Love Big

Luke 10:25-37 teaches us we must LOVE BIG.

We must love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, soul, strength, and mind.  And because we love God with ALL we love ALL others as we do ourselves.

We often make a mistake when we think about loving big though.  It is common misperception.  This is a faulty line of thinking we have about marriage, parenting, and serving.

The faulty thinking is…I must DO big to love big.

Sometimes loving big is not in the big things at all.  Sometimes it is in the little things.

So love big today by doing what is needed whether big or small.

FCers, I encourage you to love BIG today by doing the little things for your neighbors.  Show up and help random strangers clean up their yard.  We might have some opportunities to go BIG into some of the areas that were affected worse by the storm in the days to come, but today you can love BIG right where you are.  People are gathering up at the church to go out today.  Show up and someone can tell you where to meet up.  Or just throw on your GO TEAM shirt and love on some neighbors by giving a helping hand with debris clean up.  If you need help call the church at 225-673-4735.

The Play Call

In football there is way more to what happens when the ball is snapped than meets the eye.  Players in every position are making adjustments based on formations and personnel on the field.  The defense shifts to adjust to the offense so the offense sends a guy in motion to adjust to the defense and so and so on.  You see today's quarterback's walk up to the line and make calls and adjustments and the linebacker across respond in kind.

The players process all kinds of information.  The receiver has to decide which route on his route tree he will run based on personnel, formation, down, and distance.  The quarterback has to see the same thing he sees and they have to work together.

If all these things do not happen, nothing works right.

But it all depends on one thing...the play call.

The formation, the routes, the blocking schemes...they all depend on the play call.

So let me give you the play call for followers of Jesus Christ.

Sure there are some more complicated things to figure out about how this works out in the world and in our daily lives.  But in all reality everything boils down to these two things.

Matthew 22:36-40  "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 
Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'  ALL of the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Join us Sunday morning at Fellowship Church to learn more about THE PLAY CALL.
Remember three services starting this week 8:30, 9:45, and 11AM.

Not Religion...Just Reality

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.  When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,“He is good; his love endures forever.”  
2 Chronicles 7:1-3

Responding to God is not some odd act of religion.  It is reality.

The priests did not enter the temple because of a rule.  The did not enter the temple because they could not.  Why? Reality.  They were not capable of entering into the personal presence of God.

Why did the masses bow and worship and give thanks?  Reality.  Not because they were required to by some obligation but because they desired to out of recognition.

I encourage you in search for Truth and your quest for the Divine in your life to not simply look for religious experiences but to seek out real encounters with God.

When you ready yourself for reality instead of religion, religion becomes real.

Fools and Forgiveness

Have you ever had a conflict with someone that you felt reconciliation as possible and they refused to try?  It is in such moments that a person realizes that a friend was not a friend.  That a person they believed loved them did not actually love them.  It is in those painful moments in life that we learn some of the hardest lessons.  The problem is we learn the lesson, but we don’t learn what to do with that or how to feel about it.

Proverbs 14:9 says, “Fools mock at making amends for sin, but goodwill is found among the upright.”

So a fool does not forgive.  But, why?  A fool does not forgive because a fool does not love.  The reason a fool does not love is because a fool lives his life about himself. 

Forgiveness and reconciliation is something to mock for a fool because it is not worth the time and the effort.  Why?  Because people are not worth their time and the effort.

It is more important to the fool that they get what they want or say what they want or do they want than any relationship.  The fool values people and relationships solely by the convenience and betterment that relationship offers to their own life at that time.

That is a fool.  We all know some.  We all love some.

So what do you do?  Love the fool but don’t live their foolishness.

Let them go.  Let them do their thing. Let them speak their lies and their nonsense.  It always catches up to them.  But don’t pray that upon them.  Pray grace upon them.  Pray wisdom for them.

Letting them go means allowing them to separate from you in life.  It will probably hurt.  But one who carries the company of fools is a fool.

So how do you foolproof your own life?  Don’t be a fool.  Start with you.

Seek out reconciliation and forgiveness whether you wronged them or whether they wronged you.  That’s a good start.

Also, read a proverb a day, it might just keep the fool within and the fools without away.

Muffin Man...Part 2

Still trying to catch up on this concept I wanted to add to my blog.

Two Sundays ago.  Blueberry Muffins...filled and topped.

Jiffy Blueberry muffin mix (per recipe)
add 1/4 cup of blueberry syrup in the mix

Handful of fresh blueberries
Cut them up and mash them up with a fork
add 1/2 cup of blueberry syrup
stir together

Bake the muffins for 8 minutes
take out
push crater into top of muffin with spoon
Add blueberry mixture
bake till cooking instructions completed.

Serve with Scripture.  Scripture should be connect for the kids.

What remains?  Are these egg muffins?  No...but guess what they have eggs in them.
Are these milk muffins?  No...but guess what they have milk in them.
Are these blueberry muffins?  Yes...why?  Because that is what remains.

And now these three remain:  faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:13


Memorize the Scripture all week with your kids.  Talk about what it means to love.  Go and do what it looks like to love.  Love those that are not easy to love.  Give of yourselves.  Sacrifice as a family.  Have great conversations.  Teach.

How did this affect our week?

Monday night after quoting the verse and praying before bed...
Melanie:  Why does only love remain?  Aren't faith and hope great things.
My answer:  Not only great things...they are essential things.  They are necessary...for life here on earth.  But it says in the Bible that faith is being sure of what we HOPE for and certain of what we have NOT seen.  One day will you see Jesus?
Melanie:  Yes
Me:  Will it take faith to believe in him on that day?
Melanie:  No
Me:  Will you need to hope in him any longer?
Melanie:  No
Me:  So these 3 remain in our lives when nothing else does.  When everything else in this world fails we have faith, hope, and love...but one day it will all be love.
Melanie:  I see. (smiling as she went to sleep)
(Not sure how much those muffins cost...but they are worth it to me.)

We served at a foster home this week to show loves to some kids that really need it.  We talked about it.
We got to go visit family this week.  We love them and they love us.  So we talk about it.

I am not sure where all this is headed, but I love the journey.

A word spoken well speaks well

So I will share one spoken well.

I have been out of the normal communication circles at kid's camp this week but thought the fight over chicken, family, marriage, culture, and terminology that has been waged this week was one I might speak to through my blog.  But Perry Noble wrote a really, really good one.

So here it is.

Perry Noble