Seek Him with all your Heart

 Jer 29:13

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Every year this day holds special meaning for me. It is the day that I found the Lord to be real to me. It was a turning point in my life that I still hold as the most important day of my life. It was a Thursday evening in a small church in Cucamonga, California. I don’t remember the message that Rev. J.E. Cook preached that revival night. I just remember seeking to find forgiveness and acceptance. 51 years ago, I knelt at an altar of prayer as these strangers gathered around me praying that God would save me from a life lived in sin to a new life in Christ. The journey since that day remains the same. I still seek and search for Him with all my heart. He has never failed me, and is always there when I need Him. It has been a life of seeking, a desire to know the will of God. “Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:33 has been the journey and destination theme of my life. The path to my eternal destination is filled with failures, disappointments, and unwanted circumstances, but through it all He has never been a disappointment or led me astray. As I continue this journey, I pray that the Lord will let me see my kids and grandkids come to Him as I have known Him. He is everything to me and each day, I will seek Him with all my heart, and will be found by Him.

God's Love

 1 Corinth 13:13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Valentine’s Day is a special day when love is expressed to someone special in your life. It is a day to celebrate the commitment to a shared relationship, or desire for one. This is love that is based on human emotions and feelings toward someone. It is an affection that is sought by all human beings, because everyone desires to find this kind of love in life. But such love is not everlasting and is known to turn into hate given the right circumstances. This is not the kind of love that is spoken here in scripture. This charity (love) comes from above and sent from God and is sealed in the hearts of Christians who have totally given their lives to Christ. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.” (John 15:10). The manifestation of this love is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, which makes His home in the heart of the believer. The list of what this looks like is found here in 1 Corinthian 13, but is also demonstrated through the fruits of the Spirit and Christians living out their walk before the world and other believers. We live in a world of sin and living for self. Self is grounded not in love for others, but in self-gratification, desire and preeminence over all others. Let love rule in your heart, to live in the vine, to allow God to be in you and work through you to accomplish His love to the world that others may come to love and serve Him.

Fishers of Men

 Matt 4:19,20
 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

The TV series, The Chosen, on Amazon Prime takes the liberty to fill in a lot of what might have taken place when Jesus encountered Simon-Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The two sets of brothers that would become 4 of the 12 Apostles who were called out of the world to begin a journey that would turn the world upside down. Scripture does not give us a lot of background information about these 4 men when Jesus called them to follow Him. But, we know that they were fishermen and making a living catching fish was not a lucrative career. It paid the bills, but their lives were simple and ordinary. They were ordinary Jews that lived day by day with the cares of life. They lived under Roman rule and were suppressed in spirit. They were governed spiritually by the Pharisees and High Priests, who were more concerned about their reputation than showing love and grace to their people. John the Baptist had already been preaching and paving the way for Jesus. The word was spreading that the Messiah would soon appear and would save the Jews from the bondage and tyranny of the Roman Empire. These fishermen would soon find out that this conquest to set the captive free was not from Roman rule, but from sin that ruled in the hearts of men. Their willingness to drop what they were doing and follow Jesus may not have been done with the right motives, but they knew there was something different about this man called Jesus. The love of God compelled these men to drop their fishing nets, leave the world they knew behind, and become fishers of men. Time will tell that these men would cast their net across Judea and many would be caught for Jesus..   

Interest of Others

 Philip 2:5
 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Another way to say this is, ”not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interest of others.” This is the mind of Christ that He wants to stamp on each one of our lives. The world philosophy is to look out for self, because no one else will. When James says, The wisdom of this world is not from above, but is earthly and full of strife. Looking out for self and self-interest is contrary to the way God wants Christians to live. This applies to individual lives as we interact daily with people around us. We are aware that if we don’t take care of ourselves, we are no good at helping others. This is why, on the airlines, they tell you in an emergency to make sure you put your mask on yourself first before helping children. The interest in self is motivated by being the best we can so that we can effectively help others in need. Our self-interest is to be strong in our faith, be secured in our conviction of God’s word, and be filled with His Spirit. This will allow us to reach out in love and humility to help others who need a helping hand. In our daily lives, this will require that we sacrifice our own desires so that others can be helped. Paul says it this way, ”Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another.” (Roman 12:10). Putting this into practice is done as we open our heart to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to lead us and open the opportunities to put the interest of others first.