We Need Help

                It is so easy for us to reject help and think that we can do it on our own. We can go up against trials and situations and say that we have it under control. If you are like me, you will get up and say that you don't need to burden other's with your problems or that you don't want to bring the attitude of other's down. Sometimes, we can handle things with just ourselves and God; but other times, God gives you a trial that calls on another person's strength to come help you.

                Sometimes we need to open up and help one another. Sometimes, we need to listen to James 5:16. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." Sometimes, we need to share what is going on in our lives, even if it is embarrassing or heavy. Your brothers and sisters in Christ will be there with you, supporting you instead of judging you, encouraging you instead of making fun of you, and loving you instead of leaving you.

                At some point in time, you will come up against a trial in which you need to admit that you cannot do it on your own. You will need help. God will remind you that you are human and a part of a body of Christians who want to love you. There will come a time in which you need to reach out in order to grow in Christ. God did not make you alone. He made you a part of the body of Christ. He wants you to depend on your brothers and sisters. Feel free to! That is part of the reason why Christ called us  together! Let us confess our sins to our brothers and sisters and pray with one another.


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Romans 6:2

                Romans 6:1 asks a serious question: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" In better words, "Are we going to keep sinning so God can give us even more grace?" This question asks us if we are going to keep living in sin and use God as life insurance. Will we keep sinning and say, "God forgives?" Romans 6:2 answers this question.

                "By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" How can we, who let go of sin to obtain the free gift of salvation, still live in sin? This is a question that each of us can answer on our own. This verse says that we have no need to live in sin once we gave it up for Christ. How can we call ourselves Christians and still live in sin and do everything that God told us not to do? How can we claim to be followers of Christ but not follow Him? This is impossible.

                So as you go on with your day, ask yourself this question. "How can we who died to sin still live in it?"


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Communion

                Communion is something that has happened in every church that I have been to. In Catholic churches, they do communion every Sunday. In every other church that I have gone to, they do communion the first Sunday of every month. I do not know to much about communion, but I know this much: it is not something that is to be taken lightly.

                1 Corinthians 11:24-27 says, "and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, 'This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord."

                What I see from this is that we are called to remember Christ when we do communion. I believe that communion is an important part of church. I am not one to say that we must do communion, because the command was for us to do communion in a certain way, not do it period. I do feel that, as Christian, we should not stop doing communion. It is an important part of Christian culture and it is something special that God placed for us. I believe that if you should ask for forgiveness and should be a professing Christian, one who claims Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior, before going into communion.

                Everyone has different views on communion. All that I am saying is, for me, communion is like baptism. It is not a must, but it is an awesome experience and a big part of Christian culture that should not die out just because it is not in the ten commandments to do so. I will continue to do communion, not because I feel that I have to, but because I want to in order to continue to remember what Christ did for us in new ways every day. This is only what I feel.


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Love And Sacrifice

                A friend recently asked me if love hurt. I replied, "No, love does not hurt. Sacrifice hurts." Love is a powerful emotion that humans feel, and sacrifice is a powerful action that humans do. Sacrifice means giving up something you love for something you love more. Sacrifice is painful. It constitutes giving up something that we love. To humans, this is painful. Love does not call us to do anything. Love is a feeling. Sacrifice is something that comes out of love. As closely related as the two are, they are different. Sacrifice is made from love.

                Romans 5:8 says, "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This verse is powerful. Love is an emotion. It is not painful, but it changes what sacrifice means for us. If Christ did not love us as much as He loved His throne in Heaven, He would have sacrificed us and let us die so that He could stay seated; but He loved us so much that He sacrificed His life, stood up from His seat, and laid down His life for us. This is a perfect example of love and sacrifice. Love is a feeling, and sacrifice is an action to represent the love that ones has. God could have easily loved us and never come for us, but He wanted us to see the love that He has for us.

                As Christians, we will be going to Heaven one day. In Heaven, we are sacrificing nothing but we are still in love with God. We will probably be more in love with God in Heaven than we are here on Earth. I am saying this to show that we can love without sacrifice. Until then, sacrifice is a part of our daily lives and God calls us to sacrifice the world in order to obtain Him.

                This is how we should sacrifice. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (Romans 12:1) We are called to sacrifice the world in order to live for God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Again, sacrifice is giving up something you love for something you love greater. If you are to follow this verse, you are saying that you love God greater than you love the world and the things in it. God will know your heart and He will know if it is true sacrifice. If it is true sacrifice, you will be able to do it willingly, because the love you have for God will strengthen you to go on.


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Distress

                The night that Jesus was going to be betrayed by Judas, He went out with the rest of His disciples to a place that He often went to for prayer. Luke 22:39-46 says, "Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. On reaching the place, He said to them, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation.' He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed, 'Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.' An angel from Heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 'Why are you sleeping?' He asked them. 'Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.'"

                Jesus knew this night that He was going to be betrayed. Imagine the stress that was on His shoulders. He knew that all of His friends were going to abandon Him, His close friend would betray Him, He would be beaten to the point where even His own mother could not recognize Him, and He would have to take the cup of wrath that was created by every sin that has ever existed and ever will exist. He was probably not feeling too happy about the situation that He was going to go through. He was so distressed that He went into hematidrosis, which is a rare but serious medical condition that occurs when a person is under great distress and the blood and water in their body mix and the person actually sweats blood. These types of conditions are only reached during events as stressful as war and unexpected death penalty sentences. It is a sign of stress beyond stress.

                An interesting piece of this is verses 44-45, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow." Both Jesus and the disciples were going through difficult times. The disciples were filled with sorrow, and Jesus was in distress. Here is the big difference between the two: Jesus chose to pray and the disciples chose to sleep. Why is this important?

                Jesus is setting an example. He says, in verse 46, "'Why are you sleeping?' He asked them. 'Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.'" When Jesus prayed, an angel from God came and gave Him the strength to do what He needed to do. When the disciples slept, they acted in violence when the guards came to arrest Jesus and they fled from His side. They were not following God's will!

                When we come under stressful situations, we should not sleep. We should be up and praying! Jesus gives us a perfect example through His life. When something goes wrong and you feel stressed out, do not sleep it off: pray through it. If the situation gets more stressful, be like Jesus and pray even more earnestly. Prayer should be our first response, not sleep. It is easy to say, "I've had a long day, let me go to bed before I think of all of the bills that I have to pay and how little money I have to pay for it," or "I've had such a long day with my marriage going wrong, I just need to crawl into bed." We should be praying, not going to bed! Sleeping won't fix the problems, but God can! We must follow the example of Jesus and pray when things get hard. Do not sleep under distress, but pray instead.


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Am I Worthy Of God's Love?

                I have heard, many times,  that we as Christians are worthy of God's love. Now, hear me out before you judge. Yes, we are sinners; yes, we are people who were once rebels against God; yes, we are unfaithful to God. All of this is true, so how can I say that we are worthy of God's love? I cannot say that we deserve God's love. In fact, I cannot say that I am worthy of God's love and mean it. Nothing I have ever done has deserved anything but death when it comes to God. I am imperfect.

                Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." We have done nothing to deserve this type of love. It is like walking down the street and someone telling you that if you sign your name, they will give you a million dollars every year until you die. You did nothing worth to deserve it, you did not help the foundation. In fact, you are taking from the charity. It is the same type of concept with God. You did nothing to deserve the reward; but it is a gift that God gave just for you. You are not worthy in the sense of you working for it; but God's love is yours for the taking because He offered it to you.

                So do not think that you did anything to deserve God's love. You never did. You only deserved God's wrath; but He loved you so much that He choose to let His love be a gift for you that He will never take away. He is faithful and we must accept that we have done nothing to deserve this love. We must also accept that questioning why God loves us will not make us understand it any sooner. He loves us unconditionally and He will never take this love away. We are not worthy of God's love, but God will love us anyways no matter what.


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Keep Calm And Love Your Enemies

                "You have heard that it was said, 'love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48)

                The world will try to tell you to love people who love you and hate people who hate you. The world will tell you that someone deserves to be hated, but this is not what Christ tells us. He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." Why would we ever love our enemies? Why should I pray for someone who just egged my car? Why should I be kind towards someone who just cussed me out? I should get even, so says the world. Jesus calls us to love our enemies and do kind things towards them, "that you may be children from your Father in Heaven."

                What does that even mean? It means that we love our enemies and do kind things for them because God did that for us; and if we want to be followers of Jesus Christ, children of God, we need to imitate our Heavenly Father. "Well, I can love people and still not like my enemies." Well, before you come up with your excuses to get out of doing what God told you to do, read James 4:4. "You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: if you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God." When we decide to give into what the world wants us to do over what God wants us to do, we are picking sides; and if we are on the world's side, we are enemies of God, just like people who do wrong are enemies of us. Before you were serving God, you were His enemy. He was gracious and showed you mercy and kindness. He has been merciful and forgiving to us, and we are called to be the same way.

                "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" We are called to love everyone, not just people who make us feel loved. Anyone can love the popular guy who makes you feel welcome, or the girl who gives you a ride everyone. That's easy. Even those who do not have the love of God can do that. If you cannot love those who hate you, or be kind to those who are not kind to you, how do you know that the love of God is in you? If you do not love those who hate you, just as God loved you when you were His enemy, you are not imitating Christ. He is calling us to do this! He says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

                No one said that it would be easy, but you have an easier task then Jesus Christ did. All you have to do is let God help you love your enemies. Jesus had to die for all of His enemies and rise again to give them a chance in Heaven. We just have to ask God to help us be more loving. 1 John 4:7-8 says, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." Be honest with yourself. Are you loving others the way God told you to do in the Bible? In the end, He will hold you accountable for all of the love that you were supposed to give. If you are not giving love, you will be held accountable. It is between you and God; but we must be patient like God was patient, and love our enemies like God loves us. It is what He called us to do. As Christians, we are supposed to follow our Father's commands. The choice to love your enemies will not be forgotten by God. Remember that He died for everyone on the cross, including the person that you cannot stand! He also died for you. How will you pay Him back?

                "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:8)


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