7holycrap Jesus thoughts, Life Lessons

The “Actions” of Love or the “Act” of Loving?

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 is such an amazing and powerful portion of the Bible. Here is the Message version of that section of scripture.
13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.3-7
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the “love chapter” of the Bible and has the best description, in my opinion, of the kind of love we need to have and the kinds of “Godly actions” that can get in the way of that true love.  Growing up in church all my life and going to college to be a pastor, I can say that I was programed quite well to “speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, speak God’s Word with power, have faith to move mountains and even the importance of giving to the poor and the awesome act of giving up ones life for their faith if necessary.  The problem is that many times those Christian truths in my life as a follower of Christ get in the way of me just “loving like Jesus.”

I am not saying that the Godly actions above are wrong, just that the motivation behind love is what always needs to be checked.  If you are a follower of Christ and working on the former things I mentioned without regarding love, then you are, as the Bible puts it, a “creaking rusty, nothing, nowhere, bankrupt individual.”  I don’t want to do all the things that make me look “religious” in this life and at the same time undermine my relationship with Jesus, which is really more important than anything else to me.

I know that it is hard to love others sometimes in the world we live in but I can say that I have never regretted being motivated by love in my actions versus being motivated by anger or hate. As I have said before, if it was good enough for Jesus to love even the people nailing Him to a cross I think I could “squeak out” a few acts of love to the people around me. 🙂

7holycrap Jesus thoughts

Hollywood and the Disease of Being Famous

As I read more reports about Phillip Seymour Hoffman it just breaks my heart. So much talent, so much adoration from the world and movie industry, so much money and awards. Yet no peace, no contentment and no escape from the disease of being famous. Whenever a star from Hollywood dies in a way like this, it is a constant reminder that the superficial world that is Hollywood doesn’t bring true contentment with its adulation and awards alone. For those of us NOT famous and running in Hollywood circles, it can be easy to dream about the lifestyle of a star. Even though I am a pastor, I am just as prone as the next guy to allow thoughts of “what would it be like” to run through my head every so often. Then I am brought immediately back down to earth when I read about the death of a famous star from drugs, alcohol or other “escape routes” that famous people try to use. I know many people have made fun of Justin Bieber in the past few weeks but we need to be praying for him and his SCREAMS like a little lost boy of “HELP ME!” Being in Hollywood and having awards and money and opportunities are not terrible in themselves and can actually be really great. The main component is the relationship to Jesus that changes the focus and dynamic and the entire foundation of happiness in this world.
The point I am trying to make is that if you think you will have enough people love you and honor you and enough money to “be happy” and enough “shots to make it big” without a foundation in God then you are mistaken. There are MORE than enough examples in life of people that didn’t have a firm foundation in Jesus and in who they were and they kill themselves or end up in a never ending cycle of bad relationships or rehab to prove my point. We need to take the bright lights of Hollywood at face value and take a relationship with God as a priority.
Maybe you don’t even know how to start a relationship with Jesus. Do you realize how much patience God has with you? He will NEVER take control of a persons life or decisions. He is waiting for you to ask him to take control. It’s just as simple as “Jesus take control of my life. Amen” There are SO MANY resources on the web about study of the Bible and lots of great Jesus preaching, Bible believing churches you can go to and get involved with. All it takes is commitment and one step. And then another step. And then another. Have a great Wednesday and if you would like more information about a relationship with Jesus you can email me and I will help. Brimo777@gmail.com

7holycrap Jesus thoughts, Life Lessons, Orphanage Trips

SuperBowl XLVIII and REAL Life

It’s the morning after the SuperBowl and some people are rejoicing and others are weeping. The real question is, how much did last night’s win or loss change your life? If you bet all your money on the Seahawks and you’re more wealthy, then you have new problems because of more money. If you bet everything on the Broncos and you lost all your money, then you also have new problems (and possibly need a place to live). But in the grand scheme of things, a loss or win doesn’t mean anything to your personal life. I realized this about 3 years ago with my beloved Buccaneers. I still root for them, but I don’t yell at the tv or throw things or have a crappy attitude after they lose (which they did a lot of this past year) because it was consuming too much of my mental capacity in life. It was the same with the Broncos last night. I have lived in Denver for almost 13 years and always want to see them do well. Last night was no exception. I wanted to see Payton Manning win another SuperBowl and the Broncos cap off an amazing record setting season. It was not to be and the Seahawks won.
I think the renaissance in my thinking came from a couple of things. When I got sick with my eye condition for 5 years I didn’t care about a lot, including life or even living. Football and rooting for one team or another wasn’t even on my radar screen. I just didn’t want to go blind. When I got better I realized that all of the emotional energy I put towards things that don’t concern me is just not worth it. I am not saying that I am perfect now, but that I have a better perspective on sports teams I root for and how it impacts my life. The other thing that happened was I started to help oversee our orphanage in Nepal. To see what our kids over there deal with on a daily basis makes a SuperBowl loss for my football team pale in comparison.
There are SO MANY other things we need to emotionally invest in on a daily basis that are more important, including our relationships to others and our relationship to God. Seeing players from both teams last night praying together was better to me than anything else about the game (and not just because my Broncos lost :). Too many people in life have their priorities all mixed up. This post may make you angry but think about why you don’t like what I am saying. Don’t let a “pastime sport” consume your life so much that it endangers relationships around you because of your bad attitude from a loss or arrogance from a win. I want my life to matter more than the sports teams I rooted for or personal accomplishments that lift me up above my relationship to Jesus. The things that I want to matter in my life are connected to seeing others around me find a personal relationship to Jesus and helping those less fortunate than myself. If I consume my mind with THOSE things, than I can say that I lived a meaningful life for more than just the success or failure of a sports team I rooted for. Have a great week!