By This Shall All Men Know

During our Passover service earlier this year, I was really struck by Jesus' statement "by this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another".

Really? That's how the world will recognise the disciples of Jesus? Not by speaking in tongues, or miraculous healing, or charismatic preaching?

More recently I heard a minister explain it this way: the proof of God's Spirit working in us is in the fruit (found in Galatians 5:22) we bear, not in the gifts (listed in I Corinths 12:1-11) we receive.

Love (which is explained in I Corinthians 13) is the very first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22. Healing and speaking in tongues are gifts of the Spirit found in I Corinthians 12.

The love talked about by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 13 is far beyond a warm and fuzzy feeling. In fact, he told us that we could even "give our body to be burned", and yet NOT have true Godly love.

Real, Godly love

"suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away."

Jesus Christ never said anything that He didn't mean. Read the words above carefully - real love is hard. The question is, are we willing to make the sacrifice to become Jesus' followers? Are we willing to really love one another?

Do You Love God?

Really??

Do you believe in God? Do you trust Him? Do you love Him? More than your friends and family? The way He wants to be loved? Really? Really truly?

Jesus Christ who came to earth and died for our sins was the I AM of the Old Testament (He said so to the Pharisees in John 8:58) - the I AM who thundered to the Israelites in the wilderness and commanded them to kill those who had worshipped the golden calf (three thousand died that day - Exodus 32:27-28). This Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

So if you discovered that Easter and Christmas are pagan holidays, would you stop keeping them since God hates idolatry and pagan worship? Even if it really upset your sister? Or your kids? Or your husband? Are you sure you really love God? Or would you rather pretend to worship Him while enjoying the pagan rites of the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia?

What if you read in the Bible that it says that God hates lying - would you stop telling your kids about the tooth fairy? Even though it's "just for fun"? Would you?

If you discovered that the seventh day Sabbath was never changed or "done away with", would you give up Saturday football for God? Would you go to church then, even though your friends thought you'd gone a bit weird? Do you really love God?

Do you love God enough to read His whole Book? Without filters on? Not just bits and pieces but the whole lot, beginning to end - really paying attention to the details? Without finishing His sentences for Him, but reading what He is actually saying?

Do you love God enough to see you've been wrong and change? Do I? Because we've all been wrong and we've all got to change in some way. Do we really love God that much? If we don't ask ourselves that question, He will ask it for us some day. Are you ready for the answer?

I recommend watching God's Love Language to delve further into these questions.

The Hole

There's a hole in the world we keep trying to fill,

Yet though we all work with all of our will,
The wound in humanity festers there still,
It will keep growing and throbbing until,
We see that our power and all of our might
Can't turn pain into joy or the dark into light -
Though we cry and we groan and we fume and we fight
Though we call the sweet "bitter", and call the wrong "right".
We can't hold back the shadow, nor pour down the rain,
Though still we keep trying... again and again;
We won't defeat death, nor conquer all pain;
But yet each generation toils on in vain.
There's a hole in the world that we never can fill,
But our Maker can, if we yield to His Will,
The wounds in our hearts will fester until,
We choose to let go, to trust God and be still.

K Mihalec

If you're looking for the solutions that come from making God a part of your life, try reading the free booklet Making Life Work.

What Is Wrong Here?

A few months ago, a couple of news items caught my attention. One day I heard about the tragic death of a little boy hit by a train when he was playing on the railway tracks. The next day I heard that onlookers had rushed to the rescue of a swan being attacked by teenagers. The swan later died.

I am still overwhelmed with pain for the family of the young boy when I think about these two stories. People rushed to the rescue of the swan, but while witnesses had seen the child alone by the railway line, no one rushed to rescue the child. Some might argue that these events were sensationalised by the media and the news didn't tell the full story, but I have twice seen a frantic parent looking for a lost child and no one else helped - even though there were plenty of people around.

Truthfully, I am sickened and disgusted by this society that values an animal (with no thoughts or true feelings - values it so much that people will risk their own safety to protect it) above a human child created in the image of God. I am shocked that someone else's child in mortal danger is seen as none of our business. Shame on us!

If we keep on rejecting God's values and replacing them with our own, we will pay a terrible price in time. Just yesterday I read what that price will be in chapter 28 of the book of Dueteronomy in the Bible.

God put many laws in place to protect the weak and helpless. These were all part of the "golden rule" explained by Jesus Christ: "Love your neighbour as yourself" (and He then went on to explain through a parable that "neighbour" means everyone). I know what I would want others to do if they found my kid playing alone next to a train track - would I do the same?

We have a simple choice to make: will we start to live the give way, day by day; or will we insist that God prove His existence by pouring out the curses of Dueternomy 28 on us? Even now, the clock is ticking.

The First Thing

" Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

This is the simple formula for making every day work - no matter the circumstances: make connecting with God the first thing, and everything else will fall into place. That doesn't mean life will get easy - it means that when life gets hard, you'll get through - one step at a time.

By "first thing" I don't necessarily mean first in the day - I mean the most important. For a long time my Bible study habits were very hit and miss. The result was that my life was hit and miss. Now that I've made the point of putting God truly first each and every day (although there are certainly days when I drop the ball), I see His hand working in my life through the good and the bad. Like Romans 8:28 says:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

For me, "first thing" means I pray and study before I do household chores, or other reading, or the things that seem important to me. And so often that time with God leads me to rearrange my priorities for the day. Above all, it leads to a better day. A fuller, richer, more purposeful day.

If you haven't already - I challenge you to try it for yourself - put God first in your day and discover how much better life can be.

At Least She's Reading Something?

"At least she's reading something." I hear a lot of mums say, with a roll of their eyes when they talk about the books their kids are reading.

Then follows an awkward silence. I don't quite know what to say. I'm not familiar with the books they're talking about, but it gets me thinking. Does it matter what my kids read, as long as they're reading something? Are there books that I shouldn't let them read - even if it's the only thing they want to read?

The world of the mind is just as real and powerful as the world of the body. I have visited friends in hospital who were having serious hallucinations. Among the many lessons I learned from this, one that stood out was that the imaginary world has a lasting impact on us.

What do sick people have to do with what my eight-year-old is reading?

Just that the world of the mind that children (and adults) enter when they read is part of who they are. Scientists have recently discovered what God told us thousands of years ago in Proverbs 23:7 "as he thinks in his heart, so is he". (NKJV*) This is why early Christians were instructed in Phillipians 4:8, "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right ... think about such things". (NIV) Elsewhere, the Bible says in Ephesians 6:3 that certain things should "not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints".

Reading isn't valuable of and by itself but is a great tool for learning and growth. Like any tool, though, it can be mishandled, leading to destruction. If you gave a child a hammer and he used it to construct a nuclear weapon, you probably wouldn't say "at least he's building something."

Our children's minds are a defining aspect of who they are - more so than their bodies. A loving parent wouldn't let a child eat only junk food, so is it wise to let them constantly read "junk" books? No loving parent would knowingly let their child eat poison, so should we let our children poison their minds with something that makes (for example) hurting others (in any way - including lying, stealing, cheating, teasing...) seem OK?

I believe it's more important for me to keep track of what my kids are reading than it is to make sure they brush their hair and clean their teeth. Better to prevent a rotten mind than to try to cure it.

*All Bible references are from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted.

When God Lets Go

There have been a whole bunch of natural disasters happening around the world lately. Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes - you name it. Even the most ardent climate enthusiast would be hard-pressed to blame earthquakes and volcanoes on man-made climate change. So what is behind all the natural disasters?

It's at times like these that many people will ask "why is God doing this?" The suggestion is that only a very cruel God causes the innocent to die in earthquakes, floods, fires and storms.

But what if we tried looking at the universe in a different way? The Bible tells us that God's eternal power is clearly visible in His creation (Romans 1:19-20). One of the basic laws of science is the law of entropy - the law that states that the universe tends towards disorder. Not surprisingly, scientists have recently expanded on this law in order to explain the order that we see around us. How is it that we live in incredibly ordered bodies on an incredibly ordered planet in the midst of a universe apparently ruled by chaos?

Bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this! What if God is the reason for Order in a universe that tends towards chaos? What if God literally holds our world together? If you read the Bible carefully - especially the Psalms, then it all points toward God - not just putting things in place - but keeping things in place.

What might happen then, if we collectively told God to "go away"? What if we told God that we don't need Him and we don't want Him, we're just fine on our own, thank you very much. What if God took us at our word and let go - even just a little bit?

I can't prove it scientifically, but that's OK because science can't even explain to me how a series of complex molecules that apparently assembled all by themselves can give me the ability to reason and question my own existence. So I don't feel a need to justify the mind of God (as if I could anyway!) to Science.

I truly believe that what we see happening to our world is God letting go, just a little bit. The great Creator is letting us experience a tiny hint of "doing it on our own, thank you very much."

Personally, I won't be telling God to go away anytime soon. Considering that collective humanity hasn't even been able to control a puny little nuclear reactor in Japan, I don't fancy our chances with the whole universe. I'm happy to keep God squarely at the centre of my life.

If you'd like to know more about the God holding the universe together, try reading Does God Exist?