Living from the Father's Heart

I have been talking about love and service a lot lately and how receiving the love of Jesus compels us to love and serve people. The connection is clear. If we receive love from God, it impacts everything in our lives. It changes how we view people and how we treat them. As we are made aware of how much Jesus paid for us to be able to receive His love, it motivates us to share that love with others and to grieve when they reject that love. His love is such a great gift and it is given freely to all so we want people to receive what we have. The question that I have been asking then is how does that affect our unity in Christ? I have seen two extremes in this and both of them are problematic. In one extreme, people look for a group that aligns with every possible doctrinal and often times even political position and they choose to fellowship with these people only. They have unity because they are so like minded. The other group says that we have to create unity at all costs and we a...

Some friends in Reynosa. Have you ever thought about your emotions? Why do you feel that way? Why is it that some people just get under my skin so easily? I have been thinking about it a lot. Some people are just easy for me to be around and others are a real challenge. Some people make me feel angry without doing or saying anything. With some people I can't wait to hang out with them and others, I do not want to answer the phone or click on their text when I see who it is. Just hearing the names of some people can make me cringe. These responses all come from somewhere and I have started looking into, and even more, asking God why I respond negatively to some people. Why am I so easily offended and quick to see my temper flare with them. Let me say, I do not think that I ever have a right to be offended by the actions of another. When I came to terms with my offense toward God that put Jesus on the cross, I lost all rights to be offended at people. I have no right to expect...