Day 17 - Love First: Dealing with Arrogance

Love First: Dealing with Arrogance

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Luke 18:9-13

Arrogance is tough to be around. We have many sayings about people who are arrogant—usually it involves them getting what they have coming to them, right? Sayings like, “Pride goes before a fall” or “How the mighty have fallen!” are just a couple of them. Remember the other faces of arrogance—aloofness, disdain, egotism, pretension, vanity, haughtiness, self-importance, pride—and how we can view them as desirable attributes? That seems to be what the Pharisee had done.

What if you worked with, lived with, or were friends with someone who was arrogant but didn’t seem to realize it? How might you deal with that? We are talking about working Love First in order to effect a change. Where would you even start to introduce the concept of change? A steady diet of being around someone who is arrogant has a way of beating you down.

Love First as a response and a way of life gives this person the benefit of the doubt as a first step. Love First as a way of life tries to understand why this person is the way they are. Many times, arrogance is used to cover up feelings of insecurity. Understanding another person is very often the best thing we can do for them...and for ourselves!

Love First is loving God and loving others. Sometimes that just takes a while. Perhaps the best change we can make in dealing with the challenges brought on by arrogance is to just be warm and friendly and caring...and give the relationship some time.

Perhaps the biggest change we need to make has to do with what’s inside of us. We need to know who we are, know whose we are, and be happy with ourselves.

Your Mission
Cut somebody some slack today. When you become irritated, check your own attitude to be sure it isn’t arrogance talking.

Day 18 - Love First: Dealing With Abandonment

Love First: Dealing With Abandonment

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 4:9-15

When Jesus asked the woman to give him a drink, little did she realize how her life would change. She thought they were talking about physical thirst, but Jesus was talking about spiritual thirst. Still, you have to follow her line of thinking:

1. If she drank the water Jesus gave her, she wouldn’t have to come back to the well.

2. If she didn’t have to come back to the well, she wouldn’t have to schedule her water drawing so that she avoided the other women.

3. If she didn’t have to schedule differently to avoid others, life would be better.

She was interested because she thought it would make her life easier.

When we have run into the challenges associated with abandonment (remember these other related issues: desertion, invalidation, withdrawal, cast off), it is often our first impulse just to do whatever is the least hassle. The least hassle is most often the least effective. We have to acknowledge our feelings of abandonment or acknowledge another person’s feeling of abandonment. Once those feelings are acknowledged, we must do something...we must act. Most often we choose to overcompensate by joining everything so that we don’t have to deal with the feelings we might have if we aren’t included.

What changes did the Samaritan woman have to make? Jesus let her know that she needed to quit living the life she was currently living—one of sin. He told her that she was to follow what the Messiah said—and that he is the Messiah! Do you wonder whether or not she did as he said? What changes do you think she made? Jesus talked to her about what true worship is. If he told her what she was doing, and then he told her what she needed to be doing, don’t you think she made those changes? It wouldn’t necessarily mean that she wouldn’t continue to face challenges, but he was giving her what she needed to make the changes she needed to meet those challenges.

Your Mission
Name one or two practices you have that you are resistant to change. Ask someone close to you if their life would be better if you did change. Pray about it together.

Day 19 - Love First: Changes

Love First: Changes

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:1-4

If we only look at the challenges to living a life that is rooted in Love First, we may not be convinced of how important a vision it is. Because to look at challenges and want to surmount them is to admit that we may need to make some changes, and change scares us. (Fear of the unknown is in that Top 10...)

In her online article on “How to Deal With Change,” life coach Terri Babers reminds us that change is always coming...and whether you look forward to it with anticipation or dread, it can be stressful. One of the biggest things we can do to prepare ourselves for making changes is to adjust our thinking. Attitude plays a huge part in dealing with challenges and with the changes they bring. Some steps to help us deal with change include:

- Simply notice that it is happening. Don’t try to run and hide.

- Face your feelings about the changes needed. Get past “Why me?” and “I don’t want to!” and “This isn’t fair!” Figure out your fears and face them.

- Determine whether or not the change is something you are willing to do. Don’t say you’re willing when you aren’t.

- Adopt an attitude of grateful anticipation. Know that God is in control and you have made the decision to live out his vision.

- Choose your thoughts and attitudes for each change. Negative thoughts block creativity and problem-solving. Positive thoughts build bridges to opportunities and possibilities.

- Learn to relax (more). Relaxation helps us deal with change.

- Set your goals in such a way that you can consciously guide the change.

God’s vision for Christ, and for us, is to love God and love others. Our lives need to be conscious of that all of the time. Choosing to live under that vision of Love First helps us to make any changes we may need to make to deal with the challenges that will come.

Your Mission
Pray the Serenity prayer today. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Day 20 - Love First: In the Face of Shame

Love First: In the Face of Shame

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?
John 8:1-5

Shame and its friends guilt and embarrassment are serious challenges to our lives. Shame has other names and faces—contempt, humiliation, remorse, stigma, dishonor, mortification, self-disgust. Feelings of shame are debilitating, keeping us from living full lives. Many times, the shame is secret, and it may not even be rooted in the truth or a real event, but it is real in the perception of the person who feels it. It can feel insurmountable.

In the story above, there are a couple of notable things. First, for all of their talk about the Law, the religious leaders had already disregarded it by only arresting the woman. The law actually required that both the woman and the man caught in adultery be stoned (see Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22). This was trickery by the Pharisees to try to trap Jesus so they could turn him over to the Romans. Second, Jesus didn’t condemn the woman, but neither did he ignore or condone her sin. He told her to leave her life of sin.

Adultery may not be one of the life-altering sins we fall into, but there are others that cause us to harbor shame inside. Adultery by someone we know or love may cause us to feel shame. The challenges presented by that can make a choice to live life Love First really difficult. Can we open ourselves to deal with those challenges? Are we willing to choose to Love First?

Your Mission
Notice someone around you who seems to bear the brunt of criticism. Pray for them by name saying, “What can I do for [name] today?” Plan to respond with Love First.

Day 21 - Love First: In the Face of Rejection

Love First: In the Face of Rejection

Later Jesus was going about his business in Galilee. He didn't want to travel in Judea because the Jews there were looking for a chance to kill him. It was near the time of Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews. His brothers said, “Why don't you leave here and go up to the Feast so your disciples can get a good look at the works you do? No one who intends to be publicly known does everything behind the scenes. If you're serious about what you are doing, come out in the open and show the world.” His brothers were pushing him like this because they didn't believe in him either.”
John 7:1-7 (The Message)

Fear of rejection is a big deal. It always make the Top 10 lists. In fact, it's most often in the Top 5. Fear of rejection keeps us from being all that we can be. It keeps us from being our true selves. It causes others to feel a lack of confidence in us. While we can recognize it in ourselves, it can be difficult for others to pick up on. We may not realize that the person we work with and who seems so confident is suffering from a fear of rejection—fear of our rejection. Before you claim not to care what other people think, let's see some different things that are wrapped up in this challenge: exclusion, repudiation, dismissal, alienation renunciation, disappointment, deficiency, disapproval, and divorce.

The challenge of rejection hits us where it hurts. It feels like an attack on the very core of ourselves. It's one thing to face rejection from the people who don't know us. It's quite another to face rejection from those who we feel we're supposed to be able to count on to support us! That's a rejection that leaves us reeling. It also leaves most of us determined not to put ourselves in the position for that to ever happen again. We close ourselves off, and it is such a challenge for anyone to get through to us.

We are mostly familiar with the times in Jesus' life and ministry when the teaching and religious leaders of the Jews challenged him and tried to bring him down. But in the account above, it's Jesus' own brothers who didn't believe in him. They ridiculed him—their very own brother who was the Messiah. They didn't believe in him.

Choosing a life that puts Love First challenges those feelings of rejection. It challenges us not to close ourselves off from others. It challenges us to meet those feelings with Love First.

Your Mission
In your prayer time today, ask God to help you to keep from rejecting someone else and to look at them with the eyes of Love First.

Day 22 - Love First: In the Face of Feeling Inferior

Love First: In the Face of Feeling Inferior

...Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, "Do you want to get well?" The sick man said, "Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in."
John 5:2-7 (The Message)

An inferiority complex is a general feeling of not being "up to the mark." Most of us accept without problem that we don’t have the financial acumen of Bill Gates, the brilliant intellect of Stephen Hawking, or the physical capabilities of Usain Bolt. True inferiority has more to do with us feeling like we should be as good as others and feeling like we're not and we don't know why.

I used to wonder why, in the story above, Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well. That seems to me to be a no-brainer. But Jesus did ask him. The man’s response was not as straightforward as you’d expect. Instead of shouting, "YES!" the man gave an excuse—at least it seems like an excuse to me. The man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years! I don't know whether he’d been laying by the pool that long or not. But he'd been laying there long enough to feel defeated about ever getting in the pool. Yet he still lay there.

The challenge to overcome feelings of inferiority or the challenge to help someone else overcome those feelings is more difficult than it would seem. Other faces of inferiority include feeling inadequate, feeling weak, having deficits that seem insurmountable, feeling insufficient, and having feelings of shortcoming. One thing we can see is that you can't just wish the feelings away—this man had been down for thirty-eight years!

There are some who deal with these feelings by being domineering to prove that they are better than others. There are others who tried to fade into obscurity, continually telling themselves, "I'm not good enough" or "I'm worthless."

Choosing to live Love First in the face of feeling inferior is not without its challenges. Helping others to face those feelings of inferiority is not without its challenges. But Love First demands our action.

Your Mission
Think about those who are oppressed and put down around you. Find a way to be an advocate for someone who needs help today.

Day 23 - Love First: What's Wrong With Me?

Love First: What's Wrong With Me?

When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
Mark 5:2-5

One of the life challenges many fear and have to face at some point is wondering whether (or realizing that) they or someone they love are damaged. Before you completely blow that off, let’s take a moment to look at the other faces of "damaged." Flawed, impaired, blemished, spoiled, distressed, crushed, fractured, fragmented, shattered, defective, abnormal, inadequate, injured. Does that make it seem a little more personal? Can you relate to feeling like any of those? Do you love someone who feels any of those?

Demon possession is pretty scary to even think about. The Exorcist has scared most of us more than once. Let’s not dwell on the demon possession part. Instead, let's focus on the visible signs that this person—this being—recognized that something was wrong with him. He would roam the tombs and hills night and day, crying out and cutting himself in his grief and devastation. Others were straight up afraid of him. We can pretty much guarantee that he didn't get many visits. But he was desperate for care, for attention...for love. The moment he saw Jesus, he fell on his knees and begged Jesus not to torture him. How damaged must he have been that the first thought that crossed his mind was being tortured?

Not many have been possessed by demons like this man, but many of us have felt inadequate to the point of quitting. We have felt flawed and defective. We know people who seem that way...maybe we have even asked ourselves, "What's wrong with them?" or said, "They're not normal."

But that isn't the end of it. Love First says that we respond—that we do something. In Jesus' case, he cast the demons out of the man. He showed the man compassion and love. He didn't worry about what others would say or do, he responded out of love first. It was challenging to the people who witnessed what happened. Verse 15 says: "When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid."

It will—and does—challenge us.

Your Mission
Meditate on today’s scripture passage. Could you show compassion without judging? What does it take to do so for you?

Day 24 - Love First: In the Face of Arrogance

Love First: In the Face of Arrogance

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9-14

Arrogance wears a lot of faces—aloofness, disdain, egotism, pretension, vanity, conceit, haughtiness, self-importance, narcissism, pride. We have all been on both sides of it. We have been the one with too much pride or have held ourselves aloof when others needed us. We have also been the one who suffered because someone else’s ego was threatened or we have been put down in the wake of someone else’s vanity. Whichever side we were on, we wanted to be loved in spite of it. That’s not so wrong.

Let’s face it. When we read this account of the two men praying, it doesn’t take rocket science to see that the Pharisee didn’t really go to the temple to pray to God. He went to announce to everyone else how good he was and how he was the best at doing what he was supposed to do. This was not a modest brag. This was arrogance and all of its associated faces.

What strikes me is how the tax collector didn’t respond to what everyone in the temple could obviously hear. He was completely engaged in begging God for mercy and forgiveness for his sins. I’m not so sure I could have just ignored or tuned out the Pharisee, especially if I had been singled out like this man was.

The challenges to either overcoming arrogance in our own lives or trying to love someone in spite of their own arrogance can seem overwhelming. It can be very difficult to admit that we are wrong. Instead, we may act humble, but deep down inside, we still believe that we are right and everyone else is wrong. It can seem nearly hopeless to try to cope with someone who persists in putting us down so that they look good.

Jesus was very clear to those listening to him that the tax collector, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified before God. It would have been interesting to interview both of those men as they left the temple. I wonder what the Pharisee would have said and what his facial expressions would have conveyed? I wonder if the tax collector would have even stopped for the interview or if he would have said, “No comment,” and gone on his way.

Your Mission
Try to conquer arrogance and anger today with love. Let the crazy driver merge, give someone the seat on MARTA, or the like.

Day 25 - Love First: In the Face of Abandonment

Love First: In the Face of Abandonment

Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
John 4:4-8 (the entire account is found in verses 1-38)

There are several remarkable things about this encounter. First, if you are familiar with the background, you know that Samaria was considered undesirable for the Jews. There were bad feelings and bad blood between Samaritans and Jews that had been going on for generations. Second, the time of day for this encounter was interesting. Women would come to draw water from the well in the morning and in the evening. This woman was there at noon—probably to avoid the other women. Third, it was against societal custom for a man, especially a Jewish man, to engage a Samaritan woman in conversation in a public place like the well.

Abandonment (and its other names: desertion, jilting, cast off, rejection, invalidation, withdrawal) is characterized by feeling like nobody cares about you, feeling like you’re all alone, feeling like you don’t matter. When you face this challenge, everyday chores can seem insurmountable.

Reading the account of the encounter reminds us that Jesus, and his gospel, is for every person, everywhere, in every circumstance. Living Love First means we represent Jesus to every single person we encounter—not just the ones we know. It means we are kind to the cashier who checks our grocery out. It means we smile and speak to the person in the dry cleaners. It means we are pleasant through the drive-through window. Love First means we are more concerned with the person we are interacting with than we are with ourselves.

When Love First becomes our way of life, the people we don’t know will be able to see Jesus in us. They may not understand. They may not respond well. They may ignore us. That doesn’t change how we live Love First. Because they might just store that away and think about it...and the next time we see them and respond to them in a Love First way, it will have made a difference in their life.

Your Mission
Many people feel they’ve been abandoned by a church. What is healthy way of communicating God’s love to such people?

Day 26 - Love First: Challenges

Love First: Challenges

...seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:33-34

Do not be afraid...for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. See your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.
Luke 12:32-34

The top life challenges for our culture come about as a result of our fears (two totally different lists). The top life challenges we face (according to www.wanttoknow.info) are abandonment, arrogance, feeling damaged, inferiority, rejection, and shame. The top ten fears are failure, death, rejection, ridicule, loneliness, misery, disappointment, pain, uncertainty (fear of the unknown), and the loss of freedom.

Our challenges often become obstacles that keep us from doing the right thing, or moving forward, or getting ahead. We can become so focused on what challenges us that we lose sight of our goals. Consciously choosing to live a Love First life, which is God’s vision for us, means we must be prepared for the challenges that life (and Satan) will put in front of us. Worrying about them only takes up energy that is better used to love God and others.

As we enter this section of challenges, I wonder what stories in Scripture Jesus used to instruct his disciples in these issues. Because he did. We have the same Old Testament that they had to draw from as well as stories Jesus used in the New Testament. How might Jesus have used these stories?

Challenges may come in the form of people, circumstances, feelings, events, and even our own minds. Challenges require action on our part. Can you think about some challenges you may have already faced or that you can anticipate facing when you choose to live your life Love First? Perhaps those challenges go right along with the top life challenges we all face.

Choosing to Love First may require you to face those challenges and make some changes, but there will be benefits. Benefits that may well change your life forever.

Your Mission
What obstacles stand between you and God? Try to remove one issue, but be sure to replace it with something beneficial.

Day 27 - Love First: Those Who Aren’t Family and Friends

Love First: Those Who Aren;t Family and Friends

If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

...Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
John 14:15-21, 23

Nearly everyone wants to do the right thing for the right reason. That’s a feel-good kind of statement. But it’s no surprise to anyone that wanting to do the right thing is harder than it sounds. And wanting to do the right thing for the right reason is harder yet. There is no guarantee that doing the right thing for the right reason will automatically make others respect you or be kind to you or appreciate what you’re doing. That’s part of what makes it difficult to choose to practice Love First in every situation. We want others to appreciate what we’re doing for them.

Some people, though, will take what we do for them and turn it into something we didn’t mean. Why? They don’t know God, they don’t know us, and they don’t know we have committed to living our lives putting Love First. What kind of response does that call from within us? Anger? Disgust? Hurt? Bitterness? Those emotions can—if we let them—fester in our hearts and keep us from doing what is right for the right reason.

Our goal is to Love First...because Christ first loved us.

Your Mission
Who do you know could use some loving today? Well, offer them some in the form of encouragement, a hug, or assistance.

Day 28 - Love First: Family and Friends

Love First: Family and Friends

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Romans 12:9-18

Love First is a noble concept. It’s also one of those things that talks a lot easier than it lives. Quite frankly, it does seem that no one can push your buttons quite as quickly as someone you’re related to or who knows you really well. It’s then that this concept of Love First becomes challenging. This group of family and close friends that you already love? They are the ones most difficult to maintain the Love First way of life with. Family has seen you at your absolute best...and your absolute worst.

Most of us have learned how to pretend to love others—how to speak kindly, how to avoid hurting their feelings, and how to appear to take an interest in them. We may even be skilled in pretending to feel moved with compassion when we hear of others’ needs, or to become indignant when we learn of injustice. But God calls us to real and sincere love that goes far beyond pretense and politeness. Sincere love requires concentration and effort. It means helping others become better people. It demands our time, money, and personal involvement.

Today, we honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and the contributions he made with his lifestyle of Love First. He constantly challenged people to live better and more honestly. He encouraged others to view the people around them in a “love your neighbor” kind of way. He advocated peaceful community. Not everyone appreciated that—even if they were convinced he was right.

There are times when “going through the motions” can jump-start us into living in a Love First way. But it takes a conscious decision to respond to others in that way because Jesus loved us that way. We have to take ourselves out of the way and put our own wants aside. Simple? Yes. Easy? No way.

Your Mission
Who’s the most loving person in your family? Your most loving friend? Consider why they are the most loving toward you?

Day 29 - Love First: What Is Our Example?

Love First: What Is Our Example?

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21

For years we’ve been taught to Love God. That’s a great goal. But we need to move from a Love-God kind of commitment to a Love-God-and-Others commitment. We’ve studied in depth the story of the Good Samaritan—and with good reason. That story teaches us about compassion, about paying attention to more than just what is directly in front of us and looking to the side to see those in need...and then doing something about it. We’ve imagined ourselves in each character’s role in the story—and that’s good, too. It helps us gain perspective in dealing with others. But what we haven’t overtly said is how this story is an example of Love First.

Obviously the priest and the Levite had priorities they felt were greater than the injured man in dire need on the side of the dangerous road. The Samaritan, in contrast, saw the value in Love First. His taking the time to attend to the man’s needs didn’t deter him from doing his daily business. His deeds of love and service weren't over-the-top, nor were they for show. It’s just what he did. He went on and took care of his business after seeing to the injured man’s needs.

Love First is just that. It’s paying attention in the normal course of our day or night—looking to the side to see if someone is in need. Most of the time, it’s right there in front of us; there’s not much looking for it required. It’s someone with car trouble on the side of the road in your neighborhood; it’s someone trying to do yard work ahead of incoming bad weather; it’s a runaway pet with frantic owners...it’s being aware of what is around us.

Love First makes a difference to one person at a time.

Your Mission
Spend some time today making an ongoing list citing every way God has shown love to you. Try to think both personally and broadly.

Day 30 - Love First: What Does It Mean?

Love First: What Does It Mean?

My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
1 John 3:18-20 (The Message)

James Bryan Smith, in his Embracing the Love of God, wrote this profound thing: “God has created a world in which we are the ones who care for one another. To put it another way, God cares for us through one another.”

Francis Schaeffer, in his influential book The Mark of a Christian, wrote another profound thing: “Love—and the unity it attests to—is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.”

Mother Teresa and her story of love for the poorest of the poor in India is well known. She observed the poorest people in India, she watched their lives, she observed their grief, she empathized with them, and she actively showed them the love of God. To her, love was only of use if it was put into and seen in action. She said things like: “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love...” and “You must give what will cost you something...”

She lived what she believed—love. She lived her calling and belief:

The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.

Love First demands action.

Your Mission
Make a sacrifice on behalf of another today. Do it without recognition, even if you have to do it anonymously.

Day 31 - And Then, There’s This...

And Then, There’s This...

“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely...”
Hosea 14:4(a)

A few months ago, we spent some time studying through the book of Hosea, and what we found there blew us away. We learned how Hosea told the entire nation of Israel that they needed to rethink their relationship with God. Up until that point, the relationship was along the lines of “I am your God; you are my people.” After Hosea, the relationship was more along the lines of “I am your Lover and I want you, Israel, for myself.” Prior to this, no one had dared to speak of God in those terms.

Scot McKnight says: “YHWH loves Israel the way a husband is to love his wife. Israel is to love YHWH with the same kind of love.” Hosea suggested to Israel that God had become heartsick over their unfaithfulness—much like a husband would feel over unfaithfulness in his wife. But in his heartsickness, YHWH pleaded with Israel to come back to him. We learned from Hosea that God loves his people. He loves them with a sacred love.

So when the Jesus Creed calls us to love God with everything we are—heart, soul, mind, and strength—we are called to form a love relationship with God that is totally sacred.

The term Abba is a personal and familiar form of “father” that implies the relationship of a much-loved child to their much-loved parent (see Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6). That’s the word that Jesus uses in the verses we are calling the Jesus Creed. That concept of Abba intensifies the significance of love. When we can put it together enough to understand our love for God as sacred and that he loves us with a sacred love, we come to want to honor that love with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That sacred love impacts every single thing we do and say. This love transforms our lives and calls for our “all” of everything. This sacred love becomes evident in our speech, our actions, and our worship. It embodies Love First.

Your Mission
Every time a negative thought comes to mind, or a negative word or deed arises, make yourself recite Hosea 14:4a.

Day 32 - More About The Jesus Creed

More About The Jesus Creed

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Love your neighbor as yourself.
Leviticus 19:18(b)

One of the first things we notice when we read these verses is the question presented at the outset by the Pharisees: “Which is the greatest commandment?” Putting aside what we know about the way the religious leaders of Jesus’ time tried to trip him up over and over, notice what was actually being asked. The man—an expert in the law—asked a question concerning spiritual formation—in fact, this question addressed the very spiritual center of their faith.

What Jesus told the Pharisees hit them in a very personal way. As normal Jews (and certainly as religious leaders), their spiritual formation began with loving God with all their heart, soul, and strength. But in these verses, Jesus revises that command in these ways: loving others is added to loving God, and loving God is understood as following Jesus. It hits us in a very personal way, as well. Minister and author Rick Warren puts it like this: “Life minus love equals zero...The best use of life is love. The expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.”

Scot McKnight has used the phrase “Jesus Creed” to identify what Jesus told us to do for spiritual formation. The Jesus Creed is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love First. It is what defines us.

Your Mission
In a global world, neighbor can mean a lot of things, but pray for the neighbors that live close to you and try to call them by name.

Day 33 - The Jesus Creed

The Jesus Creed

The terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001 changed our way of living and left us with many questions. Even if we could get satisfactory answers to our questions, our former way of life will never be restored. Never. Some of us now question things we would have calmly accepted in the past. That’s true in every arena. Things have changed dramatically in the religious landscape of America, as well, and we wonder if things will ever be the same as they used to. The answer is simple: They won’t.

But could things be better?

We have talked a great deal over the last few years about the concept of spiritual formation...with varying degrees of clarity. In his book The Jesus Creed, author Scot McKnight examines what it means to be spiritually formed.

It is simple.

It is profound.

Spiritual formation is about the love of God...and others. A spiritually formed person loves God and others. Spiritual formation begins with loving God...and loving others. Spiritual formation is about relationships—with God and with others.

Perhaps the Red Cross made the most notable and visible difference about loving and caring for others when they instituted a way to donate to disaster relief following the terrible earthquake and subsequent ruin of Haiti in 2010. All someone had to do to donate $10 to disaster relief for Haiti was to text the word “HAITI” to a short number on their mobile phone. The $10 was then added as a charge to their phone bill. How brilliant was that?! $43 million dollars was collected from mobile givers texting. Since then, for just about every natural disaster the world over, we can donate a small amount of money (small to us, perhaps, but HUGE for the effort) simply by texting a number on our mobile phone.

It wasn't the first time people gave generously to disaster relief. However, it changed who was doing the giving. It became up close and personal for a lot more people. Their hearts were pricked. They were motivated by love for mankind to do something.

Your Mission
If God asked you to love the unlovable, how would you begin? Do one thing to start seeing all people as God does, worthy of love.

Day 34 - Can We Agree on This?

Can We Agree on This?

Every question we have considered this week has the same theme. The answer is bound up in LOVE...why he died, the #1 commandment, why he came to Earth...

God’s vision for Jesus was to communicate this love to the world. Jesus faithfully lived under that vision. When we think of Jesus growing into his ministry...the entire journey was preparation for living out the vision God had for him.

We believe that God has a vision for his church...for this church family...and it is rooted in the vision God had for Jesus, his Son. It is the vision of Love. Love first. As his body, we live out his teachings and examples. But that means we must prepare to live under that vision of Love First.

There is a contemporary Christian song called “How He Loves,” written and performed by John Mark McMillan and covered by the David Crowder Band. Some of the lyrics include:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I Realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so.

The next few weeks will take us through what we need in order to live under Love First. It will be challenging, it may change our thoughts or actions, and there are spectacular benefits. What a gift awaits us as we strive toward God’s vision of Love First.

Your Mission
If love was the reason for living, how might your day look different? Try to live that way today in every way (conversation, traffic, etc.)

Day 35 - What Would You Say?

What Would You Say?

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:9-17

We would all agree that the journey to the cross and dying on the cross is certainly the unspeakable and inestimable sacrifice of Christ. If someone asked you why he did it—why did Christ die on the cross—what would you answer?

Think for a minute about all the songs you know or have heard that send the message that “love is the answer.” From early hymns to contemporary Christian songs, from Nat King Cole to Miguel and J. Cole, from the Beatles to Beyoncé...all sing songs that tell the message that love is what motivates all of us and is the answer to everything.

Do you believe that? What about that do you have trouble with? Do you live your life in that belief?

Would you agree that it is easier to love someone who loves you than it is to love someone who doesn’t care? What makes it easier? Does Jesus fit into that category for you?

Your Mission
“The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.” Pray for a change in how you feel toward people who have wronged you.

Day 36 - What Do You Think?

What Do You Think?

Key Question:
If someone asked you what is absolutely the most important commandment (in Jesus’ eyes), what would you answer?

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40

I’m a people-watcher...and people can be pretty interesting! If you watch and observe people long enough, you will discover what is important to them, and it won’t take long. If you spend time in conversation with them, their values always surface. They talk about what is important to them. In fact, their bank account, photo albums, Facebook timeline, Twitter feed...pretty much everything revolves around what is important to them. And you realize, these are some of the ways you reveal your values and priorities to others.

There are material things that are important to us, but more importantly, we have spiritual values. We want to be “right with God.” We want to live in obedience to his commands and purposes. We want God’s priorities. Jesus makes it clear that God does consider some commands as more important than all the others.

In this section of Scripture, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. These two commandments are the building blocks—even the foundation—for all other commandments.

So let’s answer the key question:
If someone asked you what is absolutely the most important commandment (in Jesus’ eyes), what would you say?

Your Mission
Replace something important today in your routine (TV show, going to eat, etc.) with at least 30 minutes dedicated to serving God.

Day 37 - Just to Get on the Same Page...

Just to Get on the Same Page...

Key Question:
If someone asked you why Jesus came to earth, what would you say (in one word/phrase/verse)?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
Luke 19:10

Many of our students—past and present—have participated in mission trips that were a lot of hard work. This hard work was freely given and gladly done. Nearly every person who engages in the mission trips is asked at one time or another why they would come and do this. People who are on the receiving end often have trouble understanding why kids and adults would take their own free time to come, serve, and do thankless, difficult work.

If you’ve gone on any of those trips, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the bewilderment on the faces of folks when we do loving and caring things for them that no one else cares to do. You’ve seen how they are amazed at the acceptance and value given to them. They don’t realize that it’s just a taste of what Jesus has done for us. They cannot understand that we love them and want to help them when no one else does.

It’s usually during those times when we are serving that we openly acknowledge that a big part of why we do what we do for them and the love we show them is because God loved us so very much that he allowed his only Son to die for us. No matter how many times I read and hear that, it still blows me away.

Now, let’s answer the key question:
If someone asked you why Jesus came to earth, what would you say (in one word/phrase/verse)?

Your Mission
What action makes you feel most loved? Spend time writing down all the ways you’ve experienced love from both God and others.

Day 38 - Preparing to Live Under God’s Vision

Preparing to Live Under God’s Vision

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
John 5:17

A collection of powerful thoughts on prayer, devotion, and transformation:

If we are to be new creatures in Christ, we must show that we are so by new ways of living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in the way we spend each day. For if the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, they would make a man as different from other people as a civilized man is from a savage. If the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, it would be as easy a thing to know a Christian by the outward course of his life as it is now difficult to find a person who lives the Christian life.
- William Law

God’s loving motive [in discipline] is to bring us into total harmony with himself so that moral power and holy usefulness becomes our in this world and in the world to come.
- A.W. Tozer

O that the Lord would open our understandings! for they are but a dead letter without the illumination of His Holy Spirit.
- George Whitefield

If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the smooth waters just inside the harbor bar, full of delight, but always moored; you have to get out through the harbor bar into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to have spiritual discernment.
- Oswald Chambers

Read these over a couple of times, as you prepare to live under God’s vision for you and for our church family. Remember that we are God’s workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Your Mission
Pray for the leaders of our congregation today. Pray specifically that God would give them the vision to reach those around us and to glorify him in all we do.

Day 39 - Essentiality of Vision

Essentiality of Vision

However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him” –
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, 1962

For many of us, this happened in our lifetime. Nearly all of us have seen footage of the moon landing and have heard and read that America did what seemingly could not be done. The phrase in this challenge that seems most relevant to us as we look to the future concerns the way that the Kennedy’s goal served “…to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills...” Kennedy’s challenge engaged a generation in pursuit of his goal.

Goal setting can be a tricky thing, can’t it? Can you name the last goal you set—and achieved? Think about that for a few minutes. Why did you set that goal? What drove you? What kept you on track toward finishing and achieving what you set out to do? Did you complete that goal in the time frame you set for it? What was the reward for you? Was it worth it?

While we can go through our day-to-day lives just reacting to what happens around us, we need goals to help us do the things we need to do, as well as the things that we want to do. So how essential is it that we articulate our goals and vision?

Your Mission
In your prayers today, use the phrase “Father, help me to use the best of my energies and skills in your service.” Keep your eyes open to what he shows you.

Day 40 - Blessing and Promise of Vision

Blessing and Promise of Vision

Where there is no vision, the people perish...
Proverbs 29:18

Does this ring a bell? What is meant by “vision” and “perish?” A quick look at the New Century Version can expand and elevate our understanding.

Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled, but those who obey what they have been taught are happy.

This “vision” that people need is not a new, trendy statement that can be easily posted or tweeted. The vision we need is a clear word from God. We need his guidance for how to live our lives and his direction to make the most of our time on earth. Our happiness is directly tied to the vision, or the word from God.

A quick story about guidance and vision.

Auto mechanics dread trying to diagnose and fix electrical problems. They can be so difficult to track down. Once, after rebuilding an engine for my truck, I was attempting to start it for the first time. The engine would crank, but would not start. I reached out to my dad (a master mechanic) for help. He studied the situation for a few moments and then said, “You have your wires crossed on the coil.” I thought, “Could it be that simple?” I trusted his guidance and switched the wires. As soon as I turned the key, the engine roared to life! I just needed a little guidance when I had my wires crossed.

It is easy to get our wires crossed in life. We get mixed up about what is right and wrong or about what is important or unimportant. It is easy to get confused. This concept holds true when we apply it to our church. Are we on point with the mission of God revealed in Jesus Christ? I believe there is a “holy restlessness” in our hearts, stirring us to reconnect with his mission in a fresh way.... something inside that says, “There has to be more we could be doing for the cause of Christ!”

This prayer and action guide is all about reconnecting in a fresh way with the vision of God. The leadership of our church dedicated themselves to prayer and fasting for the past four months, repenting and recommitting ourselves to God's vision. During the next 40 days, we will dedicate ourselves as a church family to reconnecting with the vision of God. I am so excited for the opportunity to make this journey with you!

Your Mission
Stop and say a prayer right now, asking God to grant you—and our church leaders—clarity and wisdom to envision the future.

Introduction - Disturb Us, Lord

Disturb Us, Lord

Sir Francis Drake was a complicated man by all means. This British sailor became world famous in the 16th century for his navigational exploits. To some he was a hero and to others an enemy. Like many adventurers of his time, their good deeds and lawless acts were a mixture of the time, place, and vocation of new world exploration. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe.

His father was a minister and later a sea-faring chaplain. He introduced his son to faith and sailing. The following is a prayer by Francis Drake:

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.