Lukewarm

Lukewarm

Revelation 3:15-17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

The dictionary defines lukewarm as showing or having little enthusiasm, interest, support, or conviction. Sadly I can use all of these words to describe my relationship with our Lord and Savior. Yes I confessed that He died for my sins and yes I know that He is the Son of God and no one can enter heaven except by believing in His Name. I can recite to you all of his miracles that He perform during His time on earth. I can speak to you about the Sermon on the Mount, His prayer in Gethsemane, and I can even discuss and attempt to decipher His parables. I can give you the bible’s chronicle of His life from the immaculate concept to the gruesome details of His crucifixion to Him rising on the third day and defending death and sin.   Still I am lukewarm at best.

You see as I read Revelation chapter, as always I suggest you read the entire book, I well had a revelation. The more that I read the more I realized that the words written for the church of Laodicea were words that meant for me also. I am so caught up in my on life and my own progress, or lack thereof, that I have become lukewarm. God is now a secondary thought in my mind. I praise Him when something good happens, and I pray to Him will I need something or when I feeling depressed. Both of these things are the right thing to do, but what is missing is the constant praise and admiration, not because want He done or what he is going to do, but just because He is God.

Then is there is His commandment that He gave to all of his disciples, Go Forth and preach the Gospel to all of Creation. I cannot remember the last person, non-Christian, that I have talk to about the awesome power of Jesus Christ. I have missed so many opportunities because I was afraid to step outside of my comfort zone and tell someone about His Greatness. I lied to myself and said that people can tell by the way that I live my life, However in reality I know that this isn’t the case. I try to treat people the way that I want to be treated and I try to be a good and just person in all of my dealings, but that is not enough. Because we know sadly many good people may be left outside of the gates because they did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. I have to tell people with my voice not only my actions, about all that God has done for me.

So after I read this scripture and went through the four steps of grief, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Depression. I finally made it to Acceptance and I realized that I was given this word to read so I can go from being lukewarm to hot and stay there. I also realized that as verse nineteen says He disciplines and rebukes those that He loves. This is why He is so Great, because through Jesus we have the chance to repent and turned from our wicked ways. Only a loving God would be so gracious and what a loving God we serve.

I know that there is a large gap between lukewarm and hot however I am committing myself to continue to grow towards my goal each and every day that I am blessed with. Because on His return I want him to say well done my good and faithful servant not because you are lukewarm- neither hot nor cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

I do not know if you are in the same situation that I find myself in, but if you are I invite you to take this walk with me. We can support and comfort each other on this journey. Please leave your comments and your encouragement. You can email me at jamesanthonylove@gmail.com or find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jamesanthonylove

God Bless,

                  James Anthony Love

Cast your net on the Right side

John 21:1-6
¹ After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: ² Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out and immediately^[a] got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. ⁴ But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?”
They answered Him, “No.”
⁶ And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.  
 
   As always, before I start I will encourage you to continue reading the full chapter(John 21). And if you have never read it I encourage you to read the full book of the Gospel according to John.
   We will be looking at the verses from above, 1-6, for this blog. Before we do let's back track so we will understand the scene at play. The crucifixion of Jesus and His resurrection has pass and Jesus has already revealed himself to Mary Magdalene, Thomas, and other disciples. In this passage Jesus appears to Simon Peter, Thomas, James and John, and Nathanael has they are fishing.  Now the Bible does not say this but I like to use my imagination and see them all distraught still over Jesus' death. Although Jesus himself has appeared to them alive, they are still lost on what their purpose is. So they decide to go back to what they know, which was fishing. If you remember they were fishermen by trait before they became disciples of the Lord.
    I believe that we act the same way. Whenever we become distraught or lose some faith we go back to what we were doing before we became disciples of God. When I say this I'm not speaking in terms of sins, although this does happen, but I speaking in the context of that we try to take back control over our lives and/or our destiny. Instead of letting our Lord and Savior keep control because He will never steer us wrong.
    Let's look back to the scripture, instead of Jesus being mad or upset that they backtracked He actually assists them in their task. He does so by simply telling them to cast the net on the right side of the boat and they will catch some fish. In fact their net was so full that they could not pull it onto the boat!
    Are you struggling with something that you just can't seem to fix? Rather it is your career, your school work, your marriage, your children, or just your life in general. Have you done all that you can and you still feel like you net is coming up empty? Well you should follow Jesus' advice and cast your net on the Right side. What am I referring to when I say the Right side? The Right side is Jesus. You can cast your burdens, worries, fears, regrets, problems, hopelessness, pain, sickness, and anything to Jesus and He will take the burden for you. And then your net will be full of hope, faith, success, prosperity, and certainty. The will not be any room for anything negative. This is God's promise for all those who believe in Him.
     So the next time that life's disparities have you fishing for answers. Remember God's words: “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”
     Until next time may God keep you and continue to Bless you and yours. ~James Anthony Love
       

Does God Cry?

Some times I wondered if God cries.I mean if you think about it we serve an loving and Caring God, so I wonder if He cries each time one of us goes astray. I try my hardest to apply this way of thinking when I am preparing to do something that I know that I have no business doing, but the allure of sin can some times be to strong.
However, what if we truly stopped to think about how our actions made God feel. I believe that it would make each of us better people. So my challenge to myself, you can join in as well, this week is to think about each action, reaction, impulse, and urge. I am going to try to see what I'm doing from God's point of view. hopefully this will not only cause me to become a better person but to also strengthen my relationship with God!
Till Next Time God Bless

Just Publish

I have just published my new novel, The War From Within (Memoirs of a Lost Soul).  It is available for any e reader. Check out https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jamesanthonylove were you can sample it for free. If you like what you read and you want to purchase my books use this exclusive coupon code:ZS82S to receive 30% off. Please leave your comments and honest reviews. Thank you

Life Sometimes

Here is a little poem that I wrote. It helps me whenever life's trials began to wear me down, Hopefully it will do the same for you.

Life sometimes
Life sometimes hurts
Life sometimes isn't fair
Life sometimes has obstacles that you can't seem to move
Life sometimes can break one's confidence 
Life sometimes becomes stagnant
Life sometimes is a game that you think you'll never master
However, when life starts hurt
Ask for strength to endure the pain
When life isn't fair
Ask for tolerance to endure the trials
When life puts obstacles in your way
Ask for the wisdom to maneuver around any obstacle in your path
When life tries to break your confidence 
Remember The One who's imagine you were made from
When life becomes stagnant
Be still and He will move you to a place were you will once again flow
Because life is but a game
And the only way to master it is to trust in the One who created it.
Life is always a blessing.
 
 

Don't Look Back

^{Genesis Chapter 19: 16-17,25-26
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+19&version=NIV 
16} When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. ¹⁷ As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
25Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Luke 9:62
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9&version=NIV

⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

First of all I encourage you to read both of the scriptures I posted upon in their entirety. With that being said I only posted the parts that I wanted to touch on in this blog.

People interpret the bible in many different ways. Some people interpret the bible literally, as in to say that everything that is written in the bible down to the smallest detail happen at some point in time. Then there are others that say that while certain events, like Jesus' birth, death,resurrection and etc., are true; other smaller details were written as example for us to follow. Like what not to do and what to do. I fall somewhere in between, because I believe that everything in the bible did happen and it happen for us to have an example of what to do and what not to do. Also it gives us example of what to do after you have did what you were not suppose to do.(that was a lot of to do(s), but you get my point.)

I say that because I love to take the scriptures and apply them to my daily life. Take the scriptures above for example. In Genesis 19, if you are not familiar with it, you find Lot, the only God fearing man in Sodom and Gomorrah. In the Scriptures before that we learned that God was going to wiped both cities off the face of the earth because of the wickedness, but Abraham pleaded with God to let destroy the righteous in the cities, So God spared Lot and his Family. All Lot and his family had to do is go forth and not look back. However, as we see Lot's wife looks back and for her disobedience she gets turned into a pillar of salt.


So when I look at the scripture and apply it to my life  I start to think about how it truly applies to me. what I come up with is that we can all view Sodom and Gomorrah as the sin that resides in our lives. God wants to wipe away the wickedness that is inside each and every one of us. However, I can he Abraham pleading for us reminding God about the seed of righteousness that is inside of us as well. So God wants to separate us from what every sin is holding us back from being closer to him. All He wants us to do is walk away and don't look back. Now if we looked back I don't think that we will turn into a pillar of salt, but we will miss out on our Blessing. Look at Lot's wife, she had just escaped the wrath of God and she just had to look back to see what he had done, instead of looking forward to look at what he is doing. As long as we are in sin then we are separated from God and His blessing.
As for the last scripture, Luke 9:62. Jesus says it all,
“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
 I don't know about you but when it is all said and done the words I want to hear from my Savior are, "Well done my good and Faithful Servant." And here Jesus tells you that you can serve him and look back at your past at the same time. 
So again I encourage you to look forward to God and don't look back towards your sins. In this way you will become closing to your Creator and you will loosen the shackles that are the burden of sins.
Until next time God Bless ~ James Anthony Love jamesanthonylove@gmail.com

I'm Back

Okay haven't been on this for about a year and half. But i am back now and I will be blogging at least three times a week. The goal is the same to share the Gospel and let people know that Jesus Christ is still alive and that he is coming back.

Truthfully I got discouraged before because I did not know how to get people to view my blog and as you know it is no fun writing to yourself. So I let the Enemy stop me without even trying to fight back. Well this time I did some studying and join different sites and now I'm back and ready to deliver the Truth. And even if no one comes I will not get disheartened this time around because I know that The Most High is in Control of that and all He needs me to do is write and He will take care of the rest. So if you are reading this in the near future I will come up with a regular routine schedule where I will post. For right now go back and read some of my posting from last year and hopefully they will uplift your spirit. Until next time God Bless.~James