More Thoughts...

I just did my first conference call. It was exciting but different. I was in a meeting but could not see any of the people and you had to take turns talking. That is hard to do when you get a bunch of pastors together. HA HA

These thoughts come from a conference that was held in Ohio that a few of the people from NLC went to. Take time to think about them.

To rightly judge your own flesh you need to see yourself as Christ sees you.

To rightly discern others you need to see their potential in Christ.

You need to love yourself first and see yourself as God sees you before you can love others.

You need to discern yourself properly before you can discern others.

There is authority in love !!!

Some powerful thoughts as we take time to think about how we should love one another. It all starts with me. And when I speak about one another I mean our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, scripture says to judge those in the church, but I think we have abused that privilege and have taken it more as a right to look down my nose at those who do not measure up to my standards of Christianity. Not that the standards God has set are wrong, I just think we throw in some of our own standards and then hammer people with those. A thought came to me yesterday as I was talking to one of the people who went to the conference and gave me these quotes. We don't see in the Spirit or hear in the Spirit when it comes to prophecy because we can't look at the potential everyone around us has. We only see the ugliness that needs changed. But if we want to speak hope into peoples lives we need to see what God is doing in everyone, and especially ourselves. This opens us up to speak God's Word into peoples lives to see them built up in Jesus. I have some great spiritual fathers as examples who live this out in their everyday lives.

Thank You Jesus for the example Pastor Gerry, Pastor Jeff, and Pastor Art have been to me. May I take their example, put it into practice in my own life, and be an example to those who You have placed here in the NLC of how to love and see the best in everyone around me.

Still more to come...