June 27, 2015

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love envies not; love flaunts not itself and is not puffed up.” I Corinthians 13:4

The Christian Faith is all about relationships, that is why love is such an indispensable factor in faith. Faith begins with a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ and then must be expressed in fellowship with other Christ-followers.

That is also why attitudes like jealousy, boasting, and arrogance are so negative – because they harm relationships. It is hard to love someone who is jealous or boastful or arrogant. Some people are all three. If you have ever tried to live with such a person you know what I’m talking about.

Today I am focusing on arrogance. The Greek word for arrogance has the idea of “puffed up or inflated like a balloon”. So an arrogant person is one who is “inflated with self-importance” or you could say he is a wind bag.

My Mom has a saying about an arrogant person. She posits, “If I could buy him for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth I’d become a millionaire!”

I admit that’s a bit harsh, but an arrogant person suffers with an overblown idea of his own importance and therefore struggles to appreciate the value of others. An arrogant person also has a hard time realizing his need for God or the love of God.

It was attitudes like jealousy, boastfulness and arrogance that caused the Apostle Paul to write Chapter 13 of the Corinthian letter. The church was being divided by competing selfish interests and out of control egos. Rather than completing each other they were competing against each other. A church in this condition cannot long survive.

Take the time to study the Chapters leading up to this chapter and you will understand why Paul felt compelled to teach these believers about “the more excellent way”. This most excellent way begins with patience and kindness. It is impossible to be patient or kind with a heart filled with jealousy, boasting and arrogance.

God loves the Church and designed it so it can only operate in the power of His love. He designed it to operate with a diversity of gifts that can only survive and thrive when united in His love through the Holy Spirit. Individual egos must be consecrated to God’s will, cleansed by the blood of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. Only then can believers complete each other rather than compete. It is the only hope for the Corinthian Church or for FredWes.

How is your attitude?

Do you have your ego under control?

Are you competing within your church or are you completing it?

June 26, 2015

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love envies not; love flaunts not itself and is not puffed up.” I Corinthians 13:4

Love is a big idea. It is so big that it could only come from God.

So love must me expressed in large yet simple terms.

Week one I summarized the big ideas of love being patient and kind this way – “Love gets grief and gives grace.”

We two I will sum up the negative traits of envy, boastfulness and arrogance in this phrase – “Love completes not competes”.

What do I mean by that?

Envy or jealousy is zealous to get what others have and to guard what it thinks others want to take.

Boastfulness throws a parade for itself! It flaunts and promotes itself above others.

Arrogance is the soil in which the seeds of envy and boasting grow and bear fruit.

A heart that harbors envy, boastfulness and arrogance has little room for love as great and pervasive as God’s love. Such attitudes lead you to compare and compete with others. You measure your self-worth and net worth in comparison to theirs. If you come out well in the comparison you will feel superior and if you don’t you will feel threatened. Take this story for example:

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other's business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, "I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?" The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!"

Those are the attitudes of envy, boastfulness and arrogance in action. As you can see, there is nothing even remotely loving about them. When you allow these attitudes to remain unchecked and you choose not to deal with them you will end up in a similar state as this merchant. It never ends well for those who live to compete and not complete.

Envy, boasting and arrogance are written into our nature. It is what we have inherited from Adam and Eve. These were the attitudes that led them astray. This “unholy trinity” is the cause of the majority of sinful acts committed by those who have not discovered the “more excellent way”. The presence of these attitudes denotes the absence of God’s Perfect Love.

God called you and me to complete each other not to compete against each other. He offers us a love that can so radically change us that we will become as happy for the success and prosperity of others as we would be for our own success!

Wow!

That’s hard! That’s a totally different spirit! It would take a miracle for that to happen!

Exactly!

June 25, 2015

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love envies not; love flaunts not itself and is not puffed up.” I Corinthians 13:4

The Great Commandment demands you to, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" I Corinthians 13:4-8 describes in great detail what that love looks like.

How can you love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind if you are envious, boastful or arrogant?

How can you love your neighbor fully if you are filled with envy, boasting and arrogance?

The answer in each case is, “You can’t!”

Since God gave the Great Commandment not the great suggestion, you have a problem.

You must be patient and kind but you cannot be envious, boastful or arrogant.

The word for “boastful” literally means “to parade yourself”. That’s a humorous image isn’t it?

I doubt if you would organize a parade for yourself but when you have a boastful spirit you are prone to put yourself on parade.

One central truth of the Great Commandment and I Corinthians 13 is that life is not about you! You need to make life about God and about others.

If you read the preceding chapters of I Corinthians you will see some illustrations of the envy, boasting, and arrogance that led Paul to write this Chapter. The Corinthian church was becoming filled with discord and strife due to their self-centeredness.

True love, perfect love, is not envious of anything except more of God.

True love boasts only of God.

True love comes to those who understand that when you have Him, you have all you need! What else would you desire? You would have no need for envy.

True love is so mindful of God’s greatness that it has nothing to boast of but Him!

To live in God’s love you must check your ego at the door.

Have you done that?

Is all of your boasting in Him?

June 24, 2015

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love envies not; love flaunts not itself and is not puffed up.” I Corinthians 13:4

Our challenge this Summer will be to get our human minds around the idea of a supernatural love.

No pressure!

You get the idea you may be in trouble when you learn that the first characteristic of this “agape” love is patience. We learned that patience means having a “long fuse”. It is the ability to take abuse from another without being overcome by anger. If you can do that you have love but if not, you don’t!

Yikes!

Love is also kind. Paired with patience, kindness means that a loving “long fused” person absorbs unkindness and returns kindness. If you can do that you have love. If you cannot you don’t have it.

One of the barriers to patience and kindness is envy. You can’t be patient or kind if envy is in your heart. The word used for envy means to “boil over” with zeal for what someone else is or for what someone else has. You cannot love a person and be envious toward them. You won’t find it in you to be patient or kind, either.

Is there someone you envy?

Think about your attitude toward him.

Are you happy when that person succeeds?

Can you congratulate him and really mean it?

Probably not!

It was envy that motivated Cain to kill Abel. You would think a brother would love his brother, but because of envy he couldn’t.

What caused Joseph’s brothers to toss him into a pit to kill him and then deciding to sell him as a slave? It was envy!

Envy drove King Saul to pursue David with the intention of killing him.

Love does not envy.

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

This is going to be hard, isn’t it?

June 23, 2015

^"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."  II Corinthians 5:17

There are a lot of things I would have liked to change about myself.

Growing up in Indiana where high school basketball is SO important, I wanted to be taller than I was. But I wasn't.

I wish I could have changed the amount of athleticism I possessed so I could have been quicker and faster and jumped higher. But I couldn't.

If I could have been more talented in music I would have made that change. But I couldn't.

God knew that we are capable of changing ourselves. That is precisely why He sent Jesus to change things for us!

One of the major change points in your life will be the day you understand how little you can actually change.

But change you must! I must change. Here's why:

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"  Romans 3:

"The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

You and I are born as sinners. As sinners we have separated ourselves from a holy God. That was the reason Jesus came. He came to take our sins upon Himself and die as a sacrificial offering for our sins. We deserved death because we are sinful. He deserved the best of life since He was holy.

Jesus changed His address by coming to earth. He changed form by coming as a man. And He changed from holy to sinful as He took our sins upon Himself on the cross. And the only reason He made all those changes was so He could change us.

If you will change your mind and trust Him for your salvation rather than trying to earn it yourself, everything will change! You will become a new creation in Christ! Your relationship with God will change. You will have a change of heart. Your mind will be transformed. Your eternal destination will change. Your desires and motivations will change.

One small change from you is all it takes for Him to make big changes in you!

June 22, 2015

“…..love envies not; love flaunts not itself and is not puffed up.” I Corinthians 13:4b

As an avid golfer I look forward every year to the U. S. Open Golf Tournament which determines the champion golfer of the year. This great sporting event is always played on the week leading up to Father’s Day so the final round is contested on Father’s Day.

Because the U. S. Open is always played by the world’s greatest golfers on one of the Nation’s most difficult courses that is set up to play as hard as it can possibly play, the Tournament usually features a dramatic ending.

The 2015 edition was not an exception, coming down to the last putt from the final player to determine the winner. Dustin Johnson hit two fantastic shots under immense pressure to put himself in position to have a twelve foot putt to win the Championship. As he stood over the tricky downhill putt, Dustin had two chances to win. If he knocked the ball into the hole he would be the outright champion but even with two putts he could have tied for the lead and earned his way into an eighteen hole playoff today. But, he struck the putt a little too firmly and ran it four feet past the hole. No problem! Now all he had to do was run in this straight uphill four-footer and he would tie for the lead. Sadly though, he pulled the putt and missed it to the left.

Dustin Johnson’s three putt gave the Championship to Jordan Spieth. So you could say that Jordan won or you can also say that Dustin lost. Knowing how golfers think, I am sure Jordan would have preferred to win the tournament rather than have Dustin lose it. I am equally sure it will take Dustin a long time to get over how he squandered this rare opportunity.

I share this because it illustrates the spirit of our Scripture text and gives instruction on how Christ followers should respond in these difficult moments of life.

First, if you are Dustin Johnson, how should you respond in a way consistent with Godly love?

According to the Apostle Paul, Godly love would cause Dustin to be sincerely happy for Jordan Spieth’s victory. Not only that, but he would be as happy over Jordan’s win and he would have been if he had won!

Along with to his genuine joy for Jordan, if Dustin were to demonstrate this great love he would not make any excuses about his loss that would diminish Jordan’s win in the least.

You may be thinking, “Wow, Brad, that’s really hard!” Or, you may even be thinking, “Brad, that’s not possible!”

In terms of human ego, you are correct! It is not in you, nor is it in me.  That is why this love is supernatural! Only God can give you this sort of love.

Second, if you are Jordan Spieth, how should you behave in this time of historic triumph?

According to this verse, he should show deep humility for the win and sincere compassion for the loser. Jordan’s concern for Dustin’s feeling of failure and loss should be stronger that his celebration of his fortune.

So, how do you handle it when someone succeeds where you have failed?

Are you able to be as happy for the success of another as you are for your own success?

If you can sincerely answer yes, you have I Corinthians 13 love!

June 21, 2015

"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD." Genesis 6:8

If it were easy being a good dad, everyone would be doing it.

Noah qualifies as a good dad. I think you could put him in the great dad category.

That begs the question, "What defines a great dad?"

Here's my answer based on what I know of the Bible and from what I see of Noah:

1) He pleased God.

That's what it means to find "favor" with God. He was a great earthly father because he pleased his Heavenly Father. How? By being "righteous, blameless and walked with God".

2) He prayed

Where does it say that? How did he know about building the ark? God gave Noah a detailed description on how to build something he had never seen before - a boat!

3) He persevered

For over 100 years he worked on constructing the ark. Every day for more than a century he got up and went to work on this ship of salvation.

4) He protected his family

Obviously, he delivered his family from the flood waters, but more importantly, he protected them spiritually from the moral corruption of that day.

5) He provided for his family.

As a responsible bread-winner, Noah made sure his wife and children had what they needed.

Noah is in the Hall of Faith listed in Hebrews 11. Rightly so! But he also ranks high on the Hall of Fathers. He became a great father by pleasing His Heavenly Father!

How about you? Have you found favor with God?

Are you pleasing your Heavenly father by being righteous, by being blameless, and by walking with Him?