In Every Season

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

In Every Season

For children, there is no greater influence in their lives than home and family. For better or worse, where we come from shapes us. It is not the only thing that shapes us, but our home and family are a big part of who we are. As parents, we want to do the very best we can for our children. These words written in Deuteronomy for parents, grandparents, or anyone who loves and has influence over children, are as important today as the day they were written. Whether it is your children, grandchildren, or other children in your life, the most important thing we can do for them is to pass on the Gospel and the words of God. 

Obviously, the biggest influence we have on our children/grandchildren is our behavior. The way we act and react, the language we use and the way we say it, and the way we treat them, and others is on display every day of their lives. It is also being recorded in their hearts and minds. 

As we have been learning for some time now, when we have a relationship with Jesus, and we grow in that relationship, stepping where the spirit steps, his spirit flows out of our lives. It is important for us to stay spiritually healthy and maintain that relationship with him so that we continually impact those around us for the kingdom. The one thing Jesus told us to do when he left was to go and make disciples, but we sometimes forget that it starts at home. If we are in a season where we have small children in our lives, they are the disciples for that season. We have the privilege and opportunity to impact their lives and build a foundation of faith for them that they can stand on for their whole lives. 

How can we show our children what we believe? Repeat, Talk Bind, and Write.

Whatever season you are in, make sure you are influencing others in your life for the best. Post God’s words in your house where you can see them and be reminded and where your children can see them. Let them see you reading the bible and praying. Let them see you being discipled and discipling others. Repeat to them what you are learning. Tell them about the faithfulness of God in your life. Tell them about any miracles. 

Let them see you going to church. Let them see you serving. Let them see you living your whole life for him. Let them see his love spilling out of your life to others. With everything – with your thoughts – actions – words – may they teach your children what you believe. Make sure you teach them what to believe because if you don’t the world will. Disciple them so that when this broken world becomes a reality in their world they know where to go, what to do, and how to pray. 

Now is the time to set these principles into motion and decide what kind of testimony you want to live out in front of your family every day.   

True Unity in the Body of Christ

Wednesday, January 29, 2025 

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6

True Unity in the Body of Christ

It is the desire of God that we be one in the body of Christ. Unity is not something that happens automatically just because we are all Christians. Unity in Sprit happens when we bond with other believers over our calling in Christ. As we are transformed by Him, we grow together in unity and service to Him. 

In Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul gives us the Seven-Fold Basis for Unity as believers. We have unity because of what we share in common. In Jesus we share one body, one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Father. Alone we are not as strong as we are united into one body on these elements of our doctrine.

Paul’s Seven-Fold Basis for Unity: 

Body – The one Church of the Lord Jesus Christ – one body of which He is the head. Just as a physical body does not function properly without all its parts, the body of Christ is the same. The body can function without some parts, but not to its fullest capacity. However, none of the parts can function by themselves apart from the body. If a hand is severed, it no longer functions as a hand without the body. The body can function without the hand, but not as a complete body. We are unified in Christ as one body. 

Spirit –There is one Spirit from God – the Holy Spirit - to guide and direct the body. 

Hope – No other thing on earth can provide this hope. This hope is never uncertain as it is when we hope for things on earth. We hope this or we hope that… When we say that there is no certainty. But the hope we have as we believe in the promise of His coming is the hope of our calling. This hope is true certainty for all believers.  

Lord – This is Christ crucified, buried, raised, and exalted. There is room for NONE OTHER. All our unity is centered around Him who He is, who we are in Him, and the sacrifice He made for us. 

Faith – Through faith we receive the Father and follow the Son. The faith we receive is that we believe that God sent His Son, Jesus, who came to earth and took on human flesh. He lived a perfect life and offered Himself on the cross in our place, paying the debt that we owe. He rose from the dead, and is in heaven, but He is coming back. On that day everyone will be judged.  He gifted us salvation by grace alone, which we receive through faith alone, apart from any merit or works on our part.

Baptism – One burial of one whose heart has been purified by faith, who has been crucified with Jesus to that sin, to rise in the newness of life.

God – One who is in all, over all, and through all – this is Gods, personal, transcendent, sovereign, relationship with His creation.

It is our unity in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, that strengthens us and makes us whole – one body. We bond together in work – His holy calling for us – to go and make disciples, to go and minister to the homeless, to go and feed the hungry, etc… Together we are more effective for His Kingdom and His glory. This is His calling for us, together as one unified body, His church. 

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:6-7