Question for Today: What Does it Mean Today to Love Our Neighbors as We All Love Ourselves? Mark 12:30-31 [28-34]

Mark 12:28-34 Amplified Bible

²⁸Then one of the scribes [an expert in Mosaic Law] came up and listened to them arguing [with one another], and noticing that Jesus answered them well, asked Him, “Which commandment is first and most important of all?” ²⁹Jesus answered, “The first and most important one is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; ³⁰and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (life), and with all your mind (thought, understanding), and with all your strength.’ ³¹This is the second: ‘You shall [unselfishly] ^[a]love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²The scribe said to Him, “Admirably answered, Teacher; You truthfully stated that He is One, and there is no other but Him; ³³and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to [unselfishly] love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully and intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one would dare to ask Him any more questions.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Sometimes, the most important things aren’t difficult to grasp.

If they seem difficult to grasp, it is most likely because we ourselves, in our all too clumsy humanity have made it so because we ourselves have deemed it to be infinitely more important to be complex than simplified – it just feels “better.”

God desires us to be exclusively devoted to Him with all of our being, and to also be loving to others who surround us.

The covenant demands of God placed square upon our character boil down to the observance of these two fundamental principles that go echelons beyond laws and reveal God’s character [God IS Love] to the very hearts of all people.

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

Mark 12:29-31Authorized (King James) Version

²⁹And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: ³⁰and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. ³¹And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

We learn many rules growing up:

Brush your teeth,

Look both ways before crossing the street,

Always tell the truth.

Which of these is most important?

What do you believe is the single most important Truth you have ever heard?

Rabbi Jesus was asked a similar question by an expert in the Mosaic Law: Of the many commands and regulations in the law of God, which one tops the list?

Jesus did not hesitate: “Love God above all”—and he quickly added the second: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

And what kind of love does this refer to?

In connection with God’s love for us, this is unconditional, unconventional, love—totally gracious, totally generous, and totally with no strings attached.

Notice especially that Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This means that if we are to love our neighbors unconditionally and generously, we will be required by God to love ourselves that self same way too!

God does not make junk.

God does not make mistakes.

We are created in God’s image; we are his masterpieces.

It’s not to just okay to love myself: God expects me to celebrate the person he created me to be – every moment celebrate God exactly as God celebrates us!

The Golden Rule Jesus gave us—“Do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12)—is another way of saying this command to love God and honor God and love and honor our neighbor as we love and honor ourselves.

Loving others well depends at least partly on our capacity to love ourselves.

What Does it Mean to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself?

Would it, Should it, Could it, surprise you to learn that loving your neighbor as yourself is found eight times in the Bible.

Not once, Not even twice but Eight times.

Go ahead and search for them – Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is so important to God that He not only repeats Himself, He makes it a command.

And not just one in a list of many commands.

Rabbi Jesus coupled the command to love your neighbor as yourself with loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and with all of our strength.

James calls it the royal law.

It sounds beautiful, and it is when we obey it.

But loving your neighbor as yourself isn’t always easy.

That’s why God made it a command.

He knew we’d struggle.

Making it a commandment is actually to our benefit.

How is that?

We have to be reverently and deliberately obedient

We have to do it on purpose.

We have to be intentional about it.

Sometimes even out of our need.

But if we love God as God love us … obedience just flows from us naturally.

This is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself:

1. Loving your neighbor means receiving God’s love.

Too begin to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to know two things:

you need to know what love is and that you are loved.

The Bible tells us “this is love. Not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation…” (1 John 4:10).

You and I are the object of this love.

God loves you.

God loves me.

Knowing this is imperative.

And not just that we are loved in a general kind of way, but deeply loved and unconditionally and unconventionally loved.

We tap into this when we understand that God loved us first. [John 3:16-17]

He’s the source of our love.

God loved us even before Jesus gave Himself for us.

God the Father is the source of all love.

Before we can give this love we need to receive it for ourselves.

You cannot give to someone what you yourself do not have.

2. Loving your neighbor means loving ourselves as well.

To love your neighbor as yourself as commanded, you need to measure love correctly.

The measurement within this command is—as yourself.

To love your neighbor as yourself you need to love yourself.

This is something that gets badly misunderstood in the body of Christ often.

It gets mixed up with dying to self and denying self as if we need to destroy our self.

This is not true.

Jesus died for each and every one of us.

If Jesus valued us enough to go through what He went through, we each have a sacred responsibility to Him to value what He values exactly as He valued it .

We need to love what He loves – us.

The Bible tells us the Father loves us as much as He loves Jesus (John 17:20-23).

²⁰Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. ²²And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ²³I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. [Authorized King James Version]

When we dare to simplify it: How dare we not love what the Father loves?

Learning to love ourselves prepares and helps us to love our neighbor.

3. Loving your neighbor means showing grace.

Knowing God is love and that this love is for you is not enough.

It needs to be developed and matured.

Imagine if you had a field of good soil and a bag of top notch seeds.

Would they produce a crop all by themselves?

No. The seeds must be planted and cared for.

Grace takes the seed of His love and the soils of our hearts and souls and creates fruit for the kingdom of God.

The Bible says, “it’s God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2.13).

Loving Him and our neighbor pleases Him.

Grace helps us do this.

Grace teaches us proper love, honor and respect for ourselves and for our neighbor – our freely receiving His grace empowers us all to freely give it.

4. Loving your neighbor means acting with compassion.

From Luke’s Narrative of the Gospel, when Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He responded with a story: the Good Samaritan [10:25-37].

Even those who have no love for God see the value of the story.

What is the bottom line of this story?

Who did Jesus say was being a neighbor?

The one who had compassion.

Compassion is not simply a warm fuzzy feeling in our hearts.

Compassion does something.

A heart moved by compassion cannot sit idly by while someone suffers a need.

Loving God and Loving your neighbor as you are Loving yourself is being moved by God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to help to the full extent of your ability.

5. Loving your neighbor means looking out for their wellbeing.

The NIV translation of 1 Corinthians 13 says, “love protects.”

In Philippians 2:4 it says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Loving your neighbor as yourself is to look out for other people’s wellbeing.

To look out for them is to pay attention.

You notice if they need something and then you help.

For example, their clothing tag is sticking out or they have food on their face so you let them know.

Or something more serious like when a neighbor has surgery or becomes sick.

Concerned for their health, well-being, I head over to their home with a meal or a loaded gift card so if they aren’t able to cook, they won’t have to cook, can eat.

6. Loving your neighbor means serving them.

Serving from the heart is kindness in action.

Kindness is one of the attributes of love listed in 1 Corinthians 13.

The surprisingly wonderful thing about kindness, though, is you can do acts of kindness without kindness residing in your heart.

If the kind thing is done out of duty then it isn’t love.

Jesus said he came to serve (Mark 10:45, Luke 19:10, Matthew 20:28).

God, who is love, came to serve.

Love serves.

For you to love your neighbor as yourself, you’ll have a heart to serve them.

Let them know you’re there for them.

If they need a ride somewhere, you drive them.

If they need their dog or cat checked on while out of town, you do that for them.

Other examples are getting their mail for them or taking them a meal if they’re not well.

Examples in a public setting are to let people in front of you in line at the store or in traffic.

7. Loving your neighbor means speaking kindly.

The childhood rhyme about sticks and stones versus words is not true.

Words build up or tear down.

God created the world using words.

The Bible says Jesus IS the Word (John 1:1).

To love your neighbor as yourself is to use words to build them up.

Speaking words of encouragement to someone who’s down is the most obvious example but there are hosts upon hosts and myriads and myriads of others.

We can be more intentional with our words by looking for and magnifying the good.

We can always find something good if we’ll take the time to look for it.

Examples of this are giving someone a simple smile, a simple compliment and simply telling someone how much you genuinely appreciate them.

8. Loving your neighbor means making allowances for other people’s humanity.

We live in a day and age when offense is as common as breathing.

Criticism is running rampant.

Love is not easily offended or critical.

Everyone does dumb things; no one is always right or knows everything.

We’re all a work in progress.

I remember sitting through a green light.

I wasn’t trying to inconvenience anyone.

I got stuck in grieving daze because a family member might die.

I remember that when I encounter people driving too slow, sitting at lights, or even cutting me off.

Maybe they have a reason.

Maybe they’re just being human.

We’re imperfect beings that do perfectly dumb things often.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt is loving your neighbor.

For example, I had someone honking their truck horn flailing their arms and cursing because I didn’t speed through an almost red light.

They were behind me and so they got stuck at the red light with me.

I don’t know why they were so angry but they may have had other pressing circumstances surrounding them that day – I prayed for them.

9. Loving your neighbor means sharing in their joys and sorrows.

The Bible says we are to “rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15).

Celebrating can be difficult for us at times, especially if our neighbor is getting something we have longed for.

For example, a new job, a raise, or a pregnancy.

Celebrating with them in spite of our own pain is a strong show of love.

Likewise, mourning with our neighbor can be hard if we don’t know what to say, or have recently lost something or someone ourselves.

Loving God, Loving your neighbor as yourself is showing up and being there with your heart open, allowing them to be what they are, and support them.

10. Loving your neighbor means forgiving.

Forgiveness is a big deal to God.

Bible says He planned it for us from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

Jesus frequently spoke forgiveness over others that resulted in the healing of their bodies.

Forgiveness is freely given to us and to love your neighbor as yourself you’ll pass the forgiveness on.

Jesus highlighted this in His story in Matthew 18 when Peter asks how many times is he to forgive.

He tells the story of a king who forgave an enormous debt to one of his servants.

This servant failed to pass the forgiveness on.

He demanded payment of a small debt from his neighbor.

When the king heard of it, he had his servant remanded for his debt, revoking the debt cancellation.

Jesus’ story tells us that love always forgives.

We all need forgiveness, so loving your neighbor is to forgive them as you have been forgiven.

In both the Hebrew [Old] and New Testaments we are commanded by God to love our neighbors as ourselves.

On several occasions Jesus himself says that is a part of fulfilling God’s law.

Again and again God shows us how to love others.

The call to love our neighbor is not complicated, but it can be challenging to follow.

It means more than being hospitable, tolerant, patient, and kind.

It means more than showing respect and honoring others.

It also means more than just being civil with people you disagree with—even though it also means all of that.

Loving our neighbor implies that the well-being of others matters—so we should work for justice, protection, and opportunities for others to thrive.

It means listening to others.

It also shows that the possibilities for showing love and care for our neighbors is endless and could leave us overwhelmed by all the needs for neighborly love!

Yet all of us can love our neighbors in the name of Jesus Christ.

We can honor, love and respect them enough to show how the love of Jesus is forever shaping us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

As you are loved, Jesus says, so love one another (see John 13:34).

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Dear God, thank You for Your unconditional love. Lord, help me to know myself and to love myself. If I don’t feel self-worth, how can I expect someone else to cherish me? Help me to develop a healthy self-identity, remembering that I am a child of the King, created in Your image. Help me know who I really am, what I really want from life, and what I want in the person I will spend my life with. Thank you, Lord, for loving me so completely that I am being completely changed! Help me to be more aware of your Love so I may love my neighbor with the love you have for the world.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Utterly Unconventional Love of God and Saint Valentine’s Day. Ephesians 3:17-19

Ephesians 3:14-21Amplified Bible

¹⁴For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth ^[a]derives its name [God—the first and ultimate Father]. ¹⁶May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, ¹⁸be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; ¹⁹and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

²⁰Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, ²¹to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

God gave us Jesus as a way of saying, “I love you and you are special to me.”

That is a really great gift, isn’t it?

Much better than Valentine’s cards, or candy, or flowers.

Still, we have those special people in our lives whom we need to give our fullest possible attention to – our wives, our sweethearts, our very good friends, those co-workers who work with us and beside us and those whom we may supervise.

Treat them special because they are special – who and what and why they are is absolutely 100% irreplaceable – every single one of their lives utterly matters.

They need to know that they are truly respected, loved and deeply appreciated.

God’s Unconventional Love versus Valentine’s Day

Ephesians 3:14-19The Message

^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

Everyday is a special day when we open our eyes, take that next breath, set our feet upon the floor, walk forth into the kitchen get that very first cup of coffee.

We look outside, greet the morning, are welcomed by the dawn’s new sun.

A hand that raises the blades of a Venetian blind to look out the window at the sky of a sunny day.

Tomorrow, however, is a wee bit more of a special day.

Yes, it is Valentine’s Day.

But does everyone know the origin of this day?

It is a very old tradition which started because of a Bishop named Valentinus.

He lived back in the days of the Roman Empire.

Long ago, Roman officials were against young people getting married in the church.

Many young Christians wanted to be married by the priest, in the church, with God’s blessing.

Valentinus was sympathetic to these people and continued to help marry them, even though he was often threatened by the government authorities.

Sadly, he was taken to Rome and put to death for his faith and his defiance of the Emperor’s rule.

In memory and honor of Saint Valentinus, young couples started talking about choosing a Valentine, when they were actually talking about choosing a bride.

Now we call this day, Saint Valentine’s Day.

In the modern era, many people give their sweethearts Valentine’s Day cards with hearts all over them.

Some people give candies or flowers.

A red carnation or a red rose means “I love you.”

These are all ways that people show their love.

But God also gave us a gift to show us that He loved us.

It was Jesus. God gave us Jesus as a way of saying, “I love you and you are special to me.”

That is a really great gift, isn’t it?

Much better than cards, or candy, or flowers.

Today, let us meditate on biblical love, the greatest love of all time.

There once was a very old pastor, who was suffering from a long battle with cancer.

A few days before his death, he continued to hold on to a special verse that was the source of his inspiration.

He placed a bookmark where his favorite scripture passage was written:

“Who shall separate us from the love Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:34-35 KJV).

Despite facing such a trail in his life, the old pastor was most certainly blessed with the power “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ;” a love that surpasses knowledge.

As children of God, we understand the fact that the root and foundation of creation is love.

It “surpasses knowledge.”

We know about human love.

Human love comes with the understanding that love comes as a reward for being good, for being faithful, being trustworthy and true, for being kind, for giving gifts, and for acting and for responding with appropriate behavior.

But this is not the same as the love which is embedded in the foundation of creation.

This is not the love that surpasses knowledge.

This is not the love that Paul prays we might have the power to grasp.

God’s love flows freely, without consideration of reward or any plan of equal or unequal or non-existent compensation.

This is a love that is not inherent to human nature.

We are more inclined to return love for love.

But the Scripture says,

“… how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:20-21).

If we are to approach love in the way of biblical love, we must meditate on what it means when the Bible says, we must love God and each other as ourselves.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:13-17)

Today, I would like to meditate on 3 questions about this amazing kind of love.

The first question is this:

Where does Love come from?

Where Does Love Come From?

Now some of you would answer, ‘that’s easy–it comes from within.’

Some may say, ‘It’s something that happens naturally as we mature as human beings.’

However, remember how hard it is to teach children to share?

That sharing instinct is not natural to them, but it is taught.

A human instinct is: self-survival.

C.S. Lewis, the famed English scholar, studied the various Greek words for love.

He came to distinguish the difference between what he called “needed love” and “gift love.”

Needed love is described as self-evident.

It is the most common kind of love in our world.

It is a mortal and human concept of love.

I love you, BECAUSE you love me.

I love you, because you provide for me, because you support me, and because you meet my needs.

Mr. Lewis illustrates that when we humans say to another, “I love you,” what we are really meaning is, “I need you, I want you. You hold value in my life.”

Now in contrast to “needed love” Mr. Lewis describes “gift love.”

This form of loving is born of fullness and wholeness.

The goal of gift love is to enrich and enhance the person whom it loves.

It does not require anything in return, nor does it hold requirements.

“Gift love moves out to bless and to increase rather than to acquire or to diminish. Gift love is more like a bountiful, artesian well that continues to overflow than a vacuum or a black hole. (C.S. Lewis)”

Mr. Lewis concludes this is what God’s love is all about. God’s love is gift love, not needed love.

This, of course, is the meaning of agape love; unconditional love.

Are we capable of agape love– loving as God loves?

To an extent we are.

But, we must go to the source of love, and the source of all love is God.

Jesus says in John’s narrative today, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. (John 15:13)”

Perfect love does not come from within, it only comes from above.

And when God lives within us, we become capable of expressing perfect love.

Please take secure hold of your BIBLES and turn with me to 1 John 4:7-11.

In his first epistle, John writes,

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” So, that is the answer to the first question: where does love come from? It comes from God. Then John adds, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:7-11).

The Second Question is ….

What does this Love look like?

A young girl came home one day bursting with good news.

“Mom, Dad, I know why we had to learn grammar!” she exclaimed.

“It is so we can understand God.”

Her mom and dad gave her a puzzled look, so the young girl explained.

“God is love, and love can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a verb.”

What a powerful concept!

Now doesn’t that preach a sermon or three lasting all the live long day!

Love isn’t just a vague feeling.

It is an action, an attitude, a spirit, and a character trait.

Since Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God, his every attitude, thought, word, action and deed was motivated by the love of God for Him and too, vice versa.

He was motivated completely and without reservation by love.

So, what does love look like?

Gift love is best illustrated with Jesus, a blameless man, hanging on a cross simply and solely because of God’s love for us.

We cannot meet any of God’s needs or even all of God’s commands.

But God’s nature is to give love, unconditionally, unconventionally, even at times when we do not deserve it.

As John writes,

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

God’s gift love is a pure and perfect love.

It is an unconventional, never-ending, and everlasting kind of love.

It does not ask for you to meet up to requirements, and it does not ask for compensation.

No matter how many times we sin or fall short of the Glory of God, His love never left us.

No matter how many times the world rebuked Him, His love never left us.

What does love look like?

There is no Greater and more Powerful image than Jesus on the Cross.

That is perfect love.

Perfect love looks like God, for He is love.

God and love are not two realities; they are one.

God’s infinite power of being is: the infinite power of love.

In every movement of love we are dwelling in God and God in us.

And when we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives, we allow God’s perfect love to be pictured through us.

We can also illustrate perfect love through the way we live.

Through every attitude, thought, word, and deed, we have.

Christians are called to be a reflection of the image of God.

We reflect God’s perfect love so that others can also see what true perfect love looks like.

Love unconditionally, unconventionally to all.

Now, the third and last question is:

What does such love require from us?

Jesus answers this question in John 15:13-17,

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

Jesus has issued the command: “Love each other as I have loved you.”

We are required by God’s command to love others as he has loved us–not with needed love, but with gift love.

Not because of anything they can or have done for us, but because of what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done for us.

Luke 6:27-32Amplified Bible

²⁷“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: ^[a]Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹Whoever ^[b]strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one also [simply ignore insignificant insults or losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity]. Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks of you. ^[c]Whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. ³²If you [only] love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

The world lives by the philosophy: “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

To do good for people who are incapable of doing anything for you in return.

This is gift love, agape love. It is the love of God.

And of course, dear brother and sisters, this is the hardest form of love to give.

It is hard to love someone unconventionally when they cannot or will not or refuse to do the same for you.

But when the Spirit of the Lord is within, He will give you the strength to love.

The strength to be patient and compassionate.

The strength to reflect agape love to others who do not know God.

For the greatest command was to love God, and the second greatest command was to love one another.

Concluding Reflection’s: Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Ephesians 3:16-19Easy-to-Read Version

¹⁶I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. ¹⁹Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

Love is commonly considered an emotion—a feeling, inclination of the heart.

Love involves knowing the person we love, and yet even that knowledge is not the end of love.

Paul reminds his readers of this basic truth when he prays that they may “know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

Paul is talking here about the love of God, and he’s saying that it’s not enough to know about God without having love for God.

The standard of love that believers strive for is to “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

That’s a high standard indeed!

God is, in every way, far beyond what our minds can comprehend or our hearts can contain.

We will never achieve this total fullness!

But what a powerful prayer this is—and what a wonderful goal to guide us in living our life!

To be continually growing in this “fullness of God” and his love is the delight of discipleship.

This is a wonderful prayer offered for us—but it’s also a prayer to offer on behalf of others.

What a transformation of our relationships when an entire community of Christ’s disciples experiences together a growing fullness of God’s love.

It’s beyond our ability to imagine!

Valentines Day is known as the day of love.

But God’s love lasts for eternity.

It is a perfect LOVE that loves unconditionally and unconventionally.

Where does perfect love come from?

It comes from God alone, and works within us when we become His children.

What does perfect love look like?

It looks like Jesus, a blameless man, hanging on a cross, for a world which did not deserve Him.

And as His children we reflect that image through our actions, our attitudes, thoughts, words, and deeds.

And what does such perfect love require out of us?

It requires us to move beyond “needed love” and give “gift love”.

To look around at others who are in need of God’s love and to give it to them–not asking what they can do for us, remembering what Christ has done for us.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

We bow our hearts before You, Father God. You are the Creator of everything we see in heaven and on earth. We pray that out of Your glorious, unlimited resources, You would strengthen our hearts and minds through the power of Your Holy Spirit. May Your love be the rich soil in which our lives are rooted. May Your love be the only firm foundation upon which we build, so that, together with all Your people everywhere, we would come to truly understand how long, how high, how wide and how deep Your love really is—how it far surpasses anything we can imagine. God, fill us with the fullness and the power that comes from You alone, so that our lives would reflect your goodness and grace to the world around us. Lord, fill us to overflowing with the knowledge and the wisdom of your fullness so that we love you more and serve you better. Help us to keep offering this prayer for others, that we may all grow in you.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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“Ambitious” Guests of Honor: Jesus Teaches About Humility and Service. Luke 14:7-14

Luke 14:7-14 Amplified Bible

Parable of the Guests

⁷Now Jesus began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been selecting the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down [to eat] at the place of honor, since a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by the host, ⁹and he who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place,’ and then, in disgrace you proceed to take the last place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down [to eat] at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; and then you will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled [before others], and he who habitually humbles himself (keeps a realistic self-view) will be exalted.”

¹²Jesus also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the ^[a]righteous (the just, the upright).”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Parable of the Honored Ambitious Guests …

The guests and host of a banquet met Jesus.

At the banquet, the guests tried to sit in seats of honor, near the place where the host would sit.

This was common in that society, which cared about honor for people who were respectable and had status in the community.

It was also common to invite people over who would invite you back, because you could then benefit socially from attending another dinner party hosted by someone else.

But Jesus introduced a different kind of world by what he said to the guests and the host.

He told them to sit in the least honorable seats, and to invite guests who were too poor to return the invitation.

In this way Jesus revealed a way of life in which status doesn’t matter, and in which shame and honor are erased.

Jesus revealed this way of life in his teachings, and he made this way of life possible by becoming the most despised outsider of all.

He died on a cross and bore the worst of all rejections in order to make God’s kingdom a reality in our world.

God’s kingdom is the only place where the only status that matters is that we are “loved by God.”

God’s kingdom is a gift that Jesus Christ gives to us.

Jesus Teaches About Ambition, Humility, Service

Ambition can be a powerful ally or a destructive enemy.

If your ambition is misplaced and fueled by shallow wants and superficial desires, you will find yourself perpetually dissatisfied, ultimately discontent.

The Bible talks about that type of ambition in Matthew 6:24, warning against greed and the insatiable desire to earn more money than you could ever spend.

If wealth and riches and status are your ambition, you will never be satisfied.

There is nothing wrong with ambition or about being ambitious ….

There is nothing wrong with Christian or with a Christian being ambitious.

There’s nothing wrong with making money, but you have to own the money; you can’t let it own you – love of money is not supposed to be our ambition.

You and I have to have a more sacred purpose that’s greater than money.

The money will come to you through hard work and God’s blessing.

Your greater purpose should be what your ambitions push you towards.

Matthew 6:33 affirms this by giving us the insight that God knows our desires.

God knows what fuels us, and if we aren’t scheming and plotting to send someone to ruination, He wants to bless us with the things that we seek.

Jesus advises that if you and I seek first the Kingdom of God then He will give you and I everything that you and I need, and more.

Humility and service are just two of the other values that Jesus not only taught but exemplified during His earthly ministry.

On so many occasions in the Bible, we read Jesus teaching His disciples to always consider others before themselves. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the importance of self-denial and service to others.

In Luke 14:7-14, Jesus used the occasion of a banquet to give insight into humility and service.

He addressed the guest regarding humility in verses 7 to 10, And in verses 12 to 14, He spoke to the host about serving others.

Luke 14:7-14The Message

Invite the Misfits

^7-9He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Embarrassed, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.

^10-11“When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around all high and mighty, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

^12-14Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”

Be Ambitious and Humble Yourself and Be Exalted …

Jesus’ teaching is clear – do not think so highly of yourself that you always come expect the very best treatment at all times.

No matter who you think or believe or perceive yourself to be when you are in public or in society, remember that there’s always somebody higher than you.

Being ambitious might be good at times but certainly not on many occasions.

Imagine a famous big city mayor who went to a wedding banquet along with his bodyguards and servicemen.

Upon his arrival, the host was too busy attending to other guests so he could not personally welcome him.

Thinking he was the most highly regarded guest, the mayor naturally walked into the dining hall and sat, took the best seat and made himself comfortable.

When the host noticed his presence, he came and whispered to his ear that the seat he occupied is reserved for the governor.

At this very public event, the mayor had no choice but to get up so the governor could take his rightful seat.

With all of the media outlets present, and their cameras following his every move, what a huge embarrassment for the mayor knowing all eyes are on him.

Humility and the “Ambitious Famous” Christian

Humility is a fundamental grace in the Christian life, and yet it is elusive.

There may be times when we think we deserve VIP treatment because of who we are in the church or society.

We are the Pastor – therefore we are entitled to the very best parking space.

Head of Table: We were the chairperson for the building committee and we just carried out the most successful capital campaign in the history of the church.

The Matriarch and the Patriarch of the Church – Head of the Line meal tickets.

Or perhaps there have been times when we ourselves exhibited false humility.

Do you think you have this “I am all this, that and the other, ergo…” virtue?

Please allow me to say, “If you know you have it, you have already flaunted it!”

As someone rightly said, “Humility is not thinking meanly of ourselves; it is simply not thinking of ourselves at all.”

Jesus is the greatest example of humility, and we would do well to ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to more imitative of Him and significantly less of ourselves.

A True Act of Ambitious Charity …

The Lord Jesus also emphasized the importance of treating people equally regardless of their social and economic status.

Unfortunately, when we are the one’s who are hosting a banquet, we prefer to invite rich and powerful people – trying to increase our status and self esteem.

But Jesus told the host of the banquet that when he holds a feast, he should be extraordinarily radical and also invite the poor, the lame, and the blind.

Why should the host do what Jesus said?

It’s because these people won’t be able to repay him.

They could not invite him back because they couldn’t afford to host a banquet!

However, the host will raise his standard of living in the eyes of the community he is living, showing true compassion, receiving his reward at the resurrection.

The reality is that whenever we host a party, we just prefer to invite our friends, relatives, and the rich and famous.

We want to have people who can bring the very best, most expensive gifts or those who can invite us to their party in the future.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with inviting these people.

When Rabbi Jesus said, “Do not invite your friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors,” He did not mean absolute prohibition.

Such language is common in Semitic discourse and is used for emphasis.

Jesus’ point here is that inviting one’s friends and relatives cannot be classified as a spiritual act of charity.

It may also be a rebuke against those prone to reserve their hospitality for rich neighbors.

They intentionally do this knowing that these guests will automatically feel obligated to return the favor.

And if they fail to automatically invite us back we take an automatically offense and as an excuse to discontinue the relationship – bear an everlasting grudge.

Greatness and Servanthood and Ambition …

Matthew 20:20-28Amplified Bible

Preferred Treatment Asked

²⁰Then [Salome] the ^[a]mother of Zebedee’s children [James and John] came up to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down [in respect], asked a favor of Him. ²¹And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit [in positions of honor and authority] one on Your right and one on Your left.” ²²But Jesus replied, “You do not realize what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup [of suffering] that I am about to drink?” They answered, “We are able.” ²³He said to them, “You will drink My cup [of suffering]; but to sit on My right and on My left this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

²⁴And when the [other] ten heard this, they were resentful and angry with the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles have absolute power and lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them [tyrannizing them]. ²⁶It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your [willing and humble] slave; ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [paying the price to set them free from the penalty of sin].”

In Matthew 20:26-27, Jesus taught His disciples that greatness is parallel to servanthood.

Jesus said in response to the request of James and John’s mother for them to be given high places in God’s Kingdom.

In his reply, Jesus poignantly highlighted about being a “servant.”

The word here means a “slave” and our English word “deacon” comes from it.

Not every servant was a slave, but every slave was a servant.

The Lord was teaching His disciples that the style of greatness and leadership for believers is different.

The Gentile leaders dominate in a dictatorial fashion, using carnal power and authority.

Believers are to do the opposite.

They lead must by being servants and giving themselves away for others, as Jesus did.

Sadly, in the church today we have many “celebrities” but so very few servants.

There are many who want to “flaunt” their authority but few who want to take the towel and water filled basin and get on their knees and wash “dirty” feet.

But while there are people who are still willing to serve, it’s interesting to note that they also have their motives.

Some are sincerely serving only to glorify God but others serve for honor and place and recognition of their “ambitious,” “obviously superior spirituality.”

What’s your motive for serving God and others?

Some final reflections and ambitious thoughts …

In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul uses the example of Jesus’ humility and service to encourage believers to do the same.

He uses the word “selfishness” which is sometimes rendered “strife” because it refers to “us versus them versus everybody, anybody else” rivalry.

It speaks of the pride that prompts people to push for their own way.

And then Paul encourages the church to have humility of mind.

It was a term of derision with the idea of being low, shabby, and humble.

The basic definition of true humility is regarding others as more important than yourself.

Our motive for being humble and serving others must be the praise of God and not the applause of men.

We must care significantly more about our eternal reward in heaven and not the temporary “we cannot take it with us to the grave” pseudo recognition on earth.

Remember, “You can’t get your reward twice” (Matthew 6:1-8).

On the day of judgment, many who today are first in the eyes of men will be last in God’s eyes.

And many who are last in the eyes of men will be first in the eyes of God (Luke 13:30).

The story is told about a wise man who shunned publicity.

He would speak every once in a while and when he speaks everyone listens to him.

After speaking he would immediately hide away into his own private place.

There would be rare times that he granted interviews and when he does he would always point to God as the giver of whatever wisdom that he possesses.

Many of us may be tempted to own to ourselves the wisdom or material wealth that we presently have.

But we should not allow ourselves to be possessed by that temptation, for who are we to own to ourselves what we have?

We have to always remember that we are mere vessels of God, whatever we have comes from God.

In our gospel text, Jesus highlights the great virtue of humility.

Jesus tells us to always be humble and not to crave for attention and adulation.

Why?

For the simple reason that the more humbler we are the more that Jesus is seen both with us and within us and emanating outward into the world from us.

The humbler we are the more the we become His effective vessels in this world.

The humbler you are the more that you allow Jesus’ light to shine upon you.

The humbler you are the more that you allow Jesus’ light to shine out from you.

The more light which emanates from us, more the light of Savior Jesus shines.

Maybe in some part of the earth we still walk on, the light of His Salvation;

Overly Ambitious Thoughts and Overly Ambitious Christians

Matthew 5:13-16 Amplified Bible

Disciples and the World

¹³“You are the ^[a]salt of the earth; but if the salt has ^[b]lost its taste (purpose), how can it be made salty? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and walked on by people [when the walkways are wet and slippery].

¹⁴“You are the light of [Christ to] the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Do we walk/talk the kind of “shining” humility, our Savior now requires of us?

We walk/talk the kind of “shining” servanthood our Savior now requires of us?

I am pondering the imponderable possibilities if the answers are actually: YES!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord God, we are shocked and awed by the kind of kingdom Jesus has introduced—it seems upside down and backwards to us. Its simple wisdom is wonderfully radical to us, the possibilities which would come from actual practice are enormous. We thank you for the great love that your kingdom reveals when we allow it to shape our lives.

Hospitable God, you invite us to a banquet where the last may be first, where the humble and the mighty trade places. Let us share your abundance with no fear of scarcity; let us greet strangers as angels you have sent! Send your Holy Spirit now so that we may find a place at your table and welcome others with radical hospitality. In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, Guest at all our tables, we pray. Amen.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum!

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Attitude Adjustment: Our Leaving Matters in God’s Hands. Genesis 16

Genesis 16Amplified Bible

Sarai and Hagar

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him any children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. ²So Sarai said to Abram, “See here, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. I am asking you to go in to [the bed of] my maid [so that she may bear you a child]; perhaps I will ^[a]obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to Sarai and did as she said. ³After Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian [maid], and gave her to her husband Abram to be his [secondary] wife. ⁴He went in to [the bed of] Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress [regarding Sarai as insignificant because of her infertility]. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “May [the responsibility for] the wrong done to me [by the arrogant behavior of Hagar] be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, and when she realized that she had conceived, I was despised and looked on with disrespect. May the Lord judge [who has done right] between you and me.” ⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your maid is entirely in your hands and subject to your authority; do as you please with her.” So Sarai treated her harshly and humiliated her, and Hagar fled from her.

⁷But ^[b]the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, on the road to [Egypt by way of] Shur. ⁸And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where did you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” ⁹The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit ^[c]humbly to her authority.” ¹⁰Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” ¹¹The Angel of the Lord continued,

“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall name him Ishmael (God hears),
Because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your persecution (suffering).
¹²
“He (Ishmael) will be a wild donkey of a man;
His hand will be against every man [continually fighting]
And every man’s hand against him;
And he will dwell in defiance of all his brothers.”

¹³Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are ^[d]God Who Sees”; for she said, “Have I not even here [in the wilderness] remained alive after ^[e]seeing Him [who sees me with understanding and compassion]?” ¹⁴Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi (Well of the Living One Who Sees Me); it is ^[f]between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, ^[g]Ishmael (God hears). ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

The Word of God for the Children of God

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Today’s story centers on the painful triangle of relationships between Abram, Sarai, and Sarai’s slave Hagar.

The ancient story contains moral weakness, self pity, jealousy, competition, contempt, scorn, rejection, revenge, meanness, and other emotional violence.

When the situation becomes unbearable, Sarai sends Hagar to Abram that Abram should have sexual relations with her and then bear the family a child.

A child is conceived and this is where things really break down.

Hagar looks down with jealousy and contempt upon Sarai in her infertility.

What had started with Sarai good intentions, her self sacrifice to give Abram a lasting hope for the continued future of his lineage, just turned seriously sour.

Sarai blamed Abram ….

Sarai wanted maximum accountability from Abram for Hagar’s behaviors.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “May [the responsibility for] the wrong done to me [by the arrogant behavior of Hagar] be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, and when she realized that she had conceived, I was despised and looked on with disrespect. May the Lord judge [who has done right] between you and me.”

Abram washes his hands of the matter ….

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your maid is entirely in your hands and subject to your authority; do as you please with her.” So Sarai treated her harshly and she humiliated her, and Hagar fled from her.

But now she is in a desperate situation: pregnant and alone in the desert with barely enough provisions for survival.

It all began with a promise from God to secure Abram’s family future.

Time had lapsed and a hopeful, hope-filled promise turned into a situation of impatience and desperation, a lapse of personal faith in God to change lives.

We are greatly shocked by the sequence of events – great promise to an even greater descent into great jealously, rage, humiliation – threatening the family.

Putting the prospect of great hope in a blessed and abundant future in jeopardy.

But the one thing we notice which seems to be missing from this tragic story is anyone’s attempt to seek out God, to pray for change, courage, patience, mercy.

The one thing we do not see is any sincere desire for an “attitude adjustment.”

To caught up in their very raw emotions …. there is no offer of prayer to God.

This instantaneous moment when all Abram, Hagar and Sarai can see is each other trying to sort out an extraordinarily volatile situation by their own wills.

Was grace an unknown commodity?

Was the thought of compassion or mercy an unknown commodity lost to anger?

On the human side … very much so.

Too fast to respond with raw unfiltered emotions is all too soon our first hope, first response for lasting meaningful successful resolution to a hopeless cause.

But, what if we were to counsel these parties and try to insert a moment or two of “attitude adjustment” – set these people apart – insert another perspective?

Remind them in the midst of this, there’s grace and mercy in this raw story too.

Remind them and ourselves of the promise: the presence, sovereignty of God?

The name for God in this text draws from the Hebrew word ‘roi’, which has to do with “looking,” “appearance,” “seeing,” and “sight.”

Abram and Sarai seem to have lost their sight, vision, of God’s faithfulness.

Yet, alone and utterly forsaken in the desert—in her darkest moment—Hagar realizes that El Roi, “the God who sees,” sees her, has never lost sight of her.

Some choose to see God, envision God, prayed, inserted into their situations.

Look for hope in seemingly hopeless situations ….

Believe all things “impossible in our eyes” are always possible in God’s eyes.

Others?

Like Abram and Sarai (and perhaps us?) in that moment …. not so much ….

Don’t we all find ourselves at times in desperate situations?

Even if our circumstances are not desperate, they can certainly be difficult at times, and we can absolutely feel as if we will never have a hope for any future.

Life was harsh and difficult in those ancient of days and even today is difficult, and living in today as a Christian does not mean we are spared those difficulties.

As we will continue to confront and face illness, unemployment, heartache, broken relationships, separations and divorces and other moral challenges, we are always and forever will be confronted by this single fundamental question:

Is their an “Attitude Adjustment” anywhere in our futures?

Is there time for a “God sized” “Attitude Adjustment” anywhere in our plans?

Is God’s perspective going to be even minimally, voluntarily sought out?

Remember the faithful Promises of God for an abundant future of hope?

Not our own hope or lack of hope we exclusively reserved for ourselves?

Lose sight of God’s wisdom to know how we should respond to adversity?

Walk the narrow paths of God’s promises?

Walk the broad pathways which lead to our destruction? (Matthew 7:13-14)

Walk the path of faith or will we try to take matters into our own hands?

Abraham was a man who was just like us—he experienced both triumph and failure in his walk of faith.

God had personally promised Abram to make his family a nation and to bless the world through someone from that nation (Genesis 12:1-3).

Though childless, elderly Abraham and his wife, Sarah, would have their “very own son” who would be their heir (Genesis 15:4).

Abraham “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” an even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive Isaac. (Hebrews 11:8-11)

But after years and years of waiting, Abram and Sarai’s faith had wavered.

They were expecting God to act in good faith, but now had grown impatient.

Presumably, on a monthly basis, their hopes would rise and collapse—and with every passing month and year, Sarah grew older, sadder, and more impatient.

So it was that they reached an explosive crisis of faith.

They knew that God is real, that God is all-powerful, and that God had promised them a son, but they also knew they both got older and didn’t yet have a son.

Would they allow the questions of their hearts to overturn their faith or would they allow their vision of faith in God to overturn the questions of their hearts?

The verses above narrate the sorry conclusion: they took matters into their own hands, and the “best” solution that they adopted was a destructive self-effort.

In doubting and despair, Sarai ordered Abram to sleep with her maid servant, Hagar, in hopes of bringing about the promised child, and Abraham complied.

Perhaps this was acceptable practice in that time and culture, based on the idea that the children of such a union would belong to the owner of the slave-girl.

Abram undoubtedly informed Sarai of God’s promise to him, and Sarai perhaps thought that this was necessary in order to bring about God’s plan for them.

Ancient and Contemporary 20/20 hindsight being what it is, always will be;

It was the wrong decision.

Doubting that God would keep His promise, they instead sought to bring it about by their own (immoral) actions.

They made their decision based on expediency.

They didn’t ask, What is right?

They asked, What can we do for ourselves that will “work things out” for us?

They allowed pragmatism to be their guide over and against faith—and in doing so, they brought about more suffering, more pain, and more heartache for themselves and for Hagar.

They thought intervening by their own devices and their understanding of human nature would simplify things; instead, it complicated everything.

Making Attitude Adjustment, Leaving Matters in God’s Hands

Whenever we set faith aside and apply self-effort, we complicate our lives.

Whenever we seek to take things into our own hands and make our own plans instead of trusting God to keep His promises, we end up with chaos, heartache.

Faith and waiting go hand in hand.

Do not lose heart as you sit in life’s waiting rooms.

It is always right to wait upon God, and it is always right to wait for God.

God sees and knows everything and everyone.

We do not know everything and everyone.

But we can know God more than we do now – if we want to know Him more.

If we want to surrender the sum total of who we believe we are in our eyes.

What areas of life do we need to “make adjustments” to live this out today?

But even in times of hopelessness,

can we adjust our way of thinking an believing we are each Blessedly Assured:

El Roi, “the God who sees,” is 100% watching over us, 100% seeing us, 100% protecting, 100% providing for us all in our darkest hour of need (Psalm 23)?

It is too deep in our human nature, our bleakest moments we too feel all alone.

What is my natural response?

What is your natural response?

What is our natural response?

With a bit of tweaking (attitude adjustment) by the Lord our Savior,

By God’s matchless grace, faithful mercy. one and done forgiveness and love,

What might our “God-Adjusted” responses become?

Job 19:23-27Amplified Bible

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

²³
“Oh, that the words I now speak were written!
Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll!
²⁴
“That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵
“For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives,
And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth.
²⁶
“Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death],
Yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God,
²⁷
Whom I, even I, will see for myself,
And my eyes will see Him and not another!
My heart faints within me.

El Roi, “the God who sees,” has never lost sight of us, promises to care for us.

Surely, the Goodness and Mercy of God do follow us all the days of our lives!

What greater, more blessed assurance can we “adjust” ourselves to believing?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 16 The Message

16 ^1-2Keep me safe, O God,
I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense.

³And these God-chosen lives all around—
what splendid friends they make!

⁴Don’t just go shopping for a god.
Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
like brand-names.

^5-6My 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!

^7-8The 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.

^9-10I’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!

¹¹Now 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.

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Benefits and Value of God’s Wisdom. Proverbs Chapter 2

Proverbs 2:1-5 English Standard Version

The Value of Wisdom

2 My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
²making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
³yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
⁴if you seek it like silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasures,
⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Wisdom, Knowledge and Happiness

As a boy, Charles Dickens knew poverty from bitter experience.

He never forgot what he had learned.

Many of his novels deal with the huge gap between wealth and poverty.

Perhaps the most unforgettable is A Christmas Carol.

Its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a “grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner” who can squeeze blood out of a stone.

Bob Cratchit, his underpaid bookkeeper, shivers in his unheated corner of the office.

But Bob has learned to be content in his situation.

At the meager Cratchit-family Christmas dinner, Bob proposes a toast: “Merry Christmas to Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast!”

Mrs. Cratchit objects with the scornful words about Scrooge, but Bob, in all humility replies mildly, “My dear, it’s Christmas … and for the children!”

For all his poverty, Cratchit has wisdom and happiness.

But Scrooge, for all his wealth, has a bleak and miserable “business sense” life.

Here is something of the complexity and mystery about wealth and poverty.

Most people think and deeply believe that wealth brings happiness.

But that is not always so.

Happiness and contentment can exist in the midst of scarcity.

What’s more, the rich can be righteous, and they can be a blessing to the poor.

And just the opposite is equally true, the righteous poor can be a humble and humbled and humbling blessing to the rich – all one needs is a bit more wisdom.

Knowledge of God, Understanding of God through study of His Word, Faith in God, Wisdom from God and living by his love are the keys to finding happiness.

The “Keys” to “Finding” Happiness

Have you ever had someone try to sell you something? What’s the typical pattern a salesperson uses? First, they tell you all the amazing benefits of their service or product. “Our miracle product…

…will lower cholesterol…”
…will help you burn fat and lose weight…”
…will keep your information safe and secure…”
…will give you better gas mileage…”
…will make you happy and content…”

And then once you’re convinced they show you the price tag…

“For only four payments of $999.99…”
“If you only eat Subway for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day…”
“If you sign up for our monthly never-ending subscription-based service…”
“Your monthly car payment can be as low as…”
“If you sign your life and soul over we will…”

The typical pattern is—here’s the benefits and then here’s how you get them.

Today, I want to reverse that pattern.

First, I want to tell you how to get wisdom, then I want to tell you its benefits.

This is the pattern our passage takes and I like it because when I finally tell you the benefits of wisdom you’ll be able to weigh in your own mind if it’s worth it.

So first…

How to get Wisdom

Wisdom is “skill for living”, but living God’s way instead of our own way.

Once again the father-figure in Proverbs is teaching his son (who we can all put ourselves in the place of) how to get wisdom.

He tells him four ways to get wisdom (not four different ways).

You should do them all if you want to get wisdom.

Proverbs 2:1-5New International Version

Moral Benefits of Wisdom

2 My son, if you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
²turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
³indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.

The first way to get wisdom we find in verse one.

1. BELIEF IN GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)

The father-figure says, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you…”

The author Solomon is talking about a father’s words found in the book of Proverbs, but he’s also talking about God’s whole Word, the Hebrew Scriptures.

The word for commands (mitzvah) can also mean the laws God gave his people Israel (Genesis 26:5; Exodus 26:28).

So it’s like Solomon or the father-figure is saying, “My son, if you want wisdom, believe in God’s Word.”

Each one of us comes to a turning point in our lives where we have to decide the final rule for our lives.

Is it going to be God’s unchanging perfect words and commands that although they are hard we know they are good, true, and best?

Or are we going to choose our own feelings and intuitions and desires and what the world says is best?

God’s Word offers us a firm-foundation for our lives, a foundation that won’t let us down.

But if we choose anything else we’re choosing something that might say one thing today and a different thing tomorrow.

Eggs are good for you. Eggs are bad for you.

Drink coffee. Coffee is bad for you.

Drink more milk. Drink soy milk. Drink almond milk.

Turn right when we should have turned left or stayed straight and narrow.

Stay with Gasoline Vehicles or “Go Green” with Hybrids and Electric cars.

This career path or that career path

How about with what we understand to be the “serious things” of our lives?

Changing and Shifting winds, sands, and crashing waves “defining” what our “correct” Morals and Ethics are “supposed to be” according to the wisest of the most educated, connected, influential, powerful, wealthy “people” on internet.

How many issues can you think or heard of where 10-20 years ago everyone said one things was seriously averse, now today people say just the opposite?

That is generational shifting sands, that’s stormy waters (James 1:5-8).

How about those who “stay the course on the narrow road” and stay steadfast:

“I only want to build my life on the rock of God’s Word that never changes!”

Resolving the Ceaseless Conflict between belief and unbelief in Christ the Lord.

Does knowledge and understanding the Word of God for His Children and the outpouring of the anointing oils its blessed wisdom still have any relevance?

First, we get wisdom by believing in God’s Word.

2. MEMORIZATION OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)

We’re still in verse one. What does it mean to “store up” something?

Did any of you prepare for the Y2K bug?

So kids, a long time ago everyone was worried that when the clocks on our computers turned from December 31st 1999 to January 1st 2000 there was going to be a computer meltdown that would cause world food shortages and financial errors—basically, the apocalypse to end all apocalypses.

So prepare people stored up canned food, powdered food, dried food, and water and drinks that would not go bad.

Our single person household bought whole shelves of Kool-Aid powdered drink.

So by golly if the world failed I am still going to have a storehouse of Kool-Aid.

And when Y2K came and no one but Blockbuster video had problems I still had my Kool-Aid powdered drink, for a while it tasted good, then I got tired of it all.

Wisdom ended up throwing most of it out, to this day wisdom will not drink it.

I “stored up” for the long term to avert disaster.

But so much of what I had stored up for the long term spoiled, went to waste.

Likewise, God calls us to “store up” his Word within us to avert disaster in our lives.

How do we do that?

By memorizing themes and passages weaved in and throughout the Bible.

I want to encourage everyone to “store up” God’s Word in our own hearts because God uses it to strengthen us, give us hope, and teach us how to live.

Outline, underline, color mark foundational verses from the bible – what text speaks to your heart and to your soul and to your life at the moment you read it.

Put it on your mirror or fold it over in your Bible, somewhere you will see it and memorize it.

Read, study, pray and memorize other verses too, one’s that will remind you of the never ending relevance, significance of hope and God’s love and promises.

Second, we get wisdom by memorizing God’s Word.

3. ACCEPTANCE OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 2)

Proverbs 2:2 says to turn our ears to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding.

Do you ever get in a disagreement and the person you are fighting with says, “You’re not listening to me!”

Sometimes that’s true.

One person is not paying attention because they’re too busy talking or thinking.

But usually that means “You’re not agreeing with me.”

Proverbs 2:2 is saying to get wisdom we need to hear it with our ears and accept it with our hearts and agree to it with our lives.

We need to open ourselves up and let God’s Words and ways sink deep into who we are.

In Hebrew culture the heart was the core of a person, their true identity.

We do not want God’s Word to go in one ear and out the other, but go in through the ear, through the mind, and down deep into our heart.

When I prepare devotionals that’s one of the things I think about.

I want God’s Word to affect me first but then I want it to affect you all too.

We don’t want to just sit here and hear without listing or agreeing.

The absolute significance of God’s Word and truth is too eternally important.

Third, we get wisdom by accepting God’s Word.

4. ASK GOD FOR IT THROUGH PRAYER (VERSES 3 AND 4)

This is perhaps the simplest way to get wisdom, ask God for it.

Verse 3 tells us to “call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding” (NIV).

If you and I want wisdom, pray that God will give us some.

Sometimes prayer is the only step we take.

We ask God for wisdom but we don’t try to memorize and understand his Word.

Prayer goes hand and hand with God’s Word.

It’s like peanut butter and jelly or eggs and bacon or it is like fish and chips.

God’s Word and prayer together make a delicious wisdom platter.

If you and I want wisdom, we have to ask God for it. (1 Kings 3:5-15)

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (NIV)

One of the points Spurgeon makes is that wisdom isn’t just knowing how to “be wise ‘enough’ to make the ‘right decisions’,” but wisdom is a character quality molded, shaped, then reshaped by “interpreting” our experiences.

When you and I pray for wisdom it’s not only that we would make the right choice (it is that) but it’s also praying that God would make us into the kind of people who would make the right choice.

It’s praying God would mold, shape, develop and transform our moral and our ethical character so we choose to do we do it with integrity and discernment.

So how do we get wisdom?

First, by believing in God’s Word.

Second, by studying and memorizing God’s Word.

Third, by accepting God’s Word,

and fourth, by asking God for wisdom through prayer.

Now I’ve told you how to get wisdom, but what are the benefits of wisdom?

What makes it worth doing all those things?

What makes it worth signing up for and sitting inside a classroom for?

The Benefits and Value of Wisdom

The point of these things is not just to do them for the sake of doing them, but for the sake of something greater.

Did you ever watch those old Mastercard commercials?

A man and woman walk into a gas station.

As the gas station attendant rings up their purchases he says:

chips: $3
frozen beverage: $2
gas: $31
starting a new life together: priceless…

But then the woman shakes her head “no” so the gas station attendant tries again.

rekindling a fire that never went out? (she shakes her head again)
satisfying a much-needed slushy fix?… Priceless.

So what’s the priceless things we are seeking by pursuing wisdom?

God himself.

Proverbs 2:5-6New International Version

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
⁶For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Verse 5 says if we seek wisdom, “then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”

The fear of the Lord is believing that God’s “threats are real and his promises are true”.

Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave shows us that God’s threats are real—that if we don’t deal with our sins he will put us to death—but his promises are real—that if we put our faith and trust in him he will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It’s as we come to understand who God is through Christ Jesus that we begin to actually know God.

Do you want to know about God or know God?

You might know a lot of things about your favorite celebrity or professional sports athlete, you might know what movies they’re in or their batting average, but that doesn’t mean you know them.

There’s a simple test for if you know them.

Do they know you?

If I were to walk up to Tom Cruise or Tom Brady and if I were to name drop your name what would they say?

“Oh yeah. I know him!” Or more likely … “I am sorry, Who?”

Come with me one step further.

If I were to walk up to God and to name drop your name what would he say?

“Oh yes, I know him/her. I love him/her very much … Or “I am sorry, Who?”

We seek wisdom because we’re seeking God.

We want to know him.

But the next verse tells us this is only possible by God’s grace.

Proverbs 2:6
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (NIV)

We can only know God if we want to acknowledge God, to know us.

We can only acquire wisdom if God wants to give it to us.

It’s both an “as we seek” and an “as he gives” kind of exchange.

We seek to obey and know God and God gives us a relationship with him.

Or put it in the reverse.

God gives us a relationship with him and so we obey and know God.

What’s the priceless benefit of wisdom? Knowing God himself.

The benefits just keep growing out of this.

If you know God you are part of the family and God protects you.

Proverbs 2:7-8New International Version

⁷He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
⁸for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Benefit and Value of God’s Protection (Verses 7-19)

Proverbs 2:7-19 New International Version

⁷He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
⁸for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.

¹²Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
    from men whose words are perverse,
¹³who have left the straight paths
    to walk in dark ways,
¹⁴who delight in doing wrong
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵whose paths are crooked
    and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,
    from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
¹⁷who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.^[a]
¹⁸Surely her house leads down to death
    and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
¹⁹None who go to her return
    or attain the paths of life.

God’s wisdom grants us protection from potential disasters.

I don’t mean natural disasters but rather God’s wisdom protect us from ourselves, from bad things we might do.

God’s wisdom protects us from:

Committing injustice (v9-11) – Sinning against others by treating them unfairly. If God gives us his wisdom we will want to treat others with fairness and equity even at cost to ourselves.
Wicked men (or women) who love sin (v12-15) – “those who take advantage of others for their own gain.” As God grants us wisdom and character like His we won’t be drawn to them but will learn how to recognize them for who they are.
Unfaithful women (or men) who break their marriage promise (v16-19) – Verse 16 says that “Wisdom will save you […] from the wayward woman with her seductive words.” (NIV) Sometimes beauty might cause a break in marriage vows but often it is words, words of affirmation and acceptance. It’s a listening ear. Emotional adultery comes before acting it out. God gives us wisdom so we know how to stay away from relationships that lead to this kind of disaster.

But there’s one more benefit to wisdom.

A FOREVER HOME WITH GOD (VERSES 20 to 22)

Proverbs 2:20-22New International Version

²⁰Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹For the upright will live in the land,
    and the blameless will remain in it;
²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Proverbs 2:21 says, “For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;” (NIV)

It’s an interesting way to close this passage in Proverbs because it’s a reminder to the Israelite people that they get to stay in the promised land if they obey God and keep his commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).

But where’s the promise for us?

The benefits of wisdom are knowing God, protection from mistakes in this life, and an eternal home with God in the life to come.

Hebrews says that the heroes of our faith “were longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).

If that’s you, if you are the one longing for a better home, then pursue wisdom.

Seek God by believing his Word, memorizing it, accepting it, and prayer.

John 14:5-14New International Version

Jesus the Way to the Father

⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you really know me, you will know^[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. ¹²Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Wisdom is a gift, but it’s a gift we help work for.

Knowing God is a gift!

Spending eternity with him is a gift!

His protection is a gift!

But they are gifts we have to choose to seek by choosing to seek His wisdom.

John 14:1-3New International Version

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God^[a]; believe also in me. ²My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Let our hearts not be troubled.

Believe in God!

Believe in His Resurrected Son, Jesus!

Believe in God’s Holy Spirit!

Let our Hearts Seek His wisdom and we WILL find our forever home with God!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Holy God, Word made flesh,
let us come to this word open to being surprised.
Silence our agendas; banish our assumptions; cast out our casual detachment.
Confound our expectations; clear the cobwebs from our ears;
penetrate the corners of our hearts with this word.
We know that you can, we pray that you will,
and we wait with great anticipation. Amen.

Empty us, Great God, of all that prevents us
from hearing what you want us to hear.
Empty us of our preconceptions,
our preoccupations and our prejudices.
Empty us that we might be filled
with your Spirit and your Word.
Empty us that we might be filled for ministry and mission.
In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Calm us now, O Lord, into a quietness that heals and listens.
Open wounded hearts to the balm of your Word.
Speak to us in clear tones so that we might feel our spirits leap for joy
and skip with a living hope as your resurrection witnesses. Amen.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Prerequisites for Purposeful Living: “Give Ear and Hear My voice, Listen and Hear My Speech.” Proverbs 2:1-5

Proverbs 2:1-5 The Message

Make Insight Your Priority

2 ^1-5Good friend, take to heart what I’m telling you;
    collect my counsels and guard them with your life.
Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom;
    set your heart on a life of Understanding.
That’s right—if you make Insight your priority,
    and won’t take no for an answer,
Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold,
    like an adventurer on a treasure hunt,
Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours;
    you’ll have come upon the Knowledge of God.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

On a brochure I saw in the Narthex of a new church I read these words in red:

“If I am really a Christian … then why isn’t Jesus Christ more real in my life?”

It made for rather interesting reading considering the church was a new plant and had only opened its doors to the community a scant ninety days before.

It was actually quite thought provoking – even more so than I first expected.

If you have ever wondered about that, “why isn’t Jesus more real to me,” you should know that you are not the first and you will not be the last one either.

Even writers of the Bible, especially the psalmists, wrestled with this question.

Even the Book of Proverbs offers its readers many intriguing statements which even today have turned into contemporary Parent to Children admonishments.

1. Many hands make light work

When many people work together to accomplish a difficult task, it doesn’t seem so difficult. That is the general meaning of this proverb. In other words, if many people work together, the work is easier and is usually completed more quickly.

2. Honesty is the best policy

It is best to always be honest and tell the truth, even when telling the truth hurts you. By doing so, humbling self will win the trust and respect of others.

3. Don’t judge a book by its cover

Don’t be too quick to form an opinion or make a judgment about someone or something based on its outward appearance – you could embarrass yourself.

4. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way

If your desire to accomplish something is strong enough, you will find a way to do it.

5. Actions speak louder than words

A person’s true character can be seen by what he does, not by what he says. A person can talk as much as he wants, but he may not actually do anything to back up his words. All the bluster and bravado of leadership loses its luster if the one doing all of the bragging inevitably does nothing, retreats from their words.

6. Always put your best foot forward

The meaning of this proverb is that you should always try your best to make a good first impression on others; reveal and show your best traits and qualities.

7. Do not be wise in thine own eyes

The meaning of this proverb is very clear: the consistent witness of Scripture is that Jehovah God and God alone is the One, only true source of wisdom and life.

If we are faith-filled and faithful in following Him, He will “abundantly” bless us; if not, in our own self righteousness, we risk significant peril and judgment.

One of the most dangerous traps we can fall prey to is justifying ourselves based on our own self reported, ideals, definitions and understandings of judgment.

When we assume that we are more in the right than not and others are more in the wrong than not, including “God is more wrong,” it is a recipe for disaster.

When we automatically assume we are smarter than others, then find out we are not … much to our detriment and personal embarrassment – “eating crow.”

When we try to assume that our understanding of smart is the same as God’s and we come up square against the mirrors of our wildest display of ignorance.

The Book of Proverbs puts our perspective of our lives directly in God’s face, the end result is we invariably learn we are neither smarter nor wiser than anyone.

God desires we understand balancing our life, morals and ethics with His Ways.

We desire and boast of our own abilities, about how we ourselves balance our own lives with our own understanding of own morals and ethics absent God.

There are many reasons, of course, why people might sometimes feel that way.

I will let each reader draw from their own experiences for their own rationales.

Wisdom of Self Reliance versus Wisdom of Reliance on God and God alone?

One place to start in reflecting on this is to recognize that God highly desires and also highly values an ever growing spiritual depth, maturity in his people.

Not necessarily intellectual depth or all kinds of biblical knowledge —though these things are good—but connectional depth in relationship with God, as opposed to the shallowness, superficiality of human to human relationships.

“That we may know HIM more, that we may know OUR selves less.” (John 3:30)

Proverbs 2:1-5 talks about accepting and storing up and turning our ear and soul and applying our heart and calling out for insight and crying aloud for greater and greater understanding of God and looking and searching for God.

It uses action words like these; applying, calling, crying, looking, searching for, to describe what we should be actively engaging in our daily pursuit of wisdom.

Bottom line?

If we want to have it,

If we have to want it,

We have to be willing to engage in a process which involves actual action.

We have to be fully committed to the pursuit, wantonly going after wisdom.

It will take an enormous amount of work, and it will take your whole heart.

Most things, which nowadays, humanity is quite more reluctant to engage in.

But, without that, God, Jesus and Holy Spirit—and wisdom—won’t seem real.

With my eyes being widened from their slumber ….

With a constant sensation of a “tap tap tap” upon my shoulders ….

With someone or something putting their “elbows” into my side ….

With my interest being peaked ….

With my soul being quickened by something or someone ….

It makes me want to dig a little deeper, again.

It makes me want to listen more to what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to me.

“Where is Jehovah God nudging me towards … what future with what hope?”

What if we really listen and hear what God really says in Proverbs?

Proverbs 2:1-5 Amplified Bible

The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security

2 My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
²
So that your ear is attentive to [skillful and godly] wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding [seeking it conscientiously and striving for it eagerly];
³
Yes, if you cry out for insight,
And lift up your voice for understanding;
⁴
If you seek skillful and godly wisdom as you would silver
And search for her as you would hidden treasures;
⁵
Then you will understand the [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome]
And discover the knowledge of God.

Have you ever thought about the difference between hearing and listening?

Did you know there was a real difference?

To “listen” means that we are paying attention to the sound, thoughtful and considerate attention to the sound.

To “hear” refers to perceiving something with our ears, kind of like seeing with our ears.

In the long and winding concourse of living and loving life today there are quite literally hundreds of diverse noises a day which are competing for our attention.

There are so many different noises and sounds that most of us do not pay very much attention to most of them – we shut them out as “background noises.”

The television can be on, the phone ringing, video games blasting, radios in our ears and everyone in my house talking at once and I can still tune most of it out.

It is not I am not hearing all the cacophony of noise, but I am not listening to it.

But all of that discipline of “tuning out,” and “not listening” carries a big risk.

What else am I “tuning out,” or “not hearing” or “listening to?”

Psalm 19:1-3 Amplified Bible

The Works and the Word of God.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

19 The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And the expanse [of heaven] is declaring the work of His hands.
²
Day after day pours forth speech,
And night after night reveals knowledge.
³
There is no speech, nor are there [spoken] words [from the stars];
Their voice is not heard.

My Mom used to tell me when everything seemed to be going backwards;

“Look unto the sun by day and the stars by night and know it will be alright!”

God gave us eyes to see the sunshine, beauty and grandeur of nature around us.

God gave us a curiosity that when we see the stars at night – we have to know just how many of them we can count – so we lie back on the ground and count.

God also gave each and everyone of us two ears to hear the beauty of sound and one mouth, He gave us the ability to listen so that the sound can be understood.

When both hearing and listening and minimal speaking working together in unison, we have a quiet, quieted, understanding of the purpose of the sound.

You can hear music and feel music but not actually listen to the words.

When both music and lyrics are understood, the beauty and meaning of the whole song is revealed to you.

You can hear the words of a person speaking to you, but if you truly listen to the person, you will better understand their heart, the meaning behind their words.

The same principle holds true with God’s Word.

We can hear the Word preached, taught and read.

We can read the Word ourselves and hear our own voices speak it.

But, when we really listen to God’s Word, then our understanding begins to change.

So many times, people leave church after having heard a sermon and not ever remember anything about it.

When we look up to the heavens, we may only hear the sound of the winds rushing through the trees, crickets or the frogs in the pond, birds in the air.

We cannot see the winds nor the crickets nor the frogs nor the birds in the air.

We know they are there because we can hear the sounds of the winds through the leaves, from rubbing of the crickets legs, frogs croaking and birds singing

When we are listening and giving consideration to what we are hearing, we will leave thinking about what we just heard.

The next step is to start talking back to God, asking Him to open up more of our hearts and souls to understanding what is being communicated from all sides.

Take time today, think about how much you hear versus how much you listen.

How much are you missing of what God has for you?

Is He talking to you but you are not paying attention?

Take your Bible, dust off its cover and read today’s text from Proverbs 2:1-5.

Instead of just reading the words and hearing them in our heads, pray the Holy Spirit will give us the power to listen, to understand the message God has for us.

When the Word of God truly becomes His voice in our life, then our hearing and our listening will open up our souls unto a new world of understanding for us.

Our lives are guaranteed to change.

But it all begins with God’s wisdom which comes from understanding the difference between hearing and listening—so, start listening to God today.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Jehovah God, Lord of wisdom, Author of my life, there are so any truths to sort out, so many ways of understanding what my eyes behold and what my ears hear, I cannot listen to it all for it is just too overwhelming. Being overwhelmed, I am sometimes finding understanding the wisdom of Bible to be difficult. I know you want me to apply your word to my life. I thank you for giving me your word so I can grow in my relationship with you. Help me to grasp what you want me to know as I read your revealed word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. Be my teacher, so I can live and obey your word. Thank you for your wise advice. Amen.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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“My Dear God, Great Instructor of My Life, My God, Teach Me Your Lessons for Living, So I Stay on the Right Course!” Psalm 119:33-40

Psalm 119:33-40The Message

^33-40God, teach me lessons for living
    so I can stay the course.
Give me insight so I can do what you tell me—
    my whole life one long, obedient response.
Guide me down the road of your commandments;
    I love traveling this freeway!
Give me an appetite for your words of wisdom,
    and not for piling up loot.
Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets,
    invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
Affirm your promises to me—
    promises made to all who fear you.
Deflect the harsh words of my critics—
    but what you say is always so good.
See how hungry I am for your counsel;
    preserve my life through your righteous ways!

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

At whatever level of education, there is something truly special about learning from a master teacher: a confident, renowned expert in his or her chosen field.

Many graduate students select their universities based on the opportunity to work with esteemed professors in their desired specialties.

But have you considered that as Christians, at whatever measure of faith we have the singularly unique opportunity and the privilege to learn “life” daily from our Master Teacher, as His Spirit works in our hearts through His word?

His experience of navigating life in all of its facets, is infinitely extensive.

His preparation for navigating life, more thorough than anyone can imagine.

His instruction is comprehensive, and He promises to do the teaching Himself, with His Holy Scriptures as our “textbook” guide.

And even better, He does so as a master instructor who is also a Father, taking a deeply personal, deeply intimate interest in the welfare of each of His children.

God’s instruction for life is vital.

It is vital for beginners in the Christian life.

We begin our journey of Christianity as infants on our knees, unaware of God’s ways, truths and dealings and consequently unaware of truths about ourselves.

But when we are born into life with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, we become new creations in Him, we cease to take pride in our own opinions, live for ourselves, or to regard Christ from any worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:12-17).

Our anointing into His life, the outpouring of His oils upon who we are and who we will become begins, at first drop by ever precious drop, then like a wide river.

As we raise in our faith experiences, understanding truth, from knees to feet, we become ready to hear what God says instead of telling Him what we think.

By grace, we learn to see, learn to live life clearly, through God’s perspective.

God’s instruction is also vital for those who are confused or uncertain.

The Bible tells us we are wayward and foolish, ignorant and arrogant people.

When the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, he sternly warned that among his congregations there would always be those “led astray by various passions, always learning and never quite able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:6-7).

Only through the continuous ministry the Holy Spirit is it possible for us to spiritually mature instead of drifting like children from one idea to another.

His instruction is also vital for the careless and the forgetful—and however long we may have been Christians, we get careless and are easily forgetful!

That’s why the Word of God for His Children tells, teaches us, again and again to remember. Paul urged Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:8).

The man, Rabbi Jesus urged His disciples to “remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), who looked and turned back.

The Teacher, in the wise and ancient words from Ecclesiastes calls out to us, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

Indeed, the ministry of teaching and preaching is essentially a ministry of reminders—and so are our own personal daily personal devotional times.

Charles Spurgeon once said,

“He who has made you his child, He will put you to school, and He will teach you until you shall know the Lord Jesus alone as the way, the truth, the life.”

When we ourselves, enter into our own private “prayer closets,” alone with our God, as we attentively sit at our desks, in “His Classroom,” as we read with Him or listen with Him, to Bible teaching, we are all participating in a divine, sacred time of invaluable dialogue and begin to experience deep-seated heart change.

Somewhere in our core, we know holy instruction is taking place—we are being instructed by the very one who inspired the book whose pages we are studying.

Reality; Living Life on our own terms, we are so helpless apart from the Lord.

Like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 Vs 33-40, it is so very important that we all learn to ask and depend upon God to teach us His decrees and then to follow them.

How can we come to an understanding of “living life” absent of God’s Word?

Again, we must ceaselessly ask Him to help us to understand and obey His law.

Sadly, I think many Christians are weak because they depend upon themselves; they believe they have the onerous ability in themselves to be obedient to God.

Reality is, we are each creatures of this world, creatures of sin, and as such are greatly influenced by those all around us to redefine what it means to do good.

However, only our master Teacher God, through the life, death, resurrection of His Son can show us the truth of His Word and then give us the ability to obey it.

Continually ask Him, plead with Him, to help you humble yourself before Him.

As a Christian, He is your only Lord and Savior, He alone can turn your eyes away from worthless things and preserve your life according to His Word.

What then are the results for the Christian who turns to God for help?

He gives us Kairos, the grace, to be obedient to Him and takes away disgrace.

Not the disgrace of the world, but disgrace before God which comes from deep within the deepest recesses of our disobedient hearts and unrepentant lives.

Then, like the Psalmist we will long for God’s precepts to turn the upside down to the right side up, we will find our lives preserved inside His righteousness.

Do you and I understand that?

Do you and I seriously desire or want to understand that?

Do we severely desire or want to come to even a minimal understanding?

On the surface …. probably …. even most definitely, more decisively NOT!

Deeper down though, where only God can reach us through His Word (Hebrews 4:12), though if we were to actually look eye to eye, face to face, at the deepest desires, needs, desperate wants of our souls, I am of the opinion, our soul wins!

I don’t always try to understand the Words of my Teacher as much as I ought to.

I wonder when I fail in learning His lessons, Why does He even bother with us?

But, praise God, He does –

John 3:16-18 The Message

^16-18“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

He grants us the true joy in life which can only come from an obedient heart.

Pray, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 Vs 33-40, God will give you understanding, teachable hearts, then direct you on the path of obedience to Him, to His laws.

This is what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enables all His servants to do.

What an opportunity, and privilege, it is to open His word, anticipate the work of His Spirit, and pray, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes”! (verse 33)

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Almighty God, in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of your Word; and give us grace that we may clearly understand and freely choose the way of your wisdom. God, source of all light and truth, by your Living and Active Word you give light and life to the soul. Pour out upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding that our hearts and minds may be opened. Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept your Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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God Anoints Our Heads With Oil, Our Cups Overflow: Our ‘Prayer Over Our Cups’, Our Understanding of the Oils: Its The Word of God. Psalm 119:33-40

Psalm 119:33-40Amplified Bible

He.

³³
Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I will [steadfastly] observe it to the end.
³⁴
Give me understanding [a teachable heart and the ability to learn], that I may keep Your law;
And observe it with all my heart.
³⁵
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
³⁶
Incline my heart to Your testimonies
And not to dishonest gain and envy.
³⁷
Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those worldly, meaningless things that distract—let Your priorities be mine],
And restore me [with renewed energy] in Your ways.
³⁸
Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant,
As that which produces [awe-inspired] reverence for You.
³⁹
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your ordinances are good.
⁴⁰
I long for Your precepts;
Renew me through Your righteousness.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

The Word of God gives us many insights into the real value of things.

In our reading for today, the psalm writer prays,

“God, Teach Me, Give Me Understanding, Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes [soul] away from worthless things.”

All our earthly possessions will prove 100% worthless on the judgment day.

In contrast, the Word of God gives us the good news, the knowledge of complete forgiveness of sin, of God’s unconditional love and of guaranteed eternal life.

What can be more valuable than that?

Perhaps, a better understanding of God’s perspective through a writers “eyes?”

We need to be continually reminded to envision value from God’s perspective, because worshiping wealth remains a powerful attraction.

Jesus himself warned us, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24), instead, trying to teach us His value to “store up treasures in heaven.”

Using a much familiar and much beloved verse from Psalm 23 ….

Let us try to reach into God’s perspective through David’s eyes and experiences.

Let’s start by inviting God’s Holy Spirit into our minds to recall this promise:

“God Anoints Our Heads With Oil and Our Cups Runneth Over.” Psalm 23:5b

What incredibly deep imagery we are presented with by these poetic words.

But, what of our own understanding the words, their historical context, their connections from their writing, some three thousand years ago unto now?

Breaking down the ancient experiences, those ancient thoughts that ……

We are someway connected to its human writer, David, King and Shepherd?

Examining the Words and the Imagery, what David had envisioned of God?

“POURING OUT” OURSELVES INTO PSALM 23’S IMAGERY

God ceaselessly, continually pours the Oils of His Blessings upon our heads.

So much so that our Cups (How big and how deep are they anyway?) overflow.

They “overflow” and they “saturate” every part of our inner and outer bodies.

No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left untouched by the oils.

No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left uninfluenced by them.

Allowed to touch us, with our knowledge or without our knowledge, with our permission or without our permission, in clothes, in nakedness, we are touched.

Without exception, this anointing of “oils” reaches into every part of our lives.

This anointing of “oils” is the outpouring of the precepts of the Word of God by God’s Holy Spirit upon the welcoming, unwelcoming, repentant, unrepentant.

In more ways we can count or even allow ourselves to imagine, the “oils” are touching each and everyone of us right in this exact, exacting “God” moment.

A drop here, a drop there …. like an invisible eye dropper held over our heads being slowly and steadily squeezed out or just like standing in a rain storm.

We feel the “drops” or we don’t feel the “drops” – but they are definitely there.

They are absolutely unavoidable, no one can dodge them ….

We “feel” them and we can try to learn and understand them and their purpose.

We are touched by the “oils,” our souls will be unavoidably influenced by them.

Slowly, imperceptibly, subtly, drop by drop, until they become, by the hand of God, a steady flow, then an outpouring and then a flood, then an immersion.

In anticipation of joy or in anger, head scratching certainty or uncertainty, we start to acknowledge the flow, the goodness of it or the convictions behind it.

Our awareness of the “oils of anointing” presence, is kindled like a newly struck match with its inevitable flames, its light and its heat starting to become visible.

God’s “oils of anointing ,” outpouring and spreading, covering, saturating, immersing, overflowing : our knowledge, understanding of the Word of God!

Obediently, we stand in our places, feeling the outpouring, living inside its flow.

Life begins to subtly, perhaps suddenly begins to change ….

Thoughts and perceptions of events subtly, perhaps suddenly, begins to change.

We are either sure we like it or we will surely fight mightily against liking it.

With mounting Certainty or growing and maturing Uncertainty, we stand there.

We may try to run and hide to the furthest remotest places on earth from it.

But we can’t escape its influence upon everything our “life has been all about.”

We get tired so we stop running – and in whatever emotion we are then feeling;

How can we not eventually, subtly, suddenly, inevitably, not respond by praying

“Okay, something or someone has my undivided attention ….”

“No More Running ….”

“No More Hiding ….”

“One way or the Other …. “

“As the Deer Pants for the Waters ….”

“as My ^[a]soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for ???, as my flesh longs and [my soul] now sighs for [answers] In a dry, weary land where there is no water ….”

Psalm 119:33-40The Message

And now, perhaps begins the gradual ascent, by our humbled descent, into what David the Psalmist wrote, an appreciation of, greatest desire for understanding;

Psalm 23Amplified Bible

The Lord, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.

A Psalm of David.

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.

A Well Considered Word About the Value of God’s Perspective

Isaiah 55:8-11Amplified Bible

⁸
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
⁹
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.
¹⁰
“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth,
Making it bear and sprout,
And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹
So will My word be which goes out of My mouth;
It will not return to Me void (useless, without result),
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

When we do not think like God, we are not in His image.

We cannot say as Jesus did,

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

God, in His wisdom, has willed we grow in His image through exercising faith in what He says, buttressed by what He reveals of Himself through His creation.

The fundamental difference between the person of faith and the unbeliever is revealed by the way they judge things.

The unbeliever, of the world, judges things by worldly standards, by his senses, and by looking at his watch, his smartphone screen and by his calendar time.

The person learning to think like God brings God into everything, viewing things from His perspective, by His values.

He ascertains how the activity, event, or thing looks in terms of eternity.

He seriously meditates on God’s sovereignty over all things.

At times, doing this puts the screws to his trust because the Bible says God’s judgments are “unsearchable . . . and his ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).

Faith holds a person steady.

Because we often do not think like Him, and because we do not have His perfect perspective, we often do not know nor fully understand, what it is God doing.

Only in hindsight do we understand what is occurring in our personal life, to the church, or in the world in the outworking of prophecy.

So we must trust Him, and in the meantime weigh His perspective against what we “perceive” is happening and what we understand is its “possible” outcome.

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 Helen Howarth Lemmel (1922)

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Holy and gracious God, you are the greatest and wisest of all. You are full of wonders and ways that no mere human can ever fully comprehend. Lord, I seek to understand you and your ways better so that I can more rightly live my life according to your commandments. I pray for your divine illumination in my heart and mind. Help me see what you intend for me to see. Help me understand what you intend for me to understand. Open my eyes and my ears to see you and hear your whispers. Amen.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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What is the Witness of Our Churches? Churches With No Heart for, Nor any Memory of their ‘FIRST’ Love for God? Revelation 2:1-7

Revelation 2:1-7Amplified Bible

Message to Ephesus

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; ³and [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]. ⁴But 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]. ⁵So 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. ⁶Yet 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. ⁷He 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.

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What if we are Contemplating Falling Out of Love with God? We Desire No time alone with God? Our Preference? We will devote No more time for God. Psalm 13

Psalm 13 The Message

13 ^1-2Long 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.

^3-4Take 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.

^5-6I’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.

²If 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.

^3-7If 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.

^8-10Love 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

^3-4Take 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.

^5-6I’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.

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Mark 12:28-34 Amplified Bible

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

Mark 12:29-31Authorized (King James) Version

What Does it Mean to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself?

This is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself:

1. Loving your neighbor means receiving God’s love.

2. Loving your neighbor means loving ourselves as well.

3. Loving your neighbor means showing grace.

4. Loving your neighbor means acting with compassion.

5. Loving your neighbor means looking out for their wellbeing.

6. Loving your neighbor means serving them.

7. Loving your neighbor means speaking kindly.

8. Loving your neighbor means making allowances for other people’s humanity.

9. Loving your neighbor means sharing in their joys and sorrows.

10. Loving your neighbor means forgiving.

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Ephesians 3:14-21Amplified Bible

God’s Unconventional Love versus Valentine’s Day

Ephesians 3:14-19The Message

Where does Love come from?

What does this Love look like?

What does such love require from us?

Luke 6:27-32Amplified Bible

Concluding Reflection’s: Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Ephesians 3:16-19Easy-to-Read Version

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Luke 14:7-14 Amplified Bible

Parable of the Guests

Parable of the Honored Ambitious Guests …

Jesus Teaches About Ambition, Humility, Service

Luke 14:7-14The Message

Invite the Misfits

Be Ambitious and Humble Yourself and Be Exalted …

Humility and the “Ambitious Famous” Christian

A True Act of Ambitious Charity …

Greatness and Servanthood and Ambition …

Matthew 20:20-28Amplified Bible

Preferred Treatment Asked

Some final reflections and ambitious thoughts …

Overly Ambitious Thoughts and Overly Ambitious Christians

Matthew 5:13-16 Amplified Bible

Disciples and the World

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Genesis 16Amplified Bible

Sarai and Hagar

Making Attitude Adjustment, Leaving Matters in God’s Hands

Job 19:23-27Amplified Bible

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

Psalm 16 The Message

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Proverbs 2:1-5 English Standard Version

The Value of Wisdom

Wisdom, Knowledge and Happiness

The “Keys” to “Finding” Happiness

How to get Wisdom

Proverbs 2:1-5New International Version

Moral Benefits of Wisdom

1. BELIEF IN GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)

2. MEMORIZATION OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)

3. ACCEPTANCE OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 2)

4. ASK GOD FOR IT THROUGH PRAYER (VERSES 3 AND 4)

The Benefits and Value of Wisdom

Proverbs 2:5-6New International Version

Proverbs 2:7-8New International Version

Benefit and Value of God’s Protection (Verses 7-19)

Proverbs 2:7-19 New International Version

A FOREVER HOME WITH GOD (VERSES 20 to 22)

Proverbs 2:20-22New International Version

John 14:5-14New International Version

Jesus the Way to the Father

John 14:1-3New International Version

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

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Proverbs 2:1-5 The Message

Make Insight Your Priority