Tag Archive for 'Love'

Do Unto Others

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Daniel Vander Klok
on February 1, 2012
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Matt 7:12

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

-        This is a straight-forward concept. Granted, it’s work to carry it out, but it is an easy one to understand. This is the challenge to myself and everyone who reads this.  During this week, we should ask ourselves, “How would I want this situation handled if I was in their shoes?” Show the love and forgiveness that was shown to you. To all the students, your parents are real people. Many times, I have heard students complain and tell about the attitude they gave their parents. They admitted they would have done the same thing in their parents place. If you were the parent, how would you want the kid to respond? Respond that way all week. Lets see what happens as we apply the word to our lives and become the Christians of character that we were made to be.

Maturity

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Daniel Vander Klok
on November 2, 2011
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1 Kings 21:5-6

But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, ”Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?” 6 and he said to her, “because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else if it pleases you I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” ESV

-         Aging is unavoidable, growing up or maturing is a choice. He is a man, or at least an adult, but he responds like a little kid pouting because he didn’t get what he wanted. It is very easy to read the story and point out how immature this king was, but what about us? Sure, we age every year, but are we maturing? Are we still selfish, demanding our own way and crying when we don’t get it? Immaturity is marked by many things, but most of them are linked to selfishness, and refusing responsibility. Paul says he had to put aside childish things 1 Cor 13:11. This is in the love chapter. We are then told to abide in faith, hope and love. Walking in love is a choice we must choose; the default we are born with is very selfish.  God, help me to not just age, but to grow in maturity and love for you and for people.

Live the new life

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Daniel Vander Klok
on April 22, 2011
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Rom 11:22 “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” ESV

Rom 11:22 “Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God-ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don’t presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you’re out of there.” MSG

-          God who loves is cut off with sin. We need to walk in the love that He has for us. If we try to use it as a license for sin; we are in for a surprise. He will punish sin. It is not how you start, but how you finish, that counts. Rom 11:6; Rev 3:5; Even those who have received grace can choose sin over grace and make themselves again slaves to sin and the punishment that comes with it. Rom 6:15; Heb 10:29; Jude 4; God, I want to live the new life in Christ that you have for me. John 15:4-5.

God’s Forgiveness is Amazing!

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Daniel Vander Klok
on January 24, 2011
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Zech 3:3-4

3 Joshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Joshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”  NLT

-         PS 103:12; God’s forgiveness is amazing. The fact that we need it proves we don’t deserve it. (Rom 11:6; Eph 2:8) Yet God pours out His love and forgiveness on any who will receive it. Rom 5:8; 1 Tim 3:3-4; 2 Peter 3:16; Rom 10:13.

God has feelings too!

Published
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Daniel Vander Klok
on December 9, 2010
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Jer 2:2

2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,

“I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness,  in a land not sown. ESV

- God longingly remembers, God feels, He has emotions. He feels for His creation and loves them He hurts when they reject Him. Jesus earthly ministry was marked by compassion He felt for the hurting people. Matt 9:36; We hear of the hurt and anger when He was on the mountain with Moses as the people rejected Him Ex 32:8-11;

- Why is it that we rarely if ever think of how our choices affect God? We are told in Prov 28:4 that our choices praise someone, in Rom 6:16 we are told they declare our master and lord of our life. We can praise or deny God with our actions Titus 1:16. James says that if our actions don’t back our words, (where we say our faith is) it is dead. So with every choice that we make we praise or slap God in the face. Do we not care? How could we be so cruel to the one who loves us so deeply. I suppose we are like a selfish teen, who only thinks of themselves without any thought to how our choices affect those around us. As you read on in Jeremiah 2 God’s words sound like a rejected spouse. Someone who loves deeply who has been rejected without cause.

- God I am sorry for the ways that I have miss treated you. Where I have let my selfishness come before you.  Choices that I have made that have hurt you. Sorry for the things that I have said that came before you insulting or hurtful. I am sorry for my selfish behavior, both the choices that were directly pointed at you and the choices that affect the children that you love. God I ask for your forgiveness and thank you that you promised you would give it. Help me to keep in mind throughout my day how each of my choices affects you.

- Cheating on God. Jer 3:9;

-  This concept that God feels is not new to me but some how its depth just hit me a new. God again speaks of His people as an unfaithful lover. He feels pain like that of a lover that has been cheated on. Not even a one time repentant cheater, these people have no remorse they are all too content to keep sinning, as they do they create messes and they run further from God in their mess to try to fix it. They cheat with one God after another He compares them beyond a cheating spouse to a whore. The pain I would feel if my wife treated me this way would wreck me. I don’t know what I would do.

-          I too have caused God this pain. I have been unfaithful, putting myself and my desires before God. I sit hear and hear him cry I am a jealous God don’t do this to me. I love you I will give you everything just don’t treat me like this I want a relationship with you and then we go and reject him having affair with one thing and then another. Oh God I am sorry. Help me, I want to treat you right. I want to be faithful I don’t want to put anything before you.

-         It is easy to cry when emotions are high. But tears are not what is needed, change is needed. I have had people who have committed adultery come sit in my office in tears, but what do the tears mean if nothing changes? What can or should I change?

-         I need to be faithful with my God appointment in the morning and not let other things shove it around. I need to view it like a date.
I need to be obedient. When God challenges I need to step up. So that means I need to add a designated prayer time to my God date.

Is your choice clear?

Published
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Daniel Vander Klok
on October 12, 2010
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Ps 119:113

I hate the double-minded, But I love Your law. NKJV

-         James 1:8; 1 Kings 18:21

NLT 113 I hate those who are undecided about you, but my choice is clear — I love your law. Is your choice clear? Can the world see that you have chosen to follow God at any cost?

Covering a mistake

Published
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Daniel Vander Klok
on October 6, 2010
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Prov 17:9

9 He who covers over an offense promotes love A, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends B. NIV

A- Prov 10:12; 1 Cor 13:4; 1 Peter 4:8; /love forgives a matter and lets it go. It leaves the past in the past. We all make mistakes. We need to learn how to let the past stay behind us in our own life and in the lives of those around us. Ps 103:12;

B – Know when to drop it. Vs 14

Even Sinners do that!

Published
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Amanda Vander Klok
on August 3, 2010
in Word to the Wise
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Luke 6:32

32 “Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you? Even the sinners do that! NLT

  • We are called to be different. Anyone can love someone who is nice to them…

Why Give

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Daniel Vander Klok
on July 1, 2010
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Ps 50:10

$ 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. ESV

-     All is the Lord’s. We give not because he is in need but as an act of love, honor and thanks.

Extreme Love

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Daniel Vander Klok
on May 20, 2010
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Matt 26:38

38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ESV

- Through this whole chapter we see that Jesus was thinking about what was to come. He makes 12 references to what is about to happen before he is arrested in Matthew 26. I can’t imagine what it would be like knowing what he was walking into.

-         Why not walk away, he had the option (vs 53) . Heb 12:2, says he went through it all looking forward to me. God I am sorry for my sin my rebellion, my idolatry, my selfishness. God thank you for paying the price that I couldn’t pay. Thank you for enduring the cross for me. There are no words that can thank you for what you went through on my behalf. Help me to live a life of service to you out of gratitude. God how is it that you would die for me. For all sinners. How is it that you would die not just for those who would turn to you, but you did it to offer forgiveness even to those who would reject you. God your love is far beyond my comprehension. I ask that you would fill me with it. God I want to live for you. I want to show others the love that you showed me. I want to introduce them to my loving savior that died for them.