God is Love

God is love. We all have heard this at one point or another. Most of us at one time or another have seen the inside of a church and have heard these words but apparently most of us do not grasp the concept as to how much we are loved. We are told that we cannot even fathom the concept of love without first having God in our hearts. We love to play off of the word love for commercial holidays and to persuade someone to do our bidding but we do not understand love. Even Webster does not have the true meaning of love. How many times have we seen reality shows and the like totally centered around love. The pursuit of love is endless it seems like and the world has totally missed the road to love. I have lately been struggling with people that claim to know what love is overusing the phrase and the word without the possibility of meaning what they are saying because they do not know love. Who's at fault? Is it our parents that have given us a misconception of love? Is it our tainted ideologies due to our experiences? Is it because we refuse to accept the fact that maybe we cannot grasp the overall idea? I am no philosopher by any means, but I feel we miss the mark of love by such extreme limits it is just sad.
There are those that say I know what love is, but do not understand God. It is such an unfortunate thing to only see one dimension of love. Love is much more than wanting to be around someone, Love is much more than goosebumps, Love is much more than companionship, love is much greater than life. The Bible says, great is the love that one would lay down his life for his friend. You cannot say "I love you" but refuse to commit acts of self sacrifice. You cannot honestly say "I love you" to someone then say I refuse to be pleasing to that person. Too many people are only out for convenience, To say I love you so they will get what they want. It costs nothing to SAY I love you. If you honestly love someone it will pour out of everything you do. Your constant waking thought will be to please that person, no matter what.
I realize that it seems I am rambling at this point but true love is not stressed enough, which is crazy to me since this is ultimately the very single thing everyone on this planet craves, needs, and is necessary. We cannot exist long without love, yet society is teaching us every day of the week a misconstrued version of love and what's been happening to the world? Where there is love, there cannot be greed, where there is love there cannot be selfishness, where there is love there cannot be hate, where there is love there cannot be anger, where there is love there cannot be failure. This is the very thing that Jesus died on the cross for. He died on the cross to show his love for us. Each and every one of us were given hope because of LOVE. Jesus did not endure hell just to eliminate our sins. If that were the only reason, he would not have followed through! Yet this is what is taught every day! The cross was the ultimate act of LOVE. Yet we as people walk through our miserable lives so caught up in garbage that we cannot see daylight, because we are not focused on love. Love is the ONLY thing that matters. It is the most important commandment that GOD himself mandated from his creation. Love the Lord with all your heart, your mind and your strength. PERIOD. This commandment is priority one! on all levels. why was lucifer thrown out of heaven? because he no longer loved God!. Love is the only thing that will create good.
There is so much on this subject that gets over looked its just pitiful. Christians around the world for years have been condescending to anyone that did not believe exactly the way they did. This is a sin that will send many so called christians to hell. It is not our jobs to stick our fingers in someone's face and yell you're going to hell you rotten piece of dirt. We are commissioned to love, to spread that good news that God so LOVED the world. There is a reason that this verse is the most important verse in the bible. There is a reason this is reiterated over and over.
If you claim to love your fellow man but refuse to help him, you're a liar.
If you claim to love your spouse but do not honor them, you are a liar.
If you claim to love your spouse but put yourself in front of them, your a liar.
If you claim to love Jesus, but do not submit to him, you're a sinner.
There is hope, there is a way out of suffering and pain, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it's the cross, where the greatest act of love that has ever been committed took place. It was done just for you in mind. You cannot fathom the love that GOD has for you.

Follow Me............

Follow me... and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19 

 

It is no coincidence that Jesus chose this phrase over and over again throughout his 30 years of preaching, teaching, and healing on this planet. It is also not just a "fluke" that in everything he taught, he also lived. How many of us have had a person of authority, (a boss, a supervisor, a team leader) that were very good at delegating jobs and work, but rarely "practiced what they preached"? All too often we see someone that we look upon as a leader but instantly lose respect due to the fact that they did not lead by example, rather they led by orders.
        Many times we lose sight of the whole reason Jesus walked this planet. Those of us that grew up in church and Sunday School know that Jesus came to earth to die for our sins. John 3:16 ""For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  What is less known is this wasn't the only reason! God sent his only son to show us how to live. SHOW us by EXAMPLE how to live. Jesus could just as easily have fallen to temptation like all the rest of us. He walked a human life. Because Jesus kept his heart pure he was the lamb chosen to give you and me hope of a new life, a better life, one after this life is over. It is our commission from Christ to "follow him" and to "lead" others to Christ. You will not find anywhere in the Bible where it says, go unto the world, grab people by the nose, yell and scream at them and tell them they are going to hell while you look down your nose and act like the pharisees in the bible. Apparently people don't remember that Jesus himself really did not like the Pharisees at all who those put themselves above all others and did not follow the law they commanded others to follow. John chapter 8 is a good place to read about this.
     Even Paul, my personal favorite apostle, was very specific in his letters to Corinth. Read 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." Paul was very adamant about spending all of his time encouraging others and focusing on the will of God. This man just would not quit! Paul lived such a example that many who harmed him eventually followed him. How many of us can say that our enemies turned and followed us?  I posted on my Facebook page today, "A good man leads, a great man leads by example." This quote weighed heavy on my heart all day today and I really don't think most people really understood what the phrase said to me, then again, maybe it wasn't for anyone else but me. I like most people make many mistakes, but it's the idea, that Jesus is still telling us 2000 years later that, you know your commission is to drop your concerns and follow me, in turn I will teach you to lead BY EXAMPLE others to fulfill their place in heaven. This isn't like the Jehovah's Witnesses. God has set aside a place in Heaven for everyone ever created. All we have to do is pick up the cross and follow him and lead others to him. I could go on and on about all the scriptures in the Bible telling us to "follow him" According to statistics, Jesus says "follow me" 23 times in the bible. Keeping in mind that Jesus states only 4 times more (27 times) the phrase "I am" I would think this is really powerful.
          Keep in mind that you are always being watched. Like it or not, people determine who you are not just by what you say, but more so what you do. When I was much younger, I did a really good job of following God closely. I didn't do a lot of things of the world and had no problem being around people that did, the way I saw it, it was my commission to be a light and to be an example. There came a point when I became overcome with selfishness and stopped putting effort into being an example eventually falling into sin. I had a friend come to me and said, " you were always the one I looked at for consistency, no matter what you stuck to your faith, but I'm disappointed in you." This was said to me almost 10 years ago and still haunts me to this day. I led people astray because of my selfishness, and willingness to throw my hands up and turn from God. I am working on getting back to God, and to reflect his image by everything I do, I'm not perfect, not even close, but I am not going to go down with out a fight again. I have made a commitment to God that I will do my level best to lead by example. To follow him.

Doorways

We all make choices. Each choice we make is a doorway. We either open a door to darkness and allow darkness to freely walk right in and make itself at home. Once you have opened a door, it is much more difficult to close. We need to be ever mindful of what is on the other side of the door before we open it. If you are in a bad neighborhood, you wouldn't simply open the door without looking through the peephole, you should guard your heart and soul with the same cautiousness and even more so. There is spiritual war fare we all fight regardless if we realize it or not. Battle can be won by simply not opening the door. Be mindful of what you watch, what you listen to, what words you speak because as I've written in other posts, words are so extremely powerful and once you have uttered them, you will never be able to take it back. God spoke the world into existence. spoke... his voice split the heavens wide open. The bible says that God created man in his own image. (Genesis 1:27) do you not think he also gave us the power of words? Be very careful what you say and do..
      At some point we all as adults have seen or heard "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" remember the cute little monkeys ? This could be a comical way to look at it, but the truth is, the key to a pure heart is to put away all things that are not of God. To turn your back on sin and evilness and turn your face to God and start walking a brisk walk. We sink and fall and stumble and become useless when we take our eyes off of God. I personally lost a lot when I turned from God. but it's so amazing how quickly he restores your life, your peace, your hope when you turn your eyes back to him. Let's look at Peter. (Matthew 14:29) Peter saw Jesus walking among the waves and was frightened. Jesus bid him to come to him and Peter got out of the boat in a raging storm and walked on water. But soon Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and immediately started to sink. When each of us take our eyes off our father, we sink. We sink in despair, in hopelessness, but fortunately our father reaches down and takes us by the hand and pulls us from the muck, the sin, the evilness, the doubt, the fear and replaces all of those with hope, and love, and forgiveness.
          It does not matter what you have done, or said. Jesus tells us, Go and sin no more. He died so that we could have complete forgiveness, and hope, and peace. There is so much more to hold with God than without him. Turn away from the things that are questionable, if you doubt, turn away from it. If you question if it's a sin, don't do it. Put your eyes on God, he is the key to every doorway righteous and good and true. Be mindful of the door ways in your life. Close the doorways that do not give God glory, and honor, and praise. This world is not our home and we only have one soul. guard it wisely. Do not freely give it away to darkness. Lock it in the grace of heaven to which only Jesus has the key. He took the keys to death hell and the grave for you and me. Only he is able to protect it.

          Love like Jesus, reach out to others like Jesus, reflect Jesus. This is our commission to all. I am more driven right now to be like Paul then anything. If only we could kill the flesh and live for the Glory of God, how great is the reward. No riches on earth could compare. Remember this is NOT home. We are only passing through. It is not the past that defines us, it's how we reflect Jesus. How clean is your mirror?