SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” 
― Maya Angelou

ECCLESIASTES 7-9

7Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. (9:7-10)

2 CORINTHIANS 11:1-15

12And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

JOURNAL 

To read these verses in Ecclesiastes is sobering. To think that I may not have tomorrow and my time on earth is ticking away somehow hits me like cold water in the face. Why do I think that I am guaranteed anything other than this moment. I am not, it can all end in a flash and have I really made the most of this moment? Have I really lived it fully, or have I spent it in regret over yesterday and in worry over tomorrow? Have I spent it comforting myself or protecting myself from the realities of life? If the answer is any of these then my moment was wasted.

Love is an action, love is doing something, not sitting around pondering. Love risks, love bleeds...love does not waste time protecting itself. Love gives and nurtures and is willing to risk rejection and heartache and embarrassment just to connect and give to someone else.

There also is a point in living in the moment that I am not to berate myself for failures. Failures are necessary for learning. I will fail every day...therefore I will learn everyday. Really also failures are relative. Give myself permission to enjoy the day...to have fun, to turn this day and work into something memorable, good, light and loving. That is trusting God...that where I am, the life I'm living is not a mistake but rather God's sovereign will.

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

JAMES 2:14-17

SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

"4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
― 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7

ECCLESIASTES 4-6

10Whoever loves money never has enough;

whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless.

11As goods increase,

so do those who consume them.

And what benefit are they to the owners

except to feast their eyes on them? (5:10-11)

2 CORINTHIANS 10

17But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”^b18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

JOURNAL 

All of life is about learning to become content with who we are, who God is and coming to terms with what we offer the world. The one thing that we can always give regardless of talent or ability is love. To care for others and give them the love that we receive from God is the greatest blessing in life.

Yet what usually trips me up is when I start doubting God's love, and begin to look to man for validation and affirmation. It is such a losing game. For people can never love the way we want them to love. When I start venturing down this path...everything becomes tainted and grey. Yet when I am in the middle of God's love for me...everything is bright and alive and I feel a power and joy that really cannot be replaced.

I think this is why 1 Corinthians 13 and the description of love is so important. Not only can I look to it and see how miserably I fail to love in this way. But I also can look at it and realize that this kind of love is beyond the human race. It is truly Godly and only in God can we receive and give anything close to this capacity.  I can therefore let other humans off the hook to provide this for me. The tastes we get with each other are only because God is part of it.  It is only because he is working in and through us.

When I think about Jesus and the fact that he was the most loving, perfect human being to ever live and yet he was betrayed, questioned, spit on and abandoned. How can I ever expect to look to mankind to receive affirmation and validation when mankind failed so miserably in even giving it to Jesus. What I can do though is to seek God and his love and once accepted I can love and can give that love away. In doing so I can then recognize when another person is filled with this love. I can then connect in ways that brings us into the presence and fellowship of God. This is the church and it has nothing to do with a building or an alter or a choir...yet in this the miracle and holiness of God is experienced. It can be found anywhere that two human beings experience and connect in the love and grace of Christ.

20For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

MATTHEW 18:20

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging does not require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.
― BRENE' BROWN

PROVERBS 25-27

19As water reflects the face,

so one’s life reflects the heart. (27:19)

2 CORINTHIANS 6

3We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

JOURNAL 

I have been reading Brene' Brown's new book. The whole idea that you belong nowhere but everywhere is radical but also is ingrained in biblical truth. We are here because we belong but our identity can never be derived from belonging to a particular group or sect of society. Identity is uniquely personal and can only come from our own uniqueness. It must be possessed yet derived from God. The verse in Corinthians presents multiple paradoxes and I love that this is the essence in being in the world but not of it. It is the paradox that to get your life you must give it up.

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

34“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

LUKE 14:25-35

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” 
― Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

PROVERBS 23-24

30I went past the field of a sluggard,

past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;

31thorns had come up everywhere,

the ground was covered with weeds,

and the stone wall was in ruins.

32I applied my heart to what I observed

and learned a lesson from what I saw:

33A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest—

34and poverty will come on you like a thief

and scarcity like an armed man. (24:30-34)

2 CORINTHIANS 5

 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin^b for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

JOURNAL 

What does it really mean to be "the righteousness of God"?  What does it mean to be "Christ's ambassador"? Ultimately I think it means to become the best of yourself...to not lose my unique identity but yet be the best version of me. The only way that can occur is to rest in confidence of my talents, abilities and trust God for direction. To have my actions come from a place of being filtered through the Godly characteristics of love and honor...is to be disciplined in not defaulting to my emotions but rather to choose to operate from God's wisdom and love.

This requires a daily shift and change to not be ruled by feelings but rather to see and view feelings and emotions as tools and indicators rather that a default mode of operation. I may feel fear and anxiety in certain situations but God has given me a brain and an ability to stand apart from those feelings and view them in the context of my current circumstance. To be able to pause and view them and not immediately react is the unique gift of being human. To then be able to filter all of that through the stories of scripture and the tenants of truth as well as pause to pray and ensure that any decision I make lines up with scriptural truth as well as internal truth...this is the operation process which will guide me into living a life that is the righteousness of God.

This is not easy...most times it is very hard to not choose an immediate reaction but rather to pause briefly to think it through. But if I am to live as a believer this is the life I have dedicated myself to live. This is the mode of operation that I have surrendered to for eternity.

 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

GALATIANS 2:20

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

“I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me, and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.” 
― Mother Teresa

PROVERBS 21-22 

25The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him,

because his hands refuse to work.

26All day long he craves for more,

but the righteous give without sparing. (21:25-26)

2 CORINTHIANS 4

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

JOURNAL 

Working and giving are directly a result of being transformed by God's love. When we are transformed our concern is no longer being loved, our focus turns to giving, working and living in order to reflect God's spirit.

 14“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

1 CHRONICLES 29:14