Life, Love, and Letting Go - Part 3

This the last part in my mini-series. I hope that you enjoy this and that these three posts have impacted your life in some way.

If you go up to a smoker and tell him to quit because it is slowly killing him, the smoker usually will laugh and shrug off your caring comment without any conviction whatsoever. So why should Pastors get away with simply telling people that they should just stop sinning?

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT promoting sin or smoking but I am trying to make a point, so hang with me. :)

No smoker quits "cold-turkey", or right away. It is a process that is slow, long, and painful. Smokers get so caught up in the "habit" of smoking that breaking that habit is extremely hard and most of them start on the Journey of Stopping and fail due to discouraging/negative thoughts like "I can't do this."

Similarly, many sins can become so habitual that they are hard to conquer. But isn't it kind of necessary? Think about it, when you sin you feel the rush of rebelling and it feels good, almost like an accomplishment, for a few short seconds. Then the reality of your recently committed sin smacks you like a heavy weight champion and you're floored by the weight of your misstep.

Oops.

Romans 6:19 (MESSAGE) says it pretty well.

"...You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?"

Okay, so on one hand we have a carefree lifestyle where anything goes and on the other hand we have a life of rules and standards that are very high set and seem almost impossible to the poor newbie. BUT! The lifestyle that has no worries or rules slowly suffocates you like a boa and the one with strict rules and high standards becomes easier and more free as time passes. Which one do you choose?

I understand more than most that breaking old habits and tough sins is like a bed of roses, sounds easy until you get deeper in and realize the thorns HURT! But fear not, there is a bonus to the harsh struggle of overcoming sin, you get to live the life that GOD wants you to live. That's right he has a blue-print of your future and although you begun to deviate from the plan, He is ready to tear down the hunk-of-junk you built and rebuild you a mansion that he will be more than happy to abide within!

"But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master."

Romans 6:22-23

Life, Love, and Letting Go - Part 2

One could talk about the love between a man and a woman, or the love between man and God, but I want to talk about the love between man and his neighbor.

"Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."

-John 13:34-35

This passage introduces what is known as the 11 Commandment. Jesus gives us the simple task of loving one another... no, I take that back, it's the difficult task of loving one another. Why is so hard? Ask yourself.

Why don't I get along with everybody around me?

Why do I see people as people and not potential children of God?

Have I missed opportunities to witness to someone because I didn't like them?

The reason why is it so hard to get along with or even love our neighbors is because we humans have the natural ability to blow up the smallest situations into World War III. Take this for example:

You lend your neighbor a hammer so he can help his wife hang shelves and pictures as they remodel their living room. He keeps the hammer for a week or so and you wonder where it is. You ask him what happened and he claims it is lost and he is looking for it. Really, he accidentally threw it away with the packaging for his new shelves and it is now sitting in a smelly junk yard outside of town. You scream and yell and before you know it you're filing for a ridiculous lawsuit of $30 to replace the hammer.

I am not saying that you should go over and kiss your neighbor and I am surely not promoting creepers, but I am saying that it wouldn't hurt to give your neighbor a complement or get to know them beyond their imperfections. Trust me it isn't easy, I have been in situations where I was hurt or disgusted by a person and I lost the opportunity to witness to them. Don't miss the chance to change someone's life.

Who knows? You might get the next Billy Graham saved!

Someday soon I will post the third part to this series "Letting Go"

Life, Love, and Letting Go - Part 1

Conflict is a struggle. Good versus bad. Right against wrong. Hero fighting villain. But why does it have to play into our lives? Why must we endure the negative effects of conflict? Why does God allow us to go through the many hardships of life?

First, let me say that I know that life is NOT a bed of roses. It has never been one for me and I doubt it ever will... so long as I live on earth. However, I do know that there are moments of sweet serenity that I spend with God and these short moments get me through my stressful days. Life is often like a roller coaster that never ends. There are high points of joy and excitement, rises of anxiety, falls of fear, and low points of sorrow or disappointment. One can really enjoy life or one can really hate it. Whether or not you enjoy life is up to you.

Some people enjoy life but never look to the true life or the eternal life. I believe in watching what I do on earth that I might join my Father and my Savior in Heaven for eternity. I have had to sacrifice of myself (such as my time, energy, or sinful interests) to be sure of this future unity and I will sacrifice more for him in the years to come. Jesus spoke in Matthew 19:29 about this sacrifice.

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

This doesn't mean that the only way to heaven is by leaving your family and children, but it gives an example. To follow God is to lay down your earthen life and all the things you wanted to do to take up the cross of Christ and follow in His plan for your life. At first it sounds like a bummer, but if you stick to his plan you will find that it is much greater than your wildest scheme!

I will talk about Love in my next post and you can make a guess about the subject of the post to follow that one!