Love is Part of the Restraint

1 Cor 13

1If I speak in the tongues ^a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, ^b but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

Take all of the underlined above out of this world and what do you get?  

Matthew 24:12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,

One of the reasons the tribulation is going to be so bad is the lack of love.  When the Church is pulled out of this world, the restraint goes out with it and most of what is left is devoid of God's love.  Everyone looking out for themselves alone is going to make earth a tough place to operate.  Love is also the antidote to hate which is what we see oozing out of every pore of the so called "left" side of the political spectrum.  Makes sense when we know who their spiritual father is.

The great news is the Church remains on the earth as the Restrainer.  We discussed the above to lead us back to the necessity to build faith, hope and especially love into who we are and everything we do.  We don't fight hate with more hate.  We fight evil, darkness and hate with good, light and love.  God is light and God is love:

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 4:16

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

We have to get the God's Love part right.  God's Love for us is what started this journey and it will be in, with and through God's Love we finish strong.  

1 John 4

10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

No love, no Heaven.  Good works are great but only if they are done in, with and through God's Love.  Go re-read 1 Cor 13, all the stuff people do thinking they are a "good person" are all complete trash without God's brand of Love which is again, defined in 1 Cor 13.  The finishing stroke of perfection on all this is God Himself is Love which means without Him, nobody can Love the way they ought to.  This entire system was built for us to do everything in Him, with Him, through Him.  We are not the lone ranger out there fighting the "good fight" alone.  Anything we do thats going to have any lasting value whatsoever has to be done in Him, with Him, through Him.  We do all this stuff together.  We work with Him, we work with each other.  One big happy family with a process.  The Lord God defined that process and we must follow it.

It wasnt God's judgement that drew us to our Lord Jesus Christ.  It was His Love and Mercy combined with the stick of judgement on the other side.  We are to be like Him in this world.  We are going to win the lost, win the left, win over our enemies by loving them.  No possible way to do this in the flesh, its impossible.  With the Lord our God, all things are possible.  We are going to love them with His Love, stacked on top of our imperfect love, aligned in agreement and unity.  Our "feelings" have nothing to do with it.  We "will" through our willpower to do the things we need and ought to do.  We align our will with His Will by force of willpower through decision making or "cutting off" (which is what de-cision) means at its root of other possibilities.

Ever wondered what this meant?:

This verse (Matthew 11:12) is one of the more challenging and debated sayings of Jesus in the Gospels. It reads in many translations (like the NKJV or ESV): "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."

Positive/Forceful Advance (Most Common Evangelical Interpretation): The kingdom of heaven is advancing forcefully or breaking in with great power and energy, like an army pressing forward. "Violent men" (or "forceful people") refers to those who eagerly, zealously, and determinedly seize hold of it—like crowds "storming" the kingdom through repentance, faith, and commitment.

• Picture desperate people besieging a city to enter it, or thronging to hear the gospel. It's not literal physical violence but passionate urgency.
• This fits the context of huge crowds responding to John and Jesus (see Matthew 3:5-6; Luke 5:15, 12:1). The kingdom isn't passive—it's dynamic, and it takes wholehearted effort to enter and lay hold of it.
• A good paraphrase: "The kingdom presses ahead relentlessly, and only the relentless press their way into it."

This encourages bold faith, persistence, and prioritizing God's rule amid distractions—aligning with Jesus' calls to "seek first the kingdom" and deny self.

This idea takes us right back to what we see in the Bible, especially in Psalms over and over again:

Ps 9

1I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

2I will be glad and rejoice in you;

I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

Engaging the will ^^^ or willpower is an act of force...We dont care if we dont "feel like it" we do it anyway.  Paul sang praises in prison, he engaged his willpower.  The saints througout history, through trial, tribulations, all kinds of adversity, persecution, torture and even death, praised Him anyway regardless.  How?  By advancing forcefully through it all and doing what must be done anyway.  This brings us back to Love, God's Love.  This is how we wun every battle from now until we go home with Him.  It doesnt matter what things look like, feel like, whatever, we press forward in faith, hope but especially and most importantly Love.

Love restrains the spreading of hate.  In fact loving our enemies in spite of themselves is like throwing ice cold water over their head or taking a brick to the face-they dont know how to respond.  When the demons are shouting through them, veins popping out the sides of their necks blue faced with hatred and we respond with "Jesus loves you" its like dropping a wrecking ball on everything else they have to say.  

Many of us believe we are close to the Lord's return, whenever that occurs.  We have been given our orders.  We have been shown the path forward.  Does this make sense to anyone?  He is our General.  He shows us the plans of the Kingdom of Heaven to work out His perfect WIll here on earth.  We know His Will is to love, that is the top shelf item, number 1-we love Him with all our heart, soul and spirit, then number 2-we love each other.  All the other stuff is wrapped up nice and neat like a perfect enchilada inside those 2.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

AI is Not Ready For Prime Time

 Just read an article the other day that said more or less AI is not ready to rule the world just yet.  One example was starbucks adopting AI to do its inventory and 9 months later they had to switch back to humans because of all the errors it produced.  This servant uses AI almost daily and repeatedly has to correct the date AI is reporting as "current" even after it has been given specific instructions to report as of todays (most current date).  If AI has daily problems reporting todays date, it is not ready to rule the world yet.

Why bring this up?  Yes, the Lord could decide to return unexpectedly for us at any moment.  However, He has a time in mind for when that is going to happen.  Combine AI's not ready status with the 1% or less gospel penetration in places like North Korea and it points to a possible counterweight to all the evidence suggesting the Lord's return is any moment now.  What are you saying brother D?  We have to be ready either way.

Lets look at the wise virgins of Matt 25.  They were ready, prepared for two outcomes.  They were ready to meet the Bridegroom at any moment AND they were prepared with oil to wait for however long it took Him to arrive.  So, should we be ready today?  Absolutely.  We, the Church are being prepared daily to meet our Lord in the clouds at a moments notice.  We also have to be ready and prepared to wait indefinitely for His return.  We need to be just as prepared and ready for one as we are for the other.

Predictions and "confirmations" and all the other nonsense we have seen over recent history only lead to burnout and disillusionment for some people.  That is not helpful.  Combine that with the fact that nowhere in the Bible do we read a requirement for the Church to predict when the Lord is coming back.  Yea, but brother D what about "the Lord never does anything without revealing it to His prophets?"  What prophets?  You mean the people who tell us over and over again they are not a prophet then they proceed to predict and forecast as if they were?  Or what about the tribe of Issachar?  Okay, what about them?

“And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.” — 1 Chronicles 12:32 (NASB)

What does the Bible say about them ^^^?  They understood the times and what Israel should do.  Great, you mean like knowing we should be prepared and ready for the Lord's return because we are in the last days?  Okay, check next to that box but nowhere up there do I read anything about predicting anything...

We need to be prepared to stay and prepared to go.  Fully prepared both ways.  That is the life of a soldier.  Train, train, train, prepare for war daily even when many soldiers prepare an entire career and never see a bullet fired in anger at them.  We train like we fight.  We prepare for what is coming regardless of when that is.  The signs and signals all around us encourage us to stay on the cutting edge of our preparations but they do not suggest a day or hour when the Lord will come back.  He said we would not know that and so far He has a perfect track record of 100% vs the youtube prophets whose record is at a solid 0%.

The point is, we need to do exactly what the Lord told us to do.  The Holy Spirit's footstomping on love and leveling up (be perfect Matt 5:43-5:48 covers both love and "leveling up" or becoming perfect).  The message on love, the insistence on it is in itself a possible clue to how late the hour is.  On the other hand, thats something we should have been doing all along...

This is getting long but you get the point.  3 months till september 11-13 which is Feast of Trumpets 2026.  We are predicting nothing and preparing for everything.  While we wait to see what happens we need to be very busy at the Lord's Work which is everything He has impressed upon us to do before He returns.  The list is long, lets get after it!

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

Hate vs Love and Seeing Christ in Us

 2 things today:

1.  The enemy game plan is to have us in a continual state of hatred all the time.  The continual perpetration of race baiting, provocation, promotion of one race over another is all a means to get us to hate one another.  It is not the only method being used for sure.  What is the end game for the enemy?  He knows what 1 Cor 13, and 1 John 4 say.  If he can get people into a state of continual hatred the rolls of those entering the gates of Heaven get slimmer and slimmer.

Matt 24

12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 

Love, as it turns out is not just something "nice to have" in the Christian walk, it is essential, non negotiable, a must have item.

Matt 22

34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ^c 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Let that ^^^ sink in, ALL the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments.  Again, not optional and again why the enemy does everything in their power to increase hate while decreasing love.  So, you can see the focused, increasing attempts of the enemy to get us and keep us in a state of hatred.  The left is the party of hate in the name of "tolerance."  Just look at where the hatred is being promoted and you know to whom they belong.

The second item is this:

When Jesus said:

John 14

9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, that statement made by the Lord Jesus Christ was accurate on more than one level.  It is the second level, a deeper level that applies to us today.  Jesus was so committed to doing the Father's Will, He so set aside His own Will that seeing one of them was like seeing the other.  We are told to walk like Jesus in this world.  We are to be so committed to doing His Will that when people see us (the Church) it should be like looking at Jesus.  We die to ourselves, offer ourselves as living sacrifices every day.  His Kingdom come, His WIll be done here on earth just as it is in Heaven.  Our Lord is the model, we are to follow.  This world needs more Light and Life.  He is the Life and the Light and we have to "get out of the way" to allow Him to shine through us.

Hopefully you get the idea here^^^.  The two items above are end game, top shelf level Christianity.  Nothing is more important than loving the Lord our God and loving each other.  Part of loving the Lord our God is obedience:

1 John 14

“If you love me, obey my commandments."

He died for us first, in love and mercy.  We "die" for Him daily by offering ourselves back to Him as living sacrifices:

Gal 2:20

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Romans 12

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."

-----------------------------------------

How much longer until the Lord shows up for us unexpectedly?  We dont know and nobody knows.  We are out of the prediction game and all into the preparation game.  Preparation is what the Lord God is doing to, through, and for His Church by "leveling us up" before He shows up.  The fact that He has us focused on these top shelf items is interesting in light of all the UFO/UAP/Disclosure and other stuff going on.

A counter to this ^^^ from a timing perspective us the little to zero penetration of the gospel in places like N Korea.  The "end comes" when the gospel has been preached everywhere throughout the earth which means the communist anti-Christ, anti-human nations have a big target on them.  Recent events in the news have borne this out with Venezuela falling, and Cuba next and ongoing pressure on China.

We shall see what happens.  Our part in this is to keep our eyes on Christ, and to love which is an essential, not optional, not "nice to have" but absolutely mandatory, will have, shall have, must have item for every Christian.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

Revelation

 Revelation is the last book of the Bible and it means a revealing of things.  Many if not most of us would agree we are in the last days.  In these last days the Lord God is calling us higher to be the best versions of ourselves, to shine brighter than ever, to love more, to increase in hope and faith, etc.  We are going one way, toward the Kingdom of Heaven.  This world, on the other hand, is headed in the opposite direction.  The news these days if full of a never ending stream of bad news, worry and despair.  Basically, the opposite of faith, hope and love.

There are news reports of increased sightings of UFO, UAP, alien like creatures on land and sea, big foot sightings, congressional testimonies of aliens and alien craft and disclosure of alien/ufo files from the Federal Government.  The only thing missing is the "ghosts/haunting" nexus to bring it all together.  If you have ever watched "the unexplained" or similar shows about the mothman, big foot, etc, the three go together or are seen together: cryptids, "aliens/ufos" and "ghosts."  Common denominator?  All demonic.  One stop shopping: easy.

In these last days the evil is being "revealed" (Revelation) for what it is, as is the good.  We are in a neutral zone kind of area right now where the Restrainer still exists on the earth, yet more and more of what has been hidden is now brought out into the full daylight.  Purpose?  To give people a chance, before the tribulation starts to make a wise decision.  The Lord is not sitting up in Heaven rubbing His Hands together while He waits to pull the rug out from underneath the people of the earth to watch them stumble.  In love, mercy and great patience He is giving the people of the earth every chance to make the right decision before its too late.

The evil is being disclosed for what it is.  The satanic blindness that has been over the people is being lifted for a time some people can see and understand how rotten, repulsive, ugly, horrid, and hypocritical the evil is, turn and be saved.  Thats whats going on.  With the curtain being pulled back this far in "revelation" of things we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have to wonder how much longer He will delay before His unexpected arrival...We are out of the prediction game however current events would suggest to us we remain on the cutting edge of our preparation game.  He never told us we have to predict the future.  He did tell us over and over again to be watching and ready, so lets do that.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

The Great Awakening of 2026

 in the mainstream news here, and here.

What has the Lord added to the prayer target list?  This:

Luke 10:2

2He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

The Lord is pouring out His Spirit from east to west, north to south.  The harvest is plentiful.  We need to add to our daily prayers sending workers into the field to harvest the crop the Lord has prepared.  The Lord told us what He was going to do and now He is doing it.  The old establishment, churchianity churches are dying or dead and a Church of hungry for Jesus, it has to be real, out with the fake, in with the authentic is taking its place.

We are to stand in agreement with the Lord first, then with each other that His Will is done on this earth (just as it is in Heaven).  This year also has brought into focus faith, hope and love which are the beginning and the end of our story.  God is Love.  That is how the story begins and ends.  No love means everything else (regardless of what it is) goes down the drain hole into oblivion.  Faith, hope, works, discipline, self denial, all of it is not worth the trash heap if its not mixed and sprinkled liberally with Love.

This is the path forward.  There is yet work to be done.  Communism needs a stake driven deep into its demonic heart before this is over.  Why?

Matt 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

China and North Korea have big bullseyes painted on their chest for this reason ^^^.  Cuba as well.  Venezuela we can check off our list.  Cuba is next.  At some point, China and North Korea will have their reckoning.  We keep praying, the Lord keeps working.  Our prayers continue to be answered and we are only just getting started.  We must jam our foot down on the accelarator, burying it in the floor.  We do not let up for a moment until everything that the Lord has in mind to do, has been done.  He has a Heart for the lost.

1 Tim 2

1I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

Our First Job

 Our first "ministry" or job is to the Lord:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

That's the first and greatest commandment, as Jesus called it (Matthew 22:37-38, echoing Deuteronomy 6:5).

Then, our second job is to love each other.  The key to each is that word "love" which is not optional, not "nice to have" not something to do when we "feel" like it.  Its a commandment thats in their persistent, repetitive and with emphasis.  It starts with the King.  We are to walk with Him, talk with Him, serve, love and obey Him.  Once we get that right we can correctly do the second job which is to love each other (impossible without Him first).

We were created for Him:

Isaiah 43:7 puts it directly:

“Bring all who are called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.”

The Lord is at work daily, getting His people right and ready for His unexpected arrival.  When that will be, only the Father knows.  We can be comforted by the thought that He is at work in this world, in us, and everywhere else.  He is not sitting up in Heaven with His feet kicked up on the table whistling the time away.  

He loves us.  He loved us so much He died for each and every one of us personally.  He did not die for some faceless nameless mass of humanity.  He stopped time and looked at each one of us individually, by name.  He saw every wicked, terrible, ugly thing we would ever do.  And only after knowing how fully rotten we all were, then, and only then in love and mercy He died for us.  We are to love Him back for that.  Fair trade?  We are to love Him with all of us, then we are to overflow that love to each other.

We have to get this right.  This is not only a Kingdom, eternity thing, it is also how we "win" down here on earth.  We are not going to shout, argue and arm twist our enemies into loving our Lord and His Kingdom.  We are going to love them in.

That it for today, the Lord was insisting this go out this morning so here it is.  May the Love, Mercy, Grace and Peace of the Lord be upon you today in abundance.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

(we need to stay over the targets, another man was just killed outside the white house with bad intentions for Mr Trump.  We must keep Mr Trump prayed up and prayed over with all kinds of prayers and requests for provision and protection.  Your prayers are working, which is why the crazies are being "graduated" to the next life before they reach Mr Trump.  And we remember we are not at war with flesh and blood, the enemy is trying daily to turn this country back around into a pedo, demonic, leftist, communist, satanic hell hole.  How about NO?)

Rededicate 250

 Politicians from the top rededicating this nation back to the Lord.  Why now?  Is this real?  Yes, its real.  This year is the year of global spiritual awakening and repentance/revival in the Church.  It all ties in together.  The Lord is doing something here, He is moving.  Over and over in his spirit this servant hears "the best is yet to come."  We need to press forward into what the Lord is doing in the earth.  Our God and His Promises are bigger than any problem or any adversary.  Our God is bigger than all the enemy's plots, plans, and agendas.  His promises are bigger than our problems.

Our place of strength is leveled up and centered in His Will.  What is His Will?  At the very tippy top level its this:

Matt 22:

34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ^c 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This is the whole enchilada.  The nexus or center or the commandment is love.  Which is also 1 Cor 13, 1 John 4 and throughout your Bible from beginning to end.  We are being called upward to the highest best versions of ourselves right now.  Those highest best versions are necessary for what the Lord wants to do on the earth both now and in the days, weeks and months ahead.  Somehow, the best is still ahead.  Not just in Heaven later, but on earth now.  The Lord has in mind to do something great and that great thing is not standing still, it is moving.  

We already see the dissolution of the Communist nightmare from around the earth.  Venezuela was the first communist, anti-Christ, anti-human domino to fall.  Cuba is next, and both China and North Korea are on the agenda as well.  1% gospel penetration in North Korea is not going to work.  The promise is greater than the problem:

Matt 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

That includes the Muslim theocracy called Iran as well as the communist dictatorships of China and North Korea.

What does Faith say about our situation?

What does Hope say about our situation?

and most importantly what does Love say about our situation?

Everything else may pass away but these three remain....

1 Cor 13

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This ^^^ is how we take care of Kingdom business.  This ^^^ is how we cut through the darkness and all the plots, plans, and agendas of the enemy.  Love implies obedience, which in turn implies humility and repentance for those who are off the narrow path.

2 Chron 7:14

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

It does not take a majority of us to rout the enemy:

Joshua 23:10 (NKJV) "One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God, He is the one who fights for you, as He promised you."

This is a direct promise from Joshua to the Israelites as they settle in the Promised Land. It highlights divine assistance: with God fighting for them, one faithful person can rout a huge enemy force.

Leviticus 26:8 (part of God's blessings for obedience) "Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall by the sword before you."

This is in the context of covenant blessings—if Israel obeys God, they will experience supernatural victory and multiplication of strength.

This ^^^ is why each and every one of you matter.  One of you offsets 1000 of the enemy, so each and every one matters.  We need each other to rise up and press into what the Lord is doing.  This servant has heard/been impressed in his spirit the Lord's Will of "pressing back the enemy all the way to the gates of hell from whence they came." 

All of this is very encouraging and it is the Lord's Will that each of you rise up, be motivated, inspired and encouraged to go forth boldly in your mission given to you by the Master in order for the large scale, overall Mission to be accomplished.  We all play a part.  He could do it all on His own but He does not want it that way.  We are and are to be a family.  We do this together but each has to contribute their own individual part to the whole.

Now is the time to rise up into the fulness of your calling and election in Christ.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace

Hope For the Future

 

1 Cor 13

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Hope has to do with the future.  As does this:

Jer 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

The Lord is in the process of reconciling and restoring all things to Himself.  That is the big picture plan.  The smaller picture is a fractal or just a smaller piece of the big plan.  We were never told to walk around day after day lamenting what the enemy is doing or plans to do.  We are told to walk in faith, hope and love.  Faith and hope are guard rails on the road called love.  These three things remain above and beyond all others and the greatest of them is love.

Matt 22

34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ^c 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

1 John 2

3We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5But if anyone obeys his word, love for God ^a is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

How did Jesus live?  He lived in love.  His entire life in a human body was for the purpose of love.  There is a very big picture plan at work on the earth today and we are to be part of it.  We work out our Lord's plans in His ways.  The counter to the enemy's hatred and darkness is Love and Light, that is our God who is Love and Light.

The Spirit of the Lord has been impressing for some time now the need for us to "level up" and or become the best versions of ourselves, centered in His Will.  Centered in His Will means on that road called love again with Hope and Faith as guardrails.  Wherever we are going, and whatever we are doing we are doing all of it from the perspective of faith, hope and love.  This is how we walk the walk and talk the talk living like Jesus on the earth.

We love as a decision, engaging our willpower, and aligning in agreement with the Lord our God.  We love with His Love, in His Love because thats the only way to do it.  The flesh, and this world have a 0 percent chance of living out what the Lord God commanded concerning love.  We do it all in Him, with Him and through Him and since He=love by His own Word, we do everything in, with and through Love.

Love isn't optional as both 1 Cor 13 and 1 John 4 spell out.  All the other stuff people do and call "good" is complete trash and garbage in the eyes of the Lord when it is not done in and through Love.  Love is the torpedo that will sink all the enemy's ships.  If the hour is late as many believe, then we all must focus on and develop this greatest of Christian virtues.  Heaven would not be Heaven without the Love.  If the Lord began allowing haters through the gates it wouldn't be Heaven anymore.

We are not divorcing what we see in the world around us from faith, hope and love.  On the contrary, we see current events as making the case for perfecting our game, leveling up into the best versions of ourselves which for all of us who believe includes the crowning virtues of faith, hope and love.  The nobody who writes to you today tries to surrender to the Spirit of the Lord, to write only what He wants written.  As you have seen over recent history it all revolves around faith, hope and love.  There is no higher order, more important topic to write on if the hour is indeed late.

We do not know how much time we have left on the earth either individually or collectively as the Church, so we must redeem the time.  We are to fight the good fight of faith.  We are to decide and engage our willpower to love our enemies, to love the brothers and sisters, and love humanity with, in and through our Lord's Love.  We were never told we have to do everything on our own.  On the contrary we can only do everything we need to do with His Help.  We do it all together here on earth because what we are doing now is a kind of "basic training" to use military metaphor for spending an eternity with our Lord ruling and reigning with Him.

We do have hope for the future regardless of what takes place in this world.  Our hope right now today is living a peaceful life centered in the paradigm of faith, hope and love as we move through life.  We keep our eyes on Christ through the entire journey because He keeps in perfect peace those whose eyes are stayed on Him.

Isa 26

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Each and every one of us is to be a walking lamp stand shining life and light into this world.  Those around us should see that light and be lifted up, encouraged, and inspired by it.  They in turn when the process has run its course should become lampstands and lights themselves.  Each one of us is the change we are looking for in the world.  We cannot change others but we can certainly change ourselves.  That incremental improvement day after day is what we are looking for.  We know where we are, on the road called love.  We know where we are going, toward the plans and intentions of the Lord God who loves us.

Keep the faith.  Fight the good fight.  We are dearly loved children.

Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.

Glory to God

grace and peace