Love Your...

Love Your…
Stop! This is not what you think it is. You are thinking of the word Neighbor aren’t you? The word from Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31 and Luke 10:27. The word spoken of in Leviticus 19:18 and Romans 13:9. No, the word that follows is another word. One that your heart alone can allow there. It’s a word placed there by people or circumstances that have offended you, hurt you, frustrated you, angered you. It is a word that your enemy and this world wants you to tattoo across the foreheads of people and upon the circumstances that trip up your daily life so that you will hate them or desire revenge against them. So what am I saying? To love those that anger us, hurt us and frustrate us? Yes! That is what I am saying.

For 13 years now I have worked in a church with lots of people. What I have done in those 13 years is take care of the building that all these people use. Not sure if you realize this or not but people can be messy and some do not seem to care. People, especially in large groups, make messes and cop attitudes. They sing praises and then leave their half empty cup of coffee on the floor so that another can kick it over. They lift up their Savior and then bully other drivers as they leave the parking lot. They pray over those who need Christ in their life and then seemingly leave Him out of theirs as they leave the sanctuary.

I know this sounds critical of the church and all those who make it up. However, my intent is not to be critical of the church but to simply paint a piece of the picture that I have viewed for 13 years. In these same 13 years, I have also witnessed the beauty of the Bride of Christ. Beyond the messes and the masses are tons of wonderful things that I can mention in another blog entry. As beautiful as she is though there are times when she can look like we do when we wake up in the morning. She can have moments of messy hair and bad breath. She can have moments where she does not look so attractive. Yet, we are to love her because Jesus loves her. He loves His bride when she is walking down the stairs in all her stunning beauty and He loves her when she is stumbling into the bathroom with her eyes squinting through the first light of day after a long night of rest. He simply loves her and He is working in her to make her all the more beautiful. Therefore, we are to love her regardless of how she may look from one moment to the next.

There are two verses in John 13 that opened my eyes to this more than they ever have been. In verse 11 scripture says, “For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean” (NIV). In the very next verse, verse 12a, scripture says, “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place” (NIV). Maybe you have caught this before but for me it was the first time. Jesus washed all the disciples feet including the one he knew was going to betray him. Jesus knew what Judas was up to and what would come of his actions. Yet Jesus washed his feet. He loved the one who no doubt was hurting His heart.

John 13:34 & 35 says, “’A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’” (NIV). We cannot simply love those who love us. We must love those who…

Jesus is wonderful and He makes each of us beautiful. When we look through His eyes we see what the messes and the masses seem to hide. We see through the stuff the enemy wants us to focus on and become bitter against and we begin to see the beauty of the one that Jesus loves.

This week and again next month my church, New Life Church in Colorado Springs Colorado, will be hosting thousands of young men and women of God and no doubt will the team I lead run into a few circumstances that will cause anger, frustration and maybe even bitterness. It just happens. Therefore, I have asked my team to consider this same idea. To wash the feet of every person that crosses his or her path. To love them as Jesus commanded. To do otherwise is to open the door for the seeds of the enemy. Our negative response to someone can turn them from Christ. Our positive, loving, foot washing response, however, can help others know that the beauty of the Bride of Christ is here and help open the way for the Holy Spirit to operate powerfully in their life.

Blog entry: www.damonbailey.blogspot.com

Food and Water

Recently Mandy and I along with our boys spent 5 days in Tulsa Oklahoma visiting my family. Each time I have made this trip, I have realized that food is a huge part of the visit. We are a large close-knit family and we love to eat (as I guess all large close-knit families do). My crew alone had seven mouths, or better yet, stomachs to feed. Then there was my two parents, my three brothers, my sister-in-law and a very cute 1 month old nephew. If you are counting, there were 14 mouths/stomachs to feed while we were in town. That is a lot of food.
When the feast was over we had to wash all that food down with something and throwing in all the playing we did out in the heat and humidity that Oklahoma so graciously provides and the gallons of liquid we had to consume really began to buildup. At the end of it all, it is easy to see that we are a very hungry and thirsty bunch.
However, there is one other thing that I have noticed on these trips. Not only are we hungry and thirsty in our bodies we are a spiritually hungry and thirsty group as well. Each of us is in love with Jesus. We are a blended family but our loving Savior has grafted us together just as he has the Gentile and Jewish families. Today we serve Him individually, in our separate households and as a whole family. We hunger and thirst together. It is a beautiful thing and we are all blessed for it.
The Gospel of John, in the fourth chapter, speaks of those who thirst and hunger after Him. Speaking to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar Samaria Jesus says in verses 13 and 14, "'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life'". Later in the chapter in verse 34 Jesus says to his Disciples, "'My food...is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work'". Jesus goes on to speak of harvesting the fields that have been sown and reaping the benefits of the labor that has already been done.
When I look upon my family, I see a family longing for His living water, to do the will of Him who sent them and to finish His work. We are not a perfect family by any means. We have had to learn some hard lessons, but through them, we have all grown...grown thirsty and grown hungry. Today we are closer than ever and we are growing even faster. God has completed a lot in us and still has a lot to complete but we are willing to consume the food and drink He offers.
My imploration for those who read this is the same. Thirst for Jesus' living water. Hunger to do his will and to finish His work. As His children we have access to His Kingdom and all that it possesses. Eternal life is ours if we will take it. Yes, there is work to do. Yes, we must labor, we must toil. However, we do not do so as the world does. Our labor and our toil is a blessing. It is a blessing to Him as it is our obedience to His loving command. It is a blessing to those the work benefits for they are His children in need. It is a blessing to us as it is our worshipful connection to His heart.
Also in John 4 Jesus says in verses 23 and 24, "'Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth'". Jesus has brought life to each of us. His grace and His mercy has been extended to us in a most loving manner and it comes in the satisfaction of our great thirst and hunger. He satisfies as we worship in spirit. He quenches as we worship in truth. We offer our all to Him in deed and in rest. We lay down what the world says we own so that in truth rightful ownership is restored to Him who provides our every need.
If you thirst, if you hunger, do so no longer. Offer your worship in spirit and in truth. Obediently walk the path He has laid out for you. Seek Him. As has been true for my family there will be difficult lessons to learn along the way. In the end, however, your thirst will be satisfied with living water and your hunger will be satisfied through the fulfillment of His will and His work.
To my family I say, thank you for the wonderful visit and I look forward to many more memories as we walk our path to the Father in Spirit and Truth eating and drinking at His table together. Spiritually speaking...bottoms up and what’s for desert :). I love you!