Category: Love

Love.Listen.Live.

8/9/2024

The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned. With great power the apostles continued to give their testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all.
There were no needy ones among them, because those who owned lands or houses would sell their property, bring the proceeds from the sales, and lay them at the apostles’ feet for distribution to anyone as he had need.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (meaning Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Acts 4:32-37

Love.

At the end of Acts 3 we find the church, alive, thriving, growing and reproducing. It is in absolute unity. They are one in heart and soul. They are listening and actively obeying the Apostles’ teachings on the Word of God. They are in koine with one another, sharing generously all that they have because they are in common equality with one another in the gospel. Because of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice to bring fallen humanity back into a loving relationship with their Creator God, the Church had become a return to the paradise of God, the Garden of Eden—the Garden of Delights. It is what God has made us for—an equality and love with one another that shares and gives out of love. Everything in this Garden is for the common good of all. Their attitude toward one another is “how can we ensure that each of us is thriving and rejoicing in God’s goodness?”
The Church was a new creation. It was a new beginning, where the old, dead, stony heart of people was replaced with a living heart: one that wanted to love and please God; one that was willing even to lay down one’s own life for one another.
While the one command in the Garden to humanity was “do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” God knew that the very reason we chose to disobey that command was a lack of love for God. As a result, God gave a new command, the greatest command of all. It was one that would give us a reason to choose to walk in obedience: love for God.
This command the Israelites were to recite every morning and evening. It was to be their first thought before starting their day and their last upon ending it:

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Because God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One, we are to be one in our unity and love. The Church was now obeying God’s command to love Him and love their neighbor with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength, unified in its focus. When we love, we automatically choose to do things that are in line with God’s laws and commands because genuine love comes from God and aligns with His purposes for His people. Like God, we naturally start to choose what would be good and best for others, even at our own cost.
God wants our whole, entire selves—our hearts, everything that we feel and make decisions on; our nephesh (often translated souls, it more accurately is our physical body), every part of our physical humanity, desires and appetites; and our me’od, our ability in every circumstance to be wholly and completely given back to God in complete love and trust for our Creator.
While we find ourselves drawn to stay in this delightful fellowship of the Church, into this perfect Garden we see the plot begin to thicken:

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds for himself, but brought a portion and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land? Did it not belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How could you conceive such a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!”
On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened. Then the young men stepped forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
Acts 5:1-5

Listen.

Cue the villain.
Into this Garden, this New Creation, this paradise of love and goodwill and kindness, we find evil creeping in.
The Serpent is back.
The very Hebrew letters used to spell out the serpent’s name, nachash נָּחָ֑שׁ, describe the kind of adversary we face continuously:

נָּ nun: life/son/heir/seed
חָ֑ chet: divide/cut/separate
שׁ shin: teeth/two/devour/consume
"One who devours an heir in order to divide and cut off life"

his name, satan שָּׂטָ֛ן, is similar in meaning:

שָּׂ shin: teeth/two/devour/consume
טָ֛ tet: basket/surround/ensnare
ן nun: life/son/heir/seed
"One who surrounds life in order to ensnare and devour it."

The serpent's plan not a new scheme; it’s a very ancient one. In fact, he must have thought, ‘it worked last time!’

In fact, that ancient serpent has been waiting to devour life from the beginning and continues even now. But he will never win!

...And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,...Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rev. 12:4-11

Listening, as the Greatest Command says, involves more than just allowing the sound or voice or someone to enter our ears. It encompasses hearing, understanding, and taking action that follows through with the intent of the speaker.
The Bible tells us that we become slaves or servants to the one we listen to and obey:

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom. 6:16

The serpent roams around seeking to find people to listen to his voice, to become his slaves, so that he can accuse us before God. In Acts 5, Ananias wasn’t listening to God’s command to love. His motivations for participating in the selling of his property, inaccurate donation and lies were all rooted in a desire to gain something for himself rather than serving the crucial needs of those around him. Just as Eve listened to the voice of the serpent and saw that the fruit was “good for success,” he wasn’t just withholding some of the value of the land. He was withholding himself from His Creator. What he was bringing to God was representing the value that he placed upon God and his relationship to Him. His giving was only as a show to everyone else. Barnabas had given out of the gratitude and love of his heart; Ananias was giving in order to get something out of them all. It wasn’t a gift of love.
While neither Ananias nor we have an obligation to sell all our property and give it all away, when we see people in need our Spirit-filled response should be a desire to ask the Lord how we can give out of the great abundance that He has entrusted to us. God wants our whole selves, nothing withheld. He wants us to listen and respond to Him in this love by giving Him our whole selves in every moment, obeying every Word that He speaks to us. This will often “cost” us, sometimes a great amount. But it is never even close to the incredibly abundant grace that He has given us.
In the Garden, the serpent came and deceived the woman, telling her that she would not die. When she decided to eat the fruit, her body, her nephesh, did not die immediately. Her spirit, however, did. When Adam agreed with her to eat, his spirit also passed from life into death. Into their bodies, their nephesh, however, death entered as a slow and inevitable process.
After they sinned, when they heard God’s voice in the Garden, they were no longer in loving fellowship with God. As a result, they were afraid and hid from His faces (panim).
In Hebrew, the word for “hide” is chabah חָבָא.

חָ chet: divide/cut off/wall off
בָ beit: house/household/family
א aleph: ox/strong leader/God the Father/first

In choosing to hide from God and wrapping themselves in fig leaves, trying vainly to cover up their own shame and sin, they were effectively causing themselves to be cut off and divided from the household of their loving, heavenly Father. This was exactly what the serpent had intended: to ensnare and to cut off life and the heirs from the inheritance of the Father.
However, at the voice of God, Adam and Eve together made a decision to come out of hiding. They presented themselves before God the Father and confessed to Him what they had done. The Word in Hebrew, “confess,” (todah יָדָה) means to cast or throw down something, to be lifted up to enter through the door and behold. It is an accurate accounting, a numbering of our sins according to how we have transgressed the loving commands of God. Conversely, the word also means to give thanks or praise. In essence, when we confess our sins to our Father, we are doing it in gratitude that He has provided forgiveness and justification through the Door, His Son, Jesus. We are casting away our sins, the ones that ensnare and enslave us, and throwing our thanks at His feet in humble gratitude as we are brought back into the household as a family member.
In response to Adam and Eve's confession, in His grace God provided a covering for their clothing. A blood sacrifice was made so that humanity could be covered, symbolically representing the sacrifice of Jesus’ blood that would be given to cover over our sins for all eternity.

Sadly, Ananias did not have a heart that would receive this grace.
Ananias. His name means, “Grace of God.” It is what God intended and willed for him, but not something he chose to receive for himself.
The Apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans how we should not take God’s grace lightly, as if it is not costly. It is precious and extremely valuable. It is the blood of our Savior given for the world. When we continue to live a lifestyle of practicing sin without listening and obeying God, we trample the grace of God under our feet:

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1

Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance?
Romans 2:4

This kind of contempt for God’s grace is the kind of evil that comes when people want the free blessings of God but are only using the Church as a way to gain for themselves selfishlessly. They think that God will not see, but He certainly does. Just as He saw Adam in the Garden, hiding, He also sees the true heart motivations of all of us. None of us can hide from the eye of His faces.
Ananias’ response to the extreme grace and kindness of God was to despise it, to withhold from God His very self, and to lie instead of to confess and thank God for His grace. As a result, he stayed hidden, separated and cut off from the family of God.

About three hours later his wife also came in, unaware of what had happened. “Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?”
“Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”
“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
At that instant she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Acts 5:7-10

Sapphira. In Hebrew, her name means “scribe,” or “accountant.” A saphar סָפֵר was one who would render an accurate accounting of the saphan סָפַן: the treasures that had been covered and hidden. The scribes were entrusted with the task of ensuring that the hidden, covered treasures in the storeroom or the message of the word of the king would be accurately relayed to the people.
In this part of the passage, the word “price” or “valuation” comes up repeatedly. The word is Tinos, and it means value, weight or honor. Agreeing with her husband, Sapphira purposely and inaccurately rendered an account of the value or the land. God also had given her a part, one who would accurately call to account the treasures He had entrusted to them for the benefit of His people. She, in her own turn, would choose to willfully turn away from listening and obeying God’s voice because she also lacked love for God and others.
In the advent of the Church, the spiritual rebirth and resurrection of God’s people, the deaths of both Ananias and Sapphira would represent physically the spiritual death that was already inherent inside of them. Their outward death only mirrored their inward death.
Ananias and Sapphira’s deaths were merely a physical representation of their spiritual, inward reality. They were already dead in their spirits. They had chosen to listen to the voice of the Serpent. It wasn’t about who messed up first, it wasn’t about whose idea it was. It was that they both agreed to be unified in their disobedience to God.
            In addition, God wanted to be very clear about our individual responsibility to listen and obey His voice. In the Garden, God reprimanded Adam because he “listened to the voice of [his] wife” instead of to God’s voice. To some, the curse and the fall feels like it lands unfairly on humanity because of the woman’s choice. God is setting the record straight: this time it the choice is first the husbands, followed by his wife’s agreement.
            Both of them, however, in each case, are listening to the voice of the Serpent. It goes both ways. The point of this reversal is that at the heart of it all they are listening and obeying the voice of the serpent.

Woman
Man
            Serpent
Man
Woman

They both alike despised the grace of God and refused to render a just account, a correct confession of their wrong before God. In turn, God could no longer listen to them:

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God [plural\ and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Rather than coming out of hiding in truth before God, they remained hidden by their own sins, remaining disconnected and divided from the family of God.
Feet. Another word that keeps coming up in this passage is feet. It the beautiful feet who are bringing the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. It is at the feet of the apostles that the Church is laying down their rights to their physical possessions. Conversely, it is at Peters’ feet that Ananias and Sapphira fall and die, and it is the feet of the young men, no longer bringing good news, that are standing at the door to take her away to her burial.
There is another who stands at the door, the door to our heart, the seat of our affections and love. He pleads to us to listen to His voice and live:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Rev. 3:20-22

While this is a sad story, it is also crucial to understand that this time the serpent loses. This time, the life of the Church remains uncorrupted. The true Church remains in completely unity and fellowship with their Creator. This time, the evil cannot destroy and ensnare the life of the Church—yes, perhaps some were choosing to listen to the voice of the serpent, but the Church, the living Church of God, cannot be overcome. Instead, glory is given to God. Instead, we conquer in Jesus’ name. Instead, there is complete oneness and unity as The Son sits on the throne of the Father and we sit with Him on the same throne. It’s about fellowship, oneness, and love.

And great fear came over the whole church and all who heard about these events.
The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and with one accord the believers gathered together in Solomon’s Colonnade. Although the people regarded them highly, no one else dared to join them. Yet more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women.
Acts 5:11-14

Live.

Fear. The Hebrew letters give us a better understanding “yarah יִרְאָה .”
יִ yod: mighty work/hand stretched out
רְ resh: head/ruler/source/Prince
אָ aleph: strong leader/God the Father
ה hey: behold/worship/revelation

The first letter is “yod,” which is a hand outstretched to do a mighty work or deed; the second is resh, which looks like a head and signifies one who is a prince or ruler, originator; the third is aleph, which refers back to the Father as our strong leader; and the fourth is hey, which looks like the figure of a person with arms and hands upraised to behold and worship, revealing something to be in awe of.
In English, we often think of fear as negative. Its synonyms are to be terrified, scared, or alarmed. However, Hebrew word describes more the feeling that we get when we behold the mighty deeds of the Prince (Jesus) who has come from the Father. When we are in fellowship with God, those feelings are awe, amazement, comfort, peace, excitement and relief, worship. We are full of wonderful feelings that we have a mighty God who comes to rescue us from our enemies.
On the other hand, when we are in disobedience to God, when we are using our words, actions and provisions to hurt and abuse others, the mightiness of God becomes a terror to us. Our feelings can be very negative as we realize that the Judge of all the earth sees and knows everything we do and think and will call us to render an accurate accounting for how we have treated others and how we have treated the grace of His Son.
The Church, instead of being overcome by terror and hiding from His presence, the kind of awe and amazement that the mighty work of God in their midst in the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira brought increased growth and a dire warning to those who would, in pretense, seek to join them for evil reasons. Those who wanted to come out of hiding and take hold of the grace of God for themselves continued to join them and the Church grew mightily.
For those who chose to be in awe and deep reference and gratitude for God’s mighty works, it created even greater unity. In a deeper effect, it created a strong purity among the believers. Though “no one else dared join them,” yet more and more people were truly becoming saved and were being accounted to their numbers.
When Adam and Eve came out of hiding, they truthfully confessed to God what they had done. As a result, they received a promise of an eternal redemption coming in the form of Jesus and a covering for their shame. They were given life for eternity.
Ananias and Sapphira lied to God. There was no more redemption. There was no life for their dead spirits. They had abused the abundant grace of God.
One day we will all give an account, a rendering to God for how we responded to His grace. Do we receive it with confession and thanksgiving? Do we abuse it, as if we can use it to keep sinning in a lifestyle that says God’s grace is cheap? Do we give the count the correct value and honor and weight to God’s grace?
The apostles were preaching the resurrection life in Jesus, both in this hour and in the one to come! There is no value on earth that can ever come close to the price that Jesus paid for us, to the value of eternal life in Him forever in Paradise!

"An hour is coming and is now here when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live!" John 5:25

This week, let’s dwell on the sh'ma—to listen to his voice out of a deep love that encompasses our entire selves. Let’s embrace the life that comes from living in unhindered unity with God through Jesus!

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The Favor of Self-Control (Part 1)

3/3/2022

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Daniel stared down at the plate of meats in front of him, its steam wafting enticingly. His mouth began to salivate, and his stomach tightened uncontrollably. Looking up, Daniel stared around him at the other young nobility, conflicting thoughts racing through his head. Surveying the room, he saw each of them reaching hungrily for the plentiful varieties of cheeses, meats, fruits and wine.
The richest of the king’s food, from the king’s own table, would now be provided for each of the captives. Royal heirs of each of their distinct yet conquered lands, they had been hand-selected to serve the great King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the ruling emperor of the farthest reaches of the known world.
They had just begun their three-year training period, where they would be trained in all wisdom, magic arts, and languages. Only those eminently qualified to learn, those without any physical or mental defect, would be qualified to serve the king personally.
Daniel’s eyes stopped as he caught the agonized stares of his relatives, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. They too, he thought, must be wondering the same thing he was. In a land far from home, with false worship, false gods, and cultures that could not conform to all-encompassing worship of Hashem, the one true God, they had each been given new and idolatrous names to reflect what was decided by others to be their new allegiance to Babylon. His own, Belteshazzar, was meant to change his identity from “God is my judge” to “Bel will protect him.”
Daniel looked down again, pondering the effect of his next choice. They had so very little control. Their time, their food, their career training—it was all decided for them. Even the possibility of spousal relationships had been removed from their control. The control over their lives extended to worship, clothing, and even their very lives. There wasn’t a choice left for them to make, it would seem.
It was understood that they were to forget their homelands, gods, cultures and families, and become one with the diversity of the melting pot of the world. Eating from the king’s table, consuming the meat sacrificed to the idols of Babylon, would, in effect, be their own, individual entering the rituals of the pagan rites and becoming one with them through that worship.
In a moment, Daniel knew what he must do.
He was Daniel: a worshiper of YHWH, a son of Abraham. It was a value and identity worth more than any life he could have in Babylon. He resolved that he would never defile himself with the idols of the nations. Praying quickly for Hashem’s protection and wisdom, Daniel got up and approached the head of the eunuchs.
Smiling at Daniel’s approach, Ashpenaz greeted Daniel warmly, “Belteshazzar! How can I be of service to you?”
“Ashpenaz, I appreciate all that you do for us! We wish to serve you and King Nebuchadnezzar with the best of our abilities, according to what Hashem, God Most High, has given to us. But as followers of Hashem, we will not have His blessing or wisdom in order to bless the King if we participate in the sacrifice to other gods. King Nebuchadnezzar will only benefit from Hashem’s wisdom through us in his court if we keep ourselves from other sacrificial worship according to Hashem’s law.”
As Daniel spoke, he watched Ashpenaz’ face. The smile faded, and anxious creases formed above his eyes. As Ashpenaz absorbed the information, a look of panic swept over him as he realized both the enormity and impossibility of this situation. For the king must have the wisdom of all the gods! But if Belteshazzar and the others refused to eat from the king’s table and grew weak, he, Ashpenaz, would be blamed. His punishment would be unmerciful and unnegotiable. He would be killed for dereliction of duty.
His face ashen, Ashpenaz turned pleading eyes to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you!”
Daniel’s face softened with compassion. This man, as much as he seemed to control every aspect of Daniel’s life, was himself a pawn in a much broader and destructive game. He himself was controlled, not by his own choices, but of that of another.
Surely Hashem would not value ceremonial laws above one of His own created people! There must be a way to walk in obedient worship while still caring for others.
An idea came to Daniel. “Ashpenaz, Hashem values you and your life and family as well as the king and our people. He will make a way to bless all of us through our worship of Him. Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but plant food to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.”
A look of relief spread over Ashpenaz’ features. Smiling again, his eyes gratefully acknowledging the wisdom and care Daniel had shown, he nodded vigorously and agreed to the arrangement.

Excerpt Fictionalized from Daniel 1

ἐγκράτεια
egkráteia --en, "in the sphere of" and krátos, "dominion, mastery") – properly, dominion within. "Self-control" – proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself. True mastery from within. 1

Love Resolves in Self-Control

As we conclude our series on Galatians 3:22-23, self-control is perhaps, more than any other fruit of the Spirit, the quality I find most difficult to practice. In my mind, it often seems unachievable, illusive, and unquantifiable.
Studying the book of Daniel, I found myself really drawn to the principles that the Holy Spirit began to uncover. For me, I think sometimes my struggle with self-control may be in jumping straight to a resolution but neglecting the first two principles that Daniel displays in this passage: remembering and recognizing.
Remember. One of the fundamental elements of battle over control over our hearts and lives is this issue of identity--who we are. It is the key to unlocking our God-given heritage and freedom in Christ (Rom. 6). Daniel was given wisdom by God to understand the nature of using this key to exercise self-control in his choices, but from the very beginning of time, the enemy has called our identities into question.
In the garden, the battle over self-control was one of identity—Eve had already been created to be the “mother of all the living--” (Gen. 3:20) in God’s own image, in His likeness, as His own daughter (Gen. 1:27). She had been created to reign and have dominion over all of God’s kingdom as nobility (Gen. 1:28).
As such, Eve had been given everything she needed for “life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3, Gen. 1:29). Every single fruit-bearing tree was just as desirable and good as was the one tree that could harm her (Gen. 2:9).
From the beginning of our creation, we find the elements of our God-given identity and what He has lovingly provided for us in Christ Jesus. We were created to:

Be loved (1 John 1:1-4, 3:1)
Be known by God (Gen. 3:8, 2:22)
Know God (Gen. 3:8)
Resemble God in our spirits (Gen. 1:27)
Reign as kings and queens over God’s creatures (Gen. 1:28
Be blessed (Gen. 1:28)
Multiply (Gen. 1:28)
Have everything good for our needs (Gen. 1:29, 2:9, 2:18)
Be very good in Him (Gen. 1:31)
Be complete in Him (Gen. 1:31, Gen. 2:1-2)
Be favored (1 John 3:21-22, 5:14-15)

It was this identity that the enemy attacked while claiming that Eve was incomplete, insufficient, improperly provided for and unlike God. It was only when her identity and God’s care as being sufficient was put into question that she coveted the wrong tree.
In contrast to Eve, the first thing that Daniel did in his love for God was to remember his identity in God. Though his enemies had tried to remove his identity and to give him a new name, new culture, new worship and new loyalty, Daniel remembered who he was. Daniel remembered who God had made him to be. When Daniel chose to retain his Hebrew name, Daniel, or “God is my judge,” 5 he chose faith in God as his king and rewarder above all earthly monarchs.
Unlike Eve, when Daniel chose to revert to plant-based foods I believe he was returning to the idea of complete dependence upon and provision by God for all his needs. It was a lifestyle statement that there was nothing lacking in what God had provided. He had no need for anything more that could be offered, because his relationship with God completed him in his identity and satisfied him fully.
This characteristic of satisfaction in God alone reverberated through his entire life and character and permeated his choices in other areas as well. As we see throughout his story in the book of Daniel, he had no personal craving for ambition or power. When offered, he declined the prestige, wealth, authority and honor (Dan. 5:17) when it was not in the service of love.

Recognize. There were many things in Daniel’s life that he could not control. Scholars surmise that it is possible or even likely that he was physically made into a eunuch. 6 Regardless, since there is no record of his being married, we may at least conclude that he was a eunuch in some capacity, even if it was through a commitment to a single life of celibacy.
At this juncture in Daniel 1, Daniel had no control over his time, his education, his food, clothing, or even life itself (demonstrated through the dangerous encounters he had, see Dan. 3, 6). A virtual slave, though an elevated one in the king’s palace, he may easily have felt that self-control was simply not an option for him.
Instead, Daniel evaluated what he could control: Firstly, how he self-identified: throughout the book of Daniel, we always see Daniel self-identifying with the name and identity he had been given by God; his responses; his attitudes; his respectful appeals to authority; his worship; and especially the way he treated others in love (Gal. 5:22-23). None of these were without risk, but they were under his own control.
Regardless of what we do NOT control, there are always areas we do control. The distinction of Spirit-led self-control in those areas lies in whether we are controlled by sin (Gen. 4:7, Rom. 6:12-16) or choose to follow the Spirit’s leading. You see, sin will master and control us if we allow it (Gen. 4:7), but the Spirit will never force us. The Spirit of God is gentle and constraining (2 Cor. 5:14), but since the beginning of Creation He has never been forceful (Gen. 2:9, Deut. 30:19).
Sometimes the things we think are “self-control” are not as important as the things we don’t realize are included in “self-control.” We typically think of self-control as diet and exercise. Sometimes we may extend our thoughts to holding our temper when someone makes us angry, or even not purchasing that new blouse that we would like but know is not in the budget. But self-control really starts with much smaller things.
Perhaps income is not under our control to earn, but how we spend what comes in is. Maybe our health is suffering, and we must spend more time resting than we would like—but our brain is still active. We can’t always choose who we live with, but how we respond to them is our choice. Perhaps life is full of suffering on many fronts, but we can still choose to praise and obey God.
All day, every day, we have the opportunity to exercise this gift in order to grow in it. If we intentionally discern-- with the help of the Holy Spirit-- those areas in which God wants us to choose to exercise obedience, He will guide and empower us to grow in those areas!

Resolve. In Daniel’s story we find him making a very inspiring resolution: “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine” (Dan. 1:8a). I don’t know about you, but for me the daily details and decisions to exercise self-control can be overwhelming at times. In fact, when I measure my conduct and success without the grace of God added in, I always come up short.
My father-in-law has a great yearly tradition of setting goals: his “new year’s resolutions.” Without fail, he asks me what mine are. I smile. I am a planner, but my goals are lofty and unattainable if they are measurable at all. When I try to set measurable goals with due dates, I find myself consistently “failing” and wanting to give up. It has made me shy away from those kinds of yearly resolutions for fear of failure.
When I was looking into the Hebrew verb for resolve, however, I was excited to discover something that I felt brought Daniel’s actions into a proper perspective. In the Hebrew, the word for “resolve” that is used is in a Hebrew grammatical imperfect aspect, 2, 3, 4 meaning that Daniel’s resolution was continuously in the process of being acted upon, and was never a finished process. Though Daniel’s decision to remain faithful only to his God was certainly made or begun at specific point in time, it was also a continuous decision that he would have needed to readdress time and again throughout the course of his time in Babylon.
For us, this is good news! Self-control isn’t a one-time proposition that ends in failure every time we neglect to follow through. Rather, it is a lifestyle of behavior emanating from a continuous decision to keep going back to that core belief.
Because the love of Jesus permeates us as we walk in the Spirit, the lifestyle of choices that we put into practice will increasingly reflect the love of God toward others and even toward ourselves. As we practice these choices, we grow stronger and more discerning about how to use this Spiritual gift in our daily decisions. The love of Christ becomes the controlling factor underlying our thoughts, attitudes and desires, and spills out continuously in loving choices toward ourselves and others:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Cor. 5:14-15

As we remember our identity in Christ, recognize what we have been given to control and resolve continuously to walk in a lifestyle of love (Part 2, coming soon!) and obedience, the favor of God will rest on our lives (Part 3, coming soon!), and our relationship with Him will grow! I’m excited to see how God will change my habits and lifestyle as I put these principles into practice. I would love to hear how the Spirit is giving you grace to walk out self-control in your lives!

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The Harvest of Love

7/8/2021

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Those who sow in tears shall reap with
Shouts of Joy!
Psalm 126:5 ESV

One night I had a dream. In my dream, I was in a large house, full of family and friends. As I walked around this house, I was trying to find ways to share Jesus with them; loving them, having conversations, talking about what the Lord was doing in my life, sharing my story.
At some point, I looked in my wallet, and noticed that some investments I had been spending into had multiplied. One in particular, in just a few short months, had tripled. I got excited! I started thinking about all the ways I could save money in other areas, coffee, food, outings...and funnel that money into this one investment. If this investment was so very profitable, it would be well worth my time and money to put as much in now as I could!
As I woke up from my dream, I could still feel the excitement. My mind was still churning with ways I could save, ways I could invest more. And then as the dream receded and I realized it was only a dream, the realization began to come to me that it was more. That that investment that was multiplying so quickly-- not ready yet for harvest, but very ready for growth-- that investment was the gospel and people.

Sharing my story. Loving people.

I realized if I could save my time, energy, resources, and funnel them into people: relationships, serving, discipling, teaching, then that investment would be the most important and valuable investment I could ever make in my life. It would have the most return, and bring the most joy.
But these investments, they come with a price, don't they? If I took my money away from coffee, it would mean that I couldn't have that coffee that day. If I took the money from what would have been our vacation to invest in a return later, then we would miss out on disneyland, or camping, or other fun, right? Now, coffee and vacations are great, and we would love to have them. But some investments cost more.
Sometimes the investments of love for Jesus and others cost us much more. Tears, grief, sorrow. We may lose friends because we love them enough to tell them truth that they need to hear. We might be rejected by the ones we are trying to help.
In foster care, which many of you may have experienced, the heartbreak can be very real and painful. You know you must fully open your heart and love these children, because they desperately need love. Love that does not hold back. Love that does not put up a shield. Love that opens wide (2 Cor. 6:11-13). But you know they may reject your love. They may be torn away from you. There are no guarantees, and as often as not, or perhaps more, your heart is broken, and the pain may be carried for a lifetime.

This love that Jesus calls us to is painful. It's a cross. It's suffering.

People joke that you shouldn't pray for patience, because then God will send you difficult experiences that require you to grow in patience. I think they pick patience out from the group of the fruit of the Spirit, because there is a feeling that joy is more of an easy, happy feeling. That love is a natural affection for others. That peace is just given. But each of these characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit are born and grow through suffering.
Just like with patience, our love for people grows when we have difficult people to love—when it costs us something because our love is not being returned.
There have been really difficult people in my life, where, honestly, my attitudes were really sour. I found that the feeling of natural affection just wasn't there for that person. I found that the only way to show love for that person was to go daily back into my room and cry out to Jesus to give me His love for that person; to give me the grace to show them love when I didn't feel it. I cried out to Him to change my hard, selfish heart.
Jesus heard my cries, and gradually my heart became softer, more loving, more gentle. Over time, some relationships became beautiful and such a blessing to me. That outcome, however, hasn't always happen. Sometimes I have loved, and my heart has been broken.

We love most when we love those who may never give love back.

Jesus said it this way:

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
But love your enemies, do good to them,
and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.
Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High,
because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:32-36

Have you ever experienced the sacrificial love of others into your life? How did that change your life and heart? How did that experience inspire you to give love in the same way you had received it (without expectation of repayment by them)?

What experiences of costly or painful love have you had that brought a harvest of joy? What life changes have you seen that were worth the costly investment?

How can you love in a way that would cost you something small?

How could you love in a way that may bring potential tears, heartache, and suffering for Jesus' sake?

As we invest in love, we will find that the next fruit of the Spirit—Joy—becomes a natural follow-up. When you know that what you are doing will, by God's unbreakable promise, bring life, healing and beauty to you and to others, then even in the midst of the painful relationship or circumstance, even as you carry your cross, you can look forward with joy to the reward and harvest that will be waiting: "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. 12:2

..................Read the next blog in the Fruit of the Spirit series: "The Strength of Joy"

”If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE.
1 Corinthians 13

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Love.Listen.Live.

Love.

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Listen.

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom. 6:16

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1

Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance?
Romans 2:4

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God [plural\ and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Live.

"An hour is coming and is now here when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live!" John 5:25

The Favor of Self-Control (Part 1)

ἐγκράτεια
egkráteia --en, "in the sphere of" and krátos, "dominion, mastery") – properly, dominion within. "Self-control" – proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself. True mastery from within. 1

Love Resolves in Self-Control

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Cor. 5:14-15

The Harvest of Love

Those who sow in tears shall reap with
Shouts of Joy!
Psalm 126:5 ESV

Author

Archives

Categories

Love.Listen.Live.

Love.

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\. ​Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Listen.

​Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ​Rom. 6:16

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!Romans 6:1 ​ Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance? Romans 2:4

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God [plural\ and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Live.

"An hour is coming and is now here when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live!" John 5:25

The Favor of Self-Control (Part 1)

ἐγκράτεια egkráteia --en, "in the sphere of" and krátos, "dominion, mastery") – properly, dominion within. "Self-control" – proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself. True mastery from within. 1​

Love Resolves in Self-Control

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Cor. 5:14-15

The Harvest of Love

Those who sow in tears shall reap withShouts of Joy!Psalm 126:5 ESV

Author

Archives

Categories

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom. 6:16

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1

Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance?
Romans 2:4

ἐγκράτεια
egkráteia --en, "in the sphere of" and krátos, "dominion, mastery") – properly, dominion within. "Self-control" – proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself. True mastery from within. 1

Those who sow in tears shall reap with
Shouts of Joy!
Psalm 126:5 ESV