Little Things – Managing Life God’s Way

Little things and how you deal with them, handle them, and manage them, matter, especially when it comes to managing life God’s way.

• Words are little things, but they matter.

Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances. Proverbs 25:11 (NASB)

I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. Matthew 12:36 (HCSB)

A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being. Proverbs 18:8 (HCSB)

Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21 (HCSB)

Promises are made with words, so are excuses. Words can both heal and injure, bless and curse. How well do you manage those little things, your words?

• Money, possessions, stuff, are, according to Jesus, a little thing, but how you manage them does matter.

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Luke 16:10-13 (ESV)

Faithfulness is built by paying attention to and managing the little things well. Calling money a little thing is quite the reversal in a world that is dominated by it. Based on how faithfully you manage your possessions and wealth, how much true riches can God entrust to you?

• Little teachers worth paying attention to in managing life.

Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
the ants are not a strong people, yet they store up their food in the summer; hyraxes are not a mighty people, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; locusts have no king, yet all of them march in ranks; a lizard can be caught in your hands, yet it lives in kings’ palaces. Proverbs 30:24-28 (HCSB)

The ant teaches both foresight and the value of saving. The hyrax got some lessons on living securely and having a stable home. The locust knows a thing or two about being self-motivated and the power of unity. The lizard knows about adaptability and how to navigate even in places of power.

• Two big mistakes when it comes to the little things.

But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Luke 11:42 (ESV)

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. Song of Songs 2:15 (ESV)

The first is to make the little thing the big thing, the second is not paying attention to the little things until they become big things. Which one of these are you more prone to, and when will you change that?

May God be glorified, honored, and blessed by how you and I manage our lives and everything in them, including the little things.

            Love you, Pastor Hans

Always and Never – Change How They Define You

Always and Never

Have you ever been hit with the “You Always” club or were bruised by its cousin the “You Never” switch? Or maybe you’re the one who has developed a habit of using those verbal weapons? It is rarely the truth, however, but most often it is an exaggeration, a form of manipulation, or a statement of great frustration. It certainly is not helpful in resolving things or bringing about change.

Always and Never

There isn’t just a negative side to “You Always” or “You Never.” “She always made time for others.” “He never spoke an unkind word.” Those are some serious compliments.

Always and Never

Those are two very important words to anyone who is serious about following Jesus, pleasing God, and being and good and godly person. God’s word (the Bible) instructs and commands us to practice numerous “always” and “nevers.”

• Always live out your love for God by following His ways and obeying His commandments. You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. Deuteronomy 11:1 (NASB)

• Always choose the path of a clear conscience. In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. Acts 24:16 (NASB)

• Always be involved in and tenacious about God’s work. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NASB)

• Never let evil entice you to do evil, but always do what is right and good for others. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Romans 12:17 (NASB) See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 (NASB)

• Never try to even the score no matter what someone did to you. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19 (NASB)

• Never try to even the score no matter what someone did to you. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19 (NASB)

• Always watch your words and how you respond. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Colossians 4:6 (NASB)

• Always have a hopeful and good attitude. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 2 Corinthians 5:6 (NASB). Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4 (NASB)

• Always rejoice, pray, and be grateful. Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;
  in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB)

• Always be ready to tell others about Jesus and your faith in Him. Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 1 Peter 3:15-16 (NASB)

This short “always” and “never” list is by no means comprehensive, but it will get you started with changing how “always” and “never” define you and are spoken about you. I’ve always thought you could, and you will never be the same.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Getting Your Taxes Right – Giving to God What Is God’s

I’ve decided to begin this pastor’s note on a cheerful note by reminding you that this coming Monday is April 15. I am sure you have been looking forward to this year’s tax deadline. When it comes to income tax, I am always reminded of my former supervisor at the Don Pedro Recreation Agency whose April 15^th comment was, “I wish I had to pay a million dollars in taxes!” Of course, he was also hoping to have the kind of income that would generate that size of a tax bill.

Now that you are in a good mood let me enhance it with some words of Jesus after he was asked a malicious question about paying taxes to the imperial Roman government, “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God” Luke 20:24-25 (NLT2).

Since you are now feeling thoroughly upbeat, let me focus you on the most overlooked part of Jesus’ answer to his greedy, money-loving questioners (Luke 16:14), “give to God what belongs to God.” Be honest, is that the part you focused on, contemplated? Or, did you join the choir of the tax gripers?

If you and I are going to live in a relationship with God, be followers of Jesus, and adopt God’s word (the Bible) as our guide, we will have to learn to have a different relationship with money, possessions, wealth, and stuff. Those religious leaders, who were trying to squeeze Jesus into saying something that would make the majority of people unhappy with him, were all about themselves, about hoarding as much as they could, they had God on their lips but wanting to be rich and the love of money in their hearts (Mark 7:6-13). God got the leftovers, certainly not the first and the best.

So, what belongs to God? That’s the right starting question.

• The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it Psalm 24:1 (NASB). This truth, this fact, has some serious implications. The laptop I am composing this p-note on – God’s. The cars sitting outside my window, with Susie’s and my names on the registration – God’s. The house we hold title to – God’s. The current balance in our bank accounts – God’s. My body, skills, and know-how – God’s. Today, tomorrow, and hopefully the rest of this and many more years – God’s. This reality of God being the owner makes you and me a steward, a manager, accountable to God, which means what pleases Him, and what He wants is vastly more important than our desires and plans. Have you surrendered all that you have to God?

• Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NASB). Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way Colossians 3:17 (MSG). This requires a differently ordered heart because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also Matthew 6:21 (NASB). This is a heart that is focused on God, exalting God, continually and in everything praising and thanking God, a heart that wants to involve everything in our lives in our relationship and worship of God. This is a heart that lives out a full-time, all-of-the-time, everywhere and anywhere relationship with God. Have you surrendered all of yourself?

• If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content 1 Timothy 6:8 (NASB).  But you, … pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness 1 Timothy 6:11 (NIV). In my experience, most tax conversations reek of discontent, which is why they put the tax question to Jesus, but if you and I are going to focus on rendering the things that are God’s to God there are much more important things to pursue than tax issues, For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it 1 Timothy 6:7 (NIV). Imagine what your life would be like if you’d spend as much energy, time, and effort on pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, … than you are on discussing and paying less taxes? Are you pursuing what will transform you into Christlikeness?

To God be all glory. Happy April 15^th, Pastor Hans

Jesus Christ, King of kings. – Who Is Your King?

Facts are facts. Our problems with facts develop when we don’t like the facts, when the facts don’t support our point of view, when they challenge our lifestyle, politics, and beliefs.

She said, “Well, he’s not my president!” Obviously, she neither liked the incumbent president nor voted for him. The stubborn fact, however, is that the duly elected and sworn-in president of the United States is the president of all Americans regardless of whether a person likes him or not.

Before I get you all sidetracked by politics, let me turn your attention to Jesus Christ and Palm Sunday and the facts regarding Jesus. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus riding into Jerusalem at the beginning of the week that ended with His crucifixion and resurrection. Mark records the moment, “Many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!’” Mark 11:8-10 (ESV).

They welcomed Jesus as King and then rejected Him when He didn’t meet their expectations and politics, they saw themselves as the king-makers. But what about the facts? Jesus Christ isn’t King because you and I decide to vote for Him or acknowledge Him as such. He is the eternal King, He has never not been the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:11-16). He holds authority over all things: heaven, earth, the entire cosmos, all of humanity, history, every nation, all peoples, life, death, and hell (Matthew 28:18, Colossians 1:15-18, 2 Timothy 4:1).

Before Pilate, the Roman Governor, gave the order to crucify Jesus, he had the following conversation with him: “’Are you the King of the Jews?’
 Jesus answered, ‘Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?’
 Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?’
 Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’
 Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’                                                             Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’  
 Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” John 18:33-38 (ESV). Doesn’t sound like Pilate bought into Jesus being a King, does it? He certainly didn’t think that Jesus had more power than the emperor Pilate was serving. If Jesus was some sort of king, He was the kind of king you could safely ignore, which is what Pilate eventually did. He ended up yielding to the power of politics and the desire to forge his own success and destiny.

I wonder what Pilate will think when he, along with you and me, sees Jesus on the throne of heaven judging all of mankind, when “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:8-11. He met the King of kings and chose to serve a lesser king. He got an invitation to be part of God’s eternal kingdom and rejected it for what will never last.

How do you know who’s your king? You know by looking at who or what rules you, who you bow down to, whose standards and laws you follow and submit to. Maybe you’re like Pilate, who under no illusion that he was the big fish, but he made sure he ruled over as much as he could. Maybe you are like many in the Palm Sunday crowd, you know that you won’t be the king, so you settle for being part of the king-makers to make sure things will go in your direction, fit your opinion, establish your values, affirm your lifestyle.

My chances, like those of most folks, of running into a real king are minimal, but each one of us will stand and bow before Jesus’ throne and acknowledge Him as the King of kings. The only question is whether you and I will stand there because we accepted His invitation to be part of His eternal kingdom, or because we rejected His invitation and authority and had to be summoned.

Who’s your king? Who rules over and in your life? Don’t pull a Pilate and settle those most important questions according to what you declare to be true, instead listen to and submit yourself to the only King whose rule extends beyond the grave and over all of eternity, Jesus Christ. Don’t be foolish or defiant and say, “Well he’s not my king!” I … implore each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” 1 Thessalonians 2:12.

            With Palm Sunday love and truth, Pastor Hans

Tough Love – part 2

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (ESV)

I am wondering just when did Jewish parents introduce their children to this? Did baby cribs come with Deuteronomy 21:18-21 carved into them? Did they sell school lunch boxes that had this on the inside of the lid? Did kids sing this in synagogue school along with the hand motions? Did parents ever have a conversation like, “And just when are going to sit down with this boy and read him Deuteronomy 21:18-21, because if you won’t, by Moses, I will?!”

  “But Miriam, he’s only three months old.”

  “Are you going to back me up on this, or what? We are not going to make the same mistake your parents made with you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Don’t try to change the subject with me. I am telling you, if you won’t, I’m calling the Rabbi!”

As extreme as Deuteronomy 21:18-21 sounds to us today, it does remind us that every parent, no matter how much they love their child/ren, has to make tough love decisions. But that isn’t just true of parents, there are times for everyone when love will have to do tough things.

The Apostle Paul, who was fully aware of Christ’s command to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34-35), publicly rebuked the Apostle Peter when he caught him acting like a hypocrite and bigot (Galatians 2:11-14). I wonder if he had Proverbs 27:4-5 in the back of his mind when he did so, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” Proverbs 27:5-6 (ESV).

Jesus, who unquestionably loved Peter, gave him a swift verbal kick in the pants right after Peter publicly and accurately confessed Jesus as the Christ/Messiah, and then thought he could rebuke Jesus for predicting His death, burial, and resurrection. “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” Mark 8:33 (ESV), Jesus told him turning around – ouch.

The Old Testament ends with sixteen books written and named after prophets and every one of them illustrates the tough love of God. God’s tough love seeks to correct us, lead us to repentance, forsake sin, give up foolishness, turn us into blessers, establish godly habits, develop righteous character, sow goodness, promote harmony and unity, and cause us to love Him and others more, “For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights” Proverbs 3:12 (NLT2).

Tough loving is still loving, so it has to know when to ease up. The Corinthian Church had to collectively exercise some tough love on a man who was causing grief and hurt. It seems he responded well to that tough love by repenting, changing his ways, and setting things right. Paul reminded them, “Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement. So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him” 2 Corinthians 2:7-8 (NLT2).

May God help you and me to be very good at love, just as He commanded us, and be even better and careful when it comes to exercising tough love.

            To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Unleashing Your Capacity to Love – Part 2

Have you ever gotten lost? Totally turned around? I’m not talking geographically but lost in life. The Corinthian Christians had gotten themselves very lost, sounds like an oxymoron since becoming Christian involves being found and saved. They weren’t lost regarding the salvation of their souls, but they for sure had lost their way when it came to living the Christian life.

What they had lost sight of the most was the supreme importance of loving one another as Christ loved them. They were Christians but behaved like the non-Christian world, and in some instances worse than unbelievers. They got lost in factiousness, immorality, greed, chasing the miraculous, pride, and more. They got so lost in living the Christian life that Jesus’ new command, “Love one another, even as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:34-35), was good for the fancy sign over their church doors but found no application in everyday life.

When God commands us to do something, it implies that we can count on His support and that we are capable of carrying out that command. If James had stopped by, he would have said, “Remember, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well,” and, “It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (James 2:8 & 4:17 (NLT2, italics mine). Paul on the other hand told them what they specifically needed to focus on if they were going to keep God’s commands of loving their neighbor and each other like Christ loved them, “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (HCSB).

Did you notice that for the Corinthians, and you and me, to unleash our God-given capacity to love requires us to consistently practice some things, like being patient with and kind to others, and we need to reign in other things, like envy, conceit, and keeping score? Unleashing the love of God requires obedience, you can be kind even when you don’t feel like it, but it also requires obedience of restraint, of not doing certain things even if you feel like or think you are justified doing them.

How much of your God-given ability to love others is being realized? How much of it is being squelched because you are lost in Christless attitudes, thinking, desires, and practices?

Take your Bible and go find a mirror to stand in front of. Then look up 1 Corinthians 13. Once you have found it, slowly read it to that person looking at you and pray that he or she will have ears to hear. Then ask yourself who you are not patient with, not kind to, not …, that will get you started on where more and what of your love capacity needs to be unleashed. Then check on things you are not reigning in, like envy, conceit, selfishness, …, that will get you started on dealing with specific attitudes and behaviors that continually sabotage, constrict, and hinder your capacity to love.

If there is one thing we want to get right as followers of Jesus, Christians, and as a church, loving like Jesus commanded us is it. Can I hear an “AMEN!” Now give that “AMEN!” some real-life, real-love meaning, because you can, because God delights in it, and because others will be blessed by it.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Tough Love

I yanked back his little hand and slapped it, made him look into my eyes, and with a raised voice told him, “Don’t you ever, ever, never stick anything in any outlet, ever again! Do you understand?” Of course, he didn’t understand, heck, I still don’t understand electricity myself, but I do know it is dangerous.

Susie and I also had the “Don’t ever lie to me again!” talks, dished out the “You’re grounded!” verdicts, and had to figure out various consequences and punishments for bad, unwise, destructive, stupid, mean, selfish, and “I know you know better” kind of behaviors. Not because we wanted to or couldn’t wait to do so, but because these were our kids and because we loved them like no one else.

Hebrews 12:4-11 quotes and elaborates on Proverbs 3:11-12, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” Hebrews 12:4-11 (NIV).

We don’t usually think of discipline, punishment, and allowing hardships when we think of love, nor does the word “encouragement” immediately spring to our minds reading, “My child, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the child he delights in,” Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV, italics mine). That’s because we are culturally conditioned to think that love is always unconditional, permissive, tolerant, accommodating, and equal, none of which neither Scripture (the Bible) nor real-life experience supports.

Those Hebrew Christians, children of God, needed to grow up. They needed more holiness, more righteous behavior, and more stability/peace. The previous eleven chapters indicted them of theological immaturity, not learning from history, slowness of learning, inability to discern good and evil, incomplete understanding of Jesus, and a weak and fickle faith. None of these helped with navigating life and coping with hardships and persecution. What they needed was a growing faith, deeper understanding, and maturity – as do you and I.

Do you want God to treat and love you like His child? If your answer is, “Yes,” then first you need to ask yourself whether you have been born again by repenting of your sin and believing in Christ as your Savior. It is the only way to become a legitimate son or daughter of God. Then you need to ask yourself if you are growing, maturing in this faith you have placed in Christ, or do you continue to be a spiritual baby, living in continual defeat and discouragement, and are unable to recognize God’s loving discipline when you are trying to push yet another paper clip in an electrical outlet?

Someone said, “God loves you as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you as you are.” When God is your Father, you should expect that His love will be relentless in shaping you towards holiness, tenacity, righteous character, strong faith, and Christlikeness. In this process, His discipline is often very tough, even painful, but always, always for our own good. Thank you, Lord.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Unleashing Our Capacity to Love – To More and Better Loving

Each of my children knows that I love him or her the most and that all the others are just ugly ducks, runts, and trolls. After we had our first little guy, I questioned having any more kids because how in the world could I divide my love for him? Silly me, I found out I didn’t have to divide my love at all, it multiplied with each addition.

We have a tremendous God-given capacity to love. According to Jesus, it makes both a present and eternal difference what we do with that capacity, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” Matthew 6:19-21, 24 (ESV). The only way to be heaven-eternally rich is for our love to be focused on God and the things of God.

We can do different things with our love capacity. We can use it sparingly or not at all. We can misuse or abuse it. We can shrink or grow it. We can be selective or liberal with it. We can misdirect it or use it as God has intended it. But all of us are prone to love the wrong things, thus the Apostle John warned, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” 1 John 2:15-17 (ESV).

So, what are some things you and I can learn from these two scriptures that will help us with both keeping the proper focus and growing our capacity to love?

• Focus on eternal values.

Eternal values are all connected to God, the Eternal One. Every person has eternal value by virtue of having been made in God’s image. Every person is of greater value than the sum of all of your and my possessions, actually, the net worth of our entire planet (Matthew 16:26). Love in itself is an eternal value, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT2).

• Love and serve the right master.

Without exception, each of us is ruled by something or someone. So, the question is not a matter of if but of who or what. The right and best choice is to be submitted to God who occupies the eternal throne, whose every decision and edict is intrinsically good and wise. And, Jesus specifically warns us about adopting a two-master solution, serving God and money, or any other master, including ourselves.

• Know what is of the Father.

The greatest expression of God the Father’s love is His Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit, who indwells everyone who has trusted in and committed themselves to Jesus as their Savior, is from the Father (John 15:26). God’s written word, the Bible, is a gift from God. All three are meant to save us, transform us, and help us to know God and navigate this life.

• Knowing and doing God’s will

“Whoever does the will of God abides forever,” that makes knowing God’s will critically important. When it comes to God’s will we often start backwards, “Should I marry him?” “Should I take this job?” “…?” Before seeking those answers, and we both can and should, we need to ask ourselves if we are already doing what God has clearly revealed about His will, “Am I loving God above all?” “Am I loving my neighbor as myself?” “Are the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control -Galatians 5:22-23) evident in my actions and interactions?” “…?” It is God’s will for you and me to love Him, to love Jesus, to love our neighbor, to love to serve Him and people, to love Jesus’s church, to love God’s wisdom, to love generosity, to love seeing sinners being saved, to love peace-making, to love righteousness, to love doing good, to love God’s word, to love being led by the Holy Spirit, to love …, to love everything that please and glorifies God.

To God be all glory, and to more and better loving. Pastor Hans

Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself – Where to Start and How

“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27)

 When it comes to literal neighbors, people living next door, or around the corner, we have had some awesome, some average, and some awful neighbors. I love the awesome kind, but I struggle with awful ones, and yet I am commanded to love them both. Of course, the commandment of loving your neighbor includes more people than those who share my street and ZIP code. Jesus, answering the question, “Who is my neighbor?” asked by someone with a narrow definition of the term, told him to ask a better question, one that will help anyone serious about this most important commandment, “Are you a loving neighbor?”

 Once we settle the “Who is my neighbor?” according to Jesus, questions like “How much?” “What does that look like?” and, “Where do I start?” will pop up. The commandment (which means it isn’t optional in God’s mind) is just one short sentence, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but covers the what – love, the who – your neighbor, and the how – as yourself. It is a beautiful commandment, imagine if everyone on your street would live by it, what kind of neighborhood would it be? If everyone at your work kept it, what would that be like? If your entire family was guided by it every day, how good would that be?

 Maybe your reaction is, “Sounds nice preacher, but that’s not my reality.” It isn’t mine either, yet the commandment to love my neighbor isn’t qualified by “love them when they love you,” but by “as yourself.” It isn’t a commandment that applies when everything falls into place, when everybody else is doing the right thing. We are called to practice and obey it now, regardless of what anyone else does or doesn’t do.

 The guy asking, “Who is my neighbor?” tried to find justification for twisting the ‘who’ in the commandment, to create wiggle room for his hate, and to legitimize being unloving to some. If we are not careful, we will also twist the second part of the commandment “… as yourself.” It works like this, “I first have to love myself before I can love my neighbor.” Amazing, how quickly we can turn around a commandment that focuses us on how to treat our neighbor, back to ourselves. Nowhere does God command us to love ourselves, we already know how; “as yourself” is the practical starting point of actually loving your neighbor. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus puts it this way, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (NIV). The Apostle Paul, expounding on the commandment to love our neighbor wrote, “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. For the commandments say, ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.’ These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law” Romans 13:8-10 (NLT2). Loving your neighbor isn’t some psychological self-help text, it is a commandment that centers us on others. More self-centeredness, more me-focused love, doesn’t make us healthier or better. But, ironically, when we focus less on ourselves and more on others we don’t become less but more.

Jesus looked at his disciples, who knew the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and expanded the qualifier, “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 13:34-35 (NLT2). It’s one thing to love my neighbor as myself, it is quite another to love him or her like Jesus. Jesus obviously thought that both are possible. God’s commandments are never setups for failure, they have His full support, with His help we can love our neighbor as ourselves, like Jesus.

I do know when the command to love my neighbor is challenging, hard to flesh out, even overwhelming, we are free and welcome to, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your child asks for bread, will give him or her a stone? Or if your child asks for a fish, will give him or her a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:7-12.

            To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Passing the Loving Your Neighbor Test

He knew the answer, but he didn’t like the answer. Any chance that ever happened to you? It wasn’t about anything trivial either, eternal life and the most important commandment were the subject matter. In the middle of a conversation between Jesus and his disciples, an expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
 “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?”
 He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
 “You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.”
 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:25-29 (HCSB).

Jesus knew that this Old Testament lawyer knew the answer down to chapter and verse, specifically Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He let the lawyer, who was trying to trip Him up, answer his own question. Amazing how quickly Jesus reversed the roles; the hubris of trying to outsmart God will trip us up.

Even though the lawyer’s motives were lousy, and his attitude was adversarial, Jesus acknowledged that his answer was spot on. He should’ve left good enough alone, but somehow, he felt the need to justify himself regarding loving your neighbor. Did he feel an immediate pinch of guilt for failing to keep this commandment? Did the stares of the bystanders, who were all too aware of the rampant hypocrisy of their leaders, birth the need for this self-justification?

He tried to get back on his home turf, to make it a theoretical, categorizing the law kind of discussion. You guessed it, Jesus didn’t let him. Instead, he told him what may be the most widely known story of the Bible, the story of the Good Samaritan, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’  “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same” Luke 10:30-37 (HCSB).

Loving, whether it is God or your neighbor, is never just theoretical. Knowing the command to love and keeping it are two different things. By wanting to know who he could pass by, who he was free not love, he placed himself in the camp of the priest and Levite, which, ironically, was the group he belonged to in real life. Highlighting the goodness, neighborliness, and law-keeping of the Samaritan, Jesus expanded the loving your neighbor scripture found in Leviticus which focuses on loving your fellow countrymen, “your people,” to including “those people,” all people.

According to Jesus, if this lawyer wanted to really keep the commandment of loving your neighbor he shouldn’t have asked who he could bypass and instead answered the very personal question of, “Am I being a loving neighbor?” Not just to “my people,” but to anyone God puts in my path. If we ask the lawyer’s question, we will have no problem keeping our distance even while we quote chapter and verse of the command to love our neighbor. But, if we learn to continually ask ourselves what Jesus wants us to ask, “Am I being a loving neighbor?” then we might actually put our heart, hands, feet, and resources into what is most important to God, to our neighbor, and in life.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans