My dialogue, “Love”?

 “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you”. John 13:34

 So today, during this political divide can we define what is love? When Christians love political power more than people, division is created instead of unity. We refuse to see everyone as made in God’s image and divinely loved, and categorize them based upon their race, religion, and creed.  I say, tis the season to celebrate love for all. Every year when Valentine's Day comes around, most of us focus on romantic love.   But when you stop to think about it, there are many levels and types of love: We love our spouse, families, friends, pets, career or even love warm nights. 

How many of you remember a song, poems, novel or movie in which starry-eyed love becomes one of the most enduring focus that touches your heart for an illustrative life time. It is a complex mixture of emotions, behaviors that’s based on something seen. Maybe, what we can’t touch? My first thought is, it’s a willingness to trust in, to rely on and to cling to… “self-love, loving self”? whereas the world’s love is characterized by selfishness. 

 

I use to cling to the game of,” Mother may I”. I loved that simple game. The person who plays the part of the mother tells you to do something. Then you have to do it. It sounds simple? But if you don’t say, “Mother, may I?” you’re out of the game. Image giving a series of commands such as “jump up”, “sit down,” “sit down”, “scratch your blank” and shake hands with four people during this slowly at first then faster and faster. If you forget to say, “mother may I” you’re out of the game. That’s a hard game, isn’t it? We get going so fast we forget to ask, “Mother, may I?”

 

It’s was the same for me as a Christian that coexisted as a football coach. At the time, I didn’t know the formal way to express my "philia" which is friendship, and divine love which is known as "agape" to my football players. Love can be a challenge to define at the level of how a person experience it. Love can involve personal affection, sexual attraction, platonic admiration, brotherly loyalty, benevolent concern, or worshipful adoration. To accurately answer the question “what is love?” we need to go to the beginning of love. The Bible tells us that love originates in God. 

 

“Love is patient, love is kind. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

 

How could I to put into action, “Mother may I” and lead my team with biblical love without being viewed as a strange oddity. My decision to employ a Christian biblical life as a football coach with God’s leading at the time challenged me to be more actively engage in helping others along the way. The first day of meetings with my players, with no gimmicks or coaching quotes, I asked them simply, like the game, “Mother may I” What is my role as your Coach? 

 

Some of their response:

 

·      Coaching Games.

• Coaching Training Sessions.
• Leading the team to state.
• Leading the Team to win.
• Managing a Performance Environment to get a scholarship.

·      Leadership and attain their individual goals.

·      Inspire

 

I said to them, “all are great attributes of a Coach's responsibilities” But my role is to Love you! "It's not about me." It’s about You! Some of the kids used, “weird”,” strange”,” creepy “and even your odd coach. But the more I said it every day at the end of practice it started to sink in like, “mother may I”, To love You! I even added, what is your role? Immediately they said to love each other! 

 

I've been telling my players, coworkers, friends, people who I advised, trained, or counseled that attitude of love ever since, “my purpose of life is to serve and love you”! 

 

When Jesus talked to his disciples, he gave a simple command. Jesus said, “Love each other.” Period. You don’t have to jump up or sit down or scratch you know what or shake hands with people. All you do is love each other.

 

That sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. In fact, sometimes that commandment is hard because some people are hard to love. And because we’re sinners, we aren’t able to love the way Jesus loves. But, when Jesus says “love,” and you ask, “Jesus may I?” Jesus will give you the power of the Holy Spirit to love just as he loves. So, this week and beyond, love others just as Jesus wants us to. And ask him to help you do it. Now I say, “as we join Jesus on his mission”. You will ask, “Mother, may I?” Yes, you may! Go in Jesus love!

 

No matter the choice, it is important to remember that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6. Jesus said we are to love as He loved us, so how did He love? “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8. Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 

 

Remember, God receive glory when we serve? The transforming power of Jesus Christ is on display in the lives of those who have traded selfishness for selflessness. We love others based on God’s abiding love for us in Christ. In response to this love, we share it with all whom we come in contact with—our “neighbors.” Someone who is worried that he doesn’t love himself enough has the wrong focus. His concern, biblically, should be his love for God and his love for his neighbor. “Self” is something we want out of the way so that we can love outwardly as we ought. And that difference in our lives causes people to examine the life-changing nature of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It validates our faith in front of others.

 

“Love God more than anything, and love others sincerely”. Mark 12:30-31. At the judgment seat of Christ, those who are faithful to the Lord who saved them will hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” No true servant of the Lord could ask for more.

 

God Bless You and This Ministry!

 

 

“Carol Character”

  

“Let’s come to him with thanksgiving. Let’s sing songs to him” Psalm 95:2

 Let us sing to the LORD Psalm 95:2 says.  It first mentions honoring God with song and doing so in community. Singing is not the only way to give honor and worship to God, but it is a chief and important way. Also, importantly, the exhortation is let us sing – that it should be done with the community of God’s people.

 

Today I’m in a dandelion notion as a sinful child of God. There are times in my “I” searching in vain to find my being as a human, some of the compassion our creator has, believing that we are just and that our indignation is righteous. I simply refuse to forgive “self”, as I response, overlooking enough to wrong the dandelion in my life. Ah as I ponder, What is a good heart? Is it essential as a part of our Christian life? Denying yourself before seeking the good of others before looking out for yourself. 1Corinthians 10:24

When I lived in Colorado I looked forward to walking past different neighbor’s houses. One particular neighbor kept his lawn perfectly mowed, with blooming flowers and healthy, shady trees. It was obvious that the neighbor worked hard to have a beautiful lawn. But one day as I was walking past my neighbor’s house, I noticed in the middle of this beautiful lawn one enormous yellow dandelion. It looked so out of place that it surprised me. Why didn’t his neighbor pull it out? Couldn’t he see it? Of course, it’s just one dandelion. And some people think dandelions are weeds. They pull them up from their lawns and throw them away. Dandelions are everywhere. And since we get used to them, we forget how reasonably unattractive they are. Dandelions remind us that conclusion is over and start is here. 

 But this dandelion bothered me so much that I wanted to do something about it out of blind metaphoric obliviousness. Should I go back and spray it with weed killer? Perhaps if I went at night, I could remove it secretly. The dandelion was on my mind as I approached my home. Walking into my house without even glancing at my own front yard—which was covered with hundreds of yellow dandelions! Is my ignorance, an adequate excuse for sin or misdeeds?" Are we, teachable, are we ready to learn?

 

“The prudent person sees trouble ahead and hides, but the naïve continue on and suffer the consequences” Proverbs 22:3

 

If by “excuse” we mean that because of our ignorance God will overlook our wrongs, then there are no adequate excuses for wrongdoing.

God commands us to repent of our ignorance and seek Him with all our hearts Acts 17:30; Jeremiah 29:13. The opposite of spiritual ignorance is wisdom, and we are told to seek wisdom above all things Proverbs 3:13-18. Fortunately, wisdom is readily accessible; the book of Proverbs personifies wisdom as a noble lady who is calling out to all publicly: “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it” Proverbs 8:4-5. Every time the Bible commands us to “listen” or to “hear,” God is giving us a chance to trade ignorance for His wisdom.

 

 

 When Adam and Eve were first created, they did nothing that was contrary to the perfection of God Genesis 1:27-31. They were created in a perfect state and remained flawless until they gave in to temptation Genesis 3:6-7. It could be argued that, having never seen death, they were somewhat ignorant about the severity of sin’s consequences. But that did not excuse their sin.

 

I’m not sure why we are able to tell people how to fix their problems so well, while we often have difficulty seeing our own. But we need to see ourselves clearly. We must approach our Heavenly Father with teachable minds. We must be willing to learn and change. As we do so, God will lead us by the hand. God gives us so many good things. But since these good things are around us all the time, we sometimes forget about them especially during times of trial. I know I do and sometimes the toughest and most discouraging trials are when we are called to obey God’s will when the fulfillment of His promise seems so far away. This is why we need endurance. Often, we forget to thank God for things like this the food on the table, the clothes we wear and the home we live in with the weeds. We expect these things to be there-just like the dandelions-and we forget to sing songs to him. Faithfulness during the time when the promise seems unfulfilled is the measure of your obedience and spiritual maturity.

 

It’s  good to give thanks to God he is our Father, and He loves His children Romans 8:15. He does not delight in punishing us but in conforming us into the image of His Son Romans 8:29. He does not tolerate excuses, including the excuse of ignorance; rather, He gives us opportunities to learn from our consequences so that we make better choices. He knows what each of us has been given and holds us responsible for what we do with it Matthew 13:11-12; Acts 17:30. We’ve all committed sins in ignorance, but God does not leave us ignorant 1 Peter 1:14. He has given us His Word to show us how to live, and He expects us to apply it to our lives and seek holiness, “without which no one will see the Lord”. Hebrews 12:14

 

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” If ignorance does not excuse fault, then feigned ignorance is even worse.

 

God Bless You And This Ministry!

 

 

 

 

“I have a Pray Zoom at 10:00”

  

 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about, "What We Will Do to Hold American Together"

In our, “of this world age” the battle rages not only over the question of religion, politics and cornavirus in our public life. The very concept of faith is under attack. Sarcasm and unbelief mock faith and the sacrifices it brings forth. Yet no nation can long endure if it does not have among its people a deep reservoir of faith in all its forms knowing the truth that God is always there. But with in the dark tears, it seems you just don’t want to know. What is your song of prayer for America?

 

Psalm 91 is a protection Scripture that believers have turned to for thousands of years whenever there is danger. As the Times of Trouble are upon us, the prayer of Psalm 91 is comforting and effective when prayed from the heart by those who love God and are in relationship with Him.

 

When a trial or hardship occur and problems erupt from every angle. Hearts are broken. Emotions are all over the map. Self-worth and confidence plummet. Fears take root about what the future will look like. As a child, I would often say, “will I cope of being alone, I need my mother”. Every seemingly unanswered prayer request — laced with tears and repetitive requests of my needs, big and small — personified my fears that God wasn’t hearing or singing my prayers and pleas.  I certainly didn’t have the power to change anything, no matter how hard I tried. This is when I would say to myself, “when thrown against the wall of hard times will I be a tennis ball or an egg. One cracks one bounce back, which one will you be”. How bright is your prayer light? 

 

The longer time passed and prayers went unanswered, I began to feel those problems were just impossible for even God to fix. I secretly resolved to believe some of my prayer requests were simply unanswerable. 

 

Ambiguous, unresolvable Cry:

 

So, you have hours of darkness pain many nights.

Sobbing so many hours.

Seeking to make it right.

Just didn’t have the spiritual power.

It seemed closed eyes to all of my tears.

In hope they’d disappear.

I tried not to let it show. Yearning for a daily Valentine’s Day Love.

Don’t You want to know; My presumption… Do you just want guesstimate?

 

I hated the place in which I’d found my apathetic heart; I didn’t want to be there.  I wanted to believe that my prayers/cries were important to God, that He listened intently like a loving Father and considered my desires carefully. I wanted to believe that He was working for my good and not just answering prayer requests arbitrarily, like I pictured Him doing while He sat on his throne: “One for ‘to be answered’, three for ‘to be ignored’, two for ‘to be answered’, ten for ‘to be ignored.’” 

Prayer is supposed to be matter-of-fact for Christians, taken for granted as part of the faith environment. Yet for me it was one of the most difficult resources to use appropriately and effectively in my relational life. “I don’t even know why I’m praying for this anymore,” I told myself spiritually, between sobs on a cold winter night while at the temporary children’s home. “It seemed like every time I prayed for something really big, God says ‘Thank you for your prayers, but that’s not My will; please accept this.’” I sat there perplexed, angry, hurt, and wanting to understand what was so difficult to grasp, For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive…The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

We are so thankful for prayer, we have God’s promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive specifically what we asked for( Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27) “What a Friend we have in Jesus” he has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for (1 John 5:14-15). 

 

Many Christians have either lost part or all of their faith in the Lord as a result of getting hit with some severe torpedo shots. It took me a long time to full understanding as to why God will sometimes allow bad things to happen to good people in this life. Even though my personal faith levels in the Lord was shaken to its very core because of the severity of the storm cloud that had just struck me.

 

I realized that sometimes He delays His answers according to His wisdom and for our benefit. In these situations, we are to be diligent and persistent in prayer (Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1-8). Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God’s will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own.

 

 

It is every Christian’s right and responsibility to pray with others as the opportunity arises. A major reason people are reluctant to pray with others is their uncertainly as to how to go about it. They are unsure about why they should pray with others when to pray, how to pray, what to pray about and even if praying helps. For the Christian, praying is like breathing, easier to do than to not do. We pray for a variety of reasons. For one thing, prayer is a form of serving God (Luke 2:36-38) and obeying Him. We pray because God commands us to pray (Philippians 4:6-7). Prayer is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church (Mark 1:35; Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 13:1-3). If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray, we should also.

 

We pray to demonstrate our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word and bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for Ephesians 3:20). Prayer is our primary means of seeing God work in others' lives. Because it is our means of “plugging into” God’s power, it is our means of defeating Satan and his army that we are powerless to overcome by ourselves. Therefore, may God find us often before His throne, for we have a high priest in heaven who can identify with all that we go through Hebrews 4:15-16). May God glorify His name in our lives as we believe in Him enough to come to Him often in prayer to heal the divide.

 

God Bless You and This Ministry!