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This week we are talking about what God loves, and He loves His church. He loves the ones who have answered the call to minister to the sheep of His pasture. Eph 4:11-12 reads like this:

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Jesus gave the ministry gift of Pastor so that we could have an earthy shepherd to teach us God’s Word. God calls people into the ministry so that they can minister to us. If we didn’t need a pastor, Jesus wouldn’t have given pastors to the church! I was actually in a church service at the age of 13, when I knew God solidified in me what I felt was may calling into the full time ministry as a 9 year old. I don’t remember anything about the service, but right in the middle of the preaching, I had a knowing on the inside, that God had set aside my life for service in the ministry. I was never the same from that day on. God used my pastor at that time in my life, as he was teaching the Word to the congregation, to direct the Word, by the Holy Spirit specifically to me, to solidify the call that God had on my life. I was at the right place at the right time, getting the right results. I was in church! As we walk out our Christian life, it is an adventure. The greatest one ever! It is a journey, a pilgrimage, a pathway of following the Lord, directed by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that we will go from strength to strength as we stay on the path, and keep going and growing in the love of God. In the House of the Lord, we experience the love of God. Step by step as God’s love is manifested in us more and more as we connect with God’s people and His presence. We learn to love the Word in the house of the Lord. We learn to love times of prayer as we pray for others and have other believers pray for us in God’s house. All of this happens in church. Where we long to be, because we long for God’s presence and love to be manifested in us. If you don’t have a church home, or you don’t attend regularly, find a way to get connected, and increase your love for the time you get to spend in God’s house.

Ps 84:1-4 is a delightful reminder of how much we should cherish and love the House of God.

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
 Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
 for the courts of the Lord;
 my heart and my flesh cry out
 for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
 and the swallow a nest for herself,
 where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
 Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
 they are ever praising you.

David said that his soul longed to be in God’s presence. It sounds like David loved to be in God’s House. Just the wording he used in todays Bible reading makes you think that his heart’s desire was to be where ever God was. David was known as a man after God’s own heart. David loved God and God loved David. God’s passion became David’s passion. God’s heart is for His family. The family of God meets, learns and grows together in church. Jesus gave the 5 fold ministry gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher so that we could grow, and particularly to prepare the people of God for the work of the ministry, and to build the body of Christ. So God places each person in a church body so that they can enter the presence of God, and serve in a church body. He is the good Shepherd that is looking after and taking care of His sheep. Jesus is the chief pastor! Jesus is the one who decides who is called to be a pastor. The interesting thing is that everyone needs a pastor. Even if you are a pastor, you still need a pastor. The word pastor means shepherd, and sheep (the people of God) need a shepherd. Jesus of course is the chief shepherd, but we still need to be “pastured”, in the pasture of the church. In the church is where you get good nourishment to grow in God. It is where we rub shoulder with other believers, and learn how to walk in love, use our faith, and become more like Jesus. It is where we long to be as believers. So my encouragement to you is…..long to be in God’s presence, He longs for you. In His presence you will find, everything you need, life, hope, joy, and buckets full of love!

I love what the writer of Ps 84 says in verses 8-12 about loving to spend time in the presence of God, specifically in His house. When thinking of what God loves, and love basics in general, we know he loves His church, the body of Christ. I love it that David did too. Hear what he said:
Ps 84: 8-12
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
 listen to me, God of Jacob. 9 Look on our shield, O God;
 look with favor on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts
 than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
 than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
 the Lord bestows favor and honor;
 no good thing does he withhold
 from those whose walk is blameless.
12 Lord Almighty,
 blessed is the one who trusts in you.

In these verses, David says that he would rather spend one day in God’s house than 1000 days anywhere else. He would rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house than to dwell at ease in the tents of wickedness. I love that he would rather serve like an usher or a greeter in church (isn’t that what a doorkeeper is?) than be seen, served or live in a wicked place. He has such great love for the house of God. He also connected loving with serving. Serving is part of church. We get that example from Christ. Love serves! Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve. We shouldn’t come to church to be served, but to serve. We should be asking, how can we help? How can we participate to make things flow smoother? How can we be a blessing to our pastors, or the staff, or the different ministries that are available? How can we keep the building looking nice? How can we participate in services or events to make the ministry more effective? There are so many ways to serve in the body. It takes the up front things, and many more things behind the scenes. Think of prayer and how important it is in the church setting. We want the atmosphere to be ripe for God to do what needs to be done…that happens behind the scenes, because God’s people have a love for His house. Think of all the amazing Children’s ministry workers, or youth workers who make those ministries run. Not only do they make things relevant, they find creative ways to get the Word of God into our kids. That all happens behind the scenes, by people who love God’s house. I hope your prayer aligns with Davids. Better is one day in Your house, than thousands elsewhere.

Hi this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. I love that so many of you are taking advantage of reading your dailyeword at agf.org. We will talk this week about Love Basics. He loves His church, he loves marriage and families, he loves the world, and He loves you! Love is who He is! God loves. No exceptions, and no limits. God so loved the world, that He gave Jesus for you, so that you could be a part of God’s family. How great is His love for us. Here’s your dailyeword.

We can receive the unconditional love of God. God loves. Period. In fact, it was God’s unconditional love that sent Jesus to the world as a baby to live a sinless life and then to die on a cross for our sins. It is love that surpasses knowledge and love that can overflow as we are filled with His fullness. (Eph 3:19) The Agape love of God is God’s selfless love that set the world in motion, and keeps all things held together. (Col 1:15-17) Love really does make the world go round!

Now is the time for believers to demonstrate the love of God like never before. We are used to the world’s system that tells us to act loving when we “feel” loving. Agape love acts lovingly, even when we may not feel like loving. Because love is a choice, we can choose our actions, in spite of circumstances, and I Corinthians 13:4-8 really “nails down” what agape love is.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
So God’s love in us really is kind, it isn’t prideful, is patient, behaves correctly, isn’t self seeking, isn’t easily provoked. It doesn’t insist on its own way, thinks no evil, rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, and never fails. Amazing LOVE!

Has life grown heavy around you? Is it possible to get a fresh perspective when circumstances in our life seem dreary? When negatives are flooding your life; when more bills are coming in than money is available; when unfortunate circumstances don’t seem to be changing; or what ever you are going through seems like more than you can bear; there is a way to keep our head above the clouds and be filled with joy again. It may be as simple as getting the perspective of a pilot or a mountain climber. When we are experiencing all the dreariness in the valley, 2000 feet above us, from the view of a mountaintop or from the window of an airplane, or from God’s perspective, the sun is still shining. In fact, up there in the daytime, you can see on and on forever. The sunrise is beautiful, the sunsets are incredible, and there is not an ounce of dreariness anywhere.

An even easier way than boarding an airplane or climbing a mountain is to begin remembering all the reasons you have to smile. Christians shouldn’t be named “The Miserable Ones” like they were in the movie Amistad. We should be called “The Joyful Ones,” full “to the brim” with the joy of the Lord. Our joy is not dependent on our circumstances, like how sunny it is or how smoothly our life is flowing along. Think about this perspective. We are grateful recipients of the wonderful grace of God, and the heavy cloud of sin has been lifted off of us. Hallelujah! He takes the clouds away! So whatever the weather, we can rejoice evermore! Our joy bucket can be filled and overflowing.

Another way to become more joy filled is to make time to just be around some kids. As parents, grandparents or neighbor to children, find ways to build into young people’s lives. We have wisdom, love, and time to share. As parents, let’s loosen up and have some fun with our kids. Spend some time on the water, run through the sprinkler, have a tickle contest, eat some ice cream, because life is at its fullest when we find joy just in living. We should say yes as often as we can when our kids ask for our time. (Kids spell love T I M E.) And our kids grow up way too fast. Their joy is contagious and you’ll find that their joy will rub off on you!

Summer is almost half over, so let’s make the best of every moment you can enjoy outdoors. In spite of what is going on around us, or the chaos of our world, enjoy this season of our lives. Let’s trust God, enjoy simple things, and hang out with some kids. They will remind us to live each day filled with joy and full of childlike wonder.

With the condition of our world, it is easy to lose your joy, just by watching the news. Can we really keep our joy and our childlike wonder? How then, how can we as responsible, hardworking, even serious adults become more childlike? One hallmark of children is they simply trust. They believe. It can be hard on adults to be trusting when we are naturally skeptical, especially with so many scams in our world. We have to use wisdom, but let’s learn to trust God completely. He is always faithful, steadfast and secure, and His Word is our anchor. If we center on Him, and remaining childlike, we can keep our joy bucket full.

Children enjoy simple things. Is there anything sweeter than hearing the laughter of children? They get excited about little things like swinging from a tree, jumping off a diving board, or playing in the dirt. Instead of praying for a day or a week to end, they don’t ever want their day to end, and are sad when they have to go to bed. Sometimes as adults, our lives are so busy that we can’t even find time to enjoy a glass of lemonade on the porch watching our kids play in the yard. Instead, we long for bedtime to come sooner. Let’s remember that joy should be a part of our life, everyday. Find a way to laugh and have fun even in our harsh world.

We live in a crazy world, where sadness, heartache, and difficulties are often what we see and hear on the news locally and globally. It can be really easy to let our personal circumstances and the situations happening on our planet determine how we see the world, and usually it isn’t with childlike wonder. We can become jaded and cynical, by just living life. Too often God gets the blame for the enemy’s work on the earth, (which is to steal, kill and destroy), when God is the one who actually brings abundance to our lives. (John 10:10) We serve a good Father, who wants only the best for his children, so much so, He wants us to prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers (III John 2). He desires that we live life with childlike wonder, full of the joy of the Lord, even though our world is a mess.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3 and Mark 10:13-16 that to enter God’s kingdom that is full of joy, we must become like a child. So, how childlike are you? There is a big difference between being childlike and being childish. Being childlike is being pure, innocent and trusting, compared to being childish which is acting immaturely, being irresponsible and behaving foolishly. Our aim should be to live with the attitude of a child, with wide-eyed amazement, excited about what God will bring each new day, filled with the joy of the Lord.

I believe that God has abundant joy and provision for you. There are no impossible cases with God, and He specializes in second chances. If you think God has forgotten about you, He hasn’t. If you think things will never work out, they will. If you don’t believe that God can use you, He can. If we hunger and thirst for Him, He will fill us up and we can live out of the overflow of joy. When we get still before Him, He will fill us, so that we can spill the overflow and can in turn joyfully encourage someone else along the way.

Prayer:
Father, I thank you that your word is at work within each one who hears or reads my encouraging word. I believe Lord that you are giving them the power to begin to capture their negative thoughts, and replace them with thoughts of life. I give you praise oh Lord that they will begin to reap the results of a thought life that is set on you. I pray that they have the freedom and the discipline to carefully choose what they will think about, meditate on and focus on in their minds. I thank you God that as they fill their life with Your Word, they will begin more and more to think your thoughts, which will result in them speaking words in line with your word, and then acting like you would act. I pray Lord that the vision that You have given them for their life will come to pass as they joyfully search for joy in all the right places. Thank you God for helping them renew their mind to the Word of God, and letting each of them enjoy the wonderful, abundant life that Jesus died for them to live. In Jesus name, AMEN! Be encouraged today!

It is such a great thing to know that we have our own personal coach. In I John 2:20:27 –it says that you have received an anointing from the Holy One. He will teach you. That is very personal. We have a personal teacher, or a coach if you prefer. We have received an anointing and that anointing is like oil on a machine. It makes everything flow easier. Then we have an advantage over those who don’t know God! There are times when even in the natural realm, just having someone tell you it is all going to be ok, or that you can make it can keep us going through rough patches in life. Even though we want MORE of all God has for us, we still live in a fallen world, and on an earth with a curse. That means that bad things still happen to good people. We could just get discouraged and give up, or we could listen to our personal coach who keeps telling us, “KEEP GOING. I have anointed you. I have appointed you for such a time as this. You can make it. You are well equipped to stand against the forces of evil, and with the Name of Jesus and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, be able to overcome. You are not defeated, you are an over comer.” When all of life pours on you, Jesus still REIGNS! So listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He is there encouraging you to live your best life for God. Receive all of the MORE God has for you today, and this week. You are a good student and the very best teacher is teaching you….the Holy Spirit of God. How awesome is that!