love Archives – Sonshine's Journal

October 15, 2024October 15, 2024

10.15.24.Keeping Love Fresh

2 Cor 11 Paul loved the Corinthian church and its people, but like many then and today, the love between them had become strained. We see this in churches and in marriages today. How do we keep the love fresh? We purposely spend time with one another and we encourage one another. It is in the absence of these that our love grows cold and we lose our first love as the Ephesians had, and now the Corinthians had done the same.

Paul charged the Corinthians: “But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!” In fact, the Apostle John told the early churches that they were too falling for those false teachers who had sought to infiltrate the church.

Beloved reader, we must be on guard for the evil one will seek to usurp our love for Christ. Spend time in the ‘Word, spend time in prayer for those you love, spend time encouraging one another as the days are growing colder.

June 3, 2022June 3, 2022

The Voice of God

Ps 29 The Voice of God

If you are an avid music lover, you are aware of a program called “The Voice.” It is a popular music program to keep your mind occupied with the world’s noise about us. The psalmist did not listen to the world’s sounds but to God’s voice, the eternal voice from heaven. His voice shouts over creation, and we stand in awe. We hear it in the waterfalls of nature, the birds that begin our day, and the sounds of cracking limbs in the wind. Our world is full of His voice if we stand quietly to listen.

The Holy Spirit is His voice to our souls, speaking words of His love and tenderness as He calls us to His side that we might praise Him.

Where do you hear the voice of the Lord in your world today? Take a moment and stand to listen.

April 7, 2022April 7, 2022

Using Your Spiritual Gift

2Kings 4-6 God heard the prayer of Elisha. He asked that he receive a double spiritual gift if he saw Elijah depart to heaven. When God responded to his humble request, he didn’t just take that gift and put it on the shelf. He used that gift to meet the needs of those who were hurting. Do we do the same? What spiritual gift has God placed in your hands that can be used to minister to the hurting? The Ephesians had the gift of ministry, but they had left their first love. (Rev 2:4) Have we been busy with sundry tasks but have left our first love? What does that look like? It looks like selfishness because we are keeping God’s gift to ourselves. Instead, God has given it to us to minister to others.

Remember this principle: “If your enemy is hungry, give him foot to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” [Prov. 25:21-22] And when you are obedient to that you will hear: well done, thou good and faithful servant. [Luke 19:17]

What do I want to hear from the Savior’s lips today?

August 26, 2020

God’s Love

Jeremiah 31, “I Love you! God!”

Long ago a hymn writer penned these words to those who need a fresh look at God:

“O Soul are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Truly “God loves with an everlasting love, and that is why He has been and always will be faithful.” [Jer 31:3] Perhaps you, like the exiles in Babylon, need to hear those words. Maybe that is why Jeremiah wrote this letter to them and adds this postscript: “Sweeter words cannot be said than I love you! Greater is the phrase, I have always loved you and I always will.”

Centuries later, John wrote: “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16] And later still, God’s Son Jesus said Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends. [Joh 15:13].

Today ponder those thoughts, sing that hymn, and know this truth:

“God loves you, and God loves me!”

October 24, 2015

1John 4 “Walking in a Maze”

This chapter has two definite sections: vs 1-6 warnings about those who are false and vs 7-21 living out the faith in love. We must remember that John was called the “son of thunder” by Jesus for a reason. He was headstrong, impulsive and quick to make judgments. He learned from the Savior how to be discerning and now wants his “friends” and “children” to also be wise and discerning. The author of Hebrews tells us that only those who are mature in the Word are able to distinguish or discern truth from error. John is saying to his beloved followers and to us there are several ways you can discern who is a true follower/teacher/prophet and one who is false.

Often when we are faced with discernment it seems like we are walking in a maze. Distinguish truth by words, not works. What is said when you ask “Who is Jesus.” Is he is “the” Christ come in the flesh; lived, died and rose again according to the scriptures (1Cor 15); the one who atoned for sin? Listen with a discerning ear.

The second say is to distinguish by their life. Follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and observe their life. “The love of God displayed in His people is the strongest apologetic that God has in the world.” [Bruce].

The Holy Spirit will not lead you astray; love is the end of this maze.

Photo: azcoloring.com/printable-coloring + author’s phrasing

June 24, 2015

You Know it is True!

Over the past few weeks we have been inundated with photos, news articles and then the shooting in Charleston. The latter showed us truly: One can only face a tragedy like this when you know this principle: It is ALL ABOUT JESUS! And that has been whole purpose of the letter titled simply: Hebrews.

The author has spent 13 chapters exhorting the believers to stand strong and firm in their faith. It is choosing to abandon the world’s standards to live and walk by faith. Part of that is knowing how to forgive when the unforgivable happens, when your loved ones are no longer with you and you cannot touch them, speak to them, and hear their responses. The heartache is deep and only through the forgiving power of Jesus can one get through it.

The author exhorts them to remember this: It is all about Jesus and that He alone be glorified. Our external works, what we say and what we do are mere pictures of our love for Him; for His sacrifice; for His work of grace; for His example. But, all that we do is mere rubbish if we do it for our glory and not for His. The whole reason that God prepared a body for him was so that he might be the perfect Lamb of God. He is superior to angels, Moses and anyone else and it is because of His sacrifice that we can draw near to the throne of God. His sacrifice cleanses our consciences because He endured the cross. And this is the reason we can cling to this promise: as our Good Shepherd He will never leave us nor abandon us. And this is the point of the entire letter to the Hebrews: it is all about Jesus and His glory.

John Piper sums up Hebrews this way: “Christ has revealed himself to us again and again for our encouragement and our hope and our perseverance, so that we might have strength and love to meet together and stir each other up to live well and to die well by faith, which is the assurance of things hoped for.”

I don’t know about you but my heart aches for those 9 families in Charleston and their church. But, I am also trusting that Romans 8 is also true: we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, That young man had listened so long to hate speech that he thought he had the last word but God alone has the last word. The world is watching …are we forgiving enough to let God perform His good work?

June 7, 2015

Living in the War Zone

Living in the war zone is tough and only the strong prevail for the enemy does not lay down his arms even after a defeat as we saw in the life of our Lord. “so when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until a more opportune time.” [Luke 4] Perhaps this is why the author of Hebrews admonished the readers that “solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.” [Heb 5] The letter to the Ephesians reveals where their armor had a weak point.

Beloved the devil knows the right opportunity, the right method and more importantly which piece of armor is weak. There we must “stay alert” to his ways and be discerning. The Ephesians had started strong but the devil saw a weakness in their armor and it was this: They had lost their first love! They could quote the Bible; they attended the church but it was all dead orthodoxy because their love was waning. Jesus not only rebuked them but called them to repent. And then his scary pronouncement: if they do not return to their first love he will come and snuff out their light. Today the church is under attack and why it is vital that our love for Christ and the church is renewed daily. God has given us the Holy Spirit within us and the church around us. What part of the Ephesian letter applies to us? Are we checking our armor for weak points? Is our love being renewed daily?

March 27, 2015

How Can I love “that person?”

I am sure you have heard this statement: how can I love “that person;” look at how they are or what they have done! Yet when we read Titus 3 we see that we too were once foolish, darkened in our understanding, deceived, enslaved to worldly passions, hateful and hating. How can we love another? It is not from within ourselves for if truth be known we are even as they. Our standard is not others or ourselves but God. The Apostle John also noted this: “for God is love” and “we can only love because he first loved us.” [ 1Jn 4].

Beloved, when we look within ourselves we see that our view is myopic or short-sighted; narrow minded. It is only when we look at ourselves in the mirror, as James reminds us, that we see who we really are. And when that happens we either fall upon our faces and repent or walk away. The mirror reveals two things; our sin and God’s love and our need for His love. Stephen Drain in his Impact Blog reviewed a book by Dwight L. Moody who wrote: “If we really make people believe that God loves them, how we should find them crowding into the kingdom of heaven! The trouble is that people think God hates them; and so they are all the time running away from Him.” But, God does not hate us. In fact He loved us so much that he chose to send his Beloved Son to die for our sins.

We have an opportunity before us this upcoming Resurrection Sunday. Will we show God’s love by loving even the unlovable by sharing His message : GOD LOVES YOU! Gods’ love equation is simple. I loved you and I sent my Son to die for you. What else do you need to understand?

Be sure to go and read Stephen Drain’s Impact Blog as an accompaniment to this blog http://blogs.bible.org/impact/stephen_j._drain/23_books_reviewed_in_23_minutes#comment-25278

March 23, 2014

Prov 7 “Simpleton or Mature?”

Recently a post was written to young men/women about life after high school. It was interestingly similar to an instructional manual and could have come right out of Proverbs 7! Listen to some of the advice offered: To the gals: If a guy calls you at 2 AM to “hangout”…he is not boyfriend material. To guys and gals: go to church…not just because your parents instructed you to do it, but because in church God speaks and you need to hear his voice; now is the time to strengthen your relationship with God and follow his plan. To guys and gals: keep your morals and standards high. The poster asked: Will it be tough? Absolutely. Will you feel like the minority? Absolutely. Should you change to fit in? Absolutely not! This poster has it “right on.”

After giving instruction to his son in chapter 6 along with a list of the things God hates, the father in chapter 7 instructs his son (also applicable to daughters) about what God loves and that begins with being morally pure. Five times he uses the word “keep.” As a dad I implore you to “keep” my words and treasure them. “Keep” my commands and obey my instruction as you would the pupil of your eye. “Keep” wisdom so intimately close that she may “keep” you from the man/woman who fails to “keep” his/her feet at home. Why this concerted effort in using this word? The father knows that without this the adolescent before him will fall victim to the ways of the seducers of the world. Bob Deffinbaugh wrote: “Being simple is a stage in the development of every person, very much like adolescence….being simple is one short step from being a fool, so this critical period in life must be lived very carefully.” As a child still under the parent’s roof he/she is going through a stage and therefore must be instructed. It is not a sin to be simple but it is a sin to not grow from simpleton to maturity. That was the sin that the author of Hebrews spoke about: “But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.”

As Proverbs 7 closes there is a profound warning to those who ignore and become the fool: “Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways – do not wander into her pathways; for she has brought down many fatally wounded, and all those she has slain are many.” The warning is clear. “when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. Do not be led astray” [James]

Beloved, perhaps you are the parent of a simpleton because of their age or because of their naiveté. How are your parenting skills holding up in this time? Will you choose to instruct those under you with the tool that God has given to you? “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The last is critical…training begins in the home so that the child of God may leave the nest with a pure and reverent conduct.

March 5, 2014

“Flattery vs Honesty—which wins?”

There is a saying “It’s funny how everyone considers honesty to be a virtue yet no one wants to hear the truth.” As we read Acts 24 these words should remind us of why, when you share the gospel message and are rejected, it is not you they are rejecting but the very Son of God. But, we are to remain true and steadfast as Paul demonstrated and Dr. Luke shares with us.

In chapter 24 we meet one slick flatterer, Tertullus the high paid lawyer, who arrives with a huge entourage but lacks any genuine witnesses. His flattery and falseness leads to a quick “falling flat on his face” before the Governor Felix. In contrast we see the truth of the prophecy of God regarding Paul to be “my chosen instrument to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel” and the words of Jesus ““Have courage, for just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” is coming to pass. If we were writing this story we might have Felix hear the false and flattering words of Tertullus and like Gallio dismiss the charges against Paul but the words of Isaiah are ringing forth as true: ““Indeed, my plans are not like your plans,” and now the reason…..

God had an eternal plan for this man Felix to hear of the mercy and redemption for his sins but because of his procrastinating, fear and lack of decision making it appears that he never crossed the divide from unbelief to belief. If that is true, he one day will hear these words: “depart from me, I never knew you” because you are “without excuse.” I sent my servant Paul to tell you about My Beloved Son and you would not listen nor accept My truth that Jesus is “The Way, The Truth, The Life” and no man comes to me without that.

Beloved, as you read this chapter do you see the plan of God for someone you love and has yet to choose Jesus? Are you encouraged that just as God gave Felix many opportunities to hear and to respond so too the very fact that your loved one stands still upon this earthly shore means that God is not finished yet with their soul? Do you see the marvelous patience and power of the Word as Paul presented it to Felix over and over and over? That is my friend, God’s love and mercy for the unsaved. Take courage and be ye steadfast knowing that your labor is not in vain.