Jesus commandment is that we should love even as He has loved us.

John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Efficiency = The ratio of the output to the input of any system.
Efficiency is all about getting the project done. But if the project becomes more important than the people then efficiency rarely if ever produces happiness for the efficient one. Without compassion,connecting and confronting, efficiency can be a cold heartless task master that sucks the life out of the efficient one and leaves only a desperate, broken shell of the loving person they were designed to be. Because life is first and foremost about people and people need to be loved by other people. The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

I have known a lot of people from all walks of life but I have never met a happy,  secure person who did not know how to love people efficiently.

How do we do that? Well Jesus said
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Wow! What does that mean? Maybe it means ” in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

You might say “Bob do You love that way?” Sometimes! I can’t tell you what a kick I get out of getting my wife a cup of coffee or buying her roses for no reason.

“What if I don’t have a mate?” Well I get the same kind of kick when I pay for the guy’s purchase behind me at the drive in and then drive off. Yesterday I saw a lady struggling with getting her stuff in a plastic sack at the store, it is amazing but when I took one side of the sack– the stuff went right in. Never saw that lady before, don’t expect to see her again but you know what– the kick for me was the same.(took no more than 2 minutes tops!)

Maybe that is a start. I haven’t arrived but I am sure enjoying the start up.

I think Jesus was the most efficient people lover the world has ever know, His whole ministry only took only about 2 1/2 years. But He always had time for people. He actually healed people on the way to the cross.

Maybe we could start together this biz about being efficient lovers of mankind. What if you started today what could you get done in a couple of years? What could you get done in 15 minutes?
In His Love,
Bob
Please email and let me know how you are doing.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

When we start judging other people using common sense and reason as our guide, sometimes it is tempting for us to not consider this commandment to love in the process.  Although common sense and reason are great in helping us to determine how we are going to walk out our salvation, when we separate them from our faith in God’s love we can come up with reason that is not reasonable and common sense that makes no sense.

1. Sometimes our efforts to love leave us with an attitude that we must not confront anyone, regardless of the harm they are doing to others or themselves.

2. Sometimes in our efforts to fix people we develop an attitude that robs them of our love and consideration until they “get their act together.”   Anything that we  exalt above the Word of God becomes foolishness to God.

Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”Romans 3:3-4

Romans 1:17
“The righteous will live by faith.”

We need to be careful that common sense and reason do not oppose the Word of God. The person we are judging may be guilty of sin but that does not relieve us of the responsibility to love that person.

Live in the Now
A friend of mine opened his wife’s jewelry box and pulled out a piece of Indian jewelry. He stared at it for a long time then told me “She has never worn it; she was saving it for a “special occasion.” We bought this bracelet in New Mexico 5 years ago.
With tears in his eyes he took the bracelet and said “Bob I guess this is that special occasion. He placed the bracelet beside the special dress he was taking to the funeral home, his wife had just died. He turned to me and said: I just had talked to her about going back to New Mexico again “Someday”.. the morning before she died.

I think those words changed my life. Now
I am learning read more and I watch the TV bad news less.
I stop what I am doing and talk to God often,and then take time to just listen.
I am spending more time with my family and friends.
I am finding life is to be experienced, not just something to survive.
I don’t keep “stuff” for a special occasion.
I am eliminating the phrases “I remember when” and “Someday.”
If it’s worth doing, to me or someone I love, I will try to do it now.

What if my friends wife knew the only Someday she would have was last Tuesday?
Would she have thanked God just one more time for who He is?
Would she have ask for or granted forgiveness’, or said “I love you.”
Would she have gone to a restaurant with a loved one?
Would she have worn that special piece of jewelry?

I am coming to understand that intimate relationships with people and God are important sources of growth learning and fun. It would be these people things that I would regret not doing, if I knew this was my last Someday.

God has allowed me see some previews of what that last Someday might look like. I am a cancer survivor and have seven stints in my heart, so I have had some occasions to try to do the things that seemed really worth doing. Everything I did when I was trying to “prepare” for my final “Someday” had to do with getting closer to God and the people He loves so much.

Each day, each hour, each minute, is a miracle, Prepared by God for you! You can use this “Someday” to do something important! After you have done “it” if you really think it was important, if it really makes you feel better that you were, I bet it involved God or one of His Children.
If what you did was really important would you just let me know? bob@insightministries.net LIVE IN THE NOW!

God’s will for you is to have an intimate conversational relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you might be saying “Bob, I already have a relationship with Jesus Christ but I am so worried about missing what He wants me to do, or say, or how I am going to pay the bills, or what I am going to do to help my mate or children, or what job I am supposed to do, I just can’t think straight.

If you are worried or fearful then you have become self-aware which is much different than being than being Christ Aware. Being self aware leads to fear, worry, and self pity, those emotions get us off our focus on relationship with our Lord and the easy yoke and light burden that He alone can provide for us. We must never allow the cares of this world to separate us from the peace we have in Jesus.
He wants us to COME TO HIM. In the real world! Not in some theoretical way but with every part of our life, all of our fears, of being inadequate, our frustrations of not knowing where to turn, what to say or what to do can be swept away in an instant with one conversation with Him. Some folks act like Jesus can’t talk or people can’t hear. But He can talk and we can hear! John 10. 27 says “my sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me.”

Ask God about everything, everyday and then listen. The day after I wrote this article I had a wonderful visit with the Lord then went about my work day making arrangements for a place to have a Bible Study. Without asking the Lord about the place. I wasted the whole day trying to make that meeting place happen. A meeting place had already been provided for us to meet and the Lord knew that. If I had only asked Him I could have used that wasted frustrating day to spend time with Him! If we want rest for our soul we have to be constantly Christ Aware. God’s will for you, is You. The light burden and easy way only happens WHEN WE LET HIM HAVE ALL OF US including our plans.

1 Peter 5:7-9 (NIV)

Recently I caught a very small frog for Skyler a little friend of mine. The next day I bought a cage for the little fella, put some water in a jar lid and went to the pet store to see what kind of food to get for Skyler’s new pet. It turned out to be more complicated than I first thought. Frogs only eat live things that they can catch. ‘The frogs obviously heard Subway’s motto “Eat Fresh”. Live Crickets seem to be the food of choice for frogs. But they only eat things that are smaller than they are. This was a very small frog. So I bought some very small crickets. When I released a cricket in the frog’s cage the frog was quick to kill and eat it. However one of the crickets was larger than the frog.
At first the frog didn’t bother the larger cricket, as a matter of fact he ran from it. The larger cricket was in the beginning afraid of the frog. But when the cricket compared his size with the fog’s size the cricket he became more secure and began to chase the frog. The frog got in the center of the jar lid and just sits there in the water and studied the cricket. Eventually the cricket went to the jar lid where the water was — the frog pounced, quickly drowning the cricket and eating it.

The cricket was safe on dry land however when he got in the water that was an area where the frog was absolute king. Many Christians get Satan on the run because they are filled with the power that comes from a relationship with our Lord Jesus. Any Born Again Christian operating in the power of God is able to destroy the works of Satan.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. Phil 4:13 KJV

However sometimes when Satan is running from us we start thinking it is by our own power that we are able to put the enemy on the run. When we become secure in “our own power” we start going to places that the Lord has not authorized us to go and doing things that we haven’t been told to do. Then when we least expect it the enemy pounces and we find ourselves disgraced, defeated and our ministry destroyed.

If Satan is on the run he is running from the power we have in Jesus not us…if he stops running we must ask ourselves where is Jesus and where are we. We can’t take our eyes off of Jesus. We are to be self controlled and alert, we must go where the Lord tells us to go & do what He tells us to do.

The moral to the story is put no confidence in our own flesh but have every confidence in the power and might of God. God is not our co-pilot— He is the pilot and the only one that can empower us to defeat Satan and get us safely home.

Have you got your marching orders from the Lord today?

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJ)

The opposite of love is not hate! The opposite of love is fear; hate is just a by product of fear.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1 John 4:17-19NASB

Have you noticed that when you are afraid you can’t give love? Whatever we are afraid of consumes our attention. Not only can we not give love when are afraid, we can’t even think straight enough to receive the love that someone else may be offering to us.

The greatest enemies to statements of truth are apathy and thoughts that are contrary to those statements of truth. “You might be saying alright how do we get rid of the fear?” First we must settle ourselves down in God’s Word.

But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him:
1 John 2:4:6 (NIV)

Perfect love only comes when we are obeying God the author of perfect love. To see if we are obeying Gods Word we can look at how we are loving those He has placed in our life.

You might be saying “what if someone wrongly accuses me, doesn’t respect me, cheats me or talks down to me am I still obligated to love them?” Some say no!

Some have said to me “Bob you don’t know what that person has done to me!” That is true I don’t and I can’t. But I do know what they are doing to you right now if you don’t forgive them and choose to love them. The Word doesn’t tell us to trust them or agree with what they have done. But if we choose not to love… that still leaves us with the fear.
How are you doing at loving?
Call me if I can help. Bob McDaniel 405-341-1904
In His Love,
Bob

Respect:
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.Philipians 2:3 Keep in mind that the person you are dealing with is also designed in God’s image. When we approach each other we should do it respectfully.

Responsibility:
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.Galitians 1:1 Our Responsibility to love is always there even when someone is messing up

Reality. “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Matthew 18:15-17 Sometimes inspite of doing everything right the person will not respond nor be reconciled. After we have completed the process they may not respond in such a case we let him be to us as a heathen and tax collector. How do we treat heathen and tax collectors? We pray for them and try to win them!