1 Cor. 13:6 - Truth Works

^{1 Cor. 13:6} Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

When we rejoice in the truth we begin the work of being honest with ourselves and honest with others.  This honesty opens up the opportunity to relate to others on a deeper level than the superficial hello how are you ...?

With this honesty we can allow the work of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and to guide us into all truth. So that the Word of God can be the powerful scalpel it is designed to be, helping us to differentiate between deception and fact, half truth and lies, or our justifications and our ulterior motives. We so easily deceive ourselves with our insidious mental mechanisms that lead us to wrong conclusions because they are fraught with worldly or selfish influences. We need to learn to identify these patterns as evil and allow God to remove them and be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

APPLICATION
I am more than ever committed to the process of renewing my mind, and being transformed by the Holy Spirit.

1 Cor. 13:5 - With Christ, I Can Love Others His Way

^{1 Cor. 13:5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

In my human strength I fail at loving others in this way, truth be told I do not even love myself like this, I get angry with myself and have a list a mile long of things I have done wrong. Like the disciples I commit to the refrain, "increase my faith".  I know that I am not capable of consistently loving others in this way in my own strength, but with Christ all things are possible. The interesting word in the previous sentence is "with". If the Holy Spirit is truly residing in me and I live by His direction and guidance with me, together, we can love in this amazing way.

APPLICATION
I need to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. To empower me to live by the power of His grace.

1 Cor. 13:4 - Jesus Never Ran

^{1Corinthians 13:4} Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

I find it significant that the first word on the list of things that describe love in God's terms is patience. That is one attribute that God is definately long on and us humans seem to struggle with. Could it be because God is not bound by time as He lives eternal, and we are always dealing with the fact that our time here is running out? Have you ever noticed that as time dwindles on accomplishing a task, the closer to the deadline the more impatient you get? Especially if the task is almost complete but not yet there? How we scurry around at the last minute to finish something in the nick of time? In our scurrying we have less and less patience as the seconds count down. How much of our lives are lived in a scurry or semi-scurry attitude?
God however never scurries. Jesus never ran. The only depiction of God running is the Father as he sees his prodigal son on the horizon, he runs to meet him. Even in that the father was patiently waiting. The character of God exudes patience. The frailty of man is that he is inclined toward impatience. In haste or impulse or in autopilot thinking we make assumptions and veer off course easily.


APPLICATION
I need to create more margin in my life so that I can be more careful in my decisions and more effective in my ministry. Today I will begin by being 5 minutes early for every appointment. In order to do this I will need to be prepared to set out earlier in the first place. And rememberb that 5 minutes early is on time and arriving at the set appointed time is 5 minutes late.

Commitments

^{John 8:35} Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

Now as we are adopted into the family of God through the blood of Jesus we enjoy the security of an established place in the family tree, we belong to Him forever. This is not something God takes lightly He is committed to us, and His Word is sure. We on the other hand lose sight of the firmness of His commitment. Probably because we are so easy to break ours. So in light of the way that we see commitments being broken around us and even ourselves being unfaithful we have become accustomed to and even expect commitments to be broken. That is the lens with which we see God.  But God is trustworthy, in fact He is the only true and reliable being.


APPLICATION
I need to be more careful with my commitments.  Today I will make sure to be faithful to all commitments. Tomorrow I will work on tomorrows commitments.

Slave to Sin

³⁴ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Whenever Jesus says, "I tell you the truth"  I will take special attention to this because this is Jesus' way of placing greater emphasis on this particular principle. So then, why would Jesus want us to pay closer attention to this. Because the idea of being a slave to sin is not a common one. It is a spiritual concept and not usually acquired unless you are specifically instructed in it. We are not likely to stumble upon our realization of this by ourselves. The apostle Paul in the book of Romans, instructs the new believers there with this instruction found in the 6th chapter.


^{Romans 6:11} In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
 ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 

APPLICATION
My life is poured out to serve the Lord and such my obedience is an offering to Him. He turns my obedience into value for His kingdom my job is to pour my life out.
Today I need to be willing to serve my master in increasing measure, as such Margaret and I will be opening our home up for a young person to live with us, to be discipled on a more deeper level, much like the way Jesus spent His time with the disciples, with much contact comes much growth and ability to influence.

John 8:33 Spiritual Hunger

³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Most people are oblivious to spiritual principals. In order to learn we must be willing to be taught. To learn spiritual things it is even greater than being willing to be taught we need to be hungry for and even yearn for spiritual truth. The spiritual realm is invisible so there are so many challenges for people to grasp before they can see or believe. A person bound by sin does not recognize the spiritual shackles that holds them bound. The spiritually blind are convinced that they see clearly. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. It exists on the currency of the minds of people unwilling to learn spiritual principals.
APPLICATION
I commit to pray for a deeper hunger for spiritual principals.

FREE INDEED

^{John 8:32} "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Free? Free from what? This is a great question. One that is worthy of deeper consideration.
Sometimes we can learn a great deal if we invert the premise, turn it around and make it opposite, it could be clarifying. If we know, have, live in the truth it will make us free. Then the opposite would be if we abide in a lie, or are trapped in untruth or are living or believing a lie it would do the opposite of make us free and put us into bondage or confinement or immobilization.

When we are indeed disciples, abiding in Christ, in unity with the fellowship of believers and the Spirit through the bond of peace, then we will recognize the truth, and in that truth we will be set free from the various and sundry bondages and sin that so easily keeps us from progress. 


When you think about it all of life's most devastating sin and turmoil has at the root of it lies. Divorce for example is a very destructive force at the base of God's precious institution of family. Do you think that there are some lies as the basis for divorce? How about addictions? How about promiscuity? How about gluttony, envy jealosy war hatred... do you think that believeing a lie could be part of the cause of these destructive forces, behaviors and sins?
APPLICATION
I will rejoice with the truth. I will seek the Lord today to help me to reveal the lies that I am believing and rid my soul of them so that I can be free indeed.

Discipline Turns To Habit - John 8:31

^{John 8:31} To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

What does it mean to "hold" to a teaching?

1) to remain, abide

   a) in reference to place

2) not to depart

   a) to continue to be present

   b) to be held, kept, continually

   c) to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure

To abide is an interesting term it means:

Websters 1828

To be, to exist, to continue, to dwell, rest, stand firm, or be stationary for anytime indefinitely, to be firm and immovable. 

^{PSALM 119:90} Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
   you established the earth, and it endures. 

So to really be Jesus' disciple we must continue in and remain stationary in the principals He taught. To abide in these principals in such a way as to walk them out as a lifestyle so that we can rest in them.

We exercise  self control first by way of discipline, we continue to do the thing we know we should do even though we inwardly do not want to do it because we know that it is the right and best thing to do. After a while that discipline will begin to stop being discipline and turn into a habit. When that has fully taken it's course we develop a lifestyle and the mind is renewed. As found in Romans 12

Discipline is the mother of all virtues.

Self-control is the chief element of discipline, and discipline is the chief element of bringing ideas to life.  No matter how smart, skilled, or capable you are, nothing is possible or achievable without a disciplined mind.

Discipline is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, whether you want to or not at any given moment.  It is the most important of all the virtues because without it, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently

APPLICATION
I need to continue in the discipline of my diet and exercise so that it outgrows that difficult stage and enters into the habit stage.

Glorify God

^{Acts 3:10} they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 

When we point to God as the one who is the restorer, the giver, the one who brings life we cause people to be filled with wonder and amazement. Two very important rules regarding bringing glory to God:
1.  When things go well point to Him.
2.  When things don't go well take the blame upon your self never blame God.

It can be as subtle as when the thief on the cross pointed to God or as blatant and exuberant as this man who once was lame. Either way when we point to God, through whom all blessings flow, we are indeed rhyming with heaven and all the angelic beings who constantly cry out Holy Holy Holy ...

APPLICATION
I will be on watch to glorify God today in all that I see Him do