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Showing posts from July, 2012

Patience is a Virtue

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My car is nine years old; I bought it new and replaced the brake pads four or five times plus incurred other costs related to brake work. I’ve spent more on my brakes than average drivers because I like speed, or more precisely, I like to get out of the gate quickly. I accelerate and then hit the brakes. I do everything quickly. I eat quickly, I read quickly, and I walk quickly. Patience is not a strong virtue for me, and yet it is a fruit of the Spirit and I want to develop it in my life. The problem is it takes too long to do. Our entire culture fixates on getting things done more quickly. It’s no surprise we are more stressed than ever before. Patience is closely related to peace. A Greek-English lexicon defines patience as ‘to remain seated in one’s heart’ or to keep one’s heart from jumping. It’s similar to the definition for peace, isn’t it? Peace is sitting with one’s own heart and patience is remaining seated. A patient person is a peaceful person. Patience is mor

Sit Down with One's Own Heart

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Peace. Jesus gave us his peace. His peace transcends (is above) logic or reason. In other words, it doesn’t make sense, and it’s a fruit of the Spirit. Strong’s #1515 tells us it’s a set of favourable circumstances involving peace; it also has a meaning to be without trouble, to have no worries and to ‘sit down with one’s own heart’. I love that last phrase – to sit down with one’s own heart. My Boy sometimes has anxiety; it manifests as anger. I used to react to the anger and fight back with anger. We’d have a yelling match, until eventually I would subdue him because I’m the ‘boss’ and I can threaten him within an inch of his life. As you can imagine it didn’t go well. In those moments, I’d pray to God and he would start to release his peace to me and he’d tell me to lower my voice, and release the peace I carry. Instead of isolating my son as the problem, I hold onto him tightly and speak softly to him, saying, “Anger must go when peace comes in.” The tension in his litt

The Joy of the Lord

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Joy is a valuable commodity in heaven and is one of the three foundational pillars of the Kingdom of God. Love is the first fruit of the Spirit but joy comes quickly. You cannot have joy if love is not first expressed. I’m joyful because I’m loved by God. It’s a mystery. I don’t understand it, I don’t deserve but it makes me happy, exceedingly happy. Jesus demonstrated joy is worth dying for in Hebrews 12:2, “for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame.” He also came so his joy would be in us, thus making our joy complete. In other words, Jesus said without him our joy is incomplete but because he came [as a man to die and be resurrected, breaking the curse of death] his joy would be manifested in us. His joy is already complete. Often we think the totality of joy as a happy emotion. It is that for sure but there has to be more to it because Jesus said his joy was full, complete and not lacking anything but scripture also says he was a man acqua

Compelling Love

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Love makes people do crazy things. It makes us take risks because the pay-off is like nothing else in our human experience. I receive so much pleasure hearing/reading stories about how couples get together. Steadfast and abiding love is awesome but new love is exhilarating. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done because you found love? 2 Corinthians 5:14a, For Christ’s love compels us. We are crazy for love – not to attract love but because we are already in love. The love of God towards us is already ours and it’s secure. We love because he first loved us. The first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is love. The fruit of the Spirit is the product of a love relationship, and yet, the fruit is...more love. Why do we need more love? I love my Man and when my Boy was born, my love for my Man didn’t diminish, as if there was a finite amount of love to go around. No, my ability to love expanded to include my Boy. For families with more children, there is always enough l

But the Fruit of the Spirit is...

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One of the better aspects of summer is fruit. Cherries are my favourite, and every year I eat too much the first time I buy them but a close second (and third and fourth) in my favourite list are watermelon, blueberries and peaches. I love fruit pie but I prefer to eat the fruit au naturel . The true Christian experience – to walk by the Spirit – is intended to produce fruit. Fruit is the outcome of life lived. We all produce some sort of fruit whether you live by the Spirit or not. The sinful nature is bound to the law and is contrary to the fruit of the Spirit* which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. This fruit is not any under law because it supersedes the law. When and what areas you produce this fruit, there is no longer any accusation. Although there are nine aspects of the fruit, it is only one fruit. They cannot be separated. Over the next 9 regular weekday posts, I’ll be exploring the fruit of the Sp