Agape Nursing Services

03/06/2024

I was listening to Gateway to Joy the other day and heard Elisabeth Elliot say something like this: “there are only two kinds of people: the kind who complain and the thankful kind.” An…

10/21/2023

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Happy Birthday to one of our road guards, Dozer! Have a great and blessed day! Your GOC family loves you.

10/21/2023

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Daily Devotional: Recovering a Right Perspective
Recovering a Right View of Others

1 Peter 4:8-10
And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Jesus taught plainly that the whole of the Law and Prophets (the Word of God) can be summed up in two commands. That sounds simple until we understand the terrific implications of what it is that we are commanded to do in order to keep all the Law. The greatest command of all is of course to love God with all that we are. Jesus stated it this way:
‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

And the second command, the second component that defines all of our relationships with other people is just as broad:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

So we see that in recovering a right perspective, as we see God, worship, self, and sin as they really are, then we must complete the picture by seeing others as we should. It is not enough to see God rightly, or to see self and sin rightly. We must see this perspective carry through so that we love God with all we are and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

This kind of love for others, where Jesus defines our neighbor as the person we least want to love, stands in stark contrast to how we usually see others. It is usually the case that when we meet someone new or when we are around others we have known for a long time, we tend to judge them. We judge them by the standard of self. We compare others to ourselves. Do they measure up to us in looks, intelligence, wit, charm, etc? It is true that we know when to admit that someone is smarter than we are or better looking. But even then is it quite typical to find some flaw, some weakness, some area where we are better than they are.

This is truly our view of others most of the time. We are constantly running a comparison in our minds, even with our friends. Do they meet our standard?

This clearly is contrary to what the Bible teaches. We are to humbly view all others as better than we view ourselves. Sounds simple – but it is as hard as ever to think like this. It runs contrary to our fallen flesh. I mean all sin can be traced back to 3 roots, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That means that all sin is about satisfying our own desires in some area of another. We as sinners seek to sin! To satisfy self in every way possible. So why wonder why it is so difficult to view others properly?

But we are given in Scripture specific perspectives to maintain with all people. And we are to esteem them all as better! Not equal, not less than. Better.

In the church especially we are to be known for our love for one another. In examining the “one anothers”, those things we are required to do for one another in the body of Christ, we see that we are truly responsible to view others rightly!! Here is a short list of what the Bible lists as our duty to one another in fellowship:

Our Duty to One Another in Fellowship
a. Kind Affection – Rom 12:10
b. Be of the Same Mind – Rom 12:16; 15:5
c. Do not Judge – Rom 14:13
d. Edify – Rom 14:19; 1 Thess 5:11
e. Receive One Another – Rom 15:7
f. Admonish – Rom 15:14; Col 3:16
g. Greet – Rom 16:16; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Peter 5:14
h. Have the Same Care – 1 Cor 12:25
i. Serve One Another – Gal 5:13
j. Do Not Bite and Devour – Gal 5:15; James 4:11
k. Do Not Provoke or Envy – Gal 5:26
l. Bear with One Another – Eph 4:2; Col 3:13
m. Be Kind and Forgive – Eph 4:32
n. Speak – Eph 5:19
o. Submit – 1 Peter 5:5; Eph 5:21
p. Do Not Lie – Col 3:9
q. Comfort – 1 Thess 4:18
r. Exhort – Heb 3:13; 10:25
s. Do Not Grumble – James 5:9
t. Confess – James 5:16
u. Have Compassion – 1 Peter 3:8
v. Have Hospitality – 1 Peter 4:9
w. Minister To – 1 Peter 4:10
x. Love – 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11; Rom 13:8; 1 Thess 3:12; 4:9; 2 John 1:5

This list is not complete, and yet look at this – we are talking about a full time job here just in the way we relate to others in the Body. What if we expand the search parameters though? What is our view to be toward everyone else in the world that we come in contact with? Well, understanding what we are responsible to do for others in the Body of Christ helps us see a little of how we are to view others throughout the world.

Monday we will continue and learn how to see people for who they are.

10/08/2023

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The perils and challenges of getting older: I am obviously getting older, and the younger my readers are, the less they may know what in…

09/19/2023

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09/18/2023

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09/06/2023

Daily Devotional: Our Mission is Submission – 1 Peter 2:13-3:8.

Today we will look at how to simply do good:

(1) Submissive Citizens – 1 Peter 2:13-17
Do Good (vs. 15)

Peter goes on in verse 15 and 16 and writes, “15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.”

He has told us to back in verses 11 and 12 to live as what we are, as aliens in exile living honorably by abstaining from worldly lusts that war against the soul, and now he tells us to submit to all authority. Secondly he tells us about how to be a submissive citizen of heaven is simply to do good. Do Good – the word good means that which brings health. Do things that are spiritually, physically, and emotionally healthy. Things that promote life.

How do we know what is good and how do we define health? We must start with the Word of God. We must hone the skill of discernment to understand the difference between right and wrong, and between right and almost right. In doing this we are doing God’s will. Did you catch that? Submit to earthly authority is doing good and doing God’s will. And by doing good you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Again, there are many who don’t understand. They have no idea why we do what we do, and why we don’t do what we don’t do. They are ignorant. They will falsely accuse us, malign us, slander us, persecute us, and when they do revile us what are we supposed to do? Revile them back with a touch of sarcasm? No! When they revile and curse, we bless and pray for them. We do good when they do bad. We treat them with honor and respect whether they deserve it or not. We esteem them as better than us whether they are or not. We do good.

Now if they accuse us of doing evil and we are, and we retaliate, and we seek vengeance, that is where we get into serious trouble according to 1 Peter 4. And if they say bad things about us, let’s not react and tell them how good we are. The truth is that when they say we have been bad we could probably provide examples of when we’ve really been worse! Right? But here if we do good, we silence them because eventually the things they say just won’t stick.

Tomorrow we will look at the role freedom and liberty play in submission to earthly authorities.