Tag Archives: Love your neighbor

Faith, Family, Life

Not Just for Weddings

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Believe it or not, the passage below, attributed to Paul, was not written just to be read at a wedding. Love is of God.

In fact, it was written to instruct us on how we are to live each day of our life in this world. I feel like there are a lot of noisy gongs in our church community these days. What about you? Where do I fail?

Uber patriotism and uncaring dogmatism should never overrule your Christian walk. Stand firm with love. The word of God is a two-edged sword, yet our tongue and typing finger should not be.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:1‭-‬7 NASB1995

Faith, Life, Love

The Hate U Give

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This week my company offered the opportunity for all of us to watch, and discuss in many open forum locations, the movie The Hate U Give.

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to watch this movie at work with people from so many different ethnic/cultural/socio-economic backgrounds. And to discuss the issues together, in open dialog and with a tone of respect and even love, was eye opening.

Many of the topics we discussed were not new to me. I’ve been an manager and in the corporate world for over sixteen years and we have training on diversity and inclusion.

But this movie and the open discussions following were a little more eye opening and emotional. To see a Vice President, who is a black man, that I respect and have worked with many times over the years, tear up about the unconscious bias that he and his sons face, touched my heart and mind in a way I can’t fully describe.

I want to do all that I can to make sure that my children understand that we live in a complex environment with experiences that shape all of us and we must take time to try and learn from each other.

This is not just a nice thing to do. This is a God thing to do. God is love (1 John 4:7-8). Loving our neighbor means we need to try and understand what they are dealing with without taking sides all the time based on a group we are pushed into by the media or our own family.

Take a minute to educate yourself on what these terms mean and do research to help understand the historical issues that have shaped the people around you. And take time to watch this movie. I promise it is worth it to help understand how to better love your neighbor.

Church Life, Faith, Fitness, Life, Love

Coordinating My First 5K – The Results

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There was a measurable level of relief I felt once the horn blew and the runners were on their way.

I walked across the road to look over a tunnel that the runners were running through. And as I watched them run by I literally raised my hands in joy and praise to the Lord.

Not just because of the coming end of this first race and the months of planning. But because of the beautiful day, the wonderful volunteers and the ability we had to show all those runners what it means to put Christ’s love into action.

We shared how the money raised would be used for water purification systems for people we don’t even know. And this water that sustains the body will also be used to share the living water of Christ with those in need.

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 4:13‭-‬14 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/jhn.4.13-14.NASB

In true form I’m already thinking about the next event.

We only have a few short years here on the sphere to work on the mission.

Global Relief run 2018 1 John 4:19-20
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR

Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR
Global Relief run 2018, Rogers, AR

Faith, Life

Let us Love one Another, because Love is from God

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Simple truths found in 1 John 4:

  1. Love is from God
  2. Everyone who knows God will love
  3. Those who do not love, does not know God
  4. God is love
  5. Jesus came because God loved us
  6. If you say you love God but hate your neighbor, you are a LIAR!

“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.”
1 John 4:1‭-‬21 HCSB

I am currently reading:

Sharing Jesus (without freaking out)
Sharing Jesus (without freaking out): Evangelism the Way You Were Born to Do It