Archive for the ‘Love’ Category
“If you are still up there…”
Filed under: By Craig Kuhlman, Christian Living, Gospel, Love, Prayer, Relationships | Tags: Hearing God's voice, Helping those in need, Will work for food
Comments (9) That was the prayer Pat recalled to me while standing in line at Ralph’s grocery store on January 20th, 1992 (Martin Luther King, Jr. day). I was reminded of my experience a couple weeks ago as we celebrated the national holiday.
Nan and I were living in Pasadena, California, at the time. I worked for a large bank in Beverly Hills, and it was a holiday so I was enjoying an unstructured day in beautiful Southern California. I had the top down on my sports car as I headed up Lake Avenue, one of the most heavily-traveled streets in Pasadena. As I approached Ralph’s, I noticed a young man in his late-twenties carrying a large (probably five by five feet) sign overhead with the words “Will Work For Food.” Those words weren’t extraordinary; there were many homeless living in and around the city. What was extraordinary was the size of his sign and that his entire family was seated in the grass along the sidewalk with signs stating the same words.
As I passed, I felt a burden. Here I was, headed to the local bookstore, and this family didn’t have enough to eat. Then I heard a very clear and distinct voice in my mind, just as if there was someone seated in my car next to me: “You need to help him.” Immediately, a little startled, I retorted back, “I can’t help him. I don’t have any money on me.” Immediately, the response came back to me: “You have your checkbook. You can take them inside and buy whatever they need.” Without a response, I relented and said, “Okay, I’ll head to the bookstore, and if he is still there when I return, I’ll stop.”
I must have been in the bookstore for at least 45 minutes before I checked out. As I headed back, I almost forgot about the interaction until I got nearer, and my heart started pounding. There, in the same spot, was this young man pacing back and forth with large sign overhead. How many others had driven by without stopping, I wondered. As I pulled into the parking lot, my heart started pounding more heavily. As I approached him, his clear blue eyes met mine, and he put his sign down. Still not knowing what to say, I opened my mouth and out came the words: “My name is Craig. I want to help.”
I’ll never forget the look in his eyes. It was as if they were saying, “I can’t believe this is happening.” I noticed relief on his face. He told me his name was Pat. After putting 
their signs in the trunk of their car, we walked toward the store, and he shared that he was a pipefitter and had been out of work for six months. His wife told me their son’s name was Matthew and their daughter was Sandy. After we got inside, I told him to get whatever they needed and I’d hang out near the magazine rack. I told them to take their time; I didn’t have anywhere else to be.
After awhile, they returned with a full cart. As we were waiting in line at the checkout, we looked at each other in a moment of awkward silence. He spoke first, and I’ll never forget the prayer he recollected: “This morning I woke up, and we didn’t have any food in the house. I looked up and said, ‘If you are still up there, we need your help.’ It’s obvious that He still is, because you came along. I know I’m going to beat this, and when I get back to work, I want to go out and find someone to help just like you helped us.”
Even though Pat may have not realized it at the time, he was included (perhaps without a clue) in God’s love, and I had been given an opportunity to participate in that love for him and his family. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are actively involved in the personal lives of all humanity. What a privilege it is to participate in that love, even if it is a little scary at the time. When we do, the recipient of God’s love naturally wants to pay it forward. When we don’t believe, we naturally doubt, and may ask God, “Are you still up there?” As we participate in God’s love for all humanity, we help others feel assured of his response.
~by Craig Kuhlman
BUSTED!
Filed under: Bible, By Bill Winn, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Worship | Tags: accusers, adultery, Bill Winn, compassion, Forgiveness, Grace, Grace Communion International, Judgment, Love, redemption, Richmond Grace Fellowship, Sin
Comments (6) The four Gospels of the New Testament record many of the sayings and teaching of Jesus. We are gifted with a partial transcript of his wisdom, humor, correction, insight, and compassion. One of my favorites is the statement Jesus made to a woman who had been caught in the act of something punishable by death. We find it in John 8 and many, I am confident, are somewhat familiar with the story. You see there was this ongoing attempt by the religious leaders of the day to try and trip up Jesus, to discredit him, and to have him killed the latter of which Jesus submitted to when the time for his sacrificial death drew near.
So in John 8 here they come, the “religion police”, dragging with them a woman caught right in the act of adultery. As you might expect this scene drew a crowd as many wanted to see what would become of her. At the time this all took place adultery was punishable by death. This woman was busted and in real trouble!
“Neither do I condemn you”
The religious leaders were hoping to trick Jesus into going against the law of their land thus discrediting him and putting him in mortal jeopardy.
Well, I venture a guess that if the religious leaders of the day had known and believed that Jesus really was the Eternal Son of the Father, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and the Messiah they would not have been so silly as to try and trick him.
When they brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to him Jesus masterfully handled the situation. He looked at her accusers and wrote in the dirt saying, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” By the way where was the man with whom she’d done this act? Perhaps religious misogynism is a good future blog topic. Many scholars believe that what Jesus wrote in the dirt was some of the sins of the woman’s accusers, we really don’t know for sure but what we do know is that Jesus made a way to spare this woman’s life. Jesus took up her cause and defended her. This is greatly important to us as we read of the life and ministry of Jesus but what he actually said to this woman is, I think, most significant.
After her accusers left Jesus said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Is there no one left to condemn you? She answered, “No one Lord.” Then Jesus replied to her with the most stunning news she could have heard from the Son of God… “Then neither do I condemn you… go and stop this sin.” That is the word of the Lord to us, “Neither do I condemn you!”
Jesus himself said that he did not come into the world to condemn it but that through him the whole world might be saved. If you blow it this week, if you have already blown it, if there is a behavior or action in your life that you know is poison then knock it off but know this… no matter what Jesus does not condemn! Jesus redeems, Jesus heals, Jesus loves, Jesus brings to bear in your life the very Triune life of God that he has shared with his Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. So while others may condemn us and pass judgment on us the One who really matters is Jesus and he says, “Neither do I condemn you!”
~Bill Winn
Jesus, God’s Christmas Gift To Us All
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, Sermons, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Evangelism, Faith, father, God Likes You, Gospel, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Perichoresis, Relationships, son, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity
Leave a comment 12.10.23 Jesus, God’s Christmas Gift To Us All (Luke 1.27-38) – TAH
As quoted in this Message of God’s Good News: “When announced to us, the gospel tells us that, long before we can do anything about it, even before we can know about it, ‘God has set his love upon us and chosen us in Jesus Christ to be His own.’” To see and embrace that as the Truth is to KNOW by God’s shared grace that Jesus REALLY is God’s Christmas Gift to You and All Humanity!
Not mine, but his.
Filed under: By Jeannine Buntrock, Love | Tags: God Likes You, Jesus
Comments (9) 
Our newest baby girl was born just over two weeks ago. This is my third baby, and once again, I am hopelessly in love with my latest — my last — tiny bundle. I’ve found myself looking at her in amazement, thinking to myself that all these months, it’s been she I carried. She who was invisible to me for so long is here — already with a face I will never forget, hints of the remarkable person she will be, and a place in my heart forever hers alone. When I tell my two older children that my heart has grown to make room for their baby sister, which means no less love for them, I mean it. It has.
I’ve wondered many, many times how it was that I lived my life before they were born never thinking of them — never knowing that they lay ahead — and that once they were born, there would never be a moment that passed that I wasn’t, on some level, thinking about them, worrying about them, hoping and praying for only the best for them. Never a moment that I wasn’t their mother. The kind of love I feel in those transcendent, focused moments when I look at any of my three children is enough to make me explode.
In The Secret, C. Baxter Kruger writes about his interaction with a mother who feels that she isn’t doing enough for God when she compares herself to missionaries. He points out that she works very hard to care for her daughter. Where did your concern for your daughter come from? I mean, did you just decide that you were going to be a good mother and flip a switch that created this burden for your daughter’s welfare? What is the origin of your love for her or for your family…?
Kruger goes on to tell the mother: It is not your burden and delight, but his.
My burden and my delight in my children is not mine, but his! He put his passion for my children in me — I get to participate! — but it all originates with and is sustained by him. If there is no distance I wouldn’t go for my children, whatever the cost, it’s because there is no distance he wouldn’t go, and hasn’t gone, whatever the cost. If I see the incredible beauty, value and potential in my children and desperately want them to see it in themselves too, it’s because he does. If I am proud to the point of bursting at every teeny, tiny step they take as they grow, it’s because he is. If I feel their pain as if it was happening to me and cry when they cry, it’s because he does.
As a mother, just acknowledging this is the beginning of the end of fear for me — I am not in this alone!! My inadequacies are not his. I may have lived my life previously not aware of and not yet loving the little ones who lay ahead of me — but he didn’t. They have always been on his mind and loved beyond description. They are safe with him.
And so it is with all of us — all people. We have never been invisible to him. We have never been out of his mind. He has always loved us beyond description. We are safe with him.
So be assured that as I gaze at my delicious newborn and know in my bones that nothing she ever does will make me love her less, he looks at you and loves you that way (and oh, so exponentially more).
~ Jeannine Buntrock
Note: To any of you mothers or fathers who have ever been told that your work nurturing your children isn’t “enough,” or doesn’t really count as being “for God,” don’t buy it. Your work is holy!
God Is Love And Love Is Hell…Sometimes!, Part 5B
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, Sermons, Spiritual Warfare, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Bible, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Hell, Jesus, Perichoresis, Relationships, Spiritual Warfare, Trinity
Comments (2) 12.10.04 God Is Love And Love Is Hell Sometimes, Part 5B (Mark 9.38-50) – TAH
In this last part of the last message of the series “The Reality of Spiritual Warfare!” Pastor Tim emphasizes a quote from his friend, Jonathan Stepp, who writes “we are all the Father’s beloved children in Christ. Therefore, whatever Jesus says about millstones and plucking out eyes has to be interpreted in the light of a loving Father. So, sometimes you hear a mom say “stop that, or I’ll snatch you bald-headed!” or some variant of that. The child knows three things: one, that his mom is very serious, two, that she is using hyperbole to get his attention, and, three, that he is his mother’s beloved child – if he were not her beloved child she wouldn’t care enough to call him on his BS….Jesus is using hyperbole to make the point: this is serious stuff because we are all included.”
God Is Love And Love Is Hell…Sometimes!, Part 5A
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, Sermons, Spiritual Warfare, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Bible, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Hell, Incarnation, Jesus, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, Spiritual Warfare, Trinity
Leave a comment 12.10.04 God Is Love And Love Is Hell Sometimes, Part 5A (Mark 9.38-50) – TAH
In this 1st part of the last message of the series “The Reality of Spiritual Warfare!” learn how the REAL Subject of scripture is the God Revealed in Jesus Christ, and how this Relational God gives us better light on all the topics of scripture, including Hell. This particular scripture was chosen because it is so filled with “hell talk” from Jesus and is typical about how we miss the main point! The real SHOCKER about this passage on hell is that hell is actually presented as a threat from Jesus to His own followers! NOTICE: “Jesus is speaking to believers in warning and not sinners in condemnation!”. Oops…we have some rethinking to do! 🙂
Somewhere In God’s World
Filed under: Bible, By Bill Winn, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Prayer, Relationships, Trinity | Tags: Christmas, God, holidays, Home, lost, x-mas, xmas
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Recently we celebrated Veteran’s Day in the United States. It is a time when we honor those who have served our country in the Armed Forces. My Uncle Joe Winn is someone our family honors and respects greatly for his service to our country, his selfless life as a family man, and for the legacy he has left us in his children and grandchildren. Joe D. Winn made an impression on all of us in our family but I wanted to tell you about a time in 1945 when the events of Joe’s life impacted one little girl who was only 4 years old. You see after completing flight school in the Army Air Force, Second Lieutenant Joseph Daniel Winn was assigned to the island of Iwo Jima as a bomber escort flying the famed North American P-51D. On 28 July 1945 Joe was shot down during a strafing run over an airfield on the Japanese mainland. He was taken prisoner and (as were all allied flyers) classified by the Japanese as a war criminal. One evening my Aunt Beth could hear her parents and grandmother talking about Joe. She was only 4 at the time but she recounts the story in this way. 
“Mama, where’s Joe?” No answer. “I heard you say Joe’s gone to ‘War’. Mama, where’s ‘War’?” “Honey, there are some things children shouldn’t hear. Please don’t ask any more questions.” Later, I heard Mama and Daddy talking about Joe again. They used words like “Japan” and “missing” and that enormous word, “War.” Mama was crying. Young as I was, I knew where to get an answer. “Grandma, please tell me, where’s Joe?” Grandmother put her arms around me and held tight, so I wouldn’t see her tears, but I knew. “We don’t know exactly,” she said, “but wherever Joe is, that place is somewhere in God’s world.” Fear slipped away, just like that, as Grandmother’s words drew a picture in my mind: a circle of light surrounding and shrinking the dark place called “War.” Then Grandmother said, “Let’s say a prayer for Joe.”
Being sent to Omori civilian prison in Tokyo, Joe and the rest of the boys in his cell block endured conditions too horrible to mention. One ray of hope came from their guard who had gone to school in the USA. As Japan’s surrender grew near the guards could be heard going from block to block executing the Allied P.O.W.s. Joe’s sympathetic guard locked the large steel door to their cell block and slid the only key under the door with instructions not to open it for any reason. Moments later Joe and his comrades heard the other prison guards shoot their friend who had just saved all of their lives. Joe made it home after the war, raised a wonderful family, and lived the rest of his life in peace. He is one of our family’s greatest heroes, though I doubt he ever thought of himself as such.
So this Christmas if you find yourself unsure of where a loved one may be or if there is some reason you and a loved one are apart remember: Jesus is the Light of the Cosmos! (Jn.8:12) Jesus called his Father the Lord of Heaven and Earth. And Jesus himself declares that we are in him and he is in us. (Jn 14:20) This is indeed Triune God’s world and whether we know exactly where someone is at any given time, whether we worry about loved ones serving in the military, a son or daughter that we have not heard from in a while, whether we are estranged from family because of brokenness or divisions we must remember that where ever that person is they are in Jesus and in God’s world. It is no small comfort to know that we are all in Jesus and we are all ultimately safe as long as Jesus is safe. Just ask my Aunt Beth.
~Bill Winn
Y(Our) Struggles Aren’t Against Flesh And Blood, Part 4B
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Humor, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, Sermons, Spiritual Warfare, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Gospel, Hope, Incarnation, Jesus, Perichoresis, Relationships, Spiritual Warfare, trials, Trinity
Comments (1) 12.09.30 Y(Our) Struggles Aren’t Against Flesh And Blood, Part 4B (Eph 6.10-20) – TAH
“God has assumed all responsibility for evil in Jesus Christ….There is no need for us to demand that God take responsibility. He has done so.”, writes Rev. Dr. Gary Deddo. I AGREE!!! Therefore, a better definition of Spiritual Warfare is “God the Father, Son and Spirit of Love and Grace coming into creation in the Son Jesus to adopt, reconcile and save it BEFORE it even got lost! It is God’s passionate and proactive Love and determination that all of His creatures know and experience Him as Jesus does, forever!” Wow! This means that our fight with evil is REALLY a “Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner” situation – with evil being “Wile E. Coyote”, and all of creation being the “Road Runner” in Jesus! HaHa! Think of the Confident Craftiness and Glory that must lie behind God’s command for dust (Us!) to stand before evil in the Power of the Lord’s Might!
Final: “Counseling With Others in the Good News of Jesus!”, pt.3
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Evangelism, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, overcoming evil, Perichoresis, Relationships, Trinity
Leave a comment 
As we again celebrate Jesus and His first and second coming’s this Advent season, I close this series of articles on my recent counseling session with a friend [Sentences have been restructured to grant anonymity and add clarity]. The last question to me was, interestingly:
3.) “Also, one of the other questions is: what are the future consequences for this evil behavior after the glorious coming of Jesus?”
My response was:
“The answer to this question is that it remains to be seen, but because of Jesus and their Inclusion into His Love and Life they will only know and experience more of the Relational and Loving God Who holds them! For one who decides to go “against the grain” of this goodness (in insanity!), they will obviously know greatly the painful experience that comes from trying to escape the grip of a Relational and Loving God Who will never let them go! HaHa! The scriptures use a variety of expressions to describe the fate of those who resist the Truth (Jesus!), including “death”, “hell”, “the grave”, “fire”, “darkness”, “blindness”, “weeping” and “gnashing of teeth”, etc.) The point of all of these allusions, to me and many others, is that these diverse images are vivid and memorable ways of picturing that it is NOT good to reject and embrace the only Reality there is – your adoption into the Life and Love of the Father, Son and Spirit, in the Person of Jesus Christ! It can only be insane and necessarily painful!
As my friend Mike Feazell once said, those who reject Jesus Christ won’t be allowed to mess up the Wedding Supper of the Lamb and “spoil the party”. However, because of Who Jesus has Revealed God to be, we can be sure that (like the Father outside the house with the self-righteous son at the end of the Story of the Prodigal God in Luke 15), our Father will always be with His children, even in their self-righteous insanity! Even as the Father in that story continues to plead that His son come inside the house, our Father will be pleading that every son and daughter of His “come in” and enjoy and “party hearty” with the family, inside the house that is already theirs (Luke 15:11-12!) HaHa!
Those who resist God at the Second Coming of Jesus (if any REALLY do resist – because just as we can’t prove people won’t resist Jesus, we also can’t prove they will resist Him! Haha!), will only be rebelling AS sons and daughters who are included in God’s family by grace, not as those trying to become sons and daughters and get included on their own terms! You already experience a similar relational experience if you have children and, if not with children, with your pets! They rebel as YOURS already! HaHa!
Again, the best that we can do now in our participation with Jesus is express to others what we believe about Jesus – Who He is and what He has made of All Humanity in Himself – and proclaim it boldly, regardless of the outcome or their being unconvinced! Believers are simply witness bearers and NOT apologist trying to scientifically “prove” the Truth! As theologian Karl Barth once stated “Belief cannot argue with unbelief, it can only preach to it.” Because faith is about the faith of Christ and placing our faith in His faith on our behalf, it is NOT about proof! Proof is never proof to someone who does not have faith in the proof as proof! HaHaHa.”
Finally, to you our readers, I add that we must always leave room for the greatest vision and hope of all in the Light of Jesus Christ, by Whom we now ask and have all our questions answered – for He is the Beginning and End and God’s FINAL ANSWER to His dealings with creation. In Jesus, we have nothing less than the Word and Son of God made flesh, and the One in, and through, and by, and for Whom all things are created and sustained. In Him – in His very Being God as God as Man and Creature – and supported by the scriptures and ancient tradition of the Church, is the FACT (in Faith!) that evil, death, hell and the grave have been utterly conquered and overcome in all of creation! This must mean something significant for the good of all – NOT by force, but by Love – and there is a difference, though the result is still ALL! HaHa!
For your interest, one of the great modern reads, in my opinion, on proper thinking in the Light of Jesus Christ about the Providence of God the Father, Son and Spirit and His interaction with creation and evil in Christ can be found HERE.
I also recommend this book as a great start on the subject!
You can find the earlier two posts in this series here and here .
Timothy J. Brassell
Y(Our) Struggles Aren’t Against Flesh And Blood, Part 3
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Sermons, Spiritual Warfare, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Jesus, Love, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Spiritual Warfare, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity
Leave a comment 12.09.23 Y(Our) Struggles Aren’t Against Flesh And Blood, Part 3 (Eph 6.10-20) – TAH
What if, in the Light of God the Trinity, spiritual warfare is actually God’s passionate Love and determination that all of His creatures know and experience Him as Jesus does? That would ultimately make spiritual warfare Good News since it is initiated by the Relational God Who IS good, acting personally and unceasingly to share His Love and Life with All creation! But in come the Doubter’s questions: Is God REALLY Good?, Can God really be trusted to be and do good?, Doesn’t God really have two minds about us all? And by the way, where is the hell we all know and love? From this message get a better definition of spiritual warfare and the REAL attacks going on!