There's An APP For That! - Part 7

Being gentle is part of God’s character and this virtue is highly treasured by God: "a gentle and quiet spirit…is of great worth in God's sight.”  But what is it?  I believe that we really do not understand what Biblical gentleness is.

There are several words in the Greek which are translated "gentleness." One is a word which comes from two words which mean "fitting" and "into."  Putting them together we come up with "fitting into" or better still, "appropriate."  We must learn to be appropriate. This would include manners, ethics, etc.  If we learn to “better fit into” people’s lives, then like Jesus, we too can meet them where they are and share the love of God with them.

The story is told that Abraham Lincoln was once eating at a formal banquet when a fellow next to him poured his coffee into his saucer and drank from the saucer. The elite audience was shocked at such a gesture. Abraham Lincoln realized the man's embarrassment and likewise poured his coffee into his saucer and began to drink from it.  This is Biblical gentleness.

An additional translation of "gentleness" in the Bible is "firm care." This is found in II Timothy 2:24, "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient." Gentleness is not weakness. It is not even what the average person calls meekness. It is not softness. Gentleness is firmness. Gentleness is strength. It is love wrapped in character.  It shows itself as a mother’s loving discipline with her children.

 

Still another word used in the New Testament for gentleness could be translated "evenness."  We have learned that meekness is not looking down upon or up to anyone, not thinking ourselves better or worse than anyone, not thinking of ourselves at all, but looking at everyone equally.  Now gentleness could be called "the acting out of meekness."  Meekness is a feeling that we have toward all men; gentleness is the acting out of that feeling.  It is the laboratory of the theory of meekness. In other words, there should be evenness in our handling of people.  We should be as nice to the poor as to the rich. We should be as courteous to those who need our help as to those who help us.

How do we live out Bible gentleness?  We must make an effort to better “fit into” the lives of the people around us.  We must use “firm care” in our relationships.  We must demonstrate “evenness” by seeing and treating all people as equal.  Do our words and actions express gentleness to all people, or are we gentle to some but harsh with others?

There's An APP For That! - Part 6

Valentine’s Week is a great time to be talking about faithfulness!  God has shown us through his word and by giving us role models what it means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and what it means to be faithful in marriage.  What is faithfulness?  Faithfulness: The quality of being faithful. The word 'faithful' means loyal, full of faith or trust; firmly and resolutely sticking with a person, group, cause, belief, or idea, without waver.  Other words in the word-field of 'faithful' include true, constant, loyal, steadfast, devoted, staunch, and trusting.

Loyalty and faithfulness may sound like mundane, old-fashioned concepts, but research shows they are vital to emotional and physical health. Married people live longer, more productive, healthier, and happier lives, especially if their marriages are happy and monogamous.  People who are married and faithful in their relationship have a big advantage. Being in a good and faithful relationship confers huge benefits on people.

Our God is faithful, trustworthy, and believable.  GOD’S faithfulness to his people is a great benefit.  God can be trusted to keep his promises, and we can count on him to be there for us no matter what.  How often can we say this about the people in our lives or even ourselves?  As we say our I LOVE YOU’S this week, let us commit to being faithful to those we say we love!  This will make God smile and do our hearts good!

God loves you and so do I!

There’s An APP for That! - Part 5

God has APPS available for each of us to download in our hearts.

One exciting APP is GOODNESS!   Goodness: the state or quality of being good, especially morally good or beneficial. In a sense, it's the quality of having quality.  Other words in the word-field of goodness: beneficial, gainful, useful, helpful, profitable, and excellent.  Moral "goodness" is grouped with words such as uprightness, virtue, benevolence, worth, value, generosity.

What is Goodness?

You see goodness when someone is consistently seeking your good or those of another ahead of their own. Goodness is not just a matter of being good or doing good or being taught goodness -- the teaching feeds the doing, the doing feeds the being, the being enables us to grasp the teaching, which feeds into more doing and being. Jump in at any point to start the cycle.

Jesus spoke a lot about false goodness, about how many leaders of the faith are putting on Oscar-worthy performances of their own goodness in front of an audience of God or their community. God's not impressed. And "fake it 'til you make it" doesn't make it before God. Mark Twain once wrote that it is "very wearying to be good". It takes work to be consistently good, because it's so thoroughly against our natural inclinations.

The root of all goodness is the goodness of God. Sounds simple, right? But there is a problem with what we think of as 'good'. We think, "If God is good, He'll do good things for us!" And what do we think of as good? We define it as acquiring material wealth, having things go our own way, instant healing of our ills, and the removal of suffering.  But God’s goodness may include humility, suffering, loss, service, and maybe even boredom.  The things we think of as the gifts of a good God may well be the most important things for us not to have. God's goodness is defined by God's love. God's goodness is goodness; it is our expectations that must change in its light.

Goodness has a way of setting things straight. When we see other people being good or doing well, it often reminds us of how short we fall.  The exposé can be quite a shock, puncturing our self-image.  Even when we do good, goodness may have nothing to do with it. While nothing entirely gets rid of this tendency in our lives, God has given us a way to face up to it: through confession.  This not only opens us for God's response to our un-goodness, it also brings about a more truthful self-image. The only way to increase our goodness is to know what ways we're flawed so we can replace that with goodness.

Well, what are you waiting for, do something for goodness' sake!

There’s An APP for That! - Part 4

God has APPS available for each of us to download in our hearts.

One exciting APP is KINDNESS!   God understands what His children need in their lives that will move them closer to Christ.  Kindness is something that all of us would like more of in our lives. 

Kindness is the act or the state of being kind.  It is marked by goodness and charitable behavior, mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others. It is known as a virtue, and recognized as a value in many cultures and religions:

• The Talmud claims that "deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments."
• Paul of Tarsus defines love as being "patient and kind..." (I Corinthians).
• In Buddhism, one of the Ten Perfections (Paramitas) is Mettā, which is usually translated into English as "loving-kindness". Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama wrote "my religion is kindness" and authored a book entitled "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight".
• Confucius urges his followers to "recompense kindness with kindness."
• Kindness is listed as a fruit of the Spirit in Galations 5.  

The world tells us that behavior doesn’t matter as much as results.  Winning matters!  It’s one of the worldly games of life.  Christians are in another game of life, an eternal game.  Our rules and our goals are different.  We live in the world but we do not follow the rules of the world because they do not have eternal value.   The values in the Bible are the ones that are eternal.  It is these that we adhere to.   God promises to be kind to us and asks that we practice kindness to one another and the environment we live in.

If this is an APP for you, then simply pray for God to come and install this gift of KINDNESS from the Holy Spirit into your heart and watch your relationships transform in front of your eyes!

God loves you and so do I!