love

Relationships

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The attitudes and behaviors we choose to use towards each other are significant factors in our relationships.  If we are self-focused, we will have many difficulties in our relationships or if we over extend ourselves in serving others and we lack self-care we can become unable to help anyone.  Our guide for daily living is found by spending time with Jesus and reading God’s Word.  Feeding our faith and doing it daily is the best thing we can do to influence all other areas of our lives.  The most important relationship we will ever have is with our Lord and Savior, when we start with that and stick to it, everything else will get better.  May you be comforted by God’s love today.  Amen.

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“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

(This photo was taken in July of 2014 at a lake place in central Minnesota)

The Fruit Of The Spirit

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When we come to Christ and seek Him, we are renewed.  The Holy Spirit within us encourages us to live by the Fruit of the Spirit more and more and to leave the evil, anger, hatred and darkness behind.  The more we use the Fruit of the Spirit when thinking about ourselves and while helping others the better our life will be.  Most of us are too hard on ourselves and too hard on others…things can be different.  Pick up God’s Word and read about it, pray and ask for forgiveness of your sins and to have the Fruit of the Spirit stirred up in you.  May God’s love, joy and peace be with you.  Amen.

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

(This photo was taken in June of 2013 while traveling through northern Colorado)

Offer Kindness

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Every single person is fighting a personal battle within themselves…every single one of us.  Don’t be so quick to judge and assume your knowledge about any situation or individual.  Be different, be kind…listen and seek to understand.  The quickest way to diffuse an escalating situation is kindness and compassion, not pushing your personal agenda.  Turn towards Jesus and ask that you are filled with courage and the ability to see others with His eyes.  Amen.

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“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

1 Peter 4:8-10

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 in Glacier National Park in Montana)

He Is With You

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Trustworthy…reliable…constant…unwavering…unfailing…steady…faithful.  God is with you at all times no matter where you go.  All that is required is for us to come to the Cross and believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  There is nothing, no place or no one on earth that compares to what you can have in a personal relationship with our Lord.  We often spend our lives looking for something or someone and we believe that if that place or person could be a part of our everyday life then we would be satisfied…Jesus Christ is all that we need.  Turn toward Him and give thanks for all that He has done for you.  Amen.

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“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5

(This photo was taken in June of 2013 while traveling through Nebraska)

God’s Word

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When we open up and read the Word of God, we can sense the Spirit that God has planted within us.  Our faith is living and breathing and needs to be fed.  God’s Word renews us, encourages us and centers us on Him and His plan for us.  His Word is truth, it is fact based on actual events in history and His Word gives us life.  May God’s peace be with you and flow through you each day.  Amen.

Word Of Life by Jeremy Camp

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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

(This photo was taken in March of 2018 while traveling in southern New Mexico)

Love And Faithfulness

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When we are able to surrender ourselves to God and His plan and we follow Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we will grow and mature spiritually.  We may believe we know a great deal about love and faithfulness and yet there is so much more God wants to show us.  It will not be easy and we should take nothing for granted.  Living in this world where sin and selfishness run wild, where temptations are lurking…we will never be perfect, so that is not a realistic goal and we are not to be the judge of others.  In the Gospel of John 13:34-35, Jesus gives us a new command of love, He is speaking about it at a time when one of His close disciples in going off to betray Him.  Love and faithfulness these are characteristics of the new creation God is making us to be.  Seek the Lord and the life He has planned for you.  Amen.

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“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

Proverbs 3:3-4

(This photo was taken in October of 2014 at sunrise on the island of Maui, Hawaii)

He Loves Us

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There is nothing in the world like God’s love for us…He sacrificed His one and only Son to save us…sin and suffering are the result of human behavior, all that is good comes from God.  Seek Him and His will for you.  Amen.

How He Loves by David Crowder Band

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“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:17-19

(This photo was taken in October of 2018 at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

Come As You Are…

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Come to the Cross…All are welcome…No matter what has happened or where you have been, Come lay down all your burdens and be healed.  As it says in today’s song, “earth has no sorrow that heaven can’t heal.”  Amen.

Come As You Are by Crowder

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“For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:12-13

(This photo was taken in June of 2013 in northern Colorado)

Give Thanks

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Focus on what is good…focus on the blessings you have been given…what are the gifts and talents God has given you that you can share with others?  There is nothing that can separate us from God’s love.  He created us and this world, He has given us free will, He has kept His promises to us…it is up to us to seek Him and His will…it is up to us to pick up God’s word and read, it is up to us to pray and deepen our relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God for all He has given us.  May the peace and joy of the Lord be with you.  Amen.

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“…Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:19-20

(This photo was taken in June of 2018 at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)