Love

It’s In the Details

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Every Friday at 9:00 AM, a few men from our church meet for breakfast. [Hint: If you want to join us, we meet each week at the Coffee Cup on North Lafayette Ave. in Terre Haute, Indiana] The food is great, and the fellowship is excellent.

Recently, as we were talking, one of the guys made a comment that stuck with me. He said he always wears his “Mickey” hat when he is out in public. The hat is the kind that guys often wear when fishing, and it has a small Mickey Mouse® logo. It is very casual but distinctive.

My friend said, “This hat is genuine. It’s from Disney®. I wear it so people remember me. They “know me.” They see what I do, where I go, and what I buy. Of course, this is a two-edged sword. They’ll know if I mess up.” His comment resonated with me.

Over the years, I’ve written several times about the good and bad of developing brands (The Brand of the Man, Building Our Brands, The Real Deal, etc.). I’m the guy that usually wears an unbuttoned denim shirt over a plain, colored T-shirt, jeans, and white tennis shoes. I learned from my wife that what I wear is called my “life uniform” – they have names for everything now!

We must not forget that Jesus told us what we are to be known for:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34–35 NIV

Unfathomable love is how we must love. Jesus also told His disciples to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves1“. These two truths are not in conflict. We are confident of this because God’s Word states:

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.”

Psalm 37:23

The “every detail” brings us back to my friend’s statement. Few people live their lives in the same town, work decades for the same company, and live their adult lives in the same home. So, as followers of Jesus, we need to be noticeable. It may be a brief time that they or we will be in the same community.

As we love people with love coming through us from God, we need to pay attention to the details in our lives. God delights in every detail of a godly person; we need to be those persons.

From people that work in restaurants, service stations, and mail delivery to educators and government workers, all should learn to recognize us and see the consistent, unalterable compassion, humility, and love that is unlike anything they ever witness from the world.

There’s a song that has received a lot of air-play on Christian radio stations. It’s titled, “God is in this story.” Here’s the first part of the chorus.”

God is in this story
God is in the details
Even in the broken parts
He holds my heart, He never fails
– Song by Big Daddy Weave and Katy Nichole, YouTube video

Self-Aware

God is in the details. I love that message. We need to pay attention to how we live, thinking about what we say, what we do, and where we go. The apostle Paul wrote, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.[1]” It is good for people to recognize us. When they see us, they should see us loving in the way that Jesus loves[2]. After a while, we will be known by them for our love.

Photo by On Shot

You may like: One of those people

1: Ephesians 5:15 NLT – Living by the Spirit’s Power – Bible Gateway
2: John 13:34 NLT – So now I am giving you a new – Bible Gateway

Girl Mud Run Slope Help Challenge Woman Tough

Look After Each Other

By / 4 minutes of reading / ,

One of the first events in the Bible is when God asks Adam’s son Cain the rhetorical question, “Where is Able, your brother? 1” God knew that Cain had murdered Able, but in God’s grace, He was allowing Cain to confess his sin and seek God’s forgiveness. Instead, Cain’s foolish answer was, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

Cain’s question has a clear answer – yes, you are responsible for your brother. Many mothers and grandmothers have asked similar questions to older siblings: “Where is Andy? You know it’s your job to keep an eye on your younger brother.” The term “keeper” in this context means to act as a protector or guardian.

Look After Each Other.

“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

Turning back to the Bible, we find in the book of Hebrews the command, “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God2.” God’s grace saves us, and it is through His grace that we are productive citizens of His kingdom.

As believers in Christ Jesus our Lord, each of us carries a personal responsibility to be protectors of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s easy for us to build a wall around the meaning of this verse. If we narrow down this verse’s significance to solely spiritual aspects, we can claim that we have done everything in our power to safeguard our fellow believers from missing out on the grace of God. But how can others tell if we have? 

It may be difficult for believers to know that we failed God’s command, but we know, just as Cain knew his brother was dead. You and I have the responsibility to help fellow believers from falling back into worldliness; that’s not an easy job. 

Real Faith Produces Real Actions.

A 20th-century Chinese Christian and martyr said, “When two Christians happen to meet, their time together should be a time of mutual refreshing.” We should be a blessing to fellow believers, as they should be to us. When we part company, we both should be strengthened in our relationship with Jesus and in our determination to produce good deeds to show our faith in God to ourselves and others.

“What kind of faith is saving faith? James’s question3 is rhetorical; the obvious answer is that faith without works cannot save. Faith that yields no deeds is not saving faith. The New Testament does not teach justification by the profession of faith or the claim to faith; it teaches justification by the possession of true faith.”

R.C. Sproul

What Are Good Deeds?

You may ask, “What good deeds can I do to show true faith in Jesus?” This starts with encouraging fellow believers to stay faithful to their calling. Remind Christians that are going through a rough patch in their lives what Peter wrote: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you4.”

We should be more generous than any unbeliever and love more sincerely than all nonbelievers. In our conversations, we should have the mindset of elevating Jesus instead of ourselves. We need to speak about the mercy and grace that God has made available to humanity through Jesus, the only true Savior. 

Don’t Come Empty Handed.

When our day comes to stand before Jesus and explain what we did with the life He gave us5, we should be ready to tell of things Jesus did through our faith in Him. “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works6.” Therefore, in this life, we give by faith, help by faith, pray by faith, suffer by faith, encourage by faith, defend the Gospel by faith, do the impossible by faith. 

Our Calling

Jesus, God’s Messiah, calls us to do what Cain failed to do. We must be our brothers and sisters’ keepers.

Image by madsmith33 from Pixabay

You may like: Outcast or Failure

[1]: Genesis 4:9 ESV
[2]:Hebrews 12:15 NLT
[3]: James 2:14 NLT
[4]: 1 Peter 5:10 ESV
[5]: Romans 14:12
[6]: James 2:26 NLT

A picture of a sad lamb.

Bummer Lamb

By / 2 minutes of reading / , , ,

This explanation of a “bummer lamb” has circulated throughout the Internet. It is too good to ignore, so here it is.

Every once in a while, a ewe will give birth to a lamb and reject it. There are many reasons she may do this. If the lamb is returned to the ewe, the mother may even kick the poor animal away. Once a ewe rejects one of her lambs, she will never change her mind.

These little lambs will hang their heads so low that it looks like something is wrong with its neck. Their spirit is broken.

These lambs are called “bummer lambs.” Unless the shepherd intervenes, that lamb will die, rejected and alone. So, do you know what the shepherd does? He takes that rejected little one into his home, hand-feeds it, and keeps it warm by the fire. He will wrap it up with blankets and hold it to his chest so the bummer can hear his heartbeat. Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock.

But that sheep never forgets how the shepherd cared for him when his mother rejected him. When the shepherd calls for the flock, guess who runs to him first?

That is right, the bummer sheep. He knows his voice intimately. It is not that the bummer lamb is loved more; it just knows intimately the one who loves it.

It’s not that it is loved more; it just believes it because it has experienced that love one on one.
So many of us are bummer lambs, rejected and broken. But He is the good Shepherd. He cares for our every need and holds us close to His heart so we can hear His heartbeat.

We may be broken, but we are deeply loved by the Shepherd.

Image by Ralph from Pixabay

You may like: Grace Not Place

Pssst 🎧 I’ve Got a Secret for You

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Many years ago, there used to be a TV show called “I’ve Got a Secret.” The point of the show was to find out if four people could ask a famous person the right questions to guess what that person’s job was.

The show had four semi-famous panelists (people) that wore blindfolds. Each week a famous or well-known person would be on the show. The host, Garry Moore, officiated in a light-hearted way to ensure the game was properly played.

The show was a hit, running from 1952 until 1967. And for most of my life, it required me to know every aspect of the show because nearly every new person I met would ask me if I knew about the show. You see, my name is also Gary Moore, and I’ve got a secret.

The Secret

I’ll share my secret with you only if you share it with someone else. I am weary from what I know remaining a secret. So here it is: No one has ever been unloved; this includes you.

You may roll your eyes and think that I’m espousing some threadbare idiom. I assure you that I am not. My secret is that this love is real love, and it is unbroken love, and it continues to this day. Remember that time when you felt completely alone and cried your eyes out? You weren’t alone, and those tears have been kept out of compassion for you. This is true.

If you’ve ever believed anything, believe that Jesus has never taken His eyes off of you. To Jesus, you have always been like a newborn baby – beautiful, full of potential, and you have your Father’s eyes. Jesus even keeps a baby book where he memorializes the ‘firsts’ of your life.

The Truth

Do you think I’m disingenuous?

“You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.” Psalm 56:8

This verse is not just some poetic line; it is factually true. As Paul wrote, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.” (Ephesians 3:18

I have a second secret. The door to be in an eternal, loving relationship with God is Jesus. He is the way to love God back. Jesus is the truth that affirms this opportunity. And surprisingly, Jesus is life. He has the power to not just make you better but to give you eternal life so that you will never be separated from God’s love.

Good News

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” Ephesians 3:18

You have never been unloved. You have never been discarded. You have never been unseen. God has always loved you. That is my secret. I hope you share this good news with your friends and family.

CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

You may like: In a time of message fatigue, what’s our message?

Picture of Keith Green.

His Promises Remain

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me

But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood

My Eyes Are Dry by Keith Green.
YouTube of Keith singing this song

You can be twenty years old and have an old heart. Being in love with Jesus, keeping it fresh and eager every morning to learn what God has given you to do that day, is easily lost. A memorable line from the movie “Parenthood” is when Steve Martin, in a moment of frustration, says, “My whole life is ‘have to’s.” So, for three minutes today, lay down your burden and allow me to encourage you in the Lord.

Just because the Bible contains words that were first penned two thousand years ago, and more, does not mean that God’s promises are no longer effective. Those prescriptions have no use-by date. Actually, those promises came from the eternal, one true God. From God’s perspective, His promises were just given; they were written just a moment ago, and they contain all the strength and potency God intended, and they are for you if you are in Jesus.

You may say, “I prayed for my beloved mother, a God-fearing woman, yet she still died too soon.” Do you think that since her passing she has ever had one regret for leaving this wretched world and being forever in the presence of the Lord?

You might say, “I have prayed and sought Jesus to bring my local church back to the way it was when I was young.” I’m with you on that one, but we serve “I AM.” God works in the now, and He is moving us and the world in preparation for the return of Jesus. We can love what we have, but as servants of God, we must keep up with Him. He has an agenda, and in His love and grace, He has included you. We celebrate what God did, but we work in what God is doing.

Does your heart feel old? Do you feel like your life is not the one you saw when you were first saved? Do you feel like your life is all “have to’s?” Then I recommend what Keith Green wrote. I pray that you allow the Holy Spirit, who is already alive within you, to pour fresh oil and wine upon you. The oil is the Spirit of God, and the wine represents the sacrificed blood of Jesus.

Your first love, when you were saved, is not lost in the past. It is right beside you. It has never left. Ask Jesus for freshness, a soft heart, and a hungry soul. He will give them if you ask in faith.

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24

Eseymour at en.Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

You may like: Divine Appointment

father disciplining adorable attentive son at home

Discipline Is not Punishment.

By / 3 minutes of reading / ,

I’ve noticed that Americans are very sloppy with the words we write and speak. We say that we love our child, and we love ice cream. Just this one sentence has probably earned enormous sums of money for therapists. Consider these conversations:

Adult: Why did my Dad love me like ice cream?
Therapist: Perhaps he wished you would melt away.

And then we have a problem with speaking. What we say is barely comprehensible from the written words.

Written: “James, be sure to wash your hands today.”
Spoken: “Jimmy, be sure to warsh yer hands ta-day.”

We all have certain misspoken words that literally drive us nuts. 😉 It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard when we hear “worshed” instead of “washed.” My pet peeve is when people say “ta-marrow” instead of “tomorrow.” It’s painful for me to hear Annie in “Annie, the Musical” sing, “Ta-morrow! Ta-marrow. I love ya ta-marrow! You’re only a day away!” And, how many times have you heard someone say punish when they meant discipline?

Mom: “Jimmy, this is the last time I’ll clean candy out of your jeans pocket! They went through the wash today and left a gooey mess. You will scrape that mess out and then handwash your jeans as your punishment.”
Dad: “Jimmy, that was a bonehead thing to do. If you do it again, your mother will kill you.”

With our language being as wonky as it is, it’s easy to mix up the meaning of words when we read the Bible. Mom didn’t mean punishment; she meant discipline. On the other hand, Dad implied punishment but not a capital offense.

Compare these two verses:

“Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” 1 John 4:18 (New Living Translation)

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” Hebrews 12:7 (New Living Translation).

We are promised by God that if we are His child, we no longer face His punishment. Because God is our Father, He disciplines us. All discipline is love in action with an expectation of improvement. No one disciples a pet or a kid if they don’t love them. All discipline is intended to help, to guide, to nurture. How can we not rejoice in God’s discipline? Discipline is not punishment.

There is a day when judgment will come. On that day, God will hate everyone who rejected His sacrifice, Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb. These people will not receive discipline. They will receive eternal, unending punishment. God will not expect their improvement. Each will bow before Jesus, but their bow is the surrender of the conquered, not the bow of worship.

So, praise God! The love we enjoy from our Father has no fear, and all discipline is His love in action. He has expectations for us. That’s exciting! Who does He see when He looks at us? Oh God, bring your discipline. Help us to be that person You see in us!!

Photo by Monstera

You may like: 1 (800) Ded-Life

Jesus Christ God Holy Spirit Bible Gospel Coffee

Faith Is Expressed in Love

By / 2 minutes of reading / ,

When I was a young Christian, more than once, I’d hear someone in our local church, complain that so-and-so was so heavenly-minded that they were no earthly good. In those early years, I learned to identify people that had ignored the admonition from James,

“Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

James 2:18

Expressed Faith

Something didn’t feel right when I heard those comments. Well, that was because I was ignoring 1 John 4:20-21 NLT, “if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see.”

This leads me to today’s thought, found in Galatians 5:6b NLT, “What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” The answer to thousands of questions about faith is found in those few words.

When asked the question, “What should you be doing with your life?” most people think of occupations, some think of recreation, and a few think of some sort of ministry.” I’ll hazard a guess that only a handful would reply, “I want to allow the faith God has given me to be expressed in my love.” But faith expressed through love is the right answer and the most difficult answer.

Good News

Because we were born in sin, people are wired to harshly judge people and live faithless lives. But we left this way of life behind when, in Christ Jesus, we entered God’s kingdom. I pray that we all remember that if we can’t love someone we see, how can we expect to love God, whom we’ve never seen? And what greater good can come from our faith than to allow our faith to express itself in love? My prayer for all of us is that we are so heavenly-minded that we are of immense earthly good.

Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay

You may like: Loving Our Brothers and Sisters

All Connected

By / 2 minutes of reading / , ,

No man is an island – a poem by John Donne (1572-1631)

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
It tolls for thee.

What a remarkable statement, “If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.” That line never fails to stir my heart, as does the line, “And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” During John Donne’s time, the ringing of bells let people know when someone within their community had died. It was important for the whole community to know they’d lost one of their own. We need that kind of thinking in our local churches.

A church can’t be just a loose association of Christians. Whatever befalls any one of us affects us all. Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church, has declared that we are to “love one another” in a way that is so unique that people of the world take notice and see what can’t be found in their world. Sadly, somehow in America, the frequency of ‘death tolls’ has skewed our understanding of love. We say we love, but what remains of love if we fail to share the Gospel with the living and ignore the needs of those that remain after death?

Speaking of death, death is taken too casually in our world. I think that’s because we read about it every day – the casualties in Ukraine, the people that froze to death in Buffalo, New York, and so forth. The totality of daily deaths numbs us. It is difficult for us to see the preciousness of life buried in those numbers. Nevertheless, we must.

As John Donne wrote, “Any man’s death diminishes me.” So, as we begin to fold and pack away 2022, before we fasten that box, let’s ask our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to assess and show us how we represented Him to those in this lost and dying world. How did our local church respond? And for 2023, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to change us, so that we will hear with Christ’s ears, actively love with His heart, and always see the preciousness of life in everyone. For, if not us, then who?

You may like: Sloppy Prayers

Firm in the Faith

1 Comment / By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Last night I heard a PSA (public service announcement) that was very hateful. It got me thinking about how we, as Christians, should live in our nation(s) with their subjective truths and ungodly morals. Then, this morning, I read this verse:

“13 Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. 14 And do everything with love.” 

1 Corinthians 16:13

These are marching orders, marching orders for all who claim Jesus as their Lord. How different they are from those we hear in the media. 

Love is Our Command

The last word in our marching orders is “love.” How weird is that! Usually, aggressive marching or a chant ends with words like “hate” or “hell.” Even non-violent protesters usually pit themselves against their enemies, but not those who imitate Christ. We offer to help our enemies, pray for our enemies, to be slaves to our enemies. We commit ourselves to love with true love those people that hate us because those people are made in the image of God.

If you’ve ever loved a newborn baby or a grandchild, you know you could never wish them harm. It’s that kind of love that Jesus expects from us for people that want to be our enemies. So, if they steal from us, offer to give more; if they seek to put demands on us that the unrighteous don’t carry, offer to carry more. When we are oppressed, we pray out of love for our oppressors, and we seek out ways to tangibly demonstrate our love. (Matthew 5:38-45)

Love the Lost

Oh, you may say, “We must stand against the wicked.” I say, “We must stand against the wicked in our churches, against anyone that claims to belong to Jesus but openly rebels against His Holy Bible. But it’s different for the lost. 

12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” 

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

The lost will never receive the Good News of Jesus unless they see that His people are uniquely different from their friends and families. Hate always hardens people, but sacrificial love resonates with those who know their hearts need filling.

Our Marching Orders

So, especially during Christmas time let’s embrace our marching orders. Let’s be the people that Jesus desires. Let’s love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and love inexplicably people that desire us harm. Remember, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

You may like: Be strong — that’s how God sees you.

Get God’s Attention

By / 3 minutes of reading / ,

You probably have read the following verses in one translation or another, but there’s something here that you may have missed. I chose the New Living Translation because it takes Koine Greek and translates it into a very familiar vernacular for us. So let’s consider for a minute or two these verses:

“Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.”

1 Corinthians 3:8–9 NLT

God Knows

There is an important truth packaged in these two short verses. This truth is one I recently learned from my dad despite the fact that he went to be with our Lord sixteen years ago.

Dad left behind six Bibles that he had studied, cover-to-cover, and written notes in their margins, augmented with post-it notes when the margins were insufficient. So, today, when I read 1 Corinthians 3:8–9 NLT I saw a note my dad had made in the margin. It read, “To love God, get His attention.” This struck me as a gem.

As I thought about what Dad had written, I reread the verses. Then I looked up the greek word that the NLT translated as “recognizes.” This word means: to ‘know’ in a great variety of applications and with many implications.

How We Do It

Now I began trying to put today’s verses into my own words, not to replace Scripture but to test my understanding of God’s Word. Here is what I came up with (try it yourself): “A person who loves God knows more than the people that think they have all the answers because a person who loves God knows the One that has all of the answers. And that person is one whom God knows everything about.” Remember, at the final judgment, Jesus will tell some people, “Depart from Me for I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21–23)

We are to love God. In return, God comes close to us, and He recognizes us; He knows us. God’s recognition isn’t like getting a good pair of glasses. Instead, it’s like knowing how you feel when your pet dies. Now I wondered, does coming to God and loving God square with Dad’s statement: “get His attention?” Then I remembered a scene from a 1990s Australian tv cop series that my wife and I watched.

In this one scene, an intense senior detective is on the phone, trying to carry on a conversation with a small child while the police are desperately searching for the child. As the detective continues his toddler-talk a female police officer becomes enraptured with him as he humbles himself to speaks toddler-talk in his attempt to keep the child on the phone.

Good News

In that one scene, I saw how to get God’s attention; we do it by becoming enraptured with Him. Our unhindered love for God will naturally result in us performing good works that testify to the majesty of Jesus Christ our Lord. This is how we get God’s attention. We do it with our love.

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

You may like: The “us” love

Scroll to Top
%d bloggers like this: