Day 21 (2011)
0:00 - Opening prayer - praying for students
5:20 - Communing in the truck
6:20 - The mind never really gets turned off. It's always somewhere. So you probably ought to put it somewhere.
➡ 7:10 - We didn't make it to 1 Cor. 13 yesterday.
8:00 - Becoming love.
➡ 8:15 - YESTERDAY - I went into a topic that I have a lot of passion about and I usually don’t go into that right out of the gate (the perversion of God’s gift of sexual union between husband and wife). We’re trying to open up to start talking about love and becoming love and what really is love versus needy emotion and filling gaps and trying to stuff things (fill holes) that aren’t there in your life and that’s what we’ve done.
Encouragement to Commune
9:15 - Ephesians 3:19 - And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. -
Paul's highest desire for us is to experience the love of Christ - ...to know the love of Christ is to be filled with all the fullness of God… And before that Paul writes … that we would know God’s love which passes knowledge.
9:30 - Get to know God in the secret place - Take time. Get quiet. Shut everything down. Turn everything off. Fix your heart and mind on the Lord. This is very, very important. That’s the place where you begin to know Him. That’s what takes you past knowledge. You can study all day, but if you don’t… It’s like my neighbor...
10:00 - There is a difference between knowing ABOUT God and knowing God - Knowing ABOUT Dan’s neighbor - Anne. She thought Dan was moving. I could know all ABOUT her and not KNOW her. I can know all about her, but until I make contact, I can’t get to know her.
12:30 - We’ve got to take that step into getting to know God. Your Bible knowledge isn’t your relationship with God. Your Bible knowledge should introduce you to that relationship. There is a place to chill and get alone...
13:00 - Walk in the woods - no cell phone - walking and talking with Jesus - old message on phone machine - different reactions.
17:00 - Communing - when nobody is around. It’s one of two things then. You are either out of your mind and wasting your time or God’s real. It’s one of the two. (It can't be because you are trying to show off for someone else.)
17:50 - Use scripture to commune with God - Meditate in the word - 1 Corinthians 13 - The Bible definition of love between verses 4 and 8. I like to commune those verses. Communing through passages that talk about perilous times... It keeps my heart in a real free and clear place. I separate myself from all those things mentioned. I'm not introspecting - seeing what's wrong with me. I separate myself from those things - for instance envy...
19:10 - Envy - Father, I thank You that You have freed me from envy. I don't have to compare to any man. I don't have to measure up to people or keep up with people. I don't have to come out in front. I just need to know You and become more like You. Thank You for what You are doing in the body of Christ. Thanks for all the gifting - all the ministries. Thank You God that You have stripped my life of envy and jealousy. Thanks God that You have made me like You...
19:40 - I’ll read passages of scripture that are the opposite of what we are pursuing. It’s a good contact point of faith to separate away from that stuff in prayer.
20:00 - Use scriptures about what the end times will be like - Perilous times - Communing - now what? - feeling bottled up in expression. These little suggestions I am giving you will help you open that expression up. Meditating in the word - through passages about the last time - perilous times - where men have the appearance of godliness but deny the power thereof. He’s not talking about the power to raise the dead. He’s talking about godliness - a pure heart, character, integrity - living from God’s heart - expressing His nature - being like Him from the core of your being - yielded and surrendered - not believing that your heart is always wicked.
21:00 - You can have a pure heart - God can transform you. You can have a pure heart or the Bible wouldn’t talk about it. Not always thinking that we have a problem. Hopefully we've taken a big leap beyond that.
➡ TODAY: This is a refresher thing here as we get into love. We can’t keep thinking about ourselves, “How could God love me.” We’ve got to see ourselves with the potential of Christ in us.
Conviction & Willful Sin
21:20 - Conviction is a good thing - Be a good steward of your heart - Things that are contrary to truth - address them. Don’t let them muddy you up - violate your conscience - and cause you to not be able to look up to God with an unveiled face. When you become aware of problems in your life, settle them right away. Light exposes a thing to get it out of your life. As soon as you realize that something was not of God - realizing is a good thing, get it right immediately. Don't go, “Oh, I’m not growing. I sure am not getting it. Not much hope for me.” Address conviction immediately...
23:15 - Address what light exposes - Father, thank You for the light in my life. Thank You that You have put truth in me and truth is coming to my rescue. God, without you, that would be the same old, same old "way that seems right to man." I would never blink an eye. If You weren't working in me, if You weren't cultivating my heart, I would never see what I just saw. It would just be the same old thing. And God, You are transforming me...
23:50 - You pray like that after you just stepped out of bounds? Of course, because I'm not trying mess up... I didn't see the line and go, "whatever"... That's a whole different picture. Then you've got to get a grip on your heart.
24:00 - Stay away from willful sin - How do you recover from that? - When you see the “line” and just go “whatever.” Where do you find a place of repentance? - when you wanted to cross it? How do you say you are sorry and really be sorry in God? That is a tough place - where God has to give you the heart to repent. “Man I did that willingly, but it sure was silly. And if I get a chance to do it again, I’ll make sure that does not happen again.” That has to work into your heart.
24:50 - Scenario: “Oh well, we’ll just repent later” - There’s no place for repentance. You are glad you did what you did. You wanted to. You pushed God aside and found a way to soft pedal truth so you could do what you want to do and cover it with spiritual language that is not spiritual at all. How do you turn around and say, “I’m sorry” when you talk to the Lord? How do you do that willingly, knowingly and turn around a half hour later and sincerely have godly sorrow in your heart? - when you were actually glad you did that? You put God aside for a moment. That's a different situation. That does a lot of harm to your soul, your conscience and your heart towards God.
25:50 - In Timothy it talks about God granting repentance. Captured in a snare. You've got yourself in a tough place. Where do you go from there?
26:20 - Willful sin - God, would You touch my heart? Would you put a reverence in me for You and Your word? Would You raise the standard of holiness higher in my understanding. God, I've crossed this line over and over. And I feel like I have gotten myself into wanton place - spiritually nonchalant - almost like apathy. God, I am asking You to come and father me. Consume me with Your grace...
27:15 - Searing your conscience - If you don't talk to God about it, if you keep crossing that line you're going to sear your conscience - harden your heart - you might lose your reverence for God
27:30 - Thank God for conviction - Thank God for light in your life. Because we are pursuing something. We settled something. We're not Christians just to have a better day. We are being transformed.
Love - The Motive of Our Lives
28:00 - 1 Corinthians 13 - v.1 - Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. -
Our goal is love - even above supernatural gifts - Everything flows out of love - In the church today we put a lot of emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues - important. ➡ We will have a day where we talk about the difference between your born again experience and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
28:50 - So being baptized in the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues is not the end. Love is the motivation of our life.
29:30 - Some people care a lot and try too hard. Other people don’t care enough. It’s a grace thing. All you need is the “want to.” Get alone and “want to.”
30:00 - v.2 - And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. - extreme - People that fit this description are Christian icons - Like Jesus Himself to us. That would be the keynote speaker at the world conference. The Bible is taking us deeper here. All mysteries, knowledge, faith, mountains - but that’s not our goal. Our goal is love - becoming love. Everything flows from love. It’s the foundation of our life.
32:00 - When you put the word “supernatural” in the title of your school it would be easy for people to go to that school for one reason - to learn how to move in the supernatural, power. The Bible is not encouraging that here.
To Be Formed in Love - First, Be with Him
32:30 - Mark 3 - v.13 - And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.
He calls you to be with Him first and foremost - To form you in love - He called those to Himself that He wanted… Have you felt the call of God on your heart? It is the only reason you are sitting here. Nobody seeks God on their own. He motivates your heart to seek Him. He got your attention by grace and love. He drew you. Some of us resisted for a while but that cord of love didn’t break. His love never fails.
34:20 - He wants you - If conviction came to your life, if your heart got directed toward God, it means He wants you.
35:00 - v.14 - And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, - Appointed the twelve - These are the same disciples in Matt 28 He commissioned to …teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. So they are to reproduce what is imparted to them.
35:20 - that they might be WITH Him - What are they appointed to first? That they might be WITH Him. They are not appointed to do miracles, they are appointed that they might be with Him. And that He might - from that place of being with Him - send them out to preach - and to have power - and to heal sickness. So God’s desire was to get these men to Himself, impart Himself into them, reproduce Himself into them that they might be with Him and from that place empower them to go. So everything flows out of relationship, if it is healthy...
36:10 - Don't seek your affirmation through ministry - Be affirmed in Christ and then minister - ...Or you can get on a power kick. You can get on a tangent. The most dangerous thing you can do is go out there and try to be used by God to prove that you are in God - to feel better about yourself spiritually. Like an addiction. You constantly need God to move, to be affirmed. And if you don’t feel like God has moved, you feel cut off - “What’s wrong?” You strive in ministry to affirm yourself. Minister, affirm, minister, affirm. It’s backwards. No, affirmed in relationship then ministry to others. Ministry flows out of your affirmation in God.
37:20 - It's not just about the power - Be formed in Christ - We need to be reminded of this because some people just want the power. I’ve seen people used powerfully in giftings and yet they are not yet formed in Christ. Why would He do that? Because God loves people and He will work through people to reach other people.
Love - The Motive of Our Lives - Carry Your Cross
38:10 - 1 Cor 13 - v.2 - And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. -
Gifts apart from love are nothing - Stay pure in your heart - Love is the pure motive - Christian icons - All mysteries, knowledge, faith, mountains - that sounds like a finished work. Sounds like that person has arrived. Yet without love, I am nothing. Paradox of walking in gifting without love - With that level of gifting and without love, it would be all about you. You'll get proud in your heart. You'll minister to be seen by men. How would you steward that level of gifting and still stay clear and pure in your heart? How would you stay humble? Love is the purest motivation. Love is going to protect our lives.
39:05 - The goal of our instruction is love. We’re Christians to become love. That's why we're Christians.
39:35 - Gospel recap - We are restored to love - Carry your cross - Adam was made to be love, but becomes selfish. Christ comes and models love. (Through His sacrifice) we get redeemed, lifted back up to love - free from selfishness - deny yourself - pick up your cross because you have become love - and walk through the injustices of life - walk through every circumstance and trial. That’s what “carrying your cross” means. Go through everything you don’t deserve - everything that life brings - and don’t let it phase you because you love.
40:15 - Was Jesus done wrong? Yes. Did anything change who He was? Did He still get on that cross? He says, “Now you carry your cross.” You don't have to hang on a cross and die. That's what He did to qualify you. But you carry your cross. So you are following Jesus by carrying your cross. That's why you hear me preach...
40:40 - Love means never being offended again - Never be offended again. How can you be offended if love becomes your reality? It’s never about you again. It’s about carrying your cross to the finish line. It’s about walking through life manifesting love. It doesn’t matter if people are wrong. Because your motivation is love. Our mindsets have to change.
41:45 - Injustice could not stop Jesus' love - Nor His healing - Jesus constantly was wronged by people. But people were constantly being healed. Yet they killed Him on a cross. He didn’t entrust Himself to men because He knew what was in all men - John 2:24. Constantly accusing Him. Constantly backbiting, gossiping. Did it stop His ability to heal the sick? Why? Because of love. So where did healing flow from in Jesus’ life? Love in the face of injustice. The injustice couldn’t stop the love - and the healings still flowed. If we could just keep growing in love, that’s where the power of God is found.
Practical Expressions of Love - Help Someone
43:30 - v.3 - And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. -
Real love is expressed through actually helping someone - But just helping with no love is a zero - That’s a godly principle - remember the poor. Feed the hungry and give them a coat. The true expression of love is that you help them, not that you seem to care. And yet here, you can fulfill a godly principle but have no love and have it be a zero.
45:40 - What do you do about people coming to you over and over again for the same thing?
Don't be afraid of being "used" / "scammed" - Be open to love anyway - Mercy. We need to give expression to the extreme good of God. We get concerned about people using us - they are moochers, scammers - they’ve learned how to play the system. They know what to say. They have ulterior motives. But there is a principle of the goodness of God that leads men to repentance that we better put our faith in and not just talk ourselves out of goodness and kindness. There is a place where even the heart that is a scammer can’t help but see the love of God.
47:25 - Every situation is different - Let Holy Spirit lead you - There’s no textbook. No, it's living by the Spirit. We must discern the Spirit’s leading. Every situation is different. And God knows people. We need to grow in discernment and practical wisdom.
48:10 - Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Give a man way to fish and he will eat for life. I incorporate that into my ministering to people. Sometimes people just get overwhelmed - depressed - discouraged. Some seek sympathy. Programs to get people back on their feet. Some of this is not a quick answer. Some of it is really laying down your life for people...
49:55 - Crack addicts living with Dan. Be careful that love doesn’t get lost - that their value is not undermined by their actions. I don’t have rules - I live by the Spirit. Gave them the keys to the Jeep - believe the best in them - give them the chance to do right. Nothing’s mine anyway. Not a textbook thing, it’s a discernment thing. Be back at five. You’re not crack addicts.
101:40 - Curse word substitutes
103:25 - Do you hear how this affected this person? Profuse act of mercy but you can’t make it a strategy. It’s discernment. God knows what they need. The key is staying in connection with God.
104:00 - If you are getting worn out, start letting God love through you - We fall into Christian obligation instead of love. And that’s why we’re burned out by people and taxed, tired, frustrated because Christian obligation is overwhelming us. And love never fails. We don’t stay close to God in the scenario, but we are just trying to do right.
104:30 - How can I help them the most? - Father, You love them. How can I help them the most? What is the greatest expression of Christian love right now, that would, not enable them, but empower them?
104:40 - Avoid "enabling" - Listen to Holy Spirit - You can just feed a dependency. As a general rule, I don’t just give people money. I don’t want to put that temptation in their hands. But there are times when the Lord will say to give them money - against all that I feel is wisdom - but God knows.
106:00 - Guy sleeping in my car - taken all the change - passed out - You are in the right truck because it’s the truck of someone who sees you for your value not what you are caught up in - Teen Challenge.
110:00 - Is that enablement? No - act of mercy. That's the goodness of God that can lead men to change. A cynical person might say, "Well, he didn't get saved." Sowing seed. Be the greatest seed sowers in life.
111:00 - Student testimony - beautiful value unlocked by an act of mercy.
118:45 - Acts of mercy can bring out the best - The goodness of God leads men to repentance - A profuse act of mercy when someone thinks they have no value. Then it starts bringing the best out. The goodness of God leads men to change their mind. Mercy triumphs over judgement. Overcome evil with good. Tone down a harsh word with a word fitly spoken.
119:50 - BREAK
120:15 - With regard to the question - We are growing in the Spirit - growing in discernment. And please don’t do anything out of Christian obligation. Do good deeds out of Christian love. Ask God what your part in it is and for wisdom and love. It’s a learning experience. A lot of it may feel uncomfortable because it will demand faith.
Imperfect but Pure? God Can Work with That
121:00 - Will God cover us when we step out in faith but miss His will?
God can do amazing things if your heart is sincere, honest, faith filled - Even if you make mistakes - Here is what God really honors and covers - sincerity - purity - honesty - faith. You can mean well and still be making a big mistake and I have watched God totally cover that in an amazing way. You might not always do the right thing. But if your heart is sincere it is amazing what God can work with.
122:15 - Much of the stuff we do in the church is wrong and yet still God works with what is not totally Him sometimes. We are religious. And yet He still shows up and touches people and changes lives - covering things with grace. If it is pure, God can work with that.
123:00 - Don’t let satan take advantage of your pure heart. They fall into a guilt trip or condemnation. People with a pure heart don’t want to ever do anything wrong. They struggle with condemnation the most - always nitpicking and introspecting their lives.
123:40 - Avoid mistakes by using discernment - asking God questions, asking for wisdom and letting your love be pure.
Love - The Motive of Our Lives (cont.)
123:50 - v.3 - And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. -
Noble deeds done from a selfish motive are a zero - That’s a spiritual principle yet if not done in love it’s a zero. Why? Because your giving is somehow motivated by something else - selfishness - to make a name for yourself - not for their sake or the sake of His glory. Even though it looks noble to men, it’s on the surface and what you can draw from it. Motive might also be Christian obligation - I’m just supposed to do it. But at least you are obeying and not coveting your own life. And that part can lead you to love.
Don't run out of gas - Be filled with and live from His love - Go beyond Christian obligation - that’s where you run out of gas. I'm not out of gas - I’ve made myself totally available to people. If I didn’t have love, I would be a wreck. Phone calls. I make myself available to people.
1:27:55 - One person filling up my answering machine. Sometimes people are in trouble.
Technology
128:30 - Technology that could be a blessing is often a detriment - Turn it off and seek His face - Website, Email, social technology, facebook - all about me. Turn off all of that and seek His face. I’m not against this stuff but I’m concerned that we don’t have the self control, wisdom, temperance to utilize technology that is such a blessing. We make it a detriment. People look at my calendar and don’t consider what happens in my life. I don’t mind when people call. I mind when I hear need in people’s voices and I can’t get back to everyone. Then people say, “Wow, even Dan’s not calling me back. He’s always called me back before.”
132:50 - Find a healthy balance - Stay productive - You have to be careful that you are accomplishing something, sowing seeds and not just passing time. I don’t know when I would ever be able to be on a computer. My life is occupied loving people. Find healthy balance. Neck ministries website gets message out around the world. Don’t let it allow you to feel wanted, needed, important and busy without being productive.
135:30 - Texting - Look at the quality of what you are writing / texting. If we are growing in love and in relationship, we’ve got to make sure that we are not doing things that are counterproductive. And not taking an honest look at what we are doing. There is a way that seems right. I'm not against technology.
137:00 - The effect of YouTube - people are changed - church attendance - the blessing is immeasurable.
Counseling Advice
137:35 - How and why to counsel those in denial - Look at the fruit - Address them in love - How do reach the person who appears to have it all together despite underlying problems? Lead them in the way they should go. Give them time to bear fruit - live out truth. Your life lived is who you are, not your words spoken. When bad fruit becomes apparent, call them and make sure no one else is around, so they are not threatened. Call them on the fruit or their defensiveness. The fruit is saying what the tree is. Address it from love not just because they are wrong. Love them. Don’t be frustrated with them. Make sure your need to address them is your compassion for the person and what they are doing to themselves and others by living in that state of denial. Make sure your motive is crytal clear - love. A lot of times there is not a lot you can do until something becomes flagrantly obvious.
142:50 - Wrong motive - We want people to know that we know what the Bible says. There is a pride in that. We form oppinions or views that may negatively influence... Then I see you for less than you are or something you're not. Get those ironed out.
144:00 - Get issues resolved - Unresolved assumptions about what a spouse is saying. It looks that way to you because of a lack of communication. Jesus’ teaching - don’t bring your gift to the altar if you have unresolved issues with your brother. Go, set that straight first, and then bring your gift. What is He saying? Don’t get religious and just go through the motions and miss the heart of God.
146:00 - What if they won’t talk to you? If I am trying resolve something with someone and they won’t even talk to me - and they say they are a Christian - I’ll hold them to that. <Example - stingers in letters>
147:30 - Counseling those who just want to be right - I though we died to ourselves - A lot of times people will bring you in to find out who is RIGHT. And I could care less who is right. Being right doesn’t make it right. If your need to be right is so important, you are probably going to end up being wrong in many things. “I thought we were born again. And I thought we died to ourselves and picked up our cross and followed Jesus. So maybe we have more going on than what we can’t agree on. Maybe we are not even surrendered. I can’t even mediate because our hearts are not even for God. Do we want truth or do we just want to be right? I’ve got to know, because if you just want to be right, you’ve got the wrong mediator.”
148:40 - It only takes one to hold a family together - Someone needs to become love - It can be just finger pointing. Then you just need the redemption of your minds and hearts and motives. Somebody needs to become love. Just one of you. It only takes one person in a family who understands unconditional love to hold that thing together in Christ. Example of Jesus’ unconditional love - He was just One. Man couldn’t change Him but if you hang around long enough He is going to change you.
150:00 - We often put the pressure of affirming your identity on the one you say you love. It’s control, mandating. If they break covenant, do you have permission to fall apart and break things and be broken? Or are you still in Christ and Christ in you? Does love change?
150:45 - We have no right to be shattered even if we have been wronged - No permission to be less than Him - We make it normal for a spouse to be caught in adultery and for us to be shattered. I understand that feelings rush you. But you can’t lock into them as truth and “victimize” yourself. “How could you do this to me?” Why don’t we think, “How could you do this to yourself? What were you thinking? You are so much more than this.” Not suggesting it’s a fun thing. But why do we fall apart? Why make them the problem and us the victim? Then the church sympathizes with the victim. The spouse is in deep trouble. [Example]
152:40 - Spiritual adultery - How many times have we broken covenant? - How many times have we had other spiritual lovers in our lives. How many times have we broken covenant with God? How many times have we professed covenant with God and then broken covenant with God? (Lots. But God is not a basket case.)
153:20 - We’ve got to change the way we think. Natural reaction - “I can’t believe you did that to ME.” Everybody understands that reaction. And although God understands that reaction, I don’t think that is His reaction.
154:15 - Love is not conditional - Don't cry because of your spouse - Cry for your spouse - Crying for the spouse. Where is the “I love you,” instead of “You betrayed me.” Our love is conditional. I only love you as you love me. Where is the love? If God reacted like we do, He is a broken, battered God. He’s been cheated on so many times. “You’ll just be loving someone else tomorrow.”
155:00 - Gohmer - He tells Hosea, the prophet, the one who represents God in that day, to marry Gomer - a prostitute - using her womanhood to survive. “Go get her. Bring her back.” What is the message to Israel? “No matter your many lovers, you’ll never make me stop loving you.”
156:20 - So why is it so easy for us to be broken instead of being broken FOR the one you say, “I love you” to?
Perspective on Betrayal - Last Supper
156:35 - Jesus didn't freak out because of betrayal - If that attitude is not in Jesus, don't have it in you - If I can’t find my attitude in the heart of God, then I don’t want it in my heart. How much do we really want to become love? We’ve been taught the way that seems right but you can’t find it in Jesus’ life.
157:00 - Last Supper - Does Jesus know that Judas will betray Him? Yes. Has He poured into Judas? Yes. Did He choose Judas? Yes. So has He laid down His life in a sense for Judas? Yes.
157:50 - Betrayal and the mentality to be broken. Can you picture Jesus in that? No. Why are we like that?
158:40 - Last Supper (cont.) - Jesus did not freak out because of betrayal. Can you picture Jesus freaking out at Judas’ betrayal or Peter’s denial? Then why do we freak out? Could you hear Jesus say that? Then why would you ever talk like that? You were made in His image. And He is the truth. And He came to get us back to truth.
201:20 - Jesus came to rid us of self-centered mentailities - From the time man sinned until the time Jesus came everything was a lie - every feeling, emotion, language we embraced. It’s because man, through sin, inherited himSELF. Through creation man inherited God. But through sin he inherited himself. But man was never made for himself. He was made for God. That’s why Jesus said deny yourSELF. So all of these mentalities come out of self.
Brokenness & Hurt
202:20 - Christian psychology accommodates your brokeness - You have no permission slip to be broken - Christian psychology tells us the way we are and who we are and why without ever telling us that that's not who we are. It accommodates, it understands why you are broken by adultery. It allows you to be there and tries to fix you from that point rather than to take away your permission to be broken.
202:40 - You have no permission to be hurt - Hurt comes from your perspective - Is it wrong to hurt? I don’t want any permission to be hurt. Not trying to be a robot. Not trying to just dull feelings - to not have feelings. Hurt comes from perspective. If my love is perfected, I’m not hurt. Love takes no account of a suffered wrong. I’m intense on this because we embrace mentalities that the world taught us. And we comfort one another with them because we all have our own hurts and issues. So when somebody does something wrong we all run to sympathize with with the one who is “victimized”.
203:40 - Christian psychologist asked, “Where does "victimization" come into play?” Why would you ever counsel that someone is a victim? Was Jesus a victim?
204:00 - You can't emotionally abuse me - I know who I am and I love you - If I know who I am and my motive is right (love), how can you possibly emotionally abuse me? Why are there so many Christians that are emotionally abused. Why is it so understood and accepted as normal? It's because we still fix on what's wrong and what's right, etc. apart from truth.
204:30 - How can you emotionally abuse me? It’s impossible. (I love you.) That’s what freedom is. If I can be emotionally abused, I can say that I am free all day and still be bound to you. If I need you to say the right thing to me to be ok, then I have bound myself to you. You are Lord to me. What am I free from?
205:30 - Jesus has called me out of all that darkness and into the kingdom where love reigns - where love is your motivation - where selflessness rules. Selfishness doesn't exist there. Or God would be a mess because we have broken His heart.
206:10 - [Jesus at the last supper] He knows they will scatter. But He's not a basket case.
207:00 - Change your perspective - Place no expectations on people - There is no comfort until your belief system changes. How do you find comfort until your perspective changes? Until you change your perspective so that you have no expectations on people, you are going to continue to be disappointed and hurt.
208:15 - Expectations on spouses - sometimes there are more expectation is a Christian marriage. Listening to the sermon for your spouse - to see how they should be better for you.
209:00 - Get alone with God and let Him bring the change - It's just a question of whether we really want change - How much do we really want this? I think it's easy to be had actually. It's you getting real in your heart and saying to God, I don’t want what I have been taught by the world. I want Your way. Get alone with God, submit and get real and know that He is THE WAY. Thank Him for making you love - for pushing away everything that we’ve been taught and burying it with the old man.
210:00 - You’re hurt justifies your flesh - living in the flesh - If you start letting yourself be hurt, your hurt will justify your flesh (feeling, thinking, behaving less than Jesus - less than love). You start having compassion on yourself. You start feeling sorry for yourself. Then you give yourself justification to do things that you would never do if your eyes were clear.
210:20 - “You don’t have any idea what I have been through.” Hear the deception? So now what you have been through is your permission slip to be less than Christ. Which means that you are going to be dictated by life - for the rest of your life - until your perspective changes. You can hang out in church as much as you want but life (the circumstances of life, the opinions of people) is going to rule you until your perspective changes.
211:20 - If I say, “I love you,” it is time to love you. We ought to do that in our relationships especially our marriages.
212:00 - Love vs. need - When it's really time to love, we find that our love is a surface understanding that means, “I need you” - I expect from you - I’m glad you are there for me. And when you are not, I’m shattered and I’m not complete. Insecurity. Weakness. Spiritual manipulation.
Become Love
213:00 - 1 Cor. 13 - v.4 - Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, - patient - When is he going to change? Our prayer is a strategy to get what we need. We put it on a time table. It’s really all about us.
214:00 - Husband’s desperate to get their wives back. “I really need them.” [Counseling] You say you love her but...
215:45 - v.5 - Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; -
Love doesn’t seek own - That’s a big one. Love is not selfish and selfishness is not love. You can’t have one mixed with the other. It’s one or the other. We want to grow into that.
216:40 - v.6 - Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; -
216:50 - v.7 - Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. -
It is possible to love this way - Does God call us to love? Is it possible to live this way? What is the key to it? Not seeking your own. If you are seeking your own you can’t do what this verse says. You are not going to believe the best. You’re going to wonder what might go wrong and how it might affect you.
218:00 - Give yourself up to Him - Die so that you can live - The Christian life is giving yourself up, not bringing Jesus into your heart. Give Him your life you were never meant to live on your own. Die, so you can live. And it’s not roll over and play dead.
219:30 - Granddaughter messing with Grandpa - cats - sister’s cat - praying for cat.
226:30 - Communing - substitute my name in verses 4-7. Put “God” in everywhere it says “love”. Put your own name in.
226:45 - Wife substitutes Dan’s name into Genesis account, everywhere it said light.
227:40 - Communing - 1 Cor 13 - meditating in the word
228:10 - Not everyone wants to become love - To be honest not everyone wants to become love - to give up the lines (requirements you set up). Giving up the lines is up to you. “Enough is enough. That's too far.” Doesn’t sound like Jesus.
229:20 - v.13 - And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. - Greatest of these is love.
1 Cor. 12:31 - But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. - Earnestly desire the best gifts. But still, I will show you a more excellent way. He talks all about the gifts in chapter 12 and it is good to desire these gifts but let me show you a more excellent way - a more excellent way than you just desiring the gifts. Become love because all the gifts will flow through love. God can entrust Himself with His own heart. Then He goes into this great big thing on love. 1 Cor. 14:1 So pursue love. Desire spiritual gifts. What is first? - love, then through love spiritual gifts flow.
230:30 - Sacrament of communion - if I am holding back in anything show me that - keep taking me deeper in you.