Alive and Active

Our love for the Lord should be reflected in how we speak to others. As Christians we should honor God and be humble servants of Jesus in all things. We need to protect our hearts and minds from things that aren't godly or we will end up using our tongues in ways that are ungodly. We can't praise God with our lips, but at the same time curse people. The love of Jesus and resting on in what He accomplished for us on the cross and through His resurrection should cause us to speak words of life to everyone we come across.

Proverbs 18 and James 3 both talk about controlling our tongues. We have to put in a tremendous amount of effort in changing how we speak and it starts with godly training. When we take in God's Word and we let it saturate in us, we can then speak life to others and edify them instead of tearing them down. We represent Jesus at all times and our mouths are a reflection of our hearts.

Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and defeated death. Believers are born-again (John 3:3) by the Spirit of God. God has put all things under His authority. We have been transferred from death to life and God has spiritually adopted us as his child. If you are a Christian, you are living under supernatural power. Our labor in this world is not in vain with the Lord.
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We “Get To” worship an ALIVE and RESURRECTED JESUS. Religion is man's attempt to reach God, but salvation is God coming down through Jesus Christ to reach man. Jesus died on a cross to fully pay for our sin, and he rose three days later and defeated death. It's not do more, try harder. It's dying to our old self daily. We get a new life from dying not trying. Trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior is what it's all about!!
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In 1st Samuel 20:17 Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again because Jonathan loved David as a brother. We experience true deep friendship with one another when we do life with them, go through the highs and lows with them, and learn how to express our true feelings with them. The end goal is to be conformed into the image of Christ and one of the ways we get there, is when we sharpen one another in godliness. Also: let’s not wait till someone passes away to eulogize them at their funeral; let’s tell them now how much you love and appreciate them and how much they mean to you. It will be a tremendous blessing for the person hearing the news.

Wisdom is a skill set that we can develop through everyday training. We do this through our relationship with Jesus Christ since He is our firm foundation. In Proverbs 30, ants, rock badgers, locust, and lizards are all described as small but unusually wise, but those animals and insects teach us how to prepare, how to have a solid foundation, how to work together, and how to be opportunistic. As believers we can incorporate those things into our lives and we can develop the skill set of wisdom by spending time in God's word.

Jesus went across enemy lines and shed His blood to cleanse us from all sin. In 2 Samuel 23, David's mighty warriors risked their lives to cross enemy lines and bring back water that David longed for from his hometown of Bethlehem. David refused to drink the water because the water represented the men's blood. There was a culture of love with David and his men. The culture of love starts with Jesus and He gave His life for us, so we should do things for the Lord out of an overflow of the example He set in love.
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Colossians 3:23 tells us to "Work with all of your heart at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." No matter what job or hobby you have, you can live for the Lord in all things. Jesus Christ is our motivation and he was as tough as they come since he endured the brutal beatings and crucifixion. As followers of Jesus, we look to God's word so that we can have a biblical worldview for the cultural goliaths that we face.

In the Bible, God uses the animal kingdom to teach us about wisdom. As powerful as lions are, God has given us human beings that are made in His image. Despite not looking the part, David was confident when he went against Goliath because he knew that God was with him. When opposition comes our way, we can look to Jesus Christ, the author and perfector of our faith and he makes us more Christlike.

Joab was a mighty military warrior under David, but he was flawed because he sacrificed his morals and he did whatever it took by any means necessary to accomplish his purpose. As believers in Christ, we can't operate that way. We have to live differently and not follow the ways of the world. We are called to be Christ like and we can't let our circumstances determine how we live this life.
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