2-20-14 Quirky Friends
Proverbs 17:9
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.

Such a simple verse that everyone can agree with, but in all actuality it’s kind of hard to do! I think it’s the “dwelling on it part.” Especially for girls! We hate to be misunderstood. We love to justify ourselves. We hate being wrong. So not “dwelling on it” sort of goes against our nature. We think we have to “get to the bottom of it,” or that the other person “has to know,” and that we’re “just telling it like it is.” But we are most interested in these points only if we’re sure the investigation will end in our favor. Sad but true.

The NIV states Proverbs 17:9 this way: Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

In God’s economy, I should be more concerned with covering over an offense than anything else. Paul calls it making allowances for each other’s faults.

Colossians 3:13 - Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Of course this is not talking about mass murder or actual abuse. These are day to day little offenses that come with just being around people. God doesn’t want us to be so touchy. It’s better to let these little things go and excuse someone’s quirks because I am quirky too!

1 Peter 4:8 says, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” 

Covering over an offense is the opposite of broadcasting it or holding a grudge. And God makes it perfectly clear what happens when we choose not to forgive faults. Dwelling on it separates close friends. Whether I am the dweller or the dwell-ee that friendship isn’t going to make it without God’s brand of love between us.

Dear God,
I thank you for the friendships that I have. I thank you for your view on friendship and that I am not doomed by my womanly sinful nature to sever my relationships by the drive to be right all the time. I can overlook someone’s quirkiness and pray that they will overlook mine. Thank you that you don’t hold things against me, and help me not to do that to others. In Jesus’ name, amen.

14 February 2014 “Celebration of Love Day”
John 13:34-35
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

New commandment... Looking at the 10 Commandments I notice that the first four relate to loving God and 5-10 relate to other people. The new commandment, love each other, isn’t really new. Honoring our parents, not murdering (or even hating anyone -Matthew 5:21-22), not committing adultery in our hearts or minds, not stealing, lying, or coveting is how we show the love we profess to have to others.

Jesus even said that all the 10 Commandments can be summed up with just two:
You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)




Believers show the world we belong to God not only by what we say but especially by what we do. I could say I love God and I love my neighbor as much as I love myself, but if I don’t actually show this by what I say and do then my declarations don’t mean anything.




If I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)




Today is Valentine’s Day! The whole world celebrates it’s own brand of love on this day every year. But God’s brand of love is a requirement for all the time not just one particular day. It’s super easy to show I belong to God by loving the ones who love me back (and I am so thankful for this tight group of people in my life!). But showing I love God by loving others like he requires would make it the celebration of love day every day all year round.




Dear God,

Thank you for how you love me and for teaching me how to love you and how to love others. I am so thankful for the ones in my life who are easy to love. And I want it to be obvious in my life that I love and follow you by loving the ones that aren’t so easy to love too. Thank you for your Holy Spirit giving me the ability and the desire to do what pleases you regardless of how I feel. I love you and thank you and pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

11 February 2014 “His Kind of Love”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

I’m so glad God’s Word tells me what love really is because my feelings aren’t reliable or accurate 100% of the time because of my human nature. But God’s love is supernatural and it looks like this: kind (encouraging, cordial, cheerful, thoughtful), not jealous or boastful (UNresentful, unworried, confident, satisfied), not proud or rude (decent, polite, mannerly, modest), doesn’t demand its own way (flexible), not irritable (pleasant, happy), keeps no record of being wronged (ungrudging, makes allowances for one another’s faults -see Colossians 3:13). If I’m looking for a checklist to follow that’d be my list!

1. Be encouraging today
2. Be un-resentful.
3. Be polite.
4. Be flexible.
5. Be pleasant.
6. Make allowances for other’s faults.

There is always time for me to consult this list in my heart before I respond to anyone - especially to those most important to me. Being polite and flexible to my kids would get the same point across but even better because I would be treating them the way my Heavenly Father treats me. Being un-resentful and making allowances for other’s faults may not be what a potential adversary deserves in my opinion, but it is what Jesus has done for me.

Obeying God, imitating Jesus, requires loving people the way God says. And I’m so glad he states very clearly what HIS kind of love looks like. AND I’m so glad he gives me his Holy Spirit to help me pull it off!!!

Dear God,
I thank you for the many opportunities you give me in a day to practice your kind of love. I thank you that it is a pleasure and relief to receive; help me to be faithful to give it out freely even when my feelings would demand otherwise. Your ways are so good, and your love is truly awesome. Help me to teach my kids and encourage others by example. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

7 February 2017 “Loving & Bold”
Psalm 97:10
You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

Fact: I can’t love God and love evil at the same time. If I love the Lord, then I must hate what He says is evil. And if I love evil, then I hate the Lord. There is no having it both ways. And loving hating evil requires boldness that can only be backed up by God’s Word.

Hating what God hates actually makes me bold not intolerant like society would have us believe. Think of the boldness it took for Jesus to fashion a whip and clear out the temple full of people and animals. He dumped over tables and coins went in all directions, no doubt chaos ensued. But the account states the temple got cleared not that some stuck around. (See John 2:13-15) That’s bold. And his actions were completely backed up by Scripture, by God’s Word, so His actions were not sinful.

People confuse anger with sin, but if it’s anger over hating what God hates, it isn’t sin; it’s boldness.

Jesus rebuked the leaders of the Temple one day by healing a sick woman on the Sabbath. The leaders told her to come back during the work week to be healed. Jesus rebuked them, called them hypocrites, and healed her anyway leaving his adversaries shamed. (See Luke 13:10-17) In order to stick up for godliness the hypocrite was shamed. This isn’t mean or unloving of Jesus. This is proof that God’s word is Truth. They felt shame because of their shameful actions, all Jesus did was point it out. Bold.

We’ve all heard this: “Love the sinner; hate the sin.” Yep. Exactly.

Rob quoted Gifford on Sunday. He says the more a father loves a son the more he hates the drunkard, liar, and traitor inside. Pointing out what God hates isn’t unloving, intolerant, or short sided. It’s actually the LOVINGEST thing we could do so people won’t be deceived thinking they can tolerate what God hates yet have a relationship with Him. They can’t!

Hating what God hates doesn’t make me mean, and I should not keep from speaking out about it because of how people might react. It’s better to give them something to think about and possibly repent from!

How many times do we ask our family members not to talk about religion or politics at holidays and special occasions? Our goal is a peaceful coexistence. BUT loving God and ignoring the things He hates will not coexist no matter how hard we try to make them. It is never unloving to state the truth in God’s Word. I’m not saying the solution is to harp on people to death because that’s not Jesus’ model. He stated the truth once to the people he addressed and moved on. Some people still followed him and some didn’t. And some plotted against him.

I must remember that Jesus was bold, and He was bold because he was loving. And hating what God hates was more important to Jesus than the personal emotional comfort of his company.

Dear God,
Help me to remember that being bold for your Truth is so important. It shows the side I’m on, and I want to be on YOUR side and to stand for what you stand for and to love people how you love them and to be more concerned with how you see me rather than how someone might react to me for speaking out against what you despise. Help all I do and say be out of love for people. I do not want them to be deceived, and their reactions would be a result of your Truth not my words. Thank you for the example of your Son who didn’t harp on anybody but always stated your Truth because he loved them and most of all loves YOU. And it is in His name I pray. Amen.

6 January 2014 “Totally Logical”
Proverbs 21:21
Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.

That’s logical. Pursuing righteousness leads to finding it.

It is by believing in Jesus that we are made righteous, not by any feat we accomplish, task we complete, or sacrifice we make. (Romans 3:22)

So pursing Jesus is pursuing righteousness. Pursuing Jesus looks like this:
Know what he’s like by carefully reading the New Testament especially the books of the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). We learn about Jesus’ behavior and his personality this way. The reason we are Christians in the first place is that we are “Little Christs,” imitators of HIM. Pursuing Him is imitating Him. 

Philippians 2:5-8
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Imitating Jesus:

1. I must be humble.
2. I must not insist on my entitlements and expectations.
3. I must serve others.
4. I must obey God in all situations even to the point of my own discomfort.

Galatians 6:7-9 is very encouraging in this area:
You will always harvest what you plant. (Also logical!) Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. (That is not pursuing righteousness by imitating Christ.) But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. (Imitating Christ!) So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. (OK! I’m in! Help me, Lord!) At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. (Jesus didn’t give up, and his life is what I’m pursuing!)

Dear God,
Thank you that righteousness doesn’t depend upon what I can do but what Jesus can do and did!!! Thank you for your system that just requires obedience and imitation and not giving up. These are things I can do through the help of your Holy Spirit. I know that coming up with a way to make myself righteous is not possible at all. Your plan really is designed to take all the pressure off of me and just reap the rewards of having a relationship with your Son. Thank you so much. I love it that you are like this and want me to have access to all things YOU! I praise you and thank you in Jesus’ name, amen.

4 January 2014 “Reality”
Ephesians 1:6
So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

I read an article the other day about a mom who has a kindhearted son. His kindheartedness gets him teased during basketball practice as this other kid mock repeats the nice kid’s encouragement. As the son expressed his hurt feelings to his mom, his conclusion was that nobody liked him and everyone teased him. The mom quickly pointed out that it was just one mean kid and not everybody. I think the reason it felt like everybody is because the other boys present, although they didn’t join in with the mean kid, did not stick up for the nice kid who really did nothing mock-worthy either. That does make a totally of “everybody” who was not on his side. One really huge thing really does distort reality for us whether we are 12 years old on a basketball court or fully grown working in a cubicle inside a fancy office building. 

The way to prevent distorting reality is to know reality. And reality for the Believer is that we belong to Jesus. That’s One for our corner ALL THE TIME. So, if I should ever feel like the WHOLE WORLD is against me (and maybe it is!), reality is I’m not alone. There is Someone who loves me and wants to be with me all the time. And He is!

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.  He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
(Ephesians 1:5-8)

The best advice this mom could give her son after basketball practice is the encouragement we should be ingesting every day from God’s Word:

1. I do belong.
2. God wants me.
3. The fact that I belong to God’s family gives Him great pleasure.
4. God gives me kindness and wisdom and will never mock me.

And that’s reality.




Dear God,

I thank you so much for making reality really clear to us. I thank you for wanting me in the first place! I thank you for the truth that I am loved just like I am whether I fit in with other groups or not. I like just being myself and not having to be something else to please you. You accept me like no one else and I am so very thankful! Amen.

3 February 2014 “Abandonable Things”
Psalm 59:16
But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress.

Each morning... I think it’s ingenious of the Enemy to float the idea around so much that only certain things are too hard to stick with, and that it’s perfectly fine to abandon what no longer suits us comfortably. Of course I’m speaking about marriages and relationships with the Lord. There are ups and downs, ebbs and flows, but giving up should never be considered. Still, many Believers do.

YET, these same people will not give up on diets, hobbies, or life-long childhood friends. Diets aren’t comfortable, and if a friend from high school marries a jerk or does drugs or something, it’s still ok to hang out and just ignore the elephant in the room; or if a hobby becomes too expensive, just get another credit card. These are all socially acceptable practices. But if a spouse doesn’t do what we like say, or if God doesn’t respond correctly on our timeline, then it’s perfectly acceptable to throw those relationships away and give up. That’s masterful of Satan. That’s brilliant! Teach people to cling to what doesn’t really matter and discard what truly does!

Each morning... I’d much rather abandon a diet than my husband. I’d much rather challenge a wayward friend and offer Biblical encouragement that may or may not cost me that friendship. And I’d much rather consult God on how to spend my free time and money rather than keep up the latest extra curricular excursions, hobbies, man-toys, etc. I’d much rather abandon true abandonable things because I don’t want to be a sucker. I refuse to fall into Satan’s plans that so many people in our day and age blindly accept and follow.

The one relationship that is the most reliable, dependable, and literally life saving in nature is the one I have with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only relationship that exists that illustrates that relationship is the one I have with my husband. We should NOT be throwing these relationships away or be treating them casually and, ironically, simultaneously be extremely loyal to certain foods, people, and a whole lotta money. What really matters to me is what I will spend the majority of my energy, time and talent pursuing. So...

Each morning... Recognize God’s power and unfailing love. He is always reliable and a true place of safety from society’s compliance to the Enemy’s ridiculous schemes. 




Dear God,

Thank you for making it so clear in your Word what really matters most. And thank you that it is not the foods we eat, the people we know, or the possessions we have. It’s YOU! And it will always be YOU regardless of my circumstances. Help me not to be tempted to keep up with a society that does not have my best interests at heart, and thank you that YOU do! I love you and praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen.