Tag Love

Don’t Leave Love Letters Unopened

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Photo by John Jennings on Unsplash

An old friend used to encourage me to read the Bible every day, and his reasoning was: “The Bible is 66 love letters from God.  If you got a love letter from any other person, would you put off reading it?”  It took many years before I really took this to heart, but I always remembered it. 

Dear fellow travelers,

I pass along that story, but I’ll also add more to it.  The best times are not when we just read these letters.  Devotions aren’t just lessons, memorization exercises, a disciplinary action, or a time to pay your dues so you can get on with your day.  They are time spent with Someone who loves you more than anything, and who wants you to love and trust Him more than anything.  Treat Him as you would treat an honored guest, because He is really there with you.

Think of it this way – How often do you get to spend time with someone who fulfills 1 Cor 13:4-7 perfectly?

Someone who is patient and kind; who does not envy or boast; is not arrogant or rude. Who does not insist on His own way; is not irritable or resentful; does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [1]

Nobody else we see today will be nearly as good to us.

We all miss days, even weeks or longer, but He is patient and kind.  We can try again tomorrow or later today, and He will be there.

[1] This paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 was suggested in a devotional: “August 30.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).  It was also the basis of a prior post, Jesus is Patient and Kind Even When I am Not

Our Mighty God: What We Need for Christmas…Part 3

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According to James Boice (see first post in the series), if you asked people to honestly describe their needs, they might describe one as: “We…have wills, and because we have wills, we want to achieve something. We want our lives to make a difference. To do that we need power.”[1]  This is a second need of us all, according to James Boice.  In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus, the Christ of Christmas, is described as our Mighty God, who Boice says “will empower us for life’s tasks” – those tasks He points us to in His wisdom.

The word Mighty probably calls to mind miraculous events, military victory, or superhero-like powers.  But ultimately, His greatest objectives for us – to love Him and to love our neighbor – are what He uses His might to accomplish.  When our Wonderful Counselor (see last post in series) gives wisdom to make a choice in life, He actually wants us to act on that choice because He knows how it will turn out – for our ultimate good – but what if we don’t agree with the choice, or don’t have the willpower to make it?

Photo by Hert Niks on Unsplash

God, unlike Lucy in the Peanuts comics, will not tell us to kick the football, then pull it away at the last second, leaving us on our back.  To those who trust Him, He will provide the ability to make a loving difference in the world.  As Mighty God, He puts His own resources and power behind His recommended wisdom to produce the desired effect of loving, godly living.

Put another way: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” as written in 2 Peter 1:3.  He does not empower us to do just anything, or to do whatever we decide; He will empower us to “life and godliness.”  In wisdom, He knows this is what is ultimately worthwhile, and His power creates a new desire and a new influence in us, molding our wills that want to make a difference but may not know how.  His power also works in others to provide what we need, or works to put in our path someone who needs us.

The gift of Jesus as Mighty God meets one of our deepest needs:
“To achieve something worthwhile! Jesus is the Mighty God who enables us to do that. We accomplish worthwhile things through his power.” (Boice)

Do you want to achieve worthwhile things this Christmas and in 2025?  Our Mighty God wants to enable us to love Him and love others.  Seek the wisdom of Christ and become empowered by Him to love as you have never loved before.

This is the second gift of Christ in Christmas.

[1] From “May 10.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).

A Ministry Lesson From Jonah

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In the Old Testament, God’s people – the Jews – were supposed to be a blessing to other nations[1], pointing them to God.  Ultimately this blessing came through Jesus Christ, but in the meantime God’s people didn’t always live up to His expectations.  One disappointing example was Jonah.  God said to him in Jonah 1:2 –

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

But Nineveh was in Assyria, one of Israel’s enemies.  God said in the call to Jonah that they were “evil.”  50 or so years later Assyria would conquer Israel.  Jonah hated his enemy Assyria and didn’t want to prophesy to them even though God told him to, so what did he do instead?  He ran away.

In his commentary on Jonah, Warren Wiersbe wrote: “When you turn your back on God, the only direction you can go is down.”[2]  What did he mean?

Notice that in verse 3, Jonah goes “down to Joppa,” and “down into” a ship he found to take him to Tarshish, far away from both Israel and Nineveh.  Later in verse 5, Jonah “had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.”  From the minute Jonah decided to run from God, he found himself in a descending spiral and ended up in despair, asking the sailors to throw him (down?) into the sea to calm a storm.  The Bible doesn’t use the word “down”, but you could say that after Jonah was tossed in the sea that he went down into the belly of the great fish when he was swallowed up.

It is only when Jonah prays a prayer of thanksgiving to God for saving his life and he says “you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God” that things start to look up for him.  He is then “vomited…out upon the dry land”[3] and given a second chance.

Like the ancient Jews, the modern church is also called to be a blessing to the nations, for example in Matthew 28:19-20, the verses known as the “Great Commission”:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This commission is to bless “all nations,” and note Jesus said to “make disciples,” not to “make converts” which means that the Great Commission goes beyond evangelism.  While we are all called to evangelize, and some are particularly blessed in it, the commission includes each Christian’s ministry to the church as well as we help each other live as Christ did, blessing those around us.  As Paul wrote in Romans 12:4-8, we all have a role in making disciples:

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.  Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

This isn’t a full list of what are called “spiritual gifts,” but prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, generosity, leadership and mercy cover a lot of different activities and ministries.

While Jonah had his call to preach to Nineveh, and all Christians have the call to “make disciples of all nations,” but like Jonah do we also have certain people or types of people – maybe those we consider evil – we’d rather not minister to?  Are there tasks that we run away from, even if we feel God is calling us to do them, because of who else is involved?  Are there times where we, like Jonah, are what Wiersbe called a “narrow-minded patriot,”[4] more concerned about being on the right side from our worldly or political perspective than about being on God’s side?

If so, the lesson from Jonah is: don’t neglect what God has called you to do, because when you do, “the only direction you can go is down.”

Maybe even into the belly of a big fish.

Who is God asking us to minister to today?

[1] Genesis 12:3
[2] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Amazed (Minor Prophets Hosea – Malachi) (1996).  P. 99.
[3] Jonah 2:10
[4] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Amazed (Minor Prophets Hosea – Malachi) (1996).  P. 113.

Jesus is Patient and Kind Even When I am Not

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Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on His own way; He is not irritable or resentful; He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Knowing the love Jesus has for us is an encouraging thought. This paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 was suggested in a devotional I read in 2021 [1] for John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  James Boice said that we are not to “love” in any way we see fit, but as Jesus loved, which the above describes.

Based on John 13:34, Boice says we should also be able to substitute “I” in place of “Jesus” in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and see what He commands us to be.  When I re-read the first paragraph with myself in mind, I see how much I fall short, but His love for me remains an encouragement.  He will be patient and kind with me.

Pray that we may get ever closer to living the love of Jesus.

[1] From “August 30.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).

Godly Competition

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For people with competitive personalities, their competitiveness can get out of hand when it leads to boasting or belittling others.  Some people may think the competitiveness itself is to blame and ask, is it ok for Christians to be competitive?  Or is it only bad to be overcompetitive?  Are there better ways to compete?  In Romans 12:10, the apostle Paul gives us one example of where we should be as competitive as we possibly can:

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Photo by Meghan Hessler on Unsplash

When Paul says we should “outdo one another” he’s setting up a competition among believers, using a Greek word that means “to lead the way for others”[1]  Paul is saying we should be trying our best to show more honor to others than others do.  It’s a competition where everybody wins but doesn’t require participation trophies.  We aren’t competing in worldly ways, to win honor for ourselves, but to honor others, or to esteem others as being of great value to us.

But also, I think Paul is referring to what came before in the verse: “Love one another with brotherly affection”.  In this phrase, Paul combines two Greek words for love: one that means love for our figurative brothers, or people like us, and another that means love for our literal brothers, or close relatives.  In the context of the church, this means to love other Christians as you love your own blood relatives.  This makes sense because our Christian brothers and sisters are all permanent relations in Christ – maybe more permanent than our actual blood relatives.

Back to the full verse:

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Together, these phrases are telling us to do our best to love our fellow Christians as well as we possibly can, competing to do it better than others and to lead by example.  We are to honor them because they are Christ’s, not because we get something in return.

So, yes, its ok to be competitive.  Sometimes it’s even encouraged!  Consider how to outdo others in love and showing honor today.  Do your best to win today.

[1] Strong’s Dictionary