I was thinking...

I was doing devotions today, and the Bible reading was so good I had to share it. I mean, Bible reading is always good, but this tied in a bit with what I have been thinking lately. It ties in a bit to the entry before last that I wrote. Okay, I'll type it out so y'all (Hi Shaun) can read it.

Romans 12:9-21
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do now be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, lie at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Wow.

Where do I even start.

Love must be sincere.
This means that you shouldn't just tell your friends you love em, just cause they might say it. Love them, really love them. Don't let it just be words. When you love someone, you want to be with them, you want to help them, you want them to laugh and smile, you are sad when they are sad, happy when they are happy. Love is something you feel deep, it is something that cannot be taken away. Real love lasts a lifetime. And I'm not talking about being IN LOVE. That is something different. Love as Jesus loves. THAT is sincere.

Hate what is evil;
It's not saying, 'hate the person who does bad things,' it is telling us to hate the actual evil. Hate the sin, love the person kind of thing. If a person close to you lies, and you find out; you don't hate that person.. you might be disapointed and hurt by them, but you don't hate THEM> You hate the lie.

cling to what is good.
Jesus is good, everything to do with Jesus is good. Cling to doing good, doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord. When we are busy doing good, we don't have time to do evil. I heard that somewhere once. I'm still trying to really desifer that in my mind, but it sounded fitting.

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
This ties back to the 'love must be sincere thing'. To be devoted means to "give over or direct (as time, money or effort) to a cause, enterprise or activity" (Merriam-Webster online). So, to devote to brotherly love would be to give your time and effort, and perhaps even moola if it so called, to your brother or sister in Christ.

Honour one another above yourselves.
You are not to think of others below yourself. You are to be humble, become as a servant, like Jesus. He washed his disciples feet for goodness sakes! What greater example is there than that? And I mean seriously, Jesus is royalty.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual ferver, serving the Lord.
I remember learning this verse at a youth convention one year. The speaker had us jumping around, standing on our chairs, just shouting this verse at the top of our lungs. How is that for zeal? Ya, there was such an energy, and I always relate it to the verse to help me remember what zeal should be like. It should be wild and crazy, something you feel with your whole heart, and it spills out onto your body and your just ready to go! God wants us to direct that zeal and fervor towards serving him. Imagine if we took all that energy and served others with it. Imagine how much would get done in the name of the Lord! Now, THAT is challenging.

Be joyful in hope,
In Christ we always have hope. Hope for the future. He is coming again, and when we are in his arms things seem right. We can trust him to take care of everything. We don't need to be depressed or discouraged cause God is in control, and I can't think of anything that gives me more hope than that.
Patient in affliction,
I have to say honestly, that as often as I've heard the word affliction, I had to look it up. WOW. Affliction: 'the state of being afflicted. The cause of persistent pain or distress. Great suffering.' I'm sitting here thinking “no thank you. I don't want any of that.” But it's part of life, for everyone. God wants us to be patient. It won't last forever, he's got it under control. Just wait it out.
Faithful in prayer.
Prayer. God wants us to talk to him, talk with him . He doesn't just want us to come to him when we have problems. He doesn't want to just hear from us on Sunday. He wants us to talk to him all the time, on a regular basis. Like you do with your friends. You don't pass your friends in the hall and ignore them do you? I mean, God is always there. You can talk to him anytime, all the time. And that is what he wants.
Share with God's people who are in need.
I seriously believe that everyone has something to offer to everyone. I mean, I suck at music and such, but others share that with me and it totally gets me all fired up, I love it! No one is good at everything, so we have to share our talents and abilities with each other.
Practice hospitality.
God wants us to get together, fellowship, have fun with our friends. Have em over to your house, serve them as Jesus would.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
WHAT!? Is Jesus crazy? Why would he say that? Well, no, he is not crazy, he is loving... loving of everybody. And seriously, I think it's fun to bless those who persecute you. It really confuses them, and it's kind of amusing to watch them try to figure it out. And lets be honest, no one has been completely kind to everyone they have ever met. How would you feel if they cursed you? I doubt that would be very pleasant.
Rejoice with those who rejoice;
When you are happy and joyful, and just having a wonderful day, you don't want someone to drag you down by being depressed do you? No. You want them to be happy, you want your good mood to rub off on them, so they can jump up and down with you, give you a hi-five, just be happy for you and with you. Well, the least we can do is offer the same courtesy to others.
Mourn with those who mourn.
When people are sad, and in real mourning (not just depressed all the time or something, but really mourning) they don't want you jumping up and down reminding them of how good you feel, they don't need a reminder of how awful the thing they are mourning is (like a death or something). I mean, that is just respect.
Live in harmony with one another.
God wants us to get along and be nice to one another. He doesn't want us fighting or arguing. We are his children, parent's like to see their children playing nicely together, not trying to kill each other. And when you think about harmony, well the first thing that comes to mind is music. The harmony complements the melody, and they are beautiful together. Don't you think that is how we are supposed to live? Complimenting one another? Ya, I think so.
Do not be proud,
“Pro 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” Need I really say more?
But be willing to associate with people of low position.
Reach out of touch other people. Even if they seem to be “lower” than you. It's like Jesus said:
“ For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.” They also will answer, “Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
How would you like it if you stole someone's parking space? You probably would be glad that you got the parking space before they did. But what if they were the ones stealing it from you? Now I realize that isn't necessarily evil, but it is a mild case, that I think shows the situation addiquitly.
Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
Honestly, I don't think anyone ever has accomplished this. Perhaps it is do what is right in the eyes of the Lord? I just am not sure about this one.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everybody.
Now this one is realistic. This one is telling us that whatever we do we have to try to live peacefully with those around us. Don't stir up trouble for no reason. I don't think God is telling us to be a doormat, but don't be a speed bump either.
Do not take revenge, my friends
God does not want us to get even with those who hurt us. He has already said to love those who persecute you. This ties totally in with that, we should not show hatred or anger towards them, we should love them.
But leave room for God's wrath,
God is so big, and he has the powers of the world at his disposal. Now don't you think with those assets he could do a pretty good job of taking revenge on someone? Look what he did to those who persecuted the Israelites in the Old Testament. Seriously, he wiped out nations as revenge. I think I'll let him take care of my problems ;) for it is written, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.
What is someone going to do when you are so nice to them. Even if they try to be mean, and you are just nice to them, they are going to wonder what is up with you. You are going to confuse them really. Most people would retaliate against someone who is their enemy... but if you love them – that is something new and different. THAT is something Jesus would do.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
How do you defeat evil? With good. There is no better way.



Those are just some of my own thoughts. I am sure the Bible goes into each of these topics more in depth, and I shall have to study that sometime.