Author: Allen Forte

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.

I have learned that sometimes it’s through the pain of living that we learn to appreciate the goodness of life.  Sometimes it’s through sadness in life that we learn to appreciate the joy of life.  Sometimes it’s the losses we experience that teach us to appreciate what life really means.  And sometimes it’s when we face what we cannot do on our own that we learn to appreciate what the Lord can do for us.

In the book of Revelation, John writes to us while he is exiled on a deserted island called Patmos.  John introduces himself in Revelation 1:9 by saying, “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Listen closely to what John is saying.  He was there on Patmos waiting for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Yes, the Romans exiled John thinking they were punishing him.  But God used this circumstance to reveal to John His Word and the revelation of Christ’s return. Knowing this, John probably invited the Lord often to come.

John’s life was an invitation for the Lord to Come.  So, what about you and me?  Do you want His help, or do you want His return?  Do you want His healing, or do you want His presence?  Do you want His strength, or do you want His victory?  Do we live lives that invite the Lord to come?  Or do we live lives that simply ask Him to help.

John wasn’t asking for help.  John was asking for the Life that helps.  John didn’t love his life more than he loved the life Jesus promises to all who believe on Him.  John wanted what was to come so he asked the Lord to come and come quickly.  He said, “Come Lord Jesus, come.”

Revelation 22:20 says it this way: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’  Amen.  “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”  I’m sure John was having a hard time on Patmos.  He didn’t have the amenities of life others enjoyed.  Things were tough there.  But John didn’t ask to be taken back to his old home.  He asked the Lord to come with the promise of a new life and a new home.

You can know if you are following John’s example by asking yourself these questions:

Do you try to live each day of life to its fullest, or do you live waiting for Him to fill your life each day with His thoughts and His revelation?  

Do you live trying to get through the challenges you face daily, or do you live waiting for Him to show up in your challenges?

Do you live a life that goes ahead of Him, or do you live a life that waits for Him to get ahead of you?

Do you live looking for what is right to happen for you, or do you live knowing that His grace will be sufficient for all that you face?

Do you live like you are right at home in your favorite place, or do you live like you are on an island waiting for Him to speak to you and to show you what is to come?

Are you asking Him to help, or are you asking Him to come?

If you are not waiting for His coming, what then are you waiting for?  When the Lord knows that you are waiting, He will hear your invitation for Him to come.

Let your life become an invitation for Him to come live with you right where you are.  No matter what you are facing today, live a life of invitation, and He will surely accept your call.  He will make a way for you to live in power and in grace in whatever your circumstance when your life says to Him, “Come Lord Jesus Come. Amen.”

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Genesis 22:1-2 is the first time in scripture that the word love is specifically mentioned.  God says to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Do you think God loved Abraham?  Do you think God loved Isaac?  And let’s not forget Sarah.  Do you think God loved Sarah?  Of course He did.  But how then is it possible He would ask Abraham to do such a thing?  God wanted to know where He stood with Abraham.

Isaac was Abraham’s son.  Surely Abraham loved him.  But Abraham was prepared to offer Issac as a sacrifice because God asked.  God was the first person to love Abraham, not Abraham’s parents as we would think.  He was Abraham’s first love and He wanted to know if Abraham loved Him in that way.  He wanted to know where He stood with Abraham.

 In 1 John 4:19 we are also told, “We love Him because He first loved us.” We know where we stand with God.    We are His First Love because “God is Love”(1 John 4:8).  He doesn’t just love as an act, He is the essence of the act, He is the essence of the emotion, and He is the essence of the feelings we have toward those we love.

We will never be anything less than His First Love.  John 3:16 tells us that He loved us so much that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for us that we may have life everlasting with Him.  Jesus loved you before you were even born.  Where does He stand with you?

There isn’t a person on earth who loves you more than Jesus and God.  Not your spouse.  Not your children. Not your mother or father. Not your friends. There is no one who loves you more than Jesus loves you.  He is your First Love.  He should never wonder where He stands.

It seems natural to us that we should love the people who brought us into the world.  We feel their love, and so we return their love with our own. This will be a hard thing for some of us to understand and accept, but your parents are not your first love.  The Lord is.

It was God who created you and allowed your parents to be part of bringing you into the world.  He loved you first. You must learn to love your first love with the love that He loved you.  By now you may be wondering what is Love?  Read 1 Corinthians 13.  The whole chapter is devoted to helping us understand what Love is.  It helps us to understand who Jesus is.

It tells us Love, that is Jesus, suffers long with us and it is kind while doing it.  Love, that is Jesus, does not envy anything that you have, does not parade itself around you, and is not puffed-up at you saying, Look at Me.”  Love, that is Jesus, does not behave rudely towards you, does not seek His own, and is not selfish toward you.  Love, that is Jesus, is not provoked and thinks no evil of you or of the things you do.  It does not rejoice in evil but instead it rejoices in the truth.  Love, that is Jesus, bears all things for you, believes all things for you, hopes and endures all things just for you.  Love, that is Jesus, never fails to love you.

That is the nature of the Love in which He first loved you.  What is going to be your response?  Will you receive all these things and say to Him, “You are the first person to love me, so I am going to love You like You are my First Love”?

Where does He stand?  Have you left your First Love for something or someone else? He is the first person to love you perfectly.  Have you left your first Love trying to do the things you believe He would love you to do? Let Him be the first person in which you have tried to love perfectly.

Bear with Him and be kind to Him in doing it.  Don’t envy things but humble yourself in His love.  Don’t go around saying He loves me while you make others feel like they are not loved.  Don’t be provoked into thinking and doing evil things.  Behave like you are His favorite.  Never let your love of Him and for Him and in Him fail to reach Him.

I don’t believe we can love anything or anyone else in the right way unless we keep our love for Him first. He is the first person we should love.  Let’s make sure we are doing that.  He is your First Love because He First Loved you.  That is where He should stand with you.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

When I’m coaching people, I always encourage them in this way, “Be better today than you were yesterday, and be better tomorrow than you are today.”  It’s a simple but profound bit of insight.  If you want more in your life, you need to learn to be more than you were a moment ago.

We need to learn to ask ourselves, “How is it working for us to keep living the way we have always lived?”  If you can remember too much of how you were yesterday, you are probably not living enough like the Lord wants you to live today.  Jesus doesn’t just change that which is old.  He helps us put to death the old to make way for the new.

You will never be the same when He is at work with you.  It is impossible to experience His presence and remain the same as you were before.  Some of us have some old stuff that needs to be put to death.  But we cannot do that just as we are.  We need the strength of the new to put to death the old.

It may be confusing to realize that Jesus wants us to die to the old before we can enjoy the new.  Well, here is the answer to that.  We have to learn to take our old person to the cross and stay there until Jesus does the work of helping us die to what keeps us from being made new.  You will never be the same when you stand before the work of His hands.

The problem for many of us is the cross.  When we see the cross, we run away rather than run towards.  If we never go to the cross, we can never learn to go in the direction the Lord wants us to go.  We think bad things happen at the cross, but the cross is the place in our lives where the ultimate goodness of God started.

You will never be the same when you learn to live around the cross.

At the cross, you will never walk the same.  Abraham went from a settler to a wanderer.  

At the cross, you will never talk the same.  Jacob went from speaking lies to speaking truths.

At the cross, you will never love the same.  Paul went from being a lover of the law to a lover of all people.

You will never be the same when you live at the place where new things are created.  If you want your kids to live differently, you go live at the foot of the cross.  If you want your marriage to be better, go live at the foot of the cross and you will be birthed into a new and better spouse.  If you want your work to be better, go live at the foot of the cross and a better worker will be created in you.

You will never be the same when you decide the person you were yesterday is too old to live another day of your life for you.  Jesus wants us to live never desiring to be the same as we were before.

When Moses met God, he went from being a shepherd to being a tool of deliverance. He was never the same.  When the woman at the well met the Lord, she went from being scorned to being loved.  She was never the same.

How is being the same as you are working out for you?  It can never work out for your good.  Listen, you ought to want all the new that the Lord offers.

In 2 Corinthians 4:16, scripture tells us, “Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”  You will never be the same when Jesus is working to make you something new each day.

Once Jesus has delivered you from a way of life, you stop living like a former sinner.   Instead, you live delivered.  You don’t have to apologize to the world for who you were.  Tell the world who you are now because you are never the same, and you will never be the same with Jesus.

With Jesus at the cross of your life with you, you won’t talk the same tomorrow as you talk today.  You won’t work tomorrow the way you work today.

Thank the Lord for being the kind of God who makes the new so amazing for us that we forget how good things were before.  You will never be the same when you learn to let Him live in His Name with you.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.