1 John 4: Love Wins

Love Wins

Being genuinely loving is another mark of a true Christian. If you read yesterday's Wednesday Wake Up #42 you see that the passion for serving is one way to tell who is a true Christian. Another way to tell is by seeing who is being loving and who is not. This is not the love like you love ice cream but the true love like serve someone you don't know and forgive someone who has hurt you. Love you fellow brothers and sister in Christ. Be loving to your family. 1 John 4:7-8 says "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." If you are not being loving then you do not know God. How can you say you know God if you are not being loving? One another is everyone, not a select few. If you want to win people to Jesus and share with them who God is, just know that love wins.

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2 Peter 1: Take the Steps

Take the Steps

When you follow Christ, 2 Peter 1:5-8 shows you how to reflect that decision. If you have faith in Jesus yet have no virtue (high moral standards), isn't that a contradiction? What about the steps of knowledge, self control and steadfastness (fixed focus)? Didn't Jesus have knowledge of the Scriptures? Didn't he exhibit self control and have a fixed focus on doing God's will? Round everything out with godliness, brotherly affection and love and you are in the realm of what it is to be Christlike among those who also striving to do so and those who are on the outside watching. Your journey is your journey and not for comparison, but for you to honor God. 

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Hebrews 13: What Pleases God?

What Pleases God?

In Hebrews 13:1-5 there are some issues pointed out that we as Christ followers will forever face as we are human and prone to mistakes and bad decisions no matter how much we follow Christ. We are told to continue loving like brothers, be hospitable to strangers, show love to prisoners (imprisoned for the sake of the gospel aka persecuted), honor marriages and be free from the love of money.When we love like brothers that means like someone is family and we treat them with the same love that we would family members. When we are hospitable to strangers (people we don't know including foreigners) we could even be entertaining angels. When we remember those fellow believers in prison by writing them letters and visiting them then we are showing them Christ like love as Jesus loved those imprisoned by their own sin or that of others, so we should do the same especially to those imprisoned for being Christ followers. Honoring marriages is another big one as we make commitments to God and our spouses in relation to what is scriptural. We are to keep our lives free from the love of money. We need to use money, but not love it as we cannot serve 2 masters. And through all of this we also must remember that God will never leave us or forsake us. We must stay true to His commands and direction.

 

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Philemon 1: Paul's Faith

Paul's Faith

While Paul was in prison in the book of Acts, he wrote letters. One of the letters that he wrote was to Philemon. He had been a friend to Paul and Paul respected him a great deal so much so that he entrusts Philemon with caring for Onesimus while Paul was imprisoned (Philemon 1:10). Onesimus was like a son to Paul and Paul trusted Philemon to take care of him. Onesimus used to be a bondservant/slave to Philemon and Paul was faithful that Philemon would take Onesimus back but as a brother. Paul even says if Onesimus does Philemon wrong or owes him anything, charge it to Paul. That is quite the extension of himself for the sake of the gospel as Onesimus. A very giving expression of love. But he also was so close and stayed faithful (Philemon 1:22), he wanted Philemon to prepare a place for him to stay once he was freed from prison. That takes a lot of faith in Onesimus (as he was a follower of Christ) and also in the power of prayer and faith in Christ to be released and not killed in prison. 

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Ephesians 4: Bear with One Another in Love

Bear with One Another in Love

There is so much we can miss when we chose (yes it is a choice) to not honor God with our words and hearts. When we are not honoring God, then we are not honoring others either. When you submit your will to Christ and let the Holy Spirit work through you, ideas like those found in Ephesians 4:2-3 are easier (not easy) to follow through on. It is not about doing it on your own volition but it is that of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." That humility and gentleness and patience all come from the Holy Spirit and these are a part of the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23). Furthermore, in Ephesians 4:29, Paul tells the Ephesian church to watch what they say. He tells them to use their mouths to speak words to build each other up, not tear one another down.

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Mark 3:4 and 3:35- God's Will Above All

God's Will Above All

Here we are on the Sabbath and the Pharisees are trying to hold the law over Jesus and show him what he is doing is wrong according to the law. Jesus, as always, was far more focused on not what the law was, but what would be pleasing to God. A man with a withered hand had come into the synagogue on the Sabbath. The Pharisees looked at Jesus to see if he would break the Sabbath by doing "work." Jesus asked them if it was lawful to good or harm, save a life or kill on the Sabbath. No one had an answer and Jesus took the man's hand and healed him.

It was not about how man saw it, but how God will see it.

Later, in Mark 31-35, Jesus explains to us, that our relation to one another is not based in genes and DNA, but in relation to the will of God. Jesus was told that his mother and brothers were outside. He looked around at the people in front of him and referred to them as his mother, sisters and brothers as long as they were doing the will of God. One could speculate he said that because he knew that there were followers that did not think he was in his right mind (verse 20-21). People thought that Jesus was possessed by a demon. 

Jesus was so focused on doing the will of God, that it made no matter what people said about him or to him. the will of God was primary. And doing that will of God is what keeps us in relation to Jesus.

 
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