There was a wealthy peach grove owner who left his daughter acres and acres of fertile land. Each year the harvest was abundant, more than she could eat or sell. She chose to open the gates to the grove to those from her church, town, extended family, neighboring towns yearly to share the harvest. Some were grateful and respectful. Many vandalized the groves, took way more than needed, threw fruit on the ground, spit on the property, and cursed her for not providing for them year round. The daughter spent weeks to months cleaning up the damage they caused. Her father was deeply grieved by the excessive damage done to his property, gift to his daughter, and the damage to his daughter’s heart.
Local church people encouraged the girl to keep opening the gates because the hungry and needy were in desperate need of love. It was her responsibility to feed them. Though the local churches required money from the town’s people and paid no taxes, they were not feeding the people.
After years of opening the gates and suffering extreme damage, the father locked the gates. He sat down with his daughter and proclaimed, “The gifts and abundance I have given you were not solely to give away. I love and cherish you. It breaks my heart to see you treated this way. You do not owe everyone access to the groves. They were my gift to you. You must manage how you share what I have given you. I am not requiring you to be destroyed in the process of caring for other people. Keep the groves locked. During harvest time, let people know if there will be extra you will drop of what you feel led to give in your heart to the towns. They are not to set foot in the grove. This area is sacred and my gift to you. If they spit on your gift, shake the dust off your feet and do not return to that town. Steward the grove as though it has tremendous value, because it does. You have tremendous value to me.”
The daughter followed her father’s instructions and apologized to him for not stewarding well his gift to her. She kept the grove locked. When she gathered excess from the harvest, she took it to various towns. If they were hostile, entitled, ungrateful or abusive…she shook the dust off her feet and did not return. Her peach grove grew to be even more abundant because she did not spend weeks to months rebuilding what people destroyed. She ceased trusting the local church people who were exploiting the people rather than helping them. She kept the grove guarded! She flourished under the guidance of her father.
Moral of the story: Guard your heart, giftings, resources from God. You do not owe everyone access. Poor stewardship can destroy you! God cares about you and how people treat you. God bless.
Love in Christ,
Erin L. Lamb
CEO & Founder of Lamb Enterprises LLC and Operation God is Love
Maybe you have heard someone say to you that God does not care about your tears, He’s only concerned with your faith. I heard that growing up and it did something to my view of God. I believed all I needed to do was muster up enough faith and God would be so proud of me. If I was sad, hurt, damaged, or needed to cry-God was unconcerned. He was shouting from His throne, “Pick yourself up by your bootstraps and forge on in faith. Your feelings are meaningless to me. All I care about is you believe what I say.” God was impersonal and cold. God was unconcerned and task driven. God cared about my performance and not my heart.
Guess what? Believing a lie about God damages the way we view God and blocks intimacy with God. My response when hurting was to remove God from my emotions and handle them by myself. I also learned to bury sadness and live numb. I ran across Christians similar to myself who were shamed for crying, shamed for feeling anything but powerful, made to feel inferior because their faith did not change all their feelings. Instead of running to God, there was a wall erected. Their humanity is reduced to acts of religious duty, pretending to have it all together, throwing scripture on every problem.
You’ve kept track of all my wandering and my weeping. You’ve stored my many tears in your bottle—not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in your book of remembrance.-Psalm 56:8 (TPT).
The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and he is always ready to restore the repentant one,-Psalm 34:18 (TPT).
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.-Isaiah 25:8 (ESV)
“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.”-God (Isaiah 38:5)-ESV.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.-John 11:33.
Jesus wept.-John 11:35.
Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.-1 Peter 5:7 (ESV).
There are plenty of scriptures where God responded to the hurting and promised that those who go forth in weeping, would come back with joy. He promised to wipe the tears from our faces. He promised to be close to the brokenhearted. God is not cold. God is not off put by emotions.
God cares about your feelings and my feelings. God also cares about faith. I believe it’s an act of faith to run to God instead of away from Him in times of pain. It requires faith to allow God into the pain versus trying to do it oneself. To turn to God when we are hurting, when we don’t understand, and in grief, is a sign of trust.
I want people to run to God and cry it out if necessary. It does not make you weak or faithless. Jesus had perfect faith and shed tears. I honestly hope one day the traditions of misrepresenting God fall by the wayside and people encounter God as is, not as humans have presented God to be.
God cares about you.
God cares about what damages your heart, mind, body, and emotions.
God is close to the brokenhearted and cares about every detail of your life.
My encouragement is run to God with what hurts you and trust that God cares. My other encouragement is do not ignore your emotions. Emotions are indicators. Process them. Tend to them. Forgo stuffing them. Throwing scriptures at them may not remove them. It may require sitting with God and/or someone training in soul health to process through the pain.
I have spent the past 8 years helping people with soul wounds process their pain. Every time God is invited to help them, God responds. There is more kindness in God than there is in humans. There is more compassion in God than in humans. God is far better at caring about people than we are. Sadly the religious and humans who claim to know God have grossly misrepresented Him.
They say one of the most certain things is change. I can agree that life can present a set of unpredictable events that change the course of life for us. We can imagine one trajectory and in a split second life shifts us to something new.
I had a conversation with my financial advisor last week and she asked me where I envisioned myself 10 years ago, today, and 10 years in the future. What a loaded question. I had to journey back through the events of the past ten years and one phrase that stood out for me was “I survived.” Ten years ago I was focused on survival and overcoming all the challenges. I was not focused on thriving. My life centered around survival and service to the church. I, on several occasions, put myself last in service to the Christian church. No matter how poorly I was treated at times I kept loving and serving. I was in place of being pressured to persevere, forgive, and keep loving-even if it was negatively impacting my mental health.
There are rounds of applause in Christianity when you sacrifice yourself on the altar of of the church. Who doesn’t love a good martyr? Put yourself last, never think of your needs, and if you break down then you must have a low level of faith. It was largely ignored the 80-85% of the congregation who were spiritual consumers. They would show up week after week with their needs, wants, prayer requests, and then frolic off into the sunset under the umbrella of your intercession. Nothing more was asked of them or required. As long as they showed up, they could be the “entertain me, coddle me, make me feel good,” congregation. You, the unpaid service to the church, better show up early to set up and do it with a smile for the Lord. You better fast and pray. You better turn the other cheek. You better serve with joy because it’s for Jesus.
What I learned is everything done at churches is not for Jesus. It’s for the church and those two entities are not always aligned, especially in Western culture. What Jesus required of people was far different. He told people, “Go OUT into the world and let them see who I am through your love, light, and sharing of the Gospel.” Jesus told His followers to be active in their love, devotion and service of one another. This differs from the current model of 10-20% of the congregants do 100% of the work and the rest show up to take and add no value. The church is referred to in the Gospels as a body. If my natural body only has a few organs working, it will atrophy, be less effective or ineffective, and potentially die.
The winds of change shifted me from giving all I had to the organized church to taking better care of my mental and emotional health, my family, my career, and my overall well-being. Christians broke me of killing myself for them while they were consuming everything they could without depositing much or anything at all. They would suck any life they could out of me and then some became angry when I was not eager to be their Jesus substitute. I was expected to trust God to meet my needs, while they (some) relied on me to meet theirs. I recognized the inequity and I was not in a body that the disciples described. I was in the colonized “Christianity model” where it centered on taking from people and building spiritual empires.
I will note I have two small circles of Christian women who mutually invest, they have been a blessing. I have two-three Christian men as friends. That’s a handful of people and I have interacted with thousands of Christians in my lifetime. Overall 80-85% of the Christians I have interacted with in my life have been consumers, users, apathetic, unhelpful, unkind, or just seeking me for some form of ministry to their needs. I have not encountered the love of Jesus through them. It’s NOT what Jesus modeled or taught His followers to be.
I woke up one day desiring change…Sometimes we change because we are forced to do so! Sometimes we change or transition because it’s too painful to remain the same.
2018 forced me out of my career supporting the US Military. It also forced plenty of church friends out of my life. 2019 changed the course of my trajectory as I stepped back into corporate with a new industry. It felt like starting all over again and I am still learning. 2020 forced me to examine my mostly silent approach to racism in the church and the political spirit that is quite notably aligned with the Pharisees. It cost me more than I expected to use my voice, yet I don’t regret it. Black lives matter and I don’t care if people exit my life because I said it. I did not vote for Trump and will not in 2024. I don’t care if I lose more people over that choice either. More church friends exited my life because I chose to wear face masks to honor the sick and those who could be impacted by COVID. 2021 changed my life with my father moving closer to us to help him with a not great health prognosis. 2022 changed the trajectory of my life as I stepped into a leadership role with 8 direct reports/staff in my corporate job.
The twists and turns have taught me the following…
God will see me (us) through any storm.
The organized church is not Jesus and sadly fails to represent Him well (esp in social justice crisis), even when they think or say they do. My greatest prayer is the earthly church aligns with Jesus of Nazareth. We have a ways to go.
I am here on earth to bring about change, not fit in with the culture.
I am okay with losing people and people hating me.
God works all things together for good if we love and follow.
Change can be painful and cause grief-grieve the expectations of something different.
A seed must die for something new to be reborn.
The people who truly love me, the person, not Erin the mentor/minister/helper, are not going anywhere!
Queens turn pain into power.
Though change can be unsettling, it’s often necessary.
God never intended our lives be cycles of endless suffering.
God ordained connections are mutually life-giving.
God expects we will take care of ourselves.
I don’t owe the church my life nor every professing Christian.
It’s possible to be comfortable with something or someone who is holding us back.
I end with a positive note to you: Change is inevitable. In order to move forward and to become our best selves, it will involve change. A river that does not move becomes stagnant and stale. Some changes may break your heart and then align your destiny. I am certain the cross hurt Jesus. Betrayal hurt Jesus. His transformation was necessary. So is yours. So is mine. I am not stating we will all suffer greatly for greatness to emerge from us. I am stating that it’s okay to adjust your sails and allow the winds of change to carry you the next destination. Life is an adventurous journey.
Peace is not the absence of a storm or adversity. Peace comes in the presence of Christ. He is the one the winds and waves still obey. If He does not calm the storms around us, He calms the storms within us.
An encouragement I sensed from Jesus for the world. Certainly weigh it, test it against the word of God and character of God. Shalom.
“Beloved, I have come that you may have peace. Peace that surpasses your understanding. It will fill your heart and mind as you trust in Me. I love you and I am not unprepared nor unqualified to care for you in any and all circumstances. I am the Alpha and Omega. I have stood with My people through plagues, severe persecutions, wars, and turmoil since they began. I am the one who has the superior wisdom and all power.
I am the one who is speaking above the storms. The media cannot be your source. Sink into My word, My words, and surrender your fears at My feet. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. I disarmed every principality and power, spirits of wickedness in high places. I hold all authority. The Father and I still hold ALL power! We have never been defeated.
Do not allow the evil one to rob you of the peace and joy I paid to give you. Listen, listen, listen…turn your ears to heaven. Lift your voices to heaven. Turn your heart to worship. Worship is war song. It reminds the evil one that he has been defeated. When you worship in spirit and in truth it recalibrates your atmosphere, your soul, and body. We do not encourage worship out of ego. The Father and I know that worship releases heaven in your realm. There is no sickness, death, fear, or sorrow in heaven.
The Lord your God is all powerful. You do not need beg for help. Those who are united with Me through faith come BOLDLY before our throne of grace in times of need. It is your inheritance. I AM your provider. I AM your healer. I AM your peace. I AM your joy. I AM the all sufficient one. I AM your Deliverer.
Break your agreement with the spirits of fear and anxiety and command that spirit to FLEE! Your inheritance is peace despite the circumstances.
Those united with Me will bear fruit in every season. You are not defeated nor backed into a corner unless you come into agreement with the defeated one. I defeated him. I defeated death, hell, and the grave.
Lay down the idols that cannot save you. Place your trust in Me. Some trust in their bank accounts, their leaders, themselves, their spouse, their pastors, their military, yet behold only those who place fully in God will see themselves rise above the storm instead of sink into despair and poverty.
I have the power to take what you have and multiply it! I still have the power to send provision from heaven and call it from the sea. We are still working miracles.
Break up any seeds planted of unbelief. Your faith opens up a realm of the supernatural. Let your faith rise above the storm. Speak what heaven is speaking. Do not come into agreement with the reports of mankind. Mankind sees in part and knows in part. I SEE all, KNOW all, and stand ABOVE it all.
We have listened to mankind cry out for revival, yet leaned on their own strengths and agendas. We will do it our way. We will pour out glory over neighborhoods and communities. We will transform hearts and not a single person will hold the glory. Idols will fall. Demonic systems will fall. Religious systems not built on the foundation of My Kingdom will fall. My Kingdom will remain.
Those who worship in spirit and truth will see things in their day they could not even imagine. The trumpet has been blasting for years to turn, ‘Turn back to God.’ Mankind in their rebellion built monuments and idols to worship. Those idols cannot save!!! They cannot save.
I sent spokesmen and spokeswomen to blast the trumpet, ‘Turn from these idols. They seek to destroy you.’ Many were ignored. The earth began to shake and quake under the demonic idols of the land. For the evil one seeks to devour your world. He has been after worship since pride entered his heart. Mankind’s agreement gave him authority. I took back that authority and gave it to the sons and daughters of God.
I am not punishing the world. The demons beyond the idols are exercising the rights they have been given through human worship and human agreement to attack the world. When times are good, many sons and daughters of Adam turn their faces from us, ‘Who needs God?’ They blatantly sin and mock the precepts of God. Oh yet when crisis falls upon the earth, the same some ones cry out, ‘Where is God? Why did God allow this? Help us God!’
We are merciful. We hate to see the world suffer. Creation is groaning and crying out for the sons and daughters of God to arise to be light, to shine our light into the darkness. I tap on the shoulders and hearts of My friends and children of God to participate in My agenda for the world. Some ignore Me. Some buck the words of the Father in pursuit of self comfort and selfish ambition. My heart cries out ‘Wake up!!! A storm is coming. Wake up! The world needs what we placed inside you. Do not go to sleep.’ Some hear Me. Some ignore Me. Yet I stand in truth, love, mercy, and justice seeking whomever will listen and turn.
Turn to Me, I love you. Bring your heart to Me, I love you. Lay down your idols, your busyness, your selfish ambition, and listen. Seek first the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is advancing. Come into agreement and alignment with heaven. Heaven is speaking. Heaven is pursuing you. I am pursuing you. Look at Me! Will you listen and turn your heart to Me? Turn, turn, turn! My heart is here looking for your full heart. Come to Me!! COME!”
May you and I turn to God and surrender. God is speaking to turn. There can be idols in Christian culture. The things and people that are clung to and trusted more than God. Let’s turn. God alone saves. Turn from idols of busyness, self, selfish ambition, comfort, pleasure, people, politics, worship of ministry/ministers/church/family, entertainment, and anything else. May the reverence for the Lord return to us.
God you alone are God. May we find our identity, security, and comfort in you! Please forgive us for choosing any other god. They cannot save. Jesus is LORD! And His Kingdom will reign for ever and ever!!
It is quite easy to be critical and judge. It is so easy to throw stones at other people and not see the plank in our own eyes. Why? We see in part and know in part. We can think we know and know nothing. God does not simply see the behaviors of humanity; God sees why people do what they do.
How many of you have been harmed greatly by someone who seemed to not get what the problem is? How many of you have been harmed by a professing Christian? Ah, it stings a bit more when they claim to love Jesus and do not love others right? Yet there is a part of the puzzle God sees that we may not. God sees how much of His love they have actually received. We can only give away what we possess.
We tell people to love God and others. “Love God, love others, love yourself last.” This mantra has led to loads of dysfunctional and sometimes codependent relationships. “I will love myself last and God will be so proud.” Well, it sounds noble. The problem is that is it is not biblical.
The Bible says we love because God first loves us (1 John 4:19). The starting point is God. God is love (1 John 4:8).
God is the source of agape (unselfish, sacrificial, unwavering love). This love is the highest of all loves. It trumps eros (romantic/sexual), philia (brotherly love), and storage (family love). Jesus stated His disciples would be known by their agape love (John 13:34-35). This love is the 1 Corinthians 13 type of love.
The next step is receiving God’s love, then giving that love back to God and loving our neighbor AS we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). We will not be able to love God or our neighbor if we do not FIRST RECEIVE agape from God. “God here I am in need of your love, help me to receive the fullness of your love for me,” is a great starting prayer.
It is so vital that we learn how to receive love from God and believe God loves us.
Our thoughts matter! We will not out behave our thought life. Those who think they are the scum of the earth tend to treat others poorly. Those who have not fully accepted they are profoundly loved and accepted by God tend to struggle with loving God, themselves, and others. Your greatest adversary lacks God love. The person who mistreated or abused you lacked God love. The people who dishonored you, they lacked God love.
We cannot give away what we do not possess.
When we move beyond judging behavior to recognizing the root, compassion fills our heart. We move from being critical to praying the other person knows intimately the height, depth, width, and vast expanse of God’s love. We can only reveal to others the God we know. We can only honor others when we have experienced His honor and approval.
When people ask “How could you sit with the homeless, they are so dirty and gross?” I think, “How could I not? I see someone God created with great love. Under all the dirt, is a treasure.” I can honor what society calls, “The least of them,” because I know how much God loves me. If I were dirty and on the streets, I would anticipate God sending someone to love me. I am greatly loved, so are they, and so are you.
Jesus was able to move in high levels of compassion because He was one with the Father. He was not led by His flesh. Jesus knew how greatly He was loved, therefore He could take the lowest place. He could honor the least, last, lost, sinners, and lepers of society because He knew His worth. Those who do not know their own worth or value will not be able to see yours or anyone else’s.
One of the greatest revelations I had from God regarding people was during a season I was being grossly mistreated by Christians. God spoke to my heart, “People will not treat you any better than they treat me. People can not give you what they do not possess.” I recognized in that moment people say they love God, yet if you observe them, some do not honor, cherish, respect, obey, listen to God, etc… For some people, God is their sugar daddy or fire insurance. Loving God to gain something from Him is not loving God.
You can tell quite a bit about how a person feels about themselves by how they treat other people.
You can also gain insight into how people will treat you if you look at how they treat God. If God is only pursued to gain something, that is how they will treat you.
I am learning not to take things personally. How people behave, myself included, is a reflection of the inner condition. Those who know they are loved, love well. Those who try to “fake it til they make it,” tend to hurt tons of people because their love is shallow or deficient.
Before we throw stones, get offended, or hurt by people, pause. Press pause and ask God for His view point of the person, situation, and what is not as visibly seen.
I had a friend chat with me about missing friend gatherings. More than my introversion, there is normally a reason aligned with everything I say no to. Instead of taking on offense, he asked me about it and we talked. His heart grew with compassion.
The evil one will tell you to judge, jump to conclusions, criticize people, be nasty, look for all the things the other person is doing that could be wrong. Love moves us deeper into compassion. Maybe, most likely, there is something more going on than meets the eye.
May you and I sink deeper into compassion. It is a fruit of God’s love.
“…when he (Jesus) saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd,”-Matthew 9:36.
I hope to release book 4, Killing Insecurity, either later this year or 2021! I hope it leads many into freedom. God longs to see us live bold, confident, and FREE!!
Love,
Erin Lamb
P.S You can support our mission to love the homeless, poor, and victims of human trafficking by supporting our new merch store. Go to empoweredandfreemerch.com.
I had the honor of interviewing author James Michel. James has an incredible story of overcoming adversity.
Tell us about yourself and what prompted you to write this book? My name is James Michel. I am a believer of Jesus Christ. I am also a husband and a father. About 3 years ago I lost my first wife unexpectedly to cancer. During my grieving process, I felt compelled to share my story in the form of a book. “Perplexed But Not in Despair: My Spiritual Journey from Faith to Functional” is a testament of her life that has been sown, a legacy for my children, and a testimony of God’s redemptive power.
What has the book writing process been for you? Honestly, painfully rewarding! Painful in the sense that I had to discipline myself to take the thoughts in my head and put them into words on paper. Despite these challenges, it has been a rewarding process, because of the fact that I believe the finish product could be a source for hope and comfort to many. What would be your advice to those who have an untold story to tell? Do it for the one! Your story could very well be the key that unlocks someone else’s destiny. Also, don’t be overly concerned about everything being perfect. There are a lot of resources out there to help you write a book with excellence.
What would you say is the major take away of your book? The ALL-sufficent power of God to redeem every situation. God’s grace carried me through the darkest season of my life, and took my faith to new heights.
What do you want readers to walk away with after reading your book? My prayer and hope is that every reader would encounter the Love and the Faithfulness of God through the pages of my book. I pray that they would be challenged to engage their faith life even harder.
Has writing this book been a part of your healing journey? If so, how? Very much so! It forced me to sort out and process my emotions. It challenged me to ask questions I wouldn’t normally ask, self reflect on a deeper level, and find peace in the answers. What has God done in your heart and life since you started writing this book? Having had the opportunity to journal and as a result write this book, I am now experiencing a deeper peace and intimacy with God. I’ve had my Job moment- “My ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you (Job 42:5).”
Part of your book speaks about “Functional Faith,” what does this mean for your reader? The Bible says, “without Faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6)”. A Functional Faith to me is a faith that works in the middle of hard times. A faith that is fully persuaded of the love and faithfullness of God. A faith that is content in simply knowing who God is. I think Job said it best when he said, “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him (Job 13:15).”
How will this book help those who are going through hard seasons and loss? God is no respector of person. What He’s done for me, He’s more than willing to do it for another. It is my prayer that as others read my book, their sense of hope will be renewed. It doesn’t have to be the end! What advice would you offer readers? Don’t lose hope no matter what! Trust God! Believe that ALL things can work for good and God’s glory.
How can people get a copy of your book? Or reach you? It’s super easy! People interested in reading my book can order a copy from Amazon. All feedback and questions can be sent to James@generation228@yahoo.com
Thank you James for sharing with our readers about your new book! I believe it will encourage them to cling to God in every season!
You can connect with James in person on March 6th in Columbus, Ohio at his book launch event.
James Michel Book Launch-March 6th, 2020. 6:30pm. Zion Christian Church. 5780 Baltimore Reynoldsburg Road NW, Pickerington, Ohio 43147.
Jesus had deep friendships with women. A note to Christian men-it is normal & godly to love someone of the opposite gender without romantic intentions & to be loved in return with agape love.
Chatting with women and my own experiences with Christian men we all have had some bad experiences with men who either act weird, or do not love well. Love is focused only on the woman they want to marry or their biological family.
There is the guy who constantly has to say, “sister in Christ.” I confronted a guy in love once who was excessive saying that to me. I asked him, “Do you keep saying that because you think I want to date you? If so, you can stop. I have no such desire.”
I spoke to a lady where men would not even look her in the eye. She was avoided. This caused deep hurt. Why? Because in Christian community it is supposed to be more like a family than an organization. Imagine going to a family gathering and people avoided you, would not talk to you, ghosted you, refused to have any godly contact, they reminded you often they only talked to you because you are related.
I had a guy tell everyone but me I was trying to date him simply because I periodically encouraged him in the Lord because that is what the Bible said to do. It was not fun when I found out. I stopped trying to have Christian men as friends for a long time. God blessed me later with a few men who could give and receive agape love without being weird, suspicious, or immature. It healed so much and taught me so much about the love of God through a man.
Yes, have some boundaries. Also note Jesus did this well, so it can be done. My suggestions.
1. You can make eye contact and say hello.
2. Don’t assume every person of the opposite gender is interested romantically. Our culture is kind when they want something or to date. It is not that way in God’s Kingdom.
3. Before you leap to conclusions pray. “God how do I need to relate to this person?”
4. Ditch fear. More people have been wounded by fear than anything else. There is no fear in God love.
5. Understand no one can make you sin. It is possible to love with God’s love and not fall into sin if you choose to let God deal with the heart.
6. If you have an issue with lust, get deliverance. Lust is an internal issue.
7. If you think a woman is interested in you, pray (do this first) and ask God for His counsel-not everyone in the church. Treat that person how you would want to be treated. It may warrant an adult conversation or better boundaries. Please refrain from gossip, ghosting (just ignoring the person). It is not loving.
I have talked to several men in my lifetime. “Hey, what’s on your mind or heart about this connection?” Asking questions is better than assuming. Some people are just loving, kind, generous or friendly. If a guy states he is looking for a wife, we talk like adults. Intentions are shared and hearts are spared from mistreatment. Some we are still friends. I simply let them know my heart and intentions. Communication is vital.
If you are not romantically interested, it is still possible to love. Jesus loved women well! Gosh, He elevated women. I also believe for those who want to be married, learning to love women in a non eros (romantic) way will help you greatly in life.
I confess I have made associations with non Christian men because they related to me better, treated me better, did not act weird, and treated me like a person not a virus. We can, I think, do better in this area. 🙂
The dying AIDS patient who deepened my awareness of God’s love…
I have this thing with Jesus where if He asks me to do something, my heart melts under the weight of His love. I find Him mostly irresistible. Often He calls me to do things my base personality probably would not run towards. Like the day I met John (not his real name). John was covered in sores (scabbed over), dying, and sad. I stopped for John and tears filled his eyes as he told me there was no hope for him. The way he lived, the diagnosis, no hope. I felt led to pull John into my arms and hug him. Tears flowed freely from his eyes.
Could I be contaminated by John, sores covering his body, tears and saliva flowing? It did not matter in that moment. What mattered was John feeling the deep embrace of God. “John God sees you and loves you. Your life matters greatly to God. John there is always hope with Jesus.”
That day with John wrecked me. Who wanted to touch John? Most people avoided eye contact with Him. God wanted to touch John. There is no fear in love. I have attempted to love many people in my lifetime who could not see God’s love or responded poorly to love. Yet love (God) keeps calling me to love.
So my encouragement is abide in the one who is love, Jesus. When you do, love will FLOW out of you in abounding ways. No striving, abide in Him (cultivate intimacy with God). It won’t matter if you are highly introverted, or not into loving strangers. He will love through YOU! God is simply looking to love the world and it starts with me and you!
My prayer is our hearts receive more of God’s love and we give it away! The world needs love, love, love!!!
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy,~Hebrews 1:9.
God is not stuffy, stoic, nor boring. God knows how to celebrate and have a good time. Pleasure was God’s idea; sin perverted pleasure and a religious/Pharisee spirit tries to dampen any fun with God. God is fun. There is more pleasure and enjoyment in God than anything He created.
I used to examine people who got so excited about God in wonder…until I got to know God for myself. Knowing God elevated my joy quotient significantly. Knowing God has been the greatest joy of my life. Words do not adequately express the beauty, majesty, and mystery of God.
What if I don’t feel joy?
Joy is not a feeling based on what is happening. It is an overflow of abiding in the One who is joy. Jesus stated plainly that abiding in Him brings forth abounding fruit. That is why we can go through a challenging season and still have joy. Paul wrote many celebratory letters from prison. God is good even when life is not going the way we desire. Focusing on who God is, takes the focus off our momentary sorrows.
Paradise is not just a place. It is a person. God is pure JOY. In His presence as the Psalmist proclaimed is the fullness of joy.
You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand,~Psalm 16:11.
Including part of my devotion this morning. My hopes are that joy bubbles up out of your spirit! God loves you and being with God bring joy.
Devotion Excerpt:
“Go back as far as you can in prerecorded history, back to the dawn of the universe, and there you’ll find joy. The Creation is characterized by celebration (Job 38:6-7; Proverbs 8:22-31). Turning to the time of the New Testament, Christ is characterized by joy (John 8:29; 15:11). In the parable of the lost son, heaven in the present is characterized by joy, feasting, music, and dancing (Luke 15:11-32). Finally, looking forward to the future, John shows us a picture of heaven (Revelation 19:6-9). It will be a feast, where the people shout, “Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory!” (verse 7).
The story of faith begins and ends in joy. And in between, there is joy. Joy permeated Paul’s life, even in the place you would have least expected it—in prison (see the book of Philippians). For more than twenty centuries, Christians have been exhibiting joy. There have been sad, even morose, Christians, to be sure. But the ones who have inspired us have been marked by joy…
Anyone who gets in touch with God gets in touch with joy. All true joy is derivative. It doesn’t originate from the world. It doesn’t originate from us. It originates from him. And when we get close to him, it rubs off,”~from the Marked by Joy devotion on YouVersion
There was man who prayed and prayed for blessings. He was defeated and poor. He cried out to God to bless him each day.
God heard his cry and began to send people to bless the man. He was suspicious of their kindness and refused help. He did not trust love, especially from someone he did not know.
One day God sent a stranger along the man’s path with a box, and inside was a bag of uncut diamonds. It was worth 77 million dollars.
The stranger approached the man during his lunch time meal. “Is your name John?” The man grumbled, “Yes!” He was frustrated because he could not see all the times/ways God tried to bless him.
The stranger asked to sit with him. John was already irritated and wanted nothing to do with the stranger. He was busy. His lunch break was only a half hour. He had people to see, things to do.
The stranger sensed John’s hesitation. “John, I know you are a busy man. I don’t want to take up much of your time. God sent me here to you to deliver this box.” John replied, “Can you just leave the box and GO! I am busy. I have work to do. I work 3 jobs just to pay my bills.”
The stranger honored the wishes and left the box. He walked away; John dismissed the box. He ate his lunch murmuring and complaining. “Why would God interrupt my lunch for this?! He knows I only have 30 minutes of peace.”
John’s attitude stunk like the garbage in the bin behind him. He never thought of the interruption as a potential blessing. He never saw the stranger as a gift. He saw him as a nuisance.
John opened the box before returning to his shift. “Rocks! God gave me a bag of rocks. Is this a joke?!!!” John was angry. He shoved the bag in his case and went back to work.
Years passed and John continued to pray and murmur against God.
God sent the stranger back to John. “It’s you again,” John exclaimed with roughness. “Yes, I am here for the bag I gave you. If you have no use for them, we have someone else who wants them.” “Sure take these stupid rocks.” John went into his room and pulled the bag out, brushed off the dust, and threw them at the stranger. “Thank you John. This bag of uncut diamonds worth 77 million dollars is going to help someone else.”
John stood there stunned and ashamed. For years he lived in poverty while millions of dollars sat in his bottom drawer collecting dust.
The stranger said to John, “For years God has been sending people to help you and you refused help. You were curt with me and so busy that you missed provision. I was sent to give you instructions on what you had been given and you dismissed me. Therefore, you forfeited your blessing. The lady several streets over has a great need and God told me she would listen and use these diamonds for good. John, God loves you. The lesson is to not dismiss something because you do not understand. Seek God for wisdom. Every interruption or person who wants to help you is not the devil. I hope you are you blessed. These diamonds were a gift to me from my father and I asked God for someone to give them to. I have more than enough. God sent me first to you. He chose you and you relinquished your blessing. Mary, the woman who will receive part of my inheritance will never have to work again. Good day John and God bless you.”
As the stranger walked away, John wept. He was so busy trying to make it by himself that he missed God.
It’s so easy to look with the eyes of the flesh and miss God. God works through people. God does set up divine interruptions. It is possible to miss what God is doing because we are so busy judging by what our natural eyes see. Wisdom pulls us deeper to say, “God give me your eyes and help me to walk in the Spirit of God not my flesh. God show me what you are doing? Is this you God?”
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out-Prov 25:2.
I asked God to be a benefactor and partner with Him to bless the world. I cannot tell you how many people have forfeited what God wanted to give them through me because they did not recognize nor value the packaging. One minister I had thousands to offer them, they behaved so poorly and were so full of pride, “I don’t need any help.” I gave their gift to someone else. Treat people with respect, honor, dignity because it’s the right thing to do. Also understand you may be entertaining a person on assignment from heaven to bless you. Some have entertained angels unaware.
Keep your eyes open in 2020 for the blessings of God. It may not come in the way you expect.
God=Love 