Grow In Love

     In my study today I read that Paul was being held as a prisoner on a ship. He had given the men on the ship wise advice but they had ignored him and done exactly opposite of his advice. 
     Because of their choices they were now all in a situation facing death! 
     Some people, not me of course! =) would be tempted to say "See! I told you so!" And would possibly pray for their own safety....and for the other's to "learn their lesson!". 
     Here we see that Paul prayed for those holding him as a prisoner! Can you imagine? And not only that, but because he had prayed for them the men who had ignored his advice and were holding him captive were going to be saved.
     I have to ask myself if I would be so full of love and mercy for those holding me as a prisoner as Paul had been? I know I am supposed to love my enemies, so after asking myself if I would have enough love and mercy to pray for my captors to be saved, and saying maybe not.... then I need to pray to have the love for my enemies that I am commanded to have! 
     Lord, please give me Your love for people! Not only for my family and friends, but for my neighbors, strangers, and enemies! Help me to grow in this area because I know I fall short!

     "When they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’" Acts 27:21-24 NASB

Questions

Do not rush

Why do we hurry?

We rush to grow up, why?

We want to be free from the constraints of our parents...why?

We want to meet someone to fall in love with....why?

We want a career, a partner, we want children, we want a house, we want a car, we want, we want, we want........

We are designed to strive and when we are not striving we are stagnant, but we get lost in what we strive for.

We do grow up, we do break away from our parental constraints, we do find someone, they break our hearts, we find someone else and they break our hearts, we find a career, it becomes a boring routine, our parents grow old and die, we want them back, we have children, they want to break away from our constraints, and they do and then they are gone, we find a house, we spend our lives paying for it and then our health is gone. We grow old and feeble and then we look back and wonder why did we rush?

We strive for earthly things that do not satisfy. We have yet to understand that Jesus came to teach us the correct things to strive for....for a relationship with our Father. We think that the whole point of Him coming was to "save" us but then we lose sight of what He is saving us from. He did come to save us but not just from going to Hell.....He came to save us from a wasted life, wasted chasing after things that have no meaning and no satisfaction. 

What do you chase after? Why are you rushing?

Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Mark10:21

Reckless Love?

There is a current "popular" song on the radio that brings a couple of questions to mind....the lyrics of the song go like this ~

"There's no shadow You won't light up

Mountain You won't climb up, Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down, 

Lie You won't tear down, Coming after me"

This song is declaring God's love for His people.

The first question is, "Can you declare the same love of God?

Then the second question from the next lyrics~

"Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found"

     Do you chase Him down and do you fight until He's found? 

I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. Hebrews 5:12

Zechariah 13:9

Notice the word says I will bring them through the fire
Refine and test and then we will call on His name
and He will answer! It sounds like the refining and testing is before He calls us His people.....

“And I will bring the third part through the fire,
Refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are My people,’
And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Zechariah 13:9

Psalm 6

When you read this Psalm, stop and think, who are your enemies? Claim this answered prayer for yourself! I claim victory through the Lord's power over: Pain, Infirmity, Rejection, Dissatisfaction, Depression, Age, Fear

Psalm 6

O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger
    or discipline me in your rage.
2 Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak.
    Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 I am sick at heart.
    How long, O Lord, until you restore me?

4 Return, O Lord, and rescue me.
    Save me because of your unfailing love.
5 For the dead do not remember you.
    Who can praise you from the grave?

6 I am worn out from sobbing.
    All night I flood my bed with weeping,
    drenching it with my tears.
7 My vision is blurred by grief;
    my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.

8 Go away, all you who do evil,
    for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea;
    the Lord will answer my prayer.
10 May all my enemies be disgraced and terrified.
    May they suddenly turn back in shame.

Pray

When did we become so divided? Do you believe maybe there is an enemy to our Nation in the Spiritual realm that has a goal of destroying the United States? 
     We are one of the few countries in the world that has had the nerve to declare ourselves "One Nation Under God"...... that is probably a battle cry for the enemy of our souls and the soul of our Nation! We are also one of the few....no wait, make that the only Nation that supports Israel, the home of God's chosen people! That puts another target on us! 
     Now to the divided part. In the last year or so we have seen so many divisions in our society, there is no more tolerance even though that is what is touted as the goal of our people! We have Democrats against Republicans, Liberals against Conservatives, blacks against other races, we have women against men, we have poor against rich, we have young against old, now we have teachers against government leaders...
     We have always been a Nation of diversity, always! The melting pot of the world was our nickname, I have a theory that part of the problem is some of the people's refusal to melt in the pot, but that is a different subject. This is about division brought about by our enemy.
     I'm usually writing this blog to "the choir" or other Christians, so now we can ask ourselves what do we do about this? We pray! We speak peace, love, and balance. 
     We are spiritual beings with a spiritual enemy but we also have a physical body and therefore our enemy uses physical issues to try to destroy us. 
     We may disagree with other people and their opinions, but we need to recognize that our battle is not against each other, it is not against people. We will always be in a spiritual wrestling match against our enemy as long as we are in this world. Be at peace with all people as far as in your power, but never, ever neglect to pray over issues that are against the soul of our Nation! If you do not stand firm and pray then there is a battle being fought over our Nation and you are not even showing up to defend it. Think about this, it is not something that can be ignored and/or left for someone else to do! Pray, pray, pray or face the victory of the enemy over our Nation.  

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 NASB 

If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18 NASB

Easter Sunrise Service

We had the sunrise service last Sunday for Easter.....let me tell you it was COLD! FRIGID COLD! but during the service we heard about many of the early day Christians that were martyred. Part of me wanted to run to the warmth of the car, but part of me thought that I was a pretty pitiful Believer if the early day ones went through stonings, crucifixions, trials, having their heads cut off, being put in boiling oil and here I was that I couldn't handle a cold Oklahoma wind for30 minutes!? (besides that, I was the Preacher's wife, I couldn't bolt and run for the car!) I managed to stay for the full service along with the other brave, tough believers, but I was thankful that Lane cut the last song out of the service! Would you be able to walk the path that the early Christians walked no matter how uncomfortable? Would you stand firm in your beliefs or would you cut and run? I have been looking at this ever since last Sunday, I need to toughen up or how can I reach the world? How about you? Are you committed enough to set your comfort aside to follow Jesus?