Life by the Spirit…Love

October 18, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

Why is Love one of the first fruits? Because all that we are and all that we have been given is because of God’s Love.

His grace comes from Love

His mercy comes from Love

His forgiveness comes from Love and

His peace comes from Love.

The apostle Paul understood this and wrote about it extensively in 1 Corinthians 13. Many people know of these verses because they have heard it read at a wedding or maybe you had it read at your own wedding. Hearing it and even knowing what it says is different than striving to live it in your everyday life.

Love is doing things for other people, not because you have to…because you want to. All of the writing in 1 Corinthians 13 is about the behaviors of Love…having patience, kindness, not being rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, not keeping record of wrongs…behaviors of Love…it always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. These behaviors and ways of living are all choices that we all have. God gave us free will because he Loves us…it is up to us to choose Love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”

John 3:16

People say what a terrible world, why does this evil happen, how can God let this happen…God doesn’t do bad things to people…people choose bad things and yet through it all God still Loves us. So when I start thinking this way in my life I try hard to remember the only way I can make any difference in this world is by changing myself and my behaviors towards others…that is Love.

Tomorrow I will explore Joy.

Peace.

Reflect, Restore, Renew

August 24, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

The following is taken from my Devotional bible and was written by a man named Bob Benson. I share it because it is an excellent summary regarding the presence of God in our lives. Also, because Bob Benson who was one of the Christian world’s leading publishing executives and the author of six books, he succumbed to cancer in March of…..1986. Yet here I am in August of 2013 and his words still provide a blessing to me this day…maybe they will to you to. Well done Bob Benson…Well done.

When life caves in, you do not need reasons, you need comfort. You do not need some answers; you need someone. And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation; he comes to us with his presence.

We are always seeking the reason. We want to know why. Like Job, we finally want God to tell us just what is going on….

But God does not reveal his plan, he reveals himself. He comes to us as warmth when we are cold, fellowship when we are alone, strength when we are weak, peace when we are troubled, courage when we are afraid, songs when we are sad, and bread when we are hungry.

He is with us on our journeys. He is there when we are home. He sits with us at our table. He knows about funerals and weddings and commencements and hospitals and jails and unemployment and labor and laughter and rest and tears. He knows because he is with us. He comes to us again and again.

– Bob Benson

Peace to you today.

Patience and Persistence

August 22, 2013 / mcalcagno / 5 Comments

Sometimes we all wish God worked like a drive-thru…quick, cheap and efficient? We could just pull in and get whatever we needed whenever we needed it. Those thoughts come directly from the world we live in. Everything in this world seems focused on the quick, convenient, fast and easy…we want more we want more.

My toughest moments in my faith journey…times when I have felt a letdown or disappointment have occurred because I lacked Patience and Persistence.

Patience – defined as “bearing pain or trials without complaint”; “showing self-control”

Persistence – defined as “to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of difficulties”

These are two qualities that are not promoted in our world yet when we focus on them we usually are closer to living God’s plan for our life rather than our own plan. I have always been a better husband, father, son, brother or friend when I practice patience and persistence.

In my spiritual life I define Patience as waiting for the Lord. He is always there and he always working his plan in your life even when you think nothing is happening. Every interaction with another person is an opportunity and a blessing. When we are patient we can smile and make eye contact with the grocery store or convenience store clerk. When passing by someone we know we can say “Hi” with a smile instead of “Hey, How you doing?” as we speed past not waiting for a response because we didn’t really want to know how they were doing at that moment. When we are patient as a friend we really listen to what our friend is saying and not thinking about what we are going to say next in conversation. When we are patient we will be willing to sacrifice some of our own wants and needs to help others.

Persistence can be defined as never giving up of God. Things will not go the way you want or just the way you planned but maybe you ran ahead of God and it wasn’t time for you to get that job or start that adventure. Maybe he knows you have some more trials coming ahead. It is not punishment, that is not how God works. He has a plan for how he wants you to use the gifts he gave you and he knows the events you are going to encounter in life. Your job is to learn from trials and pray about them and listen for God to respond. For example, if you need the courage to ask someone for forgiveness or you need to forgive someone for something…pray about it daily and be watchful for that opportunity to be forgiven or to forgive…it will come. Just be persistent about your prayer.

In closing, one of my favorite Bible verses speaks to these qualities it is this:

“I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”

Psalm 27:13-14

Peace.

Look At the People God Uses

August 17, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

While I was thinking about starting to write this blog, I often thought, “What could I have to offer?” or “Why would God want me to speak about him to others?” This kind of thinking is exactly what the Evil in the world wants us to believe. Then I read about people in the Bible or I read what authors like Max Lucado, Charles Swindoll or Rick Warren and Billy Graham have to say about the people God uses and I begin to realize this is exactly what God wants me to do.

As we learn about faith and God’s love for each and every person in the world through life experiences and through the experiences others have written about, it turns out we all have something to offer the world. We all have our own life. We all have had an experience or heard about someone’s experience that was horrific and then it became extraordinary. It all depends on your perspective.

From the Bible we have the stories of…

Noah

Abraham

Moses

David

Joseph

Plus many more….

All of these people had suffered through some tragedy of sin and had extraordinary things occur afterward because of God’s love and God’s grace. Through some of my own life experiences that I have mentioned in earlier posts I have learned to ask, “What does God want me to learn?” or “How does God want me to use this experience to help others?” Rather than asking “Why is God doing this to me?”

God doesn’t “do” sinful things to us…the human race has created and brought about sin all by ourselves. It was our choice. God knew we aren’t strong enough to overcome sin so he did the one thing he could…he sent us his Son. The human race killed him…so God resurrected him to save us all.

So if you are wondering “What do I have to offer anyone?” try asking God and be patient for his answer….he created you, he knows the gifts he gave you. You could start by reflecting on events in your life and this time when you think about them ask yourself, “What did God want me to learn from that experience?” Remember he is about love, grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Peace.

Living In The Present

August 6, 2013 / mcalcagno / 2 Comments

Living in the Present. What does that mean? I think it begins with making sure you are “present” in whatever you are doing.

To me, being “present” means focused attention. The world is filled with distractions and when we choose to allow those distractions to take our attention away from everything else by trying to change the past or worrying too much about the future we end up missing what is right in front of us…..the beauty of creation, a child smiling and laughing or a child who needs help, a friend who encourages us or a stranger who we should pray for. We should stop replaying what happened yesterday or what might occur tomorrow in our minds and live today to the fullest.

So how do we get there?

Answer….The Word of God.

I have struggled for many years concerned about what I should have said in a previous conversation or worrying about how I would handle things in a future interaction. I would beat myself up for not doing something or worry constantly about what was to come…..as if I really was the one in control of such things.

Then during a difficult time in our life financially, about 3-4 years ago, I was really down about the way things were going and when I thought they were just about to drop off a cliff completely…we were saved by the Grace of God. My wife and I had completed all the paperwork to file for bankruptcy and left it with a lawyer…..we thought this was our only option…we thought we might lose our home we really didn’t know how things would turn out…meanwhile I had been looking for work. One promising position was progressing well and they needed to complete the background check……if that report showed a bankruptcy I would not get the job….a few days had passed since we left the attorney’s office. I figured I would call the lawyer to see if by chance he had not yet filed the papers, I figured there was no chance….and then God stepped in…..I called and asked “have you filed our papers with the court?”, he responded… “No not yet”……..oh my goodness, I couldn’t believe it. I immediately put a stop to the process and I got the job and we have been working our way to the best financial position we have ever been in. After that phone call and seeing the grace of God in our life, I decided I needed to start dedicating some time every morning to devotions and the Bible…..my reasoning, if I have time to read the newspaper I better have time to spend with God every day.

This was something I needed to commit to priority wise so I bought a Billy Graham devotional book and put it with my devotional bible I received from my parents 16 years prior and I began reading and praying for a few minutes every day I could. This time has become something I look forward to each day…it sets my mind and thoughts up with an encouraging perspective, mindful of how God wants us to think and act and the more I stay focused on that the more peace and contentment I find in life.

For me, the hardest part and the biggest obstacle in becoming a man of faith has been ME! Once I confess to God that I am only human, I am a sinner and I trust him because as it says in the gospel of John 3:16….For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. After reading so many different parts of the Bible about God’s grace, God’s love and God’s mercy I am so thankful for all that he has done for me that I have to do my best to live for Him.

Peace.

Mission Trip Day 5 – Open The Eyes of Our Hearts Lord

July 24, 2013 / mcalcagno / 1 Comment

We all spend so much time in our daily life worrying about this and that or scurrying here and there. All the while the single greatest command God gave is “Love one another”…..I spent time tonight experiencing an Immersion into the city with three incredible youth from our church. The assignment…we were given $8 and a mass transit pass total for the four of us to eat and get around a specific neighborhood. We were to find dinner somehow some way and as we walked through the neighborhood we were encouraged to talk with people to learn about the city. Tonight we didn’t necessarily “follow” the path suggested for us and because of that the holy spirit was able to guide us and lead us to a woman I will call Mary.

We encountered Mary sitting on a camp chair on the sidewalk in the middle of an affluent neighborhood…..we stopped and talked to her about the city and how things have changed in her life. She told us she has been homeless since the war ended, which war we don’t know. She explained how she had been beaten by people in order to steal her things and her food. She told us about her friends in the neighborhood and she even told us what areas of the city to avoid for our safety! Imagine a woman who has been living on the streets and suffering worried about our safety. We should all consider being so generous. The youth had decided that we should find some food and share our meal with Mary. Again, we had $8 to buy our meal. The only place we found was a drug store and for a total of $6.91 we bought a package of buns, a packet of deli turkey meat, a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale (Mary’s request) and a large bag of chips. We returned to Mary. The four of us each had a bun with some turkey on it and everything else, including more buns and turkey we gave to Mary. We asked her if she would pray with us and she agreed and provided the names of others we should include in our prayer. Eventually we needed to be returning from our assignment so we said goodbye to Mary and began the journey back.

Through our entire time with Mary the one thing I can’t get out of my mind is the reactions and facial expressions of the hundreds of people passing by while we spent our time chatting and eating with Mary. So many of them looked so surprised or shocked and how sad is that…..it makes me realize we all need to do a better job of opening the eyes of our hearts to the people in our world that need our help, myself included. We can’t help them all but our little group spent a wonderful evening talking and sharing a meal with a woman that the world around her has no idea even exists. Help us Lord, help us see the Mary’s of our broken world.

Peace.

Freedom

July 4, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

Over the years, so many that have served in the military have paid the ultimate price in this world. To lay down your life so that others can prosper. As we live this day let us not forget the gift that they and that Jesus has given us all. As Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13-15…

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

May God bless you and your family and friends this day and may we forgive those we have been “biting and devouring” in our own lives. Peace to you all.