1 John 3:14-15 – “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”  NKJV

I would suggest that reading verses 1-15 would be beneficial before continuing in this devotional.  Now that you have read the foundational verses I would suggest that it is the expressed desire of our Lord that we be one (UNITED), and live together in harmony and peace (UNITY) in the Body of Christ.  That is evidenced in Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21 – “…that they may be one…”

AGAPE LOVE unifies, builds up and strengthens.  It pulls down walls, barriers, and strongholds.  It opens the door for the move of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives, homes, businesses, schools, churches, and world.  God wants UNITY in the Body and the devil wants DISCORD and DISUNITY.  God sends His love to HEAL and the devil sends his hate and deception to KILL.  God wants love to RULE our hearts and the devil wants hate, bitterness and unforgiveness to RULE.  It is not difficult to see that this is a matter of opposites or “Life vs Death.”

TRUTHS TO REMEMBER: 

• All born-again people constitute the Body of Christ.
• God extends fellowship to ALL believers.
• The basis of fellowship is LIFE not OPINION.

             If we are saved we are family, and family is more important than opinions or preferences.  We love one another, and people who love each other would never intentionally hurt each other.  Hurts will come but they are not intentional.  In Christ we are free to love!  However, the problem is that too often we focus on ‘externals’ and miss what God is doing. Tragically many become entrapped by the devil’s delusions and allow schisms to be created in the Body against the directive and desire of God.

One of the greatest purposes of the Church is to bring people into contact with the Gospel that they might be made whole.  The reason the church is in the world is to minister salvation to people.  The word ‘salvation’ in its broadest sense means ‘to bring wholeness.’  It is interchangeable with healing. The Gospel does more than just cleanse the soul it heals and makes whole.  It is more than just forgiveness it is restoration to fellowship and wholeness.  We become partakers of His divine nature and are complete in Him and only in Him.

The Church should be more like a hospital than a museum.  People come who need salvation, healing, and wholeness in every area of their lives. That can only happen if they feel free enough to risk opening themselves up to us and the gospel.  That will not happen until AGAPE LOVE is in force and we give them some guarantees by our words, deeds, and actions.

• They need to know that they will be loved REGARDLESS.
• They need to know that they will be accepted WITHOUT RESERVATION.
• They need to know that they will receive UNRESERVED FORGIVENESS. 

No matter how miserably they fail or how blatantly they sin, they will receive unreserved and unrestricted forgiveness it is theirs for the asking.  Consider the words of the text:  “We know we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Any who does not love remains in death.”  The key evidence we are Children of God is our LOVE for other believers.  We are to love the brothers/sisters – – ALL OF THEM and that’s both frightening and liberating.

I want to say a little more on this but will hit the pause button until the next post.  May the Lord be with you and help you Love as He loves as you journey through this maze we call life!  Blessings!

1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 – “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.”  NASU

Through the years I have had many interesting and frustrating conversations with people regarding God and gods.  There are some questions that are impossible to truly answer and to even attempt to often can frustrate one’s faith.  I want to emphasize these words – “LIVING AND TRUE GOD” and that God is ‘living and true’ in our experience.  Somehow that subject seems to have lost some of it ‘awesomeness’ in much of today’s church world.  He is THE LIVING GOD!

I have noticed that many talk about prayer in an ethereal way more as a theory than a reality.  Prayer is ‘discussed’ and ‘debated’ with little or no actual involvement and for much of the world Christianity is nothing more than a theory.  We tend to ‘discuss’ God and I contend that debating God is virtually impossible.  You cannot simply ‘discuss’ God you EXPERIENCE HIM.  We can talk about electricity but we are talking about ‘touching it’ and I suggest that it is IMPOSSIBLE to debate electricity when you are TOUCHING IT!

Christianity is a religion of ‘walking with God’ and ‘experiencing God’.  It is the religion in which you can talk to God and expect something to happen.  I heard someone use the illustration that you can no more debate God than two fish could sit on the table looking at an aquarium and debate water!  Fish do not debate or discuss water they LIVE IN and BY IT.  So to sit outside God and debate Him in the Ivory Towers of some seminary, church, parlor, or street corner is not what this is all about it is LIVING IN and BY HIM.  It is Christ IN US the hope of glory.  We experience God!

Look around you at CREATION and no matter what you call the world in which we live it was created by the hand of THE LIVING GOD.  Nature is nothing more than the footprints of God.  The sun rises and sets because THE LIVING GOD deemed it so.  Even in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus spoke of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air he was telling us that in creation you see the hand of God and He knows every minute detail.

In salvation God takes the initiative as Paul said in Philippians – “He that has begun a good work in you…”  Before man fell into sin in the Garden God had a plan in place for He is THE LIVING GOD!  At the Cross Jesus cried IT IS FINISHED so we find the culmination of God’s plan for man’s redemption, the price paid, the door open, the offer extended to ‘whosoever will’.  We declare, “I found the Lord” as though He was the one lost not us.  No, He found us!  Romans 2 tells us that the ‘goodness of God leads to salvation…”

The Hebrews always referred to Jehovah as THE LIVING GOD in contrast to all other gods of men.  He is not up for discussion or debate He is THE LIVING GOD!  Imagine sitting down at the breakfast table and telling those dining with you, ‘We are going to discuss and debate whether you are here or not.’  GOD IS and your debate won’t change that, enhance or detract from that.  HE IS!  All life is dependent upon Him – HE IS.  Without Him nothing was made that was made – HE IS!  He was there with Moses and Israel in the Exodus from Egypt. He was there with Daniel in the lion’s den.  He was there with David facing Goliath. He was there with Joshua at Jericho.  HE IS THE LIVING GOD!  It is not in our ability to ‘debate’ God but in our ‘experiencing’ God that produces life.  In Matthew 16 Jesus is called “… the Son of the Living God…”  He said, “I am the resurrection and the life…” 2 Corinthians 3:3 tells us, “You are the letter of Christ written in the Spirit of THE LIVING GOD.”

Prayer, real prayer believes there will be things in the world tomorrow that would not be there had we not prayed.  Ephesians 3:20 [Amplified] – “Now to Him who is able to carry out His purpose and to super abundantly, far over and above all we dare ask or think.  Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams.”  THAT GOD instructs us to bring our ‘highest prayers’, ‘greatest desires’ and ‘wildest dreams’ and He will move on our behalf for He is THE LIVING GOD!  The world needs the church to be relevant manifesting THE LIVING GOD in our lives.  It needs to see people who go to their jobs, meetings, organizations and become known as that person who is the FRIEND of the Living God and a person who can TALK to Him and receive answers to their prayers.  He is THE LIVING GOD and if He is LIVING why would we not expect Him to work His works in our midst.

            May God be with you as you go through your day!

Isaiah 9:2 – “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” NKJV

Mark 16:15-18 – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.  17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  NKJV

We hear a lot about ‘Radical Islam’ and when that term is used it is referring to jihadist who terrorize.  It seems that much of the media world considers any Christianity that is remotely ‘normal’ by biblical standards is ‘radical’.  What is ‘Radical Christianity’ from a biblical perspective?  I believe that what some would call ‘radical’ God calls ‘normal.’  We find in Acts 11:26 that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch and that was a radical departure from the accepted religion of that day, region, and people.  They were identified as ‘trouble makers’ (Acts 17:6).  The entire city of Ephesus was turned on its ear when they came to it.  (Acts 19 ) We find according to Acts 19:10 that in just two short years every Jew and Greek in the whole of Asia had heard the Gospel of the Kingdom.  In Acts 5 the disciples and believers were used of God in signs and wonders so much so that even the shadow of Peter brought healing to the sick.  Sounds Radical to me but when I read the Bible I find that what we call ‘radical’ God seems to deem ‘normal.’  Maybe I should say they were ‘Radically Normal’ in following Jesus.

RADICAL ANOINTING….

I am convinced that too often we have settled for second best rather than pressing in to receive the anointing God desires us to walk in.  Too often we reminiscence rather than press forward and have adapted and adopted a mentality to let clerical George do it rather than the entire body pressing in.  Isaiah 40 tells us that if we wait on the Lord we will renew our strength, mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary and walk and not faint.  Too many times we run before the tank is full and operate on half empty rather than full.

RADICAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT…

I know that is taboo to even bring up church government but the Bible is filled with it in the New Testament and pictures of it are in the Old.  In Acts 2 we have reference to continuing in the apostle’s doctrine.  They had leadership and order and coupled with the radical anointing they began seeing a great harvest and those harvested were being assimilated into the Body of Christ to function.

RADICAL COMMITMENT…

That’s a tough one!  Most of the Christian community today is not focused on ‘commitment’ because we have been taught to be ‘self-centered’.  The Bible teaches a vision of heart that I call Kingdom Vision that transcends me.  The complaint I hear and have heard for decades is “I’m too busy”.  My question is, “When did Jesus change?”  A radical commitment produces a radical lifestyle and obtains radical results but it begins with commitment.  I am not talking about ‘church attendance’ but COMMITMENT.  The Radical Christian fears nothing because he/she knows that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent having overcome the enemy of our souls and relegated him to utter defeat.

RADICAL GIVING…

Surely you can’t expect a preacher to present something without getting to the pocketbook sooner or later.  One major goal of Christian giving is so that everyone in the fellowship has their needs met.  If people in the local fellowship are forced to go to the government for help, it is my conviction that the fellowship is not walking in and practicing fully the pattern, provisions, and promises of God.

It is my conviction that we will also be RADICAL IN PRAYER and that will result in being RADICAL IN EVANGELISM and the reports of souls brought into the kingdom will make us RADICAL IN PRAISE and the end result is we will become RADICAL IN FAITH.  Some might say that what I’m presenting is ‘Radical Thinking’ but I believe it is ‘Normal Christianity’ and not radical at all.

            May God bless you as you go through your day!