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Life Around "The Fire"
Life Around "The Fire"
Love as the Lifelong Commitment in God's Kingdom
What does it mean to truly persevere in love, especially within the kingdom of God? Join in as we uncover the transformative power of faith and consistency in embodying God's divine nature. Through the lens of 2 Peter, chapter 1, we explore how Jesus' trials and sufferings serve as a model of the persistent, unconditional love we are called to exhibit. We confront the internal struggle of enduring criticism and gossip while striving to love others unconditionally, and consider how consistent actions define our identity as Christians. By embracing prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we focus our thoughts on Jesus, allowing us to become more like Him and align with a higher standard of life.
As we journey through this episode, we highlight the challenges and responsibilities of leadership in God's kingdom, emphasizing the necessity of surrendering control to God's kingship to fulfill our assignments with divine authority. The discussion also touches on the significance of persistent love as the true motivating force of God's kingdom, reminding us that love is more than a fleeting emotion—it is a deliberate, ongoing action. Wrapping up, I share exciting updates about the podcast, inviting listeners to stay connected and share their thoughts as we continue on this path of spiritual growth. Your support means the world, and I encourage you to reach out with your insights and inquiries.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearounsthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
Hi folks, I want to welcome you to another episode of Life Around the Fire. My name is David Ruttari and I'll be your host today. We are a podcast that is devoted to spiritual growth, and what we mean by spiritual growth is this growth in our relationship, first and foremost, with God, then in our relationships with one another. What I'd like to do today in this episode is continue on with this theme concerning the kingdom of God, and for the past few days, I've been taking some time just to reflect on a variety of things, and one of them pertained to something that really has become a very important word for me, and that is the word perseverance. And the word perseverance is something that is really very deeply concerning to me when it comes to consistency, to have consistency in a person's life, of where we live. We live in a culture that is made up of a world system that doesn't really carry with it a deep commitment to love. Right, I mean, it's pretty conditional. We love if it really goes our way, if things go our way, and if things don't go our way, we tend to shift our loyalties If we function within the construct of that particular culture or that kingdom, that way of life, culture or that kingdom, that way of life, but in the kingdom of God we are called to a different standard. We're called to a higher quality of life. We're called literally to the life of God, his divine nature, powerful, powerful reality that we are called into citizenship in that kingdom, but infused with his life, so that we can function as citizens in that kingdom. The very life of God, not just us trying to polish ourselves up to be good, but literally God life, the life of God given to us by virtue of us placing our faith in what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Once again, an amazing reality, powerful truth, central to all of what we're about in this particular podcast and really, for those who name the name of Jesus, the cross is central to everything pertaining to God's love and the demonstration of his love concerning his value system in his kingdom, the type of quality that he has in himself when it comes to love, and there's a persistence and a consistency to it.
Speaker 1:But before we go any further, what I'd like to do is take a moment and pray because and we share this quite often the reason we want to take a moment and pray is because we live, all of us, in such a busy world. We have information coming at us from all different directions constantly at us from all different directions constantly, and so it's hard for us to keep focus or at least it can be a challenge. And by keeping focus we've learned that we become like that thing or that person. We become like who or what we behold, and we want to become like Jesus. We want to behold him, focus in on him, become like him. But in order to do that, we need our thoughts centered in on him, and I need help in that process. And Jesus has sent us the helper, and that helper is God, the Spirit, and he comes and serves as a good shepherd, helping us collect our thoughts, like sheep right that go in all different directions. He helps collect our thoughts so that we can focus them in on Jesus, and so we're going to invite him to do that very thing right now.
Speaker 1:Father, first of all, thank you for who you are, for what you're doing, for how you're doing it and the fact that we're part of it, that we are aware of the fact that we are part of it. You've opened our eyes to see that you have been pursuing us with your love, doing us with your love and now you've convinced us of your love and we express that very love back to you. I love you, god, I love you. I love you with all my heart, with everything in me and, holy Spirit, I ask that you would take right now and shepherd my thoughts, shepherd our thoughts, calm them down and help us focus our attention in on Jesus so that we can behold him and become like him, for how you're going to accomplish your good pleasure right now through the things that are said and things that are heard, so that we can act on them and turn them into a demonstration of your life. Holy Spirit, have your way. We honor you, jesus, we stand here in your name and we say amen, amen, amen. So be it, amen, amen. Yeah, I'm telling you I have been, once again, over the course of the past few days, really strongly feeling like God's in the past few days, really strongly. That feeling like God's got his thumb on my back. He's got his thumb on my back and he's moving me forward towards some things, and not everything that I have been feeling or sensing is something that I have been enjoying. Quite frankly, it's been a challenge, and that sometimes goes with the territory when a person is called into a place of leadership, feelings are a fringe benefit.
Speaker 1:When you're a leader, sometimes we have to do things because they are things that are given to us to do. When we pray God, your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, what we're really saying is God, I want your kingship over my life. I surrender the control of my life, of me doing it, my way of me doing all this my way, and I give my whole life to your kingship. Your kingdom come, your will, the things that please you, things that are on your heart, inside of you, I want them inside of me and I want those things to be done in me, as it is in heaven, and through me, as it is being accomplished through your kingdom in heaven. Lord, I want you to be king. And then what he does is he gives us kingship over certain things that are our assignments. They are our assignments, they are things that we have to do, and he gives us authority to do them, and so Jesus becomes king of kings.
Speaker 1:So I have things that are part of my responsibility to participate in, to do, regardless of whether or not I feel good or feel like it. I feel good or feel like it. Now, fortunately, there are many times of really amazing feelings of God's love I mean really enveloped in his love, in his shalom, his peace, everything being right. But there are times where it doesn't feel that way, and what do I do with that? Do I revert back to my former way of doing things? There have been times where I have done that very thing. I've reverted back.
Speaker 1:I didn't feel as though I was being appreciated, I didn't feel as though I was being understood, I didn't feel as though I was seeing what I wanted to see accomplished being accomplished, and so I said what I need is a break. I need a break from all this. I can't take it anymore, and I would go back to do some of the things that I used to do in order to get a break, thinking that I was going to get some sort of relief by doing them, and every time I tried it, it was the contrary. It was the almost polar opposite. What I used to get relief from gave me more complications than I had to begin with, gave me more complications than I had to begin with. So, but that's a reality that we're all you know. We all face. What do I do when things aren't really going. I just don't really have a desire to do, and that's what I recently was confronted with.
Speaker 1:But this time around, this issue of persistence, this thumb in my back, sense of God and his love helping me move forward even though it was uncomfortable, was something that I was actually, instead of resisting, I was leaning into and finding comfort in the feeling of his thumb on my back, or, before I try to squirm away from it now I'm like leaning into it and seeing okay, are you really there? And he is really really there, not just for me. That's the benefit of listening to. What you're listening to right now is that you're hearing this and you can't unhear it, and because of that, there's a word in it for you, not just me. God has his thumb on your back for a reason he's moving you forward because you have wanted his kingdom to be made real to you and through you in a deeper way, in a more significant way, and the responsibility that you have been given by God in life.
Speaker 1:Your lane is important, man, whether you are a king or a queen, right, a man or a woman, you say, well, I'm not a leader. Yes, if you're in the kingdom of God you are, you really are Now. Are you a leader in the formal sense of the word? Maybe, but nonetheless you are a leader and you have a mission to accomplish, and sometimes it involves feelings and sometimes it doesn't. In fact, sometimes it involves feelings that are contrary. That's what I had been up against, but, like I said, I've had this thumb in my back and part of it has come as a result of spending time, a concerted amount of time, in the Scriptures.
Speaker 1:I love the written Word of God. The Bible is so absolutely alive and intriguing to me. I spend hours, really hours upon hours, studying it, and I've been doing it for years, and that's the I can say without any hesitation that is the only book that I own that I can do that with on a regular basis and not get bored or not. Come to a place where I said well, I know all that's in there now. Oh man, it's God-breathed. It is God-breathed the Word of God, the Scriptures, the written Word of God, anyway. So I have the benefit of a back, just a reservoir, a backlog of the written word of God, and one of the letters that I've read several times is a letter that the Apostle Peter wrote to a group of people back in the first century AD who were part of the early, early, early, early early days of the church and they had been experiencing some very significant things, but also they were experiencing a fair amount of false teaching that had been coming their way to try to get them sidetracked.
Speaker 1:And if you remember, that's one of the key things that Jesus said to be you know, keep your eyes open for certain things. And one of the key things he said was false teachers, because if we can be seduced or lured into believing things that are inaccurate, it will alter, in effect, not only our life but the lives of many people and it can create a significant amount of trouble. And the apostle Peter saw this group of people that were coming in, basically saying to the people it doesn't really matter what you do with your bodies, it's really our bodies are evil anyway, so we're going to do evil things with them, but it's really what matters is what's in your heart. We're going to do evil things to them, but it's really what matters is what's in your heart. And so if you have an illicit relationship with your neighbor's wife, yeah, that's not really the best thing to do, but it's really not that bad and that was part of their teaching. And they also were mocking, kind of like, trying to use mockery as intimidation to people that believe in the second coming of Jesus. Literally he's coming back. They're like, oh yeah, you believe literally that Jesus is coming back? Are you part of the Stone Age? That type of demeaning communication and it would intimidate people, cause them to wonder well, maybe you're right, maybe I'm not that enlightened, doubting and Peter was addressing them in a letter. And Peter was addressing them in a letter.
Speaker 1:We have two letters in the Bible that Peter wrote and the second letter he wrote he talks about a need for the people to have perseverance to add to their faith certain things to add to their life, you know, add to their way of living certain things knowledge, perseverance and the word perseverance is a key component that Peter said was necessary because sometimes it's just not going to feel like it felt when you first came into relationship with Jesus. There are going to be some things that we encounter that are going to create different feelings challenges. Even to have our faith challenged creates a feeling. Even to have our faith challenged creates a feeling. And Peter's saying that there is a need for us all and he was telling them. But he's saying the same to us, or would, and because it's written, he is. God is saying the same thing to us Persevere. God is saying the same thing to us Persevere Because, because, because God perseveres His love perseveres.
Speaker 1:His love persevered in your life. You didn't go out looking for God. He persevered in convincing you that he loves you. It took him quite some perseverance for some of us to convince us that depth of his love, to give to us the covenant relationship of his love. All the way to Jesus had several opportunities to literally save his own skin and not go to the cross, but he persevered, Persevered. To go to the cross, he persevered. A trial that was a mock trial. He persevered through beatings, through literal torture. The feeling that went there was a real feeling that he felt, but he persevered so that we could experience his love, so that we could then demonstrate love to him. Because his love persevered to us, we can love because he first loved us. Praise God. So this perseverance. So Peter's telling us folks and saying to us you got to persevere, you know, add to your life these qualities, but make sure you have perseverance in there, because there's going to be a need. There's going to be a need more than once in all of our lives, and especially if we're leaders In the formal sense, a leader Doubly so Persevere, persevere.
Speaker 1:My challenge, my challenge, my challenge, my challenge has been an internal one in my own mind, and the first one was this, and it was okay to what degree are you willing to go to prove your love to God? Would you go to the degree of being mocked? My answer was yes. Would you go to the degree of being lied about? And then again, yes, to be tortured? And I really had to think about that, because pain is a thing For all of us, and I'm one of them, all of us folks, I'm one of them, all of us folks. Pain, prolonged pain where you don't die quick, but tortured to death over a period of time, would you deny God? I finally came to the place to say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to all of them. I will not deny God. I love God, I will not deny him. Then the question was posed to me would you do the same for other people? And I mean straight out the gate. I was like you had to go there. I was like you had to go there. You had to go there.
Speaker 1:Will I persevere in my love, or in giving my love, or holding fast to my commitment to loving my neighbor and my fellow man, my brother, my co-laborer in Christ, my fellow worshiping partner, church member? Well, if there was all of a sudden a switch where they started lying about me and criticizing me, talking about me behind my back in a negative way, gossiping, will I? Will I still love them and demonstrate my love to them and I? It got broken down to this level. Forget the church people. How about just your neighbor? Would you love your neighbor as yourself? How about just your neighbor? Would you love your neighbor as yourself? I mean, even if they started, you know, egging your house and campaigning things around your neighborhood against you? You know what's up with that? Would you use to? I had to be honest. What's up with that, would you? I had to be honest. I said no, I wouldn't. Nope, I wouldn't, and in fact I haven't.
Speaker 1:I haven't always loved my neighbor as myself. I haven't always loved my fellow believer as myself. I've been criticized, lied about this, that and the other thing, all in the name of Jesus, which for a period of my life gave me a choice, and the choice I made was this I'm out of here. I'm out of here like last year. I'm out of here. Love, who needs that? Well, guess what I did? I did. I need to love in a persevering way, because that's kingdom love, that's kingdom life, that's the love, that's kingdom life, that's the very life of God, that's the very love of God.
Speaker 1:If you want to take a peek at what I'm talking about in Scriptures, 2 Peter, chapter 1. Just read the whole chapter, chapter 1. Read the whole book. It's just a couple chapters. Read the whole letter, but first chapter, sheesh, oh man, come on. If you've never read it, please read it.
Speaker 1:If you have read it again, man, persevere, consistent Consistency. See, love wins, but love, love endures, Love is long-suffering, hallelujah. Love, god's love. What's really love? We've called things love that aren't love. But the love of God, that's love, and he's called us to love. In fact, love is the motivating power of the kingdom of God, not power itself, love. And we've been called to persevere in loving him, loving ourselves and loving one another, loving our neighbor, loving love, love, love. They'll know that we are Christians by our love, by our love, and they'll know we are Christ-like by our love. Persistent love, consistent love. Persistent love, consistent love, love never fails. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1:Let's pray, father, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for your love, jesus. Thank you for your love, jesus. Thank you for demonstrating the love of God, holy Spirit, thank you for revealing to us the love of God, for coming within us, imparting to us your life, your love. Let your kingdom come. Let your love be done on earth as it is in heaven, and we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen, amen, amen. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you.
Speaker 1:Hey, by the way, we're going to be doing some really cool things in this particular podcast coming up. We're going to take and do a little tweaking of some of the music and some of the intro stuff and we're not going to change too much. But there's going to be some just a little bit of a little bit of housecleaning, a little bit of adjustment. So you can be looking forward to that in the future. But in the meantime, if you want to contact us, if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire, at gmailcom, or type in lifearoundthefire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, like I said, man, god bless you. Adios amigos.