Some worship thoughts for followers of Jesus Christ!

Month: October 2013

Patience: For Love’s Sake (part 2)

Loves sakePatience seems to be the the prevalent prayer request I am receiving this week. Although we need to exercise it everyday, this generation’s tendency is to want it “now.” (i.e. Some of us get aggravated when we do not get immediate responses to our to our phone messages; not to mention dealing with our area’s traffic folly.)

We all have agendas to keep and to honor. They are important to our perception of Christian character. We all want our Christian witness/character to stand for truth, honor, and moral and spiritual responsibility. However, whenever our agendas get in the way of love, no matter how noble, no matter how important, we are out of sync with the Holy Spirit. Our soul’s purpose is to love God and love one another — to share God’s love. We must resist the temptation to allow external perceptions of oneself to deprive someone or “ourselves” of God’s love. For we are never more like Christ, than when we lay our lives down for love’s sake.

I believe patience is born out of the hope we have in Christ. The exercise of patience develops our faith, and most importantly makes us instruments of His love. If you find yourself, lacking patience; stop! – be still, breathe deeply, meditate upon His grace, then call upon the name of Jesus. He is our ever-present help in times of need. As David says in the Psalms, He is our fortress, strong tower, our shield, our refuge, he will uphold us by His power and in His love.

Love is our purpose!

God is love.“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8 (NIV)

Why would God give us life? Why would he create us from nothing and allow us to breath, see, smell, taste, touch, have feelings, think, and to give us a will of our own? Our enemies would have us constantly ask the question “What is our purpose in life?” The short, simple answer is “to learn how to love.” Truly love — the way that God loves us.

Jesus said all the law of the prophets was summed up in this “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength… and, to love your neighbor as yourself.” It seems like a pretty simple purpose! Throughout the Bible God tells us of His great love for us. I’ve heard it said that the Bible was God’s love letter to us. The message of love is so obvious in His Word that many times we miss it due to our over-emphasis on concentrating on the rules and regulations governing our religious behavior.

No matter how simple it may seem — our life is a day to day journey to love. Love is how we express our worship. We will spend our live’s trying to fathom God’s great love for us, surrendering our selfishness and sin one day at a time. Love is why we were created. Love is the only true thing we leave behind, but most importantly, it’s the only thing we can send ahead of us into eternity. Love is what makes us shine and brings glory to God.

“But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48

Life’s Motion

They say that your life has a rhythm, a natural beat that makes the ‘motion’ (experiences) in life more acceptable and manageable. Like walking, while you are in motion you have control of your direction and speed. But, if something unexpectedly interrupts the movement of walking — stumbling occurs, and possibly a fall.

As this rhythm applies to our ministries on earth. The Church was never meant to be idle — sitting around waiting for seekers to come to a building to find God. The Church was meant to be in constant motion for the glory of God. We seek (and find) the lost sheep of God for the sake of Jesus Christ. We give water to the thirsty. We heal the hurt. We visit the lonely and imprisoned. We serve “the least of these.” All for the glory of God!

God interrupts our selfish goals and tears down the idols we are chasing in our misguided motion. He loves us so much that He has done the impossible to bring us to Him. He has a plan and purpose for everything that has breath. His plans are to prosper us and give us a future – a future with Jesus.

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