live2bless

This is the last of a series of podcasts regarding that in which I suggest we most want to experience peace of mind. We want the peace of mind of knowing that Jesus will redeem every sin and every mistake we’ve made. If your past is anything like mine, you have generated heartbreak in others and left a trail of tears in the wake of poor decisions you’ve made. Even to this day, you find yourself fa...

This is part 3 of a series of podcasts regarding that in which I suggest we most want to experience peace of mind. This third one is that we want the peace of mind of always knowing how to be most helpful to everyone we know or meet. In Acts 20:35 we read that Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  God is therefore pure joy because he is, by nature, pure self-giving helpfu...

This is part 2 of a series of podcasts whereby I hope to highlight that in which we most want to experience peace of mind. Number 1 was that we want the peace of mind of knowing that all our needs are going to be met day by day. 2) we want the peace of mind of being able to confidently say, “all is well” regarding everyone and everything that concerns us This peace of mind rests on promises that h...

I’ve mentioned before that I think it could be said that all progress in the Christian life is determined by how relentlessly we apply the promises of God to every difficulty we face. In fact, the promises God has made to us are intended to keep our hearts and minds perfectly at peace at all times and in all circumstances. And it is only when we live and act out of such inner stillness that we can...

Romans 3: 25,26 (NET) — “God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.” God’s...

I think it could be said that every sin is a crime against God’s helpfulness and willingness to help. We could label it an act of idolatry. That is, we are looking to someone or something other than God to answer a hunger, a need, a desire, a longing, or an interest, not realizing — or else forgetting or ignoring — the fact that God cherishes us so much that He would never withhold from us an answ...

I suggest to you that at the close of our lives, we will be judged by how much of Christ’s helpfulness we let flow through us. If that is so, then the greatest tragedy in life would be to remain unavailable to Christ for his helpfulness to flow through us.

2 Peter 1:3,4 — “… his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that i...

By way of announcement, I will be out of town for the next few days so my next podcast will likely be Monday, November 7th. Philippians 4:8 — “Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.” Here’s a brief self-analysis that can shed...

Galatians 5:6 — “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” It seems to me that one of the most consequential and confusing interpretations bible students make in bible study is to water down the relationship between what I’m going to call being an object and being an agent of God's helpfulness. Ev...

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 — “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Let’s consider this exhorta...

All we need to know is only that which is essential to living a life of friendship with Jesus, which is to say, living a life of self-sacrificial helpfulness. I’m using the word helpfulness as a synonym for the word love.  As the apostle Paul taught, we might have all kinds of remarkable spiritual gifts and a faith that can move mountains but if it is not helpful to others, what we do or what...

Have you noticed that almost anytime someone comes into direct contact with God in the Bible, they are called to either believe or do something in response? God’s interactions with the first man, Adam, puts him under orders to “ Be fruitful and increase in number ; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the...

It seems to me that, taking into account various passages of scripture that reference God’s grace, we could define like this: God’s helpfulness freely given . What is the help he freely gives us? Here are some things to reflect on: He freely forgives our sins; He freely gives us a new heart so we can know him and start our life over; He freely fixes up the messes we’ve made and keep making; He fre...

Since God is love , and, as I see it, love is best defined as helpfulness , then God is helpfulness . All that God is and ever does is helpful. That means that every time we make contact with him, say, in prayer, we are instantly helped. It could not be otherwise because he cannot be otherwise. Think of what that means: when you look up to God in any way with even the weakest of struggling appeals...

Allow me to be as direct and blunt with you as I am with myself on this point: nothing is to be so important and precious to you as the next thing Jesus tells you to do. Alright, but we might ask, is not Jesus Himself that ultimate preciousness? For sure, he is the paradigm of all that is important or precious in all creation — he is self-giving Life itself. However, that truth does not become par...

1 John 4:16 reads in part, “God is love.” That is to say, love defines his very nature such as no other attribute does. While God is good and righteous and merciful, the Scriptures don’t say that God is goodness or that he is righteousness or that he is mercy. But that God is love? Yes. So what does it mean?  Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13 — that great love chapter in the Bible — only let’s s...

Someone has said, “The secret of true discipleship is service in little things.”  -God Calling We can all too easily believe that we would give our lives for Jesus, but the truth as to where we’re at is not found in prospective big sacrifices but in how readily we work with Jesus in the small details of everyday helpfulness. If we are not learning to pay attention to the chances God gives us...

In John 1:17 we read, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.” Two words have been on my mind a lot lately, the word love and the word grace . When it come to the word love, I’m convinced that the best substitute word that defines it is the word helpfulness . So that when we read that, “God is love.”  (1 John 4:16) I understand that as, God i...

In the greek language in which the New Testament was recorded, a verb written in what is called the imperfect tense “always indicates an action continually or repeatedly happening in past time. It portrays the action as going on for some extended period of time in the past.” You will recall that when Jesus was being crucified, he prayed, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ .” &n...

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) — “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Where do we get such confidence and assurance?  From trusting in the promises of God. In other words, the more our lifestyle reveals that we believe that God will do precisely what he says he will do, the greater our faith. How do we come to believe that God will do what he promises? By...

Ephesians 3:18, 19 — Paul prays that we “may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” There’s no doubt in my mind that a love this intense seeks each of us out day and night, from the moment we wake u...

You will always find a way to do or quit doing anything you’re sufficiently motivated to do or not do. Even though the Apostle Paul wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” — even he was nonetheless sufficiently motivated to not just throw in the towel and resign himself to that living hell. He pressed on and discovered God’s way of breaking t...

What kind of person do I most aspire to be?  S omeone who is always true to Jesus. That, I believe, is the race marked out for me. Or, the the words of the apostle Paul, I see it as “that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” From notes in my journal, this is the last of five propositions I drafted for myself to define what that means.  It’s been my hope that you might find something...

What does it mean to be a true friend to Jesus? This is number 4 of a series of five propositions I wrote for myself to answer that. It means to be useful to him by being full of gratitude and prayers for each person I’m around and everyone who comes to my attention. 1 Timothy 2:1 — “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.” 1 Thess...