Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give my body in order to boast but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “If you don’t have love, you have nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is known as “the love chapter” of the Bible. In it the Apostle Paul attempts to help us see what agape love looks like in actual practice. We know what agape love looks like coming from God, John 3:16 explains it beautifully. But demonstrating such love in our own lives is harder, so Paul gives us concrete examples of what it looks like. He goes on in verse 4-8:

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends …”

In another verse we’ve studied this month, 1 John 4:18, John tells us that there is no fear in love because perfect love drives out fear. Agape love does that. Consider the examples cited by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, along with the truth from John that such love drives out fear. In the case of 1 Corinthians 13 it drives fear out of our relationships. You might think of a child who is secure and comfortable in the love he or she receives from her parents. Or the love between a husband and wife who truly are fully committed to one another. In such a relationship there is no fear, there is no doubt. It is agape love on full display in the lives of people and its impact is obvious.

Of all the themes God addresses in the Bible, none is more prominent than love. Love is the overriding theme from start to finish and every other theme falls under it. When God repeats something in the Bible, especially when He repeats it a lot, it’s because the subject is vitally important and He wants to be sure we learn it well. Repetition is the key to learning.  And it is the key to change.

Therefore, since love is the dominant theme in the Bible, and since God wants us to learn it well, we’ll need more than just one month of devotional messages to adequately address it. There’s much more to be said on this subject and therefore we will continue thinking about it into the month of October.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Keep your eyes on Jesus.”

Throughout this month much of our focus has been on the practical aspects of embracing and experiencing the love of God in our own lives, and then sharing the love of God with others. At some point you may have found yourself thinking “That’s easier said than done”. It’s true. It’s also easier to write about it than to practice it. I struggle with this too. It’s a process of learning and growing.

However, I’ve found that the more I focus on my mind on Jesus rather than on the issues and circumstances of life, the easier it is to bring everything back into a Godly focus. But this needs to be intentional. We can control our thoughts. We have to decide to shift our thinking from whatever it was we were focused on, to thoughts of Jesus and Biblical truth instead. This is a learned discipline that becomes easier with practice.

The more we keep our eyes (thoughts) fixed on Jesus, the more our heart will be aligned with His, and the more we will see people and events through His eyes of love rather than through our eyes of fear and doubt and pain and offense. We will find that when we fix our eyes on Jesus we will no longer be so easily provoked or threatened or bothered or upset. Instead we will experience greater peace, more clarity, and a greater sense of being comfortable in our own skin (loving ourselves for who we are in Christ).

Jesus is the source of our faith and the perfecter of our faith. The more we focus our thoughts on Him, seeing people and events from His perspective, the more we will love them. So just keep your eyes on Jesus.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “All that you need is already within you.”

Please read that statement again and think about it for a moment: “All that you need is already within you.” If you are a Christian then God has placed the Holy Spirit in your heart and you have all of Him there is to have. You aren’t lacking anything spiritually. All that you need is already within you. The goal now is to embrace that reality and surrender your will for His, allowing Him to have full access to your mind and heart, and to have His way in your life.

In Matthew 13:44 Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is like a valuable treasure that was hidden in a field. In Luke 17:21 He taught that in actuality, the field is your heart and since you are His, the kingdom of God is there, in your heart. The Apostle Paul reiterated this great truth in 2 Corinthians 4:7 when he taught that this treasure (the kingdom of God) is contained within our earthen vessel (the body). That’s what Paul was explaining in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. The Holy Spirit is within you, placed there by God. On the cross Jesus purchased you at the cost of His own life so that He could then use you as a walking, talking, mobile temple of His Holy Spirit.

So you already have within you all that you need in order to fully experience the love of God, and to share the love of God with others. You lack nothing. Your primary task in life now is to first grow in your own experience of God’s love for you, and then to get increasingly better at sharing God’s love with others.

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:14, Jesus told us that as His followers we are to be the light of the world. In other words, we are to shine the light of God’s love into the dark places of the world. The Holy Spirit within us makes it possible for us to do that. It is Him working and shining through us. He is already there, inside of you, all of Him.

All that you need is already within you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Slow down and savor the love”

In his book, “The Attentive Life: Discerning God’s Presence in All Things” author Leighton Ford tells the true story of author Larry McMurtry (best known for his book “Lonesome Dove”). Larry spent decades of his life on the road driving laps around America and writing about his adventures. Larry’s father on the other hand, seldom ever left his farm in a little town in Texas. He never wanted to. He loved his town and he loved his life. He was happy and content right where he was. Reflecting on the difference in their lives Larry once said, “I have looked at many places quickly. My father looked at one place deeply.”

Many years ago there was a hit song by the country music group Alabama entitled “I’m in a hurry (and I don’t know why)”. Part of it went like this:

“I’m in a hurry to get things done, Oh I rush and rush until life’s no fun.
All I really gotta do is live and die, but I’m in a hurry and I don’t know why.”

In recent days we’ve been considering the use of our time as an expression of love. We’ve learned that giving people some of our time can be an act of love, and that giving them focused time and attention is especially meaningful. We’ve also learned that the choices we make about how to use our time tell the real story about the things and people that are truly important to us.

But in order to really embrace, appreciate, and enjoy love, we have to slow down and savor it. That’s true for our time with God, and for our time with other people. That’s precisely the lesson Jesus was teaching to Martha (and to us) in Luke 10:38-42. Martha was rushing and rushing until life was no fun, when what she really needed to do was to sit down next to Martha and savor her time with Jesus.

Love, as with all the best things in life, is best embraced and enjoyed through patient, attentive focus. I encourage you to slow down and savor the love. Linger there. Enjoy it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:4 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Your focused attention is a demonstration of love.”

Be interested in other people. That’s what Paul was telling us in Philippians 2:4. Treat them like they’re important.

I was once given a great piece of advice that I wrote down and have tried to remember. I put it on an index card and carried it in my pocket for years. The advice was, “Give people dignity by the tone and manner of your greeting, and by the attention you give to them.” In other words, greet people in a warm and friendly way that clearly communicates that you’re glad to see them, then pay close attention to them, looking them in the eye, listening carefully to what they’re saying.

Leighton Ford calls this “Love as focused attention”. He says we communicate love to others when we give them our focused, undivided, and unhurried attention. I have a friend who is really good at this. He loves people and enjoys being with them. He is relaxed and unhurried in his manner, and he seems to have a natural ability to settle into a conversation and enjoy it. It’s as if the person he is talking to is the most interesting and important person he has met all day. This is giving people dignity by your manner and by paying attention to them, and it communicates love.

Think about this: In a universe of possible candidates, God has brought this person into your orbit at this time. Why is that? Why is this person standing before you instead of someone else, or instead of anyone at all? God has allowed this person to be in your life at this time for a particular reason, so pay attention to them.

In recent days we’ve been learning about using our time well and about blessing people by giving them some of our time. We shouldn’t allow people to waste our time, and we do have to make decisions about who we will give our time to, but once you do decide to invest that little piece of your life into the person standing before you, give them your undivided attention. Because focused attention is a demonstration of love.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “We make time for the people and the things that are truly important to us.”

The song “Cats in the Cradle” was a smash hit for singer Harry Chapin in 1974. It tells the sad story of a man who always had the best of intentions to spend quality time with his son, but he was so wrapped up in life and in earning a living that he never seemed to get around to it. There was always a reason, always an excuse. Slowly but surely the years went by and soon the son was a man with a busy life and a family of his own, and no time for his now elderly and retired father. The son had become just like the father.

What many people don’t know is that the song was actually written originally as a poem by Harry’s wife Sandy, and the boy in the story was their son Josh. Harry was so convicted by the powerful story and the way it applied to his family life, that he turned it into a song and then tried to restructure his life around it. Unfortunately, Harry died in a tragic car accident not too many years after that and he never had very much quality time with his son.

We often hear people make the excuse “I would love to spend time with that person, or doing that thing, if I just had the time.” Well, that’s a lie. The truth is that you have as much time as anyone else. You have 24 hours in every day. Then you, like the rest of us, have to make choices about how you will spend that time. And the truth is that we make time for the people and things that are most important to us – and for the rest we make excuses.

Yesterday I made the point that when you give a person some of your time you have in reality given them a little piece of your life, because your life is made up of time. Giving a person some of your time is an act of love. It communicates to that person that they are so important to you that they are worthy of receiving a piece of your life – a piece that you can never have back.

So, do you love God? How much time do you spend with Him? Do you love your spouse, your children, your friends? How much of your time do they get? Do you love your church? How much time do you spend there and how involved are you in the life of your church?

We often say that people and things are important to us, but then we make excuses for not spending time with them. Words are cheap. It’s actions that tell the real story. We make time for the people and the things that are truly important to us, and for the rest we make excuses.

If we truly love people then we will make time for them. This is an important truth – so important that we will come back to it again tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.” Psalm 39:4-5 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “A gift of time is an act of love”

For over thirty years I’ve had a little brass hourglass sitting on my desk. It’s filled with sand and when you turn it over the grains of sand slowly sift through the narrow neck in the middle, gathering in the cylinder on the other end. It’s about 75 years old and was one of those little gifts that a bank gave away to new customers. The label on the top says “Time Savings and Loan Association, 2^nd and Broadway, San Diego”. That bank existed from 1885 into the 1950s before it was bought-out by a larger bank.

I find it interesting that a bank would give their customers a keepsake hourglass. It reminds me of those wise old words, “How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money.” It also reminds me of Benjamin Franklin’s challenging question, “Do you value your life? Then value your time, because time is the stuff that life is made of.” That right there is exactly why I keep this hourglass on my desk – to remind me to use my time well.

Your life is made up of your time, and you only get so much of it. Also, once the time is gone you can never have it back. Therefore, as Benjamin Franklin so wisely observed, the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years are all little pieces of your life and once you’ve used them, those pieces of life are gone forever, so use them wisely.

When you give a person some of your time, you’re giving them a little piece of your life. If you think about it that way, and then if you intentionally decide to give them that piece of your life anyway, that’s an act of love. It’s a way of telling them that they are important to you and worthy of receiving some of your time, worthy of receiving a little piece of your life.

We can demonstrate love for people by spending time with them rather than devoting that time to someone else, or to something else. This is an important understanding, so we’re going to explore it a little more tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Then neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” John 8:11 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Forgive them”

In recent days we’ve been considering what a powerful thing the love of God is. As we intentionally serve as a conduit for it to flow through us, God impacts the lives of the people we encounter. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. Jesus loves the world through us. He shines His light, brings His healing, and administers mercy and kindness through the lives of His followers.

But a lack of forgiveness on our part can restrict the flow of God’s love through us, perhaps cutting off that flow altogether. Forgiveness is powerful. Forgiveness freely given opens the spigot wide for the love of God to flow. Forgiveness withheld can be like a closed spigot that limits or eliminates the flow of God through us to the person before us.

In John 8:1-11 we read that famous scene where the Pharisees brought to Jesus the woman caught in adultery. It reads as if there was a circle of men, and this woman was forcefully thrown to the ground in the middle of them. In righteous anger the Pharisees described her sexual sin and then call for Jesus to pronounce judgment on her. The woman fully expected to be stoned to death in accordance with the law of the Pharisees.

Instead, Jesus spoke words of mercy and forgiveness. He chastised and embarrassed the Pharisees, chasing them away, and then He offered grace and forgiveness to this frightened, cowering young woman. What a powerful scene! What a totally unexpected act of love and grace and forgiveness! Although the text doesn’t tell us what happened after that, the implication is that the woman’s life was changed forever.

As the followers of Christ, we have a power within us that changes lives. We have the love of God in us and flowing through us. When we choose to extend mercy and grace and forgiveness to others, they can then experience God’s love channeled through us.

Or not. We can withhold it as easily as we can give it. But why? Why would we withhold it – because they don’t deserve it? You don’t deserve love and mercy and forgiveness from God either but He doesn’t withhold it from you.

We are to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Jesus is our example. The woman in this scene is just one of countless examples of a life that was changed forever because of forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love.

I encourage you to be the person who forgives instead of condemns.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The love of God is powerful”

Those of you who have read my book “Getting Along without Going Along: Biblical Sexual Ethics in an Age of Controversy and Conflict”, you are familiar with the story of Rosaria Butterfield. Rosaria was a liberal college professor and by her own definition, a radical lesbian feminist. She didn’t just agree with and support the Gay and Lesbian agenda, she was one of the national leaders of the movement.

At one point she met a pastor and his wife who were friendly and kind, and who simply wanted to discuss issues of sexual ethics with her over coffee. She reluctantly agreed to talk to them. Rosaria was quickly impressed with their kind, gentle, and respectful manner. Soon she found herself liking them. She developed a friendship with the couple and ended up meeting with them multiple times as they spent hours discussing their very different perspectives regarding matters of sexuality.

Long story short, over time Rosaria was captured by the love of Christ at work through the pastor and his wife, and she became a Christian. At first, she was committed to simply being a gay but celibate follower of Jesus. But to her amazement she soon discovered that God was changing her sexual desires. She found that her attraction to other females was fading and she actually met a man she was attracted to. In time she married that man and had his children. That man also happened to be a pastor, which means of course that Rosaria was then a pastor’s wife. She went from being a radical leftist lesbian to being a wife and mother, and she has now spent decades in ministry with her husband. You can read her story in her book “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert”.

It was the love of God at work through that pastor and his wife that broke through to Rosaria and changed her heart and her life. That’s because the love of God is such a powerful thing. When channeled to others through the life of a faithful follower of Christ, there’s no limit to the impact it can have. That’s what Paul was describing to his young protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7. As a follower of Christ there’s no need to ever be timid or fearful. You have the Holy Spirit within you. He is imparting to you the powerful love of God, as well as the sound judgment needed to direct that love in a way that will have the greatest impact.

I encourage you to be a conduit for the love of God to flow to others. Be intentional about it. Love people on purpose. Let God work not just in you, but through you, as He brings His love to bear on the people you encounter today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Love on purpose”

I read a story about a woman who was kidnapped and brutally raped. Eventually the man who did that to her was arrested, convicted, and given a long prison sentence. But the memory of the rape haunted the woman. She was emotionally scarred by it. Her hatred for the man who raped her ran deep, to the point that it colored her personality and affected every aspect of her life. She was a sad and bitter person who was defined in her own mind by this event from her past.

But through her long struggle of trying to deal with it, she came to faith in Jesus and soon discovered that she was able to forgive the man. The day even came when she was able to go to the prison and visit the rapist. She sat across a table from him, looked him in the eye and said, “I forgive you for what you did to me. What you did was wrong, and I’m glad you’re being punished for it, but in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you.”

This is how she later described her decision to visit him: “It was the last thing I wanted to do. I was physically sick at the thought of seeing him again. On an emotional level, I was afraid of him. I was repulsed by him. And, I have to be honest, I hated him. But my feelings were not the issue. I knew that what God wanted was my obedience. He wanted me to love that man with my will and with my words, even though in my emotions I couldn’t stand the sight of him.”

It has often been said that love is a verb. It is an action word. In other words, love is often a decision to act rather than an emotion you feel. It’s an action you take to reach out in love, even if you don’t have feelings of love for this person. Paraphrasing a famous quote from C.S. Lewis, “Don’t worry if you actually love a person or not. Just act as if you do, and soon the feelings of love will come.”

This is what Jesus was teaching in John 15:12-13.  He wants us to make a decision and take an action to demonstrate love for others. Such action does not necessarily have to involve actually laying down your life for someone, that’s simply the extreme example Jesus chose to use to make his point. He was illustrating a sacrificial act intentionally taken to show love to another. This is loving people on purpose. It’s making a decision and acting in love whether you actually feel the emotions of love or not.

Love is a verb. It is an action-oriented word. I encourage you love people on purpose.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim