Summer has become methodical. Most of us feel we have what summer offered. The forecast on the west coast is wildfires. The forecasts for the coming week indicate this is Texas. And we have violence in El Paso and Ohio.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
When we fully know Jesus - we know the greatest of all hopes - He is Love.
Jesus is beyond what men say and further than what the Angels themselves have to say. Jesus is Love.
As Christians we know this.
And then, in the routines of a season we look forward to, as temperatures increase, as the season departs, we see a pattern of violence we are becoming familiar with. Mass Shootings.
The innocent are harmed. The non-violent have life changing injuries and death occurs. Terror has made an impact.
2 Corinthians 4:8-12
We are afflicted in every way,
but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Ephesians 4:14-15
So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ
Seasons.
Thomas Jefferson dealt with terrorism at Sea. Our Grandparents dealt with a World at War. The goals of the wars created - do not sound feasible or possible. Anger, Greed and Death. Power and Despair.
My in-laws, in elementary school, had Spring Break taken away. The Dallas School Children brought in the cotton crops for the soldiers to have clothing.
In the 1950s, school children heard sirens and got under the complete and total safety of a 2 foot by 2.5 foot desk to take cover from atomic bomb. Cuba let us know this was completely feasible and we could all roast immediately.
We were out of Oil in the 1970s. To get gasoline, one waited in line for two or more hours. It just didn't make sense.
When I was in elementary school, commercial airlines were in the news to a considerable degree - of entire planes hijacked. The Olympics saw all the Israel Team murdered.
Eventually, there will be a formula - fame for killing, won't motivate the haters.
And there will be a different type of trouble, oppression and adversity. Hatred is not sustainable. All wars, all conflict has a time and a season. And hatred and violence end, we have a time for rejuvenation and positive changes will happen.
Life will always present a way for the fiery ordeal to be shocking.
1 Peter 4:12
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
We will face mortal injuries and illnesses. We will have loss as people we love suffer. We will see the circle of life and the Scriptures sometimes call this The Day of The Lord. God says these are not pleasant times. Ecclesiastes is serious work - with age and true life.
Life really has seasons we feel - endangered.
We all work very hard to put suffering from us.
This is the circle of life.
It's not wrong to put down the trouble we can with faith God is Working.
Jesus found Joy knowing life. Jesus touched lepers. He placed in fingers in deaf ears. Jesus touched mute tongues. And in touching what needed God desperately and in the joy we all find in God's Gift of LIFE - we find mature life.
When we see Politics - we see policies of life and situations we don't control. We reveal our lives in the political talk. We tell our fears and our anger.
When we see Mass Shootings. We see the craziness of anger and selfishness ruining innocence senselessly. We see the faces of the bystanders and we wonder why those who are so angry can't be touched by the intense sadness of Innocence. The Scriptures will carry us an amazing way - to great depth. The Disciples told the children to make time for adults now, leave nice Jesus alone. It was God Himself who held the innocents to Himself. God cares for the people with kind hearts wondering - why the fiery trial.
We do ourselves no favor to rush past. To pretend safety.
Luke 13:4
Those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - - -
3 No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
We are all perishing. Good News. We just don't have to be so afraid. Jesus Christ told us we are Flowers of the Field. Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes. We pray to go far, far, far and finish well. And in God's Grace, we believe we will.
And then God says the impossible.
Ephesians 4:13
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
This isn't the end, this is the Beginning. Sunrise. Light of the World.
Jesus turned the Roman Empire "Upside Down" - - - people Knew Jesus was Alive. Bodily Alive. Witnessed. God has a PLAN.
Even the dust God has pity on.
Psalm 102:14
For her hard as stones - life paths - are dear to your people; her very dust moves them to pity.
Life can be so difficult. So hard. So entrenched. The Valley of Bones and dust.
Ezekiel 37
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them,
‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
The Word of God manifest and laughing with delight with Father God as Creation was Spoken. Jesus the Christ was there to see prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, mountains moved.
To be grace and truth.
God's Only Son, The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus gave away all He had, and He delivered up His body to be destroyed - for Love. To gain you, to gain me, to gain Heaven.
With us, Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus is love and does not envy or boast. Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus as Father God, with the Prodigal son - does not insist on His own way; He is not irritable or resentful.
Jesus the Lord God, Christ does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world.
Love never ends.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
In Christ Jesus you are all sons and daughters of God, through faith. And in Christ’s love, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
under obligation
to have a response to the Love God has for us.
We are
under obligation
to have a response to the Love God has for us.
The one who looks at Jesus, is seeing Father God, who sent our Jesus.
Anyone who has seen our Jesus, has seen Father God.
Abba, Our Father God,
Please fill us with all joy and peace in believing.
We know we pray because You know the Beloved One has needs You already Know. We are asking You our Loving Abba.
We will
abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We pray
this upon the ones we Love, our Church, our co-workers, our neighbors and our Nation.
We Know
the power of prayer from around the world to You, our Willing Father. We cherish the people and nations around the world - praying with faith and Love.
In Jesus the Lord! Amen!
♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †
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