Tag Archives: Truth

The work of the Holy Spirit….

21 Sunday May 2017

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“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the spirit of truth.”  This passage is from the 14th chapter of John.  Christ is speaking of the Holy Spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit that rattles the sabre within our soul.  It is the Holy Spirit that leads people to faith.  It is the Holy Spirit that brings people to a community of faith and leads them to be baptized, join the church, lead bible studies and read to the children at the school.
God still speaks, Christ still reveals, the Holy Spirit still moves people to step out of their comfort zone and leads them to deeper levels of faith.  Speaking to us through this life that is oftentimes difficult, confusing, hard and beyond understanding at times.
It is the work of our God and of the Holy Spirit that beckons us to live intentional lives of faith.
Pastor Shawn, Seymour UMC
Author of Incomplete
shawnlarueorg.wordpress.com

I’ve always struggled with acceptance……

07 Sunday May 2017

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I’ve always struggled with acceptance.  I’m afraid I always will.  I think one of the greatest fears humans experience is the fear and painful sting of rejection.  It keeps many from stepping out of their comfort zone.  It paralyzes us with fear.

Those that step into leadership positions, either by a calling or through their own ambition, immediately become targets for their own shortcomings and those of whatever it is they are leading.

The church is one place where acceptance should be found.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.  Many have walked away hurt, confused and bitter because they have been looked down upon or treated as inferior.

What a terrible thing it is not to be accepted for who you are, regardless of how others think.  It is okay to disagree, it is not okay to judge, dismiss or take humanity from those that we disagree with.

Not being accepted is hurtful and causes anxiety.  Having said all that, true acceptance can only be found in God and his grace.  There are areas within our souls that cannot be touched or healed by others.  That healing and acceptance can only come from our triune God.

It is frustrating and not fair to ask of others only what God can provide.  Even having been a pastor for almost two years I still struggle with this.

Shawn LaRue

shawnlarueorg@wordpress.com

Author of Incomplete

Eyes to see….

06 Saturday May 2017

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Two of Christ’s followers were walking to Emmaus.  They were discussing all that had happened when Christ began walking with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  Being blind to God’s presence happened in biblical times and still does today.  Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize him standing before her in the garden tomb and Cleopas and his friend don’t recognize him when he is walking alongside.
It was only when Christ opened their eyes that they saw him.  How blind we can be at times.  Blind to the pain and suffering of others, blind to our own actions and how they impact others.  We need to ask God for eyes to see and for his presence to soften hard hearts.
Pastor Shawn – Seymour Methodist Church, Seymour, IA
Author of Incomplete

For this reason…

23 Sunday Apr 2017

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Ephesians 3:14-20

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.  I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.”

 For this reason.  For this reason… and what reason is that?  Paul had just written that he was the very least of all the saints and it was God’s grace that was granted to him to preach the boundless riches of Christ. 

For and because of God’s grace, it is that for that reason that Paul’s knees bow before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.  God’s grace is the reason.

Salvation by grace through faith.  This unlimited treasure of grace.  Let me ask you this question, do you allow yourself to be full open to receive grace?  Are you able to fully receive it and extend it to others?

I am guilty of this.  I am guilty of not taking the time to reflect on all that God has done for me and taking many times for granted.  I am guilty of being closed off to grace at times and of trying to do something to earn it.

Maybe you have done the same.  Gone through a time of spiritual dryness or struggle.  Trying to balance the demands of ministry, family, your own spiritual growth and for those of us that are bi-vocational, a full-time job as well.  Too many things to get done, allowing little time to reflect on God’s work in our own lives.

 Paul was a man that suffered many hardships for the sake of the gospel.  He became a servant according to the gift of God’s grace.  As we all know Paul wasn’t always a servant for Christ.  He persecuted Christians and tried to extinguish the early church.  God’s redeeming work and grace took a man that killed Christians and made him a man that would help save them. 

Paul is the most prolific writer in the New Testament.  If grace can change a heart that hard, what can it do for each of us?  What each one of us are capable of.  For this reason, for the saving grace of our God, my knees bow before the Father.

Pastor Shawn LaRue

Author of Incomplete

incompletedevotional.com

 

 

Who is Christ?

09 Sunday Apr 2017

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“Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!” the crowds shouted as Christ triumphantly entered the holy city of Jerusalem for the last time.  Save us, grant us blessing in the highest places.  The Jewish people were a conquered people, they carried the brutal weight of the Romans on their back.  They would be saved.
The whole city shook with the question of, “Who is this?”  Who is this man, fully human yet fully divine?  My question is during Holy Week is who is Christ to you?
What kind of God comes to this world, lives precisely the same way we do, lives a life of radical poverty, heals, teaches and allows the very same people he came to save to turn him over to be beaten, whipped, tortured and crucified?
A God of love does that.  A God that has a radical love for his people, a love that is unheard of and that we can only scratch the surface of.  During this holiest of days, let this question of who Christ is not be far from our hearts and minds.
Pastor Shawn, Seymour UMC

When the material things of this world don’t deliver.

02 Sunday Apr 2017

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“There was a man who had two sons.  The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’  So he divided his property between them.  A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.”     Luke 15:11-13 (The prodigal son)

I see myself in the parable of the prodigal son, and maybe you do too.  He was young and brash with a desire to live life in the fast lane.  He couldn’t wait for his father to pass.  He needed his inheritance now.

After his father grants his wish, the young man packs his belongings and heads to a distant land.  He squanders his money on fast living.  He hits bottom, so much so that he asks a farmer to hire him to help with his pigs.  He is so hungry that what the pigs are eating looks good to him.

Many of us haven’t sunk to this level physically, but how about spiritually?  It is when we are at our weakest, hungriest, coldest and in terrible pain that we cry out to God for mercy.  The prodigal son returns home and begs for forgiveness.  His father waits for his return and rejoices when it happens.  Much the same way our heavenly father rejoices when we return to him, he forgives us of our disobedience.

When living out all the desires of the flesh falls short, when you can’t find joy or happiness, turn to God.

 

Pastor Shawn LaRue

Author of the devotional, Incomplete

 

The risk in love.

11 Saturday Mar 2017

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“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.— 1 Corinthians 13:4–7

 

In order to love, you must offer your heart to someone else with the knowledge that there is nothing more precious you can offer. You must reveal all your faults, flaws, shortcomings, and things you don’t like about yourself. Being vulnerable is difficult and something most of us go to great lengths to avoid. When we weep, we often run for cover, not wanting others to see us that way.

Love is risky and dangerous. Love can say no, turn its back, and walk away. That story belongs to many; it is our story. It happened in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve turned from God and disobeyed. They had everything except for one thing, and they couldn’t resist. The ugliness of sin and the endless desires of the flesh take our focus from God. But it is God to whom we must return.

There is risk in love. But it is precisely what we are called to do, what we were made to do. Those intense feelings about those close to us give us a glimpse of what heaven will be like.

Pastor Shawn LaRue, shawnlarueorg.wordpress.com

 

Thanks again to Bnv for allowing me to be a guest blogger.

 

Poem: “In the Fire” (#guestblogger)

12 Sunday Feb 2017

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For what it’s worth,
and for what it may be,
I say that you can be charcoal,
stripped to black –
– only don’t let them see.

A. R. Frederiksen is a recurring guest blogger here at BnV, and her own writing blog can be found here, where she dabbles in flashfiction/poetry and reflects over the, much elusive, ABCs of writing.

Fair Season – #Inspirational #Poetry

06 Monday Feb 2017

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Fair Season

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Shall I Sing in Sweetest Clamor
Harkening Thee to The Glory of Day?
Shall I Listen to the Lark’s Pure Chatter,
Spinning Gold From Flaxen hay?
Shall I Weave this Tapestry
Of Eloquence and Finest Speech,
Ignoring the Twinkling Light Afar,
The Simple Implication it Begs to Teach?
Tear down the injustice of captive fear!
Break Free from the harbingers of gloom!
Plant Sweet Roses in Aspiring Daylight,
Where Petals Fragrant shall Blushing Bloom
And Stand in Awe at Love’s Fair Season,
Bluster and Barrows insignificant falling,
While the Nighttide Sings in Harmony
And All of Heaven’s Truth is Calling.

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~Morgan~
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Beautiful Original Artwork by: Lady Symphonia

In the World, Not Of It

29 Sunday Jan 2017

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truth

by Susan Irene Fox

When listening to my Father’s call

the world attempts to use disguise

to lead me into my downfall

when lies are truth and truth are lies.

The Gospels lift me up to soar,

and daily mind and heart restore.

 

The words of Jesus free my thoughts

and bring me back to God’s embrace

to focus on the things I ought;

on love, compassion and His grace.

He came not to condemn but save

and all my sins expunged, forgave.

 

Abiding in the Spirit shows

me how to be and how to live.

Christ’s light from Living Water flows;

this fact holds no alternative.

The truth from fruit’s essential seeds

is God’s great source from which He feeds.

 

Because I sustain nourishment

from my Savior’s bread of life,

His voice of love is sweet assent

which melts and calms the daily strife.

God always is my Number One;

His wisdom never is outdone.

 

So say your truth, but I know His.

I am to open heart and hands,

to welcome all, and more than this;

to care for orphans, widows and

to reconcile the world, employ

God’s grace and wisdom, love and joy.

 

“I guarantee this truth: every believer has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” (John 6:47-48)

“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who cares for the truth hears my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)

And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)