The Answer Is Love

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

An expert in religious law tried to trick Jesus in Matthew 22 by asking Him “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Verses 37-39 give us Jesus’ reply: “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.’

Colossians 3:14 says, “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.” Paul’s command would not be unnecessary if love were an automatic or standard operating procedure for believers. It doesn’t work that way. There will always be disagreements and conflicts. In the Colossians passage above, Paul assumes that in the church, there will be complaints against one another. Life in the church will not be perfect. We will need to work at maintaining and restoring loving relationships with one another. Love is not a luxury, but a Biblical necessity.

There are at least 55 direct commandments in the New Testament telling us to love one another. John 13:34-35 says, “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.” John 15:12, 17 says, “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you…This is my command: Love each other.” And Romans 13:8, 10 adds, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law….Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”  Ephesians 4: 2 says, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” 

The love talked about in these verses is a self-sacrificing, caring commitment that shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved. The core of love is not emotion, but commitment. It’s not a commitment to make the other person immediately happy, but rather to seek the person’s best interests.  

Discussion Questions:

  1. How is loving others more than a feeling?
  2. Demonstrated love for one another reveals a love for God. Agree or disagree and why?
  3. What’s one change you can make in your life to put love into action? 

Peace No Matter What

“ A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.” – Mark 5 25-26. (TPT) 

When we are finished talking to somebody, we would typically say “goodbye” or “see you soon” or “later dude,” or some other phrase you are comfortable using. If you were Jewish, you would simply say, “Shalom” —” Peace!” The word peace occurs 429 times in the Bible.

The woman in Mark 5 did not have peace for 12 years. In first-century religious law, there were serious regulations concerning hemorrhaging. The laws of bleeding not only made the woman herself unclean but whatever and whoever she touched also became unclean. The result was embarrassment, isolation, and religious stigma. 

This woman had sought the advice of rabbis and doctors, to no avail. They could provide her with no peace. Only God could have done for her what Jesus did. Jesus said to her in compassion, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” (Mark 5:34)

Where can we find this shalom? Only in Christ, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace will we find this. Come to Him today and listen to Him, say to you, “son, daughter—go in shalom.” But shalom is something we need to strive for. 

God never intended for there to be so much strife because of race. God created each race and gave them a unique identity. God wants us to learn to accept each other and love each other.

We need to think to hear and act on what Jesus says. The church needs to do its part. It makes no sense to go to church all day and sing songs about God and raise our hands in worship, and yet we are not concerned about the injustice that faces the everyday life of people of color. We can start by modeling Romans 12:15 and “mourn with those who mourn.” Then without defensiveness, without counter-argument, and without self-justification, white Christians need to listen to our black brothers and sisters: and then make any changes we need to make to be a catalyst to bring a new era of justice and tolerance, love and shalom to our community and our nation.  

Only God can change the human heart — and He will, as we, each one of us, open our lives to the power and love He has shown us in Christ.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How can we better come together in a spirit of shalom?    

Refine Us God

“In the same way that gold and silver are refined by fire, the Lord purifies your heart by the tests and trials of life.” – Proverbs 17:3

Different metals purify at different temperatures. As a result, artisans working with gold or silver need to be careful to get the temperature just right, so that they eliminate the dross and don’t lose any of the precious metal they are refining. Otherwise, they will burn it too much and it all turns to dust. Watching a skilled refiner dance with molten metal and flame is amazing. Eventually, he eliminates all the foreign substances and impurities and gets to the pure metal which is what holds the real value.

The Bible often uses the imagery of gold being refined as a picture of what God does in our lives. Gold, when extracted from the earth, does not look like gold we find in a jewelry store. In fact, it is not always recognizable due to the impurities that mar its appearance. Yet, for the person searching for it, the ugliest lump of gold is of great value, and the potential for beauty is evident.  

This is the same refinement process that we, as God’s children, go through. The gold (God’s children) are not destroyed in this process, they simply become pliable and can be molded into the image of God. With just the right amount of heat and trial, God burns away the dross that is not just buried within us but has been a part of us for as long as we can remember. He applies the fire, then pulls it away. 

The sacrifice of God’s son to reconcile us back to a relationship with God shows just how much He values us — even while we are lost and separated from Him. God sees us not full of impurity, but full of potential. Sometimes we expect God to simply zap the junk out of our lives when we enter into a relationship with Him.

If heat is being applied to your life today, it has a purpose behind it. Illness may be designed to bring fear to the surface so God can build trust. Financial difficulty may raise materialism to the surface. Relational struggles may raise bitterness or unforgiveness to the surface. Disappointment at work may raise pride to the surface. The heat and trials of our lives are evidence of how much God values you and His desire for you to be all He designed you to be. He loves us too much to leave us as He finds us.

God’s purpose behind every difficult circumstance in our day is to develop our character. The Lord could have kept difficulties away from so many men and women of God in the Scripture, but then they would not have been refined. He could have kept the three young Hebrew men from being thrown into the fiery furnace or Daniel from being thrown into a lion’s den or Jeremiah into the slimy pit or Joseph into prison. But He didn’t. And each of them, because of the refining fire they experienced, were pulled closer to God.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does God refine us on a daily basis?   
  2. What can we do this week to do the little things that make us more Christlike?  

Living Stones

“So keep coming to him who is the Living Stone—though he was rejected and discarded by men but chosen by God and is priceless in God’s sight. Come and be his “living stones”who are continually being assembled into a sanctuary for God. For now you serve as holy priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices that he readily accepts through Jesus Christ. –  1 Peter 2:4-5. 

In our culture today, when we build our homes, we often build them out of wood. For larger buildings, we use steel. But, in Peter’s day, the material that they used in building homes and buildings were stones. This passage uses this fact and describes the community of believers as a building that Christ is building. But, the passage isn’t so much about the church which God is building. It’s more about our relationship to Christ, the living stone. We are living stones because He is the chief stone. We each are stones built on Christ to take part in God’s ongoing work of redemption and healing. 

Have you ever watched as workers covered a house or chimney with stone. They truck in a few thousand pounds of rocks and the labor intensive work begins. Stones of all shapes and sizes are placed carefully in the structure to form its shape. As the mason begins the wall, he places a few large stones at the base of the wall. Once the stones are placed, he walks over to the pile to see what sort of stones would fit nicely on these stones. At various times, he shapes them up and sizes them to see if they will work for him. When he has found his stone, he puts some mortar down, and places the stone where it goes. It is like a rock jigsaw puzzle. 

God’s kingdom is made up of people who don’t all look the same, talk the same, even believe exactly the same in terms of scripture, methodology, and doctrine. Some black, some white, some red, yellow, some old, some young, some men, some women. But it’s not in those things that we find common ground with one another. Jesus is where we find common ground. Jesus is the cornerstone. The cornerstone is the one that literally sets all the other stones in place.

Jesus is building His church, but rather than a pile of stones, He has a pile of believers. He takes each of us and considers how best to place us into His church, which He has promised to build (Matt. 16:18). And Jesus places us into the wall and ceiling and floor as He pleases. God is not calling any of us to give up how He made us. He does not want us to use how He made us to relate inappropriately to people He has made different than us. God is not asking you to be anything other than what He’s made you, as long as you submit to how He has made you, and to relate to other people who He has made different than you. 

When our master craftsmen, the Creator of the Universe, draws us to Himself, something wonderful happens. We begin the journey of becoming more and more like His Son, Jesus, and this is very precious to Him regardless of age, color, or ethnicity, gender or nationality.

 Discussion Questions:

  1. What does it mean to you to be a living stone? 
  2. What can we do this week to better relate to people who are different than we are?    

God Has No Favorites

“Peter said, “Now I know for certain that God doesn’t show favoritism with people but treats everyone on the same basis. It makes no difference what race of people one belongs to. If they show deep reverence for God, and are committed to doing what’s right, they are acceptable before him.” — Acts 10:34-35 (TPT).  

Mary McLeod Bethune was the 15th of 17 children, the first of her parent’s children born out of slavery. Mary attended Moody Bible Institute in 1895, where she prepared for missionary service to Africa. Unfortunately, her application was denied by a mission board because of her race. In the face of this devastating news, the young woman graciously replied, “I am so glad He has counted me worthy to lay this Great Command upon my heart. I am so glad He did not designate any particular color to go.” Refusing to be discouraged, she overcame all the prejudices of the day and lived a life devoted to God’s service. 

The Acts 10 passage speaks to an encounter dealing with race and diversity. It centered around an encounter between Peter and a  Roman Centurion named Cornelius ( Acts 10: 1-33) Peter and Cornelius were two completely different people. One was Jewish, the other Gentile. Peter most likely grew up lower to middle class, experiencing Jewish foods and customs.

Cornelius most likely grew up wealthy (Acts 10:1–2). However, God purposely brought the unlikely pair together (vv. 30–33), teaching them that God shows no partiality. (v. 34) There are many verses that talk about God being impartial and not playing favorites. Some of them include: Mark 12:14, “…we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites…” Romans 2:11 says, “For God does not show favoritism.” Ephesians 6:9, “…you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.” And Galatians 2:6 says, “…for God has no favorites.”  

There was a time when Peter would have wanted nothing to do with Cornelius or his family and friends (vv. 27–29). Associating with a Gentile was against Jewish law (v. 28). He saw the differences, God did not. God was the reason the two met. Peter realized that if God accepts anyone without exception, he too should accept and love them as well (vv. 34–35). God accepts people from “every nation” (v. 35). He wanted Peter and each of us to stop looking at people through human eyes and see them as He does.

God wants us to get out of our comfort zone and love those with whom we normally wouldn’t connect. No matter what your position in life, no matter what your race or the amount of your possessions, God opens His kingdom to everyone. God does not show favoritism. And neither should we.

Discussion Questions:

  1. It is relatively easy to say that we believe in racial reconciliation. If you had to prove it with more than words, what would you claim as evidence in your life that goes beyond intellectual belief?
  2. What can you do this week to be impartial?    

The Theology Of Race

“And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” – Revelation 5:9.  

In America, the topic of race is a hot topic. There are bold and courageous conversations going on all over the country on this important topic. As Christians, we believe this is a gospel issue.  It is not just a social issue. Or a political or economic issue. This is an important issue for the church and for all of us who are followers of Jesus.  Even when people take the time to study and learn the theology of race, the work of reconciliation can seem overwhelming. Where do we start? 

The gospel is a way forward. One of the first steps should be getting back to God’s Word. How do we see God’s word address race?  What does it say, what does it not say and what do we do about it.  The Bible has plenty to say about the subject starting at Genesis and ending in Revelation.

It starts at the beginning: God made from one man every nation of mankind and He even appointed the specific boundaries of where they would live. Genesis 1:28 says, “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”People got arrogant and decided they didn’t want to fill the earth: “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”(Genesis 11:4) The fall and the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) led to confusing and scattering people all over.

In his book Bloodlines, John Piper reveals the definitive source of hope: teaching how the good news about Jesus Christ actively undermines the sins that feed racial strife and leads to a many-colored and many-cultured kingdom of God; the bloodline of Jesus that is comprised of “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Revelation 7:9-10 adds, ” “I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a mighty shout, ‘Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10)

If God created every ethnicity, died for every ethnicity, and brings every ethnicity into His everlasting kingdom, then we need to get in line with God’s view of every ethnicity. We share the same beginning, the same problem of sin, the same solution at the cross of Christ, the same destiny of heaven if we are children of God. We have a whole lot more in common than sets us apart. The things that unite us are bigger and better than the things that make us different.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why do you think God made each person unique? 
  2. Many people think of change that the gospel brings as primarily personal change. How does the gospel effect social change?

In A Cave With God Most High

“I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me”  – Psalm 57:2.  

Hurricane Michael. The Coronavirus. Unemployment. Racial divides. You would have to live in a cave to be insulated from all the trying and difficult challenges we face in the world today. That is exactly what David did. 

The title of Psalm 57 gives us the circumstances under which the psalm was written. Things are so desperate for David that he flees and hides in the cave of Adullam. So David is in a dark cave. He’s hungry and thirsty. He hasn’t slept for days. Perhaps from the opening of the cave, he can look out and see dust coming up over the horizon from Saul’s army. You would think that David’s focus would be on what he is going to do when Saul’s army arrives. But instead, David is focused on God. 

The last part of Psalm 57:1 is very comforting: “I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by.” David has confidence that this “storm” he finds himself in will eventually blow over. He has to wait out the storm, and he can do so because he has sought refuge under the wings of God. During the troubling times, we too need to run to God and take cover under His wings. Trust in God and have faith that the troubles will pass. David said a similar thing in Psalm 27:13: “Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.”

The reason why David was able to keep his focus on God rather than on his danger may be found in v. 2: “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.” Why does David address God as “the God Most High?” Because David wants to impress upon us just how much authority God had over his life. The God David worshiped wasn’t a God who had authority over his life only when everything was going well. His God wasn’t a god that was somehow limited in authority, a god who had dominion over some aspects of David’s life, but when it came to a pursuing army, not so much.

By addressing God as “the God Most High”, David recognized that the God he worshiped is a God who has ultimate authority over heaven and earth. David knew that he could trust his life to the God Most High because God had ultimate authority over David’s life. David recognized God’s ability to protect him from a pursuing enemy.

How could David have had an attitude of unreserved praise toward God? Don’t forget, Saul’s army was in hot pursuit. David had experienced God’s faithfulness in the past, in both the good and the bad times, and David knew that the God Most High would be just as faithful to him there in the cave as He had been to David in the past.

How could I possibly focus on God when my mind is consumed by everything going on around me? When you recognize that the God you worship is the God Most High you recognize that God is just as faithful today as he had been to David, and he’s just as faithful today as he has been in your past as well.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Where do you go when you need a safe place? What does it mean to dwell in the shelter of the most high? 
  1. What can we do this week to trust God more and worry less? 

The Importance Of Character

“Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. 5 So they concluded, “Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion.” – Daniel 6:4-5

“He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy.” High praise from an enemy. Could this be said of you? Of me? Navonne Johns once said, “A persons character is shown through their actions in life not where they sit on Sunday.”

My character is who I really am because I can’t separate what I do from who I am. God cares about each of us and He cares about our character. The Bible could easily be classified as a character manual on how to live your life in a Christlike manner. As Christians, we have a code of conduct that we are called to – not because of what we can get out of it – but because of who God is, and who we are as His people.

As Christians, we are constantly striving to be more like Christ every day because that is what the Bible instructs us to do. When you hear the word Christ-like character, what do you think of? Someone that loves Jesus with all their heart, someone that reads their Bible all the time, someone that prays all the time, someone that goes to church all the time, etc. Well, all those things are great examples of Christ-like character. But the little daily things that we do contribute just as significantly to having a Christlike character. 

God knows we are not perfect. He is the one who made every single person, and He did not make anyone perfect. We are not all geniuses, or world-class athletes, or successful business people. But as followers of Jesus, we should always try and have a more Christ-like character. Like I said they do not all have to be very obvious, some small simple everyday things are all great examples of Christ-like character. For example, just smiling at someone, or telling someone hello, or asking someone how their day is going, giving someone a shoulder to cry on, giving a listening ear to someone who needs to just talk for a minute, buying someone some groceries, or just sending a very nice encouraging text.

These are all excellent ways to show Christ-like character, but these things can also just be normal everyday habits. But even the littlest bit of Christ-like character shown can make a huge difference in someone’s life. It is the little things that make a huge difference. Basketball coach John Wooden said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

As Christians and as the Church we are to conduct ourselves in a manner that shows our changed heart, our gratitude for our salvation, and our love for the One who died for us.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How well do you understand God’s character? How well does your character reflect God’s character?  
  2. What can we do this week to do the little things that make us more Christlike?  

Never Stop Learning

“For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light.” – Mark 4:22.

When people discuss “learning” the conversation usually defaults to where and when they went to high school and college. And many people think that they were done with learning and moved into the application of what they learned in school. But education does not end in the classroom. Education is a continuous, life long process. There are countless opportunities for learning from friends, work, and circumstances. Peter Drucker, the management expert, said that “an educated person is someone who has learned how to learn and never stops learning.” 

The same is true of your walk with God. The Christian faith is not a short-term course of study. Our mindset shouldn’t be to take a few classes on Christianity and then spending the rest of our years drawing from that knowledge. The ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning. The loop of learning doesn’t close today or tomorrow, but a lifetime lies ahead or until Jesus returns. 

Mark 4:21 tells us, “Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine.” It is hard to argue with that statement. The purpose of light is to be seen and to make sight possible. To hide a lamp would defeat its primary purpose. In the next verse, Jesus says, “For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light.” (Vs. 22) The hidden things will be revealed if we take the time and have the desire to learn.   

Mark 4:11 says, “…You are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God.” Jesus was telling His disciples that there was still much more to be revealed. The disciples, and each of us today, must constantly be open to new discoveries of His plans and purposes. In other words, we must not stop learning.

Jesus said in Mark 4:25: ”To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” As followers of Jesus, we must become someone who has learned how to learn and never stops learning. It is not a matter of learning facts or acquiring information and head knowledge. We’re not just learners of principles, but of a Person. We are lifelong learners in relationship with Jesus as we hear His voice in His word and have His ear in prayer, all through the power of His Spirit.

Lifelong learning is not merely digging deeper in the endless amount of information out there. Lifelong learning for the Christian is knowing God himself in Christ through the gospel word and the written word of the Scriptures — in the hearing and reading and study and meditation and memorization of the Bible and then applying what we learned. 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does lifelong learning mean to you?  
  2. What can we do to ensure that we never stop learning?  

Success In Workplace Relationships

“Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love makes up for many of your faults.” — 1 Peter 4:8.  

Success is often measured by results. We look at the final score of the big game or the balance of our stock portfolio to measure how successful we have been. In our walks with Jesus, success is measured differently. Success isn’t measured on a monetary gain or the “score.” Spiritual success is measured in the relationships we build with others and how our relationships draw ourselves and others closer to God. Workplace relationships present a whole different challenge. It is easy to feel as though we are being scraped and buffed and ground up as we deal with abrasive coworkers and impossible managers and demanding customers.  

We are told in Romans 12:18 to “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” That’s our assignment for our work relationships and all others. It does make it a little more difficult when most of the others in the workplace are operating under a different set of relationship principles, such as: “look out for number one!” and “do what you have to do to get ahead.” There seems little benefit in living at peace with everyone. But as disciples of Jesus Christ, it is our guiding principle.

It is very difficult to change someone especially if they don’t see the need to change.  But we can change ourselves. That means that some relationships will never be what we want them to be because the other person is not willing to improve or change. That’s when we have to learn to let go and accept the relationship as it is. However, most relationships can be improved if we work on ourselves and do everything we can to make them better by having a servant’s attitude and a willing heart. Our focus should be on improving the relationship rather than proving that we are right, seeking payback, or putting our ambition ahead of doing what is right.   

This means that we can never ask God to change others or help us improve our relationships while we are refusing to take the first step, to do what Scripture clearly puts forth as our responsibility in all of our relationships. Philippians 2:3-4 instructs us to put others first: “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” 

 “Thinking of others as better than yourself” will look different in different situations, but ask yourself if you’re willing to put others first–even your difficult coworkers or boss. This attitude change can only come through prayer and through the power of God’s Spirit within us. This has to be a God-thing or it will never be a reality. And it begins, as so much does, by prayer. 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What should you do as a Christian if relationships at work are not where they should be? When do you believe you have done enough?  
  2. What can you do this week to improve your workplace relationships?