Unbolt The Door To Your Heart

Tag: love

  • Are You in a Hurry

    Being in a Hurry isn’t a time problem, It is a spiritual problem.

    Has Satan declared War on you and you are not aware of the battle?

    The World and most people are rushed and in a hurry. Being in a hurry comes in many forms and manifestations.  None of them are a blessing from God.  There are no words in the bible where God blesses believers with a lifestyle of hurriedness. There are numerous words in the bible on slowing down, being still, being in silence, patience and most of all waiting on the Lord.

    When God asks you to be in the world but not of the world, this is one of the areas He thinks is most important.  Therefore, it is an area that Satan feels the need to attack the most.

    Hurry steals the very thing love needs most: time. Rushing creates a barrier that disconnects us from God’s presence and keeps us from being truly present with others. When you are consumed by hurry, it can blind you to the needs of the people God loves.

    Hurry changes how I treat the people that God loves.

    Hurry steals the time we need to show genuine care. When we rush, we lose the ability to be truly present, causing us to treat others—whom God loves deeply—as obstacles, interruptions, or tasks rather than as people.

    Ask yourself how many times you became irritated at the cashier for moving too slowly. The clerk behind the counter at the post office, or any employee at DMV. The person in the car ahead of you that did not move the second the light turned green.  A family member that just seems not to understand. Impatient with any situation that was not going your way and at the speed you wanted it to happen.

    God loves each of these people that you are irritated at, and He never runs out of patience.  We do not know what is happening in that person’s life today. Why do they seem distracted?  Yet God has asked us to show love, compassion, empathy, and long suffering.  The very same things he showed you on your walk with Him. 

    God asks you to have His character when dealing with all people.

    What happens when the pace of life becomes frantic, it fundamentally alters our behavior toward others in several destructive ways:

    Loss of Patience: We snap, speak harshly, or grow frustrated when others do not meet our schedule.

    Reduced Empathy: Because love and compassion require time to sit and listen, hurry prevents us from seeing and sharing in the struggles of those around us.

    Shallow Interactions: We don’t take the time to listen and care with Love. We just say “I will pray for you” and then we hurry up and leave the conversation.

    Self-Centeredness: When we are in a hurry, we view the demands of others as burdens rather than opportunities to serve.

    God does not treat us this way and He reminds us that He said they will know you are my disciples because of your Love.

    The World may teach and tell you that you can multitask, handle it all, run a business, family and many more things.  There is nothing wrong with any of that and all of it may be good.  But not if you mistreat the very people God loves and He came to save.

    God reminds us that it is not about how much we obtain, in wealth, status, standing in the community, size of house, or the car we drive.  God reminds me that everyone is his son or daughter and we need to treat them as such.

    Today, make sure you are living your life with God’s definition of success and not the world’s idea of wealth and success.

    Remember it is not about religion; it is about a relationship.

    Love and Prayers for All.

    Larry

  • Pruning

    Over the course of the last few years God has taught Donna and I the importance of Pruning in the garden.  I struggled with the concept of pinching off a beautiful bud, or completely removing branches, thinning fruit and basically removing growth from a plant.  The bud was going to be a beautiful flower and now we just pinched it off and put it into the compost pile.

    We have learned that pruning encourages new growth because it allows more light to enter the interior of the plant. You want more fruit, more flowers, more vegetables, then you must prune or thin the first buds or shoots.

    We have come to learn that pruning is how we show Love for the plant and the garden. Pruning is an act of Love. 

    “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful”. John 15:1-2 NIV

    God wants more light to enter your heart and the way to do that is through His pruning.

    There are two actions being performed by God in the above verse.  One is total removal of a branch, “Cuts off” and the other is pruning.  He prunes the good branches even though they are producing good fruit for the Glory of Him. The pruning makes the branch even more fruitful.

    One of the greatest stories of pruning is the story of Joseph.  He was a spoiled, very handsome young boy.  Treasured by his father and he knew he was special in the way he treated his brothers. God had plans for Joseph, but Joseph in his present frame of mind and attitude could never become what God wanted him to be. 

    It was 13 years between when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers until he became second in charge of all of Egypt.  That is the position God wanted him in to be able to save his family and to help the nation of Israel grow.

    Joseph produced a lot of good fruit during his time as Potiphar’s assistant, and other positions he held.  But he still needed pruning.  He then was falsely accused of attempted rape and thrown into prison.  God knew what was needed to make Joseph into the man that was needed to represent God to the family and nation. It just took thirteen years of pruning.

    We do not read if Joseph understood that he was being pruned.  Yet, we do not read any verses of him complaining to God.  He went through the pruning in full trust of God even if he did not understand or if he felt he was being unjustly treated.

    Pruning is what makes you a better reflection of God.

    God’s pruning is not related to any form of punishment.  It is the one of the greatest acts of Love that God relishes to do for you.

    The Branch cannot prune itself and the branch never realizes it needs pruning and has no say in how it is going to be pruned.  It thinks it is a great branch that is producing great tasting fruit.  The branch believes it is doing God’s work and doing it well. There is nothing wrong with the fruit that it is producing. But God had bigger and greater plans for the branch.

    The need for pruning in our garden never ends. We never reach a point and say it is all done and finished.

    The greatest love of God is that He is never done pruning the ones He loves. God’s pruning is a loving act of edits and adjustments, not punishment. He cuts away what is dead to make space for your next season of growth. It removes obstacles like pride, control and selfish habits to bring forth more fruitfulness and to let new light inside so that there will be further growth.

    “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!” James 1:2 JB Phillips New Testament

    Stop asking God to bless and walk with you.  Start walking in the garden of life with God and let Him completely transform you into a new and living branch for Him. God Loves You!

    Remember it is not a religion, it is a relationship.

    Prayers and Love for all.

    Larry

  • Good morning.  What a great day to dive a little deeper into God’s word. We are going to start in verse nine of Romans chapter 12. 

    Yesterday, I emailed verses 9-21 of chapter 12 in the book of Romans.  I asked that each of you spend some time with the Holy Spirit reading and then listening to His voice and guidance. I pray and hope that it is the start of a wonderful journey.

    Romans 12:9 is the opening of a list of practical instructions for Christian living. It sets the tone for how believers are to relate to one another and to the world.

    First, I would like for us to revisit verse 2 of this chapter. “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within.” This is the J.B. Phillips translation.  This is a good warning to us, that unless we have allowed and are allowing God, through the Holy Spirit, to transform our minds, these verses 9-21 in Romans will not make much sense to us in our daily living.  

    Verse nine starts with telling you that your words are worthless when it comes to showing Love.  Love must not be an imitation; it must be sincere. The King James version says “Let love be without Dissimulation”.  This word means hiding one’s true feelings, intentions, or beliefs by pretending to be something different, a form of hypocrisy or deceit. It implies a deliberate act of concealing one’s real self and adopting a false appearance.  You are telling someone you “Love” them, but you have no intention of showing that love in an actionable form or fashion.

    You have read that faith without works is dead, well the word Love without any action on your part to actually show “love” is exactly that.

    It is not a witness to others about God if your words are just words and you have no actionable loving attitude toward that person.

    The second part of verse 9 states for us to break from evil and have a real devotion to what is good.   The second part of this verse goes hand in hand with the first part.  There is a lot of evil that we could talk about breaking from. But remember the first part of this verse. The evil spoken about here is the evil of telling someone you love them and then doing nothing to show that love. You are supposed to abhor that form of evil.  You are to embrace the “good” way of living and show love to everyone in an actionable fashion.

    You have heard the saying “speaking with a forked tongue”.  Telling someone that you Love them and then having no outward actions is doing using a forked tongue.

    Remember the greatest commandment is to Love.  Not just in words but in an actionable form.  This can only happen if you go back to verse two and understand the transformation that must happen inside of you.

    Today, Let God in. Open the Door to your mind and heart. He is knocking and just wants to come in to sit, eat and drink with you.

    Let others see God not in your words but in your deeds.

    Love and prayer for all

    Larry

  • Time is Short

    Yesterday I stood in an ICU hospital room with family members around the bed of one of their members that was at the end of His life.  One thing stood out to me the most.  One of the brothers of the person was there.  He had arrived from Pennsylvania that morning.  He was here to see His brother.  The Brother in the bed was unresponsive and on life support machines.  They tried to get him awake but to no avail.  The brother standing there said, out loud, his regrets not being there earlier and speaking with his brother.  He also regretted not coming out for several years and spending time with his brother.  Being able to relive their past with conversation and food. You could see the regret in the tears coming from his eyes. 

    The Lesson is time is short, and things happen quickly.  What ever the problem is, Work, lack of time, or a need to forgive, now is the time to go to your family member and visit.  Not next year.  You may not have another time.  Don’t let time get away from you and you regret not spending time with family.  No matter what has happened or the distance or cost, GO and spend time with them when both can participate in the conversation.

    My Wife’s Mother is 94 and in a living facility.  She can’t get around much and she is hard of hearing.  But nothing is more precious to her and to us to spend a few hours a week just sitting next to each other.  Go, before you are not able to go.

    For none of us are promised tomorrow.  Get on a plane or in a car and go visit.  The distance is shorter than when they have passed away.

    Don’t let anything come between you and friendship.  Go and bring forth the radiance of God to every situation.

    Prayers for all.

    Larry