How Do You Spell Love?

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.
1 John 3:16 (The Message)

This week we’re discussing raising godly kids in an ungodly world. Don’t disconnect or think this doesn’t apply to you because you don’t have kids. This relationship stuff applies to anyone we are in a relationship with, whether it’s our husbands, wives, children, friends, co-workers, maybe even our Heavenly Father (Think about that one for a minute!)

How each of us expresses and receives love can be very different. Some of us express love by giving words of affirmation, others by spending quality time with the other individual and still others love language might be receiving gifts. None of these ways is right or wrong, they’re just different. Why does this matter? Well, if we are following Christ we are called to live sacrificially for others and not just be out for ourselves.

You want to grow in your relationships? Become a student of the other person! Devote time to learning how they spell love versus how you spell love! Express love in a way that fills their cup, not yours. Now that’s love spelled best…sacrificially!

Father, I confess that I don’t get this sacrificial living, especially when it comes to those I am around the most. I come to You, the one and only sacrificial person and ask You to show me how to sacrificially live. Help me become a student of You and others, so that a godly generation is raised up on Your behalf.

Living it Out!
Take this 30 second quiz on the 5 different love languages and see where those around you and you fall out! Then spend some time talking about it with each other.

Exceptional Things for God

“It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God: But we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things.”
Oswald Chambers

In hearing this quote this past Sunday it made me think of another poem, written by an unknown monk long before my time.

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world,
so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn't change the nation,
I began to focus on my town.
I couldn't change the town
and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself,
and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,
I could have made an impact on my family.
My family and I could have made an impact on our town.
Their impact could have changed the nation and
I could indeed have changed the world.”

Do you want to do exceptional things for God? Start small! Start with yourself! (I don't know about you, but I can be a big enough task!) Do you want to see His will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Then keep your eyes open and your ears listening for Him. When His Holy Spirit speaks to you, do it! Don’t sit there and over analyze, or wonder about His timing or what other’s may think…just do it! God is constantly at work all around us! He’s inviting us to join Him in ushering His Kingdom into our world today through the people we will encounter…our spouse, our children, our friends and strangers.

Do you want to do exceptional things for God? Be exceptional in the ordinary things!

Unconditional Love-Part 2

So how did the whole love unconditionally experiment go for you yesterday? Yeah, not so good here, either. This whole dying to self stuff is hard…or is it? Could it be as simple as turning it over to our Father? Let’s find out!

Listen to this song by Shaun Groves titled, “Welcome Home.” Make it your heart’s cry to the Father this morning and throughout the day as each situation arises and let’s see how the day goes.

Let me know if there’s a difference in trying to live a life of unconditional love from our flesh and trying to gut it out versus living it out in the power of God’s Spirit.

Welcome Home by Shaun Groves
Take me, make me All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking
Welcome to this heart of mine
I've buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I've made
Inside of me, come decorate,
Lord Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain
Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded

Chorus: Come inside this Heart of mine it's
Not my own Make it home
Come and take this Heart and make it All Your own
Welcome home

Take a seat, pull up a chair
Forgive me for the disrepair
And the souvenirs from floor to ceiling
Gathered on my search for meaning
Every closet's filled with clutter
Messes yet to be discovered
I'm overwhelmed, I understand
I can't make this place all that You can

I took the space that You placed in me
Redecorated in shades of greed
And I made sure every door stayed locked
Every window blocked, and still You knocked

Take me, make me All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

Unconditional Love

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:16,18 (NIV)

Unconditional love. That’s a hard one to wrap our minds around, isn’t? We live in a world in which we are constantly expected to perform to some standard. Whether it’s a revenue projection for a major corporation, a sales quota that must be met by a sales person, or an expectation for a home cooked meal at the end of the day, we all have expectations. We have become performance based people. If you do this, I’ll do that. If you meet my needs, I’ll meet yours. If you love me, I’ll respect you. The difficulty comes in when one of us doesn’t live up to the other one’s expectations. It is in these moments when who we say we are has the opportunity to be expressed with actions and in truth.

When the ones you are in relationship with hurt or disappoint you what are you going to do? Will you keep your love for them “turned on?” Are you willing to put the relationship above your own expectations? Are you willing to protect the relationship over protecting yourself? You see, unconditional means exactly what you think it means. It’s not limited or conditioned upon something else. It’s unlimited and unqualified. It means I can’t control what you choose to do or say or think. I can only control what I will choose to do and say and think.

Will I choose to die for the relationship? That’s unconditional love and we have the opportunity to show our love for the Father by demonstrating it in how we treat others, after all Christ did it for you and I! It is Christ living through us that allows us to lay our life down for our brothers.

Father, how you are able to love me, regardless of how I am towards you, is beyond my comprehension. But I am eternally grateful that You do! I ask that through Christ living in me, You will increase my ability to love unconditionally. Amen.

Living it out!
The next time you encounter disappointment or hurt at the hands of someone else, before you respond, stop and ask Christ to reveal to you what unconditional love looks like in the situation.

Creatures of Habit?

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 7:21-25a (New Living Translation)

I realized at 5:30 a.m. this morning that I am more of a creature of habit than I care to confess. You see, I’m use to rising early, getting myself a cup of chai team and enjoying my time alone with God, while the rest of the house is still quiet. Unfortunately, I rose this morning to the ugly realization that I had no milk and without milk you can not enjoy chai tea. What’s a gal to do when her morning routine is broken?

Then I realized, perhaps it’s time to break a few other routines and habits in my life, especially the ones that come out of my human or fleshly nature and impact those around me. So, for this week following the celebration of Father’s Day, we’ll be looking at how we can help our fathers, our husbands and others in our lives by breaking some old and fleshly habits of our own.

Who will free us from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Grab a cup of coffee (or not) and join us this week as we discover the answer is in Christ Jesus!

Who Will You Exalt Today?

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Matthew 22:36-38 (NIV)

We’ve been looking at leadership this week, and specifically what it means to lead like Jesus, to be a servant leader versus a self-serving leader. In the end, if we desire to lead like Jesus, it will come down to our ability to fulfill the first and greatest commandment. You see, if we are in this love relationship with God and we can stand before Him and truly say, “I love You with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind and all my strength,” then our actions must reflect this love relationship. Our actions must display our love for Him…not our love for ourselves.

Father, I desire to love you with all my heart. I confess that I do not know how to do this. Send Your Holy Spirit to bring me into a whole-hearted love relationship with You, so that my actions exalt You. Amen.

Living It Out
Every moment of every day we have the opportunity to have our actions reflect the One we serve. Want to check yourself before you act? Ask yourself this simple question, “Is what I’m about to do going to exalt God or exalt me?

How Will You Lead Today?

"But Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Matthew 20:25-28 (New Living Translation)

Look around today and I think you will agree our nation and our world are in a bit of a leadership crisis. Financial institutions have failed. Major corporations are filing for bankruptcy, whole nations are being brought to the brink of collapse due in large part to their leaders being self-serving leaders versus servant leaders.

Let's bring it a little closer to home, where most of us are in a leadership role as a wife (or husband) and mother (or father.) The picture is not much better with close to 50% of our marriages failing. Typically, at the root of most of our fights and quarrels is our own self-centered desires (James 4:1.)

If we desire to lead like Jesus and reflect Him in our world we will have a servant's heart and we will exemplify sacrifice and selflessness. I know that these are not characteristics that most people would associate with leadership, but according to Christ they are the essential qualities.

How will you lead today?

Father, thank you for placing me in the role of being a leader. Please reveal to me the ways in which I am self-serving instead of being a servant leader so that I may change and better reflect You in all that I do. Amen.

Living it Out!
Ask yourself, "Am I a servant leader or a self-serving leader?"

Why are you leading? Why are you a parent? Why are you a volunteer? Why are you a manager? Why are you a (fill in the blank)?

Are you doing it to be served or to serve?

Who's Leading?

Encounter

"With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgment. Always let Him lead you, and He will clear the road for you to follow." Proverbs 3:5-6 (CEV)

Experience

I love to dance! It's where I met my husband, of almost 20 years. We had only one problem when we first started dancing together...you guessed it, we both wanted to lead. Now, if you've ever danced with a partner you know that both of you can not lead. If both of you try to lead, it just looks like two cats going at in a sack! Trust me, it's not pretty. In order to make for a great dance team, one must lead and the other must follow.

The same is true in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We must learn to follow Him. This is easy to say and much harder to do. Most of the time we think we have a clear understanding of God's will and we busy ourselves with putting together plans and goals for seeing it come into reality. And before we know it, we are leading and God is standing on the side of the dance floor, just like the gentleman that He is, waiting for us to come rejoin Him.
Who's leading the dance today in your life?

Engage

Father, thank you for the incredible opportunity to go through this life as Your dance partner. I ask that You would reveal to me how to love You with all my heart and trust You and Your leadership in my life. Show me how to always let You lead me, so that You will clear the road for me to follow!

Express

Today, when you sense you are about to act out of your feelings or abilities, stop, drop and pray.

• Stop-make the choice not to react out of your own flesh and desires.
• Drop-take the position of a servant and mentally and physically go to your knees.
• Pray-seek God's perspective and counsel

You'll never find a more perfect dance partner than Him!