Answer: Whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween can be a very controversial topic.  Some Christians celebrate Halloween simply by dressing up in a costume and having fun, seeing it as innocent and harmless.  Other Christians are equally convinced that Halloween is a satanic holiday established to worship evil spirits and promote darkness and wickedness.    

So, who is right?  Is it possible for Christians to celebrate Halloween without compromising their faith?  Halloween, no matter how commercialized, has almost completely pagan origins. As innocent as it may seem to some, it is not something to be taken lightly.  Christians tend to have various ways to celebrate or not to celebrate Halloween.  For some, it means having an “alternative” Harvest Party.  For others, it is staying away from the ghosts, witches, goblins, etc., and wearing innocuous costumes, e.g., little princesses, clowns, cowboys, super-heroes, etc.  Some choose not to do anything, electing to lock themselves in the house with the lights off.  With our freedom as Christians, we are at liberty to decide how to act.   

Scripture does not speak at all about Halloween, but it does give us some principles on which we can make a decision.  In Old Testament Israel, witchcraft was a crime punishable by death (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27). The New Testament teaching about the occult is clear. Acts 8:9-24, the story of Simon, shows that occultism and Christianity don’t mix.  The account of Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:6-11 reveals that sorcery is violently opposed to Christianity.  Paul called Elymas a child of the devil, an enemy of righteousness and a perverter of the ways of God. In Acts 16, at Philippi, a fortune-telling girl lost her demon powers when the evil spirit was cast out by Paul.  The interesting matter here is that Paul refused to allow even good statements to come from a demon-influenced person.  Acts 19 shows new converts who have abruptly broken with their former occultism by confessing, showing their evil deeds, bringing their magic paraphernalia, and burning it before everyone (Acts 19:19). 

So, should a Christian celebrate/observe/participate in Halloween?  Is there anything evil about a Christian dressing up as a princess or cowboy and going around the block asking for candy?  No, there is not.  Are there things about Halloween that are anti-Christian and should be avoided?  Absolutely!  If parents are going to allow their children to participate in Halloween, they should make sure to keep them from getting involved in the darker aspects of the day.  If Christians are going to take part in Halloween, their attitude, dress, and most importantly, their behavior should still reflect a redeemed life (Philippians 1:27).  There are many churches that hold “harvest festivals” and incorporate costumes, but in a godly environment.  There are many Christians who hand out tracts that share the Gospel along with the Halloween candy.  The decision is ultimately ours to make. But as with all things, we are to incorporate the principles of Romans 14.  We can’t allow our own convictions about a holiday to cause division in the body of Christ, nor can we use our freedom to cause others to stumble in their faith. We are to do all things as to the Lord.  

Courtesy of GotQuestions Ministry  www.gotquestions.org 

Recommended Resource: Halloween: What’s a Christian to Do? by Steve Russo.

Isn’t it worth realizing that, if a believer celebrates Halloween in all it’s glory and never shares the Word of God about Christ’s loving sacrafice during their hallow festivities and nor shares of the devil’s ploys to take everyone out daily because their festivities are “all in fun,” it is the same as saying that it’s “all in fun” to watch someone  struggle in a raging ocean who can’t swim and will drown?

Let’s have fun and not be sticks in the mud, but don’t be compromised and compartmentalizing Christ so He doesn’t cramp our style and “fun”….especially during those high times of recognition by the world like the holidays.  Stay blessed, be encouraged and be ever watchful for the time of His return is unknown.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of this world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” ~ John 15:19

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” ~ Romans 12:2

Many times, it was not that God wasn’t speaking to me, but it was about me not really wanting to accept what He was already saying and just walking with Him.  The issue of “hearing God’s voice” is common for every Christian at some point in time.  Let me explain.

It is common to misunderstand and confuse the emotion of happiness with the eternal experience of joy.  At times, even recently, I have struggled with my emotions not lining up with what I knew to be true of Jesus faithfulness.  When my emotions have been down and all over the place, it has been distracting to remember that God is in control and has made me victorious over all my circumstances.  It has been a little hard to remember that a lost battle doesnt mean a lost war. 

Emotions, much like our life, are a fleeting vapor, and not to be held so tightly that it controls what we should know to be true from the Lord’s Word.

When His voice is a whisper, and His touch is barely noticable, if at all, is the time when knowing God’s Word becomes so crucial. We cant depend on how we feel or what we see or hear. The enemy is observant of our lives. He waits like a roaming lion for an opportunity to swoop in on the weak, but it is faith in Christ, running to His Word and waiting with Him, even if we cant feel Him, that gives us joy in the midst of an impossible situation.

May you be encouraged not to be like Peter, distracted by the raging waves of life’s storms. Remain focused on Jesus, even if you can’t hear Him or see Him holding you through life’s trials. The enemy will get you to question your very salvation, if he can, and try to draw you to find pleasure and “happiness” in this dishonoring to your walk and dishonoring to Christ.  And should you stumble, the enemy will try to convince you that you cant be forgiven or that you must move into being “work-focused” to earn God’s forgiveness and love back.  While we cant see our spiritual enemies, know that the war belongs to God. It is against Christ in us that the devil attacks, for he no longer has a place with God by his (their) own choice.

Remain focused on Him and you will see the clouds fade, the waves cease and your faith be stronger than when you began.

God is faithful always. Trust Him!!  He is always with you, no matter how it feels, looks, or sounds.  (Phil. 1:3-6)

 Well, I do not know that there is an answer to the first and last question.  Instead, it leads to the question of if it is truly love out of which he acts.  As for the other questions, along with the first and last, the existence of this man is a true testament of how God’s grace and mercy works.  Grace is receiving what one does not deserve.  Mercy is having withheld what truly is deserved.  This is the man who is truly flawed, and as he is aware of it, the contemplation on how to change these facts and the meditation on where he should be, is led to some un-uttered humbleness that may leave others concerned. 

I am reminded of Jeremiah words in the eighteenth chapter about the parable of the potter.  As he was instructed by the Lord to go observe how the potter molds the clay on the wheel, one receives a visual of how truly mighty the potter is to have all the power and how the clay remains surrendered, without significant resistance, compared to the potter’s strength.  Having worked with clay, there is a known process that has a beginning and an end.  While the clay is an inanimate object, if does give some resistance to being formed into its final cast.  As the potter forms the clay, he may find some undesirable flaws that could lead him to start over.  This is a process that can go for sometime, as the potter figures out exactly what is to be made of the lump of clay.  Now imagine that potter is the sovereign God the Father.

In His perfect, holy, all-knowing existence, He knows what that clay lump will become.  He is not one for practicing and starting over.  He simply finishes the work He has begun to His Will.  You and I are that clay.  I am that man first described above.  The picture of such a lump being molded, cast and at times, torn down to build back up again.  One of my greatest trials in life has been knowing how to truly love without destroying.  Having been loved and still being loved by Christ, I know what love is, but to this world, that love is sometimes foreign and unknown.  There is so much literature and information available about how to love, yet we live in a time where love is little but known.  So what do you do with a man who in his very act of love destroys?  Does he truly know how to love?

Personally, there are friendships and relationships where I have gotten love right.  However, there has been a few times where I have loved the wrong way.  It is the kind of love that is overbearing, smothering, prideful and at times resulting in the martyr-syndrome as one of my best friends puts it.  It is the kind of love that does not wait for the call to be enacted.  It is the kind of love that jumps the gun.  It is the kind of love that makes a zealot into a raging rebel with skewed focus of priorities.  This is a tiring kind of love, and a hurtful type at that.  The upside to this fact of my life is the sanctification process I engage every day.  As the Lord has continued to call me (and all of His people) to holiness and to be consecrated, there are flaws that are being made right.  My mother recently reminded me that God continues to show His love directly through people on this earth.  We truly are the Body of Christ, meant to display and carry out His Will in loving one another and encouraging one another to greater in Christ.  As we do this, it is so detrimental, as I am sadly realizing a little too late in the game for me, that we keep our focus on Him and not on what He is doing through us.  Otherwise, as clay being molded up higher and higher, we can become the collapsing wall of what is meant to be such a beautiful creation that will be truly beautiful, but must be rebuilt to correct our weaknesses.  

I believe I have been that collapsed wall for sometime and am now being rebuilt to what the Lord desires of me.  Rest assured, anytime you are being shaped and molded in His hands, it is not all comfortable and happy-feeling.  There is some unease and maybe a little resistance on our part to have that unyielding lump worked into the rest of what has already begun to take the right shape.  However, just as a great potter knows how much water to apply to the piece to make it a smooth and quick process, so does God know how much discipline and pressure to enforce.  We are all a work in progress and at times, a messy one.  No matter how much we have messed up in this life and no matter how great our struggles and fights with sin may be, if we endure with Him, continue to trust Him despite how we feel, what we see or hear, and persevere in His Will, nothing will ever be able to separate us from His love.  Salvation is ours!!  May He continue to mold and perfect this man whom one may ask, “What to do with him?”

Asking vs. Telling 

John 18:37-38 – Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.” ** Pilate never asked, nor waited.  In light of that, he “said” and then “went out”. (NASB, ESV, KJV, NIV, NKJV)

Being Engrafted to the Vine of Truth

John 15:5-8 – I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides (remains) in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide (remain) in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be My disciples.

** The branches cast out where once a part of the good vine, Jesus.

After Israel has been temporarily removed as God’s main focus, Paul then speaks to us, the Gentiles to say this: Romans 11:11-20a – Have they (Israel) stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world (you and I), what will their acceptance be but life from dead? For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root (Jesus) is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches are broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root (Jesus) and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will then say, “Branches were broken off that I might be grated in.” Well said. Because of unbelief (refusing Christ as Savior) they were broken off, and you stand by faith.

Blaspheme the Holy Spirit – the Unpardonable Sin

1 Timothy 1:12-15 – And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worth of all acceptances, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those (you and I) who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Matthew 12:31-32 – …..Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against (refusal of conviction to the point of death) the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

After seeing Barnabas make his offering in providing for the Body of Christ, Ananias and Sapphira wanted others to believe they had sacraficed “everything” when in fact we read the following:  Acts 5:1-11 – But a certain man names Ananias, and Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession.  And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.  But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?  While it remained, was it not your own?  And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?  Why have you conceived this thing in your heart?  You have not lied to men but to God.  Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.  So great fear fame upon all those who heard these things.  And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.  Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.  And Peter answer her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?”  She said, “Yes, for so much.”  Then Peter said to her, “How is that you have agreed together to test (tempt) the Spirit of the Lord?  Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”  Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.  And the young men came in and found her dead, and carried her out, buried her by her husband.  So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

** Ananias plotted to deceive in his sacrafice to God, tempting God but being unaware of when his life would end.  When he still owned his sacrafice and began to plot, he could have heeded to the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit, but refused.  When Sapphira was given the opportunity to confess and repent as well, she still chose to resist the conviction and gracious call of the Holy Spirit.  Neither knew their expiration date, but both knew the power of Christ and His love and still refused the call to rigtheousness from His Holy Spirit.

** No one who is dead can ask forgiveness. God’s grace is extended to all unto the point of death of make the relationship right with Him, through His Holy Spirit calling us. This is not in regards to those who have not heard the call of the Holy Spirit or those believers who hear conviction and then repent.

Hebrews 6:4-8 – For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away (renounce Christ and refuse to repent up to and past the point of death), to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to be cursed, whose end is to be burned.

** Notice the word near, as opposed to if it had said “are,” meaning repentance and God’s grace to salvation is still available. The salvation He first offered remains available. The heart is just so hardened now that it would take a serious breaking to restore that person. You and I may get truly discouraged, maybe even upset with God, but we don’t renounce Christ and we know the importance of daily repentance so that we keep true communication open with God. Sin blocks hearing God’s voice and receiving His blessings and the answers He wants to provide to our prayers. The person who knowingly gets to the point of habitually sinning, resisting conviction from the Holy Spirit will not repent so easily, and chances to die with repenting. God’s initial offer of Salvation remains before each of us. We just have to remain with Him – the branches.

Know about Your Salvation

Hebrews 6:9-12 – But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner (Hebrews 6:4-8). For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

John 6:37 – All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

** Salvation remains available no matter how bad we mess up – that’s grace.

John 15:7-8 – If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be My disciples.

1 John 5:18-20 – We know that whoever is born of God does not sin (not practicing sin as a habitual lifestyle); but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 5:9-13 – If we receive the witness of men (preachers/teachers)­, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony; that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

1 John 2:24-27 – Therefore let that abide in you which you have heard (the Gospel) from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing (the filling of the Holy Spirit) which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

John 6:47 – He who believes in Me has everlasting life.

John 5:24 – Most assuredly, I say to you, he who heard My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

** If we cease to believe and deny the call of the Holy Spirit’s call to salvation, do we remain in our salvation?

John 14:15-18 – If you love Me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Holy Spirit), that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him; for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

John 6:44 – No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.

** You and I seek God, because He first draws us to see our need for Christ and our need to hear His voice. No matter how desperate we seem in our actions, it is first God drawing our hearts to Him.

Psalm 77:1 – I cried out to God with my voice – to God with my voice; and He gave ear to me.

** Read all of Psalm 77 for the full prayer of an anguished believer who comes to realize God has always been there and is faithful.

Always look to Him,

Lil’ Rev. 

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!…For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Galatians 1:8-10

Sin makes your heart harden & difficult to hear God’s voice. Do you know why?

In order to continue sinning (if you truly are saved), you must work to ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit telling you not to sin.  The more you work, the harder your heart grows, the easier it becomes to sin and enjoy your sin against… the One who once redeemed you.  It breaks His heart and it brings death upon you quickly (Heb. 3:30; Romans 6:23).  Ever found yourself saying, “I can’t hear the Lord’s voice.  He doesn’t speak to me!!”  Only one of two things are happening.  If you haven’t sinned against Christ, then you are in a time of building up.  He is whispering to get to you to come closer and building you up and making you a greater servant for His purposes.  Otherwise, you have slowly walked into continuous sin, turning a deaf ear to Him and now want to hear from Him, yet are not able to without repentance.

Today, harden not your heart against the Lord.  Embrace His sacraficial love believer, repent of any wrong you have done Him and return to the Father’s safety and loving arms.  This world has nothing for us, but temporary pleasure, lots of pain and permanent separation in hell from Christ (Romans 12:1-2).

It is a bold statement, but it is the Word of God.  He loves us enough to warn us.  Go with Christ!!  Lil’ Rev.

It is interesting to hear people say, “no one is perfect,” when they are being held to reasonable expectations.  Yes, man will fail us, but it does not constitute our disregard of responsibility to still strive to not fail our fellow brother.  We should have such a love of Christ that we desire to serve one another, and in doing so, when we do fail one another, we can rightfully ask forgiveness and rightfully expect to be quickly forgiven and the wrong forgotten.  We will have both proven our loyalty and the other person would know our character.  They will have experienced continuous support from us, and thus, they find no difficulty in forgiving – counted they are a true in their ways as well. 

I spend a lot of time with different people.  My heart is to be there for others.  I learned a long time ago that I cannot change people.  I used to be a fixer, and enough frustration caused me to evaluate what Jesus was requiring my role to be in those relationships verse His role in their life.  Many of us have been or are still in that mode of fixing others.  That is beside the point of this post.  The greater focus is in this factual observation.  I look at the Body of Christ (not focusing on the world at this point) and wonder to myself, where is the obvious?  When I say “the obvious,” what comes to mind for you? 

The obvious, as I refer to it, is not made up of my personal perception, opinion or desires.  No, rather the obvious is the fulfillment of the first and second greatest commandments.  The obvious is the words of Jesus.  There are such simple, small verses in the Bible that are so easy to quote, skip over, memorize, teach about, take out of context, debate about and yet never really contemplate, meditate on and then fully act in accordance.  To love the Lord God with everything we are entails a plethora of actions – all flowing from a heart that has been truly changed.  This is a command so important and not to be neglected.  The second commandment is like unto it and the focus of this post, keeping in mind that the first commandment is the greatest. 

We are focusing on love and friendships.  To love others as we love ourselves should be pondered with true understanding.  If we do not love ourselves, how realistic is it to love someone else.  How do we know how to love others if we do not love ourselves?  How do we know how to love ourselves unless we are first loved?  How do we know what love is without it first being taught to us?  God created mankind for His pleasure, to worship Him, but even more than that.  He created mankind to commune and live with Him.  Just as the Godhead is triune (three distinct persons in one), so God made man to be made triune – body, soul and spirit.  It is with the soul that we comprehend, reason, feel emotions and make decisions.  It is with the body that we interact with one another.  It is with the spirit that we interact with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  If that spirit is dead, that relationship with God is non-existent.  This is not a topic which will be covered in detail in this post.   However, it is important to explain that we are all born with a dead spirit at birth due to sin.  It is by the Holy Spirit that our dead spirits are made alive again through faith in Jesus Christ so that we once again have an opportunity to walk and commune daily (and later eternally) with God.  Now that this point has been clarified, we come back to knowing how to love. 

The person who has acknowledged and experienced the love of Christ is able to truly love themselves.  They know who God says they are, they stand on that knowledge confidently (not conceitedly of their own power), and they live out that awareness before and towards others.  As a result of knowing the love of Christ and how to love themselves, they then show that love to others.  This is where we come back to the obvious.  Where….is….the….obvious? 

The second commandment says we are to love others as we love ourselves, succeeding loving the Lord with all that we are in existence.  Paul said that no one ever hated his own body, thus to love one’s wife as he love his own body is the same as Christ loving His people as He (God) loved Himself – by giving His life.  Yes, it is perfectly understood that none of us is perfect and for those who trust in Christ Jesus, there will be sanctification (the process of being made perfect beyond the Adamic state in the Garden before sin was present).   In the midst of that, it is perfectly reasonable and logical to expect others to truly love as they love themselves. 

I heard it best said, the greatest friendships are those where both/multiple parties are so focused on loving Christ and having a servant’s heart that they strive to out-serve the other in each other’s lives.  Not in an ignorant or childish way.  No, they love one another so greatly that there is rarely ever a need umet.  The people receiving that love of others should have right perspective of what expectations should only be held to God and which they should expect to receive from others because of God.  Do you see that?  Ultimately, everything comes back to how we truly love God.  We love Him, and from our hearts, the love overflows in action to love others.  We love Him and desire to please Him by keeping His commandments.  We want to live by His ways.  We want to represent Him as best as we can – not in perfection, but as much as is within the capacity we strive to hold.  That brings me to the next point. 

If you and I only desire to hold a certain capacity of love towards others, we will only love that person to that capacity.  When a man is at war, and he is fighting beside his fellow solider, yet in his mind, all he is saying is, “I don’t want to die.  I’m not willing to die for any reason,” he has already set the capacity to which he will be sacrificial for his fellow soldiers.  He has now brought about great danger and vulnerability to those around him and ultimately his company.  He no longer thinks strategically of how he can best serve to keep not only himself alive, but his comrades.  He is only geared to react – to react selfishly.  His capacity to do for others has been limited.  This is what I have observed too habitually within the Body of Christ. 

It is expected of the world, because the expectations for the world are so low that when something great happens that better someone’s life, it is celebrated.  Take a celebrity going from multiple arrest and cocaine addiction to restarting their career.  You get the point.  In true Christianity however, this is also a norm.  It is such a wicked, false, deceitful norm that many have succumbed to it.  The norm is to look out for number one.  The norm is to dwell and concentrate on the fact that there is so much going on in our own lives that we don’t need to focus on others.  The norm is to be “clickish.”  The norm is to use the fact that we are imperfect as an excuse to reason away our responsibility, as Christians, to still love other more than ourselves.  The norm is to expect others to first be a true friend and loving towards us before we will commit to be a true friend and loving towards them.  The norm is to hate when others expect us to strive to live out what Christ has desired, asked, and even commanded of us.  The norm is to not truly love others as we love ourselves.  So I ask, “where is the obvious?!” 

I have been evaluating my own life and how I have fared in the reality of this topic.  Admittedly, I have failed some in the past.  It is something that I am not proud of at all.  I realize that my past hurts have dictated (as I allowed) my interactions with others.  This is a great time to express if I have not been a true friend to you as you desired of me, please forgive me.  At times, I have persevered passed my unfortunate past, unresolved obstacles to still trust and truly love others.  At other times, I have fallen short and fallen hard.  Make it known to me in a loving way.  At the same time, evaluate if you have been the same though.  (Smiles!!)  

The definition of friendship is not trivial, nor should anyone try to make it so.  The most simplistic definition of friendship is a mutual understanding and interaction between two or more people.  It is that simple.  The word mutual is crucial.  It means a same understanding.  The Mormons popularized the term, DTF or define the relationship, but it was in terms of going towards marriage.  I am not so sure it should not apply to all relationships in general.  How else do we know we are in a mutual relationship without communicating about it?  Most people only do this when someone has been hurt and clarity is needed, but I pose the question, why wait?  

If we are to love one another as we love ourselves, it behooves each person to want to know how the other person loves themselves.  It will tell a great deal about how they will love us!  It also shows that we love that person enough to want to know.  When we know how they love themselves, we then have an opportune moment to be there for them, especially in the case that they do not really know how to love themselves.  We have the opportunity to make a decision to be there for that person and show them a love they may not have ever experienced.  You may have heard the Casting Crowns song – If we are the Body.  Well, here is where it becomes real.  We have an opportunity to love others as we love ourselves.  Otherwise, we remain in a mindset of doing for self and not truly caring for others. 

While Jesus says, “the man who desires to have friends must first show himself to be a friend,” understand He is saying this to all and in concurrent mode.  As you and I both desire to have one another as a friend, we will both show ourselves to be a friend.  Mind you, this trumps the trials we face in life.  We are to be understanding and patient with one another as the other deals with their trial(s).  However, as we go through our trials, we cannot neglect to still show love to one others.  Many times, I have seen my storms fade away as I gave way to focusing on serving others rather than myself.  Interesting, huh?  

Well, I am a preacher and way before seminaries started teaching that sermons should end with something applicable, Jesus had been doing it from the beginning of time.  Just check out the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  So, here is the practical application and challenge – short and sweet.  Think on the two greatest commandments.  Many of us lack true friends who really know and serve us.  A big part of friendship is not just getting to know others intimately and personally.  It is in great deal the factor of “being known.”  We are trying to avoid the “lonely celebrity” syndrome, where we are recognized by many but know by no one.  You can see this syndrome manifested at funerals where people get up to speak about what they saw the person do or what they heard about the person.  However, the tear jerkers, of funerals, are really when someone gets up and speaks about that person’s heart and the things no one else knew to be of their makeup.  Just as much as you want friends, determine the depth of what friendship means.  If you want to be known and to know others, you want friendship, so consider the following as a challenge.  

Evaluate the possible error of your definition of friendship.  Most likely, you have many acquaintances, but not friends.  Evaluate how you fare in fulfilling the two greatest commands.  Make right of wrong where you need to in your current relationships, and begin to actually live out the two greatest commandments.  Love others as you love yourself.  Evaluate how you love yourself though and correct where needed (is your perspective of Jesus correct?).  Be a friend in your words and action.  If you do not follow through on what you say and express, you cannot expect others to trust you when you make comments and promises.  Put others before yourself.  This next one is a good one that I just established in my own heart to engage.  WITHOUT GUILT, expect the same of others who call you their friend.  There is no need to have hardened hearts for the actions of others that we allow in our lives.  We cannot change others.  We can only control how we respond to and interact with them.   If they do not want to be a friend, believe them!!  Just remain faithful on your part to display love towards them.  While you and I rightly can expect of others to be who they say they are, reality says some want.  Help them realize their error, without tearing them down and apart.  Make it known to them to avoid you having a bitter heart and to help them in their future journey with others.  

Plain and simple.  Jesus loved with His life.  He commands us (His disciples) to do the same. 

For this is how the world will know that we are His disciples – when we have love one for another.  ~ John 13-34-35

“Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’  The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’  The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  I will put enmity between you and the woman, & between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.’ ” ~ Genesis 3:13-15

Man was never intended to live by the soul.  He was created as a Spirit placed in a vessel to live out the glory God intended for him.  It is of the soul that comprehension, emotion and thoughts come about.  It is of the Spirit that anything is done.  Whether of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or the Tree of Life, God always willed that man would reach his full stature in Christ.  By the Tree of Life, which is Christ, man would continue forward in higher and higher greatness of his potential with God.  By the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, man would strive toward his greatest potential as a being, but only would achieve through Jesus, who is the giver of life. 

We often view Jesus from the redemptive perspective and somewhat understandably.  It is through redemption that we have come to know Him personally.  However, we are not being redeemed back to the state of Adam and Eve before they sinned.  No, through Christ, we are being molded and made to be the highest potential mankind was meant to reach.  Remember that Jesus was before all existed, for His is God.  It was He who was present in the Garden – the Tree of Life.  The same actions that took place in the Garden of Eden continue to play out repeatedly today (Genesis 3). 

For instance, a marriage is struggling.  The woman is domineering, disrespectful of her husband verbally and unwilling to follow him.  The man, likewise, is passive, always looking at how she wrongs him, and doesn’t strive to pray for her greatness in a relationship with Christ.  Both are driven by the soul – the emotions, the thoughts, the self.  Next thing you know, the man has walked out of the marriage – maybe she requested that he leave.  The point is someone took the bait.  Someone ceased to look at God and ignored His Word.  Someone ate the apple. 

It has always been, since the Garden, the devil’s plan to destroy man.  He had seen all of God’s creations.  He envied the Lord very existence.  Had Lucifer known that the Tree of Life would remain the only way for man to walk eternally with God in total greatness, maybe he would have not even tried at all.  The devil desires to destroy.  Understand that fact.  When you’re facing a difficult situation – lose of job, shortage of food, death of loved ones, marital upheaval, a cancer – it is a bad circumstance.  It sucks.  It hurts.  It wears at your emotionally and physically.  It consumes your thoughts.  BUT…..it has not destroyed you.  You haven’t ceased to exist in spirit, soul and body.  However, that is exactly what the devil and his host of angels intend for you – total destruction of you.  

He saw the uniqueness of Adam and Eve compared to all else that was created – the vast universe, the single nucleus of a single cell within one of millions making up the leaf of a tree that size of a 4,000 square foot house, the formation of a star, the intricate workings of the heart and brain in a tiger.  He saw these wonders, but then came you and me (Adam).  Not only are we body and soul as other, as other animals, moving and eating and existing.  We are given the very breath of God – spirit.  It is of this spirit that the impossible, for man today, was possible.  In layman’s explanation, it is God who thinks and speaks, it is Jesus who is the living Word spoken by God, and it is the Holy Spirit who brings the power of manifestation.  They are three in One, and of them, man was given life in Spirit to be in complete fellowship with the Godhead.  It was by sin that the spirit of man died.  It is of the Godhead that this spirit is made alive again to once again have an opportunity to commune eternally and grow to the greatest potential.  

We were created, as a spirit, to live within the body given us, utilizing the soul to subdue the earth.  From our thoughts and emotions, our spirit was intended to do what it was meant to do – make manifest.  However, sin’s killing of the spirit gave way to the soul growing in great control.  Thus, when a person is redeemed in Christ, there is a struggle of “not doing what we want to do” and “doing what we don’t want to do.”   This struggle lessens, but it is very real.  The true Christian acknowledges this struggle, hates their sin, desires to please God for His sovereign grace and mercy, and understand sanctification.  This Christian realizes that salvation is not the end, but the beginning of the greatness that awaits them.  This Christian discerns, maybe not with full understanding, they should be able to do the impossible with Jesus.  If He healed and said we would do greater, there is a knowing deep down that it is true.  As the Holy Spirit gives of the power of manifestation, so Him living in the born-again believer will, of true faith, be able to do the same as God wills.  

When the soul and its entire make up bring about doubt and downward emotions, the maturing spirit of the believer wars against that soul to subdue it so that the man may accomplish what is possible with God.  So your marriage is on the rocks.  Your soul says you’re tired of fighting. Your soul says you’ve been hurt and wronged.  Your soul says you deserve better.  Your soul says you can do better.  Your soul says give up – you’re a failure at this one.  However, it is the exercised, well-fed, maturing, lively, active spirit that says, “NOT SO!”  It is the spirit that brings back to the man’s remembrance that he first sinned against God and had no way to pay for the wrong he had done, yet he was forgiven.  It is the spirit that reminds the man of the majestic sacrifice Jesus made in stepping down from His heavenly throne to take up residence in one of these limited bodies, being tempted in every way like us yet without sin, bringing the truth of life to us, being persecuted, whipped, beaten and more, being mocked as He was crucified on a cross with nails driven in His hands and feet, drinking the whole cup of God’s wrath for the sins of mankind, seeing God turn away from Him and experiencing death, the grave and hell, but conquering them all, rising from the grave, showing Himself to be the God He claimed and promised, ascending back into heaven, but not before promising He would always be with us through the Holy Spirit, and now currently standing before the Father advocating on his behalf as not guilty.   

It is the spirit that reminds the man that the devil intends for him to give up on what God has given Him – hope and faith.  Hope and faith for a restored marriage, for healing, for a job, for saved love ones, for peace, for financial relief, and for God’s will to be done and not man’s will.  The spirit reminds the man not to give the devil what God has given to man.  The spirit recognizes the destructive plan of the enemy and tells the man which way to not walk in that is not of Christ.  The spirit reminds the man no matter how hard things seem right now, God makes all things for the good of them who love Him.  The spirit reminds the man that although he may have lost the battle, he is able to be victorious with God in the war.  The spirit tells the man he is not a failure until he gives up, but if he perseveres, although he may not win the battle, he is still an MVP in the war.  The spirit reminds him that he can do all things through Christ Jesus. 

With the soul we can understand the things of man, reasoning by the flesh, and acting on emotions.  But praise God, it is of the spirit that we come to understand the things of God, thinking like God, reasoning like God, carrying ourselves as Jesus would, loving in grace and truth as He does and being victorious where the impossible tried to prevail!!  

So there are two questions: do we view Jesus from the redemptive perspective or from the eternal, greatest potential perspective?  And will we strive to be led of the Spirit or remain controlled by our soul, understanding the Bible through our fleshly eyes and reasoning?  Should you find yourself having to repent of arrogance and pride in being led of your soul as I have, take courage in knowing how forgiving and loving God is to restore you to the right path that will lead to the greatness He has in store for you to become (Job 40:6 – 42:6).  May we submit daily to God, walking with Jesus in the Holy Spirit that we may become the spiritually mature brothers and sisters/ fathers and mothers we are intended to be.

Think about it for a minute.  When Jesus sits down at the dock to rest His feet in the water before taking a journey across it, He is able to do so. Then as soon as He saids to walk, the waters bow their nature to Him and become firm.  You and I never have walked on water, yet here comes Jesus strolling off the sandy beaches and onto waters that seem to be raging and tumbling. However, where He is, they refrain, in reverance, from disturbing Him. 

This is the Jesus you claim as your Saviour. This is the Jesus you say you come together to worship every weekend. This is the Jesus who you may never speak of throughout the week at work. This is the Jesus whom many church leaders cease to tell of the whole story.  This is the Jesus whom you sing of worshipping in your songs, yet you never really lift up holy hands or before whom fall to your knees.  This is the Jesus who has always been God before time ever was.  This is the Jesus who took on death so you and I could have the only way to eternal life with the Father. This is the Jesus who stepped off His throne, in Heaven, took on flesh, was tempted in every way like all of mankind, was mocked, questioned, beaten, whipped, stabbed, nailed to wood, spit on, love by a few, hated by most, punished for each and every sin of mankind, sent to death and hell, yet conquering them both.  This is the Jesus who remains faithful when we are faithless and doubtful. This is the Jesus who has been longsuffering and patient to let all have a chance to respond to His call to salvation.

This the Jesus who walks on the waters that seek to engulf and drown you.  He is not “a” god. He is the One & “Only” God – second person in the Triune Godhead.  So the question is this.  While your storms are raging and the waves are tossing here and there, will your focus remain on Christ, who is the only One who can lift you out of those waters to protect you through the storm and (if He wants) calm the winds and the waves, or will you look at waves and focus on the winds of your trials?  There’s nothing wrong with asking Jesus for help. However, He desires a relationship with you that is eternal – not just a rescue 911 call when things are bad.  But then again, why would you can on Him if you don’t trust Him, and why would He respond to your distrust, accept that He is loving, willing to receive your apology for wrong Him in your sins and request for forgiveness of those sins, honoring your true repentance, and perseverance to walk forward with Him from that day on.  That is why He would answer.

“He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him.  But to those who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh and took up residence among us.  We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  –  John 1:10-14