Radical Love

There is a chapter in Bill Hybel's book Who Are You When No One's Looking titled Radical Love. This chapter focuses on Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount to make a case for the kind of radical love that is expected from followers of Christ. Hybel's says: 

"According to Jesus, the demands of radical love often exceed those of any written law. Love never seeks to get away with doing the bare minimum. It goes beyond law keeping and offers outrageous service...

As Jesus clearly taught, the  highest priority in the life of every believer should be to love God with all our hearts, souls, and mind (Matthew 22:37-40). Our second highest priority should be to love people, all of whom matter to God, in a radical second mile way....

[The Sermon on the Mount] plainly points out the secret power of the second mile. When we exceed the barest minimums of service, when we go beyond the call of duty, it has an effect on people that they do not soon forget...

Nothing leaves a deeper mark on the lives of spiritually hardened men and women than seeing radical love in action. If you know the love of Jesus Christ in a personal way, you may sometimes lie awake at night thinking of ways to make a mark on people's lives so that they too will come to enjoy what you have found.  Should you wear a little lapel pin? Put a little bumper sticker on your car? Display a large Bible in your office?  Tell people that you don't go to movies or buy sexually explicit rock albums? Jesus says that if you  really want to make a deep, lasting mark on someone, demonstrate radical love. There's so much compelling power in that kind of love that it makes callous people's heads spin...

Jesus showed radical love all his life. At the end he took slaps without saying anything. He absorbed beatings without cursing anyone. When nails were pounded into his hands and feet, he did not turn to the people doing the pounding and say 'You're going to rot in hell for this!' No, he said, 'Father, these men matter to you. Don't charge this crime to their account. Forgive them."

In Matthew 27:54 we read of a Roman officer who was brought to faith by Jesus' radical exhibition of love as he was tortured towards his death (not to mention, the earthquake). The centurion who witnessed Christ's crucifixion was clearly changed by the contrast in Christ actions to the countless others he had witnessed put to death using this heinous method. Chances are  the Roman officer knew nothing about Christ prior to this, and chances are even greater that he knew even less about theology, but ultimately the love Jesus literally bled out led him to confess"Surely this was the Son of God."

Showing the kind of radical love Jesus taught of (and lived out) can only be accomplished through  knowing and appreciating the grace that God has shown towards us. When we know what God has done for us, we are naturally filled with a desire to share that with others. Sometimes (almost always) that demonstration goes against what comes naturally to us. That is the whole concept of being "born again", we take our old selves and allow God to transform them into new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), almost unrecognizable from before. This transformation is not physical, but spiritual, and the results should be as drastic as is if God had used his hands to perform a plastic surgery on us. Sharing our faith involves far more than just speaking words, though we ate to proclaim the Good News boldly. Sharing our faith involves obediently following Jesus, and doing that involves knowing the examples that He set for us and doing likewise.

Faith without works is dead (James 2). This does not mean that we are somehow earning our salvation, as that is an impossible feat that only Christ could accomplish on our behalf. What that means is that if we read in the Bible that Christ told us to turn the other cheek and don't do it, we don't truly believe it. It means that when Jesus told us to go the second mile when we're only obligated to go one mile and we chose not obey, we don't believe it enough to commit to the difficult stuff. Following Jesus was never meant to e easy, and someday He will surprise a great deal of people who thought that they were following Him but never had the genuine faith to obey Him with the difficult stuff, shake you up and rock your world like a  hurricane stuff. The real stuff. The stuff that shows the world that the God you follow is a God who evokes change and demands  radical love.

Your brain will fight you on the concept of radical love. It doesn't make sense and it is rarely easy, but that is the point. That is one of the traits that is supposed to distinguish followers of Jesus (John 13:35).

Are we up for it?Are we really ready to be radically in love with Jesus?  That's what a follower of Jesus is not only meant to be, but commanded to be, because someday the ones who aren't really sold out and in love with Jesus will be exposed before God and separated (Matthew 13:24-30, Revelation 3:16).  God doesn't call us to a life of ease, He calls us to a life of obedience. He promises us abundance (John 10:10) but not the kind that our earthly minds expect. When we accept the journey of following Jesus, when we take up our cross daily and give up our desires for God's (Matthew 16:24), everything changes and the only thing that matters from then on is God's radical love and how it transformed us.

Have you ever felt like God skipped town on you? Have you ever felt like He wasn't hearing your prayers? Have you ever begged to hear His voice, only to hear the disheartening sounds of silence instead? I used to be afraid of what others might think of me if I admitted that I have known what it feels like to seek the voice of God and seemingly end up with nothing but confusion. Many times I've found myself languishing in prayer, pleading with God for the strength and faith to continue until He chose to reveal His answers to me. Sometimes it was over simple decisions that I wanted assurance were the right ones to make, other times it was over impossible circumstance that only God could rescue me from.

Sometimes I've seen prayers answered amidst these doubts in ways that can only be attributed as  a miracle from God. Other times, I have been left standing with my hands in the air, waiting indefinitely for God to supernaturally intervene. Sometimes God has chosen to reveal His authority over all of the earth by altering my circumstance, but more often, God has not provided the answers in the form that I have sought them. In times like those,  I have no control over how God chooses to act, but I have full control over how I react. I can decide to feed my faith or feed my doubts. Whichever one I feed the most will almost always dominate. More times than  I can number, I have lost this battle and required God to restore me. Even in many of those defeats, I can see how the God who holds the universe in the palm of His hand personally stepped into my life and used negative episodes to create a bigger picture, one that grows my faith and points other to Him.

Though I've often wrestled with the insecurities that arise from having to place 100% of my faith in God for answers that I may never know or understand, I've struggled most with trying to decipher what Jesus meant on the cross when He, God in the flesh, screamed out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me."  The Bible is very clear when it states that God will never leave us, nor forsake us, so what in the world did Jesus mean?  Honestly, I've never cared too much about the theology of  that statement (something that many who are bent on theology have accused me of being borderline blasphemous), I care about the practicality of it. What did my Lord mean when with His last breath he uttered what seems to be words of extreme doubt?  Jesus was without sin, even to His death, so I know that, whatever the motive, He was not sinning. So Jesus wasn't sinning, but was His statement a statement of doubt? Is doubting God, in and of itself, a sin? Or is doubt simply a human response to that which cannot be explained, which carries with it the potential to become sinful?


Colosians 3:16 reminds us that "There is none like [God] and He will not allow His word to return to Him void."  Statements such as these can be found throughout the Bible, and it's statements such as these that I need to be chewing on and digesting in my times of doubt. Life doesn't always make sense, and the Bible is God's perfect way of communicating His plans for us here on earth and in all of eternity, therefore, I can't expect all of it to make sense. Doubts do not negate faith. Life will never make perfect sense. It is understood that "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" ( 1 Corinthians 13:12)

It's Christmas

As I was pondering what Christmas really is, my spirit was directed to several Bible verses  and Biblical themes that I found impossible to ignore.  None of these verses seemed to have much to do with Christmas at first though. I have a mind that is prone oscillate  between hyper focusing and frantically bouncing around from one thought to the next ( think Tigger on amphetamines). Sometimes having a brain wired this way is of a great advantage to me, other times it is obvious that left uncontrolled, my mind is my Achilles' heel.  Over the past few years I have made great strides to stop resenting the mind God gave me and to use it in constructive ways. This has involved a great deal of discipline, which is something that I will readily admit I have lacked and had no interest in obtaining for a large portion of my life.  With a mind that is hardwired like mine, when a scripture (or in this case scriptures) nags at me, I have learned to pay close attention and wait for God to open my eyes to the truth that He is trying to speak into my heart.

I've been frustrated with the American church for several years. So much of the Christian culture in this country is not rooted in sound Biblical teaching, and a lot of it is definitely not Gospel focused. Sometimes I have dealt with my frustrations in constructive ways, other times, I have allowed my pride, passion, intensity, stubbornness and  my emotions to interfere with God' s work. One of my most prominent frustrations has been with the apathy that I see within the Church in the United States. Apathy in everything from preaching sound Biblical doctrine down to the basic principles of living out a Christ-centered, Gospel-focused life.

 Over 70 % of American adults identify themselves as Christians.  I realize that many of them, if not the majority, are what would classify as "cultural Christians." They aren't Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, or another religion, so they figure that by default they must be Christian. The Bible is clear that many who think they knew Jesus are living a lukewarm life and will be spit out (Revelation 3:16).  Christmas is intended to be a day to celebrate the birth of  the Promised Messiah, Emmanuel, God in the flesh. Some how, this magnificent celebration seems to have lost its true significance and instead has been transformed into religious clichés and a season for retailers to reflect on the billions of dollars that Americans spend to celebrate God coming to save mankind from its sins. Americans spent $42 billion dollars at retail locations on Thanksgiving weekend alone. And we all know that Thanksgiving weekend is the weekend where we rush out to find the best Christmas deals, because that is what celebrating Jesus is all about, right?  You can't properly celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, who came to save the world from its sins, without having that 52 inch flat screen TV bolted to your wall to watch 24 hours straight of A Christmas Story  on TBS, right?

If you live in America and earn minimum wage, you earn more in two hours of work than 2.7 billion people that we share the world with earn in one week. Stop to process that for a second. Now transplant you and your loved ones into Africa (home to 17 of the top 20 poorest nations in the world)  or Cambodia, or Nepal or Haiti or Mexico or Guatemala. A combination of geography and politics cause many of those 2.7 billion people to be stuck in situations that are almost unfathomable to any person who has been raised under the affluence of American society.

Imagine living in a place where those around you die from taking a sip of tainted water. Imagine watching helplessly as  your toddler wastes away after contracting a disease by quenching their thirst. Imagine this happening because your country was too poor to afford both basic sanitation and basic medical supplies. The lack of proper water is the number one preventable cause of childhood death in the world.

Imagine living in conditions so treacherous that you would choose to sell your child to known sex traffickers for a  handful of money. Imagine the guilt of knowing that you exploited and betrayed your child in the worst imaginable way and as a result they get raped dozens of times  every day. Imagine being that helpless and innocent child. There are millions of them across the globe.

Imagine not being able to feed your hungry children.  According to the USDA, there are almost 16 million children in the US who do not have adequate food at home. At least in this country we have free school lunches and food pantries, but other parts of the world are not so lucky. The United Nations estimates that 870 million people throughout the world are chronically undernourished.  Imagine going blind as a child because you don't consume enough Vitamin A. It happens to 500,000 children every year. Imagine dying of diseases virtually extinct in the developed world because your starved  and malnourished body can no longer fight off infection.

The world is full of problems, but that is no surprise. We should not be overwhelmed. The world has always been that way, and even if it hadn't always been that way, Jesus told is in John 16:33 that "in this world [we] will have many troubles! But take heart, I have overcome the world."  Reassuring words to hear from the Messiah, but he didn't say "take heart, I'll do magic tricks and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, comfort the lonely..." We have a role to play in relieving the pain from those who suffer in this world,  if that weren't  so, Jesus wouldn't have said in Matthew 25:35:

     "'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
      foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and
      you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed
      Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me."

What's wrong with Christmas? It's not Jesus that is wrong with Christmas, so I suppose that it is Christians that are wrong with Christmas. We are self absorbed. We grab God's free grace and gobble it up for ourselves and forget to share. We cherry pick the Gospel, leaving out any part that might make us uncomfortable and savor the parts that tickle our ears. 2 Timothy 4:3 warns us about that. The thing about God's word is we are not supposed to add or to take away from it (Revelation 22:19). God's work was completed at the cross through Jesus. God's Word is perfectly preserved. When we pick and choose what parts to be obedient to, the Gospel ceases to be God's Good News for all mankind, and it transforms into a diluted I-Can-Save-Myself-And- I-Will-Let-God-Help-Me-When-I -Feel-Like-It kind of news.

We take God's blessings and hoard them, until every so often we "donate" from our bountiful stash out of obligation and guilt. Many of us donate once a week.We do this with both the physical as well as spiritual. We throw some money into the offering plate and we drag ourselves to church, give our hour or two to God, and then head back home to our regularly scheduled lives. We tithe standard amounts in order to conform to the teachings that have been engrained into us, when we should be cheerfully giving based on the convictions God places on our heart. God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6-7), problem is, we're naturally self-centered and giving as God commands us to give is unnatural. Matthew 19:21 tells of a young man who walked away from Jesus disappointed. We don't often hear about that happening, so that statement is worthy of our attention. Why did the young man walk away disappointed? Jesus commanded him "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Verse 22 tells us that the young man was grieved because he owned much property. Many of us live our lives with the same mentality as that young man, as though this world is our permanent residence. Well, it is not. The act of giving wouldn't have bought the young man a place it heaven, rather, it would have proven that his heart was committed to Jesus and willing to obey Him at all cost. That is what our Messiah expect of us. He doesn't expect us to be robots programmed to follow Him; He desires us to be in love with Him so much that nothing on this earth matters in comparison. When we love God, obedience is not a burden, it is a blessing.

I n Luke 11:41, Jesus had a conversation with a Pharisees. Jesus stated "give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you." The giving isn't what makes you clean, the giving is simply an outward manifestation of being filled with God's love.

The Pharisees were notorious for following rules. They were very good at it, and prided themselves with their ability to interpret God's Law and follower it rigidly. The problem was, their hearts were not in tune with God. They looked great on the outside, but inside they were far from God, or as Jesus put it in Matthew 23:27, they were whitewashed tombs.

We are more like the Pharisees than many of us are willing to admit. I think that Jesus often spoke in code, and I wonder if he was doing this in Luke 11:41. You see, He instructs us give what is inside the dish to the poor and then we'll be clean. I wonder if what he was really trying to say was that instead of trying to look good, just get your priorities right. Stop trying to follow rules and follow the Living God, you silly Pharisees.  Stop being an exclusive club that has a long list of spoken and unspoken membership rules and start loving God so much that you give what He has given to you away to others.  Before we find God we are spiritually poor. Actually, not just spiritually poor but spiritually broke. We have not one cent to offer God, but He walks into our lives and gives us a new life of abundance. He cleanses us of our sins and, according to scripture, He lives within us, and guides our lives via the Holy Spirit. In verse 40-41 Jesus gets pretty stern. He says "You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?  But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you."

The Greek word Jesus used for fool was "aphron". This word translates to the type of fool who is ignorant. What Jesus was saying was that these religious people had their religious rules, but nothing else. They knew the Law, but they did not know God. Their rituals and their zeal made them comfortable and gave them feelings of superiority, but they got so caught up in their religious practices that they became ignorant to who God really was.  Grace requires action. God took that action for us, and once we accept it, we too should be taking action. We should be seeking out the spiritually poor and sharing the gift that made us spiritually rich. That's what giving alms to the spiritually poor would look like. Does what I am saying make sense? Maybe what Jesus was saying wasn't code after all; maybe what He was saying is so obvious that it is easy to overlook. Maybe we complicate what Jesus said here because we can't believe it to be so simple. But if we believe the Gospel, then we believe that it is that simple. We were spiritually filthy, but His grace washed us white as snow. Jesus did for us what we were never capable of doing for ourselves. He gave to us the ultimate of the ultimate alms, and in return, we are instructed to point people to the Giver, the One who brought us out of a land of spiritual desolation into a land of spiritual abundance.

In John 21 Jesus tells Peter that if he loves Him to feed His sheep. Funny thing about this is that Jesus chose to call Peter by the name Simon. Why is this significant?  Simon was the old Peter. Peter was the changed man who gave up his life to follow Christ. This points out the tendency in all of us to return to our old ways. After all, He who made the outside, made the inside also (Luke 40). Jesus sees the heart. He sees the tendency of our flesh. He knows how easy it is for us to become complacent. He knows how quickly we can get sidetracked and pursue rules to make us feel holy more than we do God. He knows that the devil lures us into false ways of thinking and living that impede that Gospel from shining light into a dark world. There's a bit of Simon is each of us, but there's also a bit of Peter in us all. If we love Jesus, we'll feed His sheep. We should be feeding the physically hungry, but feeding people in the spiritual sense is the priority. We can't do that when our cup is only clean on the outside. Many of us get good at faking being clean on the inside, but God sees right through the outward (1 Samuel 16:7) and he calls to us. Jesus desires real change in us, because we can't change the world if we haven't been changed first.

So what is my point? I guess my point is that I don't much care for Christmas any more, but not because I'm some kind of Scrooge. Quite the opposite. Those who know me know giving in any way that I am able to is one of my ultimate joys.  I am offended by Christmas because I love Christ so much I want to see every day be a celebration in His honor. I want my words and deeds and thoughts to honor and celebrate Him. And I want to live in a way that magnetizes people to Him. Christmas has become another gimmick, but God can't be fooled. We might easily be fooled, which is probably why we spend $42 billion the day after thanksgiving while there are people  whose lives could be saved by being sheltered and fed for an entire year for the price we spend on a few luxury purchases.
God calls each of us to follow Him, but we have to be real and answer a few basic questions:

1)Who do we say that Jesus is? Do we really believe He is the Messiah, the  Way, The Truth, the Life, and the only way to heaven? Or is He just another historical icon, another religious figure in a smorgasbord of choices? Is He somebody we worship with every breath that we breathe, or only for a few minutes every morning and a few hours one day a week?
2) Are we willing to count the costs to follow Him? When we do, we go against all that comes naturally and give up everything of this world, but in return, we gain eternity
 

When we accept Jesus as Savior and accept the costs associated with following Him, everything changes. We become the salt and the light of the world. We no longer focus on outward appearances to impress the world because we know God works from the inside out. Our behaviors change. Our priorities change. We should help meet the world's physical needs, because James 1:27 makes it clear God wants us to do that. Helping those in need is a byproduct of finding God's love and grace, but it is no substitute for God's grace itself. We must be careful not to become like the Pharisees and think that our works will earn merit in God's eyes, but we can't use that as an excuse to neglect helping those in need either. The most important thing we can do  as Christians is let God authentically change us then allow God to use us to point the world towards Him, the Eternal Spring (John 7:38), the Bread of Life (John 6:35), the only source of eternal satisfaction and salvation. When we find a life like that, we find the true meaning behind celebrating Christmas. When we find life like that, we will never hunger or thirst again.

Pride is Poison

Lately God has been teaching me just how prideful that I am, and just how toxic pride is to having an intimate relationship with Him.  When it comes to my weaknesses, I tend to be an open book, but I've discovered that often I don't show God the same transparency that I show to others. I'll admit my faults to others so easily that I often wonder if that tendency is in itself a fault, yet, with God, I often try to bury my ugliness.God knows my heart. He knows every single fiber of my being. He knows the very number of hairs on my head, and for some reason, I still try to hide from Him. I guess this hiding is nothing new. Pride contributed to Adam and Eve's sin, and in shame they attempted to hide from God.  God knows my shortcomings and He knows how difficult it is for me to admit them, and He longs for me to trust Him enough to turn them over to Him. God knows how much my heart chases after feeling respected. He knows how strong my desires are to feel successful in the eyes of man. He knows my propensity to portray myself as somebody who has his life put perfectly together. God is fully aware of all of that, but He cannot make the progress that He desires unless I fully turn my heart over to Him.

In the scope of eternity, my life is nothing. That's a strange enigma. . I am I'm so small compared to the universe. My life here on earth is a flash compared to eternity. Even so God cares about me and He personally chases me down. He wants me to surrender to Him, and allow Him to embrace me, flaws and all. If I can't approach God with an honest heart, that is a sign that I don't trust Him.It is a symptom of not fully believing that His grace is enough to extend to me. One thing that I have been learning the tough way is that I'll never live the fruitful life that God desires so long as I keep trying to fix myself. I don't have the power to ever do that on my own. I'm called to live a life for Christ through His power and His power alone.

As small as my life is in the grand scheme of things, there is a God who longs for me to know him personally. There is a God who trusts me to be a steward in His kingdom, of my time, energy, and resources. There is a God who is in control of every success and failure in my life. There is a God who grants me every single breathe. And there is a God who has me exactly where I am right now for His purposes. Ultimately, I am learning to trust that neither my strengths or my weaknesses are responsible for where I am at. I am where I am at because that is precisely where God wants me to be.

In Daniel 4 :34 we read about King Nebuchadnezzar. His pride had led him to great loss, but when He turned his eyes toward God, he was restored. In order to be restored, the King needed to be willing to turn to God, and once he did,  God began to work in his lie, so much so that he was even greater than he as before his fall from grace.

When I'm honest about my need for God, His grace  begins to pour out. I'll never work my way through pride on my own efforts. I can never relieve myself from my sinful nature by trying hard. Pride is a subtle poison that robs me of communion with God. James 4:10 tells us that when we're humble God will lift us up. I'm tired of being in the dumps on account my my pride, and I'm claiming victory over it. And this victory has nothing to with me, and everything to do with a reliance upon God's mercy and grace.

It's difficult to feel loved if you don't feel understood.

YOLO, right?

I only get one today to live, and it is my job to make the best of every moment. There are 24 hours in every day and every human is blessed with an equal opportunity to utilize that 24 hour period. As the clichéd Latin saying goes, carpe diem. That saying is quite dated. It gets it roots from a book of poems by Horace written around 23 BC. In modern times, the phrase has taken on a  bit of a hedonistic connotation, but I actually find the idea to be quite Biblical. The phrase has colloquially been trimmed down from "carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero", probably because, for one, Latin is a dead language and is no longer taught, and also because it's just a lot easier to say carpe diem.  The full phrase loosely translates to "seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next day." The preceding lines in Horace's poem read "be wise, be truthful, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have fled." This is rich advice. Let's look at it in its entirety before I start to dissect it.

     be wise, be truthful, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes
     to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have fled:
     seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next day

Who doesn't want to be wise? Even most  fools want to be wise, they just don't take proper action to obtain wisdom.
Being truthful is always a best policy. Nobody can trust a liar.
Straining the wine is how you remove any impurities from the wine. I don't know much about oenology, but from what I gather,  this is an essential process before the wine becomes drinkable. The Latin translation, according to most  scholars, connotes that the sediments be removed so the wine could be immediately consumed. So, this is further hammering in the idea to be  prepared  to live out the current day.

Okay, so now we start getting into the more  relevant stuff. I am quite fond of the line "while we speak, envious time has fled." I saw a billboard the other day in Erie that read "hesitation kills more dreams that failure." Isn't that the truth? As a person who is constantly dreaming and constantly talking, I find that it is not a lack of substance or feasibility to my dreams that has killed them, rather, it has been thinking them over and debating the pros and cons while the opportunity passed me by. In no way do I feel that forming a habit of hasty decision making is advisable, but neither is waiting on ideal timing. While we spend precious time talking ourselves into or out of  decisions, time that can never be regained has passed. Both acting too slowly and acting too swiftly can prove dangerous, if not toxic, to productivity.

The advice of being wise and truthful both come in handy in regards to making decisions. We have to be wise enough to use discernment. We have to be wise enough to prioritize appropriately, otherwise we'll constantly be overwhelmed and never make the most of each day. We also have to be truthful, most importantly to ourselves. We have to ask ourselves what we value most. We have to ask ourselves what is truly motivating us. We have to honestly evaluate our fears. Are they realistic? Do they have substance? Or are the only teeth that they have teeth that we've given them in our own imaginations?  Being wise and truthful are of huge importance in our spiritual lives as well. If we're not wise and truthful with our walk with God, we end looking a lot like the hypocritical Pharisees. And ain't nobody got time for the Pharisees.

The next line is almost a line that could be taken straight from the book of James. Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow. James 4:14 reminds us "You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." That is so true. In my young life, I've seen people who acted as though they were going to live forever disappear from this life in a moment. One moment they were here, and just like the mist the book of James describes, they were gone.

It's important that we evaluate and reflect on our lives daily. We need to address issues that need to be addressed, because if we put them off, we may not have the opportunity to fix them tomorrow. Is there somebody that we need to forgive? Carpe diem it, man. Take the difficult step and let it go. Give your anger to God. Pray for them, and I guarantee that God will change you in the process.  Is there somebody that you need to ask forgiveness from? Don't put it off. They may reject your gesture. It may even seem to backfire on you, but you'll be able to know that you made your best effort to live in peace with everybody (Romans 12:18).

In your busyness, did you miss an opportunity to show love? Make up for it today. Commit right now to being a better spouse, a better sibling, a better parent, a better boss, a better friend. Make a choice to not to close your eyes to the basic opportunities God puts in front of you. It's easy to do it. It's easy to write them off.  Love big. Love like it might be your last chance to warms somebody's heart.

Have you stopped appreciating the beauty of life? Take a few minutes today to look at all the wonders that surround you. Get up early and watch the sunrise. Take a break from the craziness of life and watch the sunset. Take another break before you go to sleep to step outside and look up to the stars. You'll be amazed at how your perspective changes when you begin appreciating those every day things.

In the book Accept No Mediocre Life, David Foster portrays our 24 hour days this way:

     Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400, but carries over no
     balance from one day to the next and allows no cash-on-hand balance. Every evening you lose
     what you failed to use that day. What would you do? Draw out and spend every cent, every day, of
     course! Well, you have such a bank; its your time. Every morning God gives you 86,400 seconds.
     Every night you lose whatever you have failed to put to good use. It carries over no balance. It
    allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the
    day before. If you fail to use the day's deposit, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no
    drawing against it tomorrow. You must live in the present on today's deposit. Invest it so that you
    will get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success...
     Time seems to be one of the things we don't get smart about until we are looking back in regret.
     To realize the value of one year, ask a student who has failed his finals and has to repeat the same
     class again next year. To realize the value of a month, as a mother who has given birth to a
     premature baby whose survival is touch and go. To realize the value of one week, ask the editor of
     a weekly newspaper whose deadlines are coming due at the same time. To realize the value of a
     day, ask a daily wage earner who has ten kids to feed and not a dime to waste. To realize the value
     of an hour, ask a love-struck girl who is waiting to be reunited with her beau at a train station after
     a long separation. To realize the value of a minute, ask the love-struck beau who missed the train
     on the way back to see his beloved. To realize the value of one second, ask a young woman
    who just missed a speeding car that ran a red light at the intersection she went through. To realize
    the value of a millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics instead of 
    the gold he had been training for all of his life....time waits  for no one. It cannot hold on, slow
    down, or back up. It is moving ahead without regard to your plans or priorities. it isn't against you
    or for you.

  
The artist drake has released a song called The Motto, which contains the phrase YOLO. I didn't know what that meant for the longest time, though I heard people saying it, singing it, and even saw it on T-shits.  It means You Only Live Once.  That song is wildly successful. It has sold over three million copies and has become a bit of an anthem for the young crowds (it has over 43 million youtube views). It's true that we only live once, and that's why it is so important that we don't use our time recklessly.  We all get the same amount of time in the day, but we don't all get the same amount of days. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that "Man is destined to die once, and after that face judgment." Like the vanishing morning mist, so too are our lives. We have no guarantees for tomorrow. We have no guarantees that we'll make it to the next second in the 86,400 that today consists of. One day, we all die. And on that day, we will be judged. The good news is that we'll be judged by a God who judges everybody by the same standards, and that standard is whether or not we accepted and were transformed by Jesus Christ. I've known many people who said they'd get their affairs in order the next day, and for them the next day never came.

You only live once, so how are you going to live today? Are you going to live it selfishly or are you going to live it out like the gift that it is? Are you going to live it out like it is your very last day, focusing on what matters? Are you going to spend it as though the possibility of being judged by a Holy and just God is a reality? Because it is a reality, and once you take your last breath on earth, your time to make a decision to honor God is up. The You Only Live Once slogan is true to an extent, but it neglects the realities of the afterlife. There is an  eternity and we'll all end up there someday, and the only merits we'll be judged by is whether we chose to live for Jesus or something else. We can only truly seize the day when we choose to live for God. In comparison to heaven, everything else we spend our milliseconds on earth doing can never compare. As 1 Corinthians 7:31 tells us "Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away."  Think about that. Everything that we've ever cared about and loved on earth will perish. Even secular  science backs that up with the laws of thermodynamics - sooner or later everthing turns to poop.
1 John 2:17 put it all into perspective. "The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." What is God's will? First He desires us to love and honor Him above all else. Then, His will is for us is to love everybody as He loves them. And lastly, His will is for us to  go and change the world by showcasing His love for mankind in tangible ways. At the end of every 86,400 seconds, that's really all that matters. Am I loving God, and I loving others, and out of that love am I helping to create authentic Jesus followers?

You only live once, at least on this earth. So how does the life you've been living look?

As Jesus was nearing the end of His time on earth, He told His disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you (John 14:27)." It was not an offer. Jesus said that He gave it. We don't get a choice in the matter. When Jesus departed earth, He left  His Spirit to guide us, teach us, and mold us more into His image. Peace is also mentioned as a fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. In other words, if we follow Jesus, Scripture says that having peace is not optional. If we follow Jesus, we are to be filled with the Spirit, and a byproduct of being filled with the Holy Spirit  is peace.

It is good practice to reflect on our lives and ask ourselves if we are at peace. Am I at peace with others? Are there people in my life that I have strife with (Colossians 3:13)? Are there unresolved conflicts that need my attention?  Am I harboring bitterness and unforgiveness in my heart (Mark 11:25)? If any of those are true, then I am not only at conflict with having the peace of the Spirit,  but I am actually interfering and hindering the work of God in my life. Matthew 5:9 says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

Another question we must ask ourselves about peace is whether or not our own spirit is at peace. Am I content with where I am at and what I have or am I lusting after things of this world? Am I able to accept God's answers, or do I give Him a good spiritual pout when He doesn't cater to my requests?Am I acting in faith as I wait on God to answer my prayers or am I being anxious? Philippians 4:6-7 tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Are we approaching God humbly, with a thankful heart? Are we praying for His will as we navigate the tough circumstances of life?  If not, that might explain why we don't have the kind of peace that goes far beyond our human understanding.

In John 15:8 Jesus tells us that when we bear fruit it shows the  world that we are His disciples and brings God glory. The whole purpose of my life is become more and more  a reflection of God and to bring Him glory.

If Jesus says that when we bear fruit it brings God glory, we better be filling our lives full of spiritual fertilizer so that we bear fruit in abundance. Read and apply God's Word. Live it out. Confess sin that is obstructing  the work of the Holy Sprit so that we can hear God speak to us. Go out and be filled with God's inner peace and live at peace with others.  The fruits of the Spirit work in tandem with one another, but peace is vital to them all.  If we're not at peace with God, we can't be at peace with ourselves or others, and we won't be able to show love and be filled with joy, kindness, gentleness and self control. 
 
As I walk this life, I am learning just how important peace really is. Life is simply no fun when we're not at peace. Every day I am learning to examine my life to search it for things that do not line up with the peace that Jesus promised, and when I do find something, I ask God for His strength and wisdom to deal with it. Dealing with it is not always easy. It's not always pretty. God always comes through, but that looks like me becoming less so that He may become more (John 3:30) That looks like me stepping aside so the Holy Spirit can help me identify areas that need God's intervention so that I can resemble Christ a little more every day. The only time that it is God's will for me to not be at peace is when I am living in opposition to Him, and when that's the case I'll do my best to make adjustments and be obedient. I desire for my life to be filled with a peace that surpasses understanding every moment that I have here on this earth. My moments on earth are too precious to willingly sacrifice the peace Christ guaranteed me for any reason.