Because He Loved HIm Part 2

First off, sorry it has taken me so long to get back with part 2. I was very busy last week and I am struggling to find time to post much. So anyway, here is part 2 of my thoughts.

If you remember, in Part 1 I talked about how we need to decide if we are living the Christian life because we expect some great reward or if we are doing it for the sole reason that we love God. In this post, I am going to talk about the first of four things that I do because I love God.

-Because I love God, I obey Him-

This sounds so simple and so hard at the same time. Even those of us who are trying every day to show our love to God struggle with this one. Let me address fellow Christians first. As Christians you know that we should search the scriptures daily and if you truly love God, this is not a burden, but a privilege. It is your chance to read the mind of God and find answers to any questions that you may be having. To refer back to our original text, Elijah himself tells us that he knows what to do "through His word" (1 Kings 17:5).

One response to this is "but there are so many rules." No, there aren't. If we are living our lives with the sole purpose of expressing our love and adoration to God almighty, there should be no rules, only a ruler. Pay attention: If God is the ruler of my heart then all I have to do to obey Him is measure every action against this ruler. Use God as an actual measuring tool. If you love God, you must obey Him. All of the rules that so many people complain about in daily Christian life are neatly summed up for us in Colossians 3 beginning at verse 11:

11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

There sure are alot of things you are supposed to do in that passage aren't there? Yes. But notice verse 14. What is the trump card? Love. If you love God, you will love your fellow man and yourself, making every other thing listed in this passage fall right into place. Because I love God, I obey His word to show Him.

To those who may be reading this who may not have put on Christ yet, allow me to talk to you. Your question may be, "If I have yet to put on Christ, then how do I obey Him?" The answer to this is harsh but I feel needs to be said. If you have been taught the word and shown that Jesus does save and that he did die for your sins and was raised again and you have not made the decision to put on Christ for redemption, then you can not even say you believe in God, much less love Him. If you truly believed you would know how great and powerful he is and you could not help but love Him and obey His every command. You are spinning your wheels and waiting for something that will probably never come. You are relying on something else when Jesus himself says that you are foolish and slow of heart (Luke 24:24-27) and that He is willing to teach you should you simply try to believe. You have been told that Jesus conquered every constraint that this Earth could possibly put on him and you can not believe so how will you ever believe spiritual matters (John 3:12). You may think that you are fooling people because you go to church sometimes or you wear a cross around your neck but the truth is you do not even believe in the Lord God, much less love Him. Jesus speaks to you in John 5: 37 & 38 and tells you that He is not abiding in you because you have yet to hear his voice. You can't fool God and Jesus tells you so in verse 42 of that same passage. He says "But I know you..." When I read those words thet make me think of some threatning gangster movie. Those 4 words should call you to action. Jesus knows your heart and if you are fooling yourself into believing that you love and obey God, please search your heart and scripture for the truth.

If you truly recognize God for the power that he is you have no option but to obey Him. Love = Obey. There is the equation for all of us. How hard is that. Yet this world is filled with confusion over such matters as baptism and the Lord's Supper. The word of God says to do it, if you love God you will obey God, do it. Show God your love through your obedient actions.

I hope to post part 3 of this lesson in the near future. Check back often.

"Because He Loved Him." part 1

It is amazing to me how God provides all of us with what we need. When one of our preachers asked me to fill in for him to preach in four short days (yesterday being the end of that four days), I had no idea what I would speak on. Let me stop here and say that he also unwittingly gave me a great birthday present (yesterday was my birthday). There is nowhere else I would want to be on my birthday than somewhere being given an opportunity to speak the Truth. I am by no means a refined preacher but I love the Lord and there is nothing that makes me happier than being able to share his word and how it works in my life.

As I sat down the next night (Thursday) to study the Bible with my children (something I do not do often enough) I decided to read them the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. In this story, God tells Elijah to hide by the brook and that he will provide for him. God sends ravens to bring Elijah food and Elijah stays there until the water begins to dry up. This is all found in the first seven verses of this chapter. At this point, I stop and I am going to make a point about how Elijah went and lived a very uncomfortable life just because God told him to and that they should obey like Elijah does. God had other plans though. I asked my children (5 and 6 years old) why did Elijah do what God said without asking any questions. At this point, without hesitation, my six year old, Ethan responds "Because he loved him."

I paused. I was totally caught off guard by this response. I couldn't argue with that answer or ever provide a better, more concise answer. This 6 year old prince of God had just shaken my soul and I get misty eyed just thinking about how powerful this child's words were. Here I was, preparing to teach my children a lesson about doing what they are told and instead I am given a lesson. Talk about verification of Psalm 8:2.

Despite the effect this had on me that night, I still woke up the next morning not knowing what I would speak about. I was going to go with the obligations of Christians. I was off work that next day and I took Luke, my youngest son, with me to my parents to eat lunch that day. I was going to ask my father and mother's advise on what to speak on while there. But God had different plans. My parent's home is surrounded by tall, tall trees and that day in those tress were hundreds of crows, cawwing (is that a word) away. As my son and I got out of the car and walked inside Luke asked me what those birds were and I explained to him that they were kinda like the birds in the story we read last night about Elijah. After lunch, I left to pick Ethan up from school and the birds were still there as I was leaving, louder this time. When Ethan and I arrived back at my parent's house, the crows were still there singing their rancid tune and Ethan asked the same question as his brother before. "What are those birds?" As I was answering him, his answer to me the previous night hit me again and I then had my inspiration of what to speak on. God is so good.
Over the next several days I will be posting my thoughts on this and hopefully the words will help you answer the question I am trying to answer. Am I living a Christian life just so I can get something out of it such as Heaven, financial security, peace, etc... or am I living a Christian life for no other reason than I love God for everything He is? If you can answer yes to the second half of that question, then how are or do we show God we love him? It is a tough question but one we all need to ask ourselves because God has earned our love and we need to be acting daily to show God how much we love him.

Pilgrim's Map of the Day

Here's some links that will brighten your journey.

A great excerpt on why we fail to pray steadfastly from Sam Storms’ soon to be release The Hope of Glory… I hope you will enjoy this read and order the book as it appears promising

I’m going to have to study this and check the facts, but on the face and the brief amount of time I spent reading it, it appeared very intriguing. Leave your thoughts on this in the comments section.

Bible Bomb


A great writing about finding what we are looking for.

Find it here

This is a very funny photoshop that comes from a contest of photoshops for movie posters before their time.



Click here to see some more funny photoshopped pictures.

Can you find what's funny in this ad?

I had to share this picture someone linked me to.

Can God have faith in me to love Him?

Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;…

Often times when we read this verse, we think about the word image and we read image, or some versions say likeness, and our minds take us to the physical sense of the word. We think, God must look like me, have a face, a body, a brain. However, there is another definition of the word image that we often fail to apply to this verse and that is the definition of a mental representation; image; conception. This is hard to do because to do so would mean that I am a representation of God’s imagination. I am something that God imagined, expected to be a certain way, and have the traits that God wants me to have.
When we use our imagination what is it we really imagine? If you believe any of the theories of developmental psychology, we all have a part of us called the ego, also known as the unconscious. Inside that unconscious is what we want ourselves to be, what we feel or learn is what would be the perfect self. In other words, God’s image. At our best, we are the greatest that God could imagine and everything that He sees good in himself. Yes, the universe is vast, the earth is great, the butterflies are beautiful, but we are the best he could imagine.
To me, this means that God put in me everything about himself that he likes. Every feeling, every quality, and every emotion. We know that God feels anger. God feels jealousy. God feels sadness. God has hope that we will all live to please him. But the two most precious gifts that God gave me the ability to do is the ability to love and the ability to have faith. God gave me the ability to take a part of my brain and use it to say, no matter what happens there is something bigger than me and something that will always guide me through my life and because of that I love this being that I cannot touch, I cannot hug, and I cannot see. Yet, I love Him so very much. How extraordinary.
Knowing that God imagined me and I am, that means that he wants me to do something in this flesh. God wants me to be like him and to love him. God wants that and he went to the furthest links that anyone could go to in order to make sure that I love him because he first loved me. I cringe to think about how much sadness God must feel every day over the fact that so many people that he created and molded don’t love him back. Think back to the first time you were turned down for a date. You thought you loved that person and when they did not want you back remember how that felt. Now multiply that by millions and millions and millions and then you may be able to see just a glimpse of the hurt we as humans make God feel.
Not many people, including myself, know this but I used to be a bit of a heartbreaker. As I was trying to think about what to speak about at church tonight my father relayed a story to me when I went to pick my kids up from his house today. He informed me that when he called a physician in another town today that upon hearing his name (I am my father’s namesake) the receptionist mistook him for me. When hearing his age, she realized that it must be my father and promptly told him that she used to be in love with me but I never knew it because she was too timid. He didn’t get her name so I don’t know who this is nor can I think of any girl who expressed interest in me in my “formative” years that I didn’t promptly pay attention to. As I thought about this though and began writing this document again, I put the two together. How sad I must have made her feel by not noticing her or realizing that she was, as she put it, “in love” with me.
Fortunately, we serve a God who will notice and expects our love. A God who knows that numbers of hair on each of our heads. Let us make sure that God KNOWS we love him every minute of every day.
The second half of this deals with faith. I have faith in God and watching what happened to famous radio personality as he lost his son this past weekend and how he reacted and used it as a call action by God has only strengthened my faith in God. However, and I might be wrong for doing this, but I have found myself wondering the past week or two, does God have faith in me? If you take this question on its face the obvious answer is “yes, God knows you are there, he invented you.” But does God believe in me that no matter what comes my way I am going to stand firm for him as he does for me? Does God have faith in me? Am I not being given the opportunities to spread the gospel to the amount of people that I want to because God still lacks faith in me.? Is my church not growing because God doesn’t have faith in me or my congregation to handle the responsibility found in the great commission?
I go to the Bible for my answer. Mark Chapter 11 verses 12-14 and 20-24 shows us Jesus with his disciples when Jesus sees a fig tree. Jesus approaches this fig tree with hunger, hoping to find sustenance. The tree is leafy and shows promise but when Jesus looks upon the branches, he finds no fruit. The story continues to show Jesus cursing the fig tree and it withering away. Jesus takes this opportunity to teach his disciples a great tail of faith.
Let’s put ourselves in the place of that fig tree. Many of us claim to be Christians simply because we have accepted Jesus Christ as out Lord and Savior and attend church regularly. Some of us may even take active roles in our church services and leadership. You may appear leafy and beautiful on the outside and if you are bearing fruit, but when these leaves are lifted, what will be found. Have you bore any fruit?
Sure, those of us who are parents can say, “I have raised my children to be good Christians and to have faith in Jesus,” but is that the only fruit you have bore? How good is your fruit? When Jesus comes to take those children to start their own independent ministries and Christian walks, will this fruit be good? Can God have faith that you as a parent bore good fruit or have you let him down? It also seems that it would be unacceptable that once those children are picked from your care that you no longer bring forth fruit or have more fruit there already. If you look at the time when your children are gone as the end of your responsibility as a Christian or spiritual guide, you will find yourself withering away because you are no longer showing God that he can have faith in you to continue adding to his kingdom.
What about Sunday school teachers and class members? Can God have faith in you that as a whole, you are a fruitful tree? When one of you move away or change classes or simply fall away, can God have faith in your group continuing to ripen and the fruit you helped develop will seed into a new tree? Can God have faith in you?
When you ask yourself why does God not send me more opportunities to deliver the message of Jesus you should ask yourself if God can have faith in you to do this great work?
When you ask yourself why God does not help you relieve some of your financial burden, can you say that God can have faith that you will use monetary blessings to advance his kingdom.
When you ask yourself why your church does not grow through God sending you more opportunities to minister to people seeking him, can you say that God can have faith that your church will lead wanderers closer to Him?
These are all tough questions to ask but even tougher to answer. Only you really know that answer. Only you can look at the fruit (or lack there of) you are bearing and examine it for acceptability for God when he comes looking for those to place into service next.
I will conclude with an example from my clinical practice. I had a client about six months ago tell me that he does not pray anymore because he does not think God would listen to his prayers due to the wrongs he has done. After trying to teach him about the forgiving nature of God, I diagnosed him with the DSM IV disorder Spiritual Confusion and formulated parts of his treatment plan around this. In the six months since this has happened, he has come quite a long way in his spiritual life and is actually attending church and is stronger in his faith. As he discussed this with me today, I was quietly congratulating myself and telling myself, “job well done.” Then, out of nowhere he states that it is all due to his sister helping him with this problem and inspiring him to do better. I felt actual disappointment. This was a sin for me to feel this way. Satan allowed pride to creep into my head and when that ego was not stroked, I was crushed. Crushed over someone coming closer to God, but not giving me credit. I have since asked God to forgive me and prayed for similar opportunities to refine this aspect of my life. As I delivered there thoughts tonight in my church, I revealed this sin to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and I hope they all can learn from my mistake.
I tell that to make this point. I believe that God allowed this to happen to me today so that I could see an area where he may possibly lack faith in me. I learned from this instance that as long as I do not allow all glory to be given to God, I will never find happiness in helping someone in their spiritual life and I will eventually wither away because of my pride. This fruit may have blossomed on my branch, but I do not think that Jesus would want to come back to my tree for more fruit until I work this out with Him.