. . . the fruit of the Spirit is
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
and self-control.
There is no law (Jewish Law) against such things.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." 

This is the first commandment.

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

There is no other commandment greater than these.

Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;

and to virtue knowledge;

and to knowledge temperance;

and to temperance patience;

and to patience godliness;

and to godliness brotherly kindness;

and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

living water

I am made in the image of God, not your image of God.

We believe that God can do all things, and in all things God works together for good those who love God, but we need to love God.

And so in these weeks we unveil and begin this year by looking at some of the doctrines that perhaps many of us have lived under, and perhaps many of us still hold onto, because, perhaps, no one has perhaps told us anything different.

As a child I learned very easily there is a big difference between churchianitty and christianity; that so often the 'church' will use doctrines to bind us up when Jesus ALWAYS sets us free.

And that's another cool thing our Senior Pastor told us.

PROGRAM LISTINGS & PROGRAM SCHEDULES

"There are nourishing relationships and there are toxic relationships. Nourishing relationships; they bring the best out of you; they inspire you! Toxic relationships, they drain you!" Hmm. Worse!

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 

If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. 

If I give all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. Love is not proud. Love is not rude. Love is not self-seeking. Love is not easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil. Love rejoices with the truth.

Love always protects. Behold! Love preserves. Love covers. Yes, we are agape at this twelfth sector of our grid exploring the authentic nature of true love. Oh. to love like this! Preserving. Covering. Yes. And to be loved like this! Preserved. Covered. Oooh-wee!

Isn't it magnificent? Isn't it glorious? Who can contain it?

Love's got your back!

What if we renew our minds, toss out negativity, and consider where we are? Here we are: Love ALWAYS protects. What does this mean? What does this imply? Hahahaaaa! Love preserves. Love covers.

Let's let this reality sink in for a moment. Let's let it settle into all our vital parts.

Love! Agape! Yes, Agape! M-hm.

And storge! And phila! And eros!

Yes, let it all stir then settle then stir again. Such love. Oooh. Rising through the ashes. Hahahaaaaa! Behold, the love of God accessing us! Behold us accessing it. Love. Awesome love. Do we not know this love? (Share)

Being fully functional and wholly human!

Love ALWAYS protects.

"Love is an active, accountable, responsible 'being' that makes decisions reflective of its authentic self."

None of my biblical heroes and sheroes were born with halos around their heads. And none got, gained or were given any such celestial rings along their treasured journeys into my history. Halos would have spoiled it all. For me!

Oh, but look what I got!

• Humans rising through the ashes.
• Humans growing through dysfunction.
• Humans stepping to the occasion creating momentums others build upon.
• Humans stretching beyond the boundaries of oppression and persecution, overcoming overwhelming odds to set courses upon which many now run the greatest races ever.
• Humans discovering nothing is impossible.
• Humans creating legacies lives thousands of years later lift in gratitude.
• Lives repeatedly reprised!

Oooh-wee, what a Creator!

In our blissful freedom of access to easy gatherings - to mega buildings with superior technology and billionaire tag-team preachers; to push-button praise and worship compilations of style and form perfectly suitable to preferred tastes; to cheap easy-life plans and fast-climb-to-glory-ladder deals, all ready at a click or a touch or a murmur - it is easy to forget where we came from, even easier to be misled about where we are headed. So easy for the real glory to be lost and our potent passion to be spoiled!

So easy.

But let us not forget.

It is up to each of us not to forget, in order to build upon solid foundations.

The early church (gatherings of followers of Christ; believers; christians) were oppressed peoples - persecuted for following Christ, the Son of The Living God, who was unjustly convicted, and profanely nailed to a cross as a common criminal, and mockingly killed, then buried. Have we so quickly forgotten who the persecutors were? Let's not forget who their oppressors were! Nor of whom! It is vital we remember. Not for a grudge! Oh, no. Not at all for a grudge!

It is easy to forget.

And upon that, so much easier to be misled.

Many of the early church had to sneak secretly into homes - from home to home - and lean on each other, and learn from each other, and build with each other, learning from their mistakes, learning from their struggles, learning to love: how to love, who to love, why to love - always to love - seeking to do as Jesus inspired, and in so doing experienced the joy, as promised, as each loves one another "as I have loved you."

It is easy for us to forget. And upon that, so much easier to be misled.

Let's not forget these early believers (followers of Christ, human beings reviled under the name 'christian') DID NOT HAVE BIBLES, even as we know it today, so shiny and gold trimmed, perfectly bound and conveniently annotated, and that, not merely by virtue of unaffordability, rather, because OUR BIBILE DID NOT EXIST! Period.

Let's not forget this.

It is easy to forget in our comfort and ease. Then so much easier to be misled.

The struggles our ancestors faced, rather, some of it; the strategies they used, rather, some of it; their successes and failures, rather, some of it; are NOW canonized into our inspired scriptures. Our blessed foreparents did not have these organized into flippable pages placed into sanitized hands or set upon polished bedstands! THEY DID NOT! They lived it. Who-ah!

Oh, how blessed we are - and so easily unaware of it - and, for our ready forgetfulness, in rides ready danger mounted high and puffed up with a whip and a chain and a bag of silver coins!

Has the persecution abated? No! Has the oppression stopped? No! Now persecutors have claimed the name. Oppressors have claimed the name. True Love - real love; authentic love - is under condemnation under the name! So easily it happens. So easily, we are rendered helpless, caught unawares, tricked by their audacity, trapped in our easy, unwrapped from the name, hands bound, blindfolded, knees scraped, wondering when God will come!

Oh, dear me!

Which of us - or how many of us if any of us - are asleep in a certain idea, which is in some fashion like this: God wrote a book, published it, issued it, and said, 'There! I have spoken. I told you what I want. I told you what to do. Bye-Bye! I'll be back soon enough! Take the tests. I'll be back with my Final Exam. If you fail, Bye-Bye! There are no make-overs or do-overs, so you'd better pass! My fire is lit. And it is very hot. Ta-ta! See you soon!'

So - how ready are you for the Big Test, your Final Exam?

Is that the God you serve?

Not 'our' early believers who, perchance, did not buy that book or recieve a signed copy from its famous author.

Rather, out of the wisdom of their experiences arose this: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

This is no ordinary love.

This Love is patient. This Love is kind. This Love does not envy. This Love does not boast. This Love is not proud. This Love is not rude. This Love is not self-seeking. This Love is not easily angered. This Love keeps no record of wrongs. This Love does not delight in evil. This Love rejoices with the truth. THIS LOVE ALWAYS PROTECTS. It preserves. It covers. And we ain't done exploring it all yet. I confess this is the kind of love that inspires and impassions and strengthens me. I can't abide the cheap stuff. Yes, Jesus loves me.

What about you?

(Share!)

This thing is huge.

"Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." Elif Shafak.

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Something To Consider

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You are

What POWER!