As a deadly tornado ripped through Will County, Illinois, a young father sat cradling his infant child, born just 3 weeks before. When the fierce, howling winds finally subsided and calm had returned, the man's house was gone—and so was his baby. But according to the news report, the father found his child in a field near his house—alive and well! And so was the rest of his family.
When asked by a reporter if he was angry that he had lost everything he owned, he replied, "No, I just thank God I have my baby and my family. Some people don't have that. Nothing else is important."
Often it takes times of tragedy to remind us what really matters in life. When things are going well, we can easily get preoccupied with what we own. We become tied to so many nonessential, unimportant things. We tend to grow overly concerned about cars, houses, furniture, appliances, clothes, and countless other trappings of modern life. But when life is reduced to the essentials, as it was in the Illinois tornado, we recall again that life itself is enough reason to praise God.
Have you spent time today praising God for your life and for the people He has given you to share it with?

That's what really matters.

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for Your love for me. Thank You also for family and friends. And thank You for the gift of life itself. Help me live each day for You.

When you think of all that's good, give thanks to God

Love is not premeditated— it is spontaneous; that is, it bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of precise certainty in Paul’s description of love. We cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by saying, "Now I will never think any evil thoughts, and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe." No, the characteristic of love is spontaneity. We don’t deliberately set the statements of Jesus before us as our standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard without even realizing it. And when we look back, we are amazed at how unconcerned we have been over our emotions, which is the very evidence that real spontaneous love was there. The nature of everything involved in the life of God in us is only discerned when we have been through it and it is in our past.
The fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. It is absurd to think that the love of God is naturally in our hearts, as a result of our own nature. His love is there only because it "has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . ."
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we really don’t love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from His nature within us. And when we look back, we will not be able to determine why we did certain things, but we can know that we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God exhibits itself in this spontaneous way because the fountains of His love are in the Holy Spirit.

How do you handle being rebuffed when you make your best attempts at reconciling a broken relationship?
If we've lived and loved long enough, we all know the pain of a broken relationship. We also know the joy of reconciliation when that relationship is mended. Unfortunately, loving someone well and trying to reconcile with them provides no guarantee they will welcome restoration. When someone refuses to reconcile a broken relationship, frustration, pain, and self-doubts can grow. The desire to find a way to restore the broken relationship that works intensifies.
Sadly, there is no guaranteed procedure that we can follow to assure restoration of a broken relationship. Sometimes, all we can do is grieve the loss of that relationship. And that is what Jesus modeled for us. He is the perfect example of one who unselfishly poured out His love to His creatures and offered them the opportunity for reconciliation with their Creator. However, they would have nothing to do with Him.
In one of the saddest verses in the Bible, John records in a single sentence the fact that Jesus "came to His own, and His own did not receive him"
Jesus' response to the rejection of His offer of reconciliation was a deep grief and sadness that moved Him to tears and prayer for His people. We see the Son of God's broken heart when He sits outside the walls of Jerusalem and laments: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

One of the most frightening truths that we all must face is the fact that we cannot force someone to love us, no matter what we do. Even if we take appropriate responsibility for harm we've done to them, confess our sin against them, and ask for forgiveness, there is no assurance they will respond in kind. They can choose to remain distant.
While an unresolved relationship is deeply disturbing, one of the most freeing truths is that no one has the power to stop us from loving them. And that's all that God calls us to do, to love others the way He has loved us

We all wish there was a "next step" that would make reconciliation work out every time. Sadly, there is no such step. However, at those times when our best efforts at loving are rebuffed, we do have the opportunity to share in our Lord's sufferings, to experience His pain and His relentless longing for reconciliation

We need to guard against a false guilt that assumes we should be able to do something to "fix" every relationship -- as if it all depends on us alone. While we must take responsibility for our part in a relationship, we must not assume that we are solely responsible for the breach in the relationship. Instead of holding another person responsible for their choices, we can tend to let people off the hook and blame ourselves for "not doing enough" or "missing something" that would be the key to unlocking the relationship.
That kind of thinking is not only demoralizing but controlling and unbiblical. God never asks us to assume responsibility for others, only ourselves. That needs to be our focus.

The Truth for Jesus' Sake!
Luke 7:36-39
I’m a little tired of hearing angry Christians running around the world saying “We’ve got it right, and everyone else is wrong!” Granted, the clear teachings of God’s Word are indeed right and anything that contradicts them is wrong. But what bothers me is the extent to which we give equal standing to God’s Word and to our sometimes-twisted attitudes and opinions. I hear us talking all the time about “those people” who are causing moral decline and the politicians who are legislating God out and “do-whatever-you-want” in. We sound so long on mad and so short on mercy.
Sure, gay issues and abortion are serious problems. But behind those problems are real people who need the same Jesus that all of us needed when we came to the cross. It’s important to note that in the course of Jesus’ ministry He had more harsh words of reproof for the self-righteous religious folk than He did for the outright sinners whom He came to save. And it should be remembered that He took a big hit from the “good” people for spending time with the religious and social outcasts.
On a nightly cable news show not long ago, a TV preacher made some Bible-thumping statement about AIDS being judgment from God on the gay rights movement and that anyone who is gay doesn’t deserve to live. I was embarrassed, upset, and heartsick all at the same time. Sadly, too many people believe that’s what real Christianity is all about. But nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, that kind of angry rhetoric does not reflect the heart and teachings of Jesus. Jesus said, “I am . . . the truth” (John 14:6), so in order for me to confidently speak like I have the truth, I need to be sure that I am in sync with Him.
When Jesus came into Jerusalem for the first time after beginning His ministry, He wept over the city’s brokenness. He spent time with sinners and told stories about God’s compassion for prodigals and prostitutes. The heart of Jesus is marked not only with clarity about sin, but is also filled with compassion—not hatred—for those who do not yet believe and understand the truth. As His followers, our hearts should be broken for those who are broken and bent by sin. That means spending a whole lot less time acting like we are the truth and getting busy about pointing people to Jesus who is the Truth. And the best way to point people to Jesus is to start living like He lived.
The apostle James wrote to believers undergoing some tough opposition, instructing them not just to hear the truth but also to do the truth (James 1:22). In other words, we need to let Truth transform us before we try to articulate it to others.
Let’s face it: Sometimes we have to show up for Jesus before we can speak up for Him. We need to show we care by reaching out and meeting the more difficult and not-so-easy-to-deal-with needs of people around us. To tutor an underprivileged kid, to care for a man dying from AIDS, to sit in silence with someone at a nursing home, to visit a widow and help her with her laundry. Maybe, just maybe, after that, we can tell them the truth about what we know to be true in Jesus.
Believe me, a heart that knows you really care might just be ready to care for the Jesus who made you care for them in the first place.
YOUR JOURNEY…
Do an attitude check. Would you rather hate those who are “big-time sinners,” or love them as Jesus did?
How can you be more sensitive to those who aren’t quite ready to receive the truth? In what ways can you begin to show the real Jesus to them?
Make a list of people you know who upset you because of their lifestyle or publicly proclaimed philosophy. Make it a point to pray for them regularly. Ask God to help you show them the love of Jesus without condoning their lifestyle.
Read through James 1. Prayerfully write down some things you could begin doing differently in your life.