January 14, 2016

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

"Love each other deeply" says the Scripture. The word that is used is the word for "brotherly love". Within the fellowship of the church you are to love others like family. The "phileo" type of love is the highest measure of love which human beings are capable of sharing. It refers to a genuine warm emotional feeling of fondness and familiarity. In other words, when you love a fellow Christian give it all you've got. Don't hold back.

Why should you not love your fellow believers like you love family? After all, you have the same Father. If you love God you certainly should love those in your church fellowship who also love God. You love them because God, your Father loves them. You love them deeply because they are spiritual family.

And why should you not love your fellow believers who not only share you Father, but also share your faith. Faith is a powerful force in the life of a believer. Faith is a set of beliefs about Who God is, how He operates, how He loves you and what He wants you to do and to become. A common system of beliefs and values can form a strong bond for friendship and fellowship among believers in a local church. Sharing strong beliefs at the core of your being with other believers is a strong uniting factor.

Also, when you worship and work together within the fellowship of a church you share the same focus. You want that fellowship to prosper and grow. The people and the pastors and the ministries of that church has inspired you and instructed you and invested in you over the years and it has become an important part of your life. Because you value that you value others who share your passion for the the health of that church. You are a team, you are members of the body who are working together to achieve shared goals. That is a strong common bond.

Love one another deeply as you would a brother or a sister. Live in unity and harmony with them. Share spiritual community as you worship together, serve each other and reach out to the needs in your city.

Having the same Father, the same faith and an identical focus are important factors in loving each other deeply (like brothers or sisters) within a local church fellowship. It is a powerful bond! It will bless you in your spirit and build you in your spiritual development!

Do you have a brotherly love for those who worship with you?

If not, why not?

If not, what do you intend to do about it?

January 13, 2016

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Mature love is pure love. It is the love God has for you as revealed in His Son, Jesus. It is pure love because it comes from pure motives.

Mature love is honest. It has nothing to hide and no hidden motive or agenda. Honest love seeks the best for others and gives its best to others. It acts on the truth and speaks the truth and deals truthfully with those it loves.

Mature love is humble. It puts the needs and interests of others ahead of its own. There is no pretense or need to impress. It is not concerned about maintaining an image or protecting an ego. It is not afraid to risk in order to make others feel loved.

Mature love hates hurtful things and therefore doesn't hurt others. It opposes evil things and stays clear of evil itself. Evil is the anti-love because it promotes selfishness.

Mature love is helpful. It embraces the things that are good and helpful for others. It looks for the things that are good and helpful in others. It encourages and serves to bring out the best in others.

Mature love honors others by honoring God and obeying His Word.

Mature love is pure love because it comes out of pure motives and expresses itself in ways worthy of God's love. This is the love you receive from God and the love He expects you to share with others. And this is the love that fosters unity and community within the Body of Christ.

January 15, 2016

"Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good. Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Telling someone to love like this is equivalent to telling your dog to act like a cat. It is unnatural. The love that God demands of you in this portion of Scripture is unnatural. Think about it!

To love this way you must be sincere, i.e. - authentic, the real deal! That is not your nature! It is natural to fake it. You show only your best side and mask or hide your faults, flaws and weaknesses. You don't like those parts of your nature and you are sure that if others knew how you really are they wouldn't like you either!

Loving others with a real, true, genuine and sincere love is not natural!

Likewise, expecting someone to hate evil and cling to good is very idealistic isn't it? That won't really happen. It is not the way we are! How can you hate evil when your very nature is controlled by evil? Your natural way of loving is selfish love. It is a love that manipulates others to get what it wants. Therefore selfish love uses other people, sometimes abuses them to gratify its desires.

Loving others with a holy and unselfish love is unnatural.

So it is with brotherly love or a love that prefers others above your own wants and needs. It is not in your nature to honor others. You want the spotlight! You want the credit! Center-stage belongs to you! You deserve the honor! You have earned it!

Honor others? 

Why?

Pure love requires a maturity that is not natural. True love, Christian love, requires a fundamental change in your nature. As the Scripture declares, you must "be transformed by the renewing of your mind"! That is not just unnatural it is supernatural! Only God can do that because only God loves like that! It begins the moment you receive the love that God has for you in Christ Jesus! When you receive His love you also receive the desire to love others. Along with that desire comes the ability to love others because - HE LOVES THROUGH YOU!

Are you ready for some radical love? Are you tired of shallow self-centered love? Are you wanting to help others rather than hurting them?

Repent of your selfish love and surrender to the supernatural endless love of God!

January 12, 2016

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Who doesn't want true love? Who wouldn't benefit from it? What church couldn't use more of it? True love is hard to find. Maybe that is because it is hard to do. Which could be why it is hard to recognize.

In these two verses Paul gives us perhaps the most concise description of true love found anywhere - even more concise than I Corinthians 13.

Life is all about relationships and therefore, love is essential. God wired you to thrive within loving relationships but sin infected your nature with selfishness and selfishness is the great "anti-love".

So, the reason it is hard for you to love me is because you love yourself more. Until you want to love more than be loved you will struggle with true love. Wow, that's honest!

Perhaps that's why this verse describing true love begins by demanding honesty. Until you are honest about your lack of love how can you ever hope to honestly love?

Selfish love is manipulative. It always look for an edge or an angle to get what it wants. When you are angling for what YOU want you will not be interested in what I want. Selfish love is the "anti-love".

Insincere love uses people rather than serves them. When I feel used by you not only do I not feel loved by you, it can erode my self-esteem. No one wants to feel like an object.

How do you get over the selfish love so you can love others with a sincere love?

Back to the honesty! True love begins with you repenting to God for your selfish love. Call it what it is - SIN. Do you find it interesting that the first three letters of sincere are "SIN"?  The root of all sin is selfishness and that must be dug out by the root! Only the God of perfect love can do that.

The antidote for selfish love is God's love. Maybe that is why Jesus commanded us to "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself". Until you love God more that you love you it will be impossible to love others without trying to manipulate them. Actually, you will try to manipulate God, too!

Get over it!

Root out SIN and get SINCERE!

January 11, 2016

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8

If they are well-intentioned then they are naive. If they are out to fundamentally change traditional America under the guise of they are not to be trusted and should be opposed.

If their idea of fairness is creating equal opportunities then count me an ally. However, if their notion of fairness is equal outcome by redistributing wealth from the successful producers to the non-contributing members of society I part ways with that.

As I mentioned in my previous post, "social justice" has become a buzz word for the practice of redistributing wealth by attacking the rich through punitive taxes and regulations. In the worldview of the progressives or socialists, the wealthy acquired their wealth by exploiting the middle class and it is now time to level that out.

In my last post I shared several issues of concern with the concept for social justice espoused by the President his political party which is currently in charge of our nation.

Today I want to get personal and highlight some of the concerns I have with their brand of "social justice".

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF “SOCIAL JUSTICE”?

1) It Will Impact Your Faith

The people who want to bring fairness and parity to American culture have already infringed on the rights of the Catholic Church by mandating them to distribute contraceptives and to fund abortions against their religious convictions.

They are infringing on the convictions of some military chaplains by pressuring them to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex marriages.

If the government's concern about fairness don't seem to extend to people with religious views that oppose their agenda.

2) It Will Impact Our Freedom

One way the progressives go about accomplishing their income redistribution agenda is by increasingly imposing higher taxes and restrictive regulations.

The class envy and class warfare strategy of the progressives is designed to weaken free enterprise capitalism and replace it with socialism of some sort.

Think about it. Losing money and personal property to the government is also a loss of freedom. If you don't have personal property rights you don't really have freedom.

 3) It Will Impact Our Finances

High tax rates and punitive regulations remove opportunity for businesses to prosper and strengthen the economy. It shrinks your take home pay and reduces your ability to save, spend and invest.

Also, the more money that is pulled out of the private sector into the government the more  the economy shrinks and struggles.

A government that is running up trillion dollar deficits every year and continues to borrow $.40 of every dollar it spends weakens the value of your spending power.

4) It Will Impact Our Future

Think about how your future will be impacted if your faith is opposed tor restricted, if your freedoms are reduced, and you can earn less money and save less money and have less money to invest.

What sort of a future does that bode?

For a clue of how your future could be impacted by the implementation of "fairness", study Greece or Spain or Italy and see what sort of futures their people are facing.

Perhaps you are thinking, "Brad, why are you getting so political? I thought this is supposed to be a spiritual devotional blog."

While this struggle is being played out on the political arena it is essentially a spiritual conflict between secular humanistic values and Judaeo-Christian values. The people of God must understand the nature of the battle so they can know how to pray, how to live, how to vote and how to discern the times.

January 10, 2016

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

If you have young children or if you have had them I am sure you are familiar this phrase, “NO FAIR!”

Fairness is a big issue in 21^st century American culture. There is great value and virtue attached to efforts to make things fair.

During the recent Presidential election we heard our President talk about fairness a lot. He promoted raising taxes for the higher income Americans to make sure they pay their “fair share”.

Many on the liberal side, or the left side of the political spectrum have – either intentionally or unintentionally – equated “fairness” with “justice” and refer to their efforts to make society fit into and conform with their notion of fairness – “SOCIAL JUSTICE”.

Let me ask you several questions about fairness:

·         Help me make a list of some things that are fair about life.

·         If you think something is fair but I think it is unfair – who is right?

·         If we both agree something is unfair how do we make it fair?

·         What happens if by making it fair for us we make it unfair for others?

·         Is fairness about opportunity or is it about outcome?

Are you beginning to understand the complexity of the problem?

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES WITH “SOCIAL JUSTICE”

"Social Justice". That phrase sounds good doesn't it? Social refers to people and relationships. Those are good things!  

And who doesn't like justice? God knows we could use a lot more justice! Different forms of the word "justice" appear 200 times throughout the Old Testament! So, obviously it is an important concept.

What is the problem with social justice? Why should you be concerned about it?

Several of the problem areas have to do with the underlying worldview behind the liberals view of "social justice". This worldview is vastly different from the traditional Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Here are several examples:

1) GOD VS. GOVERNMENT

Our Founding Fathers believed that our rights and freedoms were bestowed by the God Who created us and the role of this new government was to protect those freedoms. For nearly 150 years that principle was honored. But with the rise of the Progressives over the past century, that has begun to change. To them rights are granted by government.

Progressives have systematically marginalized God and the Bible and the role of faith in the culture. It appears their goal in diminishing those institutions has been to increase the role and influence of government.

Traditional ideas of justice center around protecting individual rights according to the moral values expressed in the Founding documents.

For many of those in power today, justice is meted according to what best serves government interests.

2) CONSTITUTION VS. CHAOS

Another fundamental different in how progressives view "fairness" has to do with the nature of truth.

Traditionally, justice and  notions of fairness have been grounded in the absolute truths of our Constitution which are based on the unchanging truths of the Word of God.

Many of our current leaders do not honor absolute truth. The same is true of a teachers and college professors. Rather, they are guided by situational ethics generally dictated by what best serves their political agenda. When justice is dictated by a whim, you essentially are in a state of chaos.

3) FREEDOM VS. FORCE

There is a distinct difference between believing that freedom is a gift from God and guarded by Constitutional rights and assuming that rights are granted by government to serve the state.

When your freedom depends on government granted rights, that freedom can be taken by the government at their discretion and you live under the threat of force.

4) DIGNITY VS. UTILITY

Traditionally, because individual rights were understood to be granted by God, there was dignity assigned to each person and his freedom was a sacred trust to be protected by government.

But in the worldview of most current leaders, the value on an individual is determined by how useful that person is to the state. Weakness, old age, mental impairment, or serious illness requires extra money and resources from the state and therefore makes you more of a liability than an asset to it.

Jesus told us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves".

II Chronicles 12:32 talks about the "men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do".

As people of God and the Church of Jesus Christ, we must know the times in which we live and understand how notions of freedom, rights and justice are changing so we can stand for God's truth and justice.

January 9, 2016

^"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:6-10

"Social justice" as espoused and practiced by those on the liberal left side of the political spectrum evolves from a misguided form of Christianity known as "Liberation Theology". 

This brand of Christianity is based on the belief that there are two categories of people: the oppressor and the oppressed. They see the mission of Christianity as liberating the oppressed from unjust economic, political or social conditions imposed by the oppressors.

According to this theology the only way to be saved, if you are the oppressor, is to give back what you have taken (actually - earned) and give it back (under pressure) to the oppressed in the form of reparations. Apart from that there is no salvation.

Liberation salvation is brought about by Jesus in the form of political and social "liberation" for the oppressed from the oppressor. Salvation is achieved when the oppressed achieve economic and political "equality" with those who were their oppressors through the forced redistribution of wealth.

Those who believe in this brand of faith tend to be very "evangelistic" in their zeal to bring about "social justice" because they believe their individual salvation depends on the collective salvation. In other words, none are saved until all are saved.

Of course, these beliefs run contrary to the Scriptural truths in the text verse above. Salvation is not earned through the merit of our work or our sacrifices, it was earned by the atoning death of Jesus on the cross and sealed through His resurrection from the dead. Those who believe in Him and accept His sacrifice for their sins will find salvation through that confession of faith.

While Christ's sacrifice was offered for all, only those who repent of their sins and turn from those sins and individually receive Him by faith. There is no such thing as "collective salvation". The Bible says each of us must find our own salvation by living in an obedient spiritual relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The evidence that such a spiritual transformation has actually taken place is our good works accomplished through the love and grace of God at work in our hearts and minds. One who has experienced and is in possession of a genuine Christian faith will have a concern for the poor and will give time, money and personal involvement toward meeting their needs. A true convert to Christ will care about the plight of the poor and will commit to caring for their needs. He will serve them and stand for them and sacrifice to meet their needs.

Jesus has no political agenda. He has no political party. He did not just die for those who are politically conservative. He came to seek and save those who are mired in spiritual poverty and oppression. As the Son of God, Jesus owned EVERYTHING but gave it all up to become poor so you can become rich in your spirit! He came to set the spiritual captives free from their sins. And He accomplishes that through His people who obey His Word and do His will and share the good news of salvation by grace!

True justice flows out of justification - being made right before God through faith in Christ and entering into a personal faith relationship with God. It is by grace you are saved! That's JUST the way it is!