Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Lov3 Experiment

Here are some truths about love that I have been taught since childhood.  
  • A smile toward a stranger can change their day.
  • The gift of time is one of the most costly and expensive gifts one person can give to another.
  • Words of encouragement to a friend cost nothing but have a lifetime of dividends.
  • Grace will teach, encourage, and motivate.
I rejoice when any one of the theses things happen to me and I'm even more blessed when I'm able to give some joy to another person on their journey.  Today I was blessed by one of my co-workers.  

You see I work in a contact (call) center environment for a fairly large corporation.  It was almost lunch time and a call comes through.  The person on the other end was looking for a supervisor but instead they got me.  They asked me if I would be able to assist them.  Thankfully I was able to assist them and I thought the interaction went well just as I had with all of the previous calls today.  Lunch time came and so I proceeded to go.  This afternoon is where everything changed.

My supervisor approached me with a document I needed to look over.  I looked it over and as I waited for him to leave he handed me our companies reward and encouragement certificate called a You ROCK award.  Printed on the document is the reason for the award.  The note mentioned the call from before lunch.  The very same call that if you had asked me about several hours later I would have trouble remembering because in my mind it was me doing my job.  Those words of encouragement from my co-worker, my supervisors taking time out of their day to present me the award WOW!  WOW!  WOW!  What an amazing blessing!  

What's the point?  So often I/we go about our day and the normalcy of 8 hours slips by without taking stock of all the goodness around us.  Please join with me.  Let's keep our eyes open to what God is doing and how He is moving gifts of affirmation and grace towards us and to those around us through us.

As a Christian and for my Christian brothers and sisters know this God has been intimately interested in your life since before your first birthday!

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."


Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Thank you Julie Roys and Chris Fabry!

Thank you Julie Roys and Chris Fabry!

Passion can cause many results.  So many times, in my life passion about my ideals has caused me to be insensitive to the person I’m trying to share those ideals with.  You see a good discussion or debate is very exciting (to me).  It is for those reasons (passion and debate) the discussion that Chris Fabry (@chrisfabry) and Julie Roys (@reachjulieroys) recently had on Chris Fabry Live touched my heart.

You see their discussion centered around God, love, life, grace, law, and the future in an episode of Chris Fabry Live Titled Law and Grace at Graduation.
The reason for the discussion is timely and extremely relevant and the way they handled themselves should not be overlooked.  It is obvious that professing Jesus as their Lord and Savior and the display of their lives puts that truth in view for the whole world.  Examples of their love for both God and their neighbor include considering and giving light to how Jesus would have handled the subject matter at the center of the discussion.  Both Julie and Chris were respectful giving the other one time to speak their points. Both Julie and Chris genuinely wanted to hear what the other had to say on the subject at hand.  Praying together to end the episode.  Wow, thank you for displaying what a healthy Christian discussion looks like!

If you would like to hear the discussion please check out the recorded podcast of Chris Fabry Live on Moody Radio.


Friday, February 14, 2014

Original Love

The Original Lover of You and Me!

There are many thoughts this February 14, 2014 about Valentines.  In this text you won’t learn about the history of Valentine’s Day but rather His Story as it relates to you and me.
Did you know that before you were born God’s love letter to us states that He knows how we are formed?  Psalm 103:13, 14 proclaims that God was there for us loving us as a Father and that He the Triune God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit remembers how we were made.  Why???  Because He formed us and put the Breath of Life into our mother’s womb.

At this point you might be saying “Great” He was there from the beginning but I have to tell you the last few days have been really difficult and I’m not sure that He is still with me.  Another wonderful promise from God’s love letter to us the Bible communicates what Jesus said and is still saying today: “"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  The GREAT NEWS is that God hasn’t went anywhere.  God is a GENTALMAN and He is waiting for us to ask Him into our lives so that He can give us REST for our SOULS.  Now, I do have to add a disclaimer.  Your external circumstances may remain the same.  In the same love letter God tells us that this life will not be easy and that we should expect hardship but the internal peace and joy you will experience will be limitless!

Is this the first time you are reading this truth about God and His REEDEMING LOVE for you?  Then let’s take a moment to review the essentials.  I mean let’s face it you not going to marry someone before the first date.  You’re not going to sign up for a dating service without reading all the fine print.  Well are you???  I sincerely hope that you go into each relationship with your eyes as fully open as you can.
Now before we begin it is important to know who we are meaning God, me, and you. 
First, God is fully three persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  Each has their own distinct personality and attributes.  Come to think of it, God was perfectly pleased before the creation to be in the presence of Himself.  God loved us sooo much that He didn’t leave His creation namely humanity alone but rather He sent the God/Man Jesus.   The Bible in the Book of Romans chapter 5 verse fifteen explains that Jesus was fully man and that through him the grace of God is available to all men. 
Second, Jesus died a very, very cruel death.  Imagine, Jesus’ clothes stolen, he was beaten, wearing a thorn of crowns forced to carry a wooden cross up a hill where then stakes were driven into his body so that he would be able to hand from that cross where in the minds of the executioners and judges he would breath his last breath.  It is important not to overlook the point that this is God fully God and Man who chose to be on that cross so it wasn’t the nails that kept him on that cross it was his love for you and me.  No longer would people be asked to make a yearly sacrifice to God in order to remain in relationship with Him.  As Jesus said from the cross; “It is finished” and that statement can be found in the Book of John in the nineteenth chapter thirtieth verse.
Third, O how everyone was surprised the third day after Jesus death on the Cross.  The tomb where he had been laid to rest was empty!!!!  Yes, Jesus was gone.  No you might ask, isn’t this where God leaves His creation?  Absolutely not, in fact, Jesus has made breakfast for Peter and some of His other followers on the beach.  This truth is found in the Book of John in the nineteenth chapter.   Amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten breakfast with a previously dead person.
Forth, Jesus did return to Heaven, but He promised the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.  It is because of the Holy Spirit lives in a person who has committed to believe and follow Jesus that we can be encouraged.  And this is really where the rubber hits the road.  You see if you believe all that we have discussed in these four points but you choose not to follow Jesus and His words as they are recorded in His Bible then you will not be counted as a person who loves him.  Think about it.  When you are single and you like someone you don’t continue to like that person on a deeper level unless you are in communication with that person.  The same is true with our relationship with God.  It only works when we are in relationship with Him.  I will say it again.  Being a Christian, follower of Jesus, means you are in relationship with Him not the aloof, see you some time relationship but the kind of relationship where He is the first person you want to speak with in the morning and the last person you want to speak with before you go to sleep.


As I wrap this post up, my hope and my prayer for all those who read it is that they will be encouraged.  Encouraged to either walk more closely with Jesus as they are reminded all that He did for them personally or that as a person who has never heard this before you are interested in praying to God asking Jesus to be the sacrifice you needed to be close to God once and for all.  Now if you have made that choice, please, please, get into contact with Jesus’ family.  What is that family, those are people just like you who have trusted in the Bible and Jesus as the only way to God.  Not adding one thing like a catalog requiring you to do countless things after trusting in Him and committing to follow Him.  So, contact me, I would love to rejoice with you on your new life and commitment, in addition to helping you find a place where you can be with other people who will celebrate and encourage you also.