Cultivate

Happy Sunday on Monday!

Praying that you enjoyed the weekend!

Dr. Bill Winston continued his series, "The Power of Love", with the subtitle, "Climbing Without Compromise".  God wants you to succeed!  He has planned for you to reach the top of whatever field, business, art, or endeavor he has gifted you and created you to accomplish.  However, you must rise to prominence without compromise.  Watch the national news and you will hear of famous men and women that have risen to great heights only to be stripped of that respect and admiration when it is found that they have compromised in some area.

Dr. Winston referred to the definition of "culture".  The word culture is defined as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.  It is also closely related to the word, "cultivate".  Genesis 2:15 says, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it." (NASV)  We have been strategically placed in the world to expose others to our Christian Culture.  Our culture is a culture of LOVE.  True love may sometimes involve hate.  Ok, wait a minute before you delete this e-mail.  Let me explain.  If someone you love is being attacked by a pit bull terrier.  You may love animals and never want to hurt them, but your love for that individual will cause you to decide...the dog may have to die for my loved one to live.  True love wants what is best for you. If drugs and alcohol are destroying your loved one, true love will tell them the truth even if it makes them angry. The Apostle Paul didn't sugarcoat sin. In Galatians 5:19-21 he wrote, "It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom." (Message)

Here's the same scripture passage in the Phillips Translation, "The activities of the lower nature are obvious. Here is a list: sexual immorality, impurity of mind, sensuality, worship of false gods, witchcraft, hatred, quarreling, jealousy, bad temper, rivalry, factions, party-spirit, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like that. I solemnly assure you, as I did before, that those who indulge in such things will never inherit God’s kingdom."

Genesis Chapter 11 tells of the time when the godless people were attempting to build a tower that would reach to heaven.  You remember the story of the Tower of Babel, don't you?  Verse 4 says, "Then the people said, “Let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth.” (Easy-to-Read Version)  The surprising and interesting thing in this passage is that God agreed that they could do it and would do it! Verse 6 says, "And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them." (Amplified)

What is God saying about you?  Are you using your powerful imagination to build others up or tear them down? Are you using your imagination to create solutions to the problems of society or are you agreeing with the world system and their doomsday predictions?  Yes, Jesus said the end will come...but no man knows the day or the hour.  What should we do in light of this information? Good question!  Colossians 3:23 says, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;"(KJV)  And 1 John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (KJV)

Love and prayers, Cynthia