. . . 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.

Jesus moved from thoughts and prayers, as those who were hungry were on that mountainside that day.

And he moved from a place of thoughts and prayers to calling on those disciples to say, now go and find food enough to feed the five thousand.

You see, Jesus knew there was a practical element to his ministry.

Jesus knew that's true for us today: to move beyond thoughts and prayers; to get out of that slumber; to move the cover over our heads back over, so that we might get back on the streets into the lives of those who are in desperate need of a world worth saving.

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

PROGRAM LISTINGS & PROGRAM SCHEDULES

"We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick." Love . . . be still . . . soak it up.

Jesus spoke in parables! Isn't that weird? It is true. Jesus spoke in parables. Way-way-way back when, this revelation struck me in a wonderful space. What did I do about it? I did a whole study - in fact, a whole series of studies - on parables and Jesus speaking in parables. Awesome! Don't ask me why I did. I didn't do it to impress God or anywone else for that matter. I didn't do it to be more holy, or to be more of a Christian, or for any kind of feather-in-the-cap stuff. No! It fascinated me that Jesus spoke in parables. In fact, our scriptures as a whole is a compilation of metaphors and mystery and memoirs and poetry and stories and history and letters and recipes, a compilation of HUMAN PROBLEMS in the process of working out solutions. And God is right there in the mix. Then Jesus came and spoke it all out in parables. This I found awesome, and at times (seriously) quite funny the way it seems to me "we" completely miss the whole deal. Yes, Jesus spoke in parables. I wonder why. Well, for sure, I still dunno nothin! But I found out this: Jesus spoke in parables - and what Jesus is speaking to is awesomely revealing. I love it. So, what problem is Jesus really solving?

Love NEVER fails

A far MORE VALUED OS

Love is tough stuff. AND It NEVER fails. M-hm. Are you a Mac or a PC person? Are you an apple or a window? OK, stop fighting; it's an old school kind of question. How often is your computer crashing on you? What sorts of programs are you working? What software packages are they using? Is your system peppered with malware, or is yours completely new-buy-clean and spiffy and untouched? Have you ever tried to load and work all your new-fangled better-than-awesome music and video and artsy-fartsy creativity stuff on your grandma's first computer? Oh, your grandma didn't have a computer! Okay! I'm sorry. Oh, you don't use computers! Ooops! Well, consider this a parable. (Hahahaha-Ah-hahaha). Oh, dear me, I have a weird sense of humor. Try putting your new-fangled modern can-do-all-the-new-super-human-things software on your daddy's cherished old never-broken heavy-weight computer then let's talk. Actually, I'll just listen, even if I heard it before. Where? Jesus talked about this stuff. You don't believe me! He did too! And computers weren't even dreamed up yet back in the day? Did they even have electricity? Hmm? Here is a question I ask myself - quite frequently, if that matters - what problem am I solving? M-hm! Yes, I know. You don't need my answer! And I am not about to give you one. Hmm? What problem was Jesus solving? He was too!!

"I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.   The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Jesus, son of a carpenter, speaker of parables, problem-solver.

Did you notice something else, as well? Children sometimes know more than we think they do. Yes! They try to tell us, but they don't know our language quite so well, so they convey what they want to say in "peculiar" ways.

We too! Sometimes we have a thing or two we want to tell a child, but we are lacking in the means to say it well enough. We convey what we want to say by way of "peculiar" means. M-hm! Very peculiar!

Our language hasn't caught up with us yet. It's got some catching-up to do. Our language is evolving. M-hm! Right before our very eyes. Oh, yes. Let that sink in for a while.

Who made the mountains? Who made the trees? Who made the rivers flow to the sea? Who sends the rain when the earth is dry? Who made the flowers to bloom in the spring? Who made the song for the robins to sing? Who hung the moon in the starry sky? Yes, all that and way much more! Just don't do tables. No-no! Don't do tables!!

Hmm? What Operating System are you using?

Being fully functional and wholly human!

Love NEVER fails.

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

Love never fails. This "thing" is brilliant. A Master Creator! Love is! Yes. A Change Maker, this love is. A Foundation Builder. A Motivator. Infinite in its capacity. Everlasting in its duration. Authentic love fosters strength and courage. It never fails. Everything else fails - and that's okay; really! It's just that Love NEVER FAILS, and that is Awesome!

Scarred hands.
Wounded feet.

Devoted. Love turns ordinary humans into super humans. It's been that way ever long, over and over again from birth, until each time stolen - depleted of our strength, stunted in our growth - while asleep, unconsious of the width and breadth and depth of love which made each of us who and what we are. What a moment this is along our exploration of the true nature of authentic love to be still. Shunt all the 'buts' and 'if-onlys' and 'what-abouts' aside from a distracted mind. Bask in the wonder of what love is doing to each and every authentic body and mind and spirt and soul. Be still. Breathe it all in. Love.

Dare to be YOU.

Perhaps I should tell you a story, not 'story' in the literary sense of story. You will not find a perfected beginning, middle and end, unless God put it there inspite of me! Oh, miracle of miracles. We are sommersaulting right into what's happening just about now, or near as we speak when I got this wonderful reminder: God don't do tables!

Not the one I am sitting at this second, anyway! Tammy gave me this one, and God smiled, reminding me back then, God don't do tables.

Just to be sure I don't forget the wonder of it all it's been raining cats and dogs this entire week where I am. Quite a few folks are happy. They share all sorts of interesting tidbits about rainy experiences: how much they love being in it, how eager they were to walk in it or run through it back when, or sleep in it right now, or just to lay back and watch it falling or rolling down their windowpane. And my imagination goes wild. These are important people, by the way! Nevertheless, not everyone is so enamored with this ten-day heavenly display of awesomeness.

This rain has got some of my tennis players ansie. (Is that a word?) Even those who relish our indoor strategy sessions and video review sessions - yep, no time to waste! - are that much eager to get out in open air, slap balls around, and sweat. But I'd bet there are quite a few folks for whom this deluge has brought misery. I am not a news watcher, but I've been around long enough to figure there is also death and destruction and cost and confusion in the belly of it. And I certainly ought to know by that very measure God don't do tables.

Yes, I know don't do is "bad" grammar and there is nothing my God can't do.

The trouble is, I've got this huggy-huggy-lovie-dovie sensibility that always wants good folk to enjoy the comfort of realising that 'God don't do tables' and become stonger thereby, but I so don't want them to be broken by the reality of it or to be downtrodden at the knowledge of it, so me don't say nuthin, then bounce back by sheepishly - baa-baa-baa - whispering it to folks who already kinda understand that God don't do tables. True, occasionaly, I have written such and such, round and about, about it.

That should count, shouldn't it?

Indeed, I ought to work on courage. Or, perhaps, it's none of my business. Hahahaha! Have you never said to God, "Lord, that's none of my business, I am staying right here in my comfy corner, let them smart-people do what them know to do?"

No? Oh, dear!

On Friday - that's yesterday - God stepped right into my face. Well, I should say my ear. My ear is a part of my face, isn't it? (You really don't want God jumping into your face if you've got a bad heart. Trust me!) But God was nice yesterday. My heart is still ticking.

And God still don't do tables!

There was a slight pause from the downpour and a hope that our courts in, you know, one of our President's neighborhood, might be dry, and I got a none too small hint from the parent of two of my delveloping junior tennis players that she was anticipating I had not cancelled the afternoon's training.

Nope! I texted back.

This would have been an ideal occasion to conveniently forget this 'don't do tables' relationship with you-know-who. As I was preparing, just as if it had not rained a drop for the day, to go and train these two eager kids, I heard a familiar famous voice in the background, saying, "God don't do tables!' It sounded to me like that's what he said. I rushed from my shower and saw, instead, a younger man (who it turns out is also a famous preacher). I guessed he was hosting the ongoing interview with the more seasoned famous preacher. I held my breath and said to myself, "I know that guy; where do I know him from?" Anyway, I had to hurry. And there was no need to worry, thanks to google. I was desparate to find out the context of this bold person who knew enough to shout so loud, "God don't do tables!" if that was what he said, and also to discover why the audience had erupted into such a wondrous roar of excitment.

The kids were eager to see me. I was eager to train them, mindful to keep them from isolated puddles and slippery patches smartly cammouflaging their wet wickedness. The kids were doing well. Their parent seemed pleased.

A few spits from the sky warned me to put an end to training, "Oh kids!" after the next ten balls, then after the next ten balls, then after the next ten, and in the face of please, please, please pleas from the kids, after the next four, then the next four, then NO! Finally, I had some balls.

This love I have; it does not quit!

Swiftly back home. A quick shower. It was googling time. I needed to find that talk. I needed to hear those words again. I needed context. That's what I was after: context! We could say the very same thing in different contexts and then it is not the same thing! I needed context. I found it. Who-ah!

Before we come to that. Take a look at this. Then discuss it.

You see, before I left for my scheduled training with the kids I was working on Masterclass Lessons for this upcoming season's Young Successful Entrepreneur's Training course. Being an entrepreneur is more than about business and the mechanisms of business - it arises from a particular mindset. With what's going on in the world, I was trying to figure out the right balance equation for the make-up of these Empowered Lives Classes. Already the theme, God Don't Do Tables, though not those exact words, were swirling around my head. I wanted to know how best to address it within the context of this season's YSE focus: what problem are you solving? All the more, this is why the famous preacher's declaration piqued my interest. It was time to google.

Here it is!

Funny thing, this pastor-to-pastor interview was out there months ago and I just stumbled into it. Think about that. That says a lot more than at first apparent.

Think about it.

Anyway, I was in sync with that reality, and was now back to preparing my YSE Masterclass. I wanted to be sure our participating Young Entrepreneurs were equipped with what is useful, fruitful and timely for the times they are operating in. It is crucial. Absent that, they would be wasting time spinning their wheels and running in circles, like so many are doing, because they don't know any different.

It's crucial.

Back in my boy days reading the bibile - the whole bible, that is - I would have gone swimmingly along, unfazed if anyone had mentioned I was in the midst of reading Part 1 and Part 2 of the Holy Book. But my mother pointed out the fact that having completed the Old Testament it was time for the New Testament.

Old Testament? New Testament?

Now I had questions.

Old Covenant?

New Convenant?

Well, now I had serious questions but wasn't sure exactly what they were. It boiled down to one important question: why?

It took a long-long-long time growing up on the sidelines, listening like Rodin's sculptured Thinker, to endless debates, discussions and opinions, as well as, well let's not talk about that now, before I was able to ferret out the simple truth: each has its own operating system. Oh, yeah!

The Old Testament's Operating System is LAW.

The New Testament's Operating System is LOVE.

Who-ah! Why couldn't anyone say that? Hmmm?

Yes, I know: I am not about to complicate it with all that 'dispensation' stuff. You are welcome to, if you find the need.

In the old testament, the human condition - scriptures' metaphors and mysteries and memoirs and poetry and stories and history and letters and recipes - those problems and solutions - were being run on the Operating System of LAW. It is not a secret. Truly, it is not.

In the new testament, not a revised testament, a new testament, under a new covenant with God, the human condition - scriptures' metaphors and mysteries and memoirs and poetry and stories and history and letters and recipes - our problems and solutions - the strategies Jesus offers is based on an entirely different Operating System. LOVE. And that's no secret.

Force the old upon the new or the new upon the old, and the entire fabric is ripped! No wonder there is so much confusion: fightings, killings, tortured minds and troubled souls. Oh, dear! Trouble trouble and trouble will truly trouble you! Well, that's what my granny used to say.

Similarly, if our entrepreneurs end up doing the right things in the wrong season or the wrong things in right season, well, you see what I mean! Plus, I wanted them to be sure to know God gave them trees and that God don't do tables, so not to waste time bruising their knees when they could be using their brains to bless God and God's peoples.

Need I say more.

When I am weary, filled with despair, who gives me courage to go on from there? M-hm! And who gives me faith that will never die? M-hm! That's right! But God don't do tables. Nor chairs. God does trees!! M-hm.

Let's take good care of them trees, y'all!

What do you see?

(Share!)

I see love, baby. Real love. A super power! A safe place. Solid groud. A place of wholeness. A place where we belong, where loving is unconditional, where we love and are loved: safe and solid to be, free to live and grow and bear fruit in season. Whoow!

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

.

Something To Consider

* * *

You are

What POWER!