Let's Make a Deal

OK, so we're trying to figure out what love means.  Remember??  Hey, is anyone out there?  Do you remember what I'm talking about??  lol

We (by we, I mean "I") decided yesterday that the dictionary definition of love isn't encompassing enough; in fact, it's just plain wrong.  So where do we get our truth from?  Anyone?  Say it with me . . . the Bible.  The B-I-B-L-E.  You're singing it, aren't you?

So, if the Bible is our truth, then we can rely on it to explain to us what love is.  Love is patience.  Love is kindness.  Love is protection, it is trust.  Love is hope.  Love is perseverance.  Love is NOT jealousy.  It's not arrogance or pride.  It is not rudeness.  It is not self-seeking.  Love is not angry.  Love is not a scorekeeper.

That's what 1 Corinthians 13 says, doesn't it?  Starting in verse 4:  "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Seems pretty straightforward to me.  But wait, we say, I love my kids, but I'm certainly not always patient.  Does this mean I don't love my kids?  Of course not.  It's important to see that love is a verb . . . not a noun. (Well, of course it's a noun too . . . but you know what I mean.)  Verbs express existence, they express action.  They express movement.  Love is always moving, always growing, always encompassing more. 

Have you ever noticed that your parents have so much more patience with your kids than you do?  Or then they had with you?  That's because they're ability to love has grown through the years . . . just as your abilities will change as you grow.

Love is a way of expressing existence, action and movement.  Love is a decision to work towards those goals.  I just had to apologize to my kid last night for being impatient with him.  (He grounded me, by the way.  Not sure how I feel about that.)  I explained to him that I'm sure not perfect, and I make mistakes, but that I try to work to make fewer and fewer mistakes.  That's what love does.  If I didn't love him, I would care about growing to become a better parent.  I wouldn't care that I was impatient with him in the first place!  But I do care.  And that's love.

Isn't love awesome?  The depth and breadth and width with which we can express love is amazing.  What can you tonight to show your loved ones that they are, well, loved?  Be creative, think about it, and then - be a verb!  Just do it!

Love, Love, Baby

Well we have begun a short journey through 1 Corinthians, and at the risk of sounding all mushy - give me some love, baby!  It's all about the love!  But love is such an overused word in today's language.  You know that, I know, it's not a big surprise.  We love pizza, we love movies, we love stuff.  But true love is nothing like that.  Let's check the dictionary for the official meaning of love:  there are several definitions, and they almost all use the word, "affection."  (Check dictionary.com for reference.)

Do you think this is the kind of love that God is talking about here?  A tenderness, affection, a feeling?  I have to be honest, I don't think true love has anything to do with these things, because feelings, affection, even tenderness, are all based on me.  On how I feel at any given moment. 

So how are we to know the true meaning of love, the way God intends?  First, let's contrast the hope and joy found in the love chapter with the despondency found in Ecclesiastes:  I thought in my heart, "'Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.' But that also proved to be meaningless. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."  Ecclesiastes 2:1, 8, 11.

The Ecclesiastes writer shows what happens when we don't have the true value of love.  Everything is meaningless!  (Don't you think it's awesome that God breathed a book into the hearts of man that allowed for the width and depth, the high and low, the entirety of human experience?)  Without love, everything IS meaningless.  Love for God, love for each other, and most importantly, His love for us are the driving forces for life as we know it.  Don't think so?  Just look around today.  Love is shown in many forms, we just don't call it that.  When you allow a driver at the stop sign to go ahead of you, that's love.  When you smile instead of scowl at a mother in the supermarket whose baby is screaming, that's love.  We make love choices every day.  It's a matter of doing it purposefully.

Tomorrow we will find the perfect definition of love.  It's right before our eyes . . .

Keep blazing!

All You Need Is Love

I'm sorry for missing yesterday.  I thought the flu bug was catching up to me, I had a lot of symptoms, but I never spiked a fever, and I'm feeling much better so far this morning.  It started Sunday afternoon, maybe it was some kind of 24 hour thing.  Anyway, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth - gotta lot to do, so I'm ready to move on now!

As I said last week, we are going to look at 1 Corinthians this week.  And because the driving force behind the Ten Commandments was love, I thought we'd start in the "love" chapter, chapter 13.  For today's musings, I'm using the Message version.  (Side note - I love the Message.  But remember that the Message is a paraphrase, not a translation.  In other words, the author of the Message is simply restating the already-translated-into-English versions of the Bible in modern language.  So he might not always get it right.  It's important to also use a translation in your studies, so you know it is based on the original Greek or Hebrew.  But the Message can also bring something into focus by using modern language, creating an avenue for us to re-think the way we've always thought about certain passages in the Bible.)

Let's start at the beginning of the chapter:  "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." (verses 1-3)

I love the last sentence:  "I'm bankrupt without love."  Just as love is the driving force behind God's rules for us, so is love the driving force behind EVERYTHING God does for us.  Creation was done for love.  Look it - he could have made a few mountains.  But He made beautiful mountains, full and majestic, with ranges all over the world.  He made the Smokies, where everything looks, well, smoky, and the Blue Ridge, where things appear, well, blue . . . you get my drift.  We wouldn't have known any better.  He could have made three really high mountains and called it a day.  But He didn't.  He longs to share His ability to make beauty with us.  And why?  Because of love.

We cannot have love if  we do not know love.  And we do not truly know love if we don't know Him.  In the above passage, we could substitute God for the word love.  Check this out:  "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love (have God's love), I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love (have God's love), I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love (have God's love), I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love (God's love)."  

It's nearly impossible to try to love others on our own power.  I love my husband and my child - I know without a doubt I would die for them.  But sometimes . . . oh, they drive me crazy!  When I'm trying to show them love on my own ability, after awhile, that love falters.  I don't have it in me!  It's only when our love is drawn from the well of God's love that we can shower it on others.

I think I'm going to end here for today.  I have more to say!  But I would challenge you to think on those times in your life, those people in your life, who are difficult to love.  Are you allowing God's love to pour into your life, so that it can overflow into the lives of others?  Remember, this passage says that no matter what else you do - no matter how many Sunday School classes you teach, no matter how many boards and committees you serve on, no matter how much faith you have, without love - it's meaningless.  Love is where it all begins.

Tomorrow we are going to compare 1 Corinthians with Ecclesiastes.  Fun!  ;0)  And we are also going to answer the statement I've heard lately:  "You think God is love.  But God is also judgment."  So stay tuned!

To Put It All In Perspective . . .

Well, we have come to the end of our first series, The Ten Commandments.  I hope you got something out of it.  You know, I started this because I felt led by God.  I'd like these devotionals to touch others and point them back towards God.  So please tell your friends, pass them on, whatever . . . also, feel free to leave me a comment at any time!  I worry about being too long . . . if you think so, just let me know!  I can handle it, sniff sniff.  Just kidding!  I value your input.

Anyway, I hope you have learned, as I have, that the purpose, the value, and the result of the Ten Commandments is the same thing - love.  God loved us  enough to give them to us in the first place.  We show our love for Him by honoring and obeying.  Our love for each other grows as we obey God and honor each commandment.  Isn't that amazing?  God knew when he gave these Commandments to us how much better, fuller and richer our lives would be by obeying ten simple rules.

And yet, we fight God on this.  We even resist the thought that God did it for love's sake, as opposed to doing it for the sake of rules.  We throw out the Old Testament, viewing it as antiquated, the old law, not relevant in today's society.  I hope you have seen just how wrong we have been.  I'm confessing myself that in my walk I have not spent much time thinking about the Ten Commandments.  Now that I've studied them, they are always in my mind! 

You would think I'd have them memorized by now, but I don't.  That is my next goal.  To memorize them, in order.  We should constantly be memorizing scripture so that we can pray and meditate on it throughout the day.  I know for myself, Exodus 20 is my next goal! 

Just remember, it's all about love.  It's never about rules.  It's about seeing and living a love so passionate and fiery that everyone will see it. 

Next week, I'm going to start a series on 1 Corinthians.  I'm not going verse by verse or even chapter by chapter; in fact, I'm going to start in chapter 13, the "love" chapter.  Fitting, don't you think?  So I'll be jumping around a bit.  Will you join me next week?  Hope to see you here!

Keep blazing for God!

Covet Covet Covet

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."  Exodus 20:17

As always, I think the place to start is at the very beginning - defining the word.  What does covet mean?  According to dictionary.com, the verb "covet" means "to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others."  To me, that's more than simply envy - to covet is to disregard someone else.  In other words, it's to have the attitude that "I'll do whatever it takes to have that!"

Like a lot of women, I love to look at homes and decorations, books and magazines, etc.  I like to drive around and look at homes.  One of these days I'm going to get up the nerve to stop at a house by the reservoir and ask if I can look inside!  I like to go to home shows, parades of homes, open houses . . . are you getting the picture?  I love to see how people represent themselves through their homes.  And I love to represent my family through our home.

I might go somewhere and say, oh that's a great idea.  I have GOT to do that!  So what do you think?  Is that coveting?  Is that envy?  Is that sin?

Maybe I'm hiding my head in the sand, but I don't think so.  I like it when others have something for me to look at!  I don't wish that they didn't have it so that I could.  Coveting involves much more than that.

To covet someone's home, spouse, servant, animals . . . what God is really saying there is that the OBJECT of your desire is more important than anything.  Say I go to my friend's house and all I can see is the stuff she has that I don't.  Then I go home and look around and think about how nice her stuff would like in my house.  If I don't resolve those emotions, can you see what's going to happen?

Folks, God really saved the best for last.  Breaking this commandment truly leads to breaking the others.  People steal because they covet.  People kill because they covet.  People lie because they covet.  Lives are ruined, marriages shattered, churches destroyed, friendships are broken because of not honoring this simple commandment.

And most importantly . . . when you want something else so bad that it's all you can think about, it becomes your god.  It takes over your list.  And obviously, that destroys your relationship with God.  The first and last commandment begin and end at the same place.  When all you think about is what you don't have, you are saying that God is not taking care of you.  You are saying you don't trust Him.  When you plan and scheme to get what you want, you are trying to take control out of God's hands (as if that's possible!).

It's not wrong to want things.  It's not even wrong to feel a twinge of envy once in a while.  Just don't bury those feelings.  You've probably heard me say before, you've got to name it to claim it!  Admit that you are having an envy problem, before it becomes coveting.  Ask God to replace your desires with His, and you'll be able to see a difference in your attitude.

See you tomorrow!

Out of our Mouths, Into the Record

Yesterday, I was confronted so many times with the opportunity to put my feet to my faith, so to speak.  We talked about the ninth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."  If you recall, I wrote about how we should dig deeper into that commandment, making our word golden, not entering into record anything as fact unless we knew it for sure.

I cannot believe how many times I talked yesterday!  I was constantly being checked.  Coffee with friends, lunch with coworkers, telephone conversations . . . all start off so sincerely and genuinely.  Yet it's not long before little comments - unneeded, unnecessary, and sometimes unkindly - begin to enter in.  In almost every conversation, I had to offer my opinion!  I kept trying to stop myself, and sometimes I was successful.  But more often than not, I talked.

I don't believe I said an unkind or an untrue word yesterday.  But I said many unnecessary ones.  Words that didn't need to be spoken, especially when a friend was in tears and needed someone to listen.  You know, I'm starting to think that technology, and the different opportunities we have to communicate, have done nothing but tear down true communication.  Everyone knows I hate to talk on the phone and I would rather text.  But I truly believe that that form of "talking" is destroying my ability to talk face to face (or mouthpiece to mouthpiece). 

I assume I'm not the only one with this problem!  That's why I'm taking today to talk about this again.  The book of James, especially the third chapter is full of warnings about what comes out of our mouths:  "This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!" verses 7-10, the Message.

Tomorrow we will finish the Ten Commandments, and Friday we'll do a summary of the whole series.  Next week I'll be writing out of 1 Corinthians!

Will you join me today in focusing and praying on keeping our mouths, our talk, even our thoughts holy and pure?  I wonder just how much God can do with Christians like that! 

What Do Your Words Say?

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." Exodus 20:16

Note: I'm losing my mind here in Muncie! Totally forgot to post yesterday - forgive me! I'll get this right eventually!

This is yet another of God's commandments that we as Christians could be tempted to easily check off our list.  We have learned this commandments as "do not lie" and we don't lie, right?  You ask me how old I am, I'll choke out the real number.  (You didn't ask, so I'm not telling!)  However, I believe that we are called to dig a bit deeper in our understanding of what God wants us to do.


Remember, we keep saying that everything that involves the Ten Commandments is about love.  They are driven by God's love for us, motivating our love for God in return, and inspiring our love for others.  So let's look closely here.  The word "testimony" means "evidence in support of a fact or statement."  Do you think that's a little different than lying?

What about when you repeat a rumor that you do not know to be true?  Anything, any words that you say, you are offering into evidence.  I mean ANYTHING!!  "This food is cold."  "It's sunny out today."  "I don't feel well."  You are stating those words as fact. 

The same thing is true when you say, "Did you hear that Jack and Jill are getting a divorce?"  You are offering those words as a fact, whether you know it for a fact or not.  Even prefacing your statements with, "Now, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but did you know . . .?" Hedging your bets on the truth does not make your statement right.

Any kind of gossip is wrong.  If you don't know something as a FACT, you are offering into your life's testimony a false witness.  I would even go so far as to say that there are words that do NOT need to be said, factual or not. 

Have you been hurt by gossip, true or untrue?  And yet, we have to admit we've all done it.  In fact, our society today is driven by gossip!  I get so frustrated with so-called legitimate news sources who offer gossip as factual news, or who use their air time to perpetuate rumor instead of truth.  Lives are ruined by rumor and innuendo.  Jesus said, "Simply let your yes be yes, and your no be no.  Anything beyond this comes from the evil one."  (Matthew 5:37)  Read the Message version of Matthew 5:36-38:  "And don't say anything you don't mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, 'I'll pray for you,' and never doing it, or saying, 'God be with you,' and not meaning it. You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say 'yes' and 'no.' When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong."  WOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

In other words . . . "I'm only telling you this so you can pray about it . . ."   How many times have we done that?  JUST as wrong as out and out lying about someone.  Let your yes be yes.  If I say to you, "Do you know anything about Stephen?" and you do, say yes.  Then if I say, "Will you tell me about it?" say, no.  You don't need to embellish and explain.  Yes means yes and no means no.  Too many words get us in trouble!  Proverbs 10:18-20 says, "He who conceals his hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.  When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.  The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value."


I know that I am a talker (some of you are shocked, I know).  This verse makes me want to speak a little less.  I want to be wise, and hold my tongue, not just regarding gossip or lies, but also with advice that I am just sure someone needs to hear, or words I think need spoken. Sometimes silence is golden. 

This is an area in my life that I am pledging to work on, and I am thankful that God has brought this to my attention today.  Thanks for digging a little deeper with me today.  Will you trust God with your words?  Or perhaps the question should be, Can God trust you?

Keep Blazing!