be joyful in God my Savior
Brothers and sisters, Fix your eyes on the good shepherd today.
No matter what circumstances, tell yourself
Even though I am Blessed and Highly Favored and Successful ….
Even though failure seems to define every single move that I make ….
“Even though … I will choose to obey God”
What is your blank space you are dealing with that even in the midst of these circumstances, you are choosing to say yes to God, surrender your life to him.
What act of obedience is God calling you to do in regards to that circumstance?
Is he asking you to Trust or wait or go?
Could God be asking you to worship or seek Him or give to Him all of those “even though” moments or how about even submitting each of them to Him?
Seek God today through His Word and in prayer, and wait upon him for
He. Is. Faithful.
He. Is. True.
He. Is. Life.
He is the Lord, who is our Shepherd and we have all that we will ever need!
EVEN THOUGH ….
EVEN THROUGH ….
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Thank You Father that You are the faithful, good and righteous God. You are the Lord who always keeps Your promises.
You are gracious and merciful in salvation.
We thank You for Your faithfulness throughout the centuries, throughout all the millennia; You have always kept Your promises, Your plans for our salvation have been unwavering.
We thank You Father that You are the God who makes promises out of a character of love and grace, and keeps those promiseswith all faithfulnesseven though we will all continue to sin mightily against you.
We thank you for all that you are continually doing in our homes, in our lives, in our communities, in our church. God, we are abundantly blessed by your faithfulness and your continuous goodness to us. We ask that this devotional message be impactful for us as we inspect ourselves and find the blank space that we need to surrender to you. God, we fervently seek after you in prayer, in your word and we now wait upon you.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
20 There is precious treasure and oil in the house of the wise [who prepare for the future], But a short-sighted and foolish man swallows it up and wastes it. 21 He who earnestly seeks righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness, and honor.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Should Christians Be Pursuing Success?
“It is, of course, always a joyful thing to succeed. But the joy is very deceptive if it comes from the satisfaction of an ambition that is contrary to the will of God. What is success and what is failure? The answer of the Bible is, ‘What is the will of God? Are you obeying Him?’” Paul Tournier, Breakfast for the Soul
Should “Sermon in Shoes” Christians be pursuing success?
The answer is an emphatic “yes” if we understand that a successful life is one that is intent on knowing God as He has revealed Himself, seeks to believe and obey all that the Word of God proclaims, views life through the lens of eternity.
The answer is, however, as should be expected, a tad bit more complicated if we are defining the single minded pursuit of our success only by the world’s terms.
At its core, the word “success” is quite ambiguous, defined rather simply as a favorable or desired outcome.
It means to reach one’s expectations, to accomplish a predefined goal.
Today’s culture sees a successful person as one who is either famous, wealthy, or comfortable, or has a certain level of influence and power.
We succeed when we make good grades, earn high honors, or earn promotions, lifetime achievements, start and successfully build, grow our own businesses, gain material possessions which set us apart from those less-successful peers.
Success is achieved when we we can “retire early,” no longer need to work hard, ride around in private airplanes, and still have all of our desires and wants met.
The world also acknowledges success as accomplishing humanitarian goals – becoming missionaries, disaster relief workers, feeding the hungry, providing for the sick or mentally ill or homeless, or helping people overcome addictions.
None of these would necessarily make a person rich or famous, but they would certainly be considered successful in Christian life for their accomplishments.
However, if our focus is simply on the physical needs of this world without concern for the eternal souls of men, does God interpret this as “success?”
What Does God Say About Success?
If we are ourselves tempted to pursue the kind of success as the world defines it, we should first examine what God says about success.
One of the more familiar passages about success in the Hebrew Testament was given to Joshua.
God’s words to Joshua as he humbles himself, accepts an important assignment are a good place to begin.
Joshua 1:7-8 Amplified Bible
7 Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do [everything] in accordance with the entire law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper and be successful wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be [a]successful.
To the New Testament writers, success is defined by the eternal – the prosperity of the soul.
Health and prosperity in the physical world would be meaningless if one’s soul languished in the pursuit of temporal, earthly things.
Matthew 16:26Amplified Bible
26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mark 8:36 Amplified Bible
36 For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?
Luke 9:25 Amplified Bible
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], and loses or forfeits himself?
Rabbi Jesus made this distinction clear as he addressed both His disciples, the unbelieving Pharisees, and to the crowds pursuing Him for physical provision after He fed five thousand with a small boy’s rather meager lunch.
John 6:27-29 Amplified Bible
27 Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures [and leads] to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for God the Father has authorized Him and put His seal on Him.” 28 Then they asked Him, “What are we to do, so that we may habitually be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered, “This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One whom He has sent.”
Success Through Obedience and Service
God defines success as living in obedience to His commands and seeing our physical work as ultimately serving Him.
1 Chronicles 22:9-12 Amplified Bible
9 Behold, a son will be born to you, who will be a man of peace. I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 He shall build a house for My Name (Presence). He shall be My son and I will be his father; and I will establish his royal throne over Israel forever.’ 11 Now, my son, may the Lord be with you so that you may be successful and build the house of the Lord your God, just as He has spoken concerning you. 12 Only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding, and give you charge over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.
Proverbs 6:6-8 Amplified Bible
6 Go to the ant, O lazy one; Observe her ways and be wise, 7 Which, having no chief, Overseer or ruler, 8 She prepares her food in the summer And brings in her provisions [of food for the winter] in the harvest.
Proverbs 21:20 Amplified Bible
20 There is precious treasure and oil in the house of the wise [who prepare for the future], But a short-sighted and foolish man swallows it up and wastes it.
God often gives physical and spiritual success to His people as they employ their talents and spiritual gifts.
Missionaries would not be on the field without the financial generosity of those who have a talent for business and the gift of giving.
The gospel can be proclaimed with great influence as we live with a kingdom perspective while succeeding in our earthly work.
Humanitarian work can be a great blessing to a hurting world, but is successful when we see past physical needs to the spiritual needs of those we are serving.
The very real danger comes actualized, and too realized when the success of the work of our hands and its benefits distracts us from the higher purpose of God’s glory and the proclamation of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 16:1-3Amplified Bible
Contrast the Upright and the Wicked
16 The plans and reflections of the heart belong to man, But the [wise] answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 2 All the ways of a man are clean and innocent in his own eyes [and he may see nothing wrong with his actions], But the Lord weighs and examines the motives and intents [of the heart and knows the truth]. 3 [a]Commit your works to the Lord [submit and trust them to Him], And your plans will succeed [if you respond to His will and guidance].
The Word of God: The Rewards of Working Hard
2 Thessalonians 3:7-10Amplified Bible
7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined or inappropriate manner when we were with you [we were never idle or lazy, nor did we avoid our duties], 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we worked night and day [to pay our own way] so that we would not be a financial burden on any of you [for our support]; 9 not because we do not have a right to such support, but [we provided our own financial support] to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even while we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is [a]not to eat, either.
Warning Against The Love of Money
God also gives us guidance on the purpose of wealth, and the dangers of the love of money and possessions.
Luke 12:13-21 Amplified Bible
Covetousness Denounced
13 Someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14 But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or an arbitrator over [the two of] you?” 15 Then He said to them, “Watch out and guard yourselves against every form of greed; for not even when one has an overflowing abundance does his life consist of nor is it derived from his possessions.”
Parable of the Wealthy Fool
16 Then He told them a parable, saying, “There was a rich man whose land was very fertile and productive. 17 And he began thinking to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place [large enough in which] to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my storehouses and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things stored up, [enough] for many years; rest and relax, eat, drink and be merry (celebrate continually).”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own all the things you have prepared?’ 21 So it is for the one who continues to store up and hoard possessions for himself, and is not rich [in his relationship] toward God.”
I didn’t think I was greedy until I read this passage again.
Jesus warns us to watch out for all kinds of greed.
The kind of greed I usually thought about had to do with very wealthy people always wanting more – but Jesus does not focus on that kind of greed here.
In the context of this passage, a man is arguing with his brother over their inheritance.
The family has enough to hand down, but Rabbi Jesus sees that this man is still worried if he will truly have enough.
He is greedy not for luxury but for security.
In the second Parable, the wealthy man looks to build “bigger storehouses” to 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things stored up, [enough] for many years; rest and relax, eat, drink and be merry (celebrate continually).”’
Kind of sounds like “Just in case of the worst possible scenario” or “Just in Case I might actually find one use for it ten or twenty years from now” Hoarding.
It’s in this context that Jesus goes on to teach some familiar lessons.
Be faithful in the little things, so that God can trust you with the big things.
Don’t fall into the trap of serving and living and striving and possessing for money; it will master you and you will be unfaithful to your Master, Jesus.
Ouch! I didn’t even realize the extent of that kind of unfaithfulness existed.
But many of us have it and do not realize how deeply we are entrenched in it.
We want a little bit more so that we don’t have to worry.
Jesus points us away from greed based on worry.
So long as we aim to live God’s way, aligning ourselves with God’s purpose for us in this world (seeking his kingdom), and so long as it is not yet time for our heavenly inheritance, God will give us what we need to live for him each day.
Wanting more than that is a type of greed.
And that will distract us from fully living the life of joy, peace we are created for.
So let’s remember this admonition, learn to let go of our worry-based greed.
Hebrews 13:5-6 Amplified Bible
5 Let your character [your moral essence, your inner nature] be free from the love of money [shun greed—be financially ethical], being content with what you have; for He has said, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!” 6 So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently say,
“The Lord is my Helper [in time of need], I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”
Summarizing: Should Christians Pursue Success?
By all means.
Work hard where God has put you.
Be a faithful, dependable, honest employee.
Use the influence and position God gives you to boldly proclaim the gospel.
Be generous with your material possessions and financial blessings and use them wisely and prudently for kingdom purposes.
Take care of your spouses, your loved ones and leave your children and your grandchildren an “inheritance” – including a spiritual one – your witness!
Psalm 119:9-16Amplified Bible
Beth.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to Your precepts]. 10 With all my heart I have sought You, [inquiring of You and longing for You]; Do not let me wander from Your commandments [neither through ignorance nor by willful disobedience]. 11 Your word I have treasured and stored in my heart, That I may not sin against You. 12 Blessed and reverently praised are You, O Lord; Teach me Your statutes. 13 With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on Your precepts And [thoughtfully] regard Your ways [the path of life established by Your precepts]. 16 I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
Live your life to glorify God alone, and according to Him, you WILL find success.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23 The Message
23 1-3 God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Lately, I have been focusing my devotional efforts on success and failure, being in an living out the “balanced” “Sermon in Shoes” God devoted Christian life –
In my search and study of the Scriptures, learning an praying over the idea of flesh vs. spirit, I’ve been reading through Paul’s letter to the Romans recently.
And I am stuck on one passage that I keep coming back to over and over.
I am kind of stuck on it, not because it is particularly difficult to understand.
But because it has just grabbed hold of my heart and my soul and won’t let go.
Am I “a Sermon in Shoes” living according to the Spirit?
Or am I “a Sermon in Shoes” living according to the flesh?
Is there supposed to be some kind of balance between the two mindsets?
Not to be “so heavenly minded to be no earthly good ….”
Not to be “so earthly minded to be no heavenly good ….”
Living in the Flesh or Living in the Spirit?
Romans 8:5-8 New International Version
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
This passage provides a test.
Am I living according to the flesh, or according to the Spirit?
In this passage the flesh refers to my own nature, who I just naturally am.
In our natural state we all live according to the flesh.
And in that state our minds are set on what the flesh desires.
Is this necessarily a bad thing?
Is this necessarily a good thing?
The best answer to either one is probably …. Not in and of itself.
It is just what we are.
For some, the flesh desires things that are hurtful to self and others.
And we condemn the expression of those desires.
For others, the flesh desires things that are helpful to self and others.
Things of beauty, wisdom, knowledge and understanding, peace and love.
We rightfully, righteously hold these in high regard and set them as examples.
But what both of these extremes, and any middle ground, hold in common, is that they are hostile to God.
They are unable to please him, and lead to death.
It is not too challenging to apply this to an icy path on the “broad road leading us to our own inevitable and eternal destruction. (Matthew 7:13-14)
We find it altogether different to apply it to a great humanitarian who dedicates his life to helping the helpless.
But Paul is clear that if I am following the desires of my own nature I am in deep trouble – stunningly it makes no difference where those desires might lead us.
Paul contrasts this person with the one whose mind is set, not on what they want, but on what God’s Spirit wants.
That one will experience life and peace in relationship with their Creator.
It is ironic that only in dying to self will I find true life.
Only in giving up will I discover what I was created to be.
Life in the Flesh, Life in the Spirit: Taking the Test
It is so easy to read and study this passage without actually taking the test.
I have done it for several decades.
But it is demanding an answer now.
As I walk through my day, do I do what I want, or what the Spirit wants of me?
Do I take any quantity or quality time to inquire of the Spirit what he wants?
Or do I just take my own quantity, quality time to just act on my own desires?
Am I trying to please God?
Or am I doing what I want and hoping and praying that it is pleasing to him?
According to Paul’s teachings here, if my response is the latter, then I am not pleasing him, but I am actually using my time to be more, more hostile to him.
No matter how good my actions might be, if it is in response to my own desire rather than at the Spirit’s leading, then, guess what folks, I have fallen short.
I am afraid too much of my life is lived without regard for the Spirit’s leading.
But this passage is stuck on a continuous replay cycle in my mind and soul.
It rigorously, vigorously challenges me every single day to change the channel, listen to the Spirit rather than to my own success vs. failure nature and desires.
Will I dare to let go of the tightly held reins of my success vs. failure mindset and lifestyle, which I have continuously, purposely, tightly held for so long?
What Are The Two Lives Referring To?
Paul shifts from preaching (second-person) to teaching (third-person) so that you an I can better understand the message of this passage more clearly.
He elaborates on two types of people — those who live according to the flesh vs. those who live according to the Spirit.
In describing these two groups of “spiritual” people, Paul establishes a key spiritual principle.
In verse 5, we notice 2 verbs laid out — “set” and “live”.
What is the implicit connection between these 2 verbs?
Paul is saying that we live according to what we set our minds on.
What does it mean to set?
It carries with it the idea of choosing to build upon something only after careful inspection.
It is a simple, but very important principle.
Many of us think that we are autonomous, self-sovereign, rational human beings, but this is not true.
We are the sum of our choices, and so much of who we are is a result of what we chose yesterday.
Romans is helping us see that those who live in the Spirit have set their mind on things in the Spirit, and those who do not, have made the choice not to.
We need to set our minds on something.
There’s no way we can choose not to set our minds on anything.
Yet, many of us have neglected this simple truth.
So, what have you set your mind on?
What have you fixed your thoughts on?
What have you chosen to be the site of your daydreaming, imagination and fantasizing?
A simple way of identifying it, would be to think about the things that have succeeded and disappointed and failed you, encouraged you, given you hope.
After all, Romans 8:5 remind us that the way we live reflect where we have set our thoughts and minds.
Let’s press it a bit further.
What is one implication of this verse?
If you are a “Sermon in Shoes” Christian today, it means that there was a time when you lived in the flesh and set your mind on things of the flesh, but there was a turning point to mark the change to the mind, to mark life in the Spirit.
It could be that moment when you realized the greatness of God and His love became real and evident when told to you.
It could also be that heart warming moment when before, church, Bible study, sermons and prayer were all boring and did not make sense, but then they did.
What marks the Christian and what changes in the mind of a Christian?
The Christian sees truths about his or her true state, and has a fundamental awareness of his or her inability to do what God requires.
Or, as Reverend Dr. Timothy Keller aptly describes it, we suddenly realize that
“we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we would have ever dared ourselves to hope before.”
The good news of what our Savior Jesus Christ did became the very wisest of good news indeed, and the truths of the gospel becomes ever more clear and truly results in transformative actions such as gratitude, forgiveness, love, etc.
Dear “Sermon in Shoes” Christian, does this begin to describe your journey?
Whether our life has been abundantly blessed with life’s successes …
Whether our life has been abundantly weighed down with life’s failures …
Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes? Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes? Jesus calls upon you, to spread the gospel news, (1) So walk it, and talk it, a sermon in shoes. (2) Live it, and give it, a sermon in shoes. (3) Teach it, and preach it, a sermon in shoes. (4) Know it, and show it, a sermon shoes. (Ruth Harms Calkin)
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 16 The Message
16 1-2 Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you. I say to God, “Be my Lord!” Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around— what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god. Gods are not for sale. I swear I’ll never treat god-names like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice! You set me up with a house and yard. And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart. Day and night I’ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed. You canceled my ticket to hell— that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
5-9 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.
We don’t just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
We all make mistakes. We all have failures in our lives.
Do you define yourself by your failures? For your sake I fervently PRAY not.
Our failures don’t define us, it’s how we rise after we fall that defines us.
Failing is not bad.
When we try something new there is a very good chance it won’t go as planned.
Those with the courage to try, should definitely expect, will occasionally meet, with disappointment or even apparent failure.
When things don’t go as planned, we must take the time to pray, evaluate what went wrong with God and together, try to figure out what we need to do better.
With God, If we are willing to learn from our failures, they aren’t failures at all.
Isaiah 40:27-29Amplified Bible
27 Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become tired or grow weary; There is no searching of His understanding. 29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who has no might He increases power.
The essential message from this passage from Isaiah is this:
The only difference between a failure and a lesson is the way we choose to look at it, the way we acknowledge the Presence and Sovereignty of God in our life.
Am I afraid of failure? Absolutely!
Are you afraid of failure? Probably – Absolutely!
Or do you an I always try to not make any mistakes? Probably – Absolutely!
Well, probably, absolutely, both mistakes and failures are a big part of our lives.
However, neither can or should be allowed or given permission to define us.
Why mistakes and failures cannot define us
1. Mistakes and Failures Should Not Be Personalized.
Both mistakes and failures are just events that naturally happen during our journey in life. Trust yourself, take risks, and make mistakes. Step out of your comfort zone and translate your failures as “God steps” leading unto success.
The way you choose to translate failure either moves you forward or holds you back. See everything as a God lesson from which you can gain something new.
2. Sometimes We All Suck in Life and That is OK.
Accept that it is inevitable, at some point, we all mess things up. We will make awful mistakes and appear less than what we wanted to. Truth is that we are all humans and nobody is perfect – we are all allowed to make mistakes and fail.
To fail and to make mistakes means you are trying to do something new and as long as you are alive, you always try to do your best.
Just pray to God because sometimes our best is not good enough, and that is OK.
3. If we Make Mistakes and we Fail it is Most Possible, With God, and through Christ, We will Eventually Make it Right or Succeed.
I used to have an Elementary School teacher who every time I would make a mistake (frequently) would tell me it is ok and that the only person who makes no mistakes is the only one who will never make an effort to do something.
Yes, making mistakes and failing means that there is room available for you to grow into something better and bigger.
It is most possible at some point, with God you will make it right and succeed.
4.You are Much More Than Your Mistakes or Your Failures.
Sometimes you have this tendency to call mistakes the things that happened that did not turn out the way you had planned them and wanted them to be.
Even if they were mistakes, accept them and do not let them define you and your value as an individual.
Sometimes those mistakes or failures exist to show you the way to something different, the way of life of our Savior Jesus, which would be a better fit for you.
5. Mistakes and Failure Can Teach You about God’s Forgiveness
Maybe the most valuable lesson we can take from our failures and mistakes is how to be gentle with ourselves, accept God’s mercy and to forgive ourselves.
We usually find it easier to forgive others than we find it to forgive ourselves.
Pray to God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit ….
Fervently …. and Without Ceasing ….
Psalm 25:5-7 The Message
5 Take me by the hand; Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren’t you?
6 Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God; Rebuild the ancient landmarks!
7 Forget that I sowed wild oats; Mark me with your sign of love. Plan only the best for me, God!
6. Through Mistakes We Can Overcome Your Fears
People are usually afraid of making mistakes or trying to do new things.
How could we ever come to understand whether something is a good fit for us or not without ever trying, without trial and error, without success or failure?
And how could we ever become good at something without being the total, inconceivably inept and clumsy amateur – that is, really bad at it at first?
We are all afraid, but through daring choices, running headlong into mistakes, and into full throttle failures, we push our lives forward and grow as persons.
Pray to God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit ….
Fervently …. and Without Ceasing ….
Psalm 27:12-14The Message
11-12 Point me down your highway, God; direct me along a well-lighted street; show my enemies whose side you’re on. Don’t throw me to the dogs, those liars who are out to get me, filling the air with their threats.
13-14 I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness in the exuberant earth. Stay with God! Take heart. Don’t quit. I’ll say it again: Stay with God.
7. If We Make Mistakes We Have No Regrets
Most people, as they mature, as they grow older and presumably wiser, think back on their lives, remember things they regret and wish they were not that coward and attempted to do this crazy thing they kept on thinking about.
If they had attempted it even though it might have succeeded in some measure, not turned out as well, at least they would have taken it out of their systems.
This choice that they never made would not return to their minds as regret.
Psalm 16:7-11The Message
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart. Day and night I’ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed. You canceled my ticket to hell— that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.
Failures and mistakes are all part of our journey in life.
We all make mistakes and we will all fail some time during our lives.
None of them should be taken personally.
When we meet them, treat them as stepping stones onto our narrow road to something, someone significantly bigger – Road to Salvation in Christ Jesus.
Identify them as what they are, events that occur in order to teach us a lesson.
Often, we can become stuck in the present by our past mistakes and failures.
How can we move forward effectively, learning and growing from our mistakes, and letting them go at the same time?
Learning how to forgive ourselves starts with accepting the grace which states quite clearly that God has already forgiven you through Christ’s atoning love.
We each need to better understand a few things when it comes to seeing failure through God’s eyes:
We are human and will make mistakes; we all have weaknesses. Therefore, we must learn to live with our failures. Strong character is developed in accordance with how we deal with our mistakes and move on from them.
Remember that failure is actually important for our spiritual development. Mistakes can teach us vital lessons about what to do differently in the future, which helps us avoid repeating them!
It is from within our greatest weaknesses that Jesus is best able to teach and strengthen you: (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) Realize God’s Grace and Work is never limited by any of our failures. He does not reject us in our weakness but rather embraces us so that we can each receive strength to be all He intended us to be.
God doesn’t hold our failures and mistakes over us; he gives us limitless grace and mercy. His love totally outweighs any mistake we have made, so we can begin to forgive yourself in this knowledge. And He designed you and me to have a loving relationship with him. Thus, “failure” in God’s sight is our living outside of the way He intended us live. Our biggest mistakes would be to reject our loving Creator and Savior. As such, this kind of failure is genuinely hard to achieve for those who genuinely strive every day to keep both their eyes on Him.
Our histories and our mistakes do not even minimally define who we are.
Our maximum identity is in Christ, not in any event or words said in the past.
Letting go and moving on from failure can be achieved through the love of God, which leads to our acceptance and pursuit of the person He intended us to be.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23 The Message
23 1-3 God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 