2007/05/11by Jon Walker
All of you should be of one mind, full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. (1 Peter 3:8 NLT)
God enables us to love the fear out of one another.
We drive fear from our families and friends by loving one another so supportively that every one feels safe inside the group (1 John 4:18). This safety allows us to bring our humanity into the open, including all our pain and joy, our ups and downs, our victories and defeats.
It means you give to others the same uncommon safety Christ gives you – to be real, to be sad, to be messed up and confused, yet to be loved.
God challenges us to create a Christ-community where we love like our lives depend upon it (1 Peter 1:22) and where we can each “live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
We’re to weep as one and celebrate as one, caring for each other equally (1 Corinthians 12:25-26) as we comfort and confront, warm and warn, cherish and challenge within an atmosphere of supportive safety.
Loving the fear out of each other requires that we develop:
Tender hearts – We give support to each other because God gives us support, and we’re to encourage others with the encouragement we receive from him. (2 Corinthians 1:4)
In the New Testament, the word ‘support’ can literally mean “to increase one another’s potential.” (Romans 14:19 NJB) We strengthen one another by extending love, instead of fostering fear, and we do that by offering relationships that are safe and sympathetic.
Humble minds –True humility focuses on the worth of others. We understand our value in Christ, and we understand that God shapes each of us for a unique purpose.
Godly eyes – Loving the fear out of our family and friends – in fact, loving the fear out of the world – means we see others for what they can be, not for what they appear to be now. Jesus called Peter a rock when the fisherman was still acting on impulse (Matt. 16:18), and God called Gideon a mighty man of courage when he was hiding from the enemy among piles of grain. (Judges 6:11-12) God calls us to encourage and affirm each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11), seeing those around us in terms of their purpose and mission in life.
So what?
God enables us to love the fear out of one another. You can love the fear out of others, and you can allow the fear to be loved out of you.
We exhibit tender hearts when we say to one another:
It’s OK to have a bad day.·
It’s OK to be tired.·
It’s OK to admit your mistakes.·
It’s OK to say your marriage is failing.·
It’s OK to confess your addiction.· It’s OK to share you’re scared.·
It’s OK to want a day away from your toddler.·
It’s OK to grieve this loss.·
It’s OK to doubt, to be confused, to cry.
We exhibit humble minds when we say to one another:
It’s OK to be happy you got a new car.
It’s OK to celebrate that you got a huge raise.
It’s OK to joyfully tell us you lost 17 pounds.
It’s OK to say you won the sales competition.
It’s OK to shout “Hallelujah!” because God’s presence in your life is so good.
It’s OK to tell us these things because we will be as happy for you as if these blessings had come to us, and we will join you in hearty celebration.
© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.
Jon Walker is a pastor-advocate living in Southern California and the former pastor of communications at Saddleback Church.
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Ahh Spam! Is it fried? Baked with jelly on top? Or is it that annoying stuff that clogs your email no matter how many times you block?What a great name for email adverts. Nobody really knows what or where the original Spam comes from and it is kinda hard to know where this email stuff comes from as well.
Don't get me wrong, I like spam. Fried and dipped in mustard. Baked with grape jelly on top... Hey, don't knock it till you have tried it. I also like chocolate cake and a glass of buttermilk with salt in it. Oops, I probably scared all my readers away with that one.
But this email spam is pretty annoying.
I only wish I could get that money from Abu Mbinki the poor widower who could be rich If I could just give him my banking info. Man if I could only collect half of the laptops and Ipods I'm offered I could open my own electronics store. How about opening a pharmacy? Dude, what about the stock tips? Busting the Dow wide open, man what a dream! Free theme park tickets, Motorola Razrs. Wow, spam offers so many incredible opportunities! I'm not even going into the dating ones or the natural male.... Ahh never mind.
I think I'll just stick with the one in the can.
Larry
P.S. I am working on my thinking blogger awards.
am like grandpa's mule who needed a two by four to get him moving. The call is there but I will not pick up the phone. I will not listen to the messages either because I don't want to hear them. So they pile up.
I haven't posted for a while. I am sorry if any of you have worried. It has been a difficult time for me both at home and work.
After the first of the year my family went through a trauma of sorts. Some extreme personal differences erupted between my parents and I. The end result being, I left the family business. All of this happened while I was still recovering from the effects of coming off of my pain medication.
Since then I have been struggling with major depression and anxiety. Trying to build a new business and maintain my recovery. Needless to say it has been tough.
My doc put me on Prozac which enabled me to get up off of the floor. I still struggled with doing something, anything productive. Each day was a battle. I couldn't focus on anything. Prayer, recovery, work, family, whatever. A friend told me that if you are taking antidepressants and you are still depressed you are probably bi-polar. "Yeah dude what-ever" I said. "Denial!" I had seen so many in recovery diagnosed with bi-polar I didn't want anything to do with it. Lithium? No way not me!
I blew it off for a week or so and then I started getting desperate. I looked up the symptoms and went, oh. I set an appointment for my psychiatrist. He put me on lamictal. I am building up the dosage right now, but I feel normal again. He hasn't officially diagnosed me, however if it looks like a duck it probably is.
The icing on the cake is that I can focus again. That is the real miracle. I feel connected with God, my program, and my family. I finished reprocessing my "traumas" with a new fourth step today and feel better than I have in weeks.
So, I hope to be back more consistantly and to not be so freaking serious about everything.
Aloha
Larry
no
e, when I was a kid I was always going. I was always in shape, so I decided I would follow her around and do what ever she did. If nothing else she'd get a kick out of it. Oh my gosh, up the ladders down the slides, round the corners, up the rock wall. I even rode the springy horse thingy (for guys I don't recomend this one, too painful.) I chased her around for thirty minutes and then we had a dirt fight. What a blast, for me and her. 
"When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ' A servant is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to Me, they would listen to you! The people of the world will hate you because you belong to Me, for they don't know God who sent me. They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me hates my Father, too. if I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw all that I did and yet hated both of us - Me and My Father. This has fulfilled the scripture: 'They hated Me without cause.' 
moves forward, is it any wonder the hatred for Christ and therefore christians becomes more virulant? I was completely blown away when I read what the bloggers of John Edward's campaign were posting. I had seriously considered linking to the blog but I was so disgusted by the posts, I decided not to make it too easy for them to get more traffic. 
the evil one. It is now more than ever important to be in prayer for your fellow man.
ompared the earth to the sun in size. The gist was that in comparison the earth is a golf ball compared to the sun. 
he size of the earth like Canis Major (the dogstar). 
hen scientists pointed the Hubble Telescope into the black hole in the center of the milkyway galaxy this was the picture.
No matter how awesome He is. Despite all He has done and will do. He loves us no matter what. He loves us so much that He gave us His Son as Sacrifice for our sins. 
See, wa
The point beloved, is that us humans are not meant to be alone.
At that point it came to me. Satan is considered to be like a stalking, raging lion ready to devour his prey.
Recovery is really like this. We are safer staying plugged into others. I was really impressed by this. Sunday morning I was telling my pastor about this.
So he begins to tell me he has studied lions. Really? He goes on to say that the only real rival to the lion is, the waterbuffalo! Due to it's size, hooves, horns, and thick skin. Kind of like how the Triceratops was natural rival to the T-rex.
Guess who satan's natural rival is? Humans, he wants to destroy us. We have the defense of our Holy Father. We have only to cry out to him in the Name of Jesus.
Cool!
Larry
behaviors and that our lives are unmanageble.
I believe everthing happens for a reason. I believe God has used this time in my life to draw me closer to him. I go to him now with unreserved abandon. There are still lots of things I need to improve on and I pray for guidance everyday.
Finally, the year, the surgery, everything, has come full circle. I have to humbly make amends to all of you. I have been out of it lately, most of you know that. I have had trouble making this public. One, you never know when something like this may bite you on the can ten years from now. Two, I was trying to hang on to a shred of anonymity.
If some of you were paying attention y'all know exactly what was going on. December 26th I had to have medical help to get off the freakin' pain pills I had been on since November of last year. Why you ask? Car wreck in 04 and then surgery in May of 06. I knew in October I was going to need a hand. I tried several times on my own... Wasn't happening. Not a good thing. I needed medical help to detox.
Sunday was my first really good day since December 26th when I took my last pill. My recovery from surgery was not as hard as getting the poison out of my system.
This has been a great experience. Despite the pain withdrawal and the purging I have drawn much closer to God. I am on fire again for my mission, and what He wants me to do.
I feel alive again.
So I want to make amends to those who have worried without explanation.
Forgive me and thank you for your prayers.
Larry
share a recent discovery with you. In October our Celebrate Recovery group went to see Mercy Me in Houston. Audio Adrenaline and a guy named Phil Wickham opened.
