“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) Often when we say “I love you” we mean “I like you. I think you’re a nice person and it is usually pleasant to be around you.” When someone questions our love for them, however, they mean, “You have been impatient, unkind to me, envious of me, boastful, arrogant, or rude towards me. You probably have also have been insisting upon your own way or have been irritable or resentful towardsRead More →

“ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) Without love, we cannot serve God. Without love, we cannot see God. No wonder then the devil seeks to redefine love todayRead More →

“ We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” (2 Thessalonians 1:3) We just don’t pray like they used to, unless always was an exaggeration. Today, “Sweet hour of prayer” would be “Sweet five minute quiet time with God.” And most of us feel pretty darn spiritual if we faithfully sit down and pray and read our bibles for a sum total of five minutes. Discipline is in short supply in America and the Church especially often decries it asRead More →

“O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10) What does it mean to hate evil? We know the Lord does not contradict himself, and Christ commanded us to love our enemies. So how do we reconcile this? I would cross reference both verses with Romans 12-19-21: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; forRead More →

“Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.” (Proverbs 21:21) So pursuing righteousness gets me righteousness and life. Pursuing kindness gets me honor? Interesting. The Church today has a hard time pursuing both righteousness and kindness. The devil fights us because either one  isn’t enough. We need both to find life righteousness, and honor. So all he has to do is keep us from being one or the other–and we can be more easily tricked into thinking we’re following Jesus properly in either half way state. The devil also likes to get us focused on the opposite problem than the one weRead More →