Access

Love gives access. In many ways it is access. At the same time access isn't necessarily love. I am seeing this theme everywhere in life and in the scriptures.

It isn't the people who say they love you that really love you. It is the people who invite you into their lives that love you. It is the people who share their time, space and inner thoughts who are the 'loving' people.

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." - John 14:1-3 ESV

Love is rare. 

I don't want to focus on those who don't love me. I want to cherish those who do and be a loving person in practical ways.

God loves you.

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." - John 14:1-3 ESV

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," - Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV

The gospel is the good news that Jesus has taken care of everything that would bar us from God's presence. He makes us holy when we believe and restores the access that Adam lost so long ago.

Access requires trust doesn't it. I hesitate to let untrustworthy people into my home but God lets us into His home and that is amazing. It speaks about the quality of His Love.

A passage in the last chapter of the Bible says this...

"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." - Revelation 22:17 ESV

That is love.

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Quick To Hear And Slow To Respond

 "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." - James 1:19-22 ESV

Grace, mercy, love... unsentimental love... put away the 'filthiness' and be slow to anger. We remember that people are not a project for you to fix. 

I see the plural nature of 'which is able to save your souls' as referring to us and the people we are listening to. Perhaps what they are saying might be prone to make us angry but are we hearing their point of view? Are we referencing the 'implanted word' in our mind as they are speaking so that we have a life-giving reply ready as the Holy Spirit manifests the risen Christ through us?

Part of 'doing' here is not fighting fire with fire and burning the relationship down. Doing might be a 'kind answer' that has clarity and eternal content. We can know about grace but not give it. That is one option. We can also listen and respond instead of react. We can be slow to react and then respond with love because we are listening to the person but looking at Heaven's heart.

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Choose The Right Cup

This morning I am thinking of a Pastor I knew who started drinking and stopped ministering. He died that way.

1 Corinthians 9:25-10:6 ESV - "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did."

It is Monday and we have good spiritual food to eat. We are running a race and there are people that need us to keep running it. I plan to find strength in God and not seek to escape reality. We can face challenges with courage. God is faithful. If we are renewed in our mind we will see the provision.

Psalm 116:12-13 ESV - "What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD"

If we drink out of God's cup we will win this week. God puts it in front of us so we will partake of it. There is no Earthly substitute.

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The Will Of The One Who Sent Us

 This passage struck me this morning...

"Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or [whether] I speak on My own [authority]. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.' " - John 7:16-18 NKJV

"So Jesus answered them, 'My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's (His) will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.' " - John 7:16-18 ESV

Jesus is saying that a person who wants to do God's will is going to perceive things differently. That is one quality a second quality is seeking 'the glory of him who sent him'. That has a slightly different flavor.

We don't have to know what we are going to do or even how we are going to accomplish tasks today. We can just have this mindset. We can desire to do His will (live in freedom, apply mercy, function in grace, praise Him in all things, spread the good news, function in integrity, etc...) and that is foundational. Then we can formulate those other things. It is our starting point. We can seek the glory (revealing) of the one who sent us first. 

If we are sending ourselves then we will be selling ourselves but if we are Heaven sent we can reveal Heaven on Earth. Good behavior is not what reveals the righteousness that has been put on our account. According to this passage, revealing the invisible God is what reveals the righteousness given by God.

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A Glimpse Of The Holy Spirit

 This was written on November 20, 2012

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The Holy Spirit... Yes, We can grieve Him and we can quench Him but He is for us. Once with us He never leaves us. Once we let Jesus in He rushes in with Him and never goes. Always there to guide... always there to comfort. Like a coach to give us guidance... like a lawyer to plead our cause. The Bible would be a foreign language if He didn't translate it for us. When we are so distraught that we want to speak but can't find words He makes utterance. What a Divine friend... humble and meek... misunderstood.

He whispers, "Look to Jesus." He waits when we are stubborn or proud and whispers. When Jesus is in clear view He is like a strong wind in our face or at our back... like fire in our belly... flaming to ignite the heart... and in worship... Oh, In worship He is there woven in the middle... loud and clear... bright and glorious. 

We are not worthy of Him but that is not the issue. He can't be bought or sold only freely given. Jesus has Him without measure. There is no measure to Him.

In a moment of faith we were sealed with a seal that can never be broken. Our spirit made alive is of the same stuff that He is made and mingled in Him who is Holy breath. 

Sent on a mission after the ascension of Christ He will not leave until a body is made to be a bride. We are people of mission born of The Spirit on a mission. The lost must be found... the blind must see... the water must be presented to the thirsty. The Spirit and the bride say "Come". We stand before the darkened heart and say, "Look to Jesus" and there is an all powerful Trinity of Divinity behind every word.

I will never harness Him but perhaps He will harness me today. As I bow before the Throne and come to His cross with nothing He lifts my head and fills me. My will now free to choose in liberty to go where I am led.

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Be First

 "...so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory." - Ephesians 1:12 ESV

Ephesians is an astonishing book. Really. If you read it line by line in a good translation it builds in such lofty ways.

What struck me this morning was this little phrase, 'we who were the first to hope'. Then you can go back in the chapter and see the great things that these people found hope in.

"...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will," - Ephesians 1:4-11 ESV

You could say, 'see this is talking about those first believers' but really it is talking about all believers. In every group there are those who become 'the first to hope'. In every generation it happens again and again. The Gospel goes to places where it is rarely seen and people begin to hope. Children grow up in groups and either make individual decisions to believe or some wander off into the world and do other things.

I feel like a 'first to hope' person. There was a time when all i had was here and now but then the knowledge of Christ dawned on me and i became a believer... a hopeful person.

Maybe you can be the 'first to hope' today in your household. If you wake up before everyone else and actively put you trust in what Christ has done you are numbered as first. You can be the 'first to hope' in a situation and express that hope to the group that is dealing with hardship. The evangelist is really just the person who is 'first to hope' in a conversation. 

Being the last to hope means hours, months or years of hopelessness. Don't do it. Start being first. Start now. Start early.

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There Is No One Like Jesus

Reading this got me thinking about my early days in Church. I was an outsider. "So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, 'Why did you not bring him?' The officers answered, 'No one ever spoke like this man!' The Pharisees answered them, 'Have you also been deceived?' - John 7:43-47 ESV The Pharisees likely never heard Jesus speak. They certainly never spent time with Him. The whole 'idea of Him' vexed them. Then these officers needed to get close to Him out of duty. Maybe they gathered on the edge of the crowd and out of respect, or just fear of the 'mob', deciding to wait until Jesus finished speaking before the arrest. Then they heard His voice and His words. Duty melted away. There was life here. His words pierced their soul and awakened long forgotten desires, innocence and dreams of fulfillment long dead. Maybe they drank coffee with the people who lovingly accepted them from the crowd and ate pastries and laughed. Then later they realized they had to go back to work. "The Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?" - John 7:47 ESV Perhaps some of them said, 'Maybe I am.' in their heart when challenged with this question. 'That sure seems better than this.' There just isn't anything like hearing Jesus. It isn't a siren song drawing you by lust to the rocks where you will be destroyed. It is the sound of home. It is like waking from a dream. It is like sunshine breaking through the clouds after weeks of gloom. It is the sunset that is so spectacular that you have to stop what you are doing and just look at it. You pull out your camera and take bad pictures of it because you never want it to end. I'm sure some of those soldiers pitied those Pharisees that day. They had seen the Messiah. These old crusty accomplished men were dead relics. I still get that wonderful sense sometimes. I have it this morning. There is no one like Jesus. His words are sunshine. He breaks every chain. There is no disease that can stand against Him. No evil can triumph over Him. No matter how far away you are He can bring you home again. {{Tears}} // I had to stop typing because I couldn't see the keyboard // Do you have that in your life? I hope so. There is only one place I have found it. There is only one person who is consistently like this. Meeting your heroes can be disappointing because you realize they are just people like you. When you meet Jesus you realize He Is worthy of praise. He Is divine. --