live2bless

Truly every sin is a crime against God’s helpfulness and willingness to help. We could label it an act of idolatry. 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 answer to our every need. This is why...

When we read, as in 1 John 4:16, that God is love , I take that to mean that God is pure helpfulness . That means that everyone who comes in direct contact with him is helped as much as possible to the full extent of how receptive that person is to his influence. Now, since, as Christians, we are God’s co-workers, and, for that matter, the body of Christ in this world, we too participate in his he...

1 Corinthians 4:5  "So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition from God."   Romans 14:10b-12  “…For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me;...

Luke 16:10 (NET) — Jesus taught that “The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” So let’s ask: What is the smallest responsibility in which one can be faithful or not? It would have to be something over which we are most responsible at all times and in all circumstances. And what could we be held more...

I stumbled onto a quote the other day that caught my attention in a big way. The observation was attributed to the well-known British preacher Charles Spurgeon. “In the four Gospel accounts given to us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—eighty-nine chapters of biblical text—there’s only one place where Jesus tells us about his own heart.” -Spurgeon Following that, I did some research of my own and f...

The Apostle Paul wrote, in effect, that no matter what I may do with my life that appears exceptional, if I do not have love, I am nothing . (1 Corinthians 13:2) He allows for no exceptions. No one is or has ever been exempt from that truth. It reveals that the ultimate spiritual and moral authority in the universe is Love, that is, self-sacrificial helpfulness. Where there is no love there is no...

Ultimately, for us and all conscious creation, only one response to God will do: receptivity . The Apostle Paul wrote, “The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone.” Acts 17:24-25 (NET) Cle...

The very nature of God, being love, that is — as I see it — pure helpfulness , means that every moment of the day he is helping us and wants to increasingly help us be all that he created us to be. This process will go on forever because even though we will be sinless on the new earth, we will still be revealing to one another facets of God’s goodness that are unique to our friendship with him. Al...

The value of any circumstance in your life to you personally is determined by whether or not you use it to draw closer to God in greater dependence on him. Hence, even situations of sinful failure can be made valuable to us if we will use them to turn back to God with a deeper trust in him. When Jesus said, “let nothing be wasted,” regarding leftover loaves of bread, I don’t think he just had food...

Here’s another way to define what faith is. Faith is looking to Jesus confident that he will make a difference regarding the concern or need on our hearts. So to pray in faith is to pray assured that the prayer will be heard and answered. It is to be able to say, yes, I know he will do this for me . How do we come to have such an assurance, such faith? 1 John 5:14-15 — “This is the confidence we h...

The greater the value you place on the people in your life the more in touch with God you are. The more you see others as infinitely precious to God, the more God is having His way with you. However, it is what we do or don’t do (not what we think) that reveals what we believe. So what will we do if we, in truth, do value others and acknowledge their preciousness to God? We will realize that there...

In order to develop courage in you, God uses situations that are unpredictable and challenging. But instead you could decide to run from everything you find uncomfortable or demanding. In order to develop a never-give-up attitude in you, God uses other people’s problems or situations you badly wish would just go away. But instead you could decide to quit leaning on God for strength to hang in ther...

When it comes to discerning what is or is not a sin, we have the Ten Commandments and no doubt all sins in some sense break one or more of those commands. What is not so obvious, however, are things we do that have an undeniable appearance of being perfectly legitimate and even commendable, but are sinful nonetheless. How so? Because they violate the consummate goal of all the commandments. And wh...

James 5:16 — “The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.” One of the defining hallmarks of a “righteous person” is that they maintain an exclusive reliance on God to make all the difference.  And if we can say that no one can do anything more positively effective for this world than what is done in prayer, then that would explain why a righteous person commits so much time to i...

Here’s what I see as two of the most empowering verses in the Bible. Now, I use that word “empowering” with caution because, frankly, it sounds like a trendy new age cliche that has you focusing on empowering YOURSELF and the sky is the limit on what YOU can do, etc..  But allow me to use it nonetheless regarding the verses I’m going to read to you. They do, in fact, indicate that because of...

Righteousness is a very big word in the Bible. It goes a long way in defining all that pleases God. Let’s think about it. It seems to me to have two parts in scripture: (1) Being righteous is a position before God of having been made right with God by God himself. God does this in response to an act of repentance and trusting prayer that says to God, in effect, “I turn my back on my answers for my...

In 1 Corinthians 10:31 the apostle Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” We have various motives that turn up in almost anything we do or say, but it seems to me that in each of us there is invariably a baseline — a dominant motive behind them all. Perhaps we could say that we are like a ship with multiple rudders. They each exercise some infl...

Psalms 81:13-16 (NIV) “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Whenever God says “no” to this or that d...

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there your heart is also.” Matthew 6:21 Let’s have a close look at that statement. To know what our hearts are attached to, we need to know what it is we treasure. And if you want to know what it is you most treasure, then the best way I’ve found to do that is to take a close look at what you think about when you are free to think of whatever you’d like, that is...

Someone has said that, “ The Joy of Heaven is consciousness of God’s Love. ” (God At Eventide) I agree. What could possibly be more joyful than the contemplation of God’s nature? And we read in 1 John 4:16 that his nature is Love. Now as a synonym for the word love I would suggest the expression pure helpfulness with the added thought that God treasures us, having made us in his own image and like...

Everything going on in your life is primarily between Jesus and you. The reason I say that is first based on the most important fact about you, that Jesus, for whom all things were created, created you for himself — to live in friendship with you as the best of friends. That means that everything about you — your thoughts, words, attitudes, intentions, motives, reactions, choices — is intended to...

Someone once asked me, “am I hard to love?” A relative had told them that so they were wondering if it was true. My response had to do with what is meant by the word “love.” If we are talking about true love — God’s love — then being “hard to love” seems to me a gross misunderstanding of what that word love actually means. For one, to love someone has nothing to do with the beloved — the person be...

“Seek the Lord and the strength he gives. Seek his presence continually.”  Psalm 105:4 What is it to “seek the Lord”? Look at it this way: if you want to be someone’s friend, you have to find common ground upon which to build the friendship. By that I mean, you have to have shared interests. And the more interests you have in common with each other the deeper the friendship you stand to have....

I’m convinced that the deepest hunger in our hearts is one and the same with the highest purposes of God for us. I say that because, in reference to Christ, the Apostle Paul writes that we were created “through him and for him.”  That being true, is it even conceivable that Jesus would create us with a desire that’s greater or deeper than a desire to be all that he would have us be and do? I...

James 1:2-4 — “My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.” Trials afford us the possibility of spiritual growth to where we are able to cope effectively with any difficul...