Miracles

I recently participated in a beautiful church service in a small Brazilian church.  Talking with the pastor before the service I said "Every church is a miracle.  Imagine any other system working for nearly 2000 years that asks every member to give 10% of their income, volunteer their time and give 100% of their daily life to see the system succeed." He quickly agreed because he tithes and leads his church without receiving any pay as he simultaneously leads his own family and over 150 employees in his four restaurants. A church may have 10 people or 10,000 people.  Every church is a miracle.  The church is a miracle because only God could have kept her healed and alive for this long.  A miracle is something only God can do and from what I have seen only God could have kept the church alive.  Men certainly have not kept her alive. People want to see miracles.  We all want living proof that the God of the Bible is still at work today as He was in the past.  Unfortunately we do not see the existence of churches as living proof that God is still active.  How sad! We prefer to see a physical healing or a raise in salary so we can satisfy our need to know God is still active.  We are satisfied with too little!  If we could see every church correctly we would say  "It is a miracle!  2000 years have gone by since Pentecost and the church still exists!  The Body of Christ remains visible and available in the whole world because God is keeping it healed and alive." People flock to churches when word gets out that God is doing miracles in that church.  Who doesn't want to see miracles?  Who doesn't want to have something miraculously resolved in a matter of seconds?  Everyone does. It is sad, however, that we do not see that we ourselves are an ongoing miracle just like the church is an ongoing miracle.  Every disciple in whom Jesus dwells is a miracle 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The next time you are leaving your home to go looking for a miracle, remember that angels leave home to see you!  They still cannot quite believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have made us their home on earth.  Truly, you are a miracle just as surely as the church is a miracle.  You are something only God could have done and continues to do. You can go looking for miracles if you want to, but I am going to continue to see the church and my life in Christ as the main miracles.  These two are the main miracles because they are for every one of us and they are God's very best work for us and in us.  I like miracles that happen for everyone! Bud McCord Abide International

Watch a little update and thank you video:

Updates from Brazil - Abide International

Define! Receive-Rejoice-Release!

DEFINE!
RECEIVE, REJOICE and RELEASE

It is not easy to define love in this world.  One would think love would be easy to define, but any attempt to explain love clearly is tough and often creates arguments.  Why is this?

The word love has become overused and abused at the same time real love is in short visible supply.  The only hope of love being properly defined in any of our lives is to receive love from God and define it  visibly by moment by moment  release of love.

We know we are being loved when over time someone releases the best they are and the best they have to us.  This is why mother's day is so celebrated!

We know we are loving others when we release the best we are and the best we have to someone else.  This is why true friendships are so valuable and so rare.

It is not necessary that every Christ follower should be able to verbally define love but it is necessary that they be a living definition of love.  For this reason every Christ follower should master the art of receiving, rejoicing and releasing or faith, hope and love.

Paul says in I Corinthians 13:13 that there remain three things in human experience.

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Faith is the receiving for ourselves the love that God is releasing to us.  Hope is internal rejoicing because we are aware we are being loved by God.  Love is releasing toward God and others the best we are and the best we have.  This is the spiritual ecosystem God created mankind to enjoy and to be in this world. We exist to receive love, rejoice in love and release love.  The greatest of these is the release of love.

Jesus summed up man's part in this ecosystem with these words found in Matthew 22: 37-39

Jesus said to him,‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Jesus tells us we exist first to release the best we are the best we have to God.  Jesus tells us to release the best we are and the best we have to our neighbor. We know how to release love to others because we always give ourselves the best we are and the best we have.

Verbal definitions for love are hard to create and hard to communicate.  Disciples who know what it is to release love toward God and toward others like Jesus did are the true, daily, defining eloquence we need in the world. Release!

 

Bud McCord

Abide International