Oh

What a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I’ve got a beautiful feeling Jesus is with us to stay.

Straight to Hell

I heard this phrase a couple of times today. Think about it for a minute… It’s an absolute impossibility.

Whisper

As I was praying for and thinking about so many of us that are waiting to hear God’s direction, I came across this today:

“I have faith that God will show you the answer. But you have to understand that sometimes it takes a while to be able to recognize what God wants you to do. That’s how it often is. God’s voice is usually nothing more than a whisper and you have to listen very carefully to hear it. But other times, in those rarest of moments, the answer is obvious and rings as loud as a church bell.” ― Nicholas Sparks

To hear a whisper we must be still and get away from distraction.

If We Love One Another

1John 4:12
…if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

Perfecting love is not our job, when we take that upon ourselves the result is the exact opposite, we end up in the center. When love is selfless and simple, when its roots are in Him; our love is not perfected, His love is perfected in us. This is the kind of love that touches difficult people, this love allows us to love those that disagree with us, this love puts individuals above issues and this love can change the world again.

Shine

Your life is brilliant; shining in places you are completely unaware. The people you so beautifully care for pass your love along to others you don’t even know. Your selflessness is renowned and speaks to the world around that Jesus is real, that you know Him and that they can too. You welcome those that are unwelcome, you love the unloved and you are not afraid of those different than you or of their problems. Thank you! It’s an honor to call you dear friend.

People Matter

More than anything! God values people above all else, in fact all of creation is for us. So why do we put so many other things ahead of the people in our lives? Let’s not let the day end having neglected the persons around us and if we did then let’s not tomorrow.

Upstream

Swimming against the current is difficult. The flow of this world can be overwhelming as it comes at you with all it has; you’re not loved, you’re all alone, you’re not good enough, you have nothing to offer and so much more. Often it’s tempting to stop swimming and just float along with everyone else but here’s great news, it’s not that deep. Stop swimming and stand up. Take life a step at a time with one foot firmly planted. The further you get the easier it becomes; you get stronger and the surge becomes a trickle. How God thinks about you overtakes the lies you’ve believed and you can give a hand to those still struggling.

Fresh

My favorite synonym for fresh is spanking new. It’s a reference to birth, as new as you can be. Solomon in total despair claimed there is nothing new under the sun but he was looking in all the wrong places. If we’ll focus on what’s beyond the sun, the One who placed it there and holds it in its place everything is new and not just once but a continual new, each day fresh and full of promise, each moment an opportunity to see and respond to the uniqueness God’s presenting. Born again and again… spanking new.

Heartbreak

We all experience heartbreak but avoiding it’s even worse. There are two ways to handle a broken heart, one is to deal with it on your own which results in a hardened heart and the other is to give it to God and let Him soften it. Hard hearts break others and tender hearts heal the broken.

Simplicity Itself

I’ve been praying about how to wrap up what we’ve been talking about the past few days and came across this from E. Stanley Jones, I have nothing to add: “Believe and love – put the whole of the Christian faith into simplicity itself. Believe in the kind of God, the kind of man, the kind of life you see in Jesus. Love each other the way He loved, and nothing more is required or necessary. This is It! It needs not to be added to or subtracted from.”