Loving one another

I've been studying 1 John 4:7 - 21 lately and it really opened my eyes. I guess it does every time I study it. It makes me see where I need to improve and how desperately sick the church itself is these days. Very few Christians can say that they live up to the command that Jesus gave us to love one another. I'm bringing this up here because it illustrates what was lacking in Job's friends. There was no love there for him, and that's what he needed most of all. It's what we all need most of all.

And our Lord provided it for us by placing us in the body of Christ which is supposed to be a family for us. A family ruled by God's definition of love, not the worlds. Yet I can't name a single church or group that lives like that. I certainly hope that somewhere in this world there's a group like that, but I certainly haven't seen one. I know from history though that the body of Christ used to be more like this then it is now.

Besides loving fellow Christians though, the Lord told us to also love even non Christians this way! We fail terribly at loving each other and worse at loving non Christians... at least I know I do. No wonder no one can tell who's a Christian in this world....because most of us look, live and love, just like the world.

John 13:35 —By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” *
1 Peter 4:8 —Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. *

To give you an idea of what it could be like, let me share a story from one of my commentaries ...but first let me post the verses and an explanation of them:

1 John 4:7–21  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Dimensions of Love: 1 John 4:7–21
In these next verses John helps us see the way of love in the Christian community. He wanted us to experience close fellowship with Jesus and the Father, and live in intimate community with fellow-believers. John was not exhorting us to pump up the emotion we call “love.” He was explaining why love is valuable to the church, and how we can choose to live love.

In these verses there is no threat to make us feel guilty if we have fallen short of love. John did not lay a burden of obligation to make us struggle harder to do something we cannot do. Instead he simply pointed out that God is love, and to live in fellowship with Him is to live in love. If in our association with other Christians we fall into the world’s way of antagonism and selfishness, then we are not experiencing God’s presence.

These words of John bring hope. If we have failed to love, we acknowledge our sin to God and experience His forgiveness and cleansing. Only if we deny the importance of love in our relationships within the church, and let barriers arise between people have we lost our way. What do believers need to understand about love in order to experience fellowship with God? Let’s trace the thought of the passage.

Love is central (1 John 4:7–8). Because God is love, the person who shares God’s love will love. This is simply a fact; a reflection of the reality that where there is no will to love, God is absent.

Love initiates (1 John 4:9–12). John made abstract love personal when he explained that God loved us and “sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v. 10). God’s action is especially striking since we did not love God when He gave Himself. Loving meant initiating action without immediate return (and, in the case of many whom God loves, without any return). Here is a model for love in the Christian community. Since God loved us in this same way, we ought to love one another in the same manner.

Relationships in society are usually governed by reciprocity. I am nice to those who are nice to me. Jim invites me to lunch; I invite him in return. I borrow tools from Stan; he borrows tools from me. Even sinners, Jesus once commented, love those who love them (Matt. 5:46). But love in the Christian community is not to depend on repayment. We are to take the initiative in loving, even when the ones we reach out to do not respond.

At first this seems like a strange instruction. Won’t such lovers be taken advantage of? Won’t the unresponsive drain the people who do care? John’s answer is twofold. First, the capacity to love in this way exists in every person who is born of God. Thus, it is not a few loving the rest, but it is all of us loving one another! Each of us has the opportunity to reach out and initiate actions that meet the deepest needs of our brothers and sisters.

Second, as we take up the joyful burden of loving others, God, who no one has seen, becomes strangely visible in the church. We see God Himself as He “lives in us and His love is made complete in us” (v. 12). As God becomes more real among us, even those who have not responded will be touched by His love.

God does live in us (1 John 4:13–16). Is such love possible? Of course! We don’t rely on any capacity of our own to love our brothers. In the person of the Holy Spirit God lives in us and will love through us. We learn to share God’s love for us.

Love frees us from fear (1 John 4:17–18). John has an exciting prospect for the fearful and doubting. As we see God’s love taking visible shape in the community of faith, we become more confident and more like God. “In this world,” John said of the believing community, “we are like Him” (v. 17). Love transforms us. We realize that God is not angry or eager to punish; love has driven out fear.

And now, for the story:

The way love drives out fear is beautiful. When Stan became a Christian, he was antagonistic, bitter, and quick to take offense at others whom he thought slighted him. Burdened by a poor self-image, Stan could not believe that God accepted him with all of his faults. Every time something went wrong, Stan was sure God was punishing him and he cringed. Even when everything seemed to go smoothly, there was always an aching fear that kept Stan from feeling peace or satisfaction.

Then Stan became a member of a truly loving church whose members accepted him as he was. They understood his behavior, overlooked his insults, and returned only love. They invited this unpleasant young man into their homes.

Gradually Stan began to realize that these people loved him in spite of himself. He could be real with them, and they still cared. For a time Stan became worse, testing their acceptance to see if it were real. Finally he was convinced. He was loved! With this discovery came a great release. Through the love of his brothers and sisters in Christ, Stan experienced the reality of God’s love. The message of Calvary he had accepted intellectually now released the knots of guilt and fear deep within. When Stan found a community of people who were like God in this world, he was freed to grow into a loving person himself.

Love is our proper response to God (1 John 4:19–21). Stan was freed to love only by being loved. John pointed out that it is the same with all of us. We did not love God; God loved us. God reached out first. But in being loved by God, we are freed to love in return. Then we can reach out to others.

Who do we love when God’s love frees us? Yes, we do love God. But we also love our brothers. In fact, love of God and love of His family are so inseparably linked that John flatly stated, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar” (v. 20). Love wears no blinders that cut off some while focusing on others. When love touches us, our whole personality is affected. We see God and sensing His love, are drawn to Him. We see people for the first time. We reach out to touch and to care. Love has transformed us.

In Christ, and in His community of faith, we will learn to walk in love.

The teacher’s commentary

Feeling Frustrated?

We’ve been studying Job and wanted to share what we've learned in Job 37 today with you. If you recall, Job had had some really awful things happen to him suddenly. Quite literally, his whole life fell apart. His friends come to comfort him and do a terrible job and Job finds himself having to defend himself to them as they've decided that the only possible reason for these things to have happened is if Job had been knowingly sinning, (which he hadn't) and God was judging Him. Then a bystander named Elihu joins in. Needless to say, Job was feeling pretty frustrated by then. Here, Elihu is at the end of his speech. A mighty storm has begun and Elihu has been describing how he views God in the storm to the listeners.

One of the main points of the scriptures describing the storm is to show that God is sovereign, that nothing happens by chance, because God is in control. While Elihu is using the weather and seasons to illustrate this, it's true about everything that happens in our lives. No, that doesn't mean that God causes every bad thing that happens to us, but it does mean that He at least allows it to happen, and when He does, it's always for His glory and our good. It is never to harm us. Verse 7 especially points out that people instinctively know that the weather is God's Work. Interestingly, even the unbelieving world calls the weather, "acts of God"  showing how true this is.

The problem is that although Job was upright and blameless when the tragedies struck, as time went on, and he dwelled on what had happened to him and all he'd lost, he became more and more negative. Before long, it seemed like everything he saw was negative and bad, quite the reverse of the way he'd been before. This is an example of another thing the Lord tells us in His Word. That when we dwell on negative things, then we'll start seeing the negative in everyone and everything else around us, but if we dwell on the Truth, or on good things, then we'll see the good in everyone and everything around us. We see the Truth of this all the time in ourselves or others when we get down or depressed about something.

In verses 11-13 we are told that sometimes God does send storms (trials) into our lives as discipline, but mainly they're sent because of His love and mercy. Although Job didn't have this knowledge yet, we know that even God's discipline is due to His love and is something we should cherish, as He only disciplines His children, so if in fact that's the cause of our trial, it's a sure sign that we're saved and being made more like Jesus all the time!

Starting in verse 14, Elihu asks Job to "listen to this." He's painted a picture of a storm raging outside as they talk, and he's obviously so totally overwhelmed by the wonder and awe of seeing God's power and majesty in it, that he wants Job to see God's wonders in it too (as well as us). He then asks, can Job explain them or control the clouds or lightening? Of course the answer is no; only God can.

Then Elihu makes his other point in verse 20: if Job can't explain it or control it, then how in the world can he think that he's capable of preparing a court case to defend himself before God! If a man were to try to do so, surely they'd wind up under God's judgment for being so presumptuous! Because if we can't comprehend the things of God that we can actually see, like the weather, then how can we possibly comprehend things we can't see? (like why something is happening to us) Elihu was sure that God wasn't trying to oppress or oppose Job, even thought that's how Job had been seeing it all this time (verse 23)

So even though Elihu had gotten pretty full of pride in himself earlier and had gotten some things wrong, most of what he had to say to Job were things that Job really needed to hear and remember. They're things we all need to hear and remember.

Things like, God is just and merciful, and good. That's what Job had forgotten. The Holy Spirit kept slipping it in once in awhile to try and remind Him, but Job kept ignoring it and instead dwelling on the bad things that had happened to him. He was looking for bad, and therefore that's exactly what he found. Now Elihu comes along and finally gets him to see the good in God again; reminds him of God's love and mercy and that He's not out to get us, but instead wants to help us. Exactly the opposite of what Job's 3 friends had been saying, because they too had been focusing on the negative since they were so sure that Job was being judged as a sinner.

Elihu was quite right in how he viewed Job's problem by this point. He was saying that Job's actions may have been right, that he wasn't the sinner that his friends kept saying he was, but that his attitude was wrong. Because he got involved defending himself as not being a sinner, he wound up pretty much considering himself a "saint", as he continued to explain to his friends how good he'd been all his life. He conveniently refused to think of all the times he'd failed, even if they were small failures. So, listening and then replying to his 3 friends, Job's attitude slowly but surely became a know it all attitude; an attitude of defiant self righteousness, saying he was right and everyone else, including God, was wrong.

Whenever we start thinking we're right and everyone else is wrong, it should be a red flag warning us to look a little deeper into our hearts with the Lord's help. For those are often times we're deceiving ourselves and refusing to look at things honestly.

This is why Elihu's last remark was that Job should fear God (or revere Him, depending on the translation). In order to fear or revere God, we must first do away with our own self righteousness and conceit or pride; or thinking of our self as wise in heart, because to fear God we have to first recognize that we're very much inferior to Him. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! Once we or Job realize that, then we also can realize that God's ways are beyond our understanding, because He is God. If we could understand Him and His ways, then He'd be no wiser then we are and wouldn't be God.

However, Elihu went further then that. He insisted that even though God's ways were beyond our understanding, that we shouldn't question or challenge Him or His ways. First, because we already know that God is good, loving, and full of mercy and compassion, therefore although we may not understand what's happening or why, we can be sure it's because of those things and not worry about it. Secondly, the very act of challenging or questioning them was the same thing as saying that we don't believe that God is good, loving, righteous, merciful and full of compassion. We're calling Him a liar! And that's not a good place to be! Besides all of that, Elihu insisted that tragedies and trials served to remove pride and protect people from even worse problems. So he reminds Job to worship God, instead of challenging Him. That's very, very good advice for us as well!

We need to remember that complaining is a sin and it's one that God hates. Actually, I think most of us do remember that part. The part we tend to forget is that when we complain about the weather, or about how someone is treating us, our physical illness or pain, or anything else at all, that we're actually complaining about how God is treating us. We're saying we don't like or appreciate what He's allowing to go on in our lives, that we think his judgment is a bit off and that he's made a mistake somewhere down the line, because surely we don't deserve this! At times like this, we generally start to feel angry and hateful toward whatever it is that's happening. We fight it, because we don't think it should be happening; we think it's wrong. We think God is wrong to allow it. That's exactly what Job did too and we're seeing where it's gotten him and just how wrong he was to do this. So what is our attitude to be? We're told it's to be the same as our Lord's was, which is to say to entrust ourselves to God who judges justly, knowing that good will come from whatever we're going through. He didn't retaliate or try to stop his torture or impending death, he allowed it all to happen, leaving it in God's hands. This is what Job forgot as he dwelled on the bad things that had happened to him. And that was the start of his downhill slide, allowing those kind of thoughts to stay in his mind instead of taking them captive (stopping them) and replacing them with the Truth. If he'd done that at the start, he never would have gotten to this point or gone through the emotional pain he put himself through because of it. This too is one of our biggest downfalls today. We don't take God's Word seriously and do what it says, even though we know it's for our own good!

Some relevant scriptures:
Philippians 2:3-5; 1 Peter 2:23; Ephesians 4:31–5:2; John 3:27; Exodus 16:8; 2 Corinthians 10:5 & Philippians 4:8

Homosexuality in the End Times

Not too long ago, I went off line at about 4:30 to finish cleaning up the house and get supper started for Bruce for when he got home from work. We both like to listen to the news when it comes on at 5pm so I turned the TV on our local news station so that it would be on the right channel when the news came on. While cleaning I realized that the show playing then was Oprah and she had on a young country music star who had apparently recently come out and said she was a lesbian. She told a heart wrenching story of how she hid it all her life from everyone including her parents and how being brought up in a good Christian home she was sure she was hated by God and would go to hell for it. Her story was truly heart wrenching and my heart went out to her and to all those like her.

Unfortunately she still doesn't understand the Truth. She thinks she feels a billion times better now because she's told the truth and she's not "living a lie" anymore. And well she should! Lying is a sin (as she knew too) and of course "living a lie" is a sin as well. Sin hurts us in many ways and hurts those around us. So here are these poor people who are so enslaved to many sins that they feel their only way out is to either kill themselves and get it over with, or be a practicing homosexual and decide (somehow) that God doesn't see homosexuality as a sin anymore.

What's even sadder is that many of these people were raised in "good Christian homes" and went to "good Christian churches". Where then was the discipleship they so badly needed when they were young??? Why then do they not understand that God never hated them because they were tempted to sin??? He hates the sin, not them. Where is their understanding that God doesn't make mistakes, that He doesn't create people as "homosexuals" or pedophiles, or thieves, or murderers, or liars etc. Why do they not understand that all of those things, like so many others, are quite simply sins and temptations??? Why do they not understand that God has called us to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ???

Do they seriously believe that God creates people to be murderers and thieves and homosexuals??? Apparently they do, but they are so very wrong!

How very sad that they feel they have to act on their sinful desires in order to "be happy". All they had to do was tell the truth about their sinful desires to have a homosexual relationship instead of hiding them. It's when we hide our sins that we give Satan a hold over us and many of these people obviously hid this sin for a very long time. Then instead of confessing the sinful thoughts/feelings and taking them captive in Christ, they went the other way and determined to find a way to reconcile their sin and yet remain "Christian". Just as Adam blamed God for his sin when he said, "the woman you gave me" made me do it, so they are blaming God for their sin by saying "God made me this way so it's His fault".

And now they are blaming those "good Christian churches" for all their problems and this young lady actually said that churches are ruining young people by telling them that homosexuality is wrong!!!

Unfortunately she's right in some ways. Churches that haven't been or aren't discipling their youngsters, and parents that are waiting for the church to teach their children God's Ways instead of doing it themselves are hurting the young.

Our children should all know that they will be tempted many times in many ways, but that being tempted doesn't make them "bad". It simply means that they need to turn to the Lord for His help and they need to be taught how to guard their minds and hearts by taking their thoughts captive for Christ. Basically, it means they're human! They need to know that they can always go to God about any thought or feeling they have and that He loves them always and that He will help them. That doesn't mean that He will make it easy for them though. There's a big difference between helping someone and doing it for them! And that's a HUGE thing that many people today simply don't get anymore.

Everyone wants everything handed to them on a silver platter instead of having to work for it. While God does give us gifts that way sometimes, for the most part He requires us to work out our salvation and use the tools He's given us in His Word.

I could go on and on about what they "should" have been taught, and what they should know, but you get the idea. What's so horribly sad though is that now, because these people think that they have finally been "freed" they are preaching their "salvation" to everyone, using every means at their disposal--TV, Radio, movies, the Internet, meetings and community groups, political activism etc.

Some of them are in many ways a part of this "new Christianity", that Warren, Piper, and others preach--but it's a Christianity without the Gospel and those people are going to go to Hell and will bring everyone else right along with them! So this half of the homosexual group is attacking the church, the body of Christ, with all the ammunition they can bring on it, and the other half, the half that are "atheists" are paving the way for them in society by mocking God.

It really opened my eyes (even wider) to how very active Satan is in our times! It's like an old fashioned cattle round up, only humans are the cattle and they're being rounded up to go to Hell. I think these people, these "stars" are going to be at the forefront of the battle to have the bible banned as hate speech and that's just part of what they'll accomplish. The question is, how much of it will we witness before the rapture???

 

How should we respond to Homosexuals?

One thing that really distresses me is the horrible way that many Christians react toward gay people. It really breaks my heart, and their response to them, becomes the main excuse the gay person often uses to stay gay, because they feel that it proves that the person is wrong about God. Sadly, they confuse just what the person is wrong about. A Christian response to homosexuality is really no different then a response to any other sin that anyone's living in. It would depend on if they're saved yet or not. Of course we can be pretty sure that if they're gay they're probably not saved...not because they're too bad, but because most of them have had the scriptures totally twisted out of shape to them on both extremes, and have misinterpreted what the scriptures really say about it.

So to me the Christian response would be to attempt to witness to them and tell them the true Gospel: "that God really does love them and wants to forgive them and save them. Yes, He does hate homosexuality and no it's not natural, it's a sin, just as sex outside of marriage is. But they can be forgiven and He will help them overcome it, in fact He's the only one that can." etc.... But really that's to be our response to anyone that's not saved that we know. We may also have to show them that their "gay feelings" are no different then any other feeling that people have, such as a desire to steal something, or to lie, or to cheat etc, and remind them that God consistently tells us not to trust our feelings, but to trust His Word instead. Then, if or when they allow us to, we can also share with them the way God gives us to overcome our wrong thoughts and feelings. That should be a huge relief to them to know that God has a plan and a way for us to overcome these things and it actually works!

Aren’t we told not to judge others?

No, the Bible tells us that we are to judge righteously. If you don't "judge" them, then how will you know if they’re right or wrong? We must be willing to stop being afraid of people and start doing what the Lord tells us to do in His Word. His Word tells us that when someone is living in sin, we are to tell the person that they are sinning and why. We are to do it in a loving but very firm and unwavering manner. We are to stand on the Word of God and not worry about what others will say of us or if that person will like or respect us any longer. 

If a minister announces that they’re a homosexual and at peace with it, he has become a wolf in sheep’s clothing and will kill and destroy many of our brothers and sisters if he isn't stopped. God wants us to be concerned about that and to do something about it.

Romans 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

John 7:24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

We are not to pass judgment on disputable matters but this is not a disputable matter. God's Word is quite clear on this subject regardless of how badly they twist the scriptures to make it seem otherwise.

I know it's very hard to do, but it is what God says we must do. When we do things like this that is when we will be persecuted for being true Christians and followers of Christ. As long as we are like the world, no one will bother us or persecute us, but as soon as we stand up for Christ and stand firm on His Word, then everyone's fangs come out and you will be reviled for Christ's sake. The fleshly part of me cringes at that thought but my spirit wishes that it would happen to me so that I could stand for Jesus.

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I'm sure you don't need these but I'll post them here for lurkers who might not understand what God's Word calls us to do:

Isaiah 8:20; 2 Peter 2:9; 1 Timothy 4:1-6 ;1 Timothy 5:20; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Timothy 4:2-5; Titus 1:9; Titus 1:13; Ephesians 5:11 ; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11;

How do we know when it’s our job to say something, or if we should just pray?

The way we know if we're supposed to do something is if we are aware of it and it's been brought to our attention personally, then it's our job to do something. God doesn't show us problems so we can go tell someone else to fix them, he shows us so that we will handle it for Him.  When God places me in a situation where I am confronted with someone speaking falsely or with someone who doesn't know the Lord and I'm in a situation where I can tell them the truth, then I know it's the Lord who has put me there. I've heard it called "divine appointments".  For example, if I’m in a roomful of people and one of them is talking about being gay and that it’s not a sin, then it’s my job to correct them.  If however, I’m in a meeting where the speaker is saying something like that, and I just happen to be in the audience but have no way of getting to the speaker, then that job belongs to someone else, and my job is to pray.

Isn’t it chemical makeup that makes a person gay?

If you're saying, "God made him that way" then what you're really saying is that either, God made a mistake, or that God purposely made people in such a way that it would be impossible for them to be saved. That goes against everything the Bible says, so I cannot and will not believe that. Even according to their own studies, that's simply not true. Most of the studies done on this are no more then jokes anyway.

If on the other hand it's something that's physically medically wrong with them, then it's something the medical community should be studying to cure rather then trying to proclaim it's OK and normal which is what they're saying. But then they're also leaning toward saying that pedophilia is also normal and OK along with a number of other things. Basically all they're doing is giving people an "excuse" for their reprehensible behavior and then telling the rest of us that we have to accept it. I refuse to do that too.

The Bible says that God cannot, will not, and does not tempt us, that we are tempted by our own sinful desires. It is our choice to allow those sinful thoughts/ideas/fantasies etc or to do what the Bible says and stop them, taking them captive to Christ and replacing them with the Truth from His Word.

The problem is that this hasn't been taught to people for generations and instead they've been filled with the worlds "wisdom" and ideas and we all know where that leads....straight to hell.

No one "has" to be homosexual, anymore then anyone "has to be" a murder, thief, a pedophile, a rapist, or anything else. They weren't "born" that way. They chose to allow those thoughts and ideas and then they chose to act on them. Thoughts and ideas become emotions; emotions beget more thoughts and ideas until eventually they become actions; given enough time they then become habits, and given more time they then become part of our character. And lo, a homosexual is born.

How do we deal with someone that’s become a homosexual and won’t repent?

Assuming that the person knew the Gospel and had been saved, what I would do first would be to make sure the person in question understood the correct biblical way to handle their situation/problem. If they did understand it and refused to accept the fact that they themselves brought this about by (probably unknowingly) not taking control of their thought life, refused to confess their sin, (admit to God that it is in fact a sin) and repent of it, (turn away from it and choose to take responsibility for their thoughts and emotions instead) then I would have to obey God's Word and not have anything more to do with them other then praying for them. I would tell them that I loved them and that I would be praying for them, but that until they chose to repent of their sin that I had to obey God's Word and not have anything more to do with them. I would also let them know that I was in fact showing my love for them by being obedient to God and telling them the Truth so that they too would hopefully some day come to really know Him and following Him and live a life of victory rather then one of defeat wallowing in their own sinful desires.

I'm not saying that it would be easy for me to do, because it wouldn't. It would be the hardest thing in the world to do, but I would do it for Christ.

God never promised that following His path would be easy. In fact He said it would be hard. He even told us that this kind of thing would happen and that families would be driven apart due to our following and obeying Him. On top of that, He told us this would be the cost of following Him and said this would be the cross that many of us would have to bear:

Matthew 10:34-39 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Luke puts it this way:

Luke 14:25-27 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

We are to put Christ above everyone and everything in our lives, even if it means dying physically because we do.

We are in the last days and God said that this would happen and that it's only going to get worse: Micah 7:4-7; Mark 13:12-13;

He also promised us this: Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Let me share this wonderful email from a man who was gay and who’s family kept telling him the truth because they loved him.

Thanks for offending me with the Gospel

Mike Goeke

MIDLAND, Texas (BP)--As a pastor and as someone in ministry to churches and people across the country, I have seen a growing trend over the last several years.

It seems that we, as the church and as individual Christians, spend a lot of time pulling back the outward expression of our faith for fear of offending people. Churches sometimes water down theology and their message to make sure no one leaves offended. People ignore the destructive, sinful behavior of their friends to make sure their friends are not offended. People seek community that is intentionally non-confrontational so that they will not personally be offended.

In the last weeks, it seems like I have been inundated with issues that almost seem to be begging for confrontation, but ones in which no one wants to take that step. It has made me think about my own faith. Do I believe the Word of God? If I do believe it, why am I so afraid to share it with people I say I love? If I really love people, shouldn't I risk their offense if it means saving their lives?

The reality is that the Gospel of Christ, and the truth of the Word, is by its nature offensive. It is described as a sword, and it divides, and it exposes, and it digs to deep, hidden places. It also leads us to God, to truth, to healing, to fulfillment and to freedom.

As I have thought about this, I have been reminded of a time in my life when I was deeply offended by my friends and family. I had left my wife to pursue a life built around and defined by my feelings of same-sex attraction. I had expected my friends and family to accept what I was doing, support what I was doing, and not question what I was doing. I was offended by much of Christianity, and for a season I walked away from people who loved me, and I walked away from the church.

But today, 13 years later, I would like to say a hearty "THANK YOU" to my wife, and my parents and family, and my friends who cared enough about me to offend me. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I consider the ramifications in my life, had the people in my world bought into the lie that to love me was to affirm me in my sin. When I left my wife, she boldly told me that she knew God could work in me and in our marriage and that she would not pursue divorce. She protected her interests but always professed her love for me and her desire to work through this together.

My parents (and other family members) told me that what I was doing was wrong. They bought books and other materials and tried to get me to talk to a counselor. They also called frequently to check on me, sent me money when I needed it, came to see me on my birthday, and flew me home for holidays. My friends drove hours to talk to me about what I was doing, and told me what they believed. They flew from other towns to take me to dinner and tried to convince me to get help and to turn from the life I was living. They also sent me cards and letters full of love and affirmation of our friendship.

And each of them offended me. Each of them made me angry. I viewed them as bigoted, unenlightened, ignorant, prejudiced and hateful. If they truly loved me, I told them, they would accept me and affirm me in the lifestyle I was living. I ignored their calls and I viewed them with skepticism. I did my best to sever my relationships with those who were offending me. But they would not let me go. They did not coddle me, but they refused to give up on me.

I eventually took a book from my dad. I did not want the book -- I viewed it as more of his "right-wing Christian propaganda" -- but I took it just to shut him up. I was ready to draw a line in the sand and cut all ties with my wife, my family and my friends. But God was ready to pierce my heart. The book that my dad gave me did not condemn me, but instead showed me more than the sentimental, saccharine love of Jesus that my new theology had sold me. It showed me the powerful love of the risen Savior, and I was compelled back to Him by that love. The offending parties in my life were waiting, as loving and gracious as they had ever been, not holding my sin against me, but standing there, ready to walk with me in the journey ahead of me.

Today my marriage is restored and has grown beyond my imagination. I have three beautiful children and am living out the call on my life to vocational ministry. Healing has happened in my family relationships, and I am closer to that cadre of friends than ever before. As I listen to people worry about offending people, and as I watch people change their whole belief systems to make other people feel more comfortable, and as I see people enabling destructive behavior just to avoid conflict, I wonder where I would be today had Stephanie simply pursued divorce like I wanted her to do. I wonder where I would be if my parents and friends had supported me and encouraged me to divorce Stephanie and had rallied around me in my new found identity. I wonder where I would be if my pastors and spiritual shepherds had encouraged me to accept the very thing I needed to lay before the cross of Christ. I shudder at the thought. I know it must have killed them to think of losing me, but they loved me enough to take that risk.

Thank you, dear friends, for your offense to me. At the time, the truth you shared was the aroma of death to me (2 Corinthians 2:15) but today it is the sweet fragrance of life.

 Now THAT is a beautiful picture of how individual Christians and the body of Christ together is supposed to work! Praise God for the people who aren't afraid to speak the Truth in love and save the soul of a loved one! Or perhaps I should say Praise Him for the people who are terrified but still speak the Truth in love to save the soul of a loved one. I pray the Lord will help me and each of us be just like that, able to speak the Truth even though it hurts, even though we're terrified the loved one will turn away from us, or try to cut ties with us, or will say they hate us, etc. That's real love!

Encouraging Lessons from Elijah

I've been studying about Elijah lately and it was so encouraging that I wanted to share it with you. The story begins in 1 Kings 17 with Elijah confronting King Ahab and telling him that there'd be no rain for the next 3 years. He said there'd not only be no rain, but that there wouldn't even be any dew on the ground for all that time, and that the rain would not come again until he said it would. Of course this would cause a horrible drought, which would in turn cause a horrible famine throughout the land. As soon as he delivered the message from the Lord, the Lord told him to go to a specific place by a brook where He had arranged for the ravens to bring him food.

One of the first things I noticed in the story was that the Lord didn't give Elijah a 3 year plan. Instead, He gave him simple one step directions with enough information to carry out those instructions. He told him to go tell the King what He'd said, and it wasn't until after He'd given the King the message that God then told him where to go next. And that was important for Elijah because the King didn't like what he'd been told and as soon as he gathered his wits about him, he wanted to kill Elijah.

So Elijah went to the area the Lord had told him too and as promised, the Lord had ravens provide food for him each day. Again we see that Elijah was provided for daily...not for weeks or months or years in advance. There wasn't a stockpile of food waiting or him either. Nor was he given a nice palace to live in and a big river to get his water from. Instead he had to camp out and make do with a small brook of water that could dry up at any time. I say, "make do", yet Elijah always had more then enough to eat and drink. He was warm when it was cold and cool when it was hot. The point being that God didn't provide him with abundance so that he wouldn't be tempted to rest, or count on the gifts or blessings, but instead would rest, count on, Him.

That's one of the tendencies of our sin nature...to begin to rely on the blessing instead of on the giver of the blessing. Like our pay checks -regardless of where they come from such as our job, unemployment, social security, or whatever, we tend to count on them; rely on them. We forget that our boss, the government or whoever, isn't really the one providing those checks - God is! When God does give us an abundance, we tend to forget Him. We don't need Him then, or so we think. Such as when we have a good secure job and a regular pay check that enables us to pay our bills and have some left over. After a very short time, we forget that this is a blessing directly from God. We tend to consider our pay check, and even our job, as something we've earned and that we deserve instead. While we may still pray and read our bibles, we certainly don't spend time in heartfelt prayer pleading with God, because we don't see any need to do so. We see ourselves as being our own provision with our safe secure job and steady pay check. At least we do till they stop for some reason. When that happens, after we complain and gripe about it, we'll finally turn to God and start pleading with Him in prayer for help. At some point then, we hopefully realize that our jobs and pay checks had become false gods for us, and repent.

To prevent this from happening with Elijah, God didn't give him an abundance. The Lord kept things so that Elijah would have to constantly rely on Him. It was part of his training for the job the Lord had for him in the future. Because we know the story, we know that Elijah is going to do some really awesome miracles; miracles that had never been done before and as big and as profuse as hadn't been seen since the exodus. Elijah needed to grow in faith In order to do things, (which of course he knew nothing about) and keeping Elijah dependent on Him that way, is what caused his faith to grow.

I see this in my own life right now. I'm dependent on God for everything just like Elijah is. The false gods have been kicked out and I've repented of them. Now I'm not just trying to get through one day at a time, instead I'm learning to enjoy living a day at a time with the Lord as my provision. I'm learning to literally rest in Him, the way Elijah learned to do at that brook. To abide in Him every day knowing that my needs will be met and that all I have to do is trust and obey.

Funny isn't it? All we ever have to do is trust and obey, yet we let our lives get so cluttered with "stuff" that we forget. So the Lord brings us back to the beginning once again. Remember that verse, "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord"? Just as the Lord had big plans for Elijah and was preparing him so he'd be able to handle them, so He's also preparing us for our future, and in the same way. I have a feeling that He's got some pretty big plans for us too!