“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” – Hebrews 12:2, NLT
God has been teaching me a lot lately about how I view people. For instance, recently I ordered food at the drive-thru of a local fast-food joint. The voice that came through the microphone was very well-spoken, eloquent, and respectful. Pulling up to the window to pay for the meal, before me stood a gentleman with green hair, big fat wooden earrings in his ears, tattoos, and so forth. I mentioned to my husband that I would have never identified that voice with that look or persona (not that any of those things are indicators of anything negative, it was just an observation).
Often we can come across people in our pathway who don’t look the way we feel they should look or don’t carry themselves in a manner approving of our standards, yet in them is a real person with a real soul.
David was judged wrongly by those of his own house. When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse’s house to anoint a new king no one suspected that the little ruddy boy out in the fields was the one God had in mind. Even Samuel himself looked at the appearance of the other young men and thought that surely one of these was the one God was seeking after. God plainly told Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7).
God has a perspective that we can’t have; He can see the heart of man. Perhaps instead of making up our minds too quickly about individuals, we can just decide to love them and accept them as God made them and let God be the one to deal with their hearts. God is awesome like that! He keeps teaching me and I am still learning, and in the process, I am pleasantly surprised.
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All throughout the Bible God is seen as being a promoter of strong family relationships. Lee Iacocca said, “No matter what you’ve done for yourself or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished.”
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HAPPY SATURDAY!!! SHINE ON!!!
Jesus is the light of the world and that light dwells in us. May we throw off the gloominess of the days and shine for Him. May your day shine as brightly as the Son who is in you
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One of the simplest, yet ingenious toys for children I have ever seen anyone come up with is building blocks. These non-electronic toys really grab hold of a child’s imagination and inspires them to build whatever their little heart desires.
It’s not so hard to let your imagination roam even as an adult. That’s what sets our plans in motion and gives us goals to work toward a better tomorrow. While our imaginations can be good they can also be hurtful to the point of tearing down others. In the heat of the moment or in stressful situations things you would have never fathomed saying seems to have no trouble flying out of the mouth. Also, tense actions of defense can cause some to put others at arm’s length slowly to the point of disassociating themselves from people and relationships.
While love can be manifested in many ways, so too can hurt. But, our master’s isn’t to be in what tears down and causes another’s demise or destruction; rather, in what builds up.
The Bible tells us, “Love edifies,” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Love looks out for the best interest of another. As a matter of fact, the best explanations I have ever seen for how human love is to operate in relation to one another, blocks upon which we can build strong relationships even in the midst of adversity and misunderstanding, is found right in the Bible. The entire chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians summarizes what real love is to look like in our lives. It says:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
Love is the number one principle with God and it should be our number one principle in dealing with each other.
Love is our regulator. It governs our attitudes and actions in our daily relationships.
Without love, we are not working like Christ and we are not operating like God. Without love, we are just noise with no substance of what He is working through us.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be more than noise, more than fluff. I want to have something meaningful working at the core of my gift. I want lives to be changed and hearts to be lifted through what God has placed in me. This should be the attitude of every Christian. Not to get ahead, but to make a difference. Being a vessel so filled up with love and anointing, mixed with His special stuff He put on the inside of each of us, that we could help shift the atmosphere for some and help steer them on a course closer to God.
This can only happen if what you are trying to do in your life has love as its construction material.
What is your heart desiring to build today?
As building blocks in the hands of a child, love in our actions constructs something beautiful. One upon another, when we connect them together in our daily living, a great form begins to take shape, and lives are transformed when we build up one another in love.
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“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.” – Mother Theresa
Build it anyway! I love it. Many of us worry too much about all the what if’s of life. If stuff is going to happen, it’s going to happen whether we build or not; whether we worry or not. So, pick up now and start building. Let God work out all the what if’s. Just step out in faith today.
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34, NASB
Every worry and every fear, take it and leave it at the foot of that blood-stained banner that was raised for our freedom.
Every doubt and every hurt, take it to Him who is stretched wide upon those old rugged beams to experience fully the troubles we face.
Every sorrow and ever tear, take it to Him whose nail-pierced hands flow with a life poured out for you and me. He that endured the pain of the piercing knows of the rejection, and the betrayal, and the indecency of evil we all face in this life. He knows this and more for in His bearing, He held the crushing weight of all sin upon those beaten and slumped shoulders even as His heart cried out to the Father the agony of separation.
There is nothing we feel that He hasn’t already felt.
There is no experience so unique to us that He has not already carried the weight of.
There is no trouble we face that He hasn’t looked in the eye and gained the victory of it on that cross.
On that cross, He became authority and victor over all. His kingship may have been inscribed in writing by man: “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS,” (John 19:19), but God declared Him Ruler over all through His atoning sacrifice of the blood on that cross (Revelation 1:5; Romans 3:25; Matthew 28:18).
Whatever you are facing, take it to the cross and trust Him who was hung there that you may rise to a life of victory today!
Why take it to the cross?
It’s the place where the King would suffer for our healing: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” – Isaiah 53:5
It’s the place where reconciliation takes place and hostility is put to death: “He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.” – Ephesians 2:16, CSB
It’s the place where we find the truest form of peace: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” – Colossians 1:20
It’s the place where our sins were blotted out: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” – Colossians 2:14
It’s the place where we are given the opportunity to lay down the dead and pick up a life of righteousness: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24
And, it is the place where we experience true love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16
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“For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” Hebrews 9:15
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