Fruit of the Spirit Friday: Loving Others

The other night Precious (one of our Great Pyrenees) tore up my laundry room. She ate through a wicker basket, left a pound of sand on the floor (from the dried mud after the rain), ate a shoe, tore open a package of paper plates, ripped an Amazon packing box into nine thousand pieces, you get the idea.

She looked at me, tail wagging, with those big eyes. I hugged her big neck,  gave her  kisses, let her out and cleaned up the mess, swept, and mopped the floor. Our homeschool began almost an hour late.

Later the same day a person upset me, really hurt my feelings. After I cooled off I asked God’s forgiveness for getting angry.  My mind went to the morning incident with Precious. (I believe the Lord led me there).

Why wasn’t I the least bit upset when Precious added an hour of work to my day? I asked myself, “Why do I let people get under my skin and not my animals? ” Is it because they didn’t mean it? Is it because I know my animals love me no matter what I do?

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Phil 4:8 says to think on the good stuff.  When I saw the mess in the laundry room I laughed. I know my sweetie Precious didn’t purposely make extra work for me. Why can’t I have the same grace with people? God continues to love us and allowed us to enjoy His grace and mercy no matter how many times we have failed Him.

The Greek word for “think on these things” is logizomai (Strong’s 3049) which implies concentrated, focused effort.

Since we all have a sin nature you could choose any person and focus on their sinful nature to justify the sins of bitterness and anger.  We have the option to focus and think about the evil or praiseworthy things .

Your Neighbor, Your Spouse, Your Children, Your Parents, Your Friends

When you think about you neighbor, your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, do you focus on the negative or do you focus on the praiseworthy things? Do you think whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable?

Thoughts are powerful; “as he thinketh, so he is” (Prov. 23:7). Wrong thoughts will lead to resentment and discouragement, but spiritual thinking will lead to peace. This is stress reduction at its best.

Are you a “see the glass half empty” or “half full” person? Does it depend on the glass? Do you prejudge people? There certainly are a lot of unlovable people in this world. It’s so easy to love the lovable ones. Sometimes unlovable people are our own making because we labeled them as such. Thank God He doesn’t do that with us. God’s love for us is not dependent on our performance. He loves us because that’s WHO HE IS.

Jesus lives within us and should flow through us. If we try to see people through His eyes we can love others, even the obnoxious lady ahead of you in line at Wal-mart with the nasty attitude to the cashier. If we allow Christ to be the Living Water and flow through us, instead of getting disgusted we can actually feel love and experience the peace of God; this is living in the Kingdom of God.

I began the Fruit of the Spirit Friday Meme, to encourage myself to study this topic each Friday. I encourage you to join me. Write a post on a fruit you are seeking and join Mr. Linky below.

The fruits are listed in Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

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The angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” Gideon replied in doubt and in an accusatory tone with questions:

“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” (Judges 6:13)

A few things are wrong with Gideon’s perceptions:

Gideon Forgot About Israel’s Sin

Gideon blamed God for the oppression and fails to recognize Israel’s sin and idolatry. Israel had not turned away from the pagan idols.

God loves His people, even in sin.  He is also a Holy judge. Because of His love for the guilty, He is merciful and desires to forgive.  He is just and merciful. He provided an amazing answer to the problem of sin through Jesus’ atoning blood and the work of the Holy Spirit; our lives can be cleansed from sin and be transformed to reflect His love.

Gideon’s people were crying out to the Lord for help (Judges 6:7), but gave no evidence of real repentance. Constant self-examination of sin and its removal coupled with trusting God grows our relationship with Him.

Gideon Trusted in Formulas Instead of God

Gideon believed in the “Law of Linearity.” If you do A, B will logically follow. If you want to win a battle, have a mighty leader and a bigger and stronger army than the enemy.

Gideon questioned God’s wisdom in choosing him to be the nation’s deliverer. He said, “My clan is the weakest . . . and I am the least.”

God chooses the “weak things of this world” to accomplish great things for His glory (1 Cor. 1:26–29). Gideon wasn’t a man of strong faith or courage. His family worshiped Baal (Jdg. 6:25–32). Yes, the angel said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior“–He was a might warrior with the Lord.

Do you trust in formulas? You might not think you trust in formulas but do these sound familiar?

1. If you are a submissive wife, your husband will love you.
2. If you bring your children up in the Lord, your family will be happy.
3. If you tithe, you’ll be financially secure.
4. If you plant corn, you will reap corn.

Do the formulas work? If you plant corn, will you grow corn? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe there will be a drought or flood and the crops will fail.

Doing A does not always produce B. Whenever God calls us to a task that we think is beyond us, we must be careful to look to God and not to ourselves. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

We all come to God in need of merciful help and power.  He is waiting for us to stop relying on formulas and run to Him. He has called and commissioned us; all we have to do is obey Him by faith, and He will do the rest.

Gideon Sought the Blessing Not the Blesser

Gideon was seeking the blessing not the Blesser. He sought the victory of God without the responsibility of the relationship. We think that we can contain God within a box and that we can coerce Him into blessing us.

If someone marries a spouse for money and times are hard, the marriage will fail (seeking the blessings).  If the relationship is based on love and times are hard the love will grow (seeking relationship with the Blesser).

God wants us to seek Him. If we remove sin in order to receive blessings we are placing blessing above the Blesser- which is a form of idolatry!

Go In the Strength

The lessons of Gideon are many and rich.  Judges 6 ends with the story of Gideon testing God two times with the fleece.  In Judges 7 God tests Gideon to see if he will trust Him to go into battle with the Midianites. I hope you have time to read all of Judges 6 & 7.

There is so much imagery intended to remind us of God’s faithfulness in the past and future in Judges 6 and 7: the fleece, the water (dew), tearing down the altars,  a meal, unleavened bread, a rock, a staff, fire, a threshing floor, a wine press,  sacrifices, a dream, and so much more!

It is time for me to teach my children so I’ll close for now. Go in the Strength you have ((Judges 6:14)

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I have a Kindle Ebook Reader. It has become a part of me. I use it several hours each day–now even more. I recently  downloaded MP3 Bible study Breaking Free by Beth Moore (excellent study! see review below).

To listen to the audios at night involved dragging my computer into my bedroom. No more! Now I can listen to any MP3 book with the Kindle on my nightstand.

Kindle comes with an MP3 option for music listening as you read–but in my experience it worked lousy for audio books, I could only listen and not fast forward or rewind. And I had to start over if I paused .

But then I learned the secret. If I upload my MP3 into the Audible folder I have the option to fast forward, pause, rewind, etc. just like on an MP3 player. Yooo Hooo!

I use the MP3 feature daily now while cleaning the kitchen, when I go to bed, etc. If I’m not listening I’m reading.

FREE STUDIES

I also download and listen to free Podcasts on the Kindle. I can upload any of these studies in MP3 free: (If you don’t have a Kindle, you can listen on your computer or MP3 player)

1. Dwight Pryor (Hebrew Roots)
   
2. Nancy Leigh Demoss’ Revive Our Hearts
3. Beth Moore on Life Today,
4. God Journey
5. Charles Stanley
6. and many more (by speaker or Bible topic) from Oneplace.

Kindle is much more than an EBook reader. You can do all these things ANYWHERE, in the car, doctor office, restaurant, plane, etc. It’s always wirelessly connected with no monthly fee. The Kindle has been an super investment for this book worm.

1. Read books
2. Buy and download books in one minute (get thousands of books free)
3. Upload Heart of Wisdom Ebooks to Kindle (via Kindle email)
4. Browse the Internet (limited, like on a cell phone but bigger)
5. Check your email (with Google email)
6. Listen to audio books
7. Listen to podcasts
8. Listen to music as you read.

Learn more about Kindle

Powerful life changing study from selected passages in the Book of Isaiah draws parallels between the captive Israelites and today’s Christian in order to show how to make freedom in Christ a daily reality.

Beth starts the book by identifying the Five Benefits of the Christian life that God desires for us to enjoy and then lists the five obstacles in our lives that keep us from fully enjoying them.

Five Benefits:

1. To Know God and Believe Him
2. To Glorify God
3. To find satisfaction in God
4. To experience God’s peace
5. To enjoy God’s presence

Five Obstacles:

1. Unbelief
2. Pride
3. Idolatry
4. Prayerlessness
5. Legalism

Quotes from the Book

Read the book reviews and watch a video on Breaking Free by Beth Moore.

Enter the Blog Giveway to win a free Shack book

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Talk about timely,  I received a link in my email today to an article titled Teaching a Horse to Stop. Where was this email last week when I had a runaway horse? That proverbial barn door is closed.

Read about the Blog Giveaway.

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Blog Contest! #1 NY Times Best Seller: The Shack

I’m giving away three copies of The Shack. If you haven’t bought your copy yet, or want to see what all the controversy is about, or want a copy to give to a friend, all you have to do is leave a comment here (or on my review of The Shack)  to enter to win!

Receive an extra entry by you posting about this contest on your blog sidebar so others can know about this contest. Be sure to please link it back here for an extra entry!

You can read my review of The Shack here.

Is your relationship with God based on performance, duty and obligation (works), or is it based on love?

The Bible says “they will know we are Christians by our LOVE” - works are a by-product of the fruit we already have. If the fruit ain’t there, then the works will not follow naturally. Whatever you do try will be in the flesh! If you are trying to drum up the fruits through works, then it’s like a fruit tree trying to force itself to grow fruit! Watch this video for more on Religion vs Relationship.

About The Shack Controversies

Be forewarned: The Shack has its critics. It takes a hard look at churches that replace the gospel with rituals. Jesus certainly spent a lot of time on this topic. Maybe that is why it is so impressive to me because I have had legalistic* churches shoveling guilt and shame (man’s traditions) at me for so many years. I re-read the Gospels since reading The Shack and it was glorious. (Gets better every time!)

There are things that may bother you in this book –a few things bothered me at first but the whole story is so amazing it was worth it to me to overlook these few things or –rather, gave me pause to think about how I was looking at some things. I’ll be happy to discuss the controversy in the comments.

I’ve been reading Wayne Jacobson’s writings (one of The Shack’s publishers) for over 5 years. I’ve read everything he has written and listened to almost every audio. There is no doubt in my mind The Shack’s author and publishers are deeply committed followers of Jesus Christ who have a passion for Bible.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8.

God wants you to know that there is nothing you can do to make him love you any more today, and nothing you can do that will make him love you any less. He just loves you.

If you’ve never known the joy of simply living in God’s acceptance instead of trying to earn it, your most exciting days in Christ are ahead of you. People who learn to live out of a genuine love relationship with the God of the universe will live in more power, more joy and more righteousness than anyone motivated by fear of his judgment.–Wayne Jacobson in He Loves Me

Contest Rules

1. Leave a comment or review on this post.
2. Random drawing determines the winners.
3. Post and link about this contest on your blog sidebar for an extra entry!
4. U.S. only (Sorry, postage is sky high now)
5. I will choose three winners from random drawings at Random.org on Sat. September 15th.

*Legalism: religious performance, scrupulous and meticulous in its outward form, but, inwardly, as Jesus described it, “filled with dead men’s bones,” (Matt 23:27). It is relying on self, personality, background, training, and talent or skill instead of the Spirit of God. And it is operating for and on behalf of one’s own personal glory. ( Ray C. Stedman)   (Also see my view of God’s law)

Related:

1. My Review of #1 NY Times Best Seller: The Shack
2. BALANCED Video Review of The Shack
3. The Shack Author Video Interview
4. “Is The Shack Heresy?” by Wayne Jacobson
5. Read excerpts from The Shack
6. Listen to an audio interview by the author
7. Daisy Petal Christianity (Free book download)
8. Jake’s Story (Free book download)

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