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Mikki
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…love one another fervently with a pure heart. 1 Peter 1:22
Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1
If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4: 11
By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35
The fruit of the Spirit is love… Galatians 5:22
Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8
If love were always easy, then perhaps the Word wouldn’t give us so many admonitions about it. Over and over again we are told to love. Love God. Love one another. Love ourselves.
The war over love is really a war over our hearts. Many things can fill our hearts. Strife, hatred, anger, lust, greed, bitterness. The Word teaches us that whatever is in our hearts will come forward in our words and in our actions.
Romans 5:5 says that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and then goes on to remind us that God demonstrated His love for us in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us.
We can add fuel to the fire of love in our hearts by humbly reflecting on how Christ gave his all to show us God’s love for us. The realization that God loved us while we were completely lost in our sins, when as to yet, we had done nothing for him, yet His pure undeserved love poured out for us and gave Christ as a sacrifice because God so longed to have us, to be in relationship with us – that revelation can and should fan into flame the fire of love on our hearts.
Would you stop for a moment and think about how God gave His love for you? Would you ask the Father to blow on the embers of your heart and fan into flame His love? Would you ask Him to show you who you can love better? Would you ask Him how you can love better?
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Mikki
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The cross was confusing for the disciples. Although Jesus had shared with them what would happen to him, they had no context for understanding. All they knew at their present moment was that their leader was gone and that all they had given the last three years of their life for now seemed to be destroyed. They were afraid and disillusioned to say the least. The events of the last week just didn’t fit into any paradigm of thinking that they had. They had gone from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to seeing his dead body upon a cross. They had experienced the joy of the crowds shouting, “Hosanna”. They had experienced utter confusion, pain, and doubt as they watched their leader crucified.
It had been a roller coaster week.
Their emotions were spent.
Their physical bodies were exhausted.
Their minds were confused.
Yet God was right in the midst of it all.
How Jesus must have longed to rescue them from the hours of pain during those days just as a parent longs to rescue their child from pain. Yet at times, we who are parents know that we must not rescue our child from their present difficulty – not just yet. The journey is important. In fact, it is a requirement.
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to them, “And their eyes were opened and they knew Him.” Luke 24: 31
“And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” Luke 24:45
At the right moment, Jesus gave them understanding. It didn’t come from their own resources. It came from Christ. It clicked just like when a combination on a lock clicks into place and the lock opens.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit can do that for us. And when it happens, you know it. The treasures of the safe become available to you.
I wish I could tell you that the rest of the story was an easy, pain-free ride for the disciples. It wasn’t. But it was one of great adventure as the disciples became literal world-changers. Many more times, they would need their understanding to be opened. And such is the life of faith.
As we participate in this time of fasting, may we embrace the journey of faith for whether we find ourselves in dark, confusing days or in days of joy and celebration, God is right there in the middle of it all with us. As we seek to follow Him, we can rest in the assurance that at the right moment He will open our understanding.
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Mikki
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In his journey to list the seasons of life, the writer of Ecclesiastes throws this one in…
There is a time to kill and a time to heal. Ecclesiastes 3:3 Read more...
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Mikki
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I’ll be home for Christmas
You can count on me…
As I listened to the words to that classic Christmas song, something deep within me was moved.
I remembered one Christmas almost twenty years ago when my family and I lived away from my childhood Alabama home. We were going home for Christmas. Then it snowed. And iced. Yet I felt I had to go home for Christmas! I convinced my husband to drive home on the ice and snow in a little car that was certainly not an all-terrain vehicle. We made a three hour trip in six hours and I prevailed. I made it home for Christmas with my husband and two young children. I might not have been very wise, perhaps, but I was very determined.
This year, our daughter, Kara Beth, is in Dallas, Texas, with her husband’s family for Christmas enjoying a big snow. Since she can’t be home for Christmas, we video-chatted this morning together.
The following are thoughts from I message I recently shared at our church called “Home for Christmas".
The idea of “home” stirs strong emotion for most of us. Some never want to return. Others, like me, feel compelled to be there at Christmas, but I think it all has its roots in our spiritual DNA. Let me explain. Read more...
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Mikki
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It’s Christmas time. Time to buy gifts for those I love. So I’ve been thinking about gifts and gift-giving. I am thinking about those on my list and wishing to find the perfect gift for them.
As I think back over my years, a few “perfect” gifts stand out in my mind. I remember the year my parents gave me a birthstone ring shaped like a heart with the word love on it.
I think of one year when Eddie and I were living in Mississippi. There was a big snow and ice was on the roads, but I so wanted to go home for Christmas. That classic old song Home for Christmas haunted me. “I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me…” We drove from Mississippi back to north Alabama on a sheet of ice, but I had to be home! Now that was a gift of love from my husband. Needless to say, we were much younger then and maybe not as wise, but I got home for Christmas!
I remember the year my husband hid a beautiful ring in a pair of gloves. I was so discouraged over getting a pair of gloves and trying not to show it. I put the gloves aside for I had gotten more than one pair that year. Eddie kept insisting I try them on. In truth, I didn’t want to take the tags off to try them on because I was planning on taking them back asap. When I finally consented and place my hands in the gloves, there was my ring inside the ring finger of the gloves. Read more...
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