Ask and Ye Shall Receive:Or Click Amen and Win Instantly

John 14:14 "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

In a society where people want their every want and desire filled yesterday; people tend to be easily influenced by someone that seems to be able to make that happen. Those people who will twist wording and scripture around to take advantage of people when they are in a bad place.

Take the opening verse for example; when taken out of context a convincing speaker could make you think just by asking in Christ's name you can have anything you want. But when you put it together with the corresponding words of Christ it says, "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Whatever is asked in his name that will glorify the Father he will do it. The key word here is to glorify the Father not to fill your desire. When you need something and you pray in his name he will provide. It may not be when you want, or how you thought it would come, but he will provide.

Matthew 6:26-34 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Satan preys on you when your at your weakest. Easily manipulated, easy to control, and easy to follow a wolf. And believe me there are many wolves out there; and most are shining like a golden chalice beckoning you to come and take a sip. Christ always said the way to distinguish between a wolf and a sheep is by the fruit they produce. Some wolves are so convincing they may seem like they are doing a great good. A Pastor's focus must be walking as Christ did and helping those that can't help themselves.

I will say I am guilty of asking God to just let me win the lottery; we probably all are. Of course I said I would pay off all my family's debt and help others, but I was still thinking of a big family vacation, and yes I'm ashamed to say, my own Lego DeathStar. Even with doing some good with the money I would win, I was still focused on my wants; not my needs. 

Just as Christ told the rich man in Mark 10:21-22, And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. But his countenance fell at the saying, and he went away sorrowful: for he was one that had great possessions. 
There is enough money and resources to eradicate homelessness and poverty 100 times over. But the currency of this world is Greed and it's motto is whatever pleases self.

My point is be careful; as Christ said," Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves."

When you find yourself hurting, defeated, and alone turn to Christ. Not the God of type Amen and you will receive a blessing tomorrow. Not the God of "Send me your money and God will bless you!" Not the God of "Just ask for what you want in Jesus name and you will get it because God wouldn't want you to not be happy." 

Turn to the God of the Bible, to the God of compassion and love, to the God of forgiveness and salvation.  To the God that won't give you your every desire but will supply you with all you need.

Let Christ into your heart. Begin to walk in his footsteps and love and care for the helpless around you. Put other's needs above your own. Know that your true reward is not here; but it's in your home where Christ resides and abundantly takes care of those who show his love and light to others.

Colossians 3:17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding

Parenting: God's Humility Training Plan

Psalms 127:3 Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah;
And the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Parenting is one of the most rewarding things on Earth, but also one of the hardest, frustrating, and many times humiliating things on Earth.

We have chosen and been blessed to take responsibility for another person's life. With that comes the most humble job you could ever take on. More and more parents don't take their role in their children's life seriously. This covers not just the fact of whether or not you are there for them, but how you act when your around them.

Children absorb and imitate everything they see. They take all that they absorb and it molds them into what they will be in the future. Do you want your child to imitate someone who shows love and compassion to all; or one who is filled with hate and regret.

I read a good quote that says “children don’t create problems they reveal them.” That's a pretty powerful statement for the parent. We are so busy with our day to day lives that we often don't give them the kind of attention and guidance they need. Their behavior is quite often a revelation of something we are doing wrong. Now don't get me wrong kids still have their moments but if we honestly stepped back and looked at those occasions, we may be surprised of the root cause.

It is natural for children to test limits. They want to find out where the boundaries are. You don’t need to teach a child to say “no” or “mine” they pick it up without difficulty. Part of the role of parents is teaching their children to share, to give, to forgive, to love others. We are by nature selfish, part of our role as parents is to teach otherness to our children. We should show our children and grandchildren how good it can feel to help others.

In one recent survey, fathers were said to spend only 37 seconds a day in conversation with their boys. How do you teach anyone anything important in 37 seconds a day? I admit I spend more than 37 seconds each day with my son, but unfortunately not always actually preparing him for life. We have to humble ourselves. Being a parent means all your wants are trivial compared to what your child needs. Yes we all need time to ourselves; some of us more than others. But it must be done in a way where the child doesn't feel like they are a burden.

One of the ways I demonstrate love to my children is spending time with them and consistently setting limits. We must be humble with our time to give the children what they need. I stumble with this all the time, but the time and love we show them will be reflected in the person they become.

It can be said that, If a child lives with criticism, He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility, He learns to fight. Proverbs 19:18 Chasten thy son, seeing there is hope; And set not thy heart on his destruction.

If a child lives with ridicule, He learns to be shy. Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not discouraged.

If a child lives with shame, He learns to feel guilty. Luke 17:2 It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

If a child lives with tolerance, He learns to be patient. Luke 9:48 and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same is great.

If a child lives with encouragement, He learns confidence

If a child lives with praise, He learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness, He learns justice.  Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son; But he that loveth him corrects him.

If a child lives with security, He learns to have faith.

If a child lives with approval, He learns to like himself.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, He learns to find love in the world. Mark 9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve; and he saith unto them, If any man would be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.

Realize as a parent you are a steward of your child. The Father admonishes us to be careful that you don’t forget what God has done for you and to make sure to pass down your faith to your children and grandchildren. God has given each parent a responsibility to train up their children in the Lord. This cannot be passed on to someone else, it is yours.

Proverbs 22:6 says to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

As parents we are working in partnership with God to bring our children from a self-centered
lifestyle to a God-centered  basis for living. Our goal is to produce responsible adults who are able
to function independently of parent’s authority, yet wholly submitted to God’s.

Remember to be fair in discipline. God is always our model in discipline. God treats us with grace, not as we deserve. He treats us fair and is quick to forgive. He is motivated by love and operates out of love.

There are two dangers in parenting, one is being too lenient. The failure to set rules and to be consistent with them. The other is to be too rigid and harsh. To set impossible standards that your children cannot live up to. This quenches the spirit of a child. 

Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding

Love Starts Here: (Naked and Unashamed)

Marriage is more wonderful than anyone on earth knows. And the reasons it is wonderful can only be learned from God’s special revelation and can only be cherished by the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to behold and embrace the wonder. The reason we need the Spirit’s help is that the wonder of marriage is woven into the wonder of the gospel of the cross of Christ, and the message of the cross is foolishness to the natural man, and so the meaning of marriage is foolishness to the natural man. 1 Corinthians 2:14-Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.

 Leaving parents and holding fast to a wife, forming a new one-flesh union, is meant from the beginning to display this new covenant — Christ’s leaving his Father and taking the church as his bride, at the cost of his life, and holding fast to her in a one-spirit union forever. 1 Corinthians 6:17-But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Genesis 2:25, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” What is the point of that verse? Now obviously they were in perfect bodies, without blemish our blame. Since their appearance was perfect, they did not have the slightest fear that their spouse would disapprove of them. In other words, their freedom from shame was because they had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. But is that the point?

First off no matter how perfect the appearance of your spouse is, if your unkind or selfish you can make comments in a way that will shame the other. Not being ashamed in marriage takes more than being perfect, it takes the one looking at you to be morally upright and gracious. If they have this your spouse's appearance will mean nothing.

I feel that the emphasis falls not on their freedom from physical imperfection, but on their fullness of covenant love.  I am imperfect but I have no fear of being disapproved by my spouse because I can be shame free based on the gracious nature of covenant love. There is no shame because covenant love covers a multitude of flaws. 1 Peter 4:8- Above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covereth a multitude of sins.

Marriage was designed from the beginning to display Christ and the church, and the very essence of the new covenant is that Christ passes over sins in his bride. His bride is free from shame not because she is perfect, but because she has no fear that her lover will condemn her or shame her with her sin.

In Genesis 2:17, God had said to Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” I think the "knowledge of good and evil" refers to a status of independence from God. Where Adam and Eve would decide apart from God what was right and wrong. The first effect of this rebellion was  “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” What does this mean?

Suddenly they are self-conscious and aware of shame. They weren't all of a sudden ugly, so why then the shame? Because the foundation of covenant-keeping love collapsed. And with it the sweet, all-trusting security of marriage disappeared. The foundation of covenant-keeping love between a man and a woman is the unbroken covenant between them and God. God governing them for their good and they enjoying him in that security and relying on him. When they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that covenant was broken and the foundation of their own covenant keeping collapsed. They experienced this immediately in two ways.

In the first case, I am self-conscious of my body and I feel vulnerable to shame because I know Eve has chosen to be independent from God. I feel vulnerable around her, because she is very likely to put me down if that puts her up. So now my nakedness is precarious. I don't trust her to love me with a pure covenant love so I am self-conscious and ashamed.

The other source is that Adam himself, not just his spouse, has broken covenant with God. If she is rebellious and selfish and therefore unsafe, so am I. But the way I experience it in myself is that I feel defiled and guilty and unworthy. This huge gap between what I am and what I ought to be colors everything about me — including how I feel about my body. So my wife might be the safest person in the world, but now my own sense of guilt and unworthiness makes me feel vulnerable.

They tried to cope with this new situation by making clothing: “And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”Adam and Eve’s effort to clothe themselves was a sinful effort to conceal what had really happened. So they tried to close the gap between what they were and what they ought to be by covering what is and presenting themselves in a new way. From their standpoint, this was the origin of hypocrisy. It was the first attempted, and totally unsuccessful — snow job.

So what does it mean that God clothed them with animal skins? Was he confirming their hypocrisy? Was he aiding and abetting their pretense? If they were naked and shame-free before the Fall, and if they put on clothes to minimize their shame after the Fall, then what is God doing by clothing them even better than they can clothe themselves? I think the answer is that he is doing something with a negative message and something with a positive message. Negatively, he is saying, The chasm between what you are and what you ought to be is huge. Covering yourself with clothing is a right response to this — not to conceal it, but to confess it.  One practical implication of this is that public nudity today is not a return to innocence but rebellion against moral reality. God ordains clothes to witness to the glory we have lost, and it is added rebellion to throw them off.

And for those who rebel in the other direction and make clothes themselves a means of power and prestige and attention getting, God’s answer is not a return to nudity but a return to simplicity.
1 Peter:3-4 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 

This was not only a witness to the glory we lost and a confession that we are not what we should be, but it is also a testimony that God himself would one day make us what we should be. God’s mercy points to the day when he will solve the problem of their shame decisively and permanently. He will do it with the blood of his own Son. And he will do it with the clothing of righteousness and the radiance of his glory.Philippians 3:21- He will fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.

Which means that our clothes are a witness both to our past and present failure and to our future glory. They testify to the chasm between what we are and what we should be. And they testify to God’s merciful intention to bridge that chasm through Jesus Christ and his death for our sins. He will solve the problem of fear and pride and selfishness and shame between man and woman with his new blood-bought covenant.


May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding

Love Starts Here (One Flesh)

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18,21-25)

There never has been a generation whose view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between the biblical vision of marriage and the human vision is, and has always been, enormous. Some cultures in
history respect the importance and the permanence of marriage more than others. Some, like our own, have such low, casual, take-it-or-leave-it attitudes toward marriage as to make the biblical vision seem ludicrous to most people.

That was the case in Jesus’ day as well, and ours is vastly worse. When Jesus gave a glimpse of the magnificent view of marriage that God willed for his people, the disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Matthew 19:10). In other words, Christ’s vision of the meaning of marriage was so enormously different from the disciples, they could not even imagine it to be a good thing. That such a vision could be good news was simply outside their understanding.

If that was the case back then, how much more will the magnificence of marriage in the mind of God seem unintelligible to the world we live in, where the main idol is self, and its main doctrine is autonomy, and its central act of worship is being entertained, and its two main shrines are the television and the cinema, and its most sacred gesture is the uninhibited act of sex.

Jesus would very likely say to us today, when he had finished opening the mystery for us, the same thing he said in his day: “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. . . . Let the one who is able to receive this receive it” (Matthew 19:11-12).

The greatness and glory of marriage is beyond our ability to think or feel without divine revelation and without the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. The world cannot know what marriage is without learning it from God.

Marriage is God's Doing
Marriage is God’s doing because it was his design in the creation of man as male and female. It is God, not man, who decrees that man’s solitude is not good, and it is God himself who sets out to complete one of the central designs of creation, namely, woman and man in marriage. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Don’t miss that central and all important statement: God himself will make a being perfectly suited for him — a wife.

God Gave Away the First Bride
Marriage is God's doing because he gave away the first bride. He created her and in a sense fathered her. In verse 22 He gives her to man. Man does not have to seek her out. He gave her to man in marriage, a new type of relationship unlike any other.

God Spoke the Design of Marriage Into Existence 
The Father spoke the design in verse 24 when he said “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

God Performs the One-Flesh Union
Just as in verse 24 it states the man leaves his parents and becomes one with his wife, Jesus adds a profound statement to that in Mark 10:8-9. “The two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
When a couple speaks their vows and consummates their vows with sexual union, it is not man or woman or pastor or parent who is the main actor. God is. God joins a husband and a wife into a one-flesh union. The world doesn't know this and is why marriage is looked on so casually. And unfortunately those in the church quite often don't act like they know it, and this is why marriage isn't seen as the wonder it is.

Marriage Is For God's Glory
Marriage is the display of God and is designed by God to display his glory in a way that no other event or institution can.In Genesis 2:24, God says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” What kind of relationship is this? How are these two people held together? Can they walk away from this relationship? Can they go from spouse to spouse? Is this relationship rooted in romance? Sexual desire? Need for companionship? Cultural convenience? What holds it together?

The words "hold fast" and "become one flesh" point to a much deeper relationship. It points to marriage as a sacred covenant; one that can weather all storms, as in “as long as we both shall live.”
In Ephesians 5:31-32 Paul speaks the verse of becoming one flesh than adds an all-important explanation.“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” In other words marriage is patterned after the covenant that Christ has with his people.  Christ thought of himself as the bridegroom coming for his bride, the true people of God.

Christ knew he would have to pay the dowry of his own blood for his redeemed bride. He called this relationship the new covenant — “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). This is what Paul is referring to when he says that marriage is a great mystery: “I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Christ obtained the church by his blood and formed a new covenant with her, an unbreakable “marriage.”

 Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to the church. And therefore the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display.

Staying married, therefore, is about keeping covenant. “Till death do us part,” or, “As long as we both shall live” is sacred covenant promise — the same kind Jesus made with his bride when he died for her. Therefore, what makes divorce and remarriage so horrific in God’s eyes is not merely that it involves covenant breaking to the spouse, but that it involves misrepresenting Christ and his covenant. Christ will never leave his wife. Ever. There may be times of painful distance and tragic backsliding on our part. But Christ keeps his covenant forever. Marriage is a display of that!

In Part 2 we will cover verse 25 "naked and unashamed."

May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding

Evil Surrounds Us

Ephesians 6:11-17 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

Yes Evil has been in humanity since the garden; but you can't look around and tell me it's not increasing daily. If you can then you have become blinded to your surroundings. I have read in just the last week over a hundred articles of people maliciously killing people and committing suicide.

Over 95% of those articles had some form of reference to demons. You always hear the sayings, "He's never seemed like this before", or "She was always so kind to everyone she met." Over and over the horrible crimes are a complete surprise to all those around. A search on Google for articles of murderers who hear demons comes back with over 100 million hits. Believe what you want but the work of Satan and his followers surrounds us all.

I have personally been witness to people overcome by these forces on more than one occasion.  But as a society blinded we have labeled them with the astigmatism of mental illness. Now are these people disturbed in the mind, most assuredly so. But not for the reasons we have come to believe. We pump them full of drugs thinking this will cure them of their condition.

In the bible; several verses tells of the people who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. One of those are those that practice sorcery. The Greek word that Sorcery is translated from is pharmakeia. Or where we get the words used today for Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals. It was the practice of  the black arts by ways of administering drugs.

The battle against spiritual forces is as prevalent today; if not more, than it was 2000 years ago. These are just a few of the thousands of articles out there.
 ttps://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/28/face-eating-frat-boy-tells-dr-phil-he-was-running-from-a-demon/21864206/
http://wjla.com/news/local/man-accused-of-killing-germantown-pastor-he-believed-was-possessed-by-demons-112266
https://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/port-lincoln-murder-suicide-dad-battling-demons/2890951/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4276336/MS-13-gang-members-accused-Satanic-rape-murder.html

"Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7

When your eyes have been opened you can see the darkness. You can see where it is safe, or where to avoid. Those who have the light of the Father; and those that are so surrounded by darkness they desperately need prayers to the Father.

1 Peter 5:8-9 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith." 

We're in a battle in this world. We may not see it, we might forget it's there. But the enemy would love nothing more than to start our day off with discouragement and defeat, bringing fear and stress. Don't let him win.

Everyone pray for your family, your friends, your town, your country, and our world. Darkness will be conquered but don't think for one second it's not going to substantially increase before Christ returns. Open your eyes and stray from the darkness. Pray unceasingly. Those that are the Father's can live in the hope and faith of his abundant light.

Luke 8:17-  "For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

Luke 10:19
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” 

May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding

A Painful Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Yes love is all those things but it is also painful. You might be saying," that makes no sense". True love is painful. When you have true agape love for someone your path will not only be wonderful but painful. Agape love embraces an unconditional love that transcends, that serves regardless of the circumstances.

If you feel unappreciated,unloved,or disrespected yet all you show in return is love that's agape love. Showing love to your spouse or others while feeling like this is a Christ like love. I know a lot of people will say that's ridiculous that person needs to leave.

The type of love we should show others is the same as Christ's love is described in Romans 8:35-39-
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Think about the kind of love Christ had to have for humanity. Would you stay in a relationship where your spouse beat you until you were almost dead? Of course not! But Christ Did!

 Would you put up with a spouse that called you every name in the book and spit on you? Probably not. But Christ Did!

Would you love someone that when you asked for water they made you drink gall?  Christ Did!

 I don't think I even have to ask if you would stick around if your spouse stabbed you. But Christ's side was pierced by a spear. He could have left, fought back, or destroyed everyone there; but all he did was say "Father forgive them for they do not know what they're doing."  I call that some pretty painful love.

1 Peter 2-19-21- For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

 In today's society it's much easier to run away instead of facing our problems. If we can't show true love to the one person we've chosen to unite our souls with; how can we expect to show agape love to others? People marriage and for that matter life is not easy. Everyday is filled with pain in one form or another.

Your spouse doesn't thank you for cleaning the house after working all day, show them love and pray for them. Your kids act like wild banshees on the prowl for souls, correct them with love. Yes I know at this point you are wondering what I'm taking. It won't be easy but the results will be Amazing!

Someone has an attitude with you respond with love. I know it's a foreign concept but anger and resentment only festers away at your soul till there's nothing left. This is why true love is painful. 

Romans 13:10-Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

We are called to be as Christ. A Christlike Love is the most important thing. Love your spouse as Christ loves you. Love your children as Christ loves you. And yes even love your enemies as Christ loves you. Christ suffered immeasurable pain in love for us. Is it too much to ask to try to show the same love to those we hold dear?

 Love them not with an earthly love looking for acceptance; but a heavenly love where your reward comes from the Father.

 1 John 4:18-19-There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love, because he first loved us.

May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding