The Children of Honduras

                   Matt Martini

matt.martini@vineyardwestside.com

I’m gonna try something a little different this week and invite you to contribute to this post. In Matthew 18 Jesus instructs: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” So I implore you to invest a few minutes of your weekend in a quiet place, away from distraction. Grab a cup of coffee. Take a minute or two per photo and just look, pondering what Jesus might have meant when he uttered those words. What do you see? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Boundaries

                    Denise Horgan

Recently I’ve been dealing with boundary issues concerning my family that I grew up with.  Generally speaking for me, life is like an onion.  There are many layers to peel away.  In my younger years my boundaries were destroyed by a trusted adult.  I’ve had to learn healthy boundaries over the years and for the longest time thought my boundaries were good.  Then life throws me a curve and makes me wonder all over again, what just happened.  Did I miss something? Did I change again? Is this another layer to the onion? 

I’m thankful for what I have learned and where I am in my Christian walk.  I know I am called to forgive others.  I know how important this is, because it is a release for me and a protection spiritually from spiritual darkness and their activities in my life or my loved ones.  After multiple confrontations over a family issue, I could see myself and my family doing the dance of anger and I didn’t want to participate in it any longer.  I had to break the cycle.  We were not getting anywhere.  We kept going in circles with our conversations.  I was feeling angry, hurt, lost, and becoming resentful.  All of it felt horrible to me.  I knew I needed to lean on God even more.  I had to release these feelings.  I repented to God for my part in all of the family dynamics and forgave the others and myself.  I wanted to be free of all resentment.  I gave it all over to God.  Immediately I felt a release, and the heaviness left.  The enemy had to go, because of my prayers of submission to God and using my authority to rid myself of the negative feelings and thoughts. 

I put time and distance between myself and certain family members.   This time of space and quietness was needed to clear my head and to clearly see what to do next as I consulted with God about my next move.  I set a boundary for myself.  Setting good boundaries prevents resentment, stops the dance of anger, and closes the door for the enemy to come mess in your life.  God continues to enlighten me and peel back the onion.  Deep patterns of our childhood often carry through our adulthood.  We act automatically out of memory instead of growth.  We have to move from the under the powerful hold of how we grew up into the relationship of God being our Father.  By turning from our old patterns we stay out of resentment.  We learn to love with proper limits and at the same time stop evil behavior.  Family dynamics can pull you back into old patterns in a second.  Awareness is key, and self examination is not easy.

Matthew 7:3-5 New International Version (NIV)

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

In my situation these verses pierced me. I was focused on how wrong they were and I didn’t realize my lack of boundaries were allowing me to be pulled back into familiar dysfunctional patterns.  I lost control of my personal property. My boundaries were being violated.  My needs were not being fulfilled by the family.  I had to face the reality of my deficit and the need to be filled by the wrong people.  Trying to win a fight or to hear sorry come from someone can be exhausting.  Hope seems to fade away while we are trying to fix it on our own, and at the same time, the enemy is wrecking havoc in our lives. 

Proverbs 13:12 New International Version (NIV)

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life

God is the one who can fill that need, and bring hope.  I had to break the patterns, the old cycles with clear boundaries.  It leaves one to wonder what to do next, but God is showing me my path.  Sometimes it feels like I’m in slow mode, but I know He is teaching, equipping and healing me.   I’m laying down old thought processes, habits, and the way I look at loved ones and situations. 

The difference between responding and reacting is a choice.  When you are reacting, you are not in control.  When you respond, you are.  Boundaries are best done with love.  We can still love the ones that we have to put a strong healthy boundary around.  In the process we are gaining freedom to love.  Boundaries help us get to that point. 

Let’s pray,

Father God, I pray for self awareness for all of us.  Break the unhealthy cycles, patterns and spiritual holds from our pasts.  Holy Spirit come! Fill us with wisdom and the purity of visions to remedy broken relationships.  Jesus guide us in our relationships with truth and honesty.  Thank you for helping us to grow in freedom and love.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen. 

I Am Lioness

Sue Knisley -Guest Contributor

Iron Man, Black Panther, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Superman …

Lioness is who I’d be in the world of superheroes.

Before I knew Jesus, even way after… when I looked in the mirror, I saw a scared little kitten. I acted out what I saw. Going through my days, remembering to pray once in awhile, when it suited me, or when I needed/wanted something.

What a pathetic, empty life it was. Void of joy, serenity, confidence. I ‘hid’ a lot. That’s what kittens do. All that time, Lioness waited in the wings. Jesus surrounded my very being 24/7. I may have made Him an afterthought, intentional or not, but I was never an afterthought to Him.

I let so many things get in the way of my relationship with Jesus. Food was my primary drug of choice. Busyness also got snorted on a regular basis. Parts of me feel tears while writing this. I didn’t use illegal street drugs. Well, they DID give me fentanyl when I got a spinal epidural. Isn’t that stuff for horses? Booze didn’t do it for me. But junk food? Watch out. I stayed numbed out for years.

Different times at church, Ryan would say something that struck a nerve or piqued my interest. I might join a life group, volunteer, even crack open a Bible. Who knew God was talking to me all those times? He had time for me, a scared kitten?
Yeah, He did.

Whenever I’d draw near to Him, He’d welcome me with a huge, squishy hug. It would bring me to tears of gratitude, relief, puzzlement that He could love even me. Me, who’s done some awful things, really bad stuff.

When Jesus came down to Earth and chose to die on the cross to pay the ransom for all our sins, we got this amazing gift of forgiveness and the promise of Heaven.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

This was such a boatload of freedom to me. I spent so many years of my life paying lip service to those Scriptures, but not truly believing them for me. I felt like I made God shake His head and walk away in disgust when He looked at me.

That was a lie of the enemy, one of many, and I believed it for a lot of years. Here’s the truth: God loves me! I am not a scared little kitten anymore. Yes, I’m still human and I’ll always have imperfections while I’m on this side of the grave. Yet, accepting Jesus’ forgiveness of my sins and believing who I truly am in Christ…

Psalm 139.14 I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

I am Lioness! More than able to carry out God’s message. Hear me roar, take THAT puny enemy. Get out of my way.

Here’s the thing: just like my heroes Iron Man, Super Man and the rest of the gang, if I choose to be on my own, I’m just a scared kitten. I have to stay connected to my power source, Jesus Christ, if I want to be Lioness.

Be the scared kitten or be the Lion or Lioness...meow or roar...it’s your choice

Why I Go

Matt Martini

I took this picture last year when we visited the village of Santa Maria in the Opalaca Mountains of Honduras. It was my favorite picture from that trip. I’ve been on many trips and all of them are great but this one was probably the most fun of all of them. We had a large and lively group. Many stories were told, many jokes were cracked, and many friendships were created and strengthened. Our job was to build the roof trusses for a new church building in the village. This was a big deal because the people of Santa Maria had been notoriously resistant to Jesus over the twenty or so years that Mercy International (the local mission with whom we partner) had been working in the mountains.

For me the highlight of last year’s trip came on the last afternoon that we spent in the village. We had built seven trusses and there were two left. As you can imagine, we don’t have a full-blown woodworking shop in this small village with no electricity so the work was slow. The boards were hand cut from trees not far from the village and literally dripping with sap since the trees from which they were cut were still standing just days before. They were rough and splintery, unfathomably heavy, and they varied greatly in width and thickness. We were running out of lumber and nails, requiring us to be creative in order to get the last few built without compromising the integrity of them. This of course slowed our progress to a crawl.

The sun was brutal that afternoon and the team was exhausted. It’s an arduous and exhausting process just to get to the village and difficult to get good rest once we get there - lying on concrete floors in the humidity and mosquitoes makes for a fitful night’s sleep at best – leaving us in a constant state of semi-exhaustion. The smells of bug spray and sunscreen intermingled in the heavy and motionless air as we pressed on. And then the rains came.

Santa Maria is in a rain forest so drizzles and gentle rains are rare there. Within seconds we were soaked to the skin as the generator that ran our circular saw hummed on, oblivious to the deluge. We gathered under a makeshift shelter consisting of a tarp draped over one of the adobe walls and plotted our next move. After a brief discussion we decided we were not leaving until the trusses were done. A couple of us fearlessly walked out from under the tarp and into the downpour. Then we noticed Juan, one of the local leaders helping with this construction project, was right behind us! This inspired us as the cool rain refreshed us. We transformed from a group of walking dead to a well-oiled and highly efficient machine. In no time we had the last two trusses built and a great story to share. High fives and hugs went all around and we no longer noticed, much less cared, how wet we all were.

So when I got home last year I started sifting through my photos like I always do. Of course there were no pictures from working in the rain since no one wanted their camera ruined but the images were still vivid in my mind. As I  reflected on the time, smiling, I came across this photo. I was instantly drawn in, completely forgetting the good times shared working in the monsoon. I confess that I don’t even remember taking the picture (I took literally hundreds) but as soon as I looked into her eyes I was captivated. While she certainly is beautiful, there was something more in this shot that pulled at me. I noticed a gravity in her expression, something weighed heavily on her small shoulders. As I flipped through countless other photos of kids grinning and laughing, she showed up in a few more. I noticed that she never quite smiled. I found myself regretting that I had been so caught up in my thing, in our things. I mourned over the missed opportunity to hear her story.

Fast forward to last week. As luck would have it we ended up in the same village (there are several other villages that Mercy International works with). We got in before the sun went down and it appeared the whole village came out to great us. I was – as I always am there – drawn to the kids and it didn’t take long before my camera was out, snapping pics and showing them on the screen as they giggled. I started to recognize some of them from last year so I got out my phone and pulled up photos from the previous year. This quickly turned into a game of me asking “Quien es el – quien es ella?” Who is he – who is she? Many of those kids from last year’s pics were in the ever-growing circle of children who were pressing in all around, eager to see themselves and name their friends and family members in the photos. That’s when I first saw her. She had not changed at all, still having the same aloof and indifferent look that defined her stoic beauty. I was happy to see she was not wearing the same clothes (many of the kids were) but otherwise it was as if time stood still. I again wondered what the story was.

We quickly got to work the next day. Our assignment was to work on the finishing details of the church. We were installing windows and doors, staining benches, and digging out trenches for retaining wall foundations. We had the perfect team for the work and got much done. The church had come a long way since last year and we were in good spirits and felt so honored to be a part of it. Later we learned of a ten-year-old girl who’s mom had died in childbirth and who’s dad she had never met. She was under the care of her grandparents although lately those roles had been starting to reverse. No one knows how old they were since birthdays are often not recorded in the village but it was obvious that their physical and mental faculties were in rapid decline. We had two in our group who are in the healthcare field so they went and visited with the family, tending to their needs as best they could while sharing stories and prayers. I was so happy for them to have the chance to utilize their skills while getting some great fellowship time with the locals.

Then, on our last day in Santa Maria, it was late afternoon and our work was finished. We waited in the nearly finished church building for the service to start. It was then that I was introduced to the girl who never knew her mom or dad. Who, at the age of ten, was the caretaker of her aging “abuelos” - grandparents. And she was none other than the one in this photo. Her name is Maria and she does indeed have the weight of the world on her shoulders. I sat down by her and as soon as I did the skies opened up with a trademark deluge, pounding the metal roof of the church and creating a deafening roar that required we wait until it was over to start the service. I pulled out my phone and started showing her pictures. As the room grew dark – the sun was going down and we had only a few flashlights - I took dozens of pics of her and her two friends, doing everything I could to make them laugh. I was able to get a few legit smiles from Maria and before long I found her sitting on my lap. Her face was peaceful and content as she ran her fingers along my arm hair – all the kids are fascinated by that.

The next morning I walked out of the building where we were staying and there she was, all smiles in the morning sun. I sat down by her and hugged her. I said to her: “es el tiempo de salir, soy triste” - it’s time to leave, I am sad. She instantly grew cold and turned her back to me. She started rubbing her eyes and my wishful thinking was trying to tell me that a gnat got in her face but I knew. She never let me see a tear but I knew. After a few more awkward and mostly silent minutes I snapped one more photo of her. She did her best to force a sonrisa – smile – at my request but the gravity was back. She lingered for a while, her brow furrowed and her face otherwise expressionless, and then she was gone.

Every time I come back I wrestle with guilt and this time is no different. It just doesn’t seem fair that I get to walk onto that plane while Maria is still there, tending to her grandparents as best she can. And I hate that I take with me more than I could leave behind. So now I do the only thing that I can from 2,000 miles away.  I hit my knees and pray. I pray for hope for Maria. I pray thanks for having met her. And I pray to see her again someday. Silver and gold she does not have, but what she had she freely gave me. And I can do nothing but receive it. I cannot pay her back. Which I guess is good because if I could pay her back then it wouldn’t be a gift. Thank you Maria. Te amo.

"WHO WAS GRACE AND WHY WAS SHE SO AMAZING?"

              Tracy Winkler

About 20 years ago we were in Michigan on a beautiful Lake vacationing with our kids and some family friends. After a long day of boating and fishing we sat around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, telling stories and singing songs. We sang the classic Christian hymn "Amazing Grace" and as soon as we had finished, our friend's 5 year old daughter, Kelly, looked at us and in all seriousness said, "Who was Grace and why was she so amazing?" We doubled over in laughter and quickly explained that Grace was not a person.

Here's the deal, I think there are plenty of people who have sung that old classic hymn and are just as clueless as little Kelly was. What is grace after all? 

grace: noun  the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners

In this day and age where we are rewarded for our performance, it is difficult to grasp that we can get something for nothing. As I write this, I am sitting here with 2 of my grandchildren, 6 yr. old Claire and 8 yr. old Finn, who are spending the week with me. I just scrambled them eggs, topped with ketchup smiley faces. I went out early and I got them their favorite donuts, chocolate frosted with sprinkles. I would do anything for them! And what do I require of them? Nothing! Do I love them when they spit ketchup on my couch? YES! Do I love them when they mess up the bedroom? YES! I love them no matter what! There is nothing that they need to do to earn my love and there is nothing that they could do to lose my love!     

                                                    LOVED NO MATTER WHAT

Finn and Claire are favored just because they are part of my family. When you say "Yes" to God, you are part of His family and you are favored! You are loved no matter what! It doesn't matter how much you have screwed up, you can't be unloved!

And that is a little bit about Grace and why she is so amazing.

Religious Choke Hold

              Ryan Detzel

                   Religious Choke Hold

It’s a sad reality how many people are unable to make a distinction between Jesus and religion. God Himself becomes flesh and blood and moves into the neighborhood. He speaks violently against the religious and brings comfort, healing, and hope to those who are far from God because He didn’t come for the “healthy” – He came for the sick. Jesus often shared strong words with the religious people of His day – offending their minds so that He could reveal their hearts.

Jesus brought healing to people through a variety of vehicles. To one – he rubbed mud on, and to another he prayed for, and to another He cast demons out, and to another He simply invited the man to stand up. Jesus did things in such a mixed method that it was almost as if He was specifically trying to show the religious people that they had absolutely no formula for being spiritual. He proved through His activities that there was no secret…there was no hidden answer…there was no A + B = C in the Kingdom of God. Just faith in Him and a willingness to act on it.

Religion says, You need to go to church every weekend and on Wednesday night too.
Jesus says, You are the church and wherever you go, I am with you always.
Religion says, You must give at least 10% of your income to church because God needs your money.
Jesus says, I want 100% of your heart and sometimes a portion of that heart lives in your wallet.
Religion says, You need to get yourself cleaned up and put on your Sunday best for God!
Jesus says, God has seen you on the toilet and much worse than that – no need for a show.
Religion says, You don’t have enough faith – you haven’t done enough works – you’ll never be enough.
Jesus says, I am the King of Kings and you are my son or daughter. You are Royalty and that’s plenty.

Religion is like those vines that climb up buildings or trees. They can look interesting, but they’re choking out the good thing that they have wrapped around…squeezing the life right out of it. And like the vines, religion creeps up just an inch or two a day. It goes unnoticed until you realize that it’s crept itself onto your relationship with Christ…and it begins to choke the life away.

Drop all those rules and remember the jewels. 
You have inherited a crown of Glory from the King.
 

Spirit Influences

Denise Horgan

Spirit Influences

Have you ever overheard a conversation or been a part of one, when you hear someone mention that a particular area of town has a religious spirit or that an individual has an orphan spirit.  My favorite comment is the spirit of stupid came over someone.  I think this phrase replaced the old saying of “the devil made me do it.” An excuse, but not too far from the truth.  When someone is talking about a spirit they are referring to influences.  Influences can be positive or negative.  The Holy Spirit would be a positive influence and the religious spirit would be a negative hold, which refers to the actions of Satan and his minions.

A group of us have been reading and discussing the book, The Supernatural Ways of Royalty by Kris Vallotton and Bill Johnson.  The book is about learning our true identities in how God created us to be.  Recently in one of the chapters the religious spirit was mentioned and depicted how even a Pastor had to deal with it.  It is interesting how the religious spirit and  the orphaned heart are intertwined.  The term orphaned is mentioned in many of our worship songs and books.  The religious spirit or influence covers the orphaned heart with a performance or a works mentality.  Let me explain it this way, we may have a hurt heart from something that happened in our lives which could cause an orphan spirit.  Before you know it, the religious spirit shows up in our behaviors and is masking our pain.  Our actions are our focus to do better, to make extraordinary achievements, as a way of protecting ourselves from being hurt again.  Somewhere along the way we lost our hope and self worth from the pain that was afflicted upon us.  We continue to shove our pain down deeper inside and we try to forget about it.  However our behavior is now motivated by a survival mentality as we continue to bury our pain.  The pain of an orphaned heart can come out in overeating, oversleeping, overworking, or addictions to pornography, alcohol, drugs, anxiety, or self-injury.  The religious spirit can manifest in fear or a false protection of the orphan heart, by hiding behind locks, extra security, self-defense classes, hiding behind anger, pride, procrastination, and even hopelessness. 

Now you are getting the picture of how the religious spirit influences many of our negative behaviors.  These behaviors are fixated on self-reliance and those things which we can control.    The circumstances that one has experienced in life creates a wall, or a coping mechanism. Any uninvited circumstance or intrusion reinforces these barriers and behaviors. 

Mark 10:21-23 New International Version (NIV)

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

Jesus’ wasn’t concerned with the man’s wealth, but the man’s heart.  Jesus knew the man placed wealth above his relationship with Jesus.  Just like the rich man, the religious spirit will make you believe that you need to hang onto any thing you believe you need more than you need Jesus. 

Our principles, or belief system that we are holding at a higher value than a relationship, create form, or establishes a false protection without purpose and tradition without power.  The religious spirit is a self-imposed control to protect the hurt orphaned lonely heart. 

How do we move past all of this?  Prayer and repentance to change the way one might think.  An inside job of renewing the mind and to redirect your heart towards God who forgives.  Faith, believing and trusting in God instead of ourselves alone will lead us to our true identities and the power of Jesus’ authority in our lives. 

Let’s Pray,

Father God,  Thank You for loving and always forgiving me.  Continue to make me self aware of who I truly am in You.  Help me to see myself though Your eyes.  Father I repent for believing and agreeing with the lies about myself which are not true.  We bind, tie the lies up tight, and hand them over to You, God, in Jesus name.  Holy Spirit, come and speak the truth into our situations, our circumstances, and our identity.  Renew our minds and heal our hearts.  Fill us with Your Joy! We are no longer a slave to our self-imposed control.  We no longer have to strive.  In Jesus name I pray and declare truth and freedom over my life.  Amen. 

Reaping and Sowing

Matt Martini

You Reap What You Sow
 "You reap what you sow" is a concept that exists in every culture and every period throughout history. We paraphrase this concept in lots of ways that are familiar to all of us: 
 "They got what they deserved" 
 "You get what you pay for" 
 "I made the bed, now I have to sleep in it" 
 "Cause and effect" 
 "Karma"                                                                                                                "Self-fulfilling prophecy" 
...and the list goes on. This is often used as wise counsel in helping someone decide what to do. It is also used retroactively to diagnose why something bad happened. But what about those times where we did something good and got something bad? Maybe you did a bunch of favors for someone but felt unappreciated and taken for granted. Maybe you put in extra effort at your job while there are others who don't and they get treated the same or better than you do. Maybe you've let someone in front of you at the McDonald's drive through only to have them order $17,000 worth of food that takes an hour and a half to pass through the window. It would seem that when we do these things we sow good but reap bad. But is that really the case? 
 
I am proposing that doing good versus doing bad is only part of the formula. What is missing in this formula is intent. You can have a good reason for doing something as well as a bad reason. For example you could mow your neighbor's lawn because they are a good friend and you want to help them or you could do it so that you can have them owe you something. In the first scenario you did this out of the kindness of you heart with no expectation of the favor being returned. Even though you don't care for the mundane task of cutting grass you have a huge feeling of joy and accomplishment when you are finished. And if the favor is returned? Well then that is just icing on the cake. It was not the "crop" you were trying to "harvest." Perhaps your true "harvest" happens as you peek through the blinds to see the bewildered look on your neighbors' faces when they pull in the driveway. 

But let's say it was more like the second scenario. Now to be fair, this feeling of being owed something is probably not at the front of your mind. Most of us are not so manipulative and conniving so as to trap our neighbor into owing us something. But we may still harbor a small, almost-but-not-quite-subconscious thought that we are now owed a favor and that our "crop" will not ripen until that favor is returned. This scenario could end badly in many ways. For one, the neighbor may never return the favor. This will cause resentment to build and harden your heart toward your neighbor. Or maybe the neighbor mows your lawn but does a bad job of it or cuts it shorter or taller than you would prefer. Again, resentment builds. Or maybe the neighbor mows your lawn AND washes your car. Now you are the one in debt!  
 
The bible talks extensively about the principle of reaping and sowing and the passage that resonates most with me is the parable of the sower. Open your bible to Matthew and you will find this parable in the first half of chapter 13. In this parable Jesus talks about a farmer who sows his seed everywhere. Seed goes on the rocks, in the weeds, on the path, in the dirt, everywhere. It's fascinating how the farmer spreads his seeds with such reckless abandon. In fact it seems down right foolish to be so wasteful. The cool and rather unique thing about this parable is that Jesus actually explains it. Matthew tells us that Jesus pulled his disciples aside and explained to them how the seed is the word of God and that the different types of soil are different types of people. 
 
Now I've heard theories about how farming methods were different back then, attempting to justify the foolish actions of the farmer, and maybe that’s true. But I can't help but wonder if Jesus didn't make this farmer appear foolish on purpose to get everyone's attention. The key to this is defining what exactly the word of God is. Many would say it's the bible but the problem with that theory is that the bible did not yet exist and would not come into being for another 300+ years. That's not to say that the bible isn't made up of what God says; I'm just not 100% certain that this is what Jesus was referring to. 
 
So let's entertain this possibility for a minute and go to John, chapter 1, verse 1, where we find an intriguing clue. That verse states that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now we have a little different definition of “word,” don't we? Maybe Jesus means we should spread God around? Well that just seems weird and rather confounding considering that God is already omnipresent - everywhere. But God is lots of things, isn't He? 

Do a Google search for "names of God." Go ahead. Yes, right now. I'll wait. What did you find? You probably found lists. Looooong lists. And amidst a myriad of names, on any of the lists that are even close to thorough, one name you will find is LOVE. 1 John 4:8 tells us that "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." So if we are willing to take some leaps here could we then conclude that since God is Love and the Word is God that the "seed" Jesus is referring to is actually Love? I would argue a resounding "yes" with the key piece of evidence defending my argument being what Jesus did every day that He walked the earth. Everywhere He went He loved on people. There were never conditions. He did not heal the blind man with the condition that the man become a volunteer at his church. He didn't heal the leper with the expectation that he would start donating ten percent of his income. He did not create the Facebook meme that says "if you love me you will share this." And He certainly didn't die on the cross with the intent of us somehow repaying Him. He simply scattered love with reckless abandon. He did not concern Himself with the outcome, nor did He conserve His love, seeking out fertile ground. He merely did the right thing with the right intent: He loved with the intent of loving, no strings attached.

We all want more love so how about we start sowing more love? I like to think of it this way: God so loved the world, therefore we sow love on the world. What do you say? Will we change the world or let the world change us?