Posted by Pastor Bruce on June 3, 2010
Obeying on command is our goal as Christians. To obey all that the Lord (Our Master) orders us to do.
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21 NKJV)
Our obedience to the Word of God is a direct reflection of how much we love and trust Jesus. There is no other way to “be happy in Jesus” but to trust and obey.
Obedience is almost non-existent in the day that we are living because there is very little submission to God. No submission, no honor, no respect and in turn no obedience. God expects us to obey not because we “have to”, but because He wants to manifest Himself to us and through us.
The way to experience a greater manifestation of God in your life is to find out what the Word of God says and obey it immediately…without hesitation. Obedience is not optional in the Kingdom of God. The Lord requires it and rewards it! Find out what the Lord wants you to do and do it, OBEY! There is no other way.
Posted by Pastor Bruce on May 5, 2010
Ever thought “this world would be great if we could get rid of all the difficult people.”?
“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” – Matthew 5:43-47 [The Message]
When we are born again we are equipped with all that we need to love every person that we will ever come in contact with. People don’t purposely choose to be difficult, it just happens. The natural course of life without God is to become old and grumpy, difficult and down right mean. In a word, SELFISH.
Without the Word of God operating in your life you will become difficult as well. This is exactly why it is important to practice Matthew 5:43-47 and learn to love the unlovely. When you come in contact with a difficult person decide within yourself that “I am going to show the love of God regardless!” and you have just put yourself in the right place. It is easy to love those that love you, it requires no effort at all. But it is a “big person” (a mature one) that can love someone that is lying about them, cheating on them, stealing from them, etc. You can do it! God made you to act just like Jesus.
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Filed Under: love
Posted by Pastor Bruce on April 29, 2010
What do you think will transform the church?
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT
The love of God manifested through the children of God will transform the Church of God!
“It (love) should be preached from the pulpit until every member of the congregation becomes love conscious, until it would be impossible for them to quarrel or say unkind things to one another.” – E.W. Kenyon
We are ordered to obey the love command by the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. It is not an option but a holy command that when Jesus obeyed it, it allowed God the Father to restore the relationship between Himself and His most prized possession: mankind.
The Church is in the restoration business. Our job is to restore man to God. But we must be living a life of extreme love in order to accomplish the task that we have been given. We must obey the “love command” to a greater extent in order to see the Harvest come in. The Harvest that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 9:38 will only come in to the degree that the Church is living according to the commandment to love each other AS Jesus has loved us. We must get busy focusing on the love command and quit focusing on the things that do not matter.
Posted by Pastor Bruce on April 26, 2010
We needed a new commandment…higher than the 10 that God gave Moses.
I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves]. John 13:34-35 AMP
Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He raised the bar by giving us a new commandment. He knew that the new commandment of love would transcend all the previous commandments given by God to man. This new commandment of LOVE is the highest “order” from the Commander in Chief of the Army of God. “Orders” in the military sense are given to soldiers before there is ever any action taken. Soldiers eagerly await the orders from the CO.
We have been given orders to love. Love one another AS HE has loved us. He knew that we fulfill the order when He gave it to us. He knew that He was also giving us the ability to love with the same love that He loved (and loves) us with when He gave us the command. This command, when acted on, will change the very atmosphere around us. As the world around us becomes more and more selfish and self-centered the love of God through the body of Christ will shine brighter and brighter. Let’s obey the command today. WE CAN DO IT!
Posted by Pastor Bruce on March 24, 2010
“If” is a big word to be so small.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; – John 8:31 (KJV)
Believing on Jesus does not make you a disciple. There is only one thing that will make you a disciple and that is continuing in the words of Jesus. Jesus said this. He made the distinction.
Many folks believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Fewer people actually become a disciple of Jesus.
A disciple means a follower. Someone that acts on the example and teachings of another. An apprentice is a follower of his mentor. To do what you have been taught to do. “Doing” is the difference.
Knowing what Jesus taught is good but doing what Jesus taught produces freedom. Being free requires acting on the truth. Truth acted upon produces freedom. The price of freedom is acting on the truth!
Don’t be satisfied with being just a believer. Continue in the truth of God’s Word, act like Jesus and experience the freedom that only the truth can provide. Be a disciple…do His word at all times…when it is convenient and when it is not convenient. Continue…
Posted by Pastor Bruce on March 18, 2010
“I did it my way…” (what a song to live your life by…)
(1Peter 5:5b) Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
Is it any wonder why the subject of submission gets a bad rap? In today’s society of MY rights, MY likes, MY dislikes, me, me, I, I… we still do not understand that life is not all about the big “ME”! God did not create us to be self-seeking and self-serving…these are attributes of Satan. Thinking only about yourself and considering everything that everybody has done to you or not done for you will lead you to a life of loneliness and bitterness.
The more that you perform constant self-examinations on all your hurts, pains and fears, the more that you draw into yourself and put up walls between you and everyone else. Like the Word says “God Himself resists the proud”.
To submit to God means to quit looking at what God can do for you and begin doing what God has told you to do by obeying His leadership. Pride is the opposite of submission. “I deserve better”, “if only they cared about me…”, “after all that I have done for you…” – these phrases reveal the heart of someone that is in pride. It is not recognized as pride because it is masqueraded with hurt and “weakness”. God cannot help someone in the middle of a “pity party”. He can only give grace to someone that submits themselves to Him and His Word to the point that they are willing to admit fault, receive instruction and then change.
Have you noticed how easy it is for everyone in the world to blame everyone else in the world for their problems? Indications of a proud heart…
The humble and submitted heart is the one that is doing the Word in every way. Obeying God, loving people (and not demanding from them). Love is not touchy, fretful, rude…it does not take any account of any wrong done to it…it doesn’t try to get it’s way.
Submission is not bondage, but true freedom!
Posted by Pastor Bruce on March 3, 2010
How do you know when you have changed?
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him – Col. 3:9-10 NKJV
OLD MAN vs. NEW MAN…you choose.
We have the responsibility to walk (live) according to the Word of God and act like Jesus. We can say that we are “trying”…but how hard are we trying?
To grow up into Jesus is to change the way that we act, think and speak. We have the power (and the responsibility) to change for ourselves. No one can make you change and no one can change for you. You decide when and if you are going to change.
Our disadvantage is that we live in a society of convenience where we do the least amount possible and expect the greatest result. We want all the shortcuts and we want them right now!
Real and lasting change is not based on convenience, it is based on the how much of the Word of God we are putting to practice in our lives. We must determine that we will do whatever the Word says for us to do as quickly as we see it in the Word! To change we have to change, period. How much have you changed lately?
Posted by Pastor Bruce on February 8, 2010
Get out of the boat!
He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus. – Matt. 14:29
Jesus is saying, “COME!…get out of the boat and walk on the water with Me!” You can do it, you were designed to do what Jesus did. We are fit for the task. Our Father has great faith in us because He put it there. He wants us to use it and the way that we use it is to get out of the boat and dare to walk on the water.
While the rest of the disciples sat in the boat watching Peter he was walking on the water with Jesus! (We tend to focus on the fact that he sank down into the water and Jesus had to help him back up and forget that he was the only one out of the disciples that did the impossible!)
Begin to ask God what He wants you to do that you haven’t done up to this point in your life. He is always calling us to go higher, reach farther and do what no one else has ever done! (of course He expects us to depend on Him by looking to Him for strength and ability beyond our natural ability) He wants to show Himself strong on our behalf and empower us to do the impossible, conquer the challenge and live as an over-comer! You can do it, look at Jesus, believe and get out of the boat!
Posted by Pastor Bruce on February 3, 2010
The Church is waking up!
Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light. [Isa. 26:19; 60:1, 2.] Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), – Ephesians 5:14-15 AMP
We must realize what time it is and wake up! Quit hitting the “snooze button” and get out of the bed.
Jesus is depending on us to do our part as His Body and begin to move toward the sick and lost. Have compassion on people and stretch out our hands to give help, healing and hope!
As these verses state we need to examine the way that we are living so that we are living with purpose. Also, we need to make sure that we are doing the Word and not just hearing it. Allow the Word to purge us and cleanse us in order to bear more fruit. We must put a premium on doing the Word in these days. But in order to do the Word you must first know the Word. Be students of the Word as 2 Timothy 2:15 says in order that we be not ashamed so that we can do the Word (James 1:22 and Joshua 1:8)
Let’s not let the Lord find us sleeping on the job (as He did when He asked a few of His disciples to pray just outside the garden of Gethsemane)…we need to wake up, look at the clock, stir up the gift in us and be about our Father’s business!
Posted by Pastor Bruce on January 28, 2010
At what time in history was obedience ever made optional?
“If you love me, you will obey my commandments” – John 14:15
Obedience is a manifestation of love. You can not truly say that you love God and habitually disobey His word. It just does not work.
Today’s society completely accepts that children have the right to tell their parents what to do and what they are going to do and not going to do. The world around us has protected the right to disobey authority and be OK with it. It is in one word REBELLION.
There is no where in the Bible that gives us the right to disobey God. We do not have the choice to obey or disobey God…IF we love Him. The question then becomes, “Do you love God?”. If so, we will see it in your complete and immediate obedience to His word.
Because He loves us He would never require us to do anything that would hurt us or anyone else. The Word says that His commandments are not grievous or burdensome. Jesus even went so far to say that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He is not a hard taskmaster. Everything that He asks us to do is for our benefit…to help and bless us…and ultimately make us a bigger blessing.
How much would you say today that you love God?
