Love - Watch Out

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to take a small detour from talking about the attributes of love to issue a warning about our study.  Over the last couple of weeks, I have had more opportunities to be unloving than I can remember in the last year.

For instance, just this morning I was sitting in Starbucks reading and going through my daily routine.  When I got done, I had to take my SUV over to get the air conditioner fixed.  While I was driving through downtown Fort Worth, I turned onto a street and pulled up a little and stopped (I was playing Pokemon Go).  When I did, the lady behind me honked her horn at me for stopping.  Now she couldn't see me so she has no idea I did this but I immediately said something ugly to her.  Why?  Because the devil doesn't want me to learn to really walk in love.

He met someone 2,000 years ago who walked in perfect love all the days of his life, Jesus.  Guess what, the devil couldn't touch him because perfected Love was Jesus' shield and protection.  Love is another name for God and he was walking in perfect God all the days he was here and it protected Him.  Now I am not saying we are going to be perfect because we miss the mark sometime.  But what I am saying is that the more we walk in Love, the more impact we have on this earth.

Jesus walk was so different that it impacted the people around Him long before he ever died on the cross for our sins.  See the devil doesn't want me (or you) to walk in Love because he knows it will drive out his only weapon - fear.  The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear.  It also says that Love never fails.

So are you believing for a loved one to turn to Jesus?  Are you believing for a situation to change at work or at your school?  Are you believing for restoration in a relationship?  Are you believing that you can change something in your life that you don't like?  Are you battling addiction?  The list of questions could go on and on.  But what's the answer to any of these problems?  The answer is perfected love.

I know my love walk is not perfect.  I also know that perfected love lives inside me right now and He is working on my behalf to get me to the right place.  Are you struggling with the whole "God thing?"  Would you like to have perfect love living inside you?  You might say something like, "You don't know what I did.  I did something that nothing can fix.  I did something really bad and God can't love me."  Well have I got news for you.  Jesus' blood was shed for ALL sin.  No matter what you did, Jesus' blood is stronger.  Would you like to start a relationship with Him right now?  All you have to do is say, "Jesus, come into my heart.  I make you my Lord and Savior."  That's it.  If you said that prayer and believed it, something just happened inside you.  You got born again and that Perfect Love now lives inside you.

If you prayed that prayer, would you please let me know.  Also, please find a good Bible based church so you can start to learn more about the Love that has been put into your heart.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Love is Not Rude

Today's we are going to talk about another aspect of Love.  Today's topic is rudeness.  Before we get into this, I want to you notice that again, this is not a feeling.  Love is not concerned with whether or not you feel rude.  That doesn't even sound right.  Love doesn't act rudely.  This should be a fairly simple one as we all have been around people who are rude.

I can't tell you that I am around very many people who I would consider just openly rude.  I don't have any friends that would call someone something ugly to their face. And honestly, I wouldn't either.  But let's think about rudeness for just a minute.  Did you know that as we are studying love, no where in the Bible does it say that the person who we are rude to has to know about it to make it unloving.

Ladies, have you ever noticed some other girl who looked like maybe you wished you did and said something to your girlfriend about how she was dresses.  The reality is she's probably dressed fine but you are a little jealous because maybe you can't dress that way?  Guys, have you ever seen a guy driving a nicer car than you and said something rude about the guy just because you are jealous that you can't drive what he drives (I confess I have done this one.).  Well guess what?  That's rude.  Whether or not the other person heard you, doesn't matter.

Now I can hear someone saying, "Well if they didn't hear it, what does it hurt?"  That's easy.  It hurts your faith.  How?  Well, doesn't the Bible say that faith works by love? (Galatians 5:6)  If we aren't walking in love, it will hinder our faith.  Before I go farther, I don't want anyone to stand in condemnation and you need to know that God is a graceful, merciful God.  I know this because there are several places where I have acted unlovingly and God is blessing us tremendously.

But here's the thing - I don't want ordinary faith.  I was in a Starbuck's several months ago and there was a girl in a wheelchair.  I wanted to pray for her and see her healed and out of that chair.  When I thought about it, I heard the Lord say, "If you pray for it, I will back it."  I know it was the Lord's voice!  Guess what I did!  Nothing!  I left that girl in that wheelchair and left the store without speaking to her.  Why?  My faith wasn't strong enough.  I want my faith to be stronger and stronger every day.  I've had a vision for a long time of us walking into hospitals and emptying them because God healed every person in them.

That type of dream doesn't come to reality with weak faith.  That's why I am working to get rude behavior out of my life.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Love Does Not Dishonor Others

Hello Everyone,

OK everyone.  Before we get into today's topic, I want to tell you what I've seen in the last week.  I thought I was pretty good about not bragging on myself and yet I caught myself doing it three times that I remember in the last seven days!  The latest time was just this morning to a friend of mine and I was bragging about this blog!  That's completely ridiculous because I strive to write what the Lord tells me and so I can't take credit for any of this.  I have been before the Lord and asked for forgiveness.  So let me encourage you to watch what you are doing this week and see if there are any areas were you can improve.

So let's get on to today's love topic which is love does not dishonor others.  So what does this mean?  Dishonor is means to bring on shame or disgrace. Now this an interesting topic to me because there is a big difference between bringing shame on a person and telling someone about an inappropriate action.  As a parent, it's my job to train my children so when I tell them about something they have done wrong, I am not trying to bring dishonor on them.  I'm trying to keep them from getting hurt.

That's exactly what God does with us.  We know He is Love so everything He does is based in Love.  When He tells you not to do something, He's trying to keep you from getting hurt.  For instance, when He says that we should not steal, it's because He knows the effect it will have on us both in this world and in the spiritual realm.  But let me be very clear on something - He IS NOT shaming us as a person.  He's trying to correct our actions.  He knows that these actions will get us hurt and He loves us too much to see us get hurt if He can correct us.

What does that tell me?  In order to determine if you are walking in love in this area, examine your heart and check your actions.  Notice again that this definition of Love is an action word.  It's still not a feeling.  When we have to correct someone, are we being clear that we love them and they are valuable?  Are we being clear that they are extremely valuable?  If so, then correction is coming the right way.  If not, then we have to change the way we correct someone.

The other point I want to discuss is something a little more obvious.  When we talk about people are we bringing dishonor on them?  Even if they never hear us, it doesn't change that what we said or do is not walking in Love.  If you are an American and a Christian, are you saying bad things about our current president?  Did you say bad things about our last president?  I am not telling you that you should support what they do or what they believe.  It's OK to disagree with that but if you are saying bad things about their character, then you are not walking in love.

The worst thing about this type of problem is when we are not walking in Love, it stops faith from working in our lives because the Bible says, faith works by Love.  So when we speak badly about someone who isn't around, we aren't really hurting them because they may never even know it.  Unfortunately, we are hampering our faith in our own lives.  It's time we all start walking in Love more and allowing our faith to produce the great results in our lives that we all desire.

That's another Opinion of the Minion