Tag Archives: love

Faith, Love, Thanksgiving

Christmas Gifts for those in need – #GoatFundMe

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For the past 3 years my family has received the Baptist Global Response (BGR) Christmas gift catalog by mail.

We started a tradition where I’ll give the catalog to my children and allow them to circle the gifts that they would like to purchase for those in need.

We like to do this with BGR because we generally get a letter back from them with stories about how our donation was used to help bless the people in the way that was represented in the catalog.

Because we own chickens of course one of the items we always purchase is chickens. And because it’s such a great need we also now add in water filtration systems. You may remember the Global Relief Run I directed with my local church last year was raising funds for water filtration.

It’s such an uplifting experience to get the letters back from BGR and to hear the stories of how these gifts are actually used.

I’d encourage each of you to take a look at the online gift catalog and select a gift or two to purchase this year. Make it a yearly tradition for you and your family.

BGR Christmas Gift Catalog link

BGR Christmas Gift Catalog
Love

Diversity of Hearing

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Achieving diversity of thought is important in many areas of life.

Many efforts are taken to create teams with diverse backgrounds and unique experiences to achieve diversity of thought.

Yet, the problem still remains that there is a lack of hearing and incorporating those thoughts.

The issue to face now is one of a need for diversity of hearing. And taking time to understand those unique perspectives and incorporating those thoughts into the fabric that is the team or community we live in.

This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
James 1:19‭-‬20 NASB

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.

Faith

You Can’t Have It Your Way. God Is Not Burger King

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Picking and choosing the attributes of God that fit your lifestyle is a dangerous practice.

God isn’t a customizable coffee beverage or burger that you can make your way. You don’t get to pick only the attributes you like and leave behind the ones you don’t.

God is love and God is holy. God is merciful and God is just. He will forgive our sins and He will punish us for sin. You can’t have one attribute without the other.

Punishment is required for sin and a just God will hand down punishment.

But Jesus took our punishment on Himself. For those who believe in Jesus we are forgiven. Believe in Him and receive that forgiveness.

God’s just and holy nature means we can’t be with Him and have sin ruling in our life. Yet God’s love gave us Jesus to remediate the sin found in us.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1‭-‬4 NASB

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Life, Love

Husbands, Love Your Wives

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Since it is Valentine’s Day week, we should take a second and review some instructions from Paul on how husbands are to love your wives.

Please add to this discussion in the comments and help your brothers out.

There is no “if your wife” qualification in these statements from Paul (quoted below).

Husbands, we are called to love our wives the same way Christ loved the church. That’s a big deal. Christ gave His life for the church. He didn’t just die on the cross for the church, He gave His life to and for the church.

What does that mean? It means that in life Christ nurtured the church through the Word and deeds with grace, truth and love. Even when He was rejected by His own (John 1).

If your wife doesn’t do her part, that is no reason not to do your part.

Men,

  • Love your wife even when you don’t feel loved
  • Love your wife when you are stressed at work
  • Love your wife when neither of you have time to clean the house
  • Love your wife when you get home from work and still need to mow the grass
  • Love your wife when Ramen noodles or Totino’s pizza is what’s for dinner
  • Love your wife when the finances are not in order

Love does not mean you always give in to her every request. It just means that you are kind and understanding and explain your reasoning when you sometimes don’t agree. And you do apologize or change your mind when she points out a flaw or an error in your reasoning. Even is she doesn’t reciprocate, you lead by example.

Your wife wants your attention when she speaks. Practice active communication techniques. Just as you do at work, show respect in your communications. I am not perfect on this either, so don’t think I’m pretending like I’ve achieved perfection on this. I fail at it.

Here is the main point, you lead by example. Be an example to your wife, to your sons and to your daughters. Show them what it means to be a husband living on Biblical principles.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.
Ephesians 5:25‭, ‬28‭-‬30 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/eph.5.25-30.NASB

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 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/1co.13.1-7.NASB

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Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately Needs