Gifts From God...

We all know and have heard the song 12 Days of Christmas with the lyrics that start on the first day of Christmas. 

In this new series, we will be talking about the gifts God has for us. Is there 12 I do not know?

 7 Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that. 1 Corinthians 7:7 ASV

God has gifts for each of us, that are only for us not for anyone else.

What is a gift?

Dictionary.com says, a gift is something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor towards someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance; present or the act of giving.

So, with the definition out of the way, it is exactly what God wants for us, to give us gifts.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. James 1:7 ASV

God wants to give us good gifts and we will look at what those are.

God, I pray for the gift you want us to learn about

God, I pray for what you have for us in the gifts you have for us

I pray as we go through the series the devil would keep his hands off

That the evil would flee and not return

That God's gifts would reign

In Jesus Name

 Amen

Love: The Answer...

So, to answer the question in closing which was, is love (and hope and faith) all we need I looked it up in a search and all I found was leading me back to the Bible. 

Learn religion the first one that came up says love is greater than faith and hope. We cannot live our lives without faith or hope. We cannot know the love of God without hope, we would not endure in our faith until we meet Him face to face. 

Bible study tools the next viable one says that love is greater than faith and love because it ensures that quality of our interactions with others is life giving.

Now let's look at what the Bible in looking for an answer to the question we are trying to answer.

13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

This is the verse that kept coming up in my search.

And now there remain: is the start of verse 13 in the AMP.

Everything is going to go away but these three will remain.

Whether we abide according to one Bible or we remain according to another it all boils down to these three things are all we need.

To answer the question according to the Bible and what I read all we need is these three.

I led by God leave you with Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians:

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.

4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

8 Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]. But as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for the gift of special knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part [for our knowledge is fragmentary and incomplete]. 10 But when that which is complete and perfect comes, that which is incomplete and partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God]. 13 And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13 AMP

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 TLV

4 Love is patient,

love is kind,

it does not envy,

it does not brag,

it is not puffed up,

5 it does not behave inappropriately,

it does not seek its own way,

it is not provoked,

it keeps no account of wrong,

6 it does not rejoice over injustice

    but rejoices in the truth;

7 it bears all things,

it believes all things,

it hopes all things,

it endures all things.1 Corinthians 13:4-7 TLV

Love

All we need is love, love

Love is all we need 

Are the lyrics from the song All You Need is Loved by the Beatles.

Is this statement true? 

Is love all we need, that it can conquer anything and always wins?

The Bible tells us 

4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; 6 rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ASV

Yes, love wins!!!!

Yes, love conquers all!!!

Love is the bond that holds us together as Christians, humans, and people set apart.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14 ESV

Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV

I pose this question to you today:

Is love (and hope and faith) all we need?

Think about this question and tomorrow as we close, we will answer this question.

Romans 12:2, 12:1-2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 ESV

Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:2 MSG

Rubber Meets Road...

I had to do my job last night and it didn't come with love, it came with wanting/needing to do my job. 

We are to love 24/7 because Christ loved 24/7.

But then there's life.

Where do they meet?

I just have to love right?

I have been talking about love and I didn't love last night, I did my job.

I share this because I struggle with loving people and doing my job. I am not above this thing that we have been talking about love. I never share from a place where I have it all together but from a place where I am a mess just like you. I'm human. (Whether you admit it or not we are all a mess in some way).

Where does the rubber meet the road for you concerning love?

Love, love love.

Try your best is what came from God.

Remember we all fall short of the glory.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 NASB

This means no one is perfect like Jesus, we are to strive to be like 

This means we are to strive to fight the good fight and keep the faith until the end of the race that is life.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7 ESV

So, with love, all I can do is try my best and next time be more loving.

That can be applied to you:

So, with love, all you can do is try your best and next time be more loving.

Love: Junk to Out of the Way...

Yesterday I talked about God saying it was easy and we make it hard.

That is so true it is all the hurt, anger, our flesh, and other stuff that get in the way of us truly loving the unlovable or people we do not how to love. 

It's our junk that causes us to make things like loving these people hard.

God commanded us to love all, not our junk to get in the way.

Some things that can help take our junk out of the way are:

Pray:

For wisdom and understanding

For this reason we also, since the day we heard about it, have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, Colossians 1:9 NASB

Hear my prayer, Lord, Listen to my pleadings! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! Psalm 143:1 NASB

Forgive them:

This isn't necessarily for them but for you to release it from your life.

For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14 NASB

Release it:

Give it to God.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 peter 5:6-7 ESV

Surrender:

Lift your hands in surrender to God about these people:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 ESV

Worship:

Worship from a place of victory over dealing with these people.

Then the man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. Genesis 24:26 NASB

Resist:

Resist the flesh.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 ESV

Put on:

Put on the Lord:

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14 ESV

When dealing with kinds of people use these things to help you. For everything good comes from God and these are things that are good to do when dealing with these people.

Give your junk (things that hold you from loving these people) to God today!!!!

12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,  Romans 12:12 NASB

Just these verses for today God is saying!!!

Colossians 3:10 ASV

10 and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him:  Colossians 3:10 ASV

Love the unlovable...

God is love and love is God.

The two greatest commandments deal with love.

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Matthew 22:37-39 ESV

But what about the people who are unlovable, or you do not know how to love.

God wants me to talk about this, but I have no idea how, I struggle with this. So, I will share what I get from God and go from there.

What God just gave me is to just love them but that isn't so easy.

Yes, it is God is telling me, it is us who make it hard.

We as humans tend to make that which is easy make it hard by screwing it up or making it hard with our own flesh.

That is it, we are loving by the flesh, not by the spirit.

In order to love those kinds of people we need to love by the spirit, not the flesh.

If you remember love is a fruit of the spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

So, we need to ask God to take away our love in the flesh and give us the love that is from the spirit.

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Colossians 3:2 ESV

We need the love that can only come from God to love these kinds of people.

I was set to go in a different direction and God kept saying talk about this so as this blog is led by God, I changed direction.

Think about what was written today and meditate on it so that it will penetrate your spirit!!!

For tomorrow we continue this...

Prayer: Understand and Discernment

This morning in my spirit prayer for understanding and discernment on love/acceptance came to me.

Let my cry come near before thee, O Jehovah: Give me understanding according to thy word. Psalm 119:169 ASV

I am thy servant; give me understanding, That I may know thy testimonies. Psalm 119:125 ASV

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:34

Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding; Proverbs 2:3 ASV

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; Philippians 1:9 ASV

God, I pray for discernment about love and acceptance 

I pray for understanding about love and acceptance 

Give me the wisdom you have for us on discernment and understanding about love and acceptance 

I pray that all negative, bad spirits, evil, and the devil himself cannot touch what we are trying to understand and discern about love and acceptance

I pray for protection surrounding this

God be with us and guide us in this

Thank you in advance for this

Thank you for the victory we will have in this area

In Jesus Name 

Amen

God told me not to post bible verses this morning but have you read and mediate on the ones above.

Romans 12:7-9

 7 if service, in the act of serving; or the one who teaches, in the act of teaching; 8 or the one who [exhorts, in the work of exhortation; the one who gives, with generosity; the one who is in leadership, with diligence; the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Love must be free of hypocrisy. Romans 12:7-9 NASB

Love & Acceptance Different continued...

 The second greatest command is to love thy neighbor!

39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:39 NASB

This verse is also in Mark and Luke or the idea of it as least.

And nowhere does it say to accept.

God loved all from the sinners to the saints.

But nowhere does it talk about Jesus and acceptance.

We are to be like Jesus and be loving but not accepting.

If you are doing right and living right this God does except.

God put that in my spirit right now as I write this.

So, it goes to the idea God accepts good things and does not accept sin or sinning.

But we are always to love others not just accept everything that comes with that.

Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 19:19 NASB

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31 NASB

and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:33 NASB

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 NASB

Do you agree that we should love others and not accept everything about them?

Do you agree that we should love and let people be as they want to be?

Do you agree that love and acceptance do not go hand in hand?

Think and mediate on these questions and the idea we have been talking about love/acceptance.

Proverbs 6

6 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

12 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress will hunt for the precious life.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. Proverbs 6 KJV

Love & Acceptance Different...

To make this clear I will start today by giving an example of this idea of love and acceptance being different.

Jesus loved the sinners but did not accept their sins.

Jesus loved on people but could not let them keep sinning meaning he could not accept what they were doing or how they were.

Fast forward to today, we as Christians are to love but not be accepting of sins.

We are to love people as Jesus loved but this does not mean that we accept what they do or how they are.

There was a commercial that said we are to love all Americans. You can say that of other countries too.

I agree with the premise of that saying but the part they get wrong is that according to that statement in the commercial we have to accept them even if they are sinning, that is the idea.

That is the idea of love today, we have to love people just as they are and not care if they might be going to hell (let them sin or be who they are).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

God did not give His son for acceptance but for repentance. 

16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19 KJV

This Is about how God hates sin.

We will continue tomorrow!!!