ClydeStyle

Category: Love

  • Respect for all things

    imagesCA6M5MVVSometimes the simplest lessons get past us. We don’t think anything of killing an ant, squashing a pesky fly or any other bug.

    We live in a violent society. We rage war, buy weapons and loose control. We seek revenge and we allow our anger to get the best of us. In the midst of it all we treat cows, chickens and pigs horribly, but will send a man to jail over dog fighting. We will hunt and kill for sport and even allow certain species to become extinct.

    We would have more respect for each other, I believe, if we practiced respecting the things God gave us dominion over first.

    It takes nothing from our character to respect all the things God created, rather it enhances who we are. Gen. 24 tells the story of Rebecca and the fact that she passed the “camel test”. Basically she not only showed kindness to a traveler by giving him water, she also made sure his camels had their fill of water too. The point is that her respect for all things did not go unnoticed and for that she became the promised child’s bride.

    You see, if just a little respect goes a long way, then what would our country be like if everyone practiced it?

    As children of God we should respect what he respects, love what he loves and forgive like he does. Only then will we have true inner peace.

  • Acknowledging him has it’s benefits

    We are half way through 2013 and it seems like we were just singing Auld Lang Syne (as much as we can sing that song but you get the picture). Many of us made resolutions and before Valentine’s Day we were done. I would like to offer a word of encouragement for those who have not made the most of this year.

    Despite failed attempts and unmet expectations you are still here. And that’s a good thing. I know it seems like you’ve let yourself down and there may be people in your life constantly reminding you that you’re not good enough, but there is a God my friend. And this GOD loves you.Image

    He loves you enough to watch you make decisions that don’t make much sense. And he doesn’t intervene because he doesn’t want to take away your free will. He loves you enough to make sure things don’t get too out of hand. Imagine how much worse things could have been? If you thought about it, you could think of folks who are doing worse. In fact it seems that no matter how bad you are doing, there is someone doing worse.

    These are the little things that the Lord stays on top of while he is waiting for us to acknowledge him. In fact, he said that if we would acknowledge him here, he would acknowledge us before his father in heaven (Matt. 10:32).

    Why don’t you spend the rest of this year acknowledging him. The bible tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge him and he will direct our paths (Prov. 3:5,6).

    He’s waiting on you. Call him up friend, call him up in prayer.

  • Yes, no or not now (Part 1 of 3)

    Trust-God1Have you ever wondered how God decides to answer prayer? It is difficult for us to understand how God would respond to us as we know it is written that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. But certainly we can understand what God’s word has to say about prayer to the almighty and understanding that God is sovereign.

    Sovereign speaks of God’s supremacy, his kingship and his Godhead. To say he is sovereign is to declare his majesty and that he is the Most High. His sovereignty states that he is exactly what Paul called him in 1 Tim. 6:15 — that he is the only Potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. So God has the power then to decide to answer our prayers, deny them or delay them. And we trust him to do such…or we should.

    To pray to God is to trust God. To make your request known to him is to acknowledge him as the giver of all things and believe that he will respond in the best interest of his children. Our problem is deciding whether God is saying yes, no or not now to us. The first step in understanding this process is to know you are praying in God’s will. You can only know God’s will by studying his word. God’s word tells me that his intervention is greatly needed in this world. It let’s me know that God’s will is far better than the will of man and that salvation belongs only to the one who gave it. So TRUST is the first ingredient in understanding God’s answer.

    There is a familiar gospel song entitled Trust and Obey which was written by John H. Sammis who was a Presbyterian minister. It says, “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,  What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey. Trust and Obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

    Are you willing dear reader to trust God and allow His will to be done? Next week we will discuss the silence of God when it comes to answering our prayers.

  • If God never does another thing for me…

    man in praiseIf God never does another thing for me, I want the world to know that there are three things he has done that will always stand out to me. I did not deserve any of these things, but he favored me with these awesome gifts that show the height, depth, width and breath of his love for me.

    These blessings are found in the first chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. “7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
    riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:” Without this redemption through his blood it would be impossible for me to be reconciled back to God. There is no convenant relationship without this event. To know that I am no longer considered an enemy to God is love enough. To understand that God could not stand to look at me in the sinful state I was in and that the blood of Jesus made my filthy sight tolerable, really helps me to appreciate my new standing in Him.

    “11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we
    should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” This is the second thing that Jesus did for me. He not only saved my soul but he left me an inheritance. This inheritance secures my spot in the Beloved.

    “13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy
    Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” The seal is my proof. It’s like I’ve been wrapped for freshness or sealed until Christmas — either way, God placed a heavenly seal on me which secures my final resting place. Again, I could have never deserved this and it is all overwhelming. This is my mega millions jackpot. I don’t know a better powerball than this. And if the Lord decided today that what he has blessed me with is enough and I never get another blessing from him, these three things have secured me like no other and made me a fan for life. And because of it, I will praise his name forever!

  • Unconditional marriage?

    unconditional loveSo we know that the divorce rate is really high. But it doesn’t have to be. Is it really possible that all of these divorced people just happened to marry the wrong person?

    I know that there have been some in terrible abusive relationships and for safety reasons they had to get out. But the lion share of divorces stem from unmet expectations and selfish motives.

    No one told them that unconditional love was supposed to be brought to the marriage, not generated from within.

    They didn’t know that forgiveness wasn’t optional when they said “I do” and that expectations were only conditions you place on yourself.

    They were ignorant to what things should have been the most important. It’s a bad feeling to be judged by how much money you make, how you dress, how shapely your hips are or the size of your breasts. It’s extremely shallow for someone to expect their own version of what’s perfect to be matched or exceeded by their partner.

    Of all the scriptures we take literally, no one bothered to take Jesus seriously when he said, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out!” Or “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off!” (Matt. 5:29-30).

    The simple fix for marriage is for each party to take a step back and really look at what they are bringing to the table. What you are bringing to the table can’t just look good to you alone. It needs to be valuable to the person you pledged to live forever with.

    If it is not, and it probably isn’t, the two of you need to talk and stop playing married and truly work at being married.

  • Passover + Easter = Eternal Life

    lamb_thumbWe have finally reached Easter weekend and as the vernal equinox predected, Passover and Easter celebrations will not coincide. Each tradition still remains separate, even though it was meant for the two days to collide. Allow me to teach it before I preach it!

    Passover began in Exodus 12 when Moses gave instructions as the last and final god of Egypt was to be defeated. This idol was supposed to protect the royal family and the Lord’s last plague was designed to destroy the first-born of everything. Pharoah was told by his spiritual counsel that his family was safe. Moses’ instructions were given so that death would “pass over” the obedient children of Israel. He was right. This first born lamb or goat was to be killed in the evening and a fellowship meal shared with family and friends.

    Never had death targeted a group of people before. You see death had no bias until this time. Death had spread from Adam to Moses after the sin in the garden and was not a respecter of persons. Passover is still celebrated to remember the grace and mercy shown by God to his people. Easter is a holiday that is supposed to mirror the Passover in the celebration of the resurrection. It is within Easter that the resurrection becomes the catalyst to remember the grace and mercy shown by God to his people.

    In both the Passover and Easter, God’s people are granted life and with the favor from God it is truly an abundant life. In each case God saved his people from a condition that they could not save themselves from. Dear reader, can you relate to being placed in a position that you have no control over? A condition that you just have to take because there is nothing you can do about it anyway.

    Mary and Martha were faced with this realization when their Lazarus died. By the time Jesus had come to their house, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus assessed the condition of Mary and Martha, but the best conversation happened between Jesus and Martha. Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise again. Martha said, “Yeah, I believe he will in the resurrection in the last days.” Although Martha’s statement was true and it showed that she had come to acceptance with the finality of her brother’s death and was looking forward to the resurrection. Jesus’ response to her was this: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were
    dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Her response fell just short of a yay. It didn’t register to her exactly what he meant by saying he was the resurrection. So Martha simply said that she believed he was the son of God and that he was the one who was to come into the world.

    It is with Martha’s statement that you can see where her faith stopped. She could not process Jesus’ statement so she went as far as her faith would take her. Basically, she would say to Jesus that the word on the street is that you say you are the son of God, but what does that mean as I grieve my brother? You see, if Martha believed that Jesus could truly help this situation, then we would have had a more definitive statement from her. Martha is where many of us are at today. We struggle with our belief. We have a hard time believing beyond our eyes. We in our little minds have limited God in our lives and have reduced his work to what we can imagine or see.

    The Lord showed them something that day that they would never forget. He walked in to an uncontrollable situation and controlled it. He walk into impossibility and made it possible. He walked into hopelessness and gave it hope. He met unbelief at it’s strongest point and turned it into belief. I hope, dear reader, you will revisit John 11 and see this unfold for yourself. Jesus made sure the world would know that the Father in heaven sent him, by doing something that only the Father could have orchestrated. He brought Lazarus back to life without breaking a sweat. With this one act he gave us a model of our very own salvation. We will all be saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and we will all have to answer the question as to whether or not we believe that Jesus is the giver of Eternal Life. Passover and Easter are our witnesses and we must now act. Do YOU believe this?

  • Jesus — the way, truth, life (Part 3)

    TheWayTruthLife10What is your life worth?

    Each year thousands of people commit suicide because they don’t see their worth. We go through life trying to prove to ourselves that we are worth something. We put in overtime with our jobs, we help out when we can and we even give money away to prove our worth. Kids in school are troubled by bullies who point out all of their flaws. They take to heart everything negatively that is said to them without regard for the good things. When kids (and adults) are faced with these type of challenges it seems as though the only option is to stay at home and cry.

    Many people are walking around desiring to be with someone that will give them more self-esteem credits. Each time they date and get hurt, they lower their standards more and more in an attempt to lessen the pain. They end up settling for “G” candidate thinking that they are not worthy of the “A” candidate. Furthermore, in America we spend money. Everything revolves around money so it stands to reason that value would be placed on everything here. Our lives should not be for sale. It’s tough when ad campaigns tell you that you are too fat, too dark, too skinny, too short or your hair is not good enough, your feet are too big or even your teeth aren’t white enough. Plastic surgery is a billion dollar industry. Low self-esteem doesn’t care how much money you have or what color you are. As a result we really don’t know who we are.

    Thank God for Jesus! You see, he placed value on all of us when he died on the cross for the sins of the world. Through his sacrifice he is trying to tell us that we have value. His actions prove we have worth — why else would the Son of God waste his time on us? If John 3:16 is correct (and it is!) then God loved us and was eager to save us. He sent his son to die for the sins of the world and simply says let me give you rest.

    Dear readers, I hope you know that there is no better life than one spent serving the Lord and enjoying the blessings he gives us. To live a life reciprocating the love God thrusts toward us is clearly an abundant life. Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life and he is right. There is no way to the father except by the mediator he chose and that is Christ.

    Help me spread the word that salvation has been brought down to earth and by it God has added value to every life. All we have to do now is live like it!

  • Jesus — The Way, truth and life (Part 1)

    waytruthlifeEver since I can remember I’ve loved the English language. And with understanding any langauge one must understand the rules of engagement. It seems that some people have forgotten about the rules of engagement when it comes to reading and understanding God’s word.

    In this series I’ve been doing on the seven “I am” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John, he constantly uses a definite article in describing himself. An article is defined as any of a small set of words or affixes (as a, an, and the) used with nouns to limit or give definiteness to the application. Whenever Jesus describes himself he needs to use the definite article (the) because of his alpha and omega status.

    For example, Jesus was in the midst of teaching his disciples when he said in John 14 to not be worried because if they believe in God, they should believe in him. He then talked about his fathers house having all of these rooms or mansions that he was preparing or making ready for everyone who belongs to him. It was after he made a promise to come back that Thomas expressed his confusion with where Jesus was going and he asked how could they (his disciples) ever know the way? Jesus then boldly proclaims, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the father but by me.”

    The first thing he said (and the emphasis of this particular blog) is that he was “the way.” Thomas wanted to know how they could know the way. Thomas did not know how important and relevant his question was. Jesus is the way maker. He can literally make a way out of no way. When Israel was trapped between Pharoah’s army and the Red Sea, it would have easily been assumed that God would simply take care of the problem and eliminate the army. The Lord instead got rid of the very thing that troubled Israel the most. You see, it would have been very easy for God to eliminate the army. God did the more impressive stunt by eliminating the hardest part. I still get overjoyed wondering how Israel felt crossing the Red Sea on dry ground.

    God made a way out of no way in this situation and all Jesus was doing is introducing his disciples to the family business. For eternal life, Jesus says that he is “the way.” He is the way back to God for those who have been separated by sin. He is the way when situations are bigger than us. And he is the way when it comes to saving our souls. The question now: Is he your way?

  • Jesus — The Good Shepherd

    ShepherdSheep are not the smartest animals. I mean, they really need caring for and who better to care for them than a shepherd. There is supposed to be a little shepherd in all of us. As Christians who are supposed to imitate Christ, we need to embrace the shepherd within.

    Look around you. There are many people who struggle with life’s challenges and make horrible decisions. We witness their calamity and in most cases we walk on by. Jesus said in John 10:11, “I am the Good Shepherd!” He explained that he was different from those who help because they are looking to get something out of helping. Jesus helps because it’s his nature.

    This being true, all who have been crucified with Christ have Christ living in them. This means that the life we now live in the flesh is a life of faith in the son of God who loved us and died for us (Gal. 2:20). So then, the Christ in me is a shepherd. And I need to take my part in the progression of the sheep. We have the ability in Christ to be game changers for some people. We know things, do things and have experienced things that would help others. A good shepherd searches for opportunities to do just that. And it’s easy to help people you know and care about. But what about the people who struggle that you don’t know? What kind of world would it be if we all took our “good shepherd” calling seriously? Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

    The Good Shepherd was willing to lay down his life for the sheep. Dear reader, Jesus is inviting all of his disciples to be shepherds and lead those less fortunate to a path of righteousness. He wants us to join him in loving and caring for all mankind. Now what are you willing to do?

  • Jesus — I am the Door

    doorA fresh college graduate goes into a business and sees a door. Behind that door could be her future boss or the first job to turn her down. A man on death row after having his last meal looks at a door ahead of him and he knows that this will be the last door he sees as lethal injections happen on the other side of his door.

    Doors come in all shapes and sizes and they are constructed in various ways. Some doors are for style, some are built to protect and still others are worn and need to be replaced. But with each door in our lives comes opportunity. We have to be ready for the opportunity and seize that opportunity as doors open and then they close.

    Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” In the back drop of this scripture Jesus says that he is the door of the sheep and that those who came before him were thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them (John 10:7,8).

    Translation: Jesus is the ultimate opportunity for us all. Great opportunities are not common. In America we play the game of see who can get over on who the fastest. From healthcare to shopping to relationships to government, we’ve been dooped into thinking one thing when it was really something else.

    For example, we never find out what our insurance really covers until we need it. It is only then that we find out the loophole that makes them not pay for certain things. Progressive insurance is a mastermind at this (http://www.michiganautolaw.com/auto-lawyers-blog/2011/05/17/worst-auto-insurance-companies/).

    And 90 percent of store sales is simply product or merchandise that was not sold and now they need to get rid of it. They mark it down several times, but almost never gets to the price that it cost to make it. Black Friday should have taught us this by now. 

    For relationships and government I’m sure you could fill in your own examples, but the point here is simple: Jesus has given us a real opportunity. His opportunity is bigger and better than any deal on earth. Jesus is the door with the huge sign that says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

    My friends, don’t miss this opportunity! Take you burdens to him and leave them there!