Discipline Is Not Your Job. Love IS.

Genuine Christian love and being judgmental does NOT look the same! Be cautious that what you are calling ‘standing for righteousness’ is not just your way of bypassing your primary responsibility to love other people just like you love yourself. Ask yourself how you’d want to be treated if the shoe were on the other foot. Real talk. If they are wrong, tell 'em in love, but KEEP LOVING THEM. Love is our job. Unless they are OUR children, discipline is not.

Christians are to be recognized by our love. When people describe you, are the ways you love and handle people some of the things you get complimented on the most? If not, why?

 Mark 12:29-31 – Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these

Straight or Not. You Shouldn't Have To Qualify For Our Love

We MUST learn to love people from where they are. Are they right? Are they wrong? Doesn’t matter… its irrelevant to love. People will never love how much you know till they know how much you love. So how bout we stop trying to MAKE people change but rather increase our love game and let them change on their own... or not. Again, it's irrelevant to love.

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another

How Christians MUST Respond In Light Of The Boston Tragedy

The main goal of our adversary is to convince us that we can be separated from God's love. When he causes bad things to happen, he want's us to think, 'If God really loves me, THIS would not have happened!' The further we are separated from the reality of God's love, the closer we are to being controlled by fear. Fear is how the enemy runs his kingdom. God IS love, and that's how He runs His kingdom. The opposite of fear is not faith. The opposite of fear is LOVE.  The word of God says perfect LOVE casts out fear. Today when you are tempted to fear in light of the recent Boston tragedy, remember that the enemy is after your love. Don't let him have it. The more conscious we are of God's love the more we heal and the less we fear.

1 John 4:18 - (NLV) There is no fear in love. Perfect love puts fear out of our hearts. People have fear when they are afraid of being punished. The man who is afraid does not have perfect love. 

THIS Is Why You're Still Here!

God loves us dearly, and it is because of this love that we are still here. It is because of God's compassion for us that the bad in our lives is not worse. Were it not for God's love, we would be consumed... period. As the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace and Moses's burning bush, we can be in the fire and not be consumed. Many of us complain about the fire, but fail to realize the miracle of even being ALIVE to complain about the fire. God's compassion keeps us alive. Whether it was fire we got ourselves into or otherwise, the reason we made it was because we have a God who is committed to renewing His love for us EVERY morning... even when we aren't as faithful to Him. 

Lamentations 3:22-23 -Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Truth Is, Love Doesn't Look Like That

Some parents want to protect their children from the horrible realities of their co-parent. They say things like, 'Yeah, I know they hurt you, but they really DO love you'. If this is you, allow me to ask you a sobering question. Do you want your child to associate physical abuse, chronic absenteeism and broken promises, verbal abuse or any other negative attribute to LOVE? Ask God to show you the appropriate time, but at some point your child needs to hear real answers to their questions. Not from a place of bitterness or strife, but from a place of love. They need to learn how to handle the sometimes harsh realities from a place of love so that they will not HATE the parent, but understand where they are and love them anyway. To do this, you the parent have to be healed. That way the potential generational cycle can end at your house.

Ezekiel 18:2-3 - and said, “What is this proverb people keep repeating in the land of Israel? ‘The parents ate the sour grapes, But the children got the sour taste.’  “As surely as I am the living God,” says the Sovereign Lord, “you will not repeat this proverb in Israel any more.

The Guaranteed Way To Know How They REALLY Feel About You

We ALL desire respect. It's how you know a person or company see's value in you. If you ever want to know how much they TRULY respect or value you, look at how much of what you KNOW they value that they are willing to invest in YOU. Whether business or personal, I've found this to be true. Money is certainly a part of it, but not all. A rich man many value time more than money. A private person values their privacy. A single mom's most prized value could be the relationship with her children. Whatever it is, to the degree that they are willing to invest or share their valuables WITH you is the degree that they respect or see value IN you.

Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

You Can't MAKE Them Change... So Stop

We MUST learn to love people from where they are. Are they right? Are they wrong? Doesn't matter. It's irrelevant to love. Of course, love has many different applications and there are some you have to love from a distance, but the truth is this: people will never love how much you know till they know how much you love. Wisdom encourages us to DECREASE our force in trying MAKE people change but rather INCREASE our love game and watch them change on their own. 


John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another