The Mind Battle

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.  So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.  For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. – Romans 8:5-7

These past few weeks I was in Hawaii.  I have always enjoyed being in Hawaii.  The vistas are always beautiful and are always changing.  At any time of day you can see a rainbow, rain falling in the distance, mountains and waves crashing on rocks or flowing into the beaches.  It was on this trip that I first saw white rain.  It was something I’ve never seen before.

But, overall it was a less than enjoyable trip, aside from when I was with my family.  I was surrounded by someone who was incredibly negative and complaining about everything.  They spiraled themselves into such that the beauty all around them was unobservable and even the unconscious observance of the creation around them was overcome.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Unfortunately, I had to spend time every morning, car rides to the work, car rides back from work, and evenings with them and that attitude and inability to just relax and take in the creation was too much for me to really enjoy being in such a grand environment.  I like this person, but this was just over the top.

However, this has caused me to look at daily life differently.  We live in a wonderful Creation daily and we live in the realm of the Spirit of God.  God tells us that He is always with us and Jesus tells us that His Spirit dwells within us.  Too often, we fail to see the beauty and rest in God’s own Spirit and we let the physical world ruin our attitude and overwhelm us.  How can that be except that we are focused on the wrong things?

³ If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. ⁴ Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.  ⁵ You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. – 2 Corinthians 4:3-5

Sometimes I think we let the world fool us into believing that we are perishing.  We begin to believe that we can’t have hope, that our circumstance can’t change, that we might be lost forever.  But may it not be so!  We as God’s elect have an eternal hope because Jesus the Christ is alive, now and forever!  Only a lack of faith believes that nothing will change.  We must never lack faith, but be stronger still until our dying day that there is nothing real in this world except for God Himself.  All else will fade away.  He holds us forever and we are never uncared for – He loves us with an everlasting love.

No matter what negative influences you might have today, look into the Spirit of God and see through and beyond them.  I pray that those yelling at us will drown out to the song of worship in our hearts seeking His presence.  

He's Got This

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. – Ephesians 3:20-21

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. – 2 Corinthians 9:8

We’ve been working in Hawaii on a metering project.  It’s been the typical getting the train going process complete with all the lurching forward then jerking back and everything groaning as the train begins moving forward slowly at first then slowly increasing speed.  Unfortunately the project work statement has been the worst we’ve ever encountered in the 6 or 7 years of doing metering.  This alone has cost time as several members of the team has had to sit and work through it for several days to bring it to a point where it resembles something useful.  But, things are starting to appear to picking up speed and be moving forward.  Hopefully it will stay on the tracks.

It is so tempting to worry and want to wring my hands and pull my hair out and allow my stress to rise over how/when/what/who/where this will get accomplished.  In fact, one of my employees, here for the first time, is so tight and worried that he is constantly grumbling and stressed over his to-do efforts.  He is completely unable to take a breath and look around and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation all around him at any time, even in the evenings when we are not surveying.  It’s a shame really.  Even though I’ve tried to coach him and lead him to it, he isn’t willing to … yet (hopefully).

God assures me that He can do more than I ask or even think.  So, if I ask God to bless my work, or even our (the team’s) work, only a lack of faith would lead me to believe He will not have His hand in it and on me or us.  He will bless it and I will give Him praise for it.  Not only will He bless it, but He will bless it abundantly.  God loves us and just as I want to bless my children in whatever way I can as they work to accomplish things in my imperfect and sinful manner, God who is perfect will bless us so much more.

He’s got this and He don’t need me stressing and worrying about how.  He just needs me to believe in Him and that He is for me and will not forsake me.  He needs me to have faith; to breathe in a deep breath; to look around at His creation and see Him in it; and allow His Spirit within me to spread to those who just can’t get beyond the world or themselves.

I pray that God would put His hand upon us and protect us, guide us as we work, to change the minds of those who would seek not to help or to obstruct, and to break open all the ways before us so that we might do good work and be able to give praise to Him for how He led us in it.

Zeitgeist

These are interesting times.

It seems we are in a world where common sense and reasonable discourse are breaking down, leaving us with social outcomes that only a few years ago would have seemed impossible. As Buffalo Springfield sang, “There’s something happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

This morning I sit contemplating the social upheaval and the speed of it.  One of the problems, if history can be considered, is that if this is the beginning of an upheaval then the speed will only increase greatly. 

The economist Neil Howe says this cultural shift is a natural feature of an 80-year cycle of generational change; and, lucky us, we are now entering the most volatile and critical period of that cycle, one that often produces crisis and relief from strong repressed emotions.  Consider that 80 years ago the U.S. was in the Great Depression and about to enter WWII.  80 years before that, the U.S. was about to enter the Civil War.  80 years before that was the Revolutionary War.  The critical year, if we have to be completely accurate, is 2020.  That is when the 80 year cycle lines up the truest.

If we do not see that there is a deep cultural shift happening then we are not living in reality.  Heraclitus said “The only thing that is constant is change” (around 500 BC).  And things are a-changing. 

Did I ever think I’d see a day when society would accept re-labeling bathrooms because a few people don’t know what sex they think they are?  The thought or slightest consideration never, ever entered my mind.

Did I ever expect that we’d go through racial fights, shootings, and protests like they did back in the ‘60s?  Especially since blacks have EVERY advantage.  We are living in an economy that promotes all things black, offers assistance in every way at every level, and we still can’t find enough blacks who will walk through the door and be successful.  It is a time of unprecedented black privilege and it still isn’t enough.  Now that there is a substantial poor white class, if this black unrest persist, I do not see how there will be anything short of very real violence.  I never, ever thought this would happen again.

Did I ever consider that America would be a country that would persecute Christians or Christian morals and ideology?  I could never, ever have possibly imagined such a thing. 

Very simply, people try to minimize pain and maximize pleasure.  If you can anticipate how they will do so, you can forecast results, economic or otherwise, not with perfect reliability but with high confidence.  Timing is the main challenge.  Today, we have a majority of people who do not want to persist in the pain of work for the pleasure of reward.  No one wants to sow in the sun so they can reap much later at the dinner table.  There is an absolute absence of own our reality.

No one want to admit that this sexual perversion is a moral sin.  No one is willing to confront the able poor and say that unwillingness to sacrifice your time in vocation is a sin.  How dare we be so unloving they proclaim.  Yet it is they who promote these unsustainable social existences who are unloving by allowing people to live in circumstances that will never allow them to be successful.  So it is no wonder that there is persecution of the Christian community.  No one likes to be told the truth of their reality.

Whatever our country is doing to solve these problems, it isn’t working.  One of the problems we all encounter is we want a return to equilibrium.  We want to go to what we knew.  But there is no equilibrium – you are where you are.  Winston Churchill said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”  The current results are unpleasant to consider.

Ben Hunt, another economist, says this shift is because of a failure of narrative.  The Narrative around these events is being shaped and reshaped.  This Narrative seems to determining the path and outcome of government policy.  The assumed politically correct reaction to these events are actually forming social policy and re-writing the laws.  It is not the known moral laws being used to shape social policy.  THIS IS ANARCHY.  It is anarchy in public order and simultaneously, it is anarchy in the Christian church order.

There is a rebellion against police and laws.  There is a rebellion against the church and God’s Word.  Society is trying to change both and not for the better.  Our national laws will bend and be possibly changed.  God’s Word will not; He is always true.  The true church will simply go underground.

Another writer said, “How is the zeitgeist shifting?”  Zeitgeist is the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.

It is very important for us today to do our very best to consider this and to prepare as best as we know how to prepare for what seems to definitely be a cycle of crisis.

Nothing is Too Hard

“O Sovereign Lord!  You made the heavens and earth by Your strong hand and powerful arm.  Nothing is too hard for You!  You show unfailing love to thousands, but You also bring the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next.  You are great and powerful God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” – Jeremiah 32:17-18

Jeremiah is in prayer to the Lord.  This prayer, this conversation with God, is written here and I find it reassuring as it reflects how our own conversations, our prayers, with God ought to contain.  Jeremiah is praying for his people, his nation, and his home.  He begins by acknowledging that He knows God can do anything.  He has bought a field from prison from his cousin that tried to kill him for probably way too much money, because God instructed him to do it.  But now the city is under attack and it is obvious that the Babylonians will take it.  “Why”, he asks, “did I do such a foolish thing?”  We are a conquered people.  He admits that he understands the reason for the disaster.  My people “refused to obey You or follow Your Word”, “they have not done anything You commanded”, and “that is why You have sent this terrible disaster upon them”(v23).  However, as he stands there in it, his heart broken for his people and nation, he still wonders what purpose the Lord has for his direction.  He knows God can do anything, but is He going to do something?

The Lord answers Jeremiah in the faith that he has just proclaimed, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind.  Is anything too hard for me?” (v27).  The Lord then explains just how evil the people are and describes the things they’ve done.  He uses strong language.  The actions of the people have been numerous and are “an incredible evil” (v35).  Then the Lord promises to Jeremiah that there will be a day of restoration.  “They will be My people, and I will be their God”, “I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship Me forever, for their good and for the good of all their descendants”, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them”, and “I will put a desire in their hearts to worship Me and they will never leave Me.” (v38-40)  In this, the Lord tells Jeremiah that the city, the nation, and the people will function once again.  There will be buying and selling of land and that land that he has bought has a purpose.  That purpose was to illustrate to all the people that Jeremiah had hope in the Lord and the Lord had made a promise.  He was demonstrating, maybe without knowing it, that they were still invested in that promise even in the face of annihilation.

Are you in conversation with the Lord?  Is He leading you in actions or words to do things that make no reasonable sense to you?  Are you in the middle of an impossible attack with apparent certain defeat and it appears that God is not going to rescue you?  Do you think your actions or words are senseless or mindless and have no purpose? 

Maybe you are in what seems to be a hopeless situation.  But, no matter how bad the circumstances, remember Jeremiah, who followed God to buy land as the nation was conquered.  Join Him in faith and lay hold of the promises of the all-powerful God!  Nothing is too hard for Him!

Anywhere, Everywhere

This morning I prayed, “Dear Lord, I pray for Your success today.”

Then I asked myself, why?  “It’s because that’s what my heart wants.”

Then I asked myself, well what does that mean? 

So, now you know that I am crazy and am talking to and answering myself.  I’m not sure what that means with regard to my sanity, but I’m sure it means that I am not.  Everyone tells me that I’m “special” so I am sure this ability to have a conversation with myself is a part of that specialness.

However, the question still exists.  What does it mean to want God’s success today?  What is God’s success?  How is that defined? 

It has to start with any person anywhere deciding to believe that the Lord is real and that Jesus came as a substitution for their sins.  I mean if God thought it was so important that He sent a part of Himself to walk with us and then to die with no cause except as a propitiation for our sins, then the acceptance of people to believe in Jesus as His Son has to be really high on the success goals.  And the more people who decide today to repent the more successful the day.

“In the same way (as a women who has lost a treasure and searches the whole house until she finds it), there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.” – Luke 15:10

I think that people who know God but have drifted away, backsliders as the Baptist refer, or have gotten so confused in some sin, no matter what it is, that they can’t see through the fog to even know that they are worshiping idols or which direction to go, but decide to follow God solely on the basis of His Word would be a close second.  They are confused and lost.  They are trying to decide whether to take the path they think they want or have justified as being the right one, or to take the one that the Lord says is the right one.  And the more people who decide to take the path just because God says it and repents, the more successful the day.

³ So Jesus told them this story: ⁴ “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. ⁶ When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! – Luke 15:3-7

Following this, as if anything can, would be the exclamation in the lives of the saints of the glory of God.  This can be verbally to anyone who will listen.  It can be demonstrated through the obvious blessings in their life of joy and peace.  It is evident on their face and in their inner being.  This is towards anyone who will look.  It can be shown in compassion.  An obvious caring and concern for the well-being of others where the world shuns them or turns them away.  This is not just to the poor, but to the poor in spirit: the depressed, the one who is about to crumble under the weight of responsibility, the one who has a close relative die, the one who’s spouse leaves them.  This is towards anyone who will be loved. 

God’s success is when He is shared to anyone anywhere so that they might be moved to be nearer to His presence.  And I pray for that success today: anywhere - everywhere, to anyone - everyone.

What is your Possession?

Reed was wanting to go fishing last night on the kayak.  As I helped him load up, I asked if he minded if I went and he didn’t.  It was a perfect night.  It wasn’t too hot, there was a slight breeze, it was quiet except for the lapping of the small waves at the sea walls and the occasional splash of small mullet hit the top to get away from bigger fish.  There were fireworks over Destin as we were setting out and then the moon rose over the lights of Destin in a giant orange ball that turned to white as it rose.  We fished for about two hours and I caught a 22 inch trout.

Truth is, I didn’t even care if I caught a fish.  In fact, I would have preferred that Reed caught it.  Just leaning back in the kayak stretched out, listening to the sounds, looking up at the stars, and feeling the breeze were enough for me.  Why we don’t do that more is a question that we always ask ourselves when we are out in Creation and settled in it.

This is the way we are when we are close to the presence of God also.  We ask ourselves why we aren’t closer to His presence more. 

A rich man came to Jesus asking what he must do to have eternal life.  Jesus responded to keep the commandments (the law).  The man said he had done that.  The man declaring he had done that was then given an additional requirement.  Matthew 19:21-22 finishes the story. “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Is there a “possession” in our life that keeps us out of God’s Creation or out of the presence of God?  Is it TV, money, laziness, pride, anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, envy, self-pity, etc.?  Do we have too many possessions to be able to follow Jesus?

He said to another person, “Come, follow Me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead!  Your duty is to go and preach the Kingdom of God.”

Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say goodbye to my family.”

But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:59-62

Jesus was very direct with respect to the comparison of anything in this world to Him.  If we are to follow God, to be in His presence, that is more valuable than anything else that we know or are aware.  We will sell all we have for it.  Do we remember Jesus descriptions of the Kingdom of Heaven?  He says it’s like a lost coin and we won’t rest until we find it or a treasure in a field and we will sell all we own to possess the field where it is.

What is the “possession” that keeps you from desiring God?  What has a higher place in your life?  Are you ready to “leave it all behind” as the gospel song sings?

Holiness

So, after I posted my thoughts this morning on Pastoring, I refer to a writing by a Pastor and this is what he has written.  Matt Ayers does a great job, as usual, describing holiness.  The original writing is HERE.

HOLINESS: NOT A BURDEN, BUT AN OPPORTUNITY

Not long ago I wrote about guarding our minds and hearts by being careful about what we allow ourselves to be exposed to in the world. I said that the same way that we have to be very careful about eating clean food, we likewise have to be very careful about what we put into our minds because what we consume, like food, can either nourish us or harm us.

This message directly relates the the Christian doctrine of holiness. The subject of holiness is a tricky one and can often times make people a bit uncomfortable, both Christians and non-Christians alike. For believers, when we hear the word “holy”, it can conjure up all sorts of negative feelings, namely guilt and anxiety. The word “holy” has a tendency to remind us of our many faults, as it is often times synonymous with “moral perfection”. It reminds us of a seemingly impossible standard that in our heart of hearts we know that we will never live up to.

But what is holiness? What does it mean to be holy? What does it mean when the Bible says, “Be holy as your father in heaven is holy” (1 Pet 1:15)? The Oxford English Dictionary defines “holy” as, “morally and spiritually excellent”. This is true, but holiness is more nuanced than this. The Bible defines “holy” as, “set apart”. This means that to be holy is to be different; to subscribe to a code of ethics that does not collude with the code of ethics of a broken world. Christians are to frame their lives, their thoughts, and their behavior by the example of Jesus. So, when Jesus say, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he’s saying that we are to subscribe to every strand of DNA in the Christian ethical code.

Most of the time, when we think of that code of ethics, we think of the “Thou shall nots…”. This is perfectly appropriate, but I want to propose another way of thinking about it. Rather than being a list of “do nots”, being holy is also a list of “dos”. Namely, loving and serving people. Rather than thinking about obeying the command to holiness in terms of all of the things Christians can’t do, we should think of it in terms of taking on the challenge of loving, I mean properly and truly _loving_ , each individual we encounter. What would the world look like if the church responded to the call to holiness this way?

The call to holiness is not a burden, but an opportunity. It’s a chance for the church to be a place in the world where the love, care, grace, and mercy of God can be dispensed into a hurting world. With this in mind, Jesus’ words, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” seem reasonable. God loves each of us perfectly and selflessly. Can we respond to the challenge? Be holy as Jesus is holy. Love people as Jesus loved people.

Pastoring

I can honestly say that I don’t know how Pastors do it.  How do they interact with people all day who want to talk about their problems, but not accept the responsibility to do what must be done?  I used to get bewildered by the seemingly uncaring response of some Pastors to other people who I saw as needing a comforting hand and shoulder to cry on.  Experience has taught me, however, that what I didn’t see was probably someone the Pastor had met with four or more times and who refused to follow God or to take an action that reflected their professed Christianity.  After a while, you just have to move on from someone’s problems when they refuse to do what has to be done.  It’s not that you don’t care or love them, but there are other people who need love and care and they are willing to take action.

My own recent experience in this is that the person who will not take responsibility and respond to God with repentance and a new direction will instead get angry at you.  And I know Pastors who have also confirmed this tendency of people to get angry at them for referring them to what the Scripture says.  I find it confusing, although I am sure I do the exact same thing.  No one gets mad at a road sign for telling them to stop or to go a specific speed limit.  But people sure get mad when you refer them to the Bible text.  The Bible is not even my words or the words of any other man, but when you refer someone to them in reference to their problem, they sure get angry. 

I’ve decided that no one truly wants to see the reality of who they are.  No one really wants to know what they really look like in the mirror of the perfection of God.  It is simply too overwhelming to know just how filthy we are and how corrupt all of our thoughts are.  It is too paralyzing.  Yet the Bible says that all of it will be shown to us in the end.  We can choose to do our best to see it now, realize our need for a Deliverer, and put all our hope in Him, or we can wait it out and see what happens. 

True Pastors have to be called by God, led by God, informed by God, and have complete faith in God for everything.  Otherwise, how in the world can they possibly stand with the truth of life in this fallen world and attempt to guide others who will only refuse that instruction, get angry at them, and then tell them they are not Godly because they don’t try to help them the way they want to be helped, not how God leads them.  Pastors also have to have the guts to stand on the Scripture as the Word of God as it is written, not how society wishes it to be interpreted or rewritten.  The world is truly against them, but God has overcome it.  

In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.  – John 16:33

Prayers for Protection

It is not uncommon when Julie and I pray that we pray for God’s protection.  We often pray that God would put a “hedge” of protection around our family.  This comes from Job 1:10 where Satan comments to God that He has put a “hedge around him [Job] and his household and everything he has?  You [God] have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.”  If Satan so easily recognized God’s protection and admits openly that he has no authority or ability to interfere into the life that God protects, then we are fools not to ask God to put a “hedge” around our family.  I don’t believe there is anything special about saying the word hedge, except as a reference to God and God alone providing a barrier that keeps evil from us.  I prefer to imagine that this barrier is God’s unseen hand.  (I’ve also always like the song, The Unseen Hand.)

But You, Lord, are a shield around me,
    my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the Lord,
    and He answers me from His holy mountain. – Psalms 3:3-4

I can only imagine that Satan knew God’s protective hand was upon Job because he had run into it many times until he would no longer look at Job, but at whether God’s protection was upon him or not.  This brings me to the second prayer request we often make regarding God’s protection.  We ask that God would stand over our home and family so that evil would not even approach us.  That evil would not even see us, but would see God standing over us and so, turn away. 

No one will be able to stand against you.  The Lord your God, as He promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go. – Deuteronomy 11:25

One of our last calls in prayer for protection is for God to strengthen our faith.  I do not know if God, who exercises complete restraint regarding our free will, allows Himself to strengthen a person’s faith.  I tend to think He does not, but let’s every person determine to believe to the extent they are willing to surrender their heart and will.  But that doesn’t deter us from praying that God would so order our days, challenges, and victories into baby steps so that we would be more subject to a faith that is ever strengthening and growing.  We want our belief to be stronger, more determined, and unwavering every day. 

This last element is absolutely crucial to being positioned in the safe arms of God and being under His wings.  There is no safer place to be than to be securely nestled in the complete and absolute trust of God.  We must have such a faith that we know that there is no place we can be, no evil that exists, no circumstance that can be presented, no other power, and certainly no person alive or dead who can at any time for any reason affect God’s intentional plans and blessings for us.  There is no safer place than to be secure in our faith knowing that God’s plan for us and all His Words for us are what is best for us and they always will be. 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39

The Least of These

In my devotional reading this morning, Billy Graham shares this story from his son Franklin.

“Years ago our son Franklin spent some days on a boat in the South China Sea searching for boats of people fleeing the oppressive regime in Vietnam.  On board, Ha Jimmy, the first mate, told him that only a week before they had rescued such a boat.  It had been boarded by pirates, the passengers robbed, women raped, others wounded.  The pirate ship was ramming the smaller boat to destroy all evidence when the rescue ship appeared and they fled.

“First the wounded had to be tended to.  Then the rescued needed to be fed, bathed, and allowed to rest.  Later they were told of Jesus and His love.

“One mother on board with several small children saw her baby die.  There was nothing to do but put the tiny body overboard and watch it float away.  A few days later the next child died.  Once more the mother had to watch the little body floating away into the sea.

“Ha Jimmy looked at Franklin, his eyes dark with fatigue, and asked, “Franklin, after all she had been through, if I hadn’t given her Jesus, what had I really done for her?”

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. - Matthew 25:40

The greatest gift that can be given away is God Himself.  Only He, the Creator of us all, can heal us properly, comfort us completely, and guide us to peace, joy, and love.  Jesus was misunderstood by those who purportedly knew God the best, scorned by everyone, ignored, and then betrayed by a close disciple.  Yet He offered Himself to them all knowing that He alone is their only answer to being complete within themselves and to have life.

Billy Graham considers in another writing entitled The Healer of Our Broken Hearts that the “least of these” might be the person who is the problem in our life.  While certainly the least applies to the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked and sick, and imprisoned, it might also apply with even more intensity to the person who purposefully opposes us as they need to see unconditional love. 

I find that thought intriguing, but I find the application of it difficult.  While I believe unconditional love is always our aspiration and can only be obtained when God lives through us, I am also conscious that doing so must be done within boundaries.  I do not believe God intends for us to put ourselves into relationships where we can become corrupted.  For example, my neighbor rescued a small dog named Gabby.  Every time almost anyone went to pet Gabby she would lower her head and butt and pee wherever she was.  If you were holding her and someone came up to pet her she would pee on you.  It was obvious she had been mistreated.  Therefore, we didn’t hold her or pet her unless we were outside as we didn’t want to get peed on or have to clean it up.  After a while, she learned to trust people and now rarely does this.  Our boundary was that we couldn’t hold her or pet her unless we wanted to be corrupted by pee. 

The same is true with people.  Until they have learned to trust the love of God and repented, that is, turned in a new direction, it is very important to be careful in how you love them and remain uncorrupted.  It is simply too easy to be pulled down into the gutter. 

All we can offer anyone is Jesus.  Whether they have witnessed horrendous losses as the mother who had to endure the deaths of her children or they are simply incomplete inside and have a need to lift themselves up with no regard for who they hurt, we get the chance to offer Jesus.  And He is more than capable of doing all that must be done for each one.

The Greatest Gift

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. – Psalms 90:2

The Lord was God before anything that we know or have ever been aware existed.  And He will be after all that we know or are aware remains.  God is the creator of time, along with everything else.  He is God and there is no other.  In Him alone exist the power to create all that is and to destroy all that is, yet He creates, breathes life, and loves. 

Whether we choose to believe or not to believe, to do evil or to simply refuse to follow, He creates, breathes life, and loves because He is the one true living God.  He is and always shall be.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? – Romans 8:31-32

What is the greatest gift that God, who created all things and knows all things, could give to you?  If you could ask for anything at all, as Solomon was allowed to do, what would be the one thing that you would ask?  Money, peace, long life … successful children and their children, power … what would it be? 

The greatest gift that God, the Creator of all things who exists from “everlasting to everlasting”, could give to you would be Himself.  Since He created everything, He more than any of us, knows that all that other stuff is irrelevant and temporary by comparison.  The only thing of any eternal value is He Himself.  So why would He bother with anything else?  And this is exactly what God gave to us, Himself, in the physical presence of Jesus and in the spiritual presence of His Spirit.

The real question is why would we want anything else?  If we could ask for anything, why would we not ask for God Himself?  The reality of life is that there isn’t anything else.  I should ask that God would so mold my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, and my heart so that it can accept and hold as much of Him as can be held. 

God is so for us that He gave us the greatest gift we could possibly receive.  He did it without asking us because He knew we’d mess it up.  He knew we wouldn’t have the wisdom to ask for Him.  If He is willing and able to provide the greatest gift for us even when we don’t know we need to ask for it, then how much more is He willing to provide for us!  And what is there that exists as opposition to us that can possibly equal the power of the only living God!

God is for you and me today and His power to deliver Himself into our life is ever present.  Surrender all of yourself today and accept the greatest gift that exists, then follow Him wherever He leads.

Power in His Love

¹⁴ For this reason [in Christ Jesus our Lord and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (vs 12)] I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:14-19

This is an awesome prayer by Paul to the Ephesians. 

First, he clarifies that he is able in complete freedom and confidence to approach the Father God because of the Christ Jesus.  We also who have faith that Jesus was the Son of the one true living God and sacrificed his physical life as a substitutionary death for our natural sinfulness of which we are unable to escape, have the freedom and should have the confidence to approach our heavenly Father God. 

Second, he prays for power to strengthen the Ephesians from the “glorious riches” of God’s Spirit to their spirit.  The single purpose of that power is “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”.  He expounds upon that request for power to pray that they, “may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”.  In this, I think we get a revelation of what the power of God actually is.  The power of God is knowing Who God is – the totality of all of Him.  It is knowing that the only real power is the reality that He exists, that He lives, and He is the embodiment of love.  The only power we can ever obtain is to accept that He is God, that Jesus is the Christ, and to ask for His Spirit to commune with ours forever. 

We should never stop accepting the fullness of the dimensions of God’s love towards us.  This is only done in Jesus.  God’s love is able to complete our every flaw, our every scar, our every wound, and all the “holes” in our hearts.  We should not wake up in the mornings feeling defeated or unable, but completed and stable.  I also pray for myself and everyone who knows Him to continually grasp this same prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians.  

Personally, I believe this is a key element to overcoming the world through Christ.  We have to live every moment knowing of the completeness of our heart only through Jesus and everyone's need for the same.