LOVED!

As I finish the week I am reminded how blessed I am. I have a wonderful healthy family, a roof over my head and a job that pays the bills. Most importantly I have a very real personal relationship with the God of the universe. I am a blessed man indeed. Sometimes, however, I forget about these blessings. I hate to say that I take them for granted because I don't. I know they're there, but I do allow myself to get distracted. I'm drawn away by things of this world. When this happens I feel lonely and very unlovable, and yet God's Word tells me I am loved.

LOVED!

by Shirley Wilson

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." Jeremiah 31:3
"Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." Ephesians 1:13

Everyone knew Rosa's mom loved her. Every school morning she wore a lipstick "kiss" on her cheek. And to be sure, Rosa knew her mom loved her, too. Jeremy also knew his mom loved him. Every day she hid a little note in his lunch box that he opened when lunchtime came.

Some of us frequently forget God's everlasting love for us—particularly when we've failed Him or have done less than a sterling job in our workplace. We may not love ourselves very much at that moment, but we can be assured that He loves us as much when we please ourselves as when we do not.

I have a theory that may or may not be true, that the Apostle John called himself "the disciple Jesus loved" to remind himself of God's incredible affection for him. Perhaps we, each one, need to consider ourselves: "the worker Jesus loves."

How would that thought help you through your workday? Can you overcome your own weaknesses, the underestimation of others, and the hardness of a lonely day when you remember God's unconditional love? Ask Him to give you a tangible reminder of His constant love. With that assurance, we need little else!

The Choices We Make

Joshua 24:15 (NIV)
"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD"

It's amazing how the choices we make have so many consequences. Often the selfish choices we make have ramifications for other people as well. Here are a couple of examples:

In Florida, two young men, eager to win the admiration of fraternity brothers, removed a stop sign and brought it back as a trophy. In Tennessee, a couple of teenagers were at a party in a high-rise apartment, and one dared the other to slide down the trash chute in the hall. The Florida boys were convicted of manslaughter after a fatal accident occurred at the intersection. The Tennessee boy who slid down the trash shoot was killed by an automatic trash compactor and his friend was traumatized with guilt and grief.

Foolish choices made on the spur of the moment can lead to dire consequences. Choices made without consideration of the consequences can be equally disastrous. Whatever you do, don't forget life's most important choice that will determine where you spend eternity. If we fail to make this choice it means we choose by default, and therein reap the eternal consequences of our sin; because we are all sinners destined for an eternity apart from God, love, and all that is good--in the place the Bible calls hell. If we want to spend eternity in Heaven with God, we need to make this our choice and act upon it by accepting God's Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior. Again, whatever you do, don't leave your eternal well-being to chance. Choose God. Choose God's gift of salvation. Choose life--life everlasting. - Dick Innes

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

A blessing for you-will you take it?
Choose ye today;
A word from the heart-will you speak it?
Choose ye today:
Will you believe, or your Savior neglect?
Will you receive, or His mercy reject?
Pause, ere you answer, oh, pause and reflect- Choose ye today.
- Fanny Crosby

What choice have you made regarding God's Son? Do you know someone who is making choices that will negatively impact themselves and others? Seek and trust God for the answers.

Blessings,
Bill

What Will You Ask For?

Do you ever pray asking for God's will, but wonder if what you're praying for is something God would honor? There's an excellent example in the Bible. His name is Solomon. Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, ascended to the throne when he was eighteen years old. Shortly thereafter, God appeared to him in a dream and said to him,

1 Kings 3:5 (KJV)
"In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, 'Ask what I shall give thee.'"

Under his father, David, the kingdom already had reached an era of peace and prosperity. When Solomon became king, he had everything the world could offer, including youth, wealth, and power. Now God was offering him his choice of additional blessings. What an opportunity! Solomon carefully considered his response to God.

1 Kings 3:9-12 (KJV)
"Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to they words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee."

Christians today have the opportunity to ask God for their hearts' desire, too. Indeed, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, "Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matthew 7:7).

"Let us remember Solomon's example and ask wisely, trusting God to grant our request as he promised."
Darryl and Roxana Matter

What are you praying for?

Blessings,
Bill

Loving Sinners

It's amazing how God ministers to me through his Body of believers. You have no idea how much you all have blessed me with your encouraging and thought-provoking comments. It is wonderful to receive your replies and read the depth of your wisdom. I've often felt a bit guilty that I get so much more back than I feel I give. In this case, you can probably tell my heart has been broken by the choices my dear friends have made. I have read in your replies that many of you have been there yourselves (or are currently there now). I'd like to share a follow-up article that John Fischer wrote because I think it makes a good point. You see, I struggle with the idea that by not making a firm stand against their situation, I am somehow giving my approval for their obvious sin. That comment has, in fact, been made to me couple of times by people whose opinions I value very much. So how do I justify my actions? My only reply is that I am a sinner too. My sins may not be as "obvious" as my friends', but I am no less guilty in God's eyes. If I can accept God's grace and love for me (despite my sins), I can accept God's grace and love for my friends (despite their sins). That makes it easy to love them through this situation. I hope this article touches your heart; as it did mine.

Blessings always,
Bill

Loving Sinners

by John Fischer

Sinners are hard to love, especially when you are trying so hard not to be one. You've heard it said, "Hate the sin; love the sinner," but sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two. It seems easier to just hate the sinner and the sin and try and steer clear of both. But Jesus befriended sinful people, which raises the question: How do you do that? How do you love sinners when you are trying so hard not to be one?

Well actually, that's the problem. You can't love sinners when you're not one yourself. Loving sinners begins in the mirror. Sin, in order to be more than just a concept, has to have a face on it, and the most accessible one is seen in our own reflection.

Let's back this up just a bit. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. That last part about loving yourself is commonly overlooked. It's generally thought that self-love is a given, but this is not the case at all, especially for Christians. Most Christians I know, myself included, are so steeped in guilt that it is impossible for them to love themselves. And even though we keep hearing and even preaching the gospel that we are all sinners and no one can please God except by His grace, we refuse to believe it for ourselves. We can't let go of the thought that we are just a little bit better than common, ordinary sinners -- that we don't need this grace quite as badly as the next guy. It's actually a case of very bad amnesia: we are constantly trying to prove ourselves worthy of being Christians when we forgot what a Christian was in the first place -- someone unworthy to be one were it not for the grace of God.

So instead of just admitting our sin and putting ourselves in the same boat as the rest of humanity, we choose to think that we are just a short step away from having it all together, and thus we live with the guilt of knowing that we aren't. And in doing so, we lose our ability to embrace sinners, because to embrace sinners, we have to embrace our own ugliness, and we can't do that because we never have. What sad, desperate people we are! No wonder Jesus had it in for the Pharisees. They cut themselves out of the blessing. They chose their guilt over His grace, rather than identify with sinners.

Loving sinners starts with being one. And no one has to go out and sin to discover this. Just look in the mirror, accept that scoundrel you see there for who he or she is, accept God's grace and forgiveness, and then start hugging all those other sinners out there who don't know the good news yet. It's really not all that complicated.

All of my Best Friends are Sinners

Greetings brothers and sisters-in-Christ. I've recently been put in a situation that, perhaps, some of you have experienced. I have two close friends, with whom I have served in ministry for several years, decide to start dating seriously. This is not, by itself, a bad thing. In fact, if there weren't extenuating circumstances, I would be overjoyed with their relationship. The problem is there ARE extenuating circumstances (and they're "doosies"). Without getting into any detail, I think they're making a huge mistake and can only see their lives together as being filled with heartache and suffering; the cost for some sinful choices. So what am I supposed to do? When asked by them for advice, I try to provide the best God-focused counsel I can. But at the end of the day they're going to make their own choices. I guess I have a choice as well…I can either alienate myself from them by constantly objecting, or I can love them enough to disagree with them yet still be their friend. In the early stages of their relationship I read the following article which ministered to me during my dilemma. After you read it, I think you'll know my choice.

Blessings,
Bill

All of my best friends are sinners

by John Fischer

All of my best friends are sinners. I don't mean that I hang out with really bad people. I mean this as a way of looking at everybody, starting with myself.

When Jesus told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, it was a way of making us ultimately face into the reality of our own need. How we love others is dependent on how we love ourselves, and self-love has to take into account failure and sin, because we know ourselves better than anybody. We can try to cover up the bad stuff about ourselves, but that only disconnects us from the truth and makes us hypocrites, unable to love because we cannot love ourselves as we truly are.

The only kind of love hypocrites can have is a prejudiced love. Like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day who loved other Pharisees and condemned everyone else, when we are being hypocritical, we can't help but love those who are like us and abhor everyone who is not.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15) When Paul says this, he puts himself in a position to get next to anyone. You can greet all of humanity with open arms from the perspective of knowing intimately your own sin and failure. “Over there are the sinners of the world for whom Christ died … hey, that's my group!”

A recovering alcoholic is still an alcoholic; he's just recovering from alcohol's influence over him in the company of others willing to do the same thing, so they can all be an encouragement to each other and accountable for their actions. That's the thing that's always been appealing to me about recovery groups. They are all about love and acceptance at the lowest level, and that is what we all need. These people are admitting that they have ruined their lives and are ruining the lives of their loved ones, and they are suddenly among friends who understand everything about that.

When you are trying to believe a lie about yourself, you can only accept those who have committed themselves to perpetuating the lie along with you and are sworn to secrecy about their own hidden sin as a form of mutual self-preservation. But it's all a game and we know it. How refreshing it is to come clean – to bring your life out into the open and be forgiven by God and join the rest of the human race for which Christ died.

Everything and everyone looks different once you have done this. And it doesn't matter if someone else is a Christian or not. Either way that person is still someone for whom Christ died, and therefore someone you can embrace. And why not, since all your best friends are sinners anyway!