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10 April, 2015
Love, by Terri Morey
Before I spoke today, I was with my prayer partners half an hour before the congregation begins and two thoughts came to me….One was of my wedding day….and the picture I have of my daughter law Shelly and I standing in front of a banner with the fruits of the Spirit.
The other thought was of a picture in our living room of a vine with grapes and the words the fruit is love, joy and peace.
Basics, I am back to them, seems as though they have escaped me….I’ve taken hold of myself and asked myself…what do really want to accomplish in this life I’m living.
I’ve also considered the greatest prayer ever made…and the example for me to think about..for you to think about: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Yeshua, as he died on the tree. Luke 23:24
Second greatest prayer ever made, “Lord do not hold this charge against them.” Stephen as he was being stoned to death for proclaiming the truth of what he believed. ACTS 7:30
This is love….pure love…when asked what the greatest commandment was Yeshua answered and said:
“Love the Lord with all your heart, SOUL AND STRENGTH and love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37
The last verse in the love chapter of lst ‘Corinthians l3”faith, hope and love the greatest of these is love”
1 Corinthians l3: 5 in part :”keeps no record of wrongs.”
Do we honestly before God say this and know this is true in our lives? We keep no record of wrongs?
If we chose to walk in love and imitate our Lord, we make the decision to do this and we then must be able to handle rejection, being used, accused and returning love for evil.
To those who know me, they have heard this story, but it well worth repeating now, it is the classic example for me to explain what I am saying here today.
In my search for truth, meaning of life, purpose for my own life….I gave a woman a partnership in my very successful temporary help agency in San Francisco. She was made a 50% owner, had given no money to me but in exchange for this business ownership, she gave me two years of time off from the business so I could pursue the truth I was looking for.
I did find God, after I began to keep the l0 commandments, my life on earth became so meaningful, I was truly at peace ….and began to hear from God….every single day, so after 7 months of bliss… decided to go back to my agency and tell my workers of my new found life. Surely, these workers needed to hear the truth I thought.
When I returned to the business and saw the shock on the face of my partner, at my showing up …she immediately told me, come back in the morning, and I did and this is what happened.
She and her husband were waiting for me to arrive, and this is what I was told by her husband. “I do not want my wife to be partner in this business any more, you are off finding God and are not capable of running this business…besides you are in debt for $40,000 and I want you to release my wife from the contract she signed.
You may wonder what you would have done at this moment, I look back to 22 nd of March, l974 and I find an inner peace and joy that I immediately ripped up the contract and asked them to leave my office, and then I sat down and wept for the remainder of the day.
God wanted me to seek Him, to rely on Him, I had never ever knew God as my Provider, I was faced with impossible odds of surviving the debts owed, I had no bank account rely on…..plus the $40,000 was owed to the Internal Revenue Service, and the State of California. This $40,000,was money collected from the salaries of my workers, it was taken out of their pay checks and was owed to these two agencies of the government. I envisioned myself going to jail. I have never known fear as I knew it that day.
I did the usual things one does when you need money, went to my parents, friends, and all said the same thing¨ “no”.
All of our customers heard that we were going bankrupt and stopped calling in orders to my company, so at this point in life, I had only the women who worked for me, they were willing to wait till I could find work for them and they wanted to stay with me, and believed I would find them work.
God showed me that He would bring new clients to my company and He provided a man, who came to my office looking for work, and agreed to work for free as I went out to find new clients. His name was Michael.
When the official man came from the Internal Revenue Service, to get the money owed to them, this agent, whose name was Michael, heard my story, arranged for me to pay the government back their money in a period of time that was lengthened to suit my circumstances. All debts were paid by me.
The story of how God helped me is so beautiful, my purpose in repeating the details of that situation is the following: God showed me that He would be pleased if I wrote a letter to my ex-partner and tell her, thank you fr what she did, because of her, I found God as my true Friend and my Provider.
I was not that willing to write my ex-partner a thank you letter, it was not part of my thinking at all, but I knew God wanted me to do this….so I did….I sent the letter, but it came back, no such person at this address. I was free, the letter had been written, I entered into a new life with God.
Even though I did not know Romans: 12:14, God was showing me that I must bless those who persecute me bless…and do not curse.
In l975, I found Yeshua as my Messiah. I realized my business name TKO Temps needed to be changed to The Kings Office.
My question to you today is have you been taken advantage of, abused, rejected….do you bless those that did this to you?
The Bible says in Romans l2:20 “If your enemy is hungry give him food, if he is thirsty give him drink.” Verse 21: “Do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good,”
What is Love…let others answer this… My answer to this is….Love is how we treat others. John l3:34-35 “:Love one and other as I have loved you,
Love and acting in it is the answer to our problems If we focus on love everything else will be taken care of.
The body is not having an effect on the world, because it is not walking in love.
Love and walking it …this is a decision you make…love is not a feeling it is an act of your will…
Why do you think we should walk in love….give people a chance to say what they think and then give them your answer to this question.
- Winning the lost to God, requires us, the Bible they are reading …2 Corinthians 3:2 we must be different, we must represent something they want but do not have….
What is God’s will for you to live life to the fullest?” God tells us in Mathew 7:7 “ask and you shall receive…seek and you shall find”
God answers this question by telling us in Matthew 22:37..:You shall love the Lord with all your heart,soul and strength and love your neighbors as yourself”.
In recent times in my life, I have faced situations in business and in my family. In which both cases, I was taken advantage of….and rejected and how did I manage to find the peace that God offers if I walk in His ways….One of the situations was so painful, lodged deep in my heart was such a hurt…only by allowing the Lord to change my heart, and give me His heart could I possibly find the peace I sought and the forgiveness I wanted to walk in… God showed me the following verse….it completely changed my heart. Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves can come and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust can destroy For where your treasure is there will be your heart.”
We must leave all judgement unto the Lord, He tells us plainly In Matthew 7:1 Judge not lest you be judged but did you realize that as you judge another you condemn your self…Romans 2: l-5..dangerous actions….we must make the decision to walk in love.,…God will empower us to do this….it is His will…He loved the world so much He gave His only Son….think about that love.
Yeshua was very specific when He told us…”Do not look at the speck in your brothers’; eye’s, but look at the log in your own.”Matthew 7:3
We must ask God for His heart towards any situations we face….He longs to change us into His image…
He tells us John l4:l4 ‘if you ask anything in My name I will do it” this is exactly the kind of prayer He would want us to ask….
As I began this message I started off by saying I am back to the basics…what I really want to accomplish in this life I am living….For me, to see another person find God is the deepest joy I have ever known except my own salvation.
The other is to love those who have hurt me, to pray for them with all my heart and to bless them.
A song was made popular many years ago….it is Change my heart oh God , make it ever true…change my heart oh God, may I be like You. Can we ask God to change our hearts and make them more like His?
In his love,
Terri
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