A Love of Others

December 30th, 2006

A Love of Others

“I love you, I just don’t like you.” Have you ever heard that being said? Have you ever said it? I’ve said it. It never sat right with me. There’s a good reason for that, and that’s because it’s garbage. You can’t love someone and not like them. Imagine what it would be like if your spouse never liked you, yet married you. Imagine what it would be like if your parents never liked you, yet raised you. Imagine what it would be like if God never liked you, yet watched over you. Now, of course, all of these tell you they love you but don’t like you. It doesn’t fly. It just doesn’t fly.

“Multitude” is an interesting word. In the NIV Bible, it is used ten times. In 1st Peter 4:8, I looked up multitude and found that the Greek word “plēthos” means a multitude such as a great number (of men or things). It can also go further to mean the “whole number” or a “whole multitude”. Dictionary.com simply says that a multitude is a great number and is also defined as “a very great number.”

Now, in this year of 2006, I have learned a few things. I have learned that I don’t like those who are like me, that is in my sinful nature. I see someone making the same mistake and I become angry. And if I am not careful, I end up saying a statement very much like that of: “I love you, but I don’t like you right now.” It doesn’t work. It doesn’t fly. I love baseball, I just don’t like baseball right now. That’s stupid. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever written.

Before I get into some scripture, I want to share one definition of love from Dictionary.com which defines love as “to have a strong liking for and to take great pleasure in.” This definition shows that when someone likes someone and that feeling grows, it blossoms into love. One cannot love without liking first. If I am to say that I don’t like someone, then loving them is not even in the equation.

1st Peter 4:1-11
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do - living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

***Love covers over a multitude of sins. Here’s the hang-up. If I love someone, then I should be able to see past their sinful nature and love the person, irregardless of what muck and junk they carry. Love covers this up. And if I don’t like someone, I don’t love them, and their sins are not being covered up by my sight. What I am trying to say, if I don’t love the person, I can’t look past their faults and I become critical of them and their shortcomings. How can I offer hospitality to them and not grumble in my heart if I am focusing in on their sin like a heat seeking missile? It’s not possible.

James 5:13-20
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

***In the book of James, the second “multitude of sins” verse is listed. By the way, there’s only two in the NIV Bible that carries that phrase. Elijah is a man of prayer. James is writing about him and then mentions that bringing someone back to Christ saves them from death and covers over their sins. Is this random? Nope, it is association. Sick? You should pray. In sin? You should pray and get others to pray as well. Someone leaves God? You should pray from them. If you don’t like them, but love them, then it is definitely a righteous prayer. WRONG! You have to like them to love them, and a loving heart will promote a righteous prayer. This is where I have fallen short, but I am growing. I’m not growing as fast as I would like, but a seed doesn’t turn into a monstrous oak overnight. This is what I will be working on in 2007. A New Year’s resolution? No, a New Year’s goal for the year 2007. Resolutions tend to get broken but goals are something to be attained and worked on over time. I don’t have New Year’s resolutions, but I do have New Year goals. Keep safe out there, Go Cowboys, Go Rangers, Go Mavs, may all three teams be blessed with success and not make me sick when I pay attention in your direction. Family and Friends, may the New Year bring you plenty more happiness and joy than the previous year. All take care and don’t forget to feed you pets. Johnny Out.

Upcoming Posts

Here are some ideas I have... with this post that I update, it keeps it in my mind and allows me to role around the idea even more so that it can be so big and huge it can end up to be huge post like the "Paint a Picture" post.

Upcoming Titles (I think):

• The Power of One Word
• Refurbished Man
• If - Then
• The Right Tools (a follow-up to "paint a picture")

Frankly, Scarlet, I Give a Gift. (Part II)

December 27th, 2006

Frankly, Scarlet, I Give a Gift. (Part II)

Matthew 5:38-42
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

Matthew 5:42 Give: The Greek word is didōmi which means to give. That is on the most basic meaning. Going deeper, it means to give something to someone of one’s own accord to give one something, to his advantage. It also means to bestow a gift. Here’s a list of some other meanings:

• To grant, give to one asking, let have


• To supply, furnish, necessary things


• To give over, deliver by reaching out, extend, present


• To deliver by a writing


• To give over to one’s care, entrust, commit


• Something to be administered


• To give or commit to some one something to be religiously observed


• To give what is due or obligatory, to pay: wages or reward


• To furnish, endue

There is plenty more. I could give something to someone when they ask for it, and it would be to my advantage. Maybe. I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around that one. How can it be to my advantage to give to someone who is bold enough to ask? I can spout off a truck load of “what-ifs” on this one, but to be honest with you, these generally don’t happen (IE: Someone running up to ask for a house, car, $1,000 dollars, etc.).

I wouldn’t really know what to do in those situations, but I do understand that the Bible says to get advice and many advisors make victory sure. If someone asks for your car, get advice first (and not from me, please! I don’t know the answer to that one.). But here is something that I have figured out, at least from this passage and the Greek background. I think of it this way, have I not struck the cheek of Christ on both his right AND left? I have taken his cloak and tunic. I’ve made him walk more than two miles. The amazing thing about this whole picture: I’m forgiven.

There’s still more, though. If God has put up with my disaster that I call a life, and still has a heart to love me in spite of me, wouldn’t it be at least the slightest bit possible that he might knock that last verse down to help me out? “Give to the one who asks you…” is what it says. And as I mention time after time in my blog, generally to remind myself, is that if God is willing to give to me, and I am supposed to imitate God, then I would most definitely have to have a heart to give to others.

• Forgive as you want to be forgiven.


• Love as you want to be loved.


• Give as you want to be given to.

Maybe this makes sense, maybe it doesn’t. It makes sense to me. The real kicker is to accomplish these things without expecting anything in return. It’s like the stock market, you don’t know if the rewards are going to come back or not. You can put money in a broken piggy bank and later there’s not even money on the floor. The real heart is the effort. No one knows for sure if the pink pig is going to break, but someone has to invest in it, nurture it, believing in it, and if things work out, it works out. But you won’t know unless you try, as the saying goes.

Matthew 6:1-4
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

This giving is a benevolence, which is a giving to the poor and needy. It’s a different Greek word, eleēmosunē, meaning charity, pity, and mercy toward those in need. And even though it is a completely different word in Greek, it is the same in English. A part of me wants to combine the definitions in this case. It would make sense. The first says to give what is due. The second says that giving to the poor should be done in secret. It makes sense to me to put them together in saying, Give to the poor what is due them in secret. Whether it be money, material items, or food, it would be best to be done anonymously, that is if heavenly wages is the pay dirt one seeks. Johnny Out.

Spiritual Goals for 2006: Update

Goals for 2006: Updated on 12/27/06

Baptize Someone: didn’t accomplish.
Memorize 12 Scriptures: done.
Get 12 Visitors to Church: nine for the year.
Get out of Debt: Actually, somehow I fell into more.
Be consistent with CR: Didn’t happen this year. I have ideas, though.
A True Tithe: No longer at 10% but what we are giving is a sacrifice.
Consistent Family Devotionals: Could be better. This year was better than last.

Other Goals:

Look/Consider House: Not happening in the foreseeable future.
Lessen Jenny’s Hours at Job with a Smaller Budget: Jenny is now on salary, big pay raise, and working less hours… BIG-BIG BLESSING!

Frankly, Scarlet, I Give a Gift

December 26th, 2006

Frankly, Scarlet, I Give a Gift.

Genesis 32:1-21
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”

Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

*Interesting*

Genesis 43:1-14
Now the famine was still severe in the land. So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, 'You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”

Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”

They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”

Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”

Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift… a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

***Interesting still***

Esau didn’t forgive Jacob, which means ‘deceiver’. His name changes to Israel, which means ‘struggles with God’. But the wrongful party or group sends gifts to make amends. It works for Israel in both circumstances.