(the photo is a link to a menagerie of wackiness)
9/27/2003
not historic, but picturesque nonetheless
not worth a thousand words, either...but whaddayagonnado?
(the photo is a link to a menagerie of wackiness)
(the photo is a link to a menagerie of wackiness)
an audio discovery
sean hayes, "jack" on will and grace is the voice of brain pod #13 on the buzz lightyear direct to video video.
did i mention that i'm a doofus?
did i mention that i'm a doofus?
does this look swollen to you?
the hypochondriac in me is rejoicing, as i have subscribed to several medical-related rss feeds here.
we're all passionate about different things
and those of you passionate about facial hair should be in Carson City, NV, on Nov. 1.
seriously...click on the link to at least check out the photos. because if you saw any of these guys in real life, you'd stare at him until he made eye contact, where then you'd avert your glance, like you were reading that sign *just* over his shoulder.
i love that they have a "freestyle" category, where the only rule is there are no rules!
seriously...click on the link to at least check out the photos. because if you saw any of these guys in real life, you'd stare at him until he made eye contact, where then you'd avert your glance, like you were reading that sign *just* over his shoulder.
i love that they have a "freestyle" category, where the only rule is there are no rules!
is it rectal craniitis or cranial rectitis?
whichever it is natalie suffers from it, with the primary symptom being her inability to leave well enough alone.
right we are connects to the love letter.
right we are connects to the love letter.
9/26/2003
you think i'm a people pleaser? i can change if it will make you happy!
by the way, i went from gray to green because irene thought gray was boring.
and kelli likes the new shade, so all is well...
...for the time being.
and kelli likes the new shade, so all is well...
...for the time being.
whats the worth you can do?
and i'm not typing with a lisp, just so you know.
irene is discouraged. and my purpose here is not to exploit her discouragement; rather, she has inspired me to address the concept of worth. a faulty sense of worth is often the result of a time of discouragement.
most everybody gets discouraged from time to time. some people get a little down, and seem to bounce right back up. other people seem to linger in a slightly discouraged state (and i'm not talking about wyoming), and still others can get so low in their discouragement that it makes the dominican limbo champion green with envy.
i recently heard a very disheartening message -- in a church -- where it was said -- by a pastor -- that if you dishonor God when you experience times like this.
I'm here to tell you, that's a lie (hopefully inadvertantly spoken by that preacher). it's wrong, and it's just not true.
Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Job, Samson, Solomon, David, Elijah...they all experienced depression at one time or another, and they were all men of God. John the Baptist and every one of the Original Twelve® had significant times of discouragement. did Jesus dishonor God when he lamented in the garden of Gethsemane?
of course not. and just because you might experience discouragement in your life -- whether it be brief or prolonged, never think for a moment that God has turned his back on you because you dishonor Him. It is precisely at this time that His Holy Spirit calls to you to be comforted, restored, and encouraged.
So what causes discouragement? any number of things. Typically, though, if you reduce down the particulars of whatever has you discouraged, you'll discover that it has something to do with performance failure. unmet expectations. not making the grade. missing the deadline. falling short of the standard. knocking the limbo pole off the pegs.
unfortunately, in this dysfunctional game, when you mess up, you only set the bar lower to a more exacting standard of perfectionism that will only guarantee another round of futility.
so who is setting the bar too low? It could be a boss. It could be a parent. It could be a mentor (who needs to learn something about mentoring, if that's the case). And you know what? it could even be yourself!
Jesus dealt with this. he lived in the age of ultimate perfectionism. The pharisees were all over the concept of perfectionism. this is why so many people were "unclean." nobody but them (and not even them, if they were *really* honest) could make the standards that were being established. Then Jesus came on to the scene and tested them. They sent in "plants" to test Jesus, but He turned the tables on them. "What does it take to go to heaven?" they asked. "simple," He said. "Be perfect."
"Oh, we're as close to perfect as you can get. We follow the law," they replied smugly.
"Yeah, you do pretty well. but if you break even one law, you're not perfect. that's why it's called perfect. You have to be perfect like My Father in Heaven is perfect."
< crickets chirping > "oh." < /crickets chirping >
you see, we have those same voices of phariseeism harping today. we just recognize them as such.
whuh?
according to whom? this isn't what jesus meant by "being perfect."
i mean, there's a theological truth to all these things. a "good christian" does all the right things, at all the right times, in all the right ways, to all the right people, for all the right reasons.
but you aren't that good.
and neither am i.
the only hope you have of doing anything right, any time, any way, to any body, for any reason, is to let the Christ do it through you. if you get His way, you're going to mess it up. guaranteed.
and even if you manage to do something right apart from the Christ, you'll try to (or at least want to) take credit for it, which invalidates it all anyway.
guaranteed.
the only way to avoid discouragement, to rebound from discouragement is to embrace the truth of God, by faith. it will be difficult, because the truth of God is being told in a still, small whispering voice that must be strained to be heard and believed in a world that is screaming in deafening decibels the lies of a performance-based concept of worth.
God's Word says that He alone matters. All God wants from you is to please Him.
And you have to be perfect.
Crud...we've already established that you're going to bomb out in that effort.
You're only hope is to be made perfect by the Son.
He's the only One who is sinless.
Sinless = Perfect.
He's the only One who is righteous.
Righteous = Perfect.
He's the only One who is Holy.
Holy = Perfect.
And if your faith is in Him as your Lord, then He indwells your spirit.
And by proxy, you have been made perfect.
The problem is, your flesh -- your heart and your mind and your body -- all tend to be easily deceived to yield to reign of sin. And when you do so, your flesh says "I don't feel perfect. I don't feel worthy. I don't feel holy. I don't feel righteous." At the same time, the accuser slanders you with accusations of imperfection, even when your spirit, reborn in the likeness of the Son, has established all these things to be true.
Paul talks extensively on this internal battle. His only hope was to be continually reminded by the Holy Spirit that He was born anew. His old life has been identified in the cross and burial of his Propitiation. Accordingly, his new life is identified in the resurrected victory of the Son; he was now an empowered, enabled, encouraged child of God.
So what does all this mean?
It means that God is radically -- and I mean radically -- in love with you.
you cannot please God any more than you do right now. Man, that one is tough for me.
But it's true. The Bible says He loves you with a perfect love. And perfect means perfect. It can't get more perfect, because then the prior love wouldn't have been perfect. capisca?
when you embrace and dwell in the spiritual reality that God is satisfied with you because His Son dwells within you, only then will you be freed to live the life God has designed for you.
There's no doubt this is a faith trial to live in the spiritual reality of God's unconditional acceptance of you as a sinner in need of reconciliation. In a world thatsays screams "do more! Do it better! do it faster! do it cheaper! Do it differently! and do it two days ago!" it can be very hard to feel like God's unmerited favor rests upon you.
just remember...God's favor isn't based on you.
it's based on Him.
It's not based on your fickle, fluctuating, feeble feelings.
it's based on his holy, unchanging, eternal, reliabe Word.
Look, Jesus is backing me up on this one. In His main treatise of preaching, He told those who would follow Him, "things are going to get bad. You're going to be poor. You will mourn. people are going to hate you. they're going to try to kill you. they're going to slander you. they will revile you."
some think this is why jesus never toured with Tony Robbins.
but then jesus said, "blessed are you when this happens, for great will be your reward in heaven."
realize that it was the translators, and not Jesus, who talked like Yoda. But truth of this promise is the heartbeat of overcoming discouragement.
Because you are fully loved, fully accepted, fully justified by God through Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, are you able to:
One more thing...you can't live a life in Christ if you only take out your faith when you are in a crisis. Major Ian Thomas, in his classic book The Saving Life of Christ calls this the "substituted life." Christ didn't die for you just so you could have a god in your pocket to save you from your messes, and stay out of your way the rest of the time. Jesus is just a little more possessive than that. He demands to be Lord of all, or Lord of none. The only way to live at rest is to get out of the way. all the time. It's the difference between living a "substituted life" and a "transformed life."
People who are discouraged don't typically worry about that verse that says, "don't think of yourself more highly than you ought," because they tend to be thinking so very lowly about themselves. but if you *really* think about it, this verse is for that person, too. because the more time you spend thinking about yourself, the less time you are spending thinking about God. The more time you spend worshipping at the altar of self-pity and discouragement, the less time you have to worship the God who left heaven so you could one day get there. and if this is the case...you're thinking about yourself (too highly) too much.
The key to changing this is simple:
Quit thinking about yourself. There's a great little acronym that may help (and I'd give credit to whomever came up with it if I knew).
Do you want joy? the thought process to getting it is to think of:
Jesus
Others
Yourself
discouragement, by definition is to have your courage be absent, undone, deprived, or removed. to you who are discouraged:
irene is discouraged. and my purpose here is not to exploit her discouragement; rather, she has inspired me to address the concept of worth. a faulty sense of worth is often the result of a time of discouragement.
most everybody gets discouraged from time to time. some people get a little down, and seem to bounce right back up. other people seem to linger in a slightly discouraged state (and i'm not talking about wyoming), and still others can get so low in their discouragement that it makes the dominican limbo champion green with envy.
i recently heard a very disheartening message -- in a church -- where it was said -- by a pastor -- that if you dishonor God when you experience times like this.
I'm here to tell you, that's a lie (hopefully inadvertantly spoken by that preacher). it's wrong, and it's just not true.
Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Job, Samson, Solomon, David, Elijah...they all experienced depression at one time or another, and they were all men of God. John the Baptist and every one of the Original Twelve® had significant times of discouragement. did Jesus dishonor God when he lamented in the garden of Gethsemane?
of course not. and just because you might experience discouragement in your life -- whether it be brief or prolonged, never think for a moment that God has turned his back on you because you dishonor Him. It is precisely at this time that His Holy Spirit calls to you to be comforted, restored, and encouraged.
So what causes discouragement? any number of things. Typically, though, if you reduce down the particulars of whatever has you discouraged, you'll discover that it has something to do with performance failure. unmet expectations. not making the grade. missing the deadline. falling short of the standard. knocking the limbo pole off the pegs.
unfortunately, in this dysfunctional game, when you mess up, you only set the bar lower to a more exacting standard of perfectionism that will only guarantee another round of futility.
so who is setting the bar too low? It could be a boss. It could be a parent. It could be a mentor (who needs to learn something about mentoring, if that's the case). And you know what? it could even be yourself!
Jesus dealt with this. he lived in the age of ultimate perfectionism. The pharisees were all over the concept of perfectionism. this is why so many people were "unclean." nobody but them (and not even them, if they were *really* honest) could make the standards that were being established. Then Jesus came on to the scene and tested them. They sent in "plants" to test Jesus, but He turned the tables on them. "What does it take to go to heaven?" they asked. "simple," He said. "Be perfect."
"Oh, we're as close to perfect as you can get. We follow the law," they replied smugly.
"Yeah, you do pretty well. but if you break even one law, you're not perfect. that's why it's called perfect. You have to be perfect like My Father in Heaven is perfect."
< crickets chirping > "oh." < /crickets chirping >
you see, we have those same voices of phariseeism harping today. we just recognize them as such.
- a good christian never misses a sunday at church
- a good christian doesn't watch rated r movies
- a good christian reads only the King James Version
- a good christian doesn't mingle with the riff raff
- a good christian is the best employee, the best parent, the best child, the best neighbor, the best the best the best the best!
whuh?
according to whom? this isn't what jesus meant by "being perfect."
i mean, there's a theological truth to all these things. a "good christian" does all the right things, at all the right times, in all the right ways, to all the right people, for all the right reasons.
but you aren't that good.
and neither am i.
the only hope you have of doing anything right, any time, any way, to any body, for any reason, is to let the Christ do it through you. if you get His way, you're going to mess it up. guaranteed.
and even if you manage to do something right apart from the Christ, you'll try to (or at least want to) take credit for it, which invalidates it all anyway.
guaranteed.
the only way to avoid discouragement, to rebound from discouragement is to embrace the truth of God, by faith. it will be difficult, because the truth of God is being told in a still, small whispering voice that must be strained to be heard and believed in a world that is screaming in deafening decibels the lies of a performance-based concept of worth.
God's Word says that He alone matters. All God wants from you is to please Him.
And you have to be perfect.
Crud...we've already established that you're going to bomb out in that effort.
You're only hope is to be made perfect by the Son.
He's the only One who is sinless.
Sinless = Perfect.
He's the only One who is righteous.
Righteous = Perfect.
He's the only One who is Holy.
Holy = Perfect.
And if your faith is in Him as your Lord, then He indwells your spirit.
And by proxy, you have been made perfect.
The problem is, your flesh -- your heart and your mind and your body -- all tend to be easily deceived to yield to reign of sin. And when you do so, your flesh says "I don't feel perfect. I don't feel worthy. I don't feel holy. I don't feel righteous." At the same time, the accuser slanders you with accusations of imperfection, even when your spirit, reborn in the likeness of the Son, has established all these things to be true.
Paul talks extensively on this internal battle. His only hope was to be continually reminded by the Holy Spirit that He was born anew. His old life has been identified in the cross and burial of his Propitiation. Accordingly, his new life is identified in the resurrected victory of the Son; he was now an empowered, enabled, encouraged child of God.
So what does all this mean?
It means that God is radically -- and I mean radically -- in love with you.
you cannot please God any more than you do right now. Man, that one is tough for me.
But it's true. The Bible says He loves you with a perfect love. And perfect means perfect. It can't get more perfect, because then the prior love wouldn't have been perfect. capisca?
when you embrace and dwell in the spiritual reality that God is satisfied with you because His Son dwells within you, only then will you be freed to live the life God has designed for you.
There's no doubt this is a faith trial to live in the spiritual reality of God's unconditional acceptance of you as a sinner in need of reconciliation. In a world that
just remember...God's favor isn't based on you.
it's based on Him.
It's not based on your fickle, fluctuating, feeble feelings.
it's based on his holy, unchanging, eternal, reliabe Word.
Look, Jesus is backing me up on this one. In His main treatise of preaching, He told those who would follow Him, "things are going to get bad. You're going to be poor. You will mourn. people are going to hate you. they're going to try to kill you. they're going to slander you. they will revile you."
some think this is why jesus never toured with Tony Robbins.
but then jesus said, "blessed are you when this happens, for great will be your reward in heaven."
realize that it was the translators, and not Jesus, who talked like Yoda. But truth of this promise is the heartbeat of overcoming discouragement.
Because you are fully loved, fully accepted, fully justified by God through Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, are you able to:
- be more than a conqueror.
- do all things through Christ who gives you strength
- perform exceedingly abundantly beyond your own ability
- be free from worry, anxiety, or despair
- grow in favor with both God and man
One more thing...you can't live a life in Christ if you only take out your faith when you are in a crisis. Major Ian Thomas, in his classic book The Saving Life of Christ calls this the "substituted life." Christ didn't die for you just so you could have a god in your pocket to save you from your messes, and stay out of your way the rest of the time. Jesus is just a little more possessive than that. He demands to be Lord of all, or Lord of none. The only way to live at rest is to get out of the way. all the time. It's the difference between living a "substituted life" and a "transformed life."
People who are discouraged don't typically worry about that verse that says, "don't think of yourself more highly than you ought," because they tend to be thinking so very lowly about themselves. but if you *really* think about it, this verse is for that person, too. because the more time you spend thinking about yourself, the less time you are spending thinking about God. The more time you spend worshipping at the altar of self-pity and discouragement, the less time you have to worship the God who left heaven so you could one day get there. and if this is the case...you're thinking about yourself (too highly) too much.
The key to changing this is simple:
Quit thinking about yourself. There's a great little acronym that may help (and I'd give credit to whomever came up with it if I knew).
Do you want joy? the thought process to getting it is to think of:
Jesus
Others
Yourself
discouragement, by definition is to have your courage be absent, undone, deprived, or removed. to you who are discouraged:
Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD. -- Psalm 31:24
just a friendly reminder
of the 2000 election results.
shut up you liberal wonks
we don't say that in our home.
be quiet, you liberal wonks.
the "bush stole the election" beef is tired and untrue.
pick your nextpretender contender, and let's go at it again.
we're ready with our candidate.
dean supplied the map.
michele alerts of the vitreol.
we don't say that in our home.
be quiet, you liberal wonks.
the "bush stole the election" beef is tired and untrue.
pick your next
we're ready with our candidate.
dean supplied the map.
michele alerts of the vitreol.
what is desserts spelled backward? oh, that's right...
i just took this stress quiz. the paper form of it is being circulated here at work.
I scored a 62.
I could get into the sub 50s with some very simple life changes.
but the thought of doing so stresses me out.
I scored a 62.
I could get into the sub 50s with some very simple life changes.
but the thought of doing so stresses me out.
you might as well face it...you'll be stuck in the mud
Robert Palmer has died.
The former contributor to Emerson, Lake & Palmer experienced a sudden and permanent cessation of life when his cardiac muscle underwent a violent and catastrophic atypical trauma last night.
The songster went solo in the 80s and was known for smooth lyrics, crooning in front of a "band" of tightly-dressed girly girls, who no doubt were the prototype for the jiggly girls of today. Not surprisingly, an entire generation of adolescent boys became instant and loyal Palmer fans, able to admire and appreciate the musician, even when the television was muted.
Palmer presented a deep theology in his music, most noteworthy through the hit songs Simply Irresistable (a song about grace?) and Some Like It Hot (a ditty of the personal condemnation to eternity in hell?). The allegorical meaning behind these songs was widely unnoticed.
michele chronicles his discography. inoperable terran played grim reaper, announcing the dark news.
The former contributor to Emerson, Lake & Palmer experienced a sudden and permanent cessation of life when his cardiac muscle underwent a violent and catastrophic atypical trauma last night.
The songster went solo in the 80s and was known for smooth lyrics, crooning in front of a "band" of tightly-dressed girly girls, who no doubt were the prototype for the jiggly girls of today. Not surprisingly, an entire generation of adolescent boys became instant and loyal Palmer fans, able to admire and appreciate the musician, even when the television was muted.
Palmer presented a deep theology in his music, most noteworthy through the hit songs Simply Irresistable (a song about grace?) and Some Like It Hot (a ditty of the personal condemnation to eternity in hell?). The allegorical meaning behind these songs was widely unnoticed.
michele chronicles his discography. inoperable terran played grim reaper, announcing the dark news.
sung to the tune of its your birthday
among those celebrating today the anniversary of his birth, is this guy, a white boy attempting to transform himself into slain rapper Tupac Shakur.
he's doing it for the sake of art.
he's got just a couple of weeks to complete the process before his big show.
i can only imagine what he's wishing for as he blows out his candles today.
he's doing it for the sake of art.
he's got just a couple of weeks to complete the process before his big show.
i can only imagine what he's wishing for as he blows out his candles today.
around the world in 80 blogs
i've spent some time this morning at the globe of blogs.
here's colorado's blogs. yes, i actually thought i might recognize somebody.
i didn't.
here's georgia's blogs. didn't know anyone here, either.
here's the fellowship of Bri/yan bloggers. it goes over three pages. it consists of more than 30 blogs.
and these are the birthday bloggers of the day.
here's colorado's blogs. yes, i actually thought i might recognize somebody.
i didn't.
here's georgia's blogs. didn't know anyone here, either.
here's the fellowship of Bri/yan bloggers. it goes over three pages. it consists of more than 30 blogs.
and these are the birthday bloggers of the day.
final precincts have reported!
irene q finally answered my five questions! take a few minutes to read her answers, and get to know a pretty neat person a little better.
and the offer stands, if you're willing to get five of your own, just leave me a comment. i pledge to ask questions that are reflective of the things & themes that appear important to you by what you communicate in your blog.
but they will be tougher than the recently-posed questions to the candidates of both the ms. america contest, as well as the ms. goobernatorial contest.
and the offer stands, if you're willing to get five of your own, just leave me a comment. i pledge to ask questions that are reflective of the things & themes that appear important to you by what you communicate in your blog.
but they will be tougher than the recently-posed questions to the candidates of both the ms. america contest, as well as the ms. goobernatorial contest.
9/25/2003
what's the big idea?
wow...
bob & larry are up for sale.
i really am shocked by this news. i had no clue, much less a big idea.
but you know what they say...
when life hands you a bunch of devalued, animated vegetables...sell 'em to the highest bidder and make a kicky chef salad.
bob & larry are up for sale.
i really am shocked by this news. i had no clue, much less a big idea.
but you know what they say...
when life hands you a bunch of devalued, animated vegetables...sell 'em to the highest bidder and make a kicky chef salad.
connexions has a list of the 20 most recognizable "top" television theme songs. i don't know what that means, but i'll give my list for the "best" theme songs. Take in mind that this list is purely subjective, and if you disagree, you are, in most likely instances, wrong.
(in no particular order)
lyrical category
the brady bunch
facts of life
different strokes
dukes of hazzard
one day at a time
cheers
the jeffersons
the beverly hillbillies
the love boat
laverne & shirley
all in the family
gilligan's island
the addams family
alice
wkrp in cincinnati
the greatest american hero
family ties
three's company
wonder woman
welcome back kotter
instrumental category
the andy griffith show
hill street blues
e.r.
benson
l.a. law
barney miller
taxi
the dick van dyke show
s.w.a.t.
home improvement
coach
night court
third rock from the sun
charlie's angels
soap
fantasy island
wings
the odd couple
newhart
st elsewhere
worst theme songs
the incredible hulk
how the west was won
friends
saved by the bell
rhoda
the nanny
the a team
the bionic woman
the six million dollar man
bj and the bear
who's the boss
perfect strangers
tj hooker
quincy
step by step
silver spoons
the ropers
knight rider
my two dads
married with children
(related note: this site will want to make you beg for blindness!
(in no particular order)
lyrical category
the brady bunch
facts of life
different strokes
dukes of hazzard
one day at a time
cheers
the jeffersons
the beverly hillbillies
the love boat
laverne & shirley
all in the family
gilligan's island
the addams family
alice
wkrp in cincinnati
the greatest american hero
family ties
three's company
wonder woman
welcome back kotter
instrumental category
the andy griffith show
hill street blues
e.r.
benson
l.a. law
barney miller
taxi
the dick van dyke show
s.w.a.t.
home improvement
coach
night court
third rock from the sun
charlie's angels
soap
fantasy island
wings
the odd couple
newhart
st elsewhere
worst theme songs
the incredible hulk
how the west was won
friends
saved by the bell
rhoda
the nanny
the a team
the bionic woman
the six million dollar man
bj and the bear
who's the boss
perfect strangers
tj hooker
quincy
step by step
silver spoons
the ropers
knight rider
my two dads
married with children
(related note: this site will want to make you beg for blindness!
once upon a time in mexico
found while visiting the state farm site for dangerous intersections (at the leading of single southern guy, via jen)
i think i appreciated the intersection of gore and bland, found in pueblo, colorado, even more.
Wyoming only had 3 intersections listed in its top 5. and none of them had a danger rating of over 400. Compare that to Colorado and Georgia's, who's top spot was in the 1200s.
But the winner went to an intersection in Florida, with a danger rating of over 2500! This intersection is so dangerous because of regular machine gun fire, low flying jet planes, periodic early release at a nearby halfway house for blind violent felons, noonday drunk-driving drag racing, and a confusing sign about sending in absentee ballots before turning right on red. Oh, and here's a photo of Flamingo and Pines, which also had an increased score due to it's well-earned reputation as being the intersection of "Hurricane Highway" and "Tropical Storm Turnpike."
i think i appreciated the intersection of gore and bland, found in pueblo, colorado, even more.
Wyoming only had 3 intersections listed in its top 5. and none of them had a danger rating of over 400. Compare that to Colorado and Georgia's, who's top spot was in the 1200s.
But the winner went to an intersection in Florida, with a danger rating of over 2500! This intersection is so dangerous because of regular machine gun fire, low flying jet planes, periodic early release at a nearby halfway house for blind violent felons, noonday drunk-driving drag racing, and a confusing sign about sending in absentee ballots before turning right on red. Oh, and here's a photo of Flamingo and Pines, which also had an increased score due to it's well-earned reputation as being the intersection of "Hurricane Highway" and "Tropical Storm Turnpike."
unfortunate scriptwriting
Sting is the featured perfromer on MSN this month. I wouldn't have known this, except I saw a commercial promoting this fact.
In the ad, Sting is IM-ing people all over the place, interrupting their normal web activities with blurbs like "do you have the new Sting album?" "Have you heard Roxanne?"
then, near the last shot of the ad, it shows an old man with a family. I can only guess that one of the youngsters in the family is getting this IM at a visit to the grandparent's.
Then, out of nowhere, a close-up of a laptop screen is shown, with the IM:
I smell Grammy!
oh, how I hope he's talking about the music award.
In the ad, Sting is IM-ing people all over the place, interrupting their normal web activities with blurbs like "do you have the new Sting album?" "Have you heard Roxanne?"
then, near the last shot of the ad, it shows an old man with a family. I can only guess that one of the youngsters in the family is getting this IM at a visit to the grandparent's.
Then, out of nowhere, a close-up of a laptop screen is shown, with the IM:
oh, how I hope he's talking about the music award.
sung to the tune of what the world needs now...
a nigerian woman was spared from a punishment of being stoned to death, for committing adultery.
her life was preserved due to a series of technicalities.
but what about the next one?
the law brings death....grace brings life
(Rom.7:5; Titus 3:7)
her life was preserved due to a series of technicalities.
but what about the next one?
the law brings death....grace brings life
(Rom.7:5; Titus 3:7)
tuesday in south carolina
tuesday was a great day of perspective for me.
cotter and i travelled to camp la vida, the state retreat run by the SC women's missionary union. every year, the SC WMU holds a retired missionary retreat, and invites a "spokesperson" from the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board to attend, answer any questions (and give a gift to each attendant).
taking cotter along was a blast. he was so well behaved and we really had a great time together. but the best part of the whole day was just sitting amidst all these wonderful people who had given the best, most vital years of their lives to the service of God in foreign locales. I met a woman who served faithfully in Argentina for 47 years. I met a couple who served faithfully in Paraguay for 38 years. I met another couple who served faithfully in Alaska for 42 years. I had the honor of mingling with more than 60 people who had sacrificed much over the decades, and counted it all as gain, simply so others could know of the saving grace of God through the atoning death of Jesus, who is the Christ.
i left there feeling humbled that the Christ has asked so little of me in my time as a follower, inspired to follow whereever He calls, and blessed to share the fellowship with so dear and sweet a people.
cotter and i travelled to camp la vida, the state retreat run by the SC women's missionary union. every year, the SC WMU holds a retired missionary retreat, and invites a "spokesperson" from the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board to attend, answer any questions (and give a gift to each attendant).
taking cotter along was a blast. he was so well behaved and we really had a great time together. but the best part of the whole day was just sitting amidst all these wonderful people who had given the best, most vital years of their lives to the service of God in foreign locales. I met a woman who served faithfully in Argentina for 47 years. I met a couple who served faithfully in Paraguay for 38 years. I met another couple who served faithfully in Alaska for 42 years. I had the honor of mingling with more than 60 people who had sacrificed much over the decades, and counted it all as gain, simply so others could know of the saving grace of God through the atoning death of Jesus, who is the Christ.
i left there feeling humbled that the Christ has asked so little of me in my time as a follower, inspired to follow whereever He calls, and blessed to share the fellowship with so dear and sweet a people.
sung to the tune of its a hard knock life
anne coulter has a great column on David Limbaugh's new book about persecution of Christians in America.
thanks to thinklings for the alert.
thanks to thinklings for the alert.
thursday3
from the meme:
1. What are 3 songs from your "growing up" years that you hear on the radio now and have to crank it. Songs that really get you rockin'.
hmmm...so many. but i'll pick mony mony, by billy idol, pour some sugar on me by def leppard, and just about anything from Prince (i went through a 'purple' phase in 1984-85, much to my father's lament).
2. What are 3 songs that bring back really great memories.
evenflow by pearl jam is the backdrop to many college experiences, along with metallica's enter sandman. motley crue's kick start my heart was a standby during high school.
3. What are 3 of your favorite bands/singers from your growing up years?
aside from my leanings toward the metal edge, i also used my developmental years to explore my hiphop roots. I enjoyed the urban stylings of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, NWA, and Vanilla Ice (yes, I am ashamed to admit this).
4. What are 3 of your favorite bands/singers now?
now, I like the Newsboys, Chris Rice, pretty much all the old stuff i listened to back then. Could I be more curmudgeonly?
Bonus: What was the best concert you ever went to? Tell us about it.
i went to several very good concerts, all metal. Def Leppard, ACDC, Metallica & Guns-n-Roses, Van Halen, Lollapalooza. Now I'm the crotchety old guy who hears a good new tune from linkin Park or the Ataris every once in a while, but for the most part i'm hollering at the radio, "you call that music? turn it down! it's too loud! What time does Matlock come on?"
1. What are 3 songs from your "growing up" years that you hear on the radio now and have to crank it. Songs that really get you rockin'.
hmmm...so many. but i'll pick mony mony, by billy idol, pour some sugar on me by def leppard, and just about anything from Prince (i went through a 'purple' phase in 1984-85, much to my father's lament).
2. What are 3 songs that bring back really great memories.
evenflow by pearl jam is the backdrop to many college experiences, along with metallica's enter sandman. motley crue's kick start my heart was a standby during high school.
3. What are 3 of your favorite bands/singers from your growing up years?
aside from my leanings toward the metal edge, i also used my developmental years to explore my hiphop roots. I enjoyed the urban stylings of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, NWA, and Vanilla Ice (yes, I am ashamed to admit this).
4. What are 3 of your favorite bands/singers now?
now, I like the Newsboys, Chris Rice, pretty much all the old stuff i listened to back then. Could I be more curmudgeonly?
Bonus: What was the best concert you ever went to? Tell us about it.
i went to several very good concerts, all metal. Def Leppard, ACDC, Metallica & Guns-n-Roses, Van Halen, Lollapalooza. Now I'm the crotchety old guy who hears a good new tune from linkin Park or the Ataris every once in a while, but for the most part i'm hollering at the radio, "you call that music? turn it down! it's too loud! What time does Matlock come on?"
definition of 'conclusion'
a conclusion is when you get tired of expending brain power on a given subject.
i've come to the conclusion that this is the new look for Clarity, for the time being.
with a reduction in blue, to accomodate certain people, with whom I live and love.
i've come to the conclusion that this is the new look for Clarity, for the time being.
with a reduction in blue, to accomodate certain people, with whom I live and love.
9/24/2003
the real news
just overheard:
who knew channel two hired jerry seinfeld?
...and what's with all these kids getting hit by cars? coming on the news...next.
who knew channel two hired jerry seinfeld?
one guy's opinion
okay...if you are a chick bawling uncontrollably that you didn't make it out of round 1 of the batchelor, then bob obviously made the right choice.
(coughhaloscancough)
this is broken.
when this site goes down, it automatically changes its web page name to this is irony.
when this site goes down, it automatically changes its web page name to this is irony.
its premiere night
kelli's watching the batchelor.
i'm blogging.
i shared five minutes with her during hour two.
after imitating bob's sputtering-chainsaw-like laugh 10 times in that five minutes...
kelli's watching the batchelor
and i'm blogging.
i'm blogging.
i shared five minutes with her during hour two.
after imitating bob's sputtering-chainsaw-like laugh 10 times in that five minutes...
kelli's watching the batchelor
and i'm blogging.
political rhetoric at its finest
this site has taken the goober-natorial frontroners and reduced their stump to the compilation of umms, ers, and mouthbreathing.
truly, a highlight in the process.
link thanks to boingboing
truly, a highlight in the process.
link thanks to boingboing
i agree
the site linked here has been nominated for the worst site of all time, visual category.
it has my vote.
link from davezilla
it has my vote.
link from davezilla
sung to the tune of two steps forward...
well, my september archives have reappeared.
but my comments have disappeared.
well that's just perfect.
but my comments have disappeared.
well that's just perfect.
bryan's a dork evidence, exhibit 946-c
i subscribed to the usgs earthquake notification email network.
i wasn't aware of the recent seismic activity in texas. i just assumed it was the texas democrats making more big noise that they were back, albeit reluctantly.
here they are, seen two weeks ago, seen answering the question, "will anyone attempting to circumvent the texas state constitution please raise a hand?" the second one from the right, clearly, is subtly demonstating his allegiance to KISS.
i wasn't aware of the recent seismic activity in texas. i just assumed it was the texas democrats making more big noise that they were back, albeit reluctantly.
here they are, seen two weeks ago, seen answering the question, "will anyone attempting to circumvent the texas state constitution please raise a hand?" the second one from the right, clearly, is subtly demonstating his allegiance to KISS.
this week, on extreme makeover
Hurricane "Crazy Izzy" Isabel busted up North Carolina's face last week, creating a new inlet.
that's gotta hurt.
that's gotta hurt.
its not just me
apparently...all blogspot blogs don't have current month archives.
so with ever current post, i push another previous one into temporary (i hope) oblivion.
so with ever current post, i push another previous one into temporary (i hope) oblivion.
with the #1 pick in the 2004 NFL draft, the Chicago Bears select
maurice clarett.
randy pointed me to this story. the nfl will lose, and agents around the country will rejoice. you will see at least 30 high school graduates and college freshmen & sophmores leave school for the new draft because they'll receive bad advice that they're ready for the game. They'll make teams and practice squads, and they'll toil for 4 to 5 years until they either develop to the next level, or abandon their now-and-forevermore-shattered childhood dreams for a minimum-wage-paying job, because they never received the lambskin that was a nice perk to their collegiate college career.
this blog entry was sponsored by the optimist clubs of america.
randy pointed me to this story. the nfl will lose, and agents around the country will rejoice. you will see at least 30 high school graduates and college freshmen & sophmores leave school for the new draft because they'll receive bad advice that they're ready for the game. They'll make teams and practice squads, and they'll toil for 4 to 5 years until they either develop to the next level, or abandon their now-and-forevermore-shattered childhood dreams for a minimum-wage-paying job, because they never received the lambskin that was a nice perk to their collegiate college career.
this blog entry was sponsored by the optimist clubs of america.
sung to the tune of oh where is my hairbrush
my september archives are missing.
if you know where i can locate them, please let me know.
the very expensive reward of my heartfeld gratitude is being sincerely offered, with the promise of prompt payment.
thankyousoverymuch.
if you know where i can locate them, please let me know.
the very expensive reward of my heartfeld gratitude is being sincerely offered, with the promise of prompt payment.
thankyousoverymuch.
this is the shoe, fitting
from jen, i linked to learning my middle earth names.
According to the Red Book of Westmarch,
In Middle-earth, you were a
Friendless Huorn
Elven Name Possibilities
The root name suitable for feminine and masculine is:
Lailindë
Another masculine version is:
Lailindëion
Hobbit lad name for Bryan Eugene McAnally
Minto Gold from Bree
Dwarven Name
Derin Coalfeet
Orkish Name
Maudreg the Insane
In Middle-earth, you were a
Friendless Huorn
Elven Name Possibilities
The root name suitable for feminine and masculine is:
Lailindë
Another masculine version is:
Lailindëion
Hobbit lad name for Bryan Eugene McAnally
Minto Gold from Bree
Dwarven Name
Derin Coalfeet
Orkish Name
Maudreg the Insane
9/23/2003
me and you and my dog named boo
well, not really.
just cotter and cotter.
we're heading to south carolina this a.m. to a retired missionary retreat. i'm the namb representative. i'm looking forward to a day in the car with the boy wonder.
there's no telling how many verbal gems i'll have after six hours of confinement with our young yogi berra.
just cotter and cotter.
we're heading to south carolina this a.m. to a retired missionary retreat. i'm the namb representative. i'm looking forward to a day in the car with the boy wonder.
there's no telling how many verbal gems i'll have after six hours of confinement with our young yogi berra.
it's jules's fault
yes!
sam jackson got me all fired up (except i was a little bitter he was dressed in black and white, a none-too-subtle inference of his loyalties, i'm sure). when he yelled, "are you ready for some football," I stood up and yelled full force back at him,"
YES
I
AM!!!
and while kelli spent the next good while putting the children back to sleep after being woken so suddenly from my declaration of preparation, I watched gleefully while the broncos went up 21-0, 24-0, 31-0.
I'll be less annoying once the Broncos lose. Here's hoping I'll be annoying clear into 2005.
sam jackson got me all fired up (except i was a little bitter he was dressed in black and white, a none-too-subtle inference of his loyalties, i'm sure). when he yelled, "are you ready for some football," I stood up and yelled full force back at him,"
YES
I
AM!!!
and while kelli spent the next good while putting the children back to sleep after being woken so suddenly from my declaration of preparation, I watched gleefully while the broncos went up 21-0, 24-0, 31-0.
I'll be less annoying once the Broncos lose. Here's hoping I'll be annoying clear into 2005.
9/22/2003
uncomfortable self-disclosure
i'm wearing bubba teeth right now.
i don't have a reasonable explanation for it.
i don't have a reasonable explanation for it.
mining for humor, ending up with knowledge
went to techlab's website, just because moreover linked to it.
i thought of a dozen snarky comments when i saw that techlab was the leading innovator of research into intestinal diseases.
then i learned more than i ever thought imaginable about celiac disease, which cotter, at one time, had been misdiagnosed.
that learned me a lesson.
but i'm afraid i've already forgotten it.
i thought of a dozen snarky comments when i saw that techlab was the leading innovator of research into intestinal diseases.
then i learned more than i ever thought imaginable about celiac disease, which cotter, at one time, had been misdiagnosed.
that learned me a lesson.
but i'm afraid i've already forgotten it.
start your bonfires
it's banned book week.
I misunderstood, I guess. I thought it was pretty amazing that books like this would get a whole week of recognition. but now i get it.
here's the 100 most challenged books, according to the American Librarian's Association.
I misunderstood, I guess. I thought it was pretty amazing that books like this would get a whole week of recognition. but now i get it.
here's the 100 most challenged books, according to the American Librarian's Association.
follow the leader
seeing how all the cool people are doing it, i went to wizbang and offered up a submission to bonfire of the vanities.
after all, they say self-flagellation is good for the soul.
mine was entry #20 from the night of 1000 wishes for world peace.
and as a parting bonus, here is a photo of Ms. Virginia taken on Thursday night, during the talent competition, when she demonstrated her ability to play Ragtime transform the then-Tropical Storm Isabel back into a Category 5 hurricane.
she won the competition, but was unfortunately unable to continue because she was sucked up and spit out somewhere east of the Flemish Caps in the North Atlantic.
after all, they say self-flagellation is good for the soul.
mine was entry #20 from the night of 1000 wishes for world peace.
and as a parting bonus, here is a photo of Ms. Virginia taken on Thursday night, during the talent competition, when she demonstrated her ability to play Ragtime transform the then-Tropical Storm Isabel back into a Category 5 hurricane.
she won the competition, but was unfortunately unable to continue because she was sucked up and spit out somewhere east of the Flemish Caps in the North Atlantic.
good thing it's already been bought for a price
according to this site, my soul is valued:
i don't know how that translates out in US duckets. i'd be interested to know how this test skews certain answers.
nonetheless, i know the worth of my soul.
no taxes, surcharges, or gratuities. no discounts, rebates, or legal minutae.
It just gives me cause to pause and praise God for His grace.
Grace in:
i may have been in the bottom third of those who transgressed the will of the Holy God, i wouldn't dispute that. but because of grace, i have been raised to walk in the newness of life.
Your soul is worth £13391. For your peace of mind, 66% of people have a purer soul than you.
i don't know how that translates out in US duckets. i'd be interested to know how this test skews certain answers.
nonetheless, i know the worth of my soul.
Your soul is worth 1 Savior. For your peace of mind, God has purified your soul whiter than snow.
no taxes, surcharges, or gratuities. no discounts, rebates, or legal minutae.
It just gives me cause to pause and praise God for His grace.
Grace in:
forgiveness
restoration
stewardship
empowerment
reconciliation
i may have been in the bottom third of those who transgressed the will of the Holy God, i wouldn't dispute that. but because of grace, i have been raised to walk in the newness of life.
sung to the tune of for ever season...
emerging minister points us to a cemetary for all seasons.
just a friendly reminder that you too, my friend, will one day die.
that day will either be a the best day or the worst day, depending upon your relationship with God through the Christ.
just a friendly reminder that you too, my friend, will one day die.
that day will either be a the best day or the worst day, depending upon your relationship with God through the Christ.
the best new music...first
time magazine lists the top 50 websites.
i missed the list.
if it looks familiar, it came out in June. I'm just now seeing it, though.
my headline refers to a running joke between my bride and myself, about an unnamed radio station in NW Colorado that makes the claim, and always follows the tag with a song by Toto or Air Supply.
i missed the list.
if it looks familiar, it came out in June. I'm just now seeing it, though.
my headline refers to a running joke between my bride and myself, about an unnamed radio station in NW Colorado that makes the claim, and always follows the tag with a song by Toto or Air Supply.
sung to the tune of blame it on the rain
if i still had the weather girlie girl on my right column, she'd be under an umbrella.
just a heavy, steady, gray dreary downpour.
just a heavy, steady, gray dreary downpour.
the oracle has spoken. that'll be $3.85 +tax
the oracle of starbucks has me pegged:
my drink -- grande caramel macchiato, extra caramel.
Behold the Oracle's wisdom:
brett provided the link.
note: i don't like wine coolers.
Kelli, I've already asked the oracle about you, on your behalf:
the drink: grande breve latte, 2 sweet & Lows
Behold the Oracle's wisdom:
note: kelli most likely will not be found at a trendy martini bar. though she claims to be able to tell the difference between the water from the sink and the water from the fridge (and both of these from bottled water).
what does the oracle have to say about you?
my drink -- grande caramel macchiato, extra caramel.
Behold the Oracle's wisdom:
Personality type: Clueless
You don't go to Starbucks much; when you do you just tag along with other people since you have nothing better to do. You would like to order a Tazo Chai Crème but don't know how to pronounce it. Most people who drink grande caramel macchiato extra caramel are strippers.
Also drinks: Wine coolers
Can also be found at: The mall
brett provided the link.
note: i don't like wine coolers.
Kelli, I've already asked the oracle about you, on your behalf:
the drink: grande breve latte, 2 sweet & Lows
Behold the Oracle's wisdom:
Personality type: High Maintenance
You pride yourself on being assertive and direct; everyone else thinks you're bossy and arrogant. You're constantly running your mouth about topics that only you would find interesting. Your capacity for wasting other people's time is limitless. Your friends find you intolerable, that's why they're plotting to kill you.
Also drinks: Water. Bottled, chilled, with four ice cubes, a twist of lemon, in a crystal glass.
Can also be found at: Trendy martini bars
note: kelli most likely will not be found at a trendy martini bar. though she claims to be able to tell the difference between the water from the sink and the water from the fridge (and both of these from bottled water).
what does the oracle have to say about you?
the world's tiniest fiddleviolin
tony reports that the blixie chicks are leaving the country country-and-western music scene.
apparently, they weren't feeling the love.
i predict there will be a resounding lack of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this decision.
apparently, they weren't feeling the love.
i predict there will be a resounding lack of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this decision.
in the year 2000...
c&p haha:
You know you're living in 2003 when.....
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
not my microwave, but i have on my cell phone
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
why bother?
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
not yet. but we're on our way
4. You e-mail your friend who works at the desk next to you.
well, duh.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have e-mail addresses.
if they don't have one by now, they really don't want to be my friend anyway
6. When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.
guilty
7. When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
again, on my cell phone, especially if dialing a "9" area code
8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.
not yet
10. You learn you've been laid off on the 11 o'clock news.
again, not yet
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.
he did my job for three years...but even if he couldn't, i wouldn't say so
12. Contractors outnumber permanent staff and are more likely to get long-service awards.
not at namb, but there might come that day
13. You read this entire list, and kept nodding and smiling.
nodding, but not smiling
14. As you read this list, you think about forwarding it to your "friends."
no, just posting it here
15. You got this e-mail from a friend that never talks to you any more, except to send you jokes from the net.
yep
16. You are too busy to notice there was no No. 9.
yep
17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a No.9.
yep
and yes
i did watch the emmy's.
with my wife.
and after my shameful experience with the ms. america contest, i deliberately avoided the computer.
nobody needs two of those atrocities in one weekend.
with my wife.
and after my shameful experience with the ms. america contest, i deliberately avoided the computer.
nobody needs two of those atrocities in one weekend.
love: life's ultimate word problem
Have you ever felt clueless when it comes to love? Have you ever given everything you could to a person you really cared for and received zero response in return? Have you ever tried to show your love as a Christian only to be hurt in return? Have you ever tried to speak in love to friends, family, or other loved ones only to be treated with hurt or anger in return? More often than not, the exact response we receive from others when we extend love in any one of its forms is the exact opposite of the response that we expected to receive.
We get surprised and stunned by love or a lack of love because we can no longer know what to expect from others when it comes to love. In yesterday's blog, love was addressed as a function of time, Today, we're going to examine love as a function of math.
For example, In the world of math: a2 +b2 always =c2. A cube's volume = base x height x width. The area of ellipsoid = half the height x pi / by the sum of…. Okay, you get my point.
Unlike in math, though, the equations don't always come out the same in love. Roses + Candy + expensive dinner doesn't always = a second date. When you get rejected in love, you come back with the equation and say, "Wait, roses + candy = 2nd date." You scratch your head and try to figure out why the equation doesn't add up.
Your date looks at you and says, "oh, you forgot this part of the equation: "Roses +candy + talking for 45 minutes about your cockroach collection + stuffing an entire bread roll in your mouth at once + making me pick up the tab = never call me again." Love is tough because we don't always know what we're adding up and how the equation will look, and what the sum or product will be.
Unfortunately, these inconsistencies in love can take a much more serious tone. All we have to do is look around to see the divorce, the separation, the hatred, the bigotry, the racism, the adultery, the abortion, the euthanasia to seen that we as a people don't look at love's math the same way as we used to. Perhaps this is "New math." Today:
It's difficult today to know what love proves in the relationships in our lives because we lost our sense of what love accomplishes. Last week we worked with a new definition for love. We learned that love is an expression of time. We learned, from the famous 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, the things that love does and does not do. We need to remember that Scripture as our foundation. We also need to understand that all real love (in all its forms, but especially agape love) begins by, continues through, and culminates in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then, we're going to see what real love proves. When we leave today, we can put up an equation where we will know the answer and we know it will be true for me, true for you, true for every single person who takes the time to do the math that proves the love of God.
Read 1 John 5:1-5.
When John wrote this passage, and this general letter, it was a message that was greatly needed. He wrote this at a time where Jesus had been gone just long enough that people, Christian Jews, were straying far from the simple gospel message. No more than 50 years had passed since Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, but people were already losing focus on what it meant to be a Christian and what it meant to love one another. If this surprises you that could happen in such a short time, just look at our own age. How much has life changed in 50 years - our country is only a mere shadow of itself morally since 1949. We have made a lot of progress in many ways, but in how many more important ways have we made a terrible, morally bankrupt regress.
So John saw similar troubles in the people and the Christian church which were developing. John, having laid a foundation of a Christian understanding of love in the previous four chapters, concluded this letter by explaining what our Christian love proves.
The first thing we see, that, when defined and guided by Christ,
I. Our love proves we are begotten of God.
Read verse one.
A very simple reading without diving any deeper into the text reveals that if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God. Begotten simply means "to be born of." When you look at the long generational lists in the Bible, they always use the term "begot." Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers…and so on.
In this passage of Scripture, though, the reference to "begotten" speaks clearly to an individual's spiritual re-birth. Before a person acknowledges that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ who is Lord, that person is understood to have been born of Adam, rather than God. If you are begotten of Adam, it means you are marked by humanity's fallen nature. You are known by the sins you commit.
However, when you submit to the Risen Lord Jesus, you are reborn. You have been given a new lineage and a new inheritance. Your cursed mark is exchanged for a flawless blessing. Your family tree is no longer rooted in the garden of Eden, but instead in the Tree of Life who was deceived in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Now, the first part of verse 1 proclaims an essential truth: that your faith in Christ is what establishes your eternal relationship and heir status to God, nothing more, and certainly nothing less.
Verse 1 concludes with the explanation that because you possess that status as an heir of He who begets, you do so because you love the one and only God created all offspring. Here, though, the offspring referred to are both God's spiritual co-heirs as well as those who have yet to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Finally, The verse states that if you love God (who begot), then you also love all those who are born of Him. This is saying that if you love God, you need to love others. The way this is translated in today's language may make this statement confusing. It sounds maybe a suggestion, or possibly a command. However, neither is true. The words used in the original Greek text express that your love for others is your proof of your love for God. John's statement is a simple expression of fact. He's saying if you really love God, the proof for your love for Him is in the demonstration of your love for others. If your love for others is absent, lacking, or conditional, you are not living proof of your love for God.
Before we move on, a couple of important things need to be pointed out by focusing on a single word in this verse. That word is whoever, the first word of the verse. What we see in that simple 3-syllable word is:
A. The Exclusivity of Belonging to God.
This word whoever means that belonging to God is absolutely dependent upon this singular condition. Belonging to God is absolutely tied in to believing that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed One.
This statement was necessary because Christianity of that day was beginning to be tainted by gnosticism. Gnosticism was a strain of faith that led away from Christ, rather than toward him. It taught that a person must acquire special knowledge in order to prove a saving relationship with Jesus, or righteousness to gain entry into heaven. From gnosticism, different concepts of asceticism developed. These ascetic bents of religiosity either required a person to be indulgent in physical and sexual excesses or for a person to be absolutely removed from any influences that resulted in physical pleasure.
People were very confused, and the Christ's saving work was being muddled by the flawed theologies of man. People, even legitimate Christians, began to think that all people could belong to God if they all just followed the prescribed path of their particular Holy Man, priestess or shaman.
This is a problem that exists today. Gnosticism lives and thrives today. You can learn all about it on the Internet, and even join a Gnostic society. Too many people think all roads lead to heaven, that if we can just get a special knowledge, we'll someday meet our maker, it whatever form He, She, or It decides to assume.
Ephesians 2:8-10 says it simply, clearly, and definitively:
This "whoever" used to start off this chapter points that the criterion for belonging to God is exclusive. If you don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are following the wrong path and you cannot climb into the sheep pen in any other way than the door, which is through Jesus Himself. (Jackman).
Even though this "whoever" is incredibly exclusive, at the same time, we can see:
B. The Inclusivity of Belonging to God.
The same word that limits and explicitly informs what it takes to know you are a child of God is the same word used to present the truth that this opportunity is available to everyone.
The Bible speaks repeatedly about who can have this parent/child relationship with God, through the eternal salvation offered through Jesus Christ:
Jesus the Christ came to pay the price for the whole world. He doesn't want even one of us to have to pay that death penalty for our sin. He did not want it for me, and He certainly doesn't want it for you. You, dear friend, were on God's mind when He sent Jesus to you.
Not only does our love prove we are begotten of God, but:
II. Our Love Proves we Behave God.
Read verses 2 and 3:
These verses continue that same pattern of statement of fact. We can know if we love others by whether or not we love God. We prove that we love God by whether or not we keep His commands. Let's deal with these aspects of proving our love one at a time.
A. Our love for the Commands of God.
We're beginning here because it works us from the end to the beginning as far as these two verses are concerned. When we understand what it means to love the commands of God, we should see an inter-relatedness between that love and the love for people.
The Apostle Peter got it right when he said in Acts 5:29 "We ought to obey God rather than men." That obedience to the law is described in 2 John 1:6 as "walking in love." This means to be in continual pursuit.
Think about what it means to love the laws of God. Psalm 119 is the longest of all the Psalms. The subject of the psalm is God's law. Yet, here are some of the descriptions used regarding God's law:
Wondrous Blessed Reviving Delightful
Good Merciful Favoring Shepherding
Right Tender Faithful Eternal
Unforgettable Consummate Perfect Enlightening
Understandable Protective Lovable Wonderful
Directing Redemptive Hopeful Saving
The list goes on. Face it: This psalm is a love song to God's law.
Can you imagine writing or holding dear to a love song about the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. It doesn't happen because those documents were written by sinful, flawed man and that's why our courts are filled with people fighting over the laws interpretations, rather than rejoicing in the simplicity of the perfect laws and commands God has given us.
The last line of this 1 John reference tells us that His commandments are not burdensome. This takes us back to the concept from last week where we are reminded of Christ's words, " My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
When we operate out of total submission and obedience to Jesus, we will find that we are no longer being duped by Satan's lies. When we're in disobedience, it's like we're looking at multiplication tables that are off by one column. All of a sudden, we believe that 3x3=4.
Instead of numbers, though, the equation we buy into is: evangelism X encounter = rejection and humiliation
When we're obedient, though, the true equation becomes obvious. We see that obedience to love others as we love ourselves is not just a good idea. It's a blessing just waiting to happen.
Evangelism X encounter = opportunity.
It's an opportunity for a soul to be saved a Christian friend to be made, a relationship to be built, a healing to begin, a love from God to be proven. Obedience becomes the joy, rather than the burden. That fulness of life that Christ promises comes from experiencing all the great things that God has planned for you that far exceed anything you can plan for yourself. You only get to experience it, though, if you walk in obedience.
If you are walking in obedience to His Commands, it is going to impact
B. Your Love for the Children of God.
You'll discover that loving God is really all about being in the people business. Take five seconds and look who are immediately around you right now. Now look beyond them to the others in your life, both familiar and unfamiliar. How well do you really know any of these folks?Do you really know them at all?
If you do, it is because you are following the easy commands of God and you know the blessing that God gives us in the fellowship of other believers.
If you don't its because we have bought into another one of the adversary's lies. We feel like we're too busy. We have our own family lives. We're afraid of what we might find out about the other people. Listen, the Bible tells us that we are to serve as the body of Christ. You know your own body - you know what functions well and what functions not so well. We're supposed to be united, of one mind. There is no other way to do that other than trusting that God knows what He's talking about and taking the time to have koinonia fellowship with one another.
You can't do that in corporate worship. You don't talk to each other enough (at least you shouldn't). It has to start in a small group Bible study. Get into the Word together, sharing yourselves. Then, with the group you get to know in that gathering, extend those relationships into the other parts of your week. As you see each other during at the local carnivals or school functions, don't pretend not to know one another. AT the very least, say hi to each other. Better yet, attend the events together, then go to Starbucks or Denny's together. Learn to have fun together, to trust each other, to care for each other. Learn how to love each other with an agape love.
When you do that, when you love the commands of God and you love the children of God, you can also show your:
C. Love for the Church of God.
If you never understood this before, please realize this now: We belong to the church of God, and I don't mean the denomination. We are the church of the Lord God, regardless of our denomination, if we are found to be worshipping Jesus as Lord in Spirit and in Truth.
As such, we must show God's love for other members of the church of God in all its forms. In those areas where we have similarities, we must be unified and purposeful. In those areas where we have differences, we must extend and accept Christ-honoring grace. In those areas that would cause others to be excluded because they no longer worship Jesus, the Risen Christ, we must not compromise. But we still must be grace-filled.
If we serve faithfully in the church of God, we will live and die together with our brothers and sisters of the faith. We will make one another complete. We will partake in Christ's grace, bear Christ's light, and we will stand fast in His enduring Love.
In so doing, we demonstrate through our love that we behave God.
We behave God, we are begotten of God - Both of these aspects of the proof of love are exciting and fulfilling, but neither of which is nearly as fulfilling or exciting as the fact that:
III. Our Love Proves we will Behold God
Read the final two verses.
The key to this passage is to understand what it means to overcome the world. Verse 4 proclaims and promises that whatever is born of God will overcome the world. You get this far and things get exciting - Overcome the world? I don't know what that entails but it sure sounds good! The passage concludes by asking a rhetorical question, that if you take the time to answer it, you'll see God really gives us great cause to be excited and live with tremendous joy!
The first thing that you need to know about this passage is that:
A. Victory is our Birthright
Remember that the beginning of this passage tells us that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we are born of God. Reading here, if we're born of God, we're overcomers of the world! Because of our new birth in God, our new identity in Christ, we are given the inheritance of heaven, of eternal life. The world promises nothing but death, misery, sin, struggle, and sorrow. We've overcome that! Not because of who we are or what we accomplished, but instead because of who Jesus is and what He accomplished for us.
The Scripture verse says our very faith that we placed in Jesus Christ is the evidence of our ability to overcome the world. Without Jesus, where would you place your faith? In science, in your good works, in your life's prosperity, power, or position?
When you look at your faith in Jesus Christ, you see that your victory of the world is not only your birthright:
B. Victory is our Blessing
And what a blessing it is. With Jesus the Christ as your Savior, you don't have to perish. You have eternal life. You don't have to be miserable, you have a peace that passes all understanding. You don't have to be lonely, you have a Lord who will never leave you nor forsake you and will be closer than a brother. You don't have to live under the self-imposed sentence of guilt for past crimes and errors, your true Judge has stepped in on your behalf and paid the price, forgiving you completely and remembering your sins no more.
The book of Revelation, written by the same John who penned the focus passage today, speaks extensively on the blessing of our victory. Jesus Chris's message to those who overcome is clear. He said to those:
This is the promise. The victory has been recorded. If you belong to God because you have placed your entire faith in the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the victory is yours. It is your birthright and it is your blessing.
The equation is simple. It's an equation of love.
(you + nothing)Christ = forgiveness = heaven = eternal life.
If you take Christ out of the equation, the math just doesn't add up.
You can't get there on your own.
You need to make a decision. When test time comes, it is pass/fail.
If you don't have Christ, you aren't going to pass.
The Bible tells us such an urgent warning at the end of Revelation: Jesus Himself says, "Surely I am coming quickly."
Don't put it off. Let today be the day you ace the test of life. God's the world's greatest teacher. He's already given you the only answer you need for this exam.
The answer is Jesus.
We get surprised and stunned by love or a lack of love because we can no longer know what to expect from others when it comes to love. In yesterday's blog, love was addressed as a function of time, Today, we're going to examine love as a function of math.
For example, In the world of math: a2 +b2 always =c2. A cube's volume = base x height x width. The area of ellipsoid = half the height x pi / by the sum of…. Okay, you get my point.
Unlike in math, though, the equations don't always come out the same in love. Roses + Candy + expensive dinner doesn't always = a second date. When you get rejected in love, you come back with the equation and say, "Wait, roses + candy = 2nd date." You scratch your head and try to figure out why the equation doesn't add up.
Your date looks at you and says, "oh, you forgot this part of the equation: "Roses +candy + talking for 45 minutes about your cockroach collection + stuffing an entire bread roll in your mouth at once + making me pick up the tab = never call me again." Love is tough because we don't always know what we're adding up and how the equation will look, and what the sum or product will be.
Unfortunately, these inconsistencies in love can take a much more serious tone. All we have to do is look around to see the divorce, the separation, the hatred, the bigotry, the racism, the adultery, the abortion, the euthanasia to seen that we as a people don't look at love's math the same way as we used to. Perhaps this is "New math." Today:
- Man + woman +physical intimacy (which is not equal to love) x human fetus does not equal "precious baby." It too often equals "problem," "setback," "nonviable conception alternative."
- Husband + wife x children x love, honor, obey does not equal "til death do us part."
- People + church x love (programs) does not equal "family of faith."
- Church + loving congregation x needs does not equal "ministry."
It's difficult today to know what love proves in the relationships in our lives because we lost our sense of what love accomplishes. Last week we worked with a new definition for love. We learned that love is an expression of time. We learned, from the famous 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, the things that love does and does not do. We need to remember that Scripture as our foundation. We also need to understand that all real love (in all its forms, but especially agape love) begins by, continues through, and culminates in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then, we're going to see what real love proves. When we leave today, we can put up an equation where we will know the answer and we know it will be true for me, true for you, true for every single person who takes the time to do the math that proves the love of God.
Read 1 John 5:1-5.
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our[1] faith. 5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?:
When John wrote this passage, and this general letter, it was a message that was greatly needed. He wrote this at a time where Jesus had been gone just long enough that people, Christian Jews, were straying far from the simple gospel message. No more than 50 years had passed since Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, but people were already losing focus on what it meant to be a Christian and what it meant to love one another. If this surprises you that could happen in such a short time, just look at our own age. How much has life changed in 50 years - our country is only a mere shadow of itself morally since 1949. We have made a lot of progress in many ways, but in how many more important ways have we made a terrible, morally bankrupt regress.
So John saw similar troubles in the people and the Christian church which were developing. John, having laid a foundation of a Christian understanding of love in the previous four chapters, concluded this letter by explaining what our Christian love proves.
The first thing we see, that, when defined and guided by Christ,
I. Our love proves we are begotten of God.
Read verse one.
A very simple reading without diving any deeper into the text reveals that if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God. Begotten simply means "to be born of." When you look at the long generational lists in the Bible, they always use the term "begot." Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers…and so on.
In this passage of Scripture, though, the reference to "begotten" speaks clearly to an individual's spiritual re-birth. Before a person acknowledges that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ who is Lord, that person is understood to have been born of Adam, rather than God. If you are begotten of Adam, it means you are marked by humanity's fallen nature. You are known by the sins you commit.
However, when you submit to the Risen Lord Jesus, you are reborn. You have been given a new lineage and a new inheritance. Your cursed mark is exchanged for a flawless blessing. Your family tree is no longer rooted in the garden of Eden, but instead in the Tree of Life who was deceived in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Now, the first part of verse 1 proclaims an essential truth: that your faith in Christ is what establishes your eternal relationship and heir status to God, nothing more, and certainly nothing less.
Verse 1 concludes with the explanation that because you possess that status as an heir of He who begets, you do so because you love the one and only God created all offspring. Here, though, the offspring referred to are both God's spiritual co-heirs as well as those who have yet to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Finally, The verse states that if you love God (who begot), then you also love all those who are born of Him. This is saying that if you love God, you need to love others. The way this is translated in today's language may make this statement confusing. It sounds maybe a suggestion, or possibly a command. However, neither is true. The words used in the original Greek text express that your love for others is your proof of your love for God. John's statement is a simple expression of fact. He's saying if you really love God, the proof for your love for Him is in the demonstration of your love for others. If your love for others is absent, lacking, or conditional, you are not living proof of your love for God.
Before we move on, a couple of important things need to be pointed out by focusing on a single word in this verse. That word is whoever, the first word of the verse. What we see in that simple 3-syllable word is:
A. The Exclusivity of Belonging to God.
This word whoever means that belonging to God is absolutely dependent upon this singular condition. Belonging to God is absolutely tied in to believing that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed One.
This statement was necessary because Christianity of that day was beginning to be tainted by gnosticism. Gnosticism was a strain of faith that led away from Christ, rather than toward him. It taught that a person must acquire special knowledge in order to prove a saving relationship with Jesus, or righteousness to gain entry into heaven. From gnosticism, different concepts of asceticism developed. These ascetic bents of religiosity either required a person to be indulgent in physical and sexual excesses or for a person to be absolutely removed from any influences that resulted in physical pleasure.
People were very confused, and the Christ's saving work was being muddled by the flawed theologies of man. People, even legitimate Christians, began to think that all people could belong to God if they all just followed the prescribed path of their particular Holy Man, priestess or shaman.
This is a problem that exists today. Gnosticism lives and thrives today. You can learn all about it on the Internet, and even join a Gnostic society. Too many people think all roads lead to heaven, that if we can just get a special knowledge, we'll someday meet our maker, it whatever form He, She, or It decides to assume.
Ephesians 2:8-10 says it simply, clearly, and definitively:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
This "whoever" used to start off this chapter points that the criterion for belonging to God is exclusive. If you don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are following the wrong path and you cannot climb into the sheep pen in any other way than the door, which is through Jesus Himself. (Jackman).
Even though this "whoever" is incredibly exclusive, at the same time, we can see:
B. The Inclusivity of Belonging to God.
The same word that limits and explicitly informs what it takes to know you are a child of God is the same word used to present the truth that this opportunity is available to everyone.
The Bible speaks repeatedly about who can have this parent/child relationship with God, through the eternal salvation offered through Jesus Christ:
- John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
- Luke 12:8 - Whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man will confess before the angels of God.
- Acts 2:21 - And it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
- Acts 10:43 - Whoever believes in Him will receive the remission of sins.
- Romans 10:12 - For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.
- 1 Timothy 2:3-4 - For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth
.
Jesus the Christ came to pay the price for the whole world. He doesn't want even one of us to have to pay that death penalty for our sin. He did not want it for me, and He certainly doesn't want it for you. You, dear friend, were on God's mind when He sent Jesus to you.
Not only does our love prove we are begotten of God, but:
II. Our Love Proves we Behave God.
Read verses 2 and 3:
These verses continue that same pattern of statement of fact. We can know if we love others by whether or not we love God. We prove that we love God by whether or not we keep His commands. Let's deal with these aspects of proving our love one at a time.
A. Our love for the Commands of God.
We're beginning here because it works us from the end to the beginning as far as these two verses are concerned. When we understand what it means to love the commands of God, we should see an inter-relatedness between that love and the love for people.
The Apostle Peter got it right when he said in Acts 5:29 "We ought to obey God rather than men." That obedience to the law is described in 2 John 1:6 as "walking in love." This means to be in continual pursuit.
Think about what it means to love the laws of God. Psalm 119 is the longest of all the Psalms. The subject of the psalm is God's law. Yet, here are some of the descriptions used regarding God's law:
Wondrous Blessed Reviving Delightful
Good Merciful Favoring Shepherding
Right Tender Faithful Eternal
Unforgettable Consummate Perfect Enlightening
Understandable Protective Lovable Wonderful
Directing Redemptive Hopeful Saving
The list goes on. Face it: This psalm is a love song to God's law.
Can you imagine writing or holding dear to a love song about the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. It doesn't happen because those documents were written by sinful, flawed man and that's why our courts are filled with people fighting over the laws interpretations, rather than rejoicing in the simplicity of the perfect laws and commands God has given us.
The last line of this 1 John reference tells us that His commandments are not burdensome. This takes us back to the concept from last week where we are reminded of Christ's words, " My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
When we operate out of total submission and obedience to Jesus, we will find that we are no longer being duped by Satan's lies. When we're in disobedience, it's like we're looking at multiplication tables that are off by one column. All of a sudden, we believe that 3x3=4.
Instead of numbers, though, the equation we buy into is: evangelism X encounter = rejection and humiliation
When we're obedient, though, the true equation becomes obvious. We see that obedience to love others as we love ourselves is not just a good idea. It's a blessing just waiting to happen.
Evangelism X encounter = opportunity.
It's an opportunity for a soul to be saved a Christian friend to be made, a relationship to be built, a healing to begin, a love from God to be proven. Obedience becomes the joy, rather than the burden. That fulness of life that Christ promises comes from experiencing all the great things that God has planned for you that far exceed anything you can plan for yourself. You only get to experience it, though, if you walk in obedience.
If you are walking in obedience to His Commands, it is going to impact
B. Your Love for the Children of God.
You'll discover that loving God is really all about being in the people business. Take five seconds and look who are immediately around you right now. Now look beyond them to the others in your life, both familiar and unfamiliar. How well do you really know any of these folks?Do you really know them at all?
If you do, it is because you are following the easy commands of God and you know the blessing that God gives us in the fellowship of other believers.
If you don't its because we have bought into another one of the adversary's lies. We feel like we're too busy. We have our own family lives. We're afraid of what we might find out about the other people. Listen, the Bible tells us that we are to serve as the body of Christ. You know your own body - you know what functions well and what functions not so well. We're supposed to be united, of one mind. There is no other way to do that other than trusting that God knows what He's talking about and taking the time to have koinonia fellowship with one another.
You can't do that in corporate worship. You don't talk to each other enough (at least you shouldn't). It has to start in a small group Bible study. Get into the Word together, sharing yourselves. Then, with the group you get to know in that gathering, extend those relationships into the other parts of your week. As you see each other during at the local carnivals or school functions, don't pretend not to know one another. AT the very least, say hi to each other. Better yet, attend the events together, then go to Starbucks or Denny's together. Learn to have fun together, to trust each other, to care for each other. Learn how to love each other with an agape love.
When you do that, when you love the commands of God and you love the children of God, you can also show your:
C. Love for the Church of God.
If you never understood this before, please realize this now: We belong to the church of God, and I don't mean the denomination. We are the church of the Lord God, regardless of our denomination, if we are found to be worshipping Jesus as Lord in Spirit and in Truth.
As such, we must show God's love for other members of the church of God in all its forms. In those areas where we have similarities, we must be unified and purposeful. In those areas where we have differences, we must extend and accept Christ-honoring grace. In those areas that would cause others to be excluded because they no longer worship Jesus, the Risen Christ, we must not compromise. But we still must be grace-filled.
If we serve faithfully in the church of God, we will live and die together with our brothers and sisters of the faith. We will make one another complete. We will partake in Christ's grace, bear Christ's light, and we will stand fast in His enduring Love.
In so doing, we demonstrate through our love that we behave God.
We behave God, we are begotten of God - Both of these aspects of the proof of love are exciting and fulfilling, but neither of which is nearly as fulfilling or exciting as the fact that:
III. Our Love Proves we will Behold God
Read the final two verses.
The key to this passage is to understand what it means to overcome the world. Verse 4 proclaims and promises that whatever is born of God will overcome the world. You get this far and things get exciting - Overcome the world? I don't know what that entails but it sure sounds good! The passage concludes by asking a rhetorical question, that if you take the time to answer it, you'll see God really gives us great cause to be excited and live with tremendous joy!
The first thing that you need to know about this passage is that:
A. Victory is our Birthright
Remember that the beginning of this passage tells us that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we are born of God. Reading here, if we're born of God, we're overcomers of the world! Because of our new birth in God, our new identity in Christ, we are given the inheritance of heaven, of eternal life. The world promises nothing but death, misery, sin, struggle, and sorrow. We've overcome that! Not because of who we are or what we accomplished, but instead because of who Jesus is and what He accomplished for us.
The Scripture verse says our very faith that we placed in Jesus Christ is the evidence of our ability to overcome the world. Without Jesus, where would you place your faith? In science, in your good works, in your life's prosperity, power, or position?
When you look at your faith in Jesus Christ, you see that your victory of the world is not only your birthright:
B. Victory is our Blessing
And what a blessing it is. With Jesus the Christ as your Savior, you don't have to perish. You have eternal life. You don't have to be miserable, you have a peace that passes all understanding. You don't have to be lonely, you have a Lord who will never leave you nor forsake you and will be closer than a brother. You don't have to live under the self-imposed sentence of guilt for past crimes and errors, your true Judge has stepped in on your behalf and paid the price, forgiving you completely and remembering your sins no more.
The book of Revelation, written by the same John who penned the focus passage today, speaks extensively on the blessing of our victory. Jesus Chris's message to those who overcome is clear. He said to those:
- I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God (2:7)
- I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it (2:17)
- I will give power over the nations (2:26)
- Shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His Angels (3:5)
- I will make Him the pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. (3:12)
- I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (3:21)
- He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son (21:7) .
This is the promise. The victory has been recorded. If you belong to God because you have placed your entire faith in the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the victory is yours. It is your birthright and it is your blessing.
The equation is simple. It's an equation of love.
(you + nothing)Christ = forgiveness = heaven = eternal life.
If you take Christ out of the equation, the math just doesn't add up.
You can't get there on your own.
You need to make a decision. When test time comes, it is pass/fail.
If you don't have Christ, you aren't going to pass.
The Bible tells us such an urgent warning at the end of Revelation: Jesus Himself says, "Surely I am coming quickly."
Don't put it off. Let today be the day you ace the test of life. God's the world's greatest teacher. He's already given you the only answer you need for this exam.
The answer is Jesus.
i don't mean to be bad. i'm just drawn that way.
this is cool.
i can't even doodle humans, much less construct them intentionally.
resurrectionsong led me there.
oh, and if you have dial-up, don't waste your time.
i can't even doodle humans, much less construct them intentionally.
resurrectionsong led me there.
oh, and if you have dial-up, don't waste your time.
what's the matter lassie? did paulie choke on a cracker?
mikey's funnies passes along an old reliable today:
A woman brought a very limp parrot into a veterinary clinic. As she lay her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, Polly has passed away."
The distressed owner wailed, "Are you sure? I mean, you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."
The vet rolled his eyes, shrugged, turned and left the room, returning a few moments later with a beautiful black Labrador.
As the bird's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the dead parrot from top to bottom. He then looked at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.
The vet took the dog out, but returned a few moments later with a cat. The cat jumped up and also sniffed delicately at the ex-bird. The cat sat back, shook its head, meowed and ran out of the room.
The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but like I said, your parrot is most definitely, 100% certifiably dead." He then turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.
The parrot's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$150?" she cried, "$150 just to tell me my bird is dead?!!!" The vet shrugged.
"If you'd taken my word for it, the bill would only have been $20, but what with the Lab report and the Cat scan..."
its angry american monday, apparently
i commented on christian involvement over at trommetter today. the article links to clinton's stump for davis a week ago at an AME church, where he held sway like elvis at a Alabama Belles of the South convention.
trommetter hollars for bill's right to do it, and i agree. what i don't agree with (though trommetter didn't himself/herself argue) is the double-standard that would have had the irs on the church like clinton on an overweight intern if the church had invited a local conservative politico to stump for mcclintock.
trommetter hollars for bill's right to do it, and i agree. what i don't agree with (though trommetter didn't himself/herself argue) is the double-standard that would have had the irs on the church like clinton on an overweight intern if the church had invited a local conservative politico to stump for mcclintock.
yep. there she is. miss america. again
primal purge has a funny series of photos of ms. america's victory moment.
9/21/2003
historical-sequential accoutrements of unique multi-directional consecrative affectations between anthropocentric organisms
Or Loving Each Other Takes Time
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
I have heard this to be a true story: A woman approached her husband and said to him, "You haven't told me you loved me since our wedding day over 20 years ago."
The man looked at his wife and said, "Well, nothing has changed since that day and if it does, you'll be the first to know." Whether this is true or not, and I really hope it isn't, the fact remains that we live in a time where we speak an awful lot about love, but we really don't know much about it.
Love was never meant to be a mysterious subject. Even Forrest Gump made the statement, "I may not be a smart man, Jenny, but I know what love is." We all might know what love is, but few, if any of us, know how to really make love.
A while back, whil I was driving the family to Denver so I could attend a youth seminar there, we were listening to a tape full of love songs that I had recorded for her while we were dating. A song, performed by the Kentucky Head Hunters, came on. The song's title is "Always makin' Love To You." Now before anyone gets concerned that I'm getting ready to preach an NC-17 sermon, bear with me. The song lyrics state how this fella's true love for his lady is made in the time while they are apart from one another, or when they simply think of one another, rather than in times of cuddlin' and smoochin'.
Upon hearing this tune, and me being the deeply theological guy that I am, I was struck by the biblical concept of making love. Again, I am not talking about romance, eros, the physical manifestation of love. Rather, I really started thinking about how God makes or creates his agape love. Furthermore, I thought about how God fully manifested the depth and breadth of his love by giving us His Son, Jesus Christ. When I remembered that we, as Christians, are called to be Christ-like, I realized that we should strive to embody this same type of love, that we need to look to God to understand how to make or manufacture this agape love in our own lives.
We don't have to look far to realize that far too often, we fail miserably when we attempt to create love and nurture loving relationships in our own lives. These failures befall us on every futile attempt:
In many ways, we live in a world that seems absent of love. We don't have to look far to realize that too often, we fail miserably when we attempt to create love and nurture loving relationships in our lives. These failures befall us in so many places:
This is the indictment against us. It falls upon your shoulders and it rests heavily upon mine. Our total inability to love from our own motivations is what convicts and condemns us.
However, If you find yourself convicted at anytime (and every time), remember that your conviction is always always always accompanied by a compulsion to redemption and restoration. God never convicts you Christian brother or sister, without the ultimate goal of restoring you to redeemed service. And my solemn prayer is that we all will recommit to better reflecting the love that God has made for us, and redetermined to manufacture similar love in our own lives.
The best place to start, I always believe, is at the beginning. For us to truly understand how we are going to love God, love others, and love ourselves fully and appropriately, we need to have a biblical understanding of the concept of love.
We find in the First book of Corinthians, chapter 13, Paul's splendid description or definition of love. Please read with me:
Where Paul places this chapter on love is particularly interesting. Chapter 12 focuses on the endowment, receipt and inter-relatedness of gifts, especially that of languages. Jumping ahead to chapter 14, Paul speaks extensively on the proper use of gifts. So it might seem unusual that he interrupt this flow on gifts to speak about love. But Chapter 12, verse 31 provides the cue to his reasoning. There he says, he is speaking about love because it informs the church in Corinth about the "more excellent way for gifts to be operated."
This chapter of a love interlude is necessary because the Corinthian church, in many ways, was clueless when it came to love. This congregation considered themselves be quite a spiritual group of elite people. The members of the church had acquired great knowledge, they possessed the ability to speak in a variety of languages, they had been graced with gifts of prophecy. God was blessing them in mighty ways, yet they were a congregation that was struggling, suffocated by division, infighting, and confusion. Quickly review the first three verses so we might understand a bit of the problem.
The church in Corinth did not understand:
I. Love Characterizes Life's Meaning (Verses 1-3).
The Corinthian church didn't lack for any spiritual gift, but they were not daily walking in the source or power of those gifts, Jesus Christ.
Here we need to make an important distinction. Spiritual gifts are bestowed differently upon every believer. What a blessing to have and know which spiritual gift you have been given. That said, spiritual gifts are not the evidence of the health of our spiritual life. That health is evidenced instead by our spiritual fruits.
Galatians 5:22 says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…"
And the list goes on. What is important here? The first fruit of the spirit listed is LOVE. Returning to our first Corinthians passage, we learn a few things:
A. Without Love, our gifts are immaterial (verse 1)
Here, Paul writes using the greatest form of exaggeration or hyperbole. He's saying, even if a person had the greatest ability to speak with eloquence, he may as well be babbling gibberish if he doesn't operate out of a love motive.
B. Without Love, our gains are insubstantial (verse 2)
Paul's extremism is continued for the purpose of proving his point. He is saying that if we have the ability to know and understand all life's mysteries, even being so gifted that we might know the motives of God, that if we operate without love, we are nothing.
Example: Balaam (book of Numbers) he was a prophet of God, knew His truth, knew His message. He didn't love God and He didn't love God's people. That lack of love led to his death.
Jeremiah, though, was different. His love for God and for God's people led him to weep over their sin. This prophet was known for his weeping. He was a prophet with a broken, loving, spiritual heart. A heart like Christ's, who also wept for His people.
C. Without Love, our giving is insignificant (verse 3)
Paul concludes the exaggeration with a word on giving. He says that the ultimate giving, giving up all possessions the burning up of one's life would be meaningless if not driven by a love motive.
Rabbis of the day preached to never give more than 20%. Paul said you can give it all away and have it be worthless! That's why Matthew 6:3 says our giving should be done in secret, so that it might honor God and not be a tool for bragging.
You know, we can find the same things to be true in life today…
Now we're at a point where the rubber really hits the road, so to speak. We know that love must motivate all of our actions and activities. It's like the story of the man who walked into the motel and asked what their rates for the night were. The clerk said, "$20, but only $15 if you make your own bed." The guy said, "I'll make my own bed." The clerk handed him a hammer and a bag of nails and said, "The wood's in room 304."
The question is: How do we make love?
The only way we'll find Christ's answer to that very tough question is if we are willing to change the way we define love.
Look at it this way: We are able to define distance in terms of time. You can ask, "How far to the airport?" and the answer could very well be "20 minutes." You can't turn that around though…You can ask, "what time can I pick you up for our date?" and the answer will never be "about 10 miles." It just doesn't work.
Similarly, I think we as a people work with a definition of love that really just doesn't work. We keep trying to define love in terms of our activities. A lady can ask her husband… "Do you love me?" and his typical answer is…
We keep trying to define our love in terms of activities. Instead, what I think we see in Scripture here, is that love…true biblical love in all its forms….chiefly agape love, but also phileo love and eros love….is always defined as an expression of time.
Read verses 4-7
In these three verses, God gives us a beautiful illustration of the components of love:
Example: A Prism: These verses reveal 15 colors, hues of God's love.
Example: A flower: Each petal is essential to the beauty of the flower.
In describing each characteristic, the Greek translators always used verbs…the following is not what love is, but what love does and does not do. Knowing that verbs are expressions of actions, actions fill time and space, and accordingly, love is always an expression of time. With these verses, we see:
II. Love counts life's minutes (Verses 4-7)
Patience takes time. The word for patience, makrothumeo is a verb that is always used exclusively with people, rather than circumstances. When we love, we must be patient. Patience encompasses so many areas:
You can never successfully be patient in a hurry. You can't rush it. You can't force it. You can only develop it from a foundation of love.
Kindness takes time. Kindness is similar to patience because there is a superficial sort of kindness like their can be a superficial sort of patience. A loveless kindness is just like a patience that is really nothing more than putting up with people. That's not patience. Being superficially kind isn't really being kind, either. In fact, the Greek word for kindness is chrestuomai which means a useful, serving, gracious type of kindness. It's kindness that takes time.
It's the kindness he demonstrated, doing all these things so that someday, when your life ends, you might enter the gates of heaven rather than suffer in the depths of hell. That, dear friend, is kindness.
If your love isn't defined by verbs that are expressions of time, your love isn't a Christ-honoring love. In fact, the next 8 expressions of love are shown in the negative, and they reveal just:
What Happens When You Hurry
Jealousy
It's easy to become jealous when you become short sighted. You see other's blessings and you don't take the time to understand why that person is blessed. Jealousy fills the pages of the Bible:
The alternative to jealousy and the proof that love is not jealous can be seen in the relationship between Jonathan and David in 1 Sam. 20:17: "Now Jonathan again caused David to vow, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul." When you love without a jealous motive, you practice Christ's love.
Bragging
This word is used only here in the entire NT and it is tied in to jealousy. When you brag, you are actually attempting to make others jealous of you. This can never be confused for love. Philippians 2:6-8 tells us that Jesus, "who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"
When you love others, you don't brag about your activities with that person. Let your actions speak for themselves. Don't ever be motivated by the thought of making someone envious of how swell of a person you are. That's bragging…its definitely not love!
Arrogance
Arrogance, like bragging, is based in pride. Arrogance is that inclined nose-snobbery that sometimes comes with a sense of accomplishment when a person accepts Christ. Those people who act holier-than-others are making the grave error of placing their emphasis on their decision for Christ, rather than Christ's saving grace. That snobbish elitism contradicts a loving spirit and turns more people away from Christ than we'd like to admit.
We need to be more like John the Baptist, who totally subjected himself when Christ came on the scene. John had every opportunity to be arrogant. He was the predecessor to the Messiah; he had his own following of believers. Instead, John confessed that he wasn't even worthy to carry Jesus Christ's sandals and he said to Jesus, "I must decrease so you can increase." John was not arrogant because he loved people and he knew and was secure in who God had made him to be.
Unbecomingness
A simple synonym for this is acting rude. Rudeness comes in so many forms and it really shows both a lack of love and a total lack of respect. Whether you are rude to people by ignoring them, by replying with smart-aleck answers, whether you belittle them, or are just plain mean or insulting, rudeness is the ugly face that proves that love has no home in your heart.
When we start looking at every soul as God's precious creation, remembering that each person is just as valuable to Christ as you are, rudeness is replaced with cooperation, patience, care, concern, and ultimately, Christ.
Seeking Your Own
Seeking your own is also called selfishness. Much of the time, we make good excuses saying things like. "You know, I really do love people, but I don't want to go witness to them. I don't know what to say, or I might get rejected. Besides, I have to spend Sunday nights getting ready for work." What you are doing is putting selfish motives ahead of the needed salvation of many when you do that. If Christ had acted like we did, He never would have left the glory of heaven. He could of said, "You know, I really like it up here. People are so mean. I know I've got that cross waiting for me, and really, I'm just in no mood to go through that. Besides, I've got a lot of other things I could do instead."
Remember Matthew 20:28, where Jesus said, "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Aren't you so glad His ways are above our ways?
Provocation
How easily are you provoked to anger? If your temper flies off at a moment's notice, it is likely you need a love transfusion. Never minimize your anger with a statement like, "I get angry a lot, but it's always over in a few moments."
The bombs that destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima only took a couple of moments and their devastation was immense. Anger can be just like that. If you are ever going to be angry, do it biblically. Be angry without sinning. Only get angry at the things that anger God. Be angry at sin. Show incredible grace and compassion to sinners…which we all are, in case anybody has forgotten.
Keeping Account of Wrong Suffered
Garth Brooks has a song called, "We bury the hatchet, but leave the handle stickin out." The Greek verb represented by this facet of love is the negative of a permanent recording of an accounting calculation.
We know that if we belong to Christ, He keeps no such record of our sin. It's removed as far as the east is from the west. He forgives us and remembers it no more. Ephesians tells us in chapter 4, verse32, "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."
Rejoicing in Unrighteousness
Finally, the last negative attribute may just be the most evident of a loveless life. When I think of this one, I think especially of Satan's activity in our lives (though they certainly all would be there). Satan is the prince of deception, and he has no love, and the adversary is in a hurry. He will use every lie, every guilt, every trick to fall into unrighteousness. And when we, especially we Christians, fall into unrighteousness, Satan rejoices. That rejoicing comes in many forms, and all are deadly and all are corruptible and evil. Hoping others will err (which is the normative practice in today's popular culture), Gossip or tolerance of gossip. Tolerance of any sin is = cowardice. This rejoicing in unrighteousness tells us one of 2 things. Either you are lost and you are showing your lostness or you are saved and you are showing your disobedience.
Never find joy when a brother or sister in Christ falls. Take the time to offer a hand to help that person up. You never know when you yourself may be begging for some help up yourself.
In fact, we see that love does just the opposite of the negative: love rejoices in truth. Not just factual truth but specifically God's truth. Never compromise the truth, regardless of the expense. With our heroes of the faith at Columbine, that we live in an age where our unwillingness to compromise may cost us our very lives. We rejoice their lives and their deaths because they stood up for Christ at the point of death, and because of it, literally hundreds were saved.
As we move from the negatives, which show us specifically how we will never experience agape love if we try to rush it, we move into the final characteristics that show that pursuing love is a life-long, never-ending quest.
Love Bears all Things
This verb (stego) means to cover. Compare this bear versus bare, which means to exploit. It means to protect. When you love, you are willing to protect those you love rather than exploit them.
Love Believes all Things
When you believe all things in love, it means you opt for the most favorable option. Job's friends didn't operate out of love, they blamed him for the problems befalling him. When you love people, you want to believe in the best option possible. That's not being naïve, its being loving.
Love Hopes all Things
This means to place a positive confidence or expectation for that person. It means to hope that backsliding will cease, that Christ will claim victory in that person's life. It means that you lose all hope for that person that they are beyond help, beyond the grasp of our Savior.
Love Endures all Things
This Greek word is a military term that means to hold a position at all costs. It means that for those we love, we are willing to endure their sins, their rebellion, their violence against us. If you have ever sinned or rebelled against your parents, this very concept is why they didn't pitch you out the first time you messed up. Truly, this endurance is an unending climax of love.
What we see with these four characteristics of love is an ascending order of the love process. When you love with agape love, you first bear all things. When you feel you can't bear any more, you continue to bear, but you do so because you believe all things. Then when your belief wanes, it doesn't cease because you hope for all things. And finally, when you feel as though you can hope no longer, you endure. You endure because you love and while you endure, you continue to bear, you continue to believe, and you continue to hope. That is agape love and that is what God does with us on a daily basis.
Speaking of God, read the final 5 verses to see how Love clarifies life's Master (Verses 8-13)
Love never Fails
What a succinct and perfect message for us. Love never fails. We know from Scripture that God is love, and here is tells us that love never fails. Logic, then proclaims, God never fails. These verses tell us that we might see failure everywhere because we rely on knowledge or gifts or faith for the proof for our love, but Paul tells us that we're seeing an incomplete picture right now. When all is made perfect - when Christ comes again - we will understand fully because we will be in the eternal presence of love, and we will fully understand love.
Love necessitates Faith
Actually, love necessitates both faith and hope. We've seen that faith and hope are two characteristics of love. Possessing either of these without love is pointless. Who would want to have hope in a god who was void of love? Where is the basis of faith if it is not driven by love? Abide means to rest in, to live in. Live in your faith of a loving God. Live in your faith of a loving, living Christ. Finally, live today, and live eternally in the love of the God who created you and who loved you so much He provided a simple (kind) way for you to have heaven.
Love nears Fulfillment
You can live in that love because love is nearing fulfillment. Some day, we will see love face to face because Christ is coming again. And when He does, love will be fulfilled. We'll never have to look at characteristics of love because we will be eternally living in the complete glory of true, pure, unmatched and unending love. And when that day comes, the Bible tells us here that we know just as we are known.
What that means is that you will know love either to the full extent that we live it because of our relationship with Christ, or you will know it because you have to spend eternity apart from it because you are known by the lovelessness in your life. It's not enough to just acknowledge Jesus. The Bible tells us every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. The Bible also tells us that even Jesus himself said, "Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven." You will be known by your love. When that day comes, there will be no excuses. No second chances. So the question is, how will YOU be known?
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
I have heard this to be a true story: A woman approached her husband and said to him, "You haven't told me you loved me since our wedding day over 20 years ago."
The man looked at his wife and said, "Well, nothing has changed since that day and if it does, you'll be the first to know." Whether this is true or not, and I really hope it isn't, the fact remains that we live in a time where we speak an awful lot about love, but we really don't know much about it.
Love was never meant to be a mysterious subject. Even Forrest Gump made the statement, "I may not be a smart man, Jenny, but I know what love is." We all might know what love is, but few, if any of us, know how to really make love.
A while back, whil I was driving the family to Denver so I could attend a youth seminar there, we were listening to a tape full of love songs that I had recorded for her while we were dating. A song, performed by the Kentucky Head Hunters, came on. The song's title is "Always makin' Love To You." Now before anyone gets concerned that I'm getting ready to preach an NC-17 sermon, bear with me. The song lyrics state how this fella's true love for his lady is made in the time while they are apart from one another, or when they simply think of one another, rather than in times of cuddlin' and smoochin'.
Upon hearing this tune, and me being the deeply theological guy that I am, I was struck by the biblical concept of making love. Again, I am not talking about romance, eros, the physical manifestation of love. Rather, I really started thinking about how God makes or creates his agape love. Furthermore, I thought about how God fully manifested the depth and breadth of his love by giving us His Son, Jesus Christ. When I remembered that we, as Christians, are called to be Christ-like, I realized that we should strive to embody this same type of love, that we need to look to God to understand how to make or manufacture this agape love in our own lives.
We don't have to look far to realize that far too often, we fail miserably when we attempt to create love and nurture loving relationships in our own lives. These failures befall us on every futile attempt:
In many ways, we live in a world that seems absent of love. We don't have to look far to realize that too often, we fail miserably when we attempt to create love and nurture loving relationships in our lives. These failures befall us in so many places:
- We live in an age where over half of all marriages fail.
- We live in an age where pre-born children are murdered by the millions for the sake of convenience.
- Our elderly are killed in increasing numbers by a euphemism named euthanasia (meaning, literally, easy death)
- Our society lauds the exploits of people like Miami Dolphin head coach who brags that, while he has never told his fiancee of 8 years that he loves her, he has in fact given that same statement of affection to one of his assistant coaches.
- We live in a town where people of different denominations let secondary issues of the Christian faith get the in way of the Great Commission.
- We are members of a church that talks well about the concept of love, but when it really comes down to it, we often flounder when proving our ability to create and show love. We:
- Don't eagerly consume God's word daily.
- Don't wholly support the Spirit-led and blessed ministries of this church.
- Don't pray for one another like we could or should.
- Come to worship only when it doesn't interfere with our lake plans or our kids summer sports schedules.
- Consider the Great command = great suggestion and the Great Commission is a voluntary option.
- Are so consumed with our own agendas, it's amazing that God's agenda even gets partially accomplished.
This is the indictment against us. It falls upon your shoulders and it rests heavily upon mine. Our total inability to love from our own motivations is what convicts and condemns us.
However, If you find yourself convicted at anytime (and every time), remember that your conviction is always always always accompanied by a compulsion to redemption and restoration. God never convicts you Christian brother or sister, without the ultimate goal of restoring you to redeemed service. And my solemn prayer is that we all will recommit to better reflecting the love that God has made for us, and redetermined to manufacture similar love in our own lives.
The best place to start, I always believe, is at the beginning. For us to truly understand how we are going to love God, love others, and love ourselves fully and appropriately, we need to have a biblical understanding of the concept of love.
We find in the First book of Corinthians, chapter 13, Paul's splendid description or definition of love. Please read with me:
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2And 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, but have not love, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[1] but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
Where Paul places this chapter on love is particularly interesting. Chapter 12 focuses on the endowment, receipt and inter-relatedness of gifts, especially that of languages. Jumping ahead to chapter 14, Paul speaks extensively on the proper use of gifts. So it might seem unusual that he interrupt this flow on gifts to speak about love. But Chapter 12, verse 31 provides the cue to his reasoning. There he says, he is speaking about love because it informs the church in Corinth about the "more excellent way for gifts to be operated."
This chapter of a love interlude is necessary because the Corinthian church, in many ways, was clueless when it came to love. This congregation considered themselves be quite a spiritual group of elite people. The members of the church had acquired great knowledge, they possessed the ability to speak in a variety of languages, they had been graced with gifts of prophecy. God was blessing them in mighty ways, yet they were a congregation that was struggling, suffocated by division, infighting, and confusion. Quickly review the first three verses so we might understand a bit of the problem.
The church in Corinth did not understand:
I. Love Characterizes Life's Meaning (Verses 1-3).
The Corinthian church didn't lack for any spiritual gift, but they were not daily walking in the source or power of those gifts, Jesus Christ.
Here we need to make an important distinction. Spiritual gifts are bestowed differently upon every believer. What a blessing to have and know which spiritual gift you have been given. That said, spiritual gifts are not the evidence of the health of our spiritual life. That health is evidenced instead by our spiritual fruits.
Galatians 5:22 says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…"
And the list goes on. What is important here? The first fruit of the spirit listed is LOVE. Returning to our first Corinthians passage, we learn a few things:
A. Without Love, our gifts are immaterial (verse 1)
Here, Paul writes using the greatest form of exaggeration or hyperbole. He's saying, even if a person had the greatest ability to speak with eloquence, he may as well be babbling gibberish if he doesn't operate out of a love motive.
B. Without Love, our gains are insubstantial (verse 2)
Paul's extremism is continued for the purpose of proving his point. He is saying that if we have the ability to know and understand all life's mysteries, even being so gifted that we might know the motives of God, that if we operate without love, we are nothing.
Example: Balaam (book of Numbers) he was a prophet of God, knew His truth, knew His message. He didn't love God and He didn't love God's people. That lack of love led to his death.
Jeremiah, though, was different. His love for God and for God's people led him to weep over their sin. This prophet was known for his weeping. He was a prophet with a broken, loving, spiritual heart. A heart like Christ's, who also wept for His people.
C. Without Love, our giving is insignificant (verse 3)
Paul concludes the exaggeration with a word on giving. He says that the ultimate giving, giving up all possessions the burning up of one's life would be meaningless if not driven by a love motive.
Rabbis of the day preached to never give more than 20%. Paul said you can give it all away and have it be worthless! That's why Matthew 6:3 says our giving should be done in secret, so that it might honor God and not be a tool for bragging.
You know, we can find the same things to be true in life today…
- Holding church leadership because you like the title you have dishonors you and it embarrasses the Kingdom.
- Tithing out of a pride motive is just as sinful as not tithing at all. God doesn't want the money that have given so you might boast of your generosity any more than he wants money that is given from a resentful heart. He won't bless that giving anymore than he'll bless direct rebellion.
- The practice of any spiritual gift manifested in a way that confuses the unbeliever because is a gift used inappropriately and self-servingly. Such gifts become tools serving as stumbling blocks to those seeking Christ and obstruct that already narrow path leading to the kingdom of God.
- If love isn't the leading fruit, we have strayed from the source, and the blessings will be nowhere to be found.
Now we're at a point where the rubber really hits the road, so to speak. We know that love must motivate all of our actions and activities. It's like the story of the man who walked into the motel and asked what their rates for the night were. The clerk said, "$20, but only $15 if you make your own bed." The guy said, "I'll make my own bed." The clerk handed him a hammer and a bag of nails and said, "The wood's in room 304."
The question is: How do we make love?
The only way we'll find Christ's answer to that very tough question is if we are willing to change the way we define love.
Look at it this way: We are able to define distance in terms of time. You can ask, "How far to the airport?" and the answer could very well be "20 minutes." You can't turn that around though…You can ask, "what time can I pick you up for our date?" and the answer will never be "about 10 miles." It just doesn't work.
Similarly, I think we as a people work with a definition of love that really just doesn't work. We keep trying to define love in terms of our activities. A lady can ask her husband… "Do you love me?" and his typical answer is…
- I bought you flowers a couple of years ago, didn't I?
- I kiss you every morning no matter how your breath smells
- I pay the bills, don't I?
- I went that Hope Floats movie with you, remember?
We keep trying to define our love in terms of activities. Instead, what I think we see in Scripture here, is that love…true biblical love in all its forms….chiefly agape love, but also phileo love and eros love….is always defined as an expression of time.
Read verses 4-7
In these three verses, God gives us a beautiful illustration of the components of love:
Example: A Prism: These verses reveal 15 colors, hues of God's love.
Example: A flower: Each petal is essential to the beauty of the flower.
In describing each characteristic, the Greek translators always used verbs…the following is not what love is, but what love does and does not do. Knowing that verbs are expressions of actions, actions fill time and space, and accordingly, love is always an expression of time. With these verses, we see:
II. Love counts life's minutes (Verses 4-7)
Patience takes time. The word for patience, makrothumeo is a verb that is always used exclusively with people, rather than circumstances. When we love, we must be patient. Patience encompasses so many areas:
- differences of opinion
- differences in education
- differences in giftedness
- differences in interests
You can never successfully be patient in a hurry. You can't rush it. You can't force it. You can only develop it from a foundation of love.
Kindness takes time. Kindness is similar to patience because there is a superficial sort of kindness like their can be a superficial sort of patience. A loveless kindness is just like a patience that is really nothing more than putting up with people. That's not patience. Being superficially kind isn't really being kind, either. In fact, the Greek word for kindness is chrestuomai which means a useful, serving, gracious type of kindness. It's kindness that takes time.
- It's kindness like Jesus talks about in Matt. 11:30 where he says "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
- It's the kindness that is shown that the work we do lightens the load for others, rather than making things more difficult.
- It's the kindness Jesus demonstrated by voluntarily
- Exchanging a holy, eternal, invincible body for a weak, frail, terminal human one.
- Exchanging the splendorous accolades of angels for the hatred of humanity.
- Exchanging a crown of gold for a crown of thorns
- Exchanging robes of righteousness for bloody rags
- Exchanging the throne of heaven for a cross
It's the kindness he demonstrated, doing all these things so that someday, when your life ends, you might enter the gates of heaven rather than suffer in the depths of hell. That, dear friend, is kindness.
If your love isn't defined by verbs that are expressions of time, your love isn't a Christ-honoring love. In fact, the next 8 expressions of love are shown in the negative, and they reveal just:
What Happens When You Hurry
Jealousy
It's easy to become jealous when you become short sighted. You see other's blessings and you don't take the time to understand why that person is blessed. Jealousy fills the pages of the Bible:
- Adam & Eve were jealous of God
- Cain was jealous of Abel
- Daniel was victimized by jealousy
- Joseph was, too
The alternative to jealousy and the proof that love is not jealous can be seen in the relationship between Jonathan and David in 1 Sam. 20:17: "Now Jonathan again caused David to vow, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul." When you love without a jealous motive, you practice Christ's love.
Bragging
This word is used only here in the entire NT and it is tied in to jealousy. When you brag, you are actually attempting to make others jealous of you. This can never be confused for love. Philippians 2:6-8 tells us that Jesus, "who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"
When you love others, you don't brag about your activities with that person. Let your actions speak for themselves. Don't ever be motivated by the thought of making someone envious of how swell of a person you are. That's bragging…its definitely not love!
Arrogance
Arrogance, like bragging, is based in pride. Arrogance is that inclined nose-snobbery that sometimes comes with a sense of accomplishment when a person accepts Christ. Those people who act holier-than-others are making the grave error of placing their emphasis on their decision for Christ, rather than Christ's saving grace. That snobbish elitism contradicts a loving spirit and turns more people away from Christ than we'd like to admit.
We need to be more like John the Baptist, who totally subjected himself when Christ came on the scene. John had every opportunity to be arrogant. He was the predecessor to the Messiah; he had his own following of believers. Instead, John confessed that he wasn't even worthy to carry Jesus Christ's sandals and he said to Jesus, "I must decrease so you can increase." John was not arrogant because he loved people and he knew and was secure in who God had made him to be.
Unbecomingness
A simple synonym for this is acting rude. Rudeness comes in so many forms and it really shows both a lack of love and a total lack of respect. Whether you are rude to people by ignoring them, by replying with smart-aleck answers, whether you belittle them, or are just plain mean or insulting, rudeness is the ugly face that proves that love has no home in your heart.
When we start looking at every soul as God's precious creation, remembering that each person is just as valuable to Christ as you are, rudeness is replaced with cooperation, patience, care, concern, and ultimately, Christ.
Seeking Your Own
Seeking your own is also called selfishness. Much of the time, we make good excuses saying things like. "You know, I really do love people, but I don't want to go witness to them. I don't know what to say, or I might get rejected. Besides, I have to spend Sunday nights getting ready for work." What you are doing is putting selfish motives ahead of the needed salvation of many when you do that. If Christ had acted like we did, He never would have left the glory of heaven. He could of said, "You know, I really like it up here. People are so mean. I know I've got that cross waiting for me, and really, I'm just in no mood to go through that. Besides, I've got a lot of other things I could do instead."
Remember Matthew 20:28, where Jesus said, "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Aren't you so glad His ways are above our ways?
Provocation
How easily are you provoked to anger? If your temper flies off at a moment's notice, it is likely you need a love transfusion. Never minimize your anger with a statement like, "I get angry a lot, but it's always over in a few moments."
The bombs that destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima only took a couple of moments and their devastation was immense. Anger can be just like that. If you are ever going to be angry, do it biblically. Be angry without sinning. Only get angry at the things that anger God. Be angry at sin. Show incredible grace and compassion to sinners…which we all are, in case anybody has forgotten.
Keeping Account of Wrong Suffered
Garth Brooks has a song called, "We bury the hatchet, but leave the handle stickin out." The Greek verb represented by this facet of love is the negative of a permanent recording of an accounting calculation.
We know that if we belong to Christ, He keeps no such record of our sin. It's removed as far as the east is from the west. He forgives us and remembers it no more. Ephesians tells us in chapter 4, verse32, "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."
Rejoicing in Unrighteousness
Finally, the last negative attribute may just be the most evident of a loveless life. When I think of this one, I think especially of Satan's activity in our lives (though they certainly all would be there). Satan is the prince of deception, and he has no love, and the adversary is in a hurry. He will use every lie, every guilt, every trick to fall into unrighteousness. And when we, especially we Christians, fall into unrighteousness, Satan rejoices. That rejoicing comes in many forms, and all are deadly and all are corruptible and evil. Hoping others will err (which is the normative practice in today's popular culture), Gossip or tolerance of gossip. Tolerance of any sin is = cowardice. This rejoicing in unrighteousness tells us one of 2 things. Either you are lost and you are showing your lostness or you are saved and you are showing your disobedience.
Never find joy when a brother or sister in Christ falls. Take the time to offer a hand to help that person up. You never know when you yourself may be begging for some help up yourself.
In fact, we see that love does just the opposite of the negative: love rejoices in truth. Not just factual truth but specifically God's truth. Never compromise the truth, regardless of the expense. With our heroes of the faith at Columbine, that we live in an age where our unwillingness to compromise may cost us our very lives. We rejoice their lives and their deaths because they stood up for Christ at the point of death, and because of it, literally hundreds were saved.
As we move from the negatives, which show us specifically how we will never experience agape love if we try to rush it, we move into the final characteristics that show that pursuing love is a life-long, never-ending quest.
Love Bears all Things
This verb (stego) means to cover. Compare this bear versus bare, which means to exploit. It means to protect. When you love, you are willing to protect those you love rather than exploit them.
Love Believes all Things
When you believe all things in love, it means you opt for the most favorable option. Job's friends didn't operate out of love, they blamed him for the problems befalling him. When you love people, you want to believe in the best option possible. That's not being naïve, its being loving.
Love Hopes all Things
This means to place a positive confidence or expectation for that person. It means to hope that backsliding will cease, that Christ will claim victory in that person's life. It means that you lose all hope for that person that they are beyond help, beyond the grasp of our Savior.
Love Endures all Things
This Greek word is a military term that means to hold a position at all costs. It means that for those we love, we are willing to endure their sins, their rebellion, their violence against us. If you have ever sinned or rebelled against your parents, this very concept is why they didn't pitch you out the first time you messed up. Truly, this endurance is an unending climax of love.
What we see with these four characteristics of love is an ascending order of the love process. When you love with agape love, you first bear all things. When you feel you can't bear any more, you continue to bear, but you do so because you believe all things. Then when your belief wanes, it doesn't cease because you hope for all things. And finally, when you feel as though you can hope no longer, you endure. You endure because you love and while you endure, you continue to bear, you continue to believe, and you continue to hope. That is agape love and that is what God does with us on a daily basis.
Speaking of God, read the final 5 verses to see how Love clarifies life's Master (Verses 8-13)
Love never Fails
What a succinct and perfect message for us. Love never fails. We know from Scripture that God is love, and here is tells us that love never fails. Logic, then proclaims, God never fails. These verses tell us that we might see failure everywhere because we rely on knowledge or gifts or faith for the proof for our love, but Paul tells us that we're seeing an incomplete picture right now. When all is made perfect - when Christ comes again - we will understand fully because we will be in the eternal presence of love, and we will fully understand love.
Love necessitates Faith
Actually, love necessitates both faith and hope. We've seen that faith and hope are two characteristics of love. Possessing either of these without love is pointless. Who would want to have hope in a god who was void of love? Where is the basis of faith if it is not driven by love? Abide means to rest in, to live in. Live in your faith of a loving God. Live in your faith of a loving, living Christ. Finally, live today, and live eternally in the love of the God who created you and who loved you so much He provided a simple (kind) way for you to have heaven.
Love nears Fulfillment
You can live in that love because love is nearing fulfillment. Some day, we will see love face to face because Christ is coming again. And when He does, love will be fulfilled. We'll never have to look at characteristics of love because we will be eternally living in the complete glory of true, pure, unmatched and unending love. And when that day comes, the Bible tells us here that we know just as we are known.
What that means is that you will know love either to the full extent that we live it because of our relationship with Christ, or you will know it because you have to spend eternity apart from it because you are known by the lovelessness in your life. It's not enough to just acknowledge Jesus. The Bible tells us every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. The Bible also tells us that even Jesus himself said, "Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven." You will be known by your love. When that day comes, there will be no excuses. No second chances. So the question is, how will YOU be known?
basic appeal
a good while back i mentioned the seven deadly sins ice cream. here's its extensive website.
ironic how the gluttony gal remains so svelte.
if sinning was this easy, i suppose we'd all do it.
wait...
ironic how the gluttony gal remains so svelte.
if sinning was this easy, i suppose we'd all do it.
wait...
cotter, though a child of the 90s (and even that, just barely)
who are you?
somebody found my site by googling "keith engler," a good friend of mine from high school. who are you and what do you want?
ru 4-86?
a young mother has died from the abortifacient, RU486.
yeah, you're right. you didn't see this on the news. at least you can read about it here, after hunting it down.
here she is. her name is molly. and she and her baby are dead.
thanks for the alert from the trommetter times.
yeah, you're right. you didn't see this on the news. at least you can read about it here, after hunting it down.
here she is. her name is molly. and she and her baby are dead.
thanks for the alert from the trommetter times.
this link's for me
look, lissa (who spells her name like my sis-in-law) may be doing this site for kids, but i need all the help i can get.
i'll be all over it after my midday nap today.
i'll be all over it after my midday nap today.
coronation
here's the final pic from last night, capturing Tony's comment quite well, i might add.
ms. america emeritus got tired of chasing her around like she was trying to collar an excitable puppy, and just waited until she got the ups-and-downs out of her system.
and while i was hoping to find something encouraging about her faith (i like my ms. americas to be followers of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth) by checking out her biography, i did notice from her biography that she appears to be late surprise addition to the family. don't you know her siblings are thinking, "now she's never going to outgrow being the "baby/princess/diva."
one thing's for certain
me talking smack about the Broncos' superiority is almost surely the kiss of death for them.
pigskin prognostication
tony picked this weekend's NFL winners.
i weighed in, without be hindered by facts, statistics, or even a functional knowledge of each game's locale & weather conditions.
if i'm wrong, please refrain from stoning me. i'm not claiming the gift of prophecy.
i do know this much, though:
come Tuesday morning, the Denver Broncos will be 3-0, atop the AFC west, likely tied with the KC Chefs ("great googly moogly'-- i loved that snickers commercial), with a 2 game lead over the Al Davies tRaitors.
you see, they're fired up that Ms. Colorado -- did i mention she was a Bronco's cheerleader -- got robbed. With motivation like that, nothing can stop them.
i weighed in, without be hindered by facts, statistics, or even a functional knowledge of each game's locale & weather conditions.
if i'm wrong, please refrain from stoning me. i'm not claiming the gift of prophecy.
i do know this much, though:
come Tuesday morning, the Denver Broncos will be 3-0, atop the AFC west, likely tied with the KC Chefs ("great googly moogly'-- i loved that snickers commercial), with a 2 game lead over the Al Davies tRaitors.
you see, they're fired up that Ms. Colorado -- did i mention she was a Bronco's cheerleader -- got robbed. With motivation like that, nothing can stop them.
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