Why would you say No?

Do you have everything you ask ...

Why would you say no when you ask someone (or someone asks you) if they have you with them? I don't mean physically with them. But their love, your love. Are you carrying my love for you with you? Is my love for you (and vice versa) in your heart?

Isn't it the same ... you have Jesus. You accept Jesus and believe in Him and He lives in your heart through the Holy Spirit.

Why, if you love another, would you not also have them in your heart? If they are on your mind, why not in your heart? Why would you not take that love with you throughout the day? Why bother to say "I Love You" if ....

If or since, as it says in I Corinthians 13, love is patient and kind, joyful, and without envy, not proud, not rude, not selfish, not provoked, not evil. If love bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all, if love never fails ...

Where do you keep it - your love? You live it day-to-day. Do you not take your love to work, to school, to church, to recreational activities, in sickness and in health? Did you not take a vow to love, honor and cherish? Yes, where do you keep your love?

Do you think love should sit on a shelf to be picked up when convenient for you? Is love only found in the bedroom for pleasure-seeking activities? Is love only present when you are in a good mood, or slept good or feel good? What does a kiss represent? Is love taken for granted? Is the wedding ring you wear symbolic of your love or have you forgotten why you wear it?

I Corinthians 13, verse 1 says If "we have not love," we "become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." We make noise. We know, we understand, we feed those less fortunate, and so on and so forth, but without love, we fail.

So I ask you and you and you, do you have your special someone with you? Is their love, is your love within each of your hearts?

Who is to be served?

Thought for the Day: "While Jesus and his followers were traveling, Jesus went into a town. A woman named Martha let Jesus stay at her house. Martha had a sister named Mary, who was sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to him teach. But Martha was busy with all the work to be done. She went in and said, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the work? Tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. Only one thing is important. Mary has chosen the better thing, and it will never be taken away from her.' " Luke 10: 38-42

In chapter 6 appropriately titled "Sour Milk" of the book "He Still Moves Stones," Max Lucado discusses the above Scripture. His words ... Two sisters. Two personalities. And as long as they understand each other, it's hand in glove. But when the one resents the other, it's flint and stone.

Flint and stone. Flint is a very hard stone. So its harder and hard. And as personalities go, it doesn't have to be just between siblings. It could be between husband and wife, co-workers, friends, church members.

Philippians 2: 14-15 in the New Living Translation says, "In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them."


To serve God.
Your heart is in the right place in the beginning, but along the way you give in to Satan's subtle hints and start believing the work itself that you do is more important that serving God. You end up serving, or feeding, yourself, and get caught up in all of the anxiety surrounding it. We look for attention, compliments, a standing ovation. But we don't get it. In all our planning, we have forgotten the very reason we set out -- to be a light, God's light, in every aspect of our lives.

To serve God.
In the workplace, perhaps it is just a job. Perhaps dreams you had have been placed on a back burner. You are in waiting ...

No matter where we are, what we are about, if we have professed to be followers of Jesus Christ, then following Him is what we must do.

In humbleness, in love, thinking, mindful always of what He is about, not what we ourselves are about. When we forget who we are, who we belong to there is a possibility we may fall. When we become so caught up in ourselves, the feeling of resentment toward another overwhelms us. Jesus has not instructed us to go there or do that. We are to follow His lead. Following only what we think of a given situation, becoming swallowed up in selfishness, draws us more and more away from forgetting who is the servant and who is to be served. Resentment, pride. Flint and stone.

In Zechariah 7: 12, we read: "Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts."

In Ezekiel 11: 19-20, we read: "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them and take the stony heart out of their flesh and give then a heart of flesh, That they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God."

And in Jeremiah 32:39: "Then I will give them one heart and one way, That they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them."

Lucado reiterates what matters more than the type of service is the heart behind the service.

We need to remember to keep our focus on the One we are serving.

Prayer: "Create in me a clean (pure) heart O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)

"Hear the instruction"

Proverbs 1: 1-12, 3: 21-24

"hear the instruction of your father" (Proverbs 1:8)

To know wisdom and instruction
To perceive the words of understanding
To receive instruction of wisdom
To give careful thought

You must hear
to increase learning, to know
You must listen
to understand
You must be obedient

Verse 8 in Proverbs 1 says, "My son, hear the instruction of your father,..." but if you're earthly father is absent, then listen to another who has your best interest at heart.

One who is wise
who knows the wisdom of God
Who follows in His footsteps
Who trusts in Him
Who puts His hope and faith in Him

Do not give in
Do not become enticed by others who look for ways you might fall into a pit and not climb out.

Do not falter at the gate thinking it is better on the other side.

Life here and now and life to come is what you make of it, and with God at the center of your life, He will enable you to be all you are meant to be. But without Him, there is only you, and that is not enough.


"Keep sound wisdom and discretion; ... Then you will walk safely in your way, And your foot will not stumble. When you lie down you will not be afraid; yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet." (Proverbs 3: 21, 23-24)

Lord, give us ears to hear advice
from loved ones wise and humble,
So when life's challenges appear
We will not have to stumble.
-- David Sper, Our Daily Bread

The world watches ... God sees the heart

The world is watching - Christian and non-Christian alike.

Decisions made by individuals -- what is truly in our hearts can only be fully known by God.

No one other person can really know what motivates a person to change direction. We may have ideas and they may be wrong.

We don't want to "bite and devour one another ... lest you be consumed." (Galatians 5:15)

We are to "have love for one another." (John 13:35)

We are not to find fault with our Christian brothers and sisters, but love them so non-believers will know they are followers of Jesus Christ. If our actions and words show us to be no better than non-believers, how can we say we are followers? We are not being obedient to Him. We are not listening to His commands. We are not following through on His commands.

We do not see the heart of another. We only "see in a mirror, dimly."
(1 Corinthians 13:12)

Only God sees our heart. Only God knows us.

We should not presume we know what God alone knows. We should not judge the decisions made by our fellow Christians.

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7: 1-2)

The world watches. But only God sees our heart.

"For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16: 7b)