Me First?

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.”

I Corinthians 6:12

Some ‘permissible’ things in our lives may actually cause us – or others – to stumble.

They can become distractions that draw our attention, energy and resources away from the necessary and vital.

It is easy to justify the permissible but tougher to turn away from it to those essential things in our lives.

It becomes even tougher still when it is not a question of how it impacts our walk but what it does to the walk of others.

We might think to ourselves –

‘The just need to grow up and stop judging me!’

This becomes our answer to what we conclude is their problem.

We fail to realize how selfish those thoughts are how they elevate the importance of our interests over anyone else’s’.

When you find this attitude prevalent meditate on this –

“...but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”

Philippians 2:7

Run Away Believers

“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

Proverbs 19:11

A thin-skinned people are always finding ways to be offended.

It is as if they are a balloon and life’s littlest insult is the dart that bursts the balloon.

Unfortunately, this is not merely evident in the unchurched.

Christians can be so easily offended too!

We, in a moment of intense emotion, promise the Lord we will follow Him to the ends of the earth.

Then He sends someone who challenges us in an area of our life and so off we go to another church in search of the perfect people we so rightly deserve!

Of course our maturity will never be tested in that church because as soon as we are offended – off we run – to the next church.

Like the runaway bride we get ‘cold feet’ at the slightest offense never understanding that God might be in it to mature us.

(Of course that is not a license for us to be intentionally offensive in any way)

We leave under the misguided myth that maturity will never be tested in the church down the road.

Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice – If you find a church that never challenges your ability to be offended then that is the church you need to run out of as soon as possible.

It’s likely filled with people pleasers.

Rather than leave churches as if they had revolving doors how about growing up and instead learn to deal with offenses.

They will come.

I can promise you that!

When they do you are blessed with a choice – run or grow!

Thank God for the ‘Were’

“And that is what some of you were.

But you were washed, you were sanctified,

you were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

I Corinthians 6:11

Thank God for the ‘were’!

Paul makes it pretty plain in I Corinthians 6:11 when he describes what some of us ‘were’.

Our lives need to be ‘were’ lives.

Not ‘look down the nose of those we were like’ lives.

But rather a ‘were’ that says: I once was but thank God, He is doing a work in me!

Our lives need to be ‘were’ lives that are full of the evidence of the transforming work of Jesus Christ.

May it be that people look at us and don’t have to ‘spiritually squint’ or stare to see the new creation work.

Let the were be the contrast and not the continuum.

We have put on Christ and are no longer who we once were.

That contrast alone, in our lives, becomes a powerful witness to others who knew the ‘were’ we were!

It strengthens our testimony as we grow in Him and

do not return to the ‘way we were’.

Ask, and you shall love

Today’s blog post is contributed by David Trotta:

How much do you love God?

Often times, my attempts to love God seem feeble at best and mostly made up of lip service.  Sometimes I feel like I love a thousand things more than I love Him.

When trying to obey the command to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength,” I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel running and running, but never making any progress.

Do you ever feel that way?

But, what if loving God with all our heart is not an unrealistic goal, but we’ve just been going about it the wrong way?

What if instead of trying to love God, we just come clean and tell God we don’t know how to love Him as He deserves.

When we are transparent with God, admit our shortcomings, and come as little children, He is free to move powerfully in our lives.

In Matthew 7:11, Jesus said "How much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him.”

It is good to love God.  Surely He will honor such a request.

As I write this, I’m reminded of how pleased God was when Solomon of the Old Testament didn’t ask for long life and riches, but instead asked for wisdom to lead God’s people.

Imagine how pleased God is when we ask for help to love Him more, instead of asking for material and physical blessings, things often at the top of our prayer list.

Start praying and get ready to fall in love.

Simple Steps

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”

II Peter 3:18

Since this has been our topic this week, let’s look at three Ways to get started on knowing God –

Get on your knees and tell God you don’t know how to love Him.

Honesty is always the best policy and even though He already knows that we need to regularly ask Him to show us how to love Him.

Dust off your Bible and start reading it.

O.K. so maybe it’s not a thick layer of dust but do you open your bible as frequently as you eat meals?

As healthy eating is to your physical well-being so too is healthy consumption of the Word of God to the well-being of your Spirit.

Maybe it’s nothing more than a few verses to start with – but even that beats zero!

Meditate on what the Holy Spirit begins to show you.

And be assured that as you spend time in the Word of God the Holy Spirit will bring revelation.

As He does, know it is an answer to your prayer in step one and consider how it needs to be applied in your life.

As you do these things you are laying a strong foundation in your life and growth best begins with a strong foundation.

Love Knows

“...for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” (KJV)

Psalm 38:2b

Many in today’s culture talk about knowing god.

That’s right – small ‘g’ because the god they often speak of is not God.

We know God through His Word.

We can ‘see’ God through His creation too but to grow in our knowledge of Him we must know His word.

After 39+ years of marriage I can pretty accurately predict my wife’s response to most anything.

Why?

Because I have spent all that time getting to know her!

I know what she likes and what she doesn’t like.

I know what her ideal vacation is and what she is afraid of.

I know the shout that is calling me to kill a spider and the tears that come from happiness.

God desires that we grow in our love and knowledge of Him.

That cannot happen apart from His Word.

Spend some time there today – won’t you? 

An Open Book

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

Ephesians 1:17

How do you read the bible?

Is it to gain more facts and figures so that you are really good at trivia?

Is it in order to have something to add at a mid-week bible study?

When you go to your bible with the intention of learning something new about God, something that makes you more in love with Him, then you make your reading profitable and meaningful.

Open the pages to find God.

As you read, listen to the Holy Spirit as He reveals the Lord through what you read.

Too often we open God’s love letter to man for all the wrong reasons.

We go in looking for ammunition to shoot someone down.

We open the pages hoping to strengthen OUR opinion.

We enter searching for Sunday’s message forgetting completely about the Father’s heart eager to meet us there.

Instead, try entering with the intention of growing more in love with the author.

Put aside the agendas and the other reasons.

There are a thousand and one reasons but none compares to finding the Father in the pages.

Love and Knowledge

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

Ephesians 1:17

In my early teen years there was a song by Bobby Vinton with lyrics that went something like this –

To know, know, know you

Is to love, love, love you

And I do, and I do, and I do

I thought of those words recently as we were taught about growing in our love for God.

We grow in our love for God as we grow in our knowledge of God.

Jesus once said:

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

John 17:3

As I consider those words I can’t help but think that God made us eternal beings because it will take eternity to know Him.

Indeed, to know Him is to love Him!

Often people will ask: “How can you love a God who ____________?”

They then fill in the blank with something for which they are ready to blame God.

But what it really reveals is that they do not know God.

God is love.

He not only is love but is motivated by that love.

It is who He is and it informs all of His actions toward us.

He not only is love but is motivated by that love.

Get to know the lover of your soul.

Become a lover, not a fighter

Today’s blog post is contributed by David Trotta:

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2)

Have you been struggling with an area of sin in your life and praying for a long time for God to give you a breakthrough?

You’ve cursed that sin more times than you can count.  You’ve fasted, prayed, and asked others to pray.  You’ve quoted scripture.  You’ve tried everything to defeat that sin once and for all, but nothing has worked.

Well, here’s my advice to you - stop fighting already!

Instead of focusing on fighting, focus on loving.

There’s only one sure fire way to have victory over sin in your life.  And that’s to fall more in love with Jesus.  Stop focusing on your sin, and instead, focus on loving Jesus.

The larger Jesus becomes in your life the smaller your sin becomes.  The more you fall in love with Jesus, the more you will fall out of love with your sin.

The more you begin to enjoy fellowship with Jesus, the less enjoyable sin will become.

Instead of praying for a breakthrough, pray for a greater revelation of God’s love.

Learn to become a lover, not a fighter.

A Worthy Trust

“Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying,

“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit;

    let us cut him off from the land of the living,

    that his name be remembered no more.”

But you, Lord Almighty, who judge righteously

    and test the heart and mind,

let me see your vengeance on them,

    for to you I have committed my cause.”

Jeremiah 11:18-20

How does God rescue those who trust in Him?

In many different ways!

In the verses above we find that God reveals a plot to Jeremiah the Prophet to kill him by the people of his own hometown.

Talk about a ‘Welcome Home’ party!

We are not told how this was revealed to Jeremiah but we are told that, once revealed, the prophet continued to have trust that God would protect him.

Sometimes we trust God...up to a point.

We trust Him to speak or we trust Him to provide but when our actual lives are put in the line – does that become the point to far for trust?

Not in Jeremiah’s case.

He would continue to trust that God would protect him.

Would you?

Or

Does your trust have a ‘breaking point’ where you and God part ways?

Something to consider when you consider your level of trust.

Maybe it will never reach that point but what if it did?

He is worthy of our trust and capable of protecting you just as He protected Jeremiah!

Who is the Director?

“Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own;

    it is not for them to direct their steps.”

Jeremiah 29:10

Did you know that your life is not your own and it is not yours to direct as you will?

At least that’s the prayer of Jeremiah found in the verse above.

He realizes that God is the source, direction and purpose for his life.

Jeremiah also knows that when God is in control of his life the outcome is always good.

We all have a knack for messing up our lives when we are holding the reins.

We like to think we know better than God, especially when we find ourselves in the wilderness, a valley or in the midst of some other great trial.

Recall, though, who it was that led Jesus into the wilderness after his baptism to be tempted by the devil.

It was the Holy Spirit.

We too can endure the wilderness, the valley and whatever else comes our way when we know we are being led by the Spirit of God.

Boasting, Boasting, Who Deserves the Boast?

Let me ask you a question.

If you were to take stock of your life...if you were to boast about it what would that boasting sound like?

Would you brag on your wisdom?

Your strength?

Your wealth?

Jeremiah 29:4 answers the question for us:

“but let the one who boasts boast about this:

    that they have the understanding to know me,

that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,

    justice and righteousness on earth,

    for in these I delight,”

declares the Lord.”

A truly wise person will not boast in themselves.

They will boast in the knowledge of the Lord and in His goodness.

In other words:

“Let him who boasts boast in the Lord!”

We’ve all met the braggart (let’s just hope you did not meet him in the mirror).

This trophy or that award or – you name it – never goes without mention in their conversations with you.

What is your boast?

The knowledge of the Lord is worth boasting of and yet I suspect that one who is filled with the knowledge of the Lord also walks humbly before Him.

He recognizes that wisdom and knowledge come by God’s revelation to us.

How worthy He alone is!

Resist or Delight?

“And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?”

I Corinthians 5:2

“...and you are proud.”

These words were likely very difficult for Paul to write and troubling to his spirit.

As well they should have been.

The church at Corinth had somehow so twisted the grace of God and the truth of His word that some were taking pride in the fact that one of their members was in a sexual relationship with a member of his own family.

We might ask: “How can this be?”

And yet, in many of todays’ churches we have reduced the grace and love of God to an ‘anything goes’ attitude.

We are too willing to accept any behavior because, we think, love will not put any restraints on another persons’ behavior.

You want to test the strength of that argument?

Just see what happens if someone were to prey on your child.

You would not or should not hesitate to restrain that persons’ behavior – and the very thing causing you to do it is love for your child!!

The pride they had as they wrongfully applied their understanding of Gods’ love and grace is what Paul spoke to in the Corinthian letter.

Now we can look down our collective noses to this church or we can humbly recognize how often that history repeats itself today – not just in our churches but in our businesses, schools and politics.

Pride is an ugly thing in us and something God resists.

How much more so when we take pride in those things offensive to God.

May we humbly consider our ways and turn from anything that causes God to resist us and gladly embrace those things that causes Him to delight in us.

An Encounter That Changes Everything

Today’s blog post is contributed by David Trotta:

We encounter many things in life, some good and some bad, some meaningful and some we wish we could forget.

But what if I told you there was an encounter that would change everything?

What if I told you there was an encounter that would complete you as a person, give you fullness of life, and provide access to divine power?

Would you be interested?

Well, there is one such encounter that will do just that.  The love of Christ.

Ephesians 3:19 says “May you encounter (experience) the love of Christ.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

You want fullness of life?  You want the power of God demonstrated through your life?

Pursue an encounter with His love.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul would not have mentioned such an encounter in the above verse if it was not possible to attain.

Do you feel your life is void of God’s power?  Have you been pleading with God for a breakthrough in an area of your life for a long time?

Instead of praying for a breakthrough, pray for a greater revelation of God’s love.

If you’re like me, you can probably quote numerous scriptures about God’s love, but without an experiential encounter, it’s just head knowledge that doesn’t do much more than inflate our ego.

You want true change?  Make an encounter with God’s love your single greatest pursuit in life.  It will change everything.

Breakthroughs Are Such Hard Work!?

“and may you have the power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:18-19 

It seems too simple to be true –

How is it that a fresh revelation of the love of God for me can bring breakthrough in my life?

Well, in many ways, the answer is simple too!

That fresh revelation of His love builds faith in your life.

Increased faith to believe God for the needs or circumstances you are facing.

I know, I know – but it really is that simple.

We are, more often than not, expecting some huge puzzle or maze we must walk through for breakthrough.

After all, God needs my help!

But that is a trap the enemy tries to catch us with.

Works for love – love for works.

But God calls us to a place of ‘knowing’ and not of ‘doing’.

Don’t get me wrong – there is a time for action and we certainly know that faith without works is dead.

But works are the fruit of a believer who is in love with God and knows God loves him!

Works never have and never will earn the love of God or bring the breakthrough you are seeking.

It is by His love and the revelation of that love.

Love Lifted Me

“and may you have the power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:18-19

“Love lifted me,

Love lifted me,

When nothing else could help, Love lifted me.”

Those are the true words to a song from a while back.

But they are words I think of when I consider how to receive a breakthrough in my life.

When you are battling for a breakthrough what you need to do is deepen your revelation of how much God loves you.

He does love you and it is so very easy to take His love for granted, to forget it or to never fully comprehend it.

Perhaps that last one is where we most often fail.

We do not fully comprehend the rich depth of Gods’ love for us.

How very important then do Paul’s words in Ephesians become for each one of us.

That we would grasp, know and be filled with the love of God.

Nothing else brings breakthrough like the love of God in our lives.

Let His love lift you today.

Let it bring the breakthrough you have sought and sought.

Consider this – the greatest breakthrough ever brought to our lives was when the broken fellowship with God was restored.

This was wrought through the cross.

The Sons’ love for the Father brought the breakthrough for us.

That is the power of Gods’ love!

A Broken Breakthrough?

“But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

    on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,”

Psalm 33:18

Complete this sentence:

If God would only__________my life would be great.

How did you fill in the blank?

Maybe you have been waiting a very long time for breakthrough.

You wonder why it seems that God is passing you over.

You’ve prayed, you’ve fasted, and you’ve done everything you know to do.

Breakthrough still seems to touch others and miss you.

When you are battling for a breakthrough what you need to know is –

Love releases Gods’ best for your life!

II know it’s’ cliché but it is true nonetheless – God is for you.

More than even you yourself, He wants you to experience breakthrough in the areas you are seeking.

Sometimes we forget the power of His love for us and need to rekindle our love for Him.

We say, rightly so, that God hates sin.

But we often fail to realize that God hates sin because of the separation it brings between Him and His children.

He so loves us.

So what do we do?

The greatest measurement of love is evidenced by the hatred you have for the things that come against that love and the action you take to end those things.

“But I can’t conquer those things alone!”

No, you can’t

And the beauty of His love is that He gives you His Spirit to resist and to assist you and to strengthen you in all the areas of your weakness.

God so loves you!

So

So

Nothing pretentious about that word.

It is a mere two letters long.

But consider the implications in context –

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son...”

Would it carry the same impact if that simple two letter word was omitted?

For God loved the world...

You tell me.

Go ahead, take a moment and read it both ways.

It seems to me the intensity and passion of Gods’ love is so much better conveyed by that little word ‘so’.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle John as he wrote those words, He was, I believe, very intentional in including the word ‘so’.

He is after all the Spirit of Truth and there is nothing truer than Gods’ love for you and me.

That verse is so often quoted that we can easily pass right over the word without skipping a beat.

As a matter of fact the normal format of today’s post was modified so that you would not see John 3:16 at the top of the post and simply move on, thinking to yourself, been there and heard that, imagining what I might be writing today.

So take some time today to consider the fact that you are not loved by God,

You are so loved by Him!

Step Off!

Today’s blog post is contributed by David Trotta:

Equip you with every good thing to carry out His will and strengthen you, accomplishing in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. (Hebrews 13:20)

I want to share something with you that my daughter recently shared with me.

She is on the worship team at her church, but struggles with confidence in her singing ability.  She often compares herself with others on the team and feels she is not as gifted.  Fear of not sounding good enough, holds her back from using her God-given talent to its fullest.

During a time of reflection on her insecurities, the Lord showed her a picture of a spectacular bird standing on the edge of a cliff.  The bird had large, beautiful, multi-colored wings that looked as though they would make flying effortless.

But instead of flying, the bird stood paralyzed on the edge of the cliff afraid to step off and fly.  The image looked so odd to my daughter because it was obvious to her the bird could fly.  She thought, if only the bird could see how equipped it was to fly.

The Lord then drew a parallel between my daughter and the bird.  God had given her the ability to sing, but she too was afraid to step out and exercise her gift, even though she was fully equipped to do so.

Reenergized by what she saw, my daughter has a new found commitment to give her all the next time she steps on stage with the worship team.

Do you feel called to do something, but struggle with feelings of not being good enough?

God will never call you to do something without equipping you to carry out the task.  Don’t be afraid to step out.  He has already give you everything you need to soar.

Chatter Boxes

“Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”

I Corinthians 4:18-20

When we lack the power of God in our lives our words can become arrogant.

Paul challenges those in Corinth who had become arrogant.

He did, by his life and actions, demonstrate the power of God.

The words he did speak were spoken in humility and were reinforced by the power of God working through him.

They were not empty or arrogant words.

Do not let your words become useless or powerless to help those around you.

Never let them boast in what they do not possess.

When we are proud, boastful and speak arrogantly we will soon discover that there is nothing to back up the words we speak.

We are told to walk humbly with our God.

As we do that, God pours His grace into us.

His power is at work in us.

Others benefit by our humble walk with God.

Human Pretzels

“For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.”

I Corinthians 4:17

  

In the verse above Paul tells the church at Corinth that he is sending them Timothy and says of him:

“...He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.”

Even as he wrote that sentence in the letter to the church Paul was ever the teacher.

Without necessarily spelling it out, Paul was speaking of integrity.  

We might say it this way:

Timothy will remind you that my walk matches my talk.

That was not ide boasting on Paul’s part but the truth and the church at Corinth knew that!

Paul was simply saying that what he taught matched how he lived.

He did not tell them to – Do as I say, not as I do!

When people teach or declare one thing and then live the opposite of what they teach, they become human pretzels seeking to justify the discrepancy with some twisted, convoluted excuse they deem as a legitimate reason.

Paul’s way of life and teaching did not conflict.

Timothy would be there to remind them of that.

They should be imitators of Paul even as he was of Christ.

That remains valid counsel to each of us today.

Don’t Skip School This Year

Well, it’s hardly the weather for it now in Western New York but I can dream of summertime and grilling steaks can’t I?

Speaking of steak – that is not something you would serve to a newborn.

On the same hand, neither would you expect to puree everything you grill so that adults could enjoy it.

Listen to the words of Paul in I Corinthians 3:2

“I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.

Indeed, you are still not ready.”

Paul was certainly capable of serving up the ‘meat’ of the word.

But sadly, the Church at Corinth would have not been able to digest it.

He had to deal with many issues in that local church not the least of which were caused by their immaturity.

It was not an immaturity they could blame on their teacher either.

How about us?

Are we growing and maturing as a church?

Putting more personally, are you growing and maturing as a follower of Christ?

Does His word dwell more richly in you today than it did a year ago.

This is the time many self-examine and create resolutions for their growth.

But those resolutions don’t often last very long.

Instead, why not daily lean on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to grow in your walk with the Lord.

He has given us what we need for growth.

Don’t skip the ‘school of the Spirit’ this year.

I hear He may be serving steak for lunch!