Author: Allen Forte

Being a father is a special thing.  It is one of the ways others can see the love of God, for God is our Heavenly Father and the Father of all.  He wants us to know that being a father is special.  It is a big deal.

So, He chose to make Himself known not only as our God which can seem difficult to behold.  He also made Himself known as our Father because each of us has or has had an earthly father.  Being a Father makes Him more personal than just being our God.

So, to the fathers and men out there, you hold a special place in the lives of others and in the heart of God because on earth you are called to be towards your wives and your children the very way God wants to be toward us all.  Being a father is a personal thing.  It is not a title at all.  It is a state of being.

It is interesting that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus used the word Father in His prayer.  In Matthew 6:8-9, Jesus gives us a lesson on prayer.  “Therefore, do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:  Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”

Jesus was saying to the disciples and to us that God is not an object to which we pray.  He is a person who lives and who loves us.  He is our first Father and so we can talk to Him like He is a person more than we believe He is just the thing we call God.

For you fathers out there, you are not just a thing in the lives of your children.  You are not just a thing in the life of your spouse.  Next to God, you are the most important person in their lives.  So then, fathers ought to be that way so that our children and our spouses can act that way.

But what way do I speak of?  Well, Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 6 when He tells the disciples not to be like the earthly people around them who want things for themselves.  Earthly people spend their lives providing things for themselves.  They are people who want to be seen and glorified by others.  Fathers are to be different than those.  They are to be providers, first of love and then of all other things, just as God the Father is a provider for us.

Men, husbands and fathers, we ought to be examples of what we have learned from God the Father.  Ephesians 6:4 says, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

God is not speaking to others about fathers.  He speaks directly to fathers about fathers.  He is speaking directly to us men and fathers.  When He says do not provoke your children to wrath, He is saying be patient and loving toward them.  They are learning just as you have learned.  Don’t push so hard to make them do right that you make them hate what you do to them.

If you are a father or husband, you should never say to yourself that God has never talked to or spoken directly to you because He has.  He is saying to fathers, “Raise your children the same way God the Father has raised you.”  As a father you must use the training and the encouragement you have received from God the father to raise your children.  This means as fathers we must live our lives under the watchful loving training and encouragement of the Lord.

We cannot train our children the way God wants us to train them when we have not gone through that same training ourselves.

Fathers, we have a special calling in life.  We are to be trained by the Lord so that we can train our children in the ways of the Lord. Men, I know none of us are perfect in any way, but let’s not use that that as an excuse to be lazy fathers.

Let’s commit this Father’s Day to be men who receive the Love and Admonition of the Lord in our own development so that we can share that same Love and admonition with our spouses and with our children.  The more special we are in how we allow the Lord to develop our lives, the more special we will be as fathers in the lives of our children.

Have a great Father’s Day.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

This is the fifth message in the Skillful Living Series.  The message today is developing Your way With People.

Which of these two statements is more you? 

• I get along with others.
• Others get along with me.

You might want to pick both statements, but if you had to choose only one, which would best describe you? 

One of the most difficult things for people to learn is how to develop an effective way with people. 

How well you get along with others will tell you everything about your way with people.

One of the reasons we find it difficult to get along with others is that we find it difficult to get along with ourselves.  Cain did this with Abel.  When we cannot get our way with the things we want, we can easily become frustrated with ourselves and with others.  People who are skillful at life learn to be the type of people who don’t fight with themselves about themselves.  They get along well with who they are.  

The poet Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you say and what you do but they will never forget how you make them feel.”  Do you see the truth in this statement?  But look a little deeper and you will see even more.  A great way with people is about relationship more than it is about what we do.

But relationships are difficult for us.  We want to build relationships based on the things we do, believing the more we do the more important we will be to a relationship.  But that is more selfish than it is true.  Look deeply at your relationship with the Lord.  Once you know Him, you will never forget how He makes you feel, and you will never forget the things He says to you or even the things He does for you.

Jesus has a way with us that covers who He is to us, how He is with us, and what He does with us.  He is our example of a great Way with People.  Jesus’s way with us isn’t determined by the circumstances we face today.  It is determined by the person He is to us each day.

Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”  There is no circumstance or situation that would demand we live towards others in anything other than a peaceable way.

So, it doesn’t matter your circumstance or your situation.  It doesn’t matter your role or your position.  It doesn’t matter what you want to do or what you must do.  You will live more skillfully when you develop a way with people that leaves them with feelings of appreciation about what you mean to them.

A skillful believer’s way with people will be seasoned with things like these:

• Believers will be love towards others.  So, love others and stay away from being the evil in their lives.

• Believers will always be hopeful for the thing that will be good in the lives of others while patient in the tough times that do not go as they would like.  Be good towards others, no matter how good they may be towards you.

• Believers are never the ones who have to have their way in all things.  Let others believe you care about them getting what they need as much as you want what you need.  

• Learn to tell others “You did a great job.” Learn to ask others “what do you think?” Learn to say to others “Could you please.” Learn to appreciate others by saying “thank you.” And learn to lift others up by saying “We more than I.”

• Give to others always, and always connect with them in a way that serves them with joy.  Let your way with others be a blessing to others, especially to those who would be a curse to you or who would persecute you.  Bless them and never curse them.  Learn to have a way with people that will win them rather than defeat them.

• Never be more hurt to people who are already hurting.  A skillful way with people will never be more disrespecting to those who are not respected, and it will never lack love and care towards those who lack love and care.

Not everyone is going to be for you.  You must accept that.  Sometimes the best way to respond to people who want to hurt you because of who you are or what you do is to humbly acknowledge to them how great of a blessing it must be to them that they are not like you.

The way you choose to relate to others can bring out the best in others or it can kill the best in others.  You don’t have to win at everything; learn to make winners of others.  That will make you of great value to them.

Jesus tries to teach us simple ways to skillfully live with others, but you have a choice.  Jesus is always looking to help us be our best.  He doesn’t use ways contrary to this.  When you learn to skillfully navigate the way you choose to be with yourself, you will have more successes as you learn to skillfully relate with others.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

This if the fourth message in the Skillful Living Series.  The message today is your purpose of life.

Do you know your purpose of life?  Do you feel like you have a purpose?  What do I mean by purpose?  Well, some would say Abraham’s purpose of life was to be the father of God’s covenant people.  Some would say Mary’s purpose of life was to be the mother of Jesus.  Some would say John the Baptist’s purpose of life was to be a proclamation of the coming of Christ.

Scripture says before John the Baptist was born, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and called to go before Jesus to preach His coming.  Luke 1:15 says, “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.  He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.  And He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.”

John indeed went before to preach the coming of Jesus to the people.  John’s purpose was to be a voice of the coming of Jesus.  John knew this.  His parents knew this.  And eventually the children of Israel came to know this.

Purpose is our realization of who we are, to know our reason for being, and to know why we are here at this moment in time.  Purpose speaks from inside each of us, reminding us of exactly who we are.  It is the reason we live where we live.  It is the reason we do the things we do.

When we come to know our purpose of life, we come to know how to live that life skillfully and successfully.  John had a spiritual calling and purpose.  He understood that.  But he had to learn to live out that spiritual calling and purpose in a carnal world.  John had to do the everyday things that every other person had to do.

It’s no different for you and me.  We may or may not have the spiritual call on our lives that John had, but we know what God has revealed to us about us.  Each of us has a thing inside of us that yearns to live through our lives daily.  It is what tells us this is not who we are or perhaps this is exactly who we should be.

Purpose is not just what you do; purpose is the reason for the things we do. When you discover your purpose, it becomes the reason you live skillfully in all you do.  Purpose is the reason for being.  Without purpose you may pursue many things you can never do or be skillfully.

When you know that your purpose of life is to be a positive influence on the people around you, you would never take a job that impacts people in a negative way.  When you know your purpose, you know how you should act and how you should behave.  You know who you are and, perhaps more importantly, you know who you are not.

Purpose of life helps you learn to start your life each day on a successful path so you can do successful things.  Purpose lives in your heart.  It will help you learn to connect your heart to your head and your hands so that all you do comes from a place of being more than from the skills and talents you may acquire.

Your purpose of life teaches you why you are alive.  It teaches you how you should live and it reveals to you what you should do daily.  Purpose keeps you from wasting your life on things that serve only you.

By now, some of you are probably saying your purpose of life is to love and to serve the Lord.  That may be true, but that is the same for each of us who are children of God.  God wants all His children to love and to serve Him, but the purpose of life I am talking about is more than that.  Each of us has a practical call on our lives that we must discover.  

Our individual purposes are different from each other. There was only one Abraham.  There was only one Mary.  There was only one John the Baptist.  There was only one Paul.  Each of these people had individual calls, yet each was expected to love and serve the Lord.

Like Abraham, Mary and John, you have an individual call of purpose on your life in addition to the call to live a spiritual life of love and service to the Lord.  Spend some time today in prayer.  Ask the Lord to help you discover your purpose of life.  He will do that for you if you ask Him.

Then learn to live a life of purpose as you live a life of love and service to the Lord.  You will learn to live more skillfully as you do this.  When you know your purpose of life is to be a listening ear to those who have things to say, you will learn to listen skillfully and better than others.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

This is the third message in the Skillful Living Series.  Today’s message is becoming self-aware of the person you are.

Do you tell yourself about yourself as much as you try to tell others about themselves?  Do you care about what you need to improve about yourself as much as you care that others change themselves?  Do you reflect on your own behaviors as much as you reflect on the behaviors of others?  Do you accept what others have to say about you as much as you want others to accept what you think of them?

Learning to live life skillfully starts when you learn to accurately see who you are and what your life means to the lives around you.  Becoming self-aware introduces you to the person who will control your life for your life.  It means we learn to live by what others actually see of us more than by what we want others to see of us.

In Roman 7, Paul explains what goes on inside each of us as we struggle to live our lives.  It is our lack of awareness about what is within each of us that keeps us from doing the good we desire to do.  There is a fight between what we want ourselves to be and our awareness of who we really are 

We are surprised when we do not do what we do not want to do.   We find ourselves doing the very things we hate to do.  Why is this so?  Why does this happen to us?  Well, it is because we lack awareness of ourselves and what goes on within us.

Scripture tells us about self-awareness.  Romans 7:18-19 says, “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells: for to want to do good is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I want to do, I do not do it, but the evil I want not to do, that is what I practice.”

Being self-aware helps you learn to interpret your actions, feelings and thoughts objectively so you learn to live the life you should live rather than allowing what you don’t want to be to have control of your life.

Living skillfully helps you learn to know who is in control of your life.  Many of us think someone or something other than ourselves are in control of our lives.  But this is not the case.  Becoming self-aware makes you become mindful of who it is inside you that is in control of you.  Become more aware of who you are.

Self-awareness helps you live with compassion.  Reflect on what you learn about yourself and what your life means to others. Compassion and reflection are skillful living behaviors that make you better around others.

Becoming more self-aware helps you learn to live from the insights you gain about yourself so that you can change your thoughts, actions and behaviors before others ask you to change.  Insightfulness helps you to live skillfully with yourself, so you live more successfully with others.

Becoming more self-aware helps you learn to depend more on the Lord for your life.  It helps you learn that things do not have to go your way for you to have your way.  It means things are going to be okay even when you don’t get your way.  It means you learn the greatest battle you will ever fight is the one you fight for who will control your life.

Living skillfully is made easier when you are more aware of who you are and when you see the implications of the things you do.  When you are more aware of yourself, you will become more aware of the needs of others.  When you are more aware of yourself, you will learn to become more aware of the greatness of the Lord.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

This is the second message in the Skillful Living Series.  Today’s topic is how to live your life as the best possible you.

Exodus 18:21 gives a description of the type of people that Moses should choose to help lead God’s people.  Scripture says, “Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands.”

Moses was told to look for men who were already able to lead themselves, whose character was ready to get the most from themselves.  These were men who had a natural inclination to fear God and to place themselves under someone higher than themselves.  Because of that, they naturally sought the truth in all things, and they hated the idea of wanting more than what they needed.

Men such as these lived their best lives.  Those were times long before we had colleges and universities.  Long before we had formal education.  Long before we had books and historical leaders to study.  You don’t go to school to learn how to be your best self.  You don’t go to school to learn how to be truthful.  You don’t go to school to learn not to covet the things of others.

Where did the people who demonstrated these traits learn them?  I believe they learned what was already deep within them and within others.  I believe these same things are within each of us today. People decide they will live their lives against a standard of life that is objectively better than anything they can conceive for themselves.

The people Moses looked for decided to live contrary to the ways others lived.  Doing this helped them to live each day as the best possible person they could be.  As a result, they were recognized for the way they lived their lives.  If they struggled, they struggled with the idea of being better each day.

The scripture doesn’t say these men were not sinners.  We need to understand something about sin.  We are all sinners.  No one is any more or any less a sinner than anyone else.  But being a sinner doesn’t mean we cannot be good at the things we do.  Being a sinners should give us reason to want to be better than we are.

Moses was instructed to choose men who were God fearing.  That is a state of mind we have toward God.  Fearing God will help us learn to do God-fearing things.  Do this, and you will be a better person.

Being “men of truth” means you are taught by the Truth to learn to live in the Truth.  Live and accept the truth, and you will be a better person.

People who hating covetousness are satisfied with having their needs met more than by the need to satisfy all their desires.  Do this, and you will be a better person for it.

When we have these three qualities of life, we will have all that we need to live skillfully as the best possible person we can be.  When you learn to be the best possible, you don’t need to do something great to be seen as great.

When you are the best you can be, you will do the best that can be done.  God instructed Moses to look for people who were their best selves so they would not have problems helping others discover how to be better.

What about you?  Do you start each day as the best you possible?

Don’t think college or some other institution of instruction will make you a better you.  Listen to the Lord as He speaks to you.  He will help you learn to look within yourself to discover what keeps you from being a better person.

The Lord isn’t trying to teach the old you a new trick or to give you a new skill.  You should not want the old you, and the people around you probably do not want the old you either.  People who live skillfully at life listen to the Lord who tries to transform an old self into someone better by using new insights.

Start each day searching for the best you possible.  Each day is a new day. You should start each new day as the best you possible.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Today people all around us will take a moment to acknowledge and to honor the mothers and the women in their lives.  It’s Mother’s Day 2024.  This is the day it is fitting for us to take some time to reflect on the women among us because of how special they are to us.

In Luke 1:28-30 we find the scriptural account of the angel’s visit to Mary informing her that she would become the Mother of Jesus.  Scripture says, “And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

Scripture goes on, “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.”  Mary was special to God.  God was saying, “Mary, you are special to Me.  My plans for life include your life.”

So, as we acknowledge the value of Mothers and women today, let’s do that by showing them how our lives reflect their lives.

Let’s all make sure we live in such a way that the mothers around us will rejoice in gladness and happiness, knowing they were chosen to be the moms, the wives, and the women we all know and love.  Let’s be the angels in the lives of our mothers.

Often, we look at how the women around us live to decide if they are great moms and spouses.  But it shouldn’t be that way.  We ought to look at how we live as the way to show the value of what our mothers and women mean to life.  Let’s live in ways that our mothers and women are blessed because of us and through us.

Perhaps there is no greater way for us to honor our mothers and women than for each of us to live in ways that would be the indication to the world around us that God Himself is with our mothers, our wives, and our daughters.

The scripture says that when Jesus was just 12 years old, He became separated from His parents while they were in Jerusalem for a feast.  When Mary and Joseph found Him, the scripture says Jesus went with them back home to Nazareth, and there He lived under their parenting.

Jesus honored His parents by the way He lived before them.  I’m sure the people who saw how He lived with His parents thought to themselves how amazing His parents must have been.

We have some amazing Mothers with us today.  They are amazing, not because of how much they have much or how little they have, but because you and I are here living today as part of God’s plan for their lives.

So, as we honor our moms today, let’s make sure we do this because we have lived lives of honor, love, and sacrifice.  Let’s honor mothers with lives of submission and faithfulness before God.

Your life is more valuable to your mom than the flowers, the food, and even the time you set aside today to give them.

So, let’s step up today.  When the world sees us, it should exhaust itself by looking for the women who birthed us, because it will know those women must highly favored by God and by the people around.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.    

In my work coaching people, I have created a program of personal and professional development I call “Inspiring People to Skillful Living.” I often find some of the smartest people around do some of the dumbest things imaginable.  Smart people have knowledge about what can be known, but they often do not have the wisdom to know what is hidden from common knowledge.

I created this program because we need help.  Most of us live unskilled lives.  We struggle at doing better because we struggle at being better.  We may have knowledge about what should work, but we lack the wisdom to make that work for us.

God’s Word is sufficient insight for anyone who wants to live skillfully, but most people today reject the value of God’s Word in their lives.  Many simply believe God’s Word is only applicable to our spiritual lives and not to our practical day-to-day lives.  But this is the wrong way to think about life.

The book of Proverbs is all about learning to skillfully live your life.  In a secular sense, Proverbs help you learn to skillfully live a Godly life in an ungodly world.  It helps you learn to deal effectively with a life that is ordered around God first, then family, then work and the societies in which we live work and play.

Proverbs 1:5 says, “A wise man will hear and increase learning.  And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.”  That means that wisdom is needed for you to live a skillful life, but wisdom is difficult to define in a simple way.  On one hand it is many things, and then on the other hand it is a simple thing.

Wisdom is the knowledge and the discipline to live under the authority of something higher than your own thinking.  Wisdom is our ability to learn from what we have not learned yet.  It is the ability to know the nature of our humanity as we live our lives against a standard that is higher than any standard we could create on our own.

Most people have a natural inclination to seek knowledge and understanding because we know these are important to us.  Proverbs also tell us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  But knowledge is not enough to live skillfully.

We need both wisdom and knowledge to live skillfully, but we need wisdom more.  Wisdom and knowledge are both recurring themes in the bible.  They are related but not synonymous.  Knowledge is information gained through experience, reasoning, or familiarity; it is available to anyone.  But wisdom is more the ability to judge what is true, right, and lasting.

Wisdom is the insight to know that knowledge is not the same as wisdom.  Yes, it almost takes having wisdom to know what wisdom is.   We can be full of knowledge but still lack wisdom.  If we have wisdom then we will have knowledge also.

We have many problems today in living skillfully because we lack the wisdom to learn more from the knowledge we acquire.  We have acquired knowledge to live but not the wisdom to live skillfully and successfully.

We can be full of knowledge but empty of the wisdom needed to use knowledge in the best ways.  Knowledge is knowing what the Word of God says; wisdom is knowing how to allow God’s Word to change your life so you live more skillfully.  Knowledge is knowing what the Word says; wisdom is hearing what the Word is saying to you and about you.

A wise man will hear and increase in learning because a wise man discerns the wisdom from what he knows.  A wise man does not simply read the word and remain the same.  A wise man will allow the Word to counsel him.

Skillful living is learning to find and use wisdom.  Wisdom teaches you that you cannot live from what you learn only.  

Most people want to live good, successful lives, but few are willing to do what it takes to have that.  Most of us want good jobs and great careers, but many of us are unwilling to do what it takes to have those things.

Do you want to live a more skillful life?  So what’s it going to take?  How can you move from wanting to live greater to wanting to do what it takes to live greater?

Your best life can only be had when you learn to start your life as your best self.  My next message in this series of Living Skillfully will explore how God wants us to start life as our best selves.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.  

Sometimes we forget that God is always working on perfecting something more in us.  We are His children and His creation. The fact that He created us doesn’t mean He is finished with what He started.  We are not just His children; we are the work of His heart.

Recently, I have thought about when I should cut back on work.  Sometimes, I feel like there are things I want to do for myself.  But each time I have those thoughts, I seem to hear something inside me say, “I am not done with you yet.” We must always watch our own motives for what we want in our lives.

In Luke 2:25-35 we have the story of a man name Simeon who was waiting for the birth of Christ.  After Jesus was born, Simeon went to the temple and saw Him.  Luke 2:29 says this is how Simeon responded to seeing Jesus.  He said “Lord, now You are permitting Your servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation.”

We don’t know Simeon’s age, but we know he wasn’t a young man.  He had waited—no, he had lived—waiting to see the Salvation of the Lord.  How long, we don’t know.  But he waited until God was done with his plans for Simeon.  More of us should be like Simeon.  Often we find waiting for God to finish His work on us is the hardest thing for us to do.

God has more planned for each of us than what we see at the moment.  I imagine the caterpillar probably has thought many times why it must crawl around on it’s stomach all day.  Well, perhaps it’s because God wants it to start life as a worm but to finish as a butterfly.

If God can take a worm that crawls around the ground and make it to fly through the sky, He can make you fly too.  If He can do that with a worm, I am encouraged He can do even more with you. We have to be patient and mature enough to know that He is still at work with us.  We shouldn’t be so quick to act like we are ready to live out our lives just as we are.  We may still be incomplete, just like the worms.

Listen, when God says He is not done with you yet, perhaps He is saying you are unfinished.  He may not be asking you to do more.  He may be asking you to allow Him to do more to finish you.  If you don’t learn to see yourself as a clump of clay, you will never know what the possibilities may be for you in the hands of God.

So, let’s not look at the things going on around us and run out the door trying to do God’s work when He is not finished doing His work in us.  You may have hands, but you may not have the hands needed to do what God wants you to do.  You may have a heart, but you may not have the heart to do what God wants you to do.

Listen for Him when He is saying to you, “I am not done with you yet.”  God is not done yet perfecting the work He is doing in us.  An acorn starts as a nut the squirrel eats but it ends up a tree where the squirrel lives.

A grain of corn dies and falls to the ground.  But the dead grain of corn becomes a field of corn that feeds many people. We must be patient to allow the Lord to finish the things He is doing in us that we cannot see.

You may have started life without love, but perhaps God is preparing you to learn to receive love and to be love towards others.

You may have started life without friends, but perhaps God is preparing you to learn to be a friend to someone who needs friendship.

You may have started life with sickness, but perhaps God is preparing you to learn the gratefulness it takes to appreciate all that will come to you in life.

When you learn He is not finished with your life, you will learn what a finished life in Him can be.

Let Him perfect what He has planned to do in you before you try to finish what you want to do with your life.

Live A Delivered Life.  Love you.

Remember the story of Esther?  Esther was made queen when the king became displeased with the behavior of queen Vashti. We know all about Esther.  But what about Vashti?  How is it that her behavior was so displeasing to the king that he would dethrone her?

Scripture tells us what Vashti did.  After many days of festivities and drinking, the king ordered Queen Vashti to come before him and his friends wearing her royal crown.  Esther 1:11 says, “The king ordered to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold.  But Queen Vashti refused to come as ordered.”

I have done messages before on the difference between love and respect.  In almost any relationship between man and woman, especially marriage, love and respect must be present.  The man must learn to love his wife or the women in his life, and the wife must learn to respect her husband or the men in her life.  You can find this principle in Ephesians 5:22-33.

Ephesians 5 is about Love and Respect.  But this is more than a message about love and respect.  It is a message about how before what.  So many things we do go wrong because we do not choose the right way to do the things we want to do.  The right things done in the wrong ways become the wrong things done.

Many of us do not see the problem with what Queen Vashti did.  She refused to be paraded before men for their satisfaction.  What’s wrong with that?  It is a demeaning thing to do to anyone, especially a woman.  But what she did amounted to a greatest offense a woman can do to a man – she disrespected her husband openly before the eyes of others.

Men inherently require respect.  Respect is what leads them to love.  Women require love, but it is love that leads them to respect.  What the king did was not a loving thing to do, so Vashti responded by doing the very thing that would cause her husband to not love her.  He was not loving, and she was not respectful.

For the men reading this please understand this.  How you choose to treat the women in your life must be loving and respectful.  And for the women reading this please understand.  How you choose to love the men in your life must be with respect.  To you men, loving her must come before the respect you want to receive from her.  And to you women, respecting him must come before the love you want to receive of him.

The book of Esther is more than a story about what was happening with the Jewish people at the time.  It is a story about learning how to be more effective at doing the things we want to do.

Had Vashti thoughtfully considered how to express her displeasure to the king in a respectful way she would have chosen a different thing to do.  Had the king thoughtfully considered how Vashti would feel about what he wanted her to do he would have chosen a different thing to do.

When we take time to consider how before what, we allow ourselves time to discover a better way to choose what things we want to do.  Paul teaches this principle in 1 Corinthians 6:12 when he says, “All things are possible for me but not all things are good for me.”

Jesus also tries hard to teach us this principle.  The beatitudes in Matthew 5 are a great example of how before what.  In this chapter, Jesus is saying to us over and over, “If this is how you choose to live then these are the things you will choose to do.”  Could it be that He wants us to choose how we should live before we choose what things we will do to live?  I think so.

So, learn to take a moment in your life and consider how you want to live before you choose to do the next thing you want to do.  In all your ways acknowledge Him; this is how.  When you do that, He will direct your path or steps.  That is what.

Queen Vashti wasn’t wrong in her thinking.  She was wrong in what she chose to do to express her thinking.  When you choose how before what, you will learn to learn from the hidden wisdom and insight that is right before us all but hidden from our sight because we want what we want.

When you learn the power of choosing how before what, you will learn to have more love and respect in the relationships that are important to you.  Women respect your men; when you do people will see your respect and admiration of him in how you respond to how you are treated.  Men love your women; when you do, people will see her beauty in your eyes and in how you treat her. 

We can all want to be like Esther.  She was revered for her attitude.  But we all have some Vashti in us. The Lord wants us to learn from Him how to do what we want to do.  Everyone, choose how before you decide what.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Easter is the time of year believers acknowledge Christ’s resurrection from the dead after He had been crucified.  We believe this happened on the third day after His death, just as He said it would happen.  John 20:1 says, “Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”

Mary knew what the scripture said.  She knew what Jesus had told them.  She knew that He was to be resurrected from the dead.  Still, she went to the tomb looking to find a dead man there.  But to her amazement and astonishment, she found an empty tomb.

I prefer to say Easter is more our acknowledgement than a celebration because the empty tomb confirmed many things Jesus had told His followers would happen in the days of His life.  In John 11:25 Jesus tells Martha that her brother Lazarus will rise again from his death.  Martha responded by telling Jesus she knew that her brother would rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?” So, this Easter, why don’t you ask yourself.  Do you believe what Jesus said to Martha then?

Easter is indeed about the resurrection of Jesus, and we should acknowledge that for the greatness of the power and the love of God.  But we should celebrate too because if we believe in Christ.  The events surrounding His death and resurrection are the guarantee that though we may die, we too shall live.

We might look at Easter this way.

Easter is the time when God said enough is enough.  With the death of Jesus, man did the last thing man could do to harm or thwart the will of God.  When Jesus said, “It is finished” in some way He was simply saying, “Time’s up.”  Now all things will move according to the design of God more than the will of man.  You should acknowledge and celebrate that.

Easter is the time when God said death cannot hold those who believe in Jesus.  Death is just a place for believers to wait till morning when they are raised to an eternal life that cannot die.

Easter is the time when God said no stone can keep Him away from those He loves.  It is a time when God tells us that He wants to roll away the stones we have rolled across our lives to keep life out and death in.

Easter is the time when God said we are to live in heavenly places instead of a tomb.  It is a time for believers that say the tomb is the pathway to life.  Earthly life gives way to death so that our eternal life can be brought back from our temporary deaths.

Easter is God’s way of saying Jesus is the proof of His resurrection Power, and now it is time to prove that in your life.

With Easter, no tomb can hold us, no stone can block us, and no grave can keep us.  Death can only give way to life everlasting.

So, this Easter lets acknowledge what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus meant for Him.  But let’s also celebrate because He is the life we all want and the resurrections we all need.  At Easter, we have lots to acknowledge and even more to celebrate.

So, get up early today.  Run on down to the tomb you have bought for your life.  There you will find He has rolled away the stone and removed your grave clothes.  Leave all your dead stuff there.  You don’t need that to live.

He has given you a new life to live here on earth because He is the Resurrection and the Life.

Have a great day!

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.