James 1:2-3
When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
How often do we get held up in a long line of traffic anxious to continue on our way. Then only a short distance away we find a terrible crash and realize that had we been a minuter earlier it could have been us. Years ago when I would just miss an accident caused by another driver cutting me off or running a light, I would yell out at the person who put me in danger giving them a piece of my mind. Now I take that opportunity to thank God for the miss.
We all run into trouble or things that come in the way of our perfect plan. Often these are circumstances of life caused by others. Sometimes they are the result of poor choices of our own. But out of every one we have a chance to grow.
The test is in what we do as a result of the misfortune. How do we react? It is easy to sit back and analyze a situation someone else is in and use our logic and our experiences in life to determine the best way to handle things; the right way to react. That is reacting out of our intellect. But what about reacting out of our heart?
God sees it all. He is constantly looking at how much we have grown. The test is in how much we have grown to be more like Christ in how we react. Did we counter with Love or with something else bent on revenge?
Either way, we grow. One way is towards a more Christ centered character and the other takes us the other way. When the later happens, we need to stop, ask God for forgiveness, and pray He helps us react differently the next time a challenge comes our way.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Down a Notch
1 John 3:16
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. (NLT)
When I was a young child I would go to the Saturday matinee at the local movie theater. There was always a double feature with a serial between them. I do not remember any of the feature movies, but I do remember the serial. It was Superman. He was "faster than a speeding bullet..."
When we read this verse, we might think about jumping in front of a bullet to spare another's life. Of course the bullet would not bounce off of us as it did Superman in those old movies. We would give up this human life to save another.
Our lives are not just this human body. As a matter of fact, Jesus died for us to live. As believers we are already dead to this world and alive to the next. From that new life, we cannot die.
I do not think this verse is speaking about jumping in front of a bullet or any other dramatic ways to save someone from physical harm. He is speaking about our way of life.
Are we willing to step down a notch or two to allow someone else to step up? Will we give up something in our life so someone else might have it instead?
What are we doing this week to help someone else out? Perhaps it is a family without food or shelter or just a person in need of a friend that cares. Would we be willing to drop cable television to give that money to someone in need each month? What about giving up that cappuccino at the coffee shop each morning? Or even going out of our way every Sunday to bring someone to church?
Isn't it time to step down a notch and allow someone else to step up?
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. (NLT)
When I was a young child I would go to the Saturday matinee at the local movie theater. There was always a double feature with a serial between them. I do not remember any of the feature movies, but I do remember the serial. It was Superman. He was "faster than a speeding bullet..."
When we read this verse, we might think about jumping in front of a bullet to spare another's life. Of course the bullet would not bounce off of us as it did Superman in those old movies. We would give up this human life to save another.
Our lives are not just this human body. As a matter of fact, Jesus died for us to live. As believers we are already dead to this world and alive to the next. From that new life, we cannot die.
I do not think this verse is speaking about jumping in front of a bullet or any other dramatic ways to save someone from physical harm. He is speaking about our way of life.
Are we willing to step down a notch or two to allow someone else to step up? Will we give up something in our life so someone else might have it instead?
What are we doing this week to help someone else out? Perhaps it is a family without food or shelter or just a person in need of a friend that cares. Would we be willing to drop cable television to give that money to someone in need each month? What about giving up that cappuccino at the coffee shop each morning? Or even going out of our way every Sunday to bring someone to church?
Isn't it time to step down a notch and allow someone else to step up?
Remain in Fellowship
1 John 2:28
Remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. (NLT)
We have all heard the old adage "Out of sight, out of mind", and how true this is. We leave a job we have had for years, often those we were close to seem to fall off the edge of the earth. We never hear from them again nor do we think to call them. Same happens when we leave high school, college, and even a church we had been involved in for years. We lose contact.
For some this may even happen in the home. Living in the same house with someone does not automatically equal having fellowship with them. Tragically many marriages fall into this trap. The two that became one have become the two that exist in the same house. No longer are they in relationship as it has turned into a living arrangement instead of a loving relationship.
In John 13 Jesus tells us that as He loves us, so we must love one another and that others will know we are His disciples, if we love one another. So if we want to be loved, shouldn't we show love to others?
With the world made smaller with apps like Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging, and Texting there is no reason to stay out of touch with anyone. Yet, we let it happen.
Want to get an instant message, then send one. Want to hear from someone you have not talked to in a long time, then call them. Want to get a bunch of emails, then send a bunch-and I do not mean those jokes and chain letters.
Relationships do not just happen. They take time and energy to start and to maintain. The same is true with our relationship with Jesus. He has always been waiting on us. We took the step of accepting Him as our Lord and Savior. That gave us the open door to a daily relationship with Him.
Now isn't it time to be in fellowship with Jesus, to talk to Him and grow that relationship?
Remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. (NLT)
We have all heard the old adage "Out of sight, out of mind", and how true this is. We leave a job we have had for years, often those we were close to seem to fall off the edge of the earth. We never hear from them again nor do we think to call them. Same happens when we leave high school, college, and even a church we had been involved in for years. We lose contact.
For some this may even happen in the home. Living in the same house with someone does not automatically equal having fellowship with them. Tragically many marriages fall into this trap. The two that became one have become the two that exist in the same house. No longer are they in relationship as it has turned into a living arrangement instead of a loving relationship.
In John 13 Jesus tells us that as He loves us, so we must love one another and that others will know we are His disciples, if we love one another. So if we want to be loved, shouldn't we show love to others?
With the world made smaller with apps like Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging, and Texting there is no reason to stay out of touch with anyone. Yet, we let it happen.
Want to get an instant message, then send one. Want to hear from someone you have not talked to in a long time, then call them. Want to get a bunch of emails, then send a bunch-and I do not mean those jokes and chain letters.
Relationships do not just happen. They take time and energy to start and to maintain. The same is true with our relationship with Jesus. He has always been waiting on us. We took the step of accepting Him as our Lord and Savior. That gave us the open door to a daily relationship with Him.
Now isn't it time to be in fellowship with Jesus, to talk to Him and grow that relationship?
Monday, December 06, 2010
A New Chapter
2 John 1:4
How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded. (NLT)
Over the years we have met many families. Not all have had children that showed God's love in all we saw them doing. Most have been children of this world in their dress, their speech, and their actions. Perhaps this is how others felt when they came into my family when I was growing up. And how do others see me in my current life?
To those who knew us in our past, they may see us differently than those who have just gotten to know us. Our life is an open book, but it is the newer chapters that are the most open. They are the visible portions of our lives others get to see.
God has taken away the old and sometimes worn chapters of our life. He ripped them out of the book when we gave our life to Jesus. He forgave us of all our sin. He wrote a new chapter into our book of life and what is written there depends on how we follow His word.
People of the past still have the old chapters in their "book of us" and they have not ripped them out. As a matter of fact, they often refer back to them as they hold back their love from us. As we make mistakes, as we will always do, in this walk we walk they are the first to point back to those old chapters. They are anxious to find fault in who we have become.
And then he goes on in the next couple of verses to say: "I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning."
It is up to us to remember these verses and love one another. We are all in various places in our new chapter of life. Our pasts were different, so there are things we have to get over and through that others may never have experienced. So we must love all our Christian brothers and sisters as they push through their walk, as we work on loving them through their walk.
How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded. (NLT)
Over the years we have met many families. Not all have had children that showed God's love in all we saw them doing. Most have been children of this world in their dress, their speech, and their actions. Perhaps this is how others felt when they came into my family when I was growing up. And how do others see me in my current life?
To those who knew us in our past, they may see us differently than those who have just gotten to know us. Our life is an open book, but it is the newer chapters that are the most open. They are the visible portions of our lives others get to see.
God has taken away the old and sometimes worn chapters of our life. He ripped them out of the book when we gave our life to Jesus. He forgave us of all our sin. He wrote a new chapter into our book of life and what is written there depends on how we follow His word.
People of the past still have the old chapters in their "book of us" and they have not ripped them out. As a matter of fact, they often refer back to them as they hold back their love from us. As we make mistakes, as we will always do, in this walk we walk they are the first to point back to those old chapters. They are anxious to find fault in who we have become.
And then he goes on in the next couple of verses to say: "I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning."
It is up to us to remember these verses and love one another. We are all in various places in our new chapter of life. Our pasts were different, so there are things we have to get over and through that others may never have experienced. So we must love all our Christian brothers and sisters as they push through their walk, as we work on loving them through their walk.
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