Practice Love

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Justice & Judgement

Cain & Abel

New Life Church & Community Center

Nothing Personal

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Cut It Off

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Same Wounds

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Laugh A Little

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Uniform

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I Hear What You're Saying, But....

So this past Sunday, I caught a tail end of a discussion lesson a ministry leader was conducting with middle school students.  I want to say the lesson was about turning the other cheek.  Now, trying to explain "turning the other cheek" and "love your enemies" is really hard, especially explaining it to 12-14 year old.  Then came the statement, "I hear what you're saying, but...."  It made me think of how we try to find loopholes in certain things we really want to do, especially when it comes to Godly things.

If you allow me to go the Bible on this, "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?'" (Matthew 18: 21).  Now keep in mind, this is asked after Jesus tells them how to handle a person that offends them and the steps they must take.  At one point, if the offending person will not listen to you, you and someone else, or you and the whole church, that person then is excommunicated.  So even a bullish person has a chance to be forgiven.  But even before you take it to witnesses and the community, you should make efforts to forgive them yourself, without trying to find a loophole.

Earlier this week I heard that unconditional love has no loopholes, especially among friends.  One more time, "Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins," (1 Peter 4:8).  That being said, we should not try to find loopholes or excuses as to why we will not forgive each other.  Yes, we have been mistreated and wronged, but lets be honest about it.  If I am going to tell on anybody else, I have to tell on myself first.  We have offended so many others as well and rather we want to admit or not, we have been forgiven or at least been given the benefit of the doubt on our behavior.

I know it is easy to say and much harder to do but that is why God deals with us on our motives, not just our morals.  He wants us to know that we are in the same danger as Phineas Gage, we have a beam in our eye but trying to tell someone else about the splinter in theirs.  Lets take the beam out and then with love, we can remove the splinter.

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Required Past

Spread Love

While listening to Ester Perel on the School of Greatness podcast, she said a profound statement.  She says, "We are creatures of meaning."  She goes on to explain that we all should mean something to each other.  Often times we put value into our careers or material things as if they can give that same attention back to us.  Before I tell on anyone else, I have to tell on myself first because I am guilty of that.  It is so easy to take people we love and are close to for granted, as if they are cacti that  need very little watering.

If you allow me to go to the Bible for a second, "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith," Galatians 6: 9-10.  A very familiar verse, well verse 9 in particular because this is said normally when a preacher is tuning up the band and choir.  But take a different look:  we should sow to please God (Galatians 6: 8) and when we do that, continually, we will reap in season.  We should sow love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control towards each other.  The more we do things, planting these good seeds and watering them with each other, the better we will grow as people and as a people.  We will grow as God's people.


So let's make a conscious effort to sow good seeds within each other because God created us all with purpose and meaning so we should treat each other with purpose and meaning.  Material things will cease but love will not.  We need to continually, purposefully, and intentionally love each other.  
Spread Love by Take 6

Attachments

Keeping it Authentic

Nothing to read today so you all have the privilege to see my handsome face for five good minutes.  Enjoy your weekend everyone.

God's Speed.

Mr. President (Poem)

Mr. President, why are you crying?

Did a gust of wind hit your eye?

Is the smoke from Sandy Hook still flying?

Or is it the air from the Windy City where the blood can't dry?

Did you see a generation with no father or sons?

Are you misty from the lullaby the pistols sing?

Do you hear names of young black men whistled by guns?

So many innocent took the bullet but you too felt the sting.

Mr. President, I see your eyes watering and your speech is choked:

He said it’s hard to breath in a land polluted by gun smoke. 

©

By Marcus G. Taylor

Say What You Say, Do What You Do

I know it has been awhile since I have written and how ironic that my first topic back would be on finishing strong.  Recently, I watched a snippet of Kevin Hart during one of his comedy specials and he was talking about an experience he had at a gym.  Kevin, in a very comedic way, described the situation of a muscled up guy on the weight bench doing some bench press reps.  Kevin then said this gentlemen started to stack more and more pounds on the barbell, grunted loudly, powdered up his hands, and paced around the bench press for the sake of drama and attention.  So as Kevin Hart observed this, Kevin actually got excited and wanted to see this guy actually bench press half a ton of steel.  But, to Kevin Hart's disappointment, the guy did not even make an attempt, the guy just simply walked away.

Now if you will allow me to go the scripture on this, Luke 14: 27-33, Jesus gives two short parables about finishing what you start.  One was of a man who had to consider if he had enough to finish building a tower, the other was of a king who had to consider if he had enough troops to send into battle.  It is interesting that it is not mentioned if either man took action, but we are told that they thought about the negative results of what could happen if they failed.  Vince McMahon said in an interview recently that the millennial generation, the Y generation, does not even try to make attempts of going for it all because they are afraid to fail because failing exposes them.  It seems lack we are afraid to even start on something because we do not want to end up being exposed..."Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, `This man began to build, and was not able to finish."

But let us tell the truth on some things, if God has called us to do a great work, which is go all in to His will and purpose, we should not have the fear of being exposed.  I say that because we should have the faith to believe that God will give us the strength to finish what He has called us to start.  Now we need to be clear, we have to see what exactly we are being called to:  if we are called to build a tower but we go out to try and build an army, we are going in the wrong direction and we will certainly get exposed. 

"I can never quit when it gets hard.  if you quit, you going backwards, if you going backwards you're dead," unknown author.  I want to leave you with this thought, and that is the thought Kobe Bryant laid on the sports world announcing his retirement.  Now, when he first started in the NBA twenty years ago, he set out to be a champion and he accomplished that goal.  Nothing was going to deter him from that:  not critics, coaches, players, off the court issues.  Other players in his draft class seemingly fell off the planet and some ask where are they now.  But Kobe endured and accomplished his goal.  With that being said, how much more are we to continue on in the faith and complete the work that God has put in our hearts to do.

When Life Outside Of You Happens

"With so much drama in LBC it's kinda hard being Snoop D-O-Double G," Snoop Dogg proclaimed once.  It is a telling statement of how the world around us has an affect on our lives. 


Think about it:  there are things that we know that we can control, mainly our personal responsibilities such as our health, money management, or time spent on personal relationships.  But, there are things that we cannot control in which we have to manage, like the weather, traffic jams, or Russell Wilson throwing an ill-fated interception in the Super Bowl.


The things we can control, we probably strive, or at least hope to strive at bettering those things.  The things we cannot control, we wish we could bend them to our will, it is human nature right?  Those are just minor things.


A question I want to bring forth to all of us is, what happens when are directly confronted by things beyond our control?  What is our responsibility then?  Although I live in Georgia, when 9/11 happened, the way I would travel in the future, my perspective on Islam, the way I looked at my role as a Christian was directly impacted.


So what does it mean when our life gets interrupted by a major event?  If you allow me to go to the Bible on this, Isaiah 6:1-8 gives us some perspective.  "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple....Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”  And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 

It would seem as if when things are outside of our control impact our lives, it is a way of God calling us to action.  It is our knock at midnight if you will.  And I know we get this feeling of helplessness with starving families in other countries but there are schools and community centers closing nearby and maybe there is something we should do for those kids.

Maybe there is a family on our block having a rough go at it and they could use groceries for a week.  Maybe there is a coworker who needs to carpool with us or they might lose their job if their late one more time.  Or there could be a married couple that needs a babysitter so they can go on a date because they have been on the rocks for a bit.

There will always be things beyond our control.  But when we are faced with things that we cannot control, will we step up and answer the call.  We all have a choice, so we should choose wisely, and we should choose with love.

Keep Shooting

So a couple of weeks ago, I was playing basketball with a group of guys and before I tell on anybody else, I have to tell on myself first, I missed some very makeable shots early on.  A buddy/co-worker of mine came to me and said "don't worry about it, just keep shooting."  As a good leader, he saw that I could have let those missed points bring down my confidence and taken me out of the game.  Knowing that I had his confidence to make those shots even when, honestly, I had some doubt, gave me some confidence to just play harder.  I kept working to get open and he gave me the opportunity to shoot and low and behold, I'm making the shots. 

Since the games were only going to 10, each shot should be a good look at the very least so whenever I would miss he would still say, "Keep shooting."  He trusted in (1) that I was listening and (2) that I could make those shots.  After the winning the first game, my friend gave me a vote of confidence with the game on the line to make the winning basket of the second game and kapow, I hit the game winner!  I was able to make that shot even when earlier, I thought I shouldn't be shooting anything because my friend told me it could be done.

If I can go to the Bible on this, Jesus told the disciples to keep fishing even though they had been fishing all night long and caught nothing and fishing while the sun was out did not make much since but they believed in what He said and ending up catching more fish than they ever caught before (Luke 5:4-7).  Now think if they would have told Jesus that He was crazy for even saying to fish in the middle of the day when all the fish can see the nets-they probably would never have become the fishers of men (Luke 5: 10).

So here is the point I want to make:  we should not get weary in well doing.  In this day and age of instant gratification and having things at the tips of our fingers, it can be so easy to give up on things when it gets difficult.  And what I want to drive home is not just giving up on a dream or a career or even a personal relationship but in a bigger picture, we should not give up in doing good to people at every turn.  We should look to be there in a time of need for a friend, for a co-worker, for a stranger, for a fellow laborer of Christ  (Galatians 6: 9-10).  If we keep in mind that we should spread love to all men and women then we can really make a difference in so many people's lives.  So lets keep fishing for those who need help and who need love and encouragement because they made end up winning the game for us.  We need to keep shooting.

Oversharing

Awhile ago, my cousin shared something with me that may stick with me for the rest of my life and that is the concept of oversharing.  Oversharing, according to urban dictionary, is providing more personal information than is absolutely necessary.  She shared this information with me on the heels of me seeing this absolutely wonderful play written by Marcus Gardley featuring Minka Wiltz and Enoch King called Every Tongue Confess, in which church and community is in turmoil because of people oversharing. (Side note, if you ever get a chance to see this play, you definitely should, it is really fantastic.)

As you have come to expect, this prompted me to think and reflect on some things that I would like to share but not overshare...lol (had to say it).  We are all living in a time, especially in America, where social media and reality tv and world star hip hop and Youtube and the list goes on and on, gives us license to share every detail about our lives publically with just one click.  Whatever we are thinking or doing at this very moment can be seen, read, and heard by all that want to peek into our lives.  But this is how we get into oversharing because we just start to provide too much of ourselves for the world to see and most of what we share is not the best.

With all of the instant access we can put out and take in, we have exposed personal relationships, private thoughts, and pictures galore all because we can.  Now one could say, that there life is an open book and has nothing to hide but the thing is, Christ said it best, "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matthew 6:3).  The wrong people can know too much about you and share it with others that should not the good and not so good things about you.

If you allow me to go to the Bible on this, Proverbs 2:11 says, "Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you."  See, not sharing everything protects you.  Think about how many wars have been lost, businesses went under, relationships have been destroyed because a little bird sang songs (tweeting) about what was said behind closed doors (Ecclesiastes 10:20).  We need to have an understanding that everyone cannot handle all of our being, if you will, and cannot handle all that we can share so we have to be careful of who we choose to share our lives with.  We need to start choosing secular friend and sacred friends.  Secular friends are people we just keep at a distance and only share things as needed.  Sacred friends are people you can share your heart with and can trust them not to share them with anyone else.

So, as Herman Edwards and Skip Bayless and others constantly warn, before you hit send or before you open your mouth to anyone, take to heart what you are about to share and who you are sharing it with, and just as important, why are you sharing it?

Reference: http://buzz.eewmagazine.com/eew-magazine-buzz-blog/2013/2/6/over-sharing-online-is-nothing-sacred-anymore.html