Friday Focus #23

Being Loving Like Jesus

For those of you who know me, then you know (other than football and pro wrestling) one of my favorite topics to discuss is relationships. They are vital and date back to the beginning of man- see Genesis 2:4-25 and Adam and Eve. We were designed to be among other people. We were designed to live life with other people and have friends and date and marry and have children. It is great to do these things, but there is a point where those people that we have been living life with do things or say things that we get upset about. It is up to us on what we do with that emotion. Do we submit to the emotion and ignore people that we have known for a long time (or even a short while)? Or do we focus on being loving like Jesus? Hard to do, but here are some reminders.

In Matthew 5 we read through the sermon on Mount. In verse 44 Jesus speaks on what people have been taught and teaches them a new way. He says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This can also be applied to a person you are having a relational issue with. If you and your friend/family member are having an issue and you saw them on the side of the road with their car broken down in the pouring rain or snow, do you just drive on by them and just hope they get help? That is not very loving. Even if they are an enemy for the time being, be loving. If you know of someone or a group of people who is persecuting you, pray for them. Pray that they will let God come into their life and take over their heart. We as Christ followers have to set the standard on being loving, just as Christ loved us by dying for us on the cross.

In Romans 12:1 we read that we are to be living sacrifices to God. We sacrifice those things that please us in moments in order to please God. We worship Him by doing what is right in his eyes with His will. Jesus, while man and God at the same time, showed us what it is like to submit to God's will even when it is truly painful. Yes, what someone said or did was painful, but that does not mean that you have to wish them hell or throw away the relationship forever due to an offense or disagreement. I love to make jokes and while I have brought smiles to many, there are some that I have offended. Their choice was to tell me about the offense and forgive me even if I defended my joke and attacked their sensitivity.  There are numerous times where I had to go back and apologize because in the moment I was not walking with the Holy Spirit and needed to seek forgiveness in order to restore the relationship.

I challenge you today to seek forgiveness from someone that you have offended. I also challenge you to forgive someone who did or said something to you that has hurt you. Then I challenge you to make a phone call or see someone to reconnect. This gives them the chance to also apologize for what they may have said. But overall, it allows us to shed what was holding us back relationally and put on a robe of righteousness  in moving forward to honor God.

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Romans 3:23-25- Falling Short and Being Redeemed

Falling Short and Being Redeemed

There are far too many verses in scripture that we know and understand when we hear them, but we do not get the full context. Romans 3:23 is one of them for me. It tells us that we all fall short of the glory of God. This verse has been used to further one's personal agenda outside of Christ. It has been used to say we all sin (which is true) but it does not tell the rest of the story. It's like saying we all fail and that's it. End of story. It can also be comforting to know that we all fail and that you are not alone when you sin as we all sin. But what about after that?

We have to understand the context that Paul was telling fellow Jews that they were not better than others. This is in line with what Christ taught to Pharisees who were hypocrites and thought they were better than others. Righteousness does not come from obeying God's laws (such as the ten commandments). Righteousness comes from doing God's will out of loving obedience. As I have stated before, in relationships (like dating and marriage) we don't keep ourselves from cheating simply because it is not the right thing to do. Look at the essence of why it wouldn't be right. We don't cheat because of love. We love the other person. We are honoring the other person and our relationship and ourselves. But, ultimately, we should not cheat because we would be sinning against God. Righteousness is through love of God which is outside the law (ten commandments).

But how do you get redeemed to God after sinning. That redemption comes from Jesus. If you accept Jesus, the redemption comes. His blood was shed so that we don;t have to be a human sacrifice for our sins. Sin causes death in at least 2 ways: spiritual and physical. Spiritually i am separated by God when I am outside His will. Physically when I sin I could die like if I were to do drugs or something like that. So, if you sin like I do on a daily basis, you are 1) not alone and 2) redeemed to God through accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior knowing that he died for your sins.

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Friday Focus #14

The Open Doors of Freedom

Now that I am taking steps to live outside of my "box", I recognize my freedom. This is not just freedom in the choices I make, but the freedom from that which I fear. I feared heartbreak, broken relationships, and not getting what I wanted in life. I even feared being humbled from being wrong. But the perfect life where everything goes my way is not realistic, and it is not what scripture teaches us either. We are taught to follow Christ and submit to God's will in our lives.

I wanted freedom from fear, yet I did not ask. I didn't ask God for His strength in my daily life. I just adjusted my life based on what I thought the right decisions would be, yet it was not based in Biblical principles. We know about "Ask, Seek Knock" from Matthew 7:7-12. If it is in God's will and I ask Him for it and seek it and knock on the door it will be provided to me. If it is not in God's will then there may be a problem with my motives.

I wanted to be free from condemnation. If anyone person or group of people condemned me for a dream, goal or a sin I committed or if I felt they did not support me, into the "box" I would go. Jesus wouldn't condemn me or want me to go inside my "box." Not once have I ever read about Jesus condemning people for their sins, only calling out hypocrites who used God's word to undercut others for personal/political gain (like the Pharisees did). We read in Romans 8:1 (one of my favorites) that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. I am free from the condemnation and judgment from others (we are not called to condemn Luke 6:37) and I am free from the condemnation of sin. Others look at the outside and do not see the heart as God does (John 7:24).

But with my freedom, I need to also be responsible. Just because I am coming out of my box it does not mean that I should run around and do all the things I want to do either. Yes God will forgive me when I repent, but what about my influence on others? What I do in my life can definitely affect others. I read in 1 Corinthians 8:9 about being careful that just because I can do something, I need to be careful not make another brother or sister in Christ stumble. While learning myself in God's will, I need to check my influence on others and make sure that I am in His will and not my own.

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Friday Focus #12

It Is Time for Something Better

Some relationships are a mess. There is constant bickering and long droughts of bitterness.  You want to be supported and they want to be right. You love them too much and they don't love you enough. There just doesn't seem to be a future. But I can almost guarantee you there is a disconnect. Staying disconnecting from God is like not recharging your smartphone after using it all day. It will DIE!!! You have to plug back in to reading the word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), yes the Bible. Start with a chapter a day. Read Proverbs. There are 31 chapters. you can read one chapter per day for a month. 

We also need to submit to God's will (Psalm 143:10). How do we know what God's will is? If you don't read God's word and let that marinate and you think on it and apply what you read, then it would be hard to know what God wants from us. We are making decisions that are not conducive to our spiritual growth which is affecting our relationships. Before you check everyone else, check yourself. What else could you be doing on your side in the effort of change and relational growth with God in order to have better relationships with others?

Don't forget about prayer. When things go wrong we can find ourselves trying to fix everything and everyone. We feel like we are shaped to help, which can be true, but it is not your responsibility to fix. Our responsibility is to pray and include God (Philippians 4:6). Isn't that part of the reason why there is an issue any way? We try to fix things separate from God. We need to include Him and let Him do his work.

And also there is accountability (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). How can we grow spiritually all by ourselves. If there isn't someone that you can confide in and have walk with you through your life, it makes things that much harder. We need to be able to check in with people and have them check in with us and keep us accountable for what we want to be different in our lives according to God's will. That accountability with another Christ follower and you allows God to be present in the relationship in order to help the other parts of life benefit as well. It isn't easy, but it can be be done.

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John 14: Keep the Commandments Out of Love

Keep the Commandments Out of Love

We can think of following Christ out of obligation. Or maybe you were raised that way and your parents made you go to church when you were a kid. I have even heard people claim to be certain walks of faith based on pleasing their parents. But, what about your relationship with Jesus? I mean, we don't date or marry people (typically) if the purpose is to make your parents happy. So, why would we pretend to follow Jesus with no to low commitment?

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." That is not "if you wanna make other people happy, then pretend to follow me." How can we overlook the love Jesus had for with the intent to unite us with God if we follow Jesus and just treat it like Jesus' sacrifice doesn't matter? It DOES matter. The life of Jesus is what caused the split between BC and AD. His life mattered. His death and resurrection mattered as well.

Keeping his commandments takes action. Even inaction is an action. It is an action of defiance. But our actions should be focused on keeping the commands of Jesus. That doesn't mean that if we just do what Jesus said that we are saved. Look at it like this, if you love Jesus and you understand what his purpose was for you and me, then why wouldn't you follow his commands? If you are in a relationship or married then it is safe to say that you love (or at least are loving) the person you are with. In that, aren't there things that you would do to show that love to that person? Make their favorite food, watch their favorite movie with them, tell them you love them and spend time with them. Granted, we can't take Jesus out to eat, but we can spend time with him and read the word in order to understand what he wants from us. He wants our pride wiped away and our humility and selfless love for him and others, especially those that are less fortunate. Do as Jesus did for the sake of love for him.

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Friday Focus #11

When The Storm Hits

Life isn't easy. There can be very, very tough times with no money, broken relationships, no where to live, no method of transportation to work, or even a death of a family member of friend. Each of those are storms....but what about when they all hit at once. Now what?

We can blame God and say that He did this to us. We can overlook how much we are in control of our own decisions that can lead to our storms. Some things do "just happen" but others are a result of decisions we have made that lead to the storm. Remember when Jesus walked on water and invited Peter out into the water, but as Peter started walked, he started sinking (Matthew 14:22-33)? Peter lacked faith that Jesus was able to walk on the water and even when he called out to Jesus, Jesus said "come." But, when Peter saw the wind he got scared and lost sight of Jesus and lost faith and started to sink. Peter was going to do something amazing through God's will and lost his focus and his faith and saw the problem as bigger than his Lord.

But what about those things that just happen not due to bad decisions (a lack of obedience) but just something bad happened? Your house burned down. Car accidents and injuries. Being assaulted. What do we do then? We don't blame God, we use our faith in God to stay on track and know that God will use that situation to be glorified. It can serve as a test, not a punishment (1 Peter 1:7). When God tests us we grow stronger to glorify Him. If everything is easy, how will we grow? We won't!! God doesn't want us to stay in our comfort zones. I used to "worship" the cars I owned or the women I have dated. God had every single one of them removed so that I could see Him better. Whether the car broke down, or was wrecked, or the girl was put on a pedestal, they all served as a set of blinders to keep me from seeing God's will.

From Kerry Shook on "Tracking a Miracle in the Storm"

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Friday Focus #3

Bad Company and Good Morals

In the Wednesday Wake Up for this week I covered being unequally yoked with people who do not follow Christ. This could be dating, marriage, close relationships, business, etc. If you follow Christ it doesn't make sense as to why you would unite with someone who does not follow or understand Christ as you do. How can they help you grow in your relationship with Christ? That is in conjunction with the 1st Commandment.

You can't charge your iPhone with a charger for your my phone. It is a completely different device. Would you seek a golf coach to become a pilot? Would you want to learn how to cook from someone who doesn't understand how to cook? Why be partnered with someone who doesn't match well with you for something so important to you?

In 1 Corinthians 15:33, Paul tells us not to be misled and that bad company corrupts good character. I struggle in my prayer life from time to time. The only people who can help me grow in that area are those who follow Christ. If I am having a down in the dumps kind of day, nice words are nice from friends, but couldn't I use some scripture too? People who don't follow Christ have never led me to seek scripture for anything I was ever going through. I need that. You need that. We are all a part of the body of Christ and we need to be strong to keep the body upright and healthy. Just like we need to eat right, drink water and exercise for the betterment of our own bodies, then we need to make sure the body of Christ is strong as well by checking out where we are plugged in and with whom we are connected.

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