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Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. I John 4:8

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. I Corinthians 13:7-8b 

God’s nature is love. This must be our standard.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Gretchen

I charge you, to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our LORD Jesus Christ. I Timothy 6:14

Timothy, an early convert turned missionary, was in Ephesus supervising the choosing and training of church leaders when Paul wrote this letter to him. Paul directs Timothy to resist being sidetracked by trivial things and remain focused on the essentials of Truth.

There were no seminaries in the early church. Developing pastoral teams could be a challenge when theological debate took precedence over grace and faith. The lure of financial gain was a distraction in addition to the confusion between righteous behavior and empty tradition. Paul’s charge was a faith the guides godliness, love, endurance and gentleness, thus completing righteousness without spot or blame.

Life is to be lived in the knowledge that Christ will return someday. At that moment the only thing that will matter is your faith, evidenced in the things you did.

Love,

Gretchen

Finally, be strong in the LORD and in His mighty power. Ephesians 6:10

This is the introduction to the full armor of God, the means by which we ourselves will survive Satan’s onslaught.

Written from house arrest in Rome, this letter reads more like a sermon than a correspondence. In it, Paul calls for unity and harmony among believers. Christians must be different than the world. The church, struggling with false profits, opposing theologies, prejudices and anything else satan can devise to destroy, is given specific instructions on how christians should respond to the world around.  First and foremost, God’s power in the life of a Christian is evidenced in our relationship with those around us.

The fight is on. We may be saved, but that won’t stop satan from attempting to hobble our good works in the name of Christ Jesus. The enemy has forces we are unprepared to recognize and oppose without the strength and power of Heaven’s armor. 

Victory is not a casual, coincidental event.  It is fought and won by the stronger, wiser contender.  Be that warrior!

Watch out Satan, Here I Come!

Gretchen

 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from His own work, just as God did from His. Hebrews 4:9-10

There was a mass exodus, thousands departed slavery and headed toward the promise of rest. God led Moses, Moses led the people.  Along the way God gave this new nation boundaries for successful national and interpersonal living.  Obedience was a problem and the great cost was the forfeit of rest. 

The Promised Land was a gift, a place secured by God for His chosen nation. The audience of this letter, Hebrews, knew an entire generation of those led by Moses did not reach God’s rest. Like those sojourners of old, these Christians had seen the miraculous power of God, but seeing isn’t doing, and failure to trust and obey would cost them too.

When God put linear time into creation He planned rest. Set apart from six twenty-four hour days, day seven is for the nurture of an intimate relationship between you and your Creator/Redeemer.  Not only does God say to take your rest, but we must grant rest to all others.  In turn, no one has the right to rob your rest on this Holy Day of Sabbath.  Take your rest, it is God’s gift, and His command.

Happy Sabbath Eve,

Gretchen

Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

For over two years Jesus’ disciples traveled with Him and watched as He served, loved and healed the world’s broken. They have seen Jesus’ miraculous power and know that He is the Son of God, but the time has come for Jesus to complete His mission, to die and rise again, removing every threat against man’s soul. 

It’s time to prepare those who follow Jesus for what is to come. Jesus speaks of the cross for the first time. This cross takes a living breathing mortal and exchanges it for a Savior. We have a cross too. In it we lose our lives to this world and find the spirit of hope, victory and eternal life. 

Obedience to man’s laws and traditions will not do what the cross did. Jesus surrendered Himself to the cross. To deny one’s self is to put others first! All that God created us to be is found in the example of our Savior….He loved until He died of it.

Love,

Gretchen

Therefore, I urge you, brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, Holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

This letter to the church in Rome is for discipleship, a call to a transformed life.  Christians must understand the deity and nature of Christ, and know His resurrection is the means to eternal life.  All actions toward man are done in love. Love in return, for God and others, is sacrifice.

Jewish belief held that Mosaic Law was the completion of God’s will. Therefore, all works of God came through Jewish heritage and tradition.  Paul fought this ideology to teach that God did something new in Christ. Nothing is done through the keeping of laws, but rather the choice of God’s love perpetuating the gift of Christ’s mercy. It is Christ that remained perfectly Holy and stands before God to justify man’s sins. Christ alone is worthy of our gratitude and worship.

Paul speaks of living, not dying!  A living sacrifice is active, in motion, a catharsis for change and is pleasing to God. Because we were sinners SAVED from DEATH and given LIFE, humble thank you’s without end, made evidence in our faith and life’s choices and actions, is the response most pleasing to God. 

Have a great Wednesday,

Gretchen

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. I John 3:1

The apostle John, along with all who believe, is a member of a great paternal inheritance, greater than any prince has ever known. Sadly, the world does not recognize the favor given us, and available to them also, because they do not understand the character of He who gives grace and mercy and possesses all the riches the universe.

As were all the early church leaders, John was confronted with attempts to taint the true Gospel.  Man’s desire to manipulate everything including God Himself, while practicing self exaltation is really quite alarming. The heart of John’s response was to declare the true and pure attributes of Christ and remind those that believe in a resurrected Savior, we must adopt the family likeness.

The Son of God became fully man, like us, so that we could become fully like Him. Family at its finest! Kinship anchored in lavish love.

Love,

Gretchen 

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Galatia was a place populated by gentiles that received the Gospel with great enthusiasm. When Paul, their minister, left to continue his missionary journey, Jewish teachers came and encouraged all new believers to take up the traditions of Judaism, namely, circumcision. Sadly, they taught that you had to be one thing, a Jew, before you could be another, a sinner saved by grace. These new believers complied, but when news reached Paul, he wrote this letter explaining that laws did not bring about salvation.

There are two great temptations at play in Paul’s world. One, to be ruled by law and two, to use law to rule others.  Both paths lead to bondage of one sort or another. This is the very thing Christ died to end.

The Christian life is lived by faith, just as it began. Christ put His life aside that we might have life eternal.  By faith and love we live for Christ. Please God with your faith and everything else will take care of itself.

Love,

Gretchen

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to Your name, O Most High. Psalm 92:1

This Psalm was anonymously written but is titled, A Song for the Sabbath. 

Believers in the One True God are called to set aside labors and cares one day a week and intentionally focus on the wonder of the Creator and Lover of our souls. It brings our storm tossed lives back into a harbor of calm water.

A Holy day is important to the emotional and spiritual well being of the community of Christ. It is a gift, but it is also mandatory maintenance for survival.  This Sabbath is our little bit of Heaven on earth. For when this life is over, we will enter into an eternal day of worship.  We will rest, sing praises and relish in the fellowship of those we love.

Love,

Gretchen

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the LORD. And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” Exodus 34:5-6

Moses returned from 40 days and nights in the presence of God, bringing the engraved laws of the covenant nation. While Moses was with God, the Hebrew children, under the leadership of Aaron, lust for a tangible god and orgy type worship. When Moses finds the chaos and desecration of God’s kindness and provision he throws the precious stones, written by God. Now, Moses has returned to the peak of Mount Sinai and God’s mercy.

The people have sinned and God says He will destroy them, but Moses pled their case. God heard and extended forgiveness and restoration. The announcement from God to Moses, that He is the LORD, is a perspective builder.  Moses was carrying the burden of the people’s sin, but God exclaims it is His character that will determine the destiny of these people, not Moses’. Everything is going to be okay, but there is some work to do.  Moses and God spend another 40 days and nights rewriting instructions for Holy and set apart living so the world may be blessed.

These people, just set free from slavery, were terribly quick to worship god’s of their own making.  What an insult to God’s love!!! Still, God CHOSES…….HE CHOSES to be slow to anger, ABOUNDING IN LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS to mankind.  

You are loved so very much! 

Happy Friday,

Gretchen