Forward In Love - Wednesday January 9

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35; 37-39

God does not keep any of us immune from painful experiences. God is with us through all painful experiences, but He doesn’t take all of them away. The good news is, regardless of how bad the pain gets, there is no pain severe enough to separate any of us from our relationship with God.
Trouble, hardship, persecution, starvation, nakedness, danger, violence, death, life, angels, demons, now, later, all powers, height, depth, and nothing created. The is an amazing power list of the greatest forces, trials and emotions known to humanity. This verse is so arrogantly driven into our faces, it can only mean one of two things; either Jesus was a deceiver and Paul was delusional or amazing, supernatural things happen when a person maintains a death lock on God’s love. Only God’s love could explain such reckless stubbornness. Keep holding on, every detracting voice eventually melts away.
If absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love, then the only battle left is for us to relentlessly believe it. So believe it today. Ask God to increase your faith in his love, to believe it is everything he says it is.

Forward In Love - Tuesday January 8

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18


Is hate the opposite of love or is fear? We may never know. One thing we can be sure of, love and fear do not co-exist. No child who is raised in a caring home with a covering of love lives in fear. That child may have momentary flashes of fear, but she will not live regularly live in fear. In the same way, neither will an adult live in fear who walks in God’s love.
Where does fear come from? It comes from the expectation of punishment. As long as we think of God as our Judge and Law-giver, we will be submerged in fear. Have you ever noticed that people who seem to live in the most fear, tend to interpret the painful circumstances of their lives as things that God did “to” them. Why? They expect to be punished because they think that is the kind of God they serve. They often ask questions like, “Is this God’s way of punishing me for the things I did when I was younger?” or “What did I do wrong to deserve this?” For certain there are consequences to our actions, but please don’t confuse those with God’s heart for you. If you follow that line of thinking, you will believe in a God that takes more pleasure in punishing you than in loving you.
God’s word does not tell us that God is Judge or God is Law-giver, it tells us God is love. In the end, it was God’s love that caused Him to send Jesus to pay penalty for our sin so we could escape punishment. Once we understand God’s true nature, our fear is overcome with his love. Let today be the day you move FORWARD in love, ask God to reveal himself to you until all of your wrong pictures of who He is are gone and your fear has drowned in His love.

Forward In Love - Monday January 7

…God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16

“God is love”. This is probably the greatest single statement about God in the entire Bible. It is amazing how many questions that one sentence answers. For example, with God there is never a question about motive. We never have to ask why. We already have the one and only answer there is: love.
In this verse we are actually told what God is, He is love. Love is God expressed. Love is the most basic ingredient of God. It is His essence. There is no adequate way to describe God apart from love. But God’s love is not some co-dependant loneliness. God did not create people so that He would have some focus for His love that He would otherwise be incomplete without. God is love, with or without His creation. God’s love is altogether free standing of our existence or our receptivity. It actually has nothing to do with us at all, it is who HE is!
Being that God is love, He is our only source for love. When a mother stares into the face of her newborn, where does the love come from that instantly binds her heart with that little stranger? It comes from the only source there is, from God. God is love and no one else is. If we have love, it is only because after the fall of humanity we have maintained some faint silhouette of the original form that God created us in. There is one way to get a clearer picture. That is to receive God’s love into our hearts through Jesus, and to pursue Him with wild passion. As we do, the revelation of His love in our lives will become clearer with each step.
Any journey with God, is a journey in love. Will you join me for the next 20 days as we go FORWARD in love?

Let’s pray together:
Lord, today I pray that by your mighty grace, you will pour more of yourself into us and by the end of this day, we will see greater evidence of your love in our lives. Amen

Devotional Post

All post for the FORWARD In Love Devotional will be posted the evening before the day to be read. Blogger is not allowing pre-post at this time so they will be done manually the evening before. If you have received any already via email, please disregard them until the appropriate day. We would also like to encourage you to send an email to your friends and family asking them to subscribe to the blog. After subscribing it is important that they verify their email or they will not receive it in their inbox. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts on the blog as we move together through the next 21 days. God Bless You!!!

"Tired"

Last week was crazy, and we only have a week and a half left before we visit the family for Christmas. There is so much to get done, but more than that thinking about 2008 is crucially important as well. I had the privelage of spending time with the Boyd and Oneal family last week, and I was simply refreshed at the Joy and Peace that God can bring in times of chaos. In Sundays message we talked about giving "compassion for Christmas." I am thinking daily about ways I can make it happen in my life and my family. What I am learning is the more I think about it the more I realize how bad I am at it. I just thought I would take a minute and share with you my own struggles.

New Release

As you know this Friday a new movie is being released that is directed towards children in which the main character is a child who takes a journey in an amazing fantasy world. The movie, The Golden Compass, is due out this Friday, December 7th. Although this movie looks like another innocent portrayal of a fantasy world where great adventures take place, things become very deceiving. What is disturbing to me is that the movie is actually based on the first of a trilogy of books for children called His Dark Materials written by Philip Pullman of England.
Pullman is a proclaimed atheist who is bent on killing God in the minds of children. His materials and books are very anti-christian or anti-religion. British Columnist Peter Hitchens in 2002 labeled him “the most dangerous author in Britain”. He uses his stories to twist and distort familiar biblical accounts of creation, fall, and redemption, making heroes of those who rebel against religion, and having one of his "good" characters even say, "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake."
At first glance, you or your children may have seen this preview and thought “Oh, here is another good looking movie” or "Oh man, that looks like an awesome flick". (At least thats what I say when I see a neat preview!) I write all of this to say think twice. Most things in the realm of media and literature have an underlying meaning or theme. Although the Hollywood version of this movie is very watered down, the attempt is to not only get you to see the movie, but to buy the books as well.

For some articles from a Christian perspective regarding this movie visit:
http://www.breakpoint.org/search.asp?keywords=the+golden+compass

For a quick overview of the book series through plot summaries visit:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hisdarkmaterials/summary.html

Sharon Boyd Funeral Arrangements

As most of you know, Sharon Boyd past away Monday afternoon following an extensive bout with cancer. Our prayers are with her family and we wanted to inform you of the upcoming arrangements. The viewing will be held from 6-9PM Thursday December 6th at Reiman's Funeral Home on Commission Road in Long Beach. There will also be a viewing at Gulf Coast Worship Center from 10AM-noon Friday December 7th. The funeral will be held at Gulf Coast Worship Center at noon on Friday. If you would like to assist with meals for the family, please contact Pastor Eddie at 228-868-9500.