Love Others as Yourself

*** I realize I might get a lot of people upset with this one but it truly is what God's Word says. I don't like to be hated. That is not why I write these truths. The truth is I want to be liked, but I love the Lord too much to neglect telling the truth especially when it is poisoning the Church Body. So, here it goes...

Today’s scripture:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18 NKJV)

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30 NKJV)

Take a close look at today’s first scripture. Perfect love casts out fear. To have perfect love is to have Jesus Christ. This is what makes Him the answer to any issue in our lives. Why do we do the things that we hate? It’s because of fear; fear of not being someone who makes a difference, fear of not being accepted or loved, fear of being a nobody, fear of being alone, fear of many things. We need to kill that fear with perfect love, because dear ones, “Love never fails” (see 1 Corinthians 13).

In my childhood years, I had many people tell me (most of them in the psychology field) that I need to love myself. I had a long period of time that was filled with depression to a very severe state that had me hospitalized 3 different times in my early years. I also had many people tell me that I need to forgive myself for the things that I have done.

I’ve heard about people with strongholds on their lives like eating addictions of gorging themselves with food or anorexic tendencies of purging the large amounts of food they just ate. Or, people with the desire to hurt themselves by cutting up their arms, or with the severe hopelessness that they can not be healed, so they drink large amount of liquor mixed with a bottle of sleeping pills hoping not to wake up. The sad thing is there are many people that live in bondage with many ways of dealing with life’s issues.

But I have to tell you the issue isn’t because they lack self-love. In fact, they do these things because they love themselves too much! Now, please dear one, let me explain before you write this off as my ignorance or a lack of grace or compassion. Remember, I too have been in that place of total despair of thinking too low of myself or hating myself. I didn’t hate myself like I thought I did. The truth is I thought way too much of myself and what others thought of me that I became the center of my own world.

The thing with gorging on food, cutting yourself, purging your food so you can look thin or any other addiction isn’t because you don’t love yourself. It is because you have got the focus on you in a very destructive way. The answer is not to think of yourself in a positive way. It isn’t because you need to say things like “I am successful”, “I am powerful”, “I am loved” or “I am beautiful”. This kind of self-affirmation sounds good and maybe even sounds biblical. But, the truth is the bible says nothing about loving ourselves. The answer, my dear friends, is found in the cross! It is found in the total sacrifice in what Jesus Christ has done for you!

You might say what about Matthew 22:39 “…‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ This verse is not saying to love yourself. It’s a command to love others LIKE you love yourself. Its assuming you already love yourself as it says in Ephesians 5:28-29 “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies... For no one ever hated his own flesh…”.

According to that passage in Matthew 22, Jesus says the whole bible is wrapped up in two commands: 1^st Love God, 2^nd Love others. That is all! Nothing about yourself! Now, hold on, it’s not wrong to recognize who you are in Christ Jesus. It’s not wrong to know you are loved. You need this wisdom, but all wisdom comes from fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). This “fear of the Lord” is a reverence and high respect. Without that reverence we are incapable of loving Him. We love Him because He first loved us (see 1 John 4:19).

Many people I talk to say “Yes, I agree. We should recognize that we are loved and know that God is going to work mighty things through me.” But the thing is they tend to stay there. This type of theology, I feel, can be very dangerous. It can slowly persuade us to focus on ourselves. Yes, it is true, God has a plan for your life just as every other person and He does work miracles through us and gives us huge responsibilities. But the focus needs to stay on Him!

Reflection:

The truth is, according to John 1:29, Jesus is the answer to all life’s problems! God’s Word says that He and He only takes away the sins of the world. We do the things we do because of our sin nature. Jesus even says in Mark 10:18 “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but God.

Challenge:

Do you struggle with any of these issues on how you are trying to deal with your problems? First, get on your knees before a holy God and acknowledge Him for what He has done for you on the cross and thank Him for it. Then, seek out someone that needs love. Someone who is poor, or abused, or even someone that irritates you. Look close into their life and see if there is something you can bless them with. Mercy has the power to kill that obsession of serving yourself with any issue.

-Doug McGowan

Do not be like the apostate church

Take a look at this convicting message...

Click on:  WAKE UP CHURCH!!!

God is faithful

Back in August of last year I wrote a blog titled "Sorrow will turn to joy...

(http://theheartofchrist.blogspot.com/2012/08/sorrow-will-turn-to-joy.html). 

In that blog I mentioned some issues my family and I were facing. I also wrote in that blog what I heard the Lord say that gave me great peace. The Lord said..

It's going to be hard, but I am with you. When you hear the lies that you’re not going to make it, remember that this is a time I have prepared for you and your family to press into Me and have faith in Me. I'm going to give you more of Myself and I am going to strengthen and purify all of you to help you through this process of pain. Just don't turn from Me. Instead, turn toward Me. You may feel at times as if I'm not listening or that I have left you, but it will only FEEL that way. In reality, when My only Son hung on that cross for you, He went through an enormous amount of physical pain and then suffered My wrath, but look what We (the Trinity) gained as a result. It was right for Me to crush Him like that because My desire was and is to receive glory and provide My resurrected Son with a people for the New Earth, including you! I am helping you and I will provide for you.

The situation that we had was this...

After getting married to my lovely wife Cyndi we became a family of 8. Cyndi had a job cooking at a ministry in Harvey, IL. Being that she was the ministry's cook, they let her take home as much food as she needed. So, needless to say we were not in great need of food and we ate well every night. Even though we both had jobs, they still were jobs through ministry so, even though we were doing ok, we didn't have a lot of cushion in the bank. Also, after getting married we were convicted about our tithing. The conviction was we weren't tithing at all. So, a few months after we started tithing, Cyndi was told that her job was ending because of budget cuts.

Well, its been a year since that blog and so much has taken place. Our whole family has had chapters of challenges in their lives, some very huge challenges but I can see now how God has been so good to us and very faithful.

One of our own was facing prison time of 5 years, but rather than go to prison God laid it on the judges heart to send him to Teen Challenge (a spiritual discipleship for drug and alcohol rehab that is firmly grounded in biblical truth). He is doing great and is starting to know what it means to truly follow and love God and he is making a commitment in doing so and has a desire to go into ministry when God says its time.

Another one of ours is finishing up well after going through some biblical counseling of some pretty serious issues and she volunteers heavily at our church and is on her way to go on her first mission trip in a couple weeks! She also is learning the importance of prayer and staying in the Word of God.

And still another has made huge strides in changing his ways from a desire for drugs, and the need to be in a special school for troubled kids, and is now staying clean and is on the honor roll at the public school and getting great positive reports from teachers and the principle!

Another one of ours has had some financial hardship already in his young life and in the past has had a strong desire for drugs and alcohol but now is choosing to follow God and be responsible for his financial responsibilities. I now see my boy as a man who is learning what it means to "man up" and lead by coming along side his younger brothers and sister and be a biblical example of love. He also has a desire to write and has started writing a faith-based book!

For myself and my wife Cyndi, we have had much challenges as well. We too are going through some counseling to get things right with Jesus. I have taking time away from teaching and ministry to focus on being a father and a husband for a time.

The other day I was re-reading that blog from a year ago, and God let me see over the past year how He has been faithful. I'll share two of the many provisions that come to mind...

A few months ago, my wife asked me to pick out a gift she wanted to bless me with from the tax return we received. After we had all of our needs met, we had about $350 left over. I said what about a kayak? I've always wanted one and now that I'm trying to win my kids relationships, I saw this as a way if I got a two person kayak to take them on. I started looking into the prices and quickly got very discouraged. They were way out of my price range by hundreds of dollars. Then Cyndi says "ask God for your kayak"! Really?? Would He want to do that? So, I asked God very specifically for a two person NON-Inflatable kayak that I can afford. Right away, the thought came to me to call up an old friend of mine from years ago who has become an atheist. I remembered he used to kayak all the time. 

He was blown away! He says, "There is a God after all! Doug, I just decided to sell my two person kayak! Doug, I am not kidding it was just yesterday I decided to sell it. I'll sell it to you for $750!" Man! More discouragement! I told him I can't afford it. I only have $300. He said you ain't going to find anything for that amount. Then he says "I'll think about it". The next day he said I'll deliver it to your house for $350!!! Wow! When he pulled up he said your getting one heck of a great deal! This kayak has two sets of peddles for your feet and paddles and a rudder! The rudder alone is a few hundred dollars. Brand new this kayak is worth $3,000!!! Praise you Jesus!!!

Another thing happened just last Mother's Day. Cyndi loves the zoo so, I wanted to surprise her with a trip to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, which is a free zoo but you have to pay about $30 for parking. And we didn't have hardly any money at all. Since I let her handle the bills and take care of our finances, I didn't really have much of a clue how we were going to do this, but I felt God wanted me to do it anyway and for me just to trust Him. So, Cyndi and I along with the kids went to Chicago and had fun at the zoo. On our way out of the park, we stopped to pay for the parking. The debt card we used did not work, so we gave the guy another debt card and that one didn't work either, so we gave him our last debt card and all three failed! I said to the guy we don't have cash so he said Happy Mother's Day and let us go for free! But here is the amazing part - I tried the debit card after we left and it worked fine! I believe God kept those cards from working to save us the money!

The lesson I have learned and am still learning is just to have more trust in my Jesus! I wanted to tell you all of this in hopes this brings you some hope and peace if your going through some hardship. Even if its not financial hardship, God is your great provider!

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indefference

Now this should be the heart of every believer. ESPECIALLY those who are missionaries!!!

But, then again, if we are a believer, aren't we all missionaries no matter where God has us?

God, send me!!! I am willing!

http://youtu.be/UWHJ6-YhSYQ

Video by Eric Ludy presenting the Gospel in an awesome way

http://youtu.be/nPIOkdNL-QQ

Blind eyes to a faith that can see

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (II Corinthians 5:6-8 NKJV)

In the Movie "Facing The Giants" the coach challenges the captain of the football team to crawl on his hands and feet with a 160 lb. man on his back to the 50 yard line (that's HALF the field)! The player says there is no way. The coach doesn't settle for that answer and challenges him anyway, but he goes even further. The coach says to do it blindfolded because he doesn't want him to give up when he sees the impossible.

See, the player thinks he is going to try to get to the 50 yard line which he already believes is too hard. But what he doesn't know is the coach has a bigger plan in view, but if the player knew what he was planning there is no way he would even attempt it. So, he blindfolds him to keep from seeing the impossible.

The player gets the blindfold on, gets down on the ground and the other guy lays on his back. This guy, by the way, I believe represnets the burden or cross we must carry in our struggles. The only thing the player can see is darkness but he can hear his coaches voice right next to him saying "YOU CAN DO THIS AND IT'S NOT TO HARD, KEEP GOING!!!"

As the player unknowingly gets to the 50 yard line, he starts to say things like, "I'm about out of strength", "I can't go any further", "This is too hard". Then the coach gets down to his level and says "YES YOU CAN!!!" He pulls out all stops to encourage his player! Then as he finally finishes, the coach takes the blindfold off and the player finds himself in the ENDZONE! He covered the whole field of 100 yards on his hands and feet with 160 lbs on his back when he believed he couldn't even do half of that! What a victory!

See, that's the way we need to be with our Christain walk. When God calls us to a certain tasks and to live according to His Word, we start out saying we can't. It's impossible. There is no way! Left to ourselves, we can't. but we have the blindfold on and if you are spending time in prayer and in God's Word every day, you will hear His voice bent down right next to you saying "YES YOU CAN"!

This is from Oswald Chambers (My Utmost For His Highest)...

"Because you have kept My command to persevere . . . —Revelation 3:10

Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, “I can’t take any more.” Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He lets the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands... 

There are areas in our lives where that faith has not worked in us as yet— places still untouched by the life of God. There were none of those places in Jesus Christ’s life, and there are to be none in ours. Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance— a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power."

If this is a picture of how we are to live out our faith on the field, what does your field look like? What areas do you struggle with or what thorns has God allowed you to bear? What kinds of things in your life causes you to say, "I can't take one more step"?

I'll share a little bit of what my field looks like... I struggle so much with working alone. I'm the kind of person I have to work really really hard to motivate myself to do any work if I'm left by myself. Its the way ive always been. And I'm in a job that requires me to work alone a lot of the time. See how God uses that to build up in us what is lacking? I also struggle a lot with "Self protective pride" that is I get very defensive and even very angry when I FEEL like I'm being attacked even if that isnt really what is happening. 

Those are just some of the things that I struggle with on a daily basis. And do I walk perfectly on my hands and feet like that player? Haha! I would like to say I do but the fact is I fall and walk backwards it seems more than I'm walking forward. I fail and fail and fail all the time. But I can hear my Lord Jesus's voice still saying to me "you can make it"!

-Doug McGowan

The Road to Freedom

Doug McGowan

I got permission from my wife Cyndi to posts this. It's her testimony. You will be blessed if you take time to read this. It brings tears to my eyes...

- The Road to Freedom -

Have you ever been skeptical when you heard a person say that they went to prison and found Jesus? So was I…until it happened to me. I had been living a life of recklessness, carelessness, and selfishness for many years. I held drugs and partying in higher regard than I did myself, or my family. My five children had been removed from my home and were living with various family members. I was quickly traveling on a downward spiral of destruction. The darkness and depression I was in had overpowered my will to live, leaving me in a cave of despair. All I wanted was the peace that only death could bring.

March 3rd, 2008, was the beginning of my path to freedom. It began with a knock on the door by an officer from the local police department. I had missed yet another court date and there was a warrant for my arrest. As I left my home that day, handcuffed and in the back of a police car, I knew I wouldn’t be returning to that residence. I was only in jail for a few days before the sheriff’s office served me with an eviction notice. I felt so helpless knowing that strangers would be rummaging through my belongings, discarding the precious pictures that reflected smiling images of my displaced children, and there was nothing I could do. 

Within two weeks of my arrest I received a sentence of 15 months in the state correctional facility on a DUI charge. With time served and good behavior, I would be serving a total of 61 days after being transported. I was aware of the fact that you were not permitted to transfer any of your belongings from county jail to prison unless it was a Bible, therefore, I decided to acquire one as a means to hold onto addresses and phone numbers that I wanted to keep; I had no idea the impact this book was going to have on my life. 

As you can imagine, a person has a lot of time on their hands while sitting in jail; it is the ultimate “time-out”. Out of curiosity and boredom I began thumbing through the Bible I had received and I came across the name of Ezekiel, it was such an odd name that it sparked my interest and I began to read. I read about how God sent mind boggling visions to this unsuspecting young chap that sounded like they were straight out of a trippy sci-fi movie. This story was filled with creatures I had never imagined, and outlandish tasks God wanted Ezekiel to carry out. I was captivated by the story of the valley of dry bones; I never realized that the Bible was such a good book!

Once I had finished Ezekiel, I decided that I wanted to read something about Jesus, so I opened up to the book of Mark, the shortest of the four gospels (which is why I chose it). This is where I found the words that would forever change not only my way of thinking about Christianity, but my entire outlook on life: Chapter 2, verse 17 of the Contemporary English Version of the Bible, Jesus says, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to invite the good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.” Wow!!! He was talking about me! I was a sinner! This was the best news I had ever heard.

As I continued to read, a new-found faith began to develop deep inside my heart. Up until this point I felt like me being alive gave my children a false sense of hope that I would someday be able to bring them all back together…back home. This task seemed impossible at the time, but as I read more about the promises of God, that thought began to fade away. The Bible told me that all things are possible, and that He is a God of restoration. The hunger in my soul to learn more led me to sign up for any available bible studies I could go to while in prison. Looking back, I am able to see how God brought different people into my path to help guide my way. The last cellmate that I had said “Cyndi, Jesus doesn’t want you leave Him here in prison, take Him with you when you go. Too many people forget who it was that helped them through when they get back out on the streets.” I will never forget those words for as long as I live. 

I still had a long way to go after my release in June. With my mom’s help, I began to visit my children consistently in order to do my part to regain their trust, I went to a 90 day inpatient drug treatment program as suggested by the Department of Children and Family Services, and then entered into a 18 month residential Christian discipleship program called Tabitha House for my follow-up care. It was here that I learned who I was in Christ and gained the confidence I needed to become a productive member of society. I even got hired by the ministry to cook for both the men’s and women’s houses, as well as for an after-school program they provided for the neighborhood kids. 

I was able to save enough money during my stay to get an apartment only two weeks after my graduation in July, 2010. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that it wouldn’t be long before the kids would be coming home to stay. My oldest son Aric returned first that October; Raven and David followed in December. Raymond, my youngest child, came home in June 2011, and finally, after a long wait, custody of my son Michael was granted to me in February, 2012. 

I am grateful to have this second chance at being a mom, and even more grateful that I now have what it takes to teach my children about the goodness of God. I think that after reading this you would have to agree that going to prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.

In picture: 

Back Row: Raymond, Alex (step-son), Raven, Michael, and David

Front Row: Me, Doug (husband) Kodi the dog, and Aric —  at Coffee Creek