Here are a few of my favorite Wednesday Word posts. The first Wednesday Word post appeared on DALANEL November 13th 2013. Yup, it’s almost a year since I started this series.
I’ve always had a tendency of playing the Jonah card with being the leader of the lighting crew at my church. But, I, and the rest of us, can’t do that.
This is the only word so far that I did the video myself. Check it out as I talk about how you will be healed.
A couple of Wednesday Words later, and my sister takes the baton. She preached during Sunday service on a fruit of the Spirit. Goodness.
Just a few of my favorites. Which Wednesday Word impacted you?
Are you new here? Wednesday Word is where I post a short sermon and then give my commentary.
Okay, so living by faith.
She started off with an excellent point. By faith, we become Christians. We look at this story of a virgin giving birth to a baby that would save the world. We didn’t see this. Yet, we believe it.
So, why do we stop believing? After saying yes to Jesus, we tend to go on our own. Essentially the entire relationship with God and Jesus is built on faith. The concept of heaven is built on faith. There are people who have died, claimed they’ve seen heaven, and then are back on earth. But, for the most part, none of us have seen anything and we can only go by faith.
Such a difficult thing because our physical form tells us that if our five senses can’t embrace something…confirm…register…then it can’t be real. We use science. But, faith doesn’t give a hoot about science. Miracles don’t care about the laws of nature. Miracles laugh at those laws. Good for them. Good for us.
So, live by faith today. It won’t always be easy; but it’s worth it. God won’t let you down. Even when it seems like God dropped the ball, His ways and understanding are better and higher than ours.
Sometimes, when I listen to a short sermon, I feel like there’s not too much of an impact. But, there are some videos that I hear that just blow me away.
This was one of them.
It’s a simple message, yet it’s something we can have trouble with.
The gist of this, in case you didn’t get it, was that through Jesus, we are saved. That’s clear.
But, sometimes we don’t understand why that is, and that’s the point of this video. The biggest part was how he explained that we as Christians tend to think that by what we do or don’t do is what determines how God deals with us. Instead, God deals with Jesus.
And, because we are with Jesus, and in Him are of His likeness, God loves us.
It goes back to a point I made in an earlier post I had about how the Holy Spirit in us is what God looks for. God can only be with Himself. We are made in God’s image, but in a spiritual way. Adam and Eve dropped the ball and we died. Jesus came back and gave us life.
When we accept Him, we accept His spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. So, with God in us, we become like God. We exhibit the fruits and gifts of this spirit.
Like I said, God looks for His own because He is simply too perfect for anything less. Since we have God in us, it’s easy for God to say “come on in”. That’s the whole point of Jesus. Jesus came to fix the wrong of Adam and Eve. They were saved. They lost it. Jesus got it back for us.
So, again, it is through Jesus that we have eternal life. We need to understand this. It’s like the law of association. When we associate ourselves with Jesus, we put our stake on Him. We essentially are saying that “whatever Jesus is doing, we’re doing or endorse this”. Jesus treats us the same way. Consider this hypothetical scenario:
Jesus: I love these people.
God: Well, I trust you, Son. If you love them; I’ll love them just the same.
That’s about it. That’s why there’s grace and mercy. Jesus stood up for us. Don’t get it twisted; it’s not like God needed convincing to save us. It’s just the principle. Besides, Jesus and God are the same so who cares who did what? I’m not gonna dive into the trinity. Chill.
So, let’s not worry about our performance. I mean, yeah we need to follow God’s commandments and stuff. But, ultimately, our destiny lies in Jesus.
Now, in the NOT GOING TO HAPPEN scenario that Jesus and God have a falling out, then we’re screwed. Again, we’re hinging on Jesus. If Jesus is no longer the apple of God’s eye, you know we don’t have a chance.
Get it? Luckily for us, Jesus is God, so we’re fine.
This is a long sermon by my standards, but this is a very important message. Let’s take a listen:
The last couple of minutes were big for me. Sometimes, when we do something that the Bible tells us, there’s a reason for it. It’s for our benefit or it’s for someone else. But, sometimes, we forget that we do these things because God says so.
That’s the reality with all commandments. God said so, so, technically, that’s enough. But, it sometimes isn’t, and we have to tell ourselves that we win in the end by getting a reward.
Is that the only reason why we follow God’s commands? For the rewards? And, if they are not what we want, then we decide not to be a follower for the day?
We need to be real here: God’s commands should be taken seriously. It’s a happy coincidence in some cases that we get a little “prize” in the end. Technically, if God says it, then that’s it.
Loving our enemies is one of the hardest things to do. But the key word is “love” God is love. By that definition, the Holy Spirit is love. And, the Holy Spirit lives in His children. He produces fruit; one of them: Love. And so, as we are alive by the spirit of God, we produce this fruit. So, God’s kids are love. I’m not going to dive into the trinity and all of that. I’ve done that before. Let’s keep things on topic.
That’s why we’re told to love. It’s not only a “feeling”, but it’s what we are. We must do what we are designed to do. Love. Obviously, it’s easier to love people that show love. But, again, love isn’t a feeling. Not just a feeling, anyway. True love puts aside feelings and continues on. If love were based on feeling, we’d be screwed. God loves us unconditionally, but what if He only loved us when we didn’t sin? I guess we’d be doomed from the door.
That’s what loving is all about. Yourself. Your neighbor. Your enemy. Everybody.
Wednesday Word. A short sermon followed by my commentary.
We really do need to learn how to say goodbye and let go of people in our lives that aim to suck us into their hole of despair.
I do want to add that saying goodbye does not mean that you no longer care for that person’s well being. My comments actually are from my book and the chapter called “Let It Go”. I’ll link you to that post.
Anyway, you have to let people go; but that person still needs help. I like to say “love from a distance”.
