Fruit of the Spirit - The Love Podcast

I am enamored at the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Jesus. That God has given us new life and rewritten old laws is incredible. Today I’ll read from Matthew 12:1-21 from the New International Version, you can read along at BibleGateway.com if you’d like.

Fruit of the Spirit - The Love Podcast
To read along…

Matthew 12:18 from the NIV

Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

That is my favorite verse. God gave this gift to Jesus and he in turn gave it to us. How incredible is that. He gave it to “the one I love.” Does that not speak volumes about love? We can empower good through loving others.

Is there someone you can love where you think love could make a real impact on another’s life?

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Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Love was the first fruit listed in Galatians 5:22. Why? Because it is the most important. We have to love God with all our heart, love ourselves and love our neighbor. Without this love it seems hard to accomplish any of the fruit of the Spirit.

How should we love? As God loves us.

I hope you all found something meaningful in this week’s topic of patience. If not, be patient with me because God isn’t finished with me yet…I couldn’t resist.

I thank Mikey the Rhino from Election-Coverage.com for his post, Dear Christian and hope that we all learned how Christians are perceived. Hopefully we are exercising the first Fruit of the Spirit and remembering to love others that do not have the Spirit of God present in their lives and we hope that we have patience with God because saving people is on His timeline, not ours.

If you have any thoughts on patience please let us know. We’ll be patient and wait for your comments. Enjoy your weekend and God Bless!

Patience and Perseverance one in the same?

Consider the book of James 1:2-4

NIV

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

and

NKJV

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Much like the saying “God helps those who help themselves,” it is quite possible that being patient is more akin to persevering. Not necessarily suffering needlessly but more just being a strong and faithful believer without a doubt.

At gotQuestions.org their article “What does the Bible say about patience?” tells us the following:

“Although most people consider patience to be a passive waiting or gentle tolerance, most of the Greek words translated “patience” in the New Testament (KJV) are active, robust words. Consider, for example, Hebrews 12:1: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Does one run a race by passively waiting for slow-pokes or gently tolerating cheaters? Certainly not! The word translated patience in this verse means endurance. A Christian runs the race patiently by persevering through difficulties in hope of heaven. In the Bible, patience is persevering towards a goal, enduring trials, or expectantly waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.”

Next time you tell someone they are trying your patience then perhaps you are complimenting you both. With maturity we strengthen our patience. We persevere, we endure and through it all we have faith and are rewarded for not doubting.

With this new perspective do you find that perhaps where you thought you were failing as being patient, that now perhaps you were actually succeeding as a persevering Christian?

When you consider being patient what first comes to mind? Are you waiting for something? Are you wanting and actively going after something?

Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say Rejoice.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And the peace of God…we jump right from joy to peace. It says while we are celebrating in Him, He is near.

Near, close to me. When I talked about the birth of my daughter in last week’s podcast I can tell you that I still remember how near He was. While I should have followed my instincts and told my husband to stay I let the nurse dictate otherwise and when he left there was no one but me.

I wasn’t going to have that, no, I prayed and so wanted things to turn out right, and please make sure my husband comes back in time and please make sure those doctors and nurses are right…and please don’t leave me alone…I need peace.

That fruit of the Spirit, peace is so important. Look at that, it made the top three, Love, Joy, Peace…what do you know about that? As if connected by twine to gently gather together. We love, we rejoice, we find peace.

We have it on good authority where to find peace. Isaiah 9:6-7…

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

And with that we can remember that “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” Psalm 85:10

Do you know where to find Peace? Have you found it in the Lord?

We are on to JOY! Is Pentecost still in your heart? It is still in mine and so is the spirit of Joy!

Phil. 4:4 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again – Rejoice!” There, it had to be said twice. REJOICE! Where does our joy come from? The Lord!

Surely we don’t need only the Lord for our happiness. Do we not know how to find happiness in our lives without the Lord? Maybe not, we aren’t finding joy in the grocery store, mall or work place…and we won’t find it easily on the internet either unless we are interested in Christian Joy the fashion designer. Well I did find some inspiration regarding Joy today despite that almost failed search.

At the blog Hem of His Garment Bible Study, I find a wonderful piece of scripture from Nehemiah in the Old Testament.

Then [Ezra] told them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet drink, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold. Nehemiah 8:10

So, the joy of the Lord is more than joy itself, or being happy, it is about Him making us strong. That should be very important to us as the second fruit of the Spirit. We need to be filled with love and we need to be strong.

And I couldn’t have said it any better than Sonya Triggs at Urban Christianz Blogspot when she says:

“So, apparently, our joy is not be based on our circumstances, our outlook, our paycheck or our mindset. But on our relationship with Jesus Christ - and our abiding in him. And it can never be taken away or meddled with by man - it is durable, permanent - built rock-solid on Jesus’s gift of atonement to us. And, finally, that joy is found within the Holy Spirit - it shows up and is manifested as a result of His presence within us.”

Have you been confused with the whole joy thing? Did you think you had to be happy for the sake of happiness? Are you relieved that Joy is something we reach on a deeper spiritual level and it has nothing to do with our outward appearance to our friends as Christians?

Time and time again in the bible we are told He loves us and He will provide for us. If He cares for the birds, He will take care of us as well. Think of Job, he lost it all, but God gave him back even more.

He has given us Jesus, the Holy Spirit and blessings too numerous to count when we recognize them. We must remember how He will always love us. We must also remember how he calls us to do the same.

To close the week of love and the fruit of the Spirit, I thought I’d add a little family fun to the mix. Enjoy this video from GodTube.

Do you think love is the most important fruit of the Spirit? Do you think it adds something important to all the other fruits?

I. SPIRITUAL CHARACTER OF ONE WHO FORGIVES (4-7) Lack of forgiveness is one of the leading causes of the breakups in all relationships. Paul’s describes the spiritual character of one who forgives as – “I am confident of your obedience”     Has a concern for the Lord     Has a concern for people     Has a concern for fellowship     Has a concern for knowledge     Has a concern to bring glory to God     Has a concern to be a blessing to God and others When we are unwilling to forgive it is a rebellious, blatant open act of disobedience to God.  The harm is to ourselves, and to others1.     Failure to forgive will imprison believers in their past. It binds us!2.     Failure to forgive produces bitterness3.     Failure to forgive gives Satan an open door4.     Failure to forgive hinders your fellowship with God. John MacArthur an author and pastor here in So. CA said Forgiveness is found throughout the scriptures and is found in 75 different word pictures in the Bible.  I have picked a few of them·                    To forgive is to write in large letters across a debt, Nothing owed.  PAID IN FULL·                    To forgive is to pound the gavel in a courtroom and declare Not guilty·                    To forgive is to shoot an arrow so high and so far that it can never be found again.·                    To forgive is to bundle up all the garbage and trash and dispose of it, leaving the house fresh and clean. …..TODAY THINK ABOUT YOUR PAST – WHAT HAS GOD FORGIVEN YOU FOR.  HAVE YOU THANKED HIM II. SPIRITUAL ACTION OF ONE WHO FORGIVES Verses (8-18)   Vs. 8 – Paul waives his authority as an apostle, and appeals to Philemon on the basis that it is the right thing to do…AND with the same gentleness as he would receive Paul.  Verse 9 – Yet I appeal to you on the basis of love….to receive Onesimus back.  PAUL IS CHARGING PHILEMON TO RECEIVE ONESIMUS BACK ON THE BASIS OF LOVE.    Verse 14 – Paul wanted Philemon’s forgiveness and reconciliation to be spontaneous and not forced. Who should you forgive - how would that effect your life?

You will see the Lord save you today.
— Exodus 14:13a

If one were to look for something the Lord has done in one’s life everyday, it is amazing how many blessings there are from Him to us. Whether it is the life of a new baby, the kisses and hugs of a three year old who is too young to think more than one kiss and hug is enough, the compassion of a friend when in need, or the direction that all children need from their Father, no life is more blessed than the one who lives for God through Christ.

Many look for the meaning of life. I don’t know that life itself has a meaning to us outside perhaps the meaning we give it. The gift of life is complicated and while we don’t think about it everyday we may have our moments when we reach out and wonder, “Why?”

Someone thought getting a degree would make them happy, another married and had children. They both proclaim happiness but in a sense, it is not what they imagined. It wasn’t true happiness. Have they missed true happiness or did they just misunderstand it? Maybe true happiness is just being happy in whatever we find in our life, whatever hand we’ve been dealt.

We can find something important and find meaning in it. One thing that is important to me is the Bible. His greatest gift after Christ is the Bible. I find a few minutes everyday can bring one the greatest peace of mind. Everyday, you can visit with a good friend, be reminded of grace and mercy. Some days I might not be able to see what God has done in my life, but it is comforting enough to be reminded that He is doing something. While I may not find true happiness in everything, moments reflecting on the word and remembering what Christ has sacrificed for us brings peace of mind that I can be happy in all I am given.

May God continue to bless us all through His word.

Is there such a thing as true happiness? Do we give life meaning? What’s your favorite Bible? What time of day do you set aside to study or just read and reflect?

HOW DO YOU LOVE GOD THIS MORNING?          *By maintaining a worshipful heart          *By faithful church attendance          * Having prayer everyday…*Have you taken down the emotional barriers?    of self protection          *Have you rid yourself of anger and bitterness?          *Are you showing unconditional love to others?          *We have a tendency to show love and care when it is             convenient. As we look at our scriptures we see that one of the components of LOVING GOD IS FORGIVENESS When we have an intimate relationship with JESUS it allows us to love, trust and forgive those human relationships that have been harmful to us in the past.   Forgiveness is an outflow of loving God and involves trust and grace.  Vs. 1-3Our scripture opens with The Apostle Paul, imprisoned writing a letter to Philemon on behalf of a runaway slave named Onesimus.   Paul’s letter although mainly addressed to Philemon includes Philemon’s wife Apphia as she would be a party offended by Onesimus and it was proper to include her in a letter of forgiveness and reconciliation.   He also then includes Archippus who was a minister in the church of colosse, Philemon’s friend and co-pastor.  Paul is wise in including him as possibly he might be able to assist in furthering the good work of peace-making and forgiveness. WHO WAS PHILEMON PHILEMON was a wealthy slave owner, *a beloved friend and a convert of Paul’s.    *A believer. *He was the owner of a large house as the Colossian church   who met  there. * He was probably the pastor of the Colossian church *Paul refers to him as a fellow worker and as Agapetos, meaning beloved.  ONEISMUS   * Was a runaway slave (punishable by death) AND HE         WAS from the household of Philemon  *He was a thief, a criminal – a worthless slave  *He violated the trust of his master Philemon by depriving him of his services. Slaves were not actually considered persons under the law, but the chattel property of their owners.

Q……How do we steal in our relationships – jobs