Tag Archives: devotional

Road Rage Love by Pastor Andy

Posted on by
Reply

Romans 13:8-10

8Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Who’s my neighbor?

My neighbor is anyone I come in contact with in my day-to-day life.

This weekend, I was driving the family home from visiting Kia’s grandmothers on Mother’s Day. I was on the highway in a construction zone. The car on my driver’s side slid over into my lane a foot or two multiple times. Finally, I honked to let him know what he was doing.

A few seconds later I pulled up beside him. He leaned over his girlfriend/wife/significant other flipping me the bird.

That guy, the bird-flipper, is my neighbor.

What does it mean to love him?

Loving my neighbor means treating him like I want to be treated – with respect.

powerpoint-presentation-the-face-of-road-rage-1-638

Owe nothing. Just love.

Inside, anger boiled. I wanted to say, “I didn’t honk out of anger. I honked so you wouldn’t hit me!” Inwardly, I really wanted to flash the middle finger back. That would definitely show him!

I didn’t.

On a side note, have you ever noticed how ridiculous a person looks flipping up their middle finger in anger? Recently, I was a third party observer of someone doing this in apparent anger. I thought, “How childish.”

On Mother’s Day, it didn’t seem so childish. I really wanted to rage back at him. But that wasn’t treating him with respect. It would have answered his assumption – I honked in anger.

A few weeks ago, Pastor John was accused of only wanting to smile and hug a person with a complaint. We’ve had a lot of fun with that one. If I could have, I would have smiled and hugged this guy. Instead, I did the next best thing. I ignored him.

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t easy. I really wanted to slow down, have a stare down and out man that guy. Thankfully I didn’t.

I don’t owe him anything. Just love. I did the best I could Mother’s Day. How are you doing?

Closer | Bethel

Opposite of Love? by Pastor Andy

Posted on by
3

Luke 6:27-36

27“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. 29If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. 30Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. 31Do to others as you would like them to do to you.
32“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! 33And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! 34And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.
35“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.36You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

What is opposite of love?

Seems like an easy question. Right? Most would say hate. Google lists hate as the main antonym of love. Hate is definitely a far cry from love.

Others might say indifference. If I love my children, then I’m not indifferent about them playing in a busy street. Indifference may be worse than hate.

What about fear?

Fear may not be the exact opposite of love, but it definitely is antithetical to love. We know perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). We greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). That kind of love leaves no room for fear.

Fear and love can’t coexist.

Sermon on the Plain

Which brings us to today’s passage. It’s mirrors many of the same thoughts in the Gospel of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount. In Luke, it’s called the Sermon on the Plain.

I shared about the Sermon on the Mount a couple of weeks ago. It’s not a moral code. It’s not Jesus’ list of 50 ways to live a better life. This is about the nature of God.

The Sermon on the Plain too outlines how God lives, and how we should follow.

How do we follow God when it comes to our enemies? We love.

In other words, we don’t live in fear of our enemies. We combat our fear of our enemies through love.

For many of us our enemy is the culture around us. Our battle is with culture – no matter what the culture is. We are told to fear. Fear government. Fear ISIS. Fear politics. Fear movies. Fear music. Fear public school. Fear Christian school. Fear money. Fear poverty. Fear failure. Fear success. Fear men. Fear women. Fear the church. Fear the secular. Fear the unknown. Fear the known.

I don’t care who you are, or where you are from; there is something out there to fear.

In this message, Jesus doesn’t tell us to fear. He tells us to love.

I understand. It’s not easy. It’s real to me. I have kids who live in a culture strange to me.

It’s not easy to answer questions like, “Where is the line between love and acceptance?” I don’t have easy answers, but I know the answers don’t live in fear.

Author Oswald Chambers wrote,

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, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.

This week practice love. Love your enemies. Love those you fear. Love our culture. It may be new to you. It won’t be learned in five minutes, but soon you’ll be exceptional at it.

Don’t fear. Love.

No Longer a Slave | Bethel

Love is a Verb by Pastor Chris

Posted on by
1

I John 4:19-21– We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

Powerful verses.  John writes about love, and in this letter alone he uses the word 26 times.
It is obviously a point that he is trying to get across here.
John is writing this command to love others short and to the point.  “Blunt”, as The Message version says.

Blunt–saying or expressing something in a very direct way that may upset some people.
Saying what I mean and meaning what I say. Kind of like when I tell my kids to clean their room.  That is what I mean.  I expect it to be accomplished.  There is not room for any gray in that command.  No excuses, and not the  dreaded  “But”.
We are supposed to love those around us.  If we claim to love God, whom we cannot see, we must love those we can.  If not, where is our love for God?  Do we truly love HIm?

Words can be cheap.  If they are not followed up by action, what good does it really do?  James, in his letter, says the demons believe in God too….and shudder.
Faith. Love. Without actions, these are nothing but words that we say.

Those of you who remember the 90’s and the group DC Talk might remember a hit song they had, Luv is a verb.  One of the lines: It was black and white with no room for grey.  No if, ands, or buts.  We are to show the love of Christ to others.
The key to understanding this and other statements about love is to know that this love (the Greek word agape) is not so much a matter of emotion as it is of doing things for the benefit of another person; that is, having an unselfish concern for another and a willingness to seek the best for others.
It is shown most clearly by what it does.

We are told to love others, whether friend or foe. 

When I see this described in such a way, I think of Philippians 2:3-5–Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but consider others better than yourselves…

Agape love is shown most clearly by what it does.  
It's a love that can only come from the source–God.  So for us to show this love to others, again, we must be plugged into the Source–we must remain and abide in the vine.

Where love for God is, love for others must be also, for where love is not shown to others, there is an absence of a love for God.

1 John 3:16-18– We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?  Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

As we go this week, let’s put this love into action as Pastor Dave challenged us on Sunday morning. Be aware of where God wants to use you. 

You are so cut out to do this!  God has a purpose and plan for all of us.  We CAN show the love of Christ to others!!!

Have a great day!

Imitate by Pastor Chris

Posted on by
Reply

IMITATE

Luke 6:40– Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.

Fully Trained

That is something we will be striving for all our lives.  I think to become fully trained we must continue to abide in Him, as we have talked about the last few devotionals this week.

Become like the teacher

When Christian was about 4 or 5 he would watch me mow the lawn and he wanted to do the same.  So he would drag out his little plastic lawnmower and follow me around the lawn.  He would wear shorts and cowboy boots.(Don’t worry; that is not what I wore.)

He would even occasionally stop and mess with the mower, as I often did.  He would pretend he had to pull start it like I did.

I also would listen to an iPod as I mowed.  He would find an old pair of earbuds, put them in, and wear them–plugged into absolutely nothing.

He did it because he saw me doing that.  He wanted to imitate me.  He wanted to become like me.

Now, Christian is old enough to actually mow the lawn–with a real mower.  But that didn’t stop him from doing what he could when he could.

And guess what?  When he was mowing with his fake mower, I wasn’t upset.  I thought it was neat that he would imitate me.  He was trying and doing his best with what he knew at the time.

Now, he is fully trained and can actually mow the lawn.  He is accomplishing something.  That training where he was doing his best helped him learn.

As followers of Jesus, let us not wait to do something for Jesus. Do what you can, but never ever stop growing.

Students

As I read this verse earlier this week , I was struck that we are students, students of Jesus. He is our Master, the one we as His disciples are to truly aim to be like.

Jesus gives us a wonderful promise.  The more we are taught in Him, grow with Jesus, and abide with Him, the more we will become like Jesus, and become “conformed to the image of His Son.”  Romans 8:29

And just like Christian imitated me, we are to imitate Jesus.  Paul tells the church of Corinth to “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.”

Are we imitating Christ?  Is He our first and foremost teacher?

The problem with Christians is not that they don’t love Jesus, it is that they don’t only love Jesus.  A.W. Tozer

We allow too many distractions to enter our life, too many “loves”, and these keep us from learning and becoming like our teacher, Jesus.

My son wanted to do what I did because He loved me.

As disciples of Jesus, we love Jesus.  We tend to grow up into the likeness of what or who we admire and as disciples, or followers of Christ, we should imitate Him.

Let’s keep walking and abiding with Christ.  Fruit will be produced, and we will grow more and more like Jesus!

 

 

Definitely, Maybe by Pastor Matt

Posted on by
Reply

Song: I Will Follow You

Artist: Jon Guerra

57 As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”59 He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”60 But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”61 Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”62 But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:57-62

Definitely

We’ve been looking all week at discipleship, about what it really means to follow Jesus. To do what he says. Or, you might say, to go where he goes.

This moment in Luke’s narrative marks a significant turning point in Jesus’ life and ministry. Just a few verses earlier, we read this: When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

He set his face to go to Jerusalem. What was waiting for Jesus in Jerusalem? Confrontation. Trial. And cross. He set his face…to the cross.

And now we read: as they were walking along. Walking where? To Jerusalem. Walking along to Jerusalem. Walking along…to the cross.

And on the way, someone says to Jesus, “I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

Sometimes, I think I’m just as clueless as this guy walking alongside Jesus on that road to the cross. I’ll follow you wherever you go! Definitely! This guy was clueless. And, often, I am as well.

Maybe

Then Jesus flips the script. As he’s walking along – to Jerusalem – to the cross, He says to two others, “Come, follow me.” This time, Jesus initiates the conversation.

Where the first guy seems a bit naive, these two are a bit more reluctant. Let’s call them cautiously optimistic. Or reluctantly willing. “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first…” How many times have I walked along this very same road?!

Definitely!…maybe.

“Maybes” are subtle, and often legitimate. Yes, Lord! But first…

This passage makes one thing very clear: the decision to follow Jesus is an unqualified decision to follow Jesus – to reshuffle the priorities of our lives, submitting them all to His call. The disciple’s call is a call to go where He goes. And where He went was the cross.

It reminds a lot of something else Jesus said: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”

Give up your own way, take up your cross. Reshuffle your priorities, go where Jesus goes.

The invitation today? Sniff out the “maybes” in your “walkingalong” with Christ.