13 Love

As I got older, I became less tolerant of things that seemed to be cliche. Over used stories, examples in sermons, and even passages of scripture that I felt there was nothing more to learn. First Corinthians 13 was one of my "pet peeves." Every pastor preached on it, several songs were written with it as the lyrics. Quite frankly, I felt I could go the rest of my life without hearing it again. . . until about 3 weeks ago. I was in a discussion with my wife about ministry and she pointed out that I was pursuing things and ignoring people. A clanging cymbal, if you will. The very next day in church the pastor was preaching on Pentecost and I thought to myself, "He is about to justify everything I have been saying!" Then he ended the message with 1 Corinthians 13, saying that if you pursue the miraculous without love, it means nothing. Then this week, another pastor was in the 4th week of a series I had been listening to on podcast, and you guessed it, 1 Corinthians 13!! But then something happened, the Spirit of God began to speak to me. I had always looked at that chapter as a guideline for the Christ follower to aspire to, and it is, but God began to speak to me that this is a picture of God Himself! The bible says that God is love, not that He loves, but that He IS love. I started to see this passage not as a set of rules for me, but as the way He relates to me. God is patient, God is kind, God is not easily angered, and God does not keep record of wrong doing, God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I am one to beat myself up for failures, always trying to do better so I could "earn" God's favor. Trust me, there is no joy in that pursuit because we will never be able to do enough to earn His affections! God began to speak to me and He said that He doesn't remember my sin because His son already paid for it, He said that He trusts me when I am untrustworthy because He never stops hoping that I will become what He knows He made me to become, He told me that He will never leave me because He never stops loving me. He can never be angry with me because Jesus paid for all my mistakes. I realized that the only thing keeping me from stepping into my destiny was my own recollections of failures, He doesn't see me as I am, He only sees me as what I am to be. I no longer have to strive for His acceptance, I can work from it. I no longer have to protect what I think is mine because I know my position can never be taken from me, and this gives me the freedom to love those who persecute me and extend the Kingdom to those who seek to harm me.
I encourage you to read this chapter again and see it as a picture of how God relates Himself to you and your life will never be the same again! Peace will flood your soul as you learn to rest in Him, then you can impart that peace to those around you. A good friend of mine posted something on Face book that encompasses 1 Corinthians 13, she said, "Don't let your past keep you from stepping into your destiny." I believe this is what God is telling us now through His unfailing, endless love for us.

Consider the Cost

We are called to preach the gospel, sometimes at the expense of our reputation, sometimes the result will cost us dear friendships or even family. The question we must ask ourselves is, "Do we value our standing before God, or our palatableness before men?" We are told to share the truth in love, however Jesus warns us in John 15:18-19 that the world will hate us. If it were possible to share the truth in love and never offend anyone there would be no need for His instructions in Mark 6:11 to "shake the dust off the souls of your feet if they don't receive or listen to you."
People will hate you when you bring the gospel of the Kingdom because they hate Jesus. We must decide who we want to please. Let me encourage you in Paul's words found in 1 Thessalonians 2:2,4 to "have boldness in our God to speak the gospel of God amid much opposition. Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts."
Inevitably there will be some pain, but keep your hand to the plow, look straight ahead and prove yourself fit for the Kingdom. Luke 9:62
So, "As you go, preach, saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." Matthew 10:7-8

Just Walk

In my time with the Lord this morning, I was praising God for some of His wonderful attributes. I started to think about His grace. As I was thanking Him for His grace, I thought of Ephesians 2:8-10. I was thinking of how I struggle to find ways to please God, how I strive to find "good things" to do that will garner His favor on my life. Nobody wants to be the servant that buried his talent only to give it back to Jesus upon His return, we want to be one of the "good and faithful servants" that will hear Jesus say "Well done." Growing up I was taught that salvation is free and that you could not earn it through works, but that they would be the fruit of a redeemed soul. I believe this, scripture bears it out, but it left me frustrated trying to "grow my own fruit" to validate my salvation experience. Then the Lord revealed something to me this morning that for some reason I had never seen before. Verse 10 says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Did you catch that? God prepared our good works beforehand, and all we have to do is walk in them! To me, It's a picture of a Thanksgiving meal that your mother spent the better half of 24 hours cooking. All you have to do is show up at the table and eat what she prepared. God already has our good works ready to go, and we were created specifically and uniquely to walk in those works.
I then thought of Matthew 28, the great commission given to us by Jesus. He said "Go therefore." Some translations say "As you go." In other words, as you walk through life, do the things that God leads you to. You don't have to beat the bushes and scare up some good work like a frightened quail, just walk in what He has already prepared.

God can pay taxes with a fish!

God's promises are put into motion when we believe and obey. His protection and provision are ours, however Hebrews 11:6 tells us that "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." You must not only believe that He is the God who provides, you must have faith that He is the God that provides for you. It is easy to believe that He will provide for others, but it is much different to have the faith that He will provide for you.
Not only must you have faith and believe, but it must be coupled with our obedience when we hear His voice. In Matthew 17:24-27, we find tax collectors asking Peter for money to go for the temple. When Peter came to Jesus, He told him to throw a hook into the water, take the first fish he caught and open it's mouth. Jesus said that inside the fishes mouth would be the money to pay the tax. This fish was created for one purpose, to swim around, find a coin on the sea floor, keep that coin in it's mouth and be caught by Peter. The fish already had the coin, but it would not matter if Peter did not obey the instructions of Jesus to cast his hook into the water. Peter not only believed that God would put the coin in the fishes mouth, but he obeyed by going fishing when Jesus told him to.
What do you need from God? Do you believe He will do what He promised, and have you obeyed His voice?

Consuming Fire

All throughout the bible, God's presence is represented as fire. He manifested Himself in a burning bush to Moses. In Exodus, He was the pillar of fire leading the Israelites by night. In Acts, the Holy Spirit came down and rested on the 120 as tongues of fire. On Mt Carmel, God consumed Elijah's sacrifice with fire. Moses described God as an all consuming fire. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
This didn't really register with me until I was thinking about Romans 12:1, a familiar verse to all of us. It urges us to present our bodies as a holy sacrifice to God as a spiritual service of worship. Just as God has done all throughout scripture, if you offer yourself a sacrifice to God, He will rest His spirit on you and consume your life.
Is God a consuming fire in your life? Does His Spirit rest on your head as a tongue of fire? This is a promise to all believers, not just 1st century believers.
The only reason believers don't burn for God today is because we don't offer ourselves to Him.

I have been doing some things with this blog that I thought I would never do, but "Living Free In Christ" is all about obedience to His voice. Well I have heard Him speak to my spirit, and here it is. . .
Don't allow satan's counterfeit discredit God's genuine work.
satan will copy what God is doing in order to deceive some to follow what they think is God, or keep others from following what God is truly doing.
Don't allow the hypocrisy of others or the misuse of God's gifts keep you from experiencing all that He has for you.

Gone Fishin

I did something today that I haven't done since my dad died two years ago. My son and I went fishing and actually kept, cleaned, and ate what we caught. It made me think of my dad because he loved to fish, but hated cleaning and eating them. He knew that I love to eat fish so he would do all the work for me. Hat and I caught about 8 bass, 5 big enough to keep. He asked me out of the blue, "Dad can we eat these?" My first thought was, "You mean will you clean these for me so I can eat them." Then I thought of how my dad would selflessly do that for me. I always hoped that I could be half the man my dad was. I've often wondered what kind of legacy I could pass to my children that would reflect the kind of father he was, and then it came to me. It was a small, but significant piece of advise he gave me after my daughter was born. He said, "Don't say no if you don't have to, but mean it when you do." It was then that I realized that I can pass on his legacy by doing for my kids what he did for me. I miss my dad greatly, but somehow I feel closer to him than I have in two years. And hopefully my son feels the same way about me.