Mentoring Minutes

“and may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;”     Paul  

(1 Thessalonians 3:12)

Love and Lordship in Focus…(this is the focus for L&L LIVE) Only when we come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord can we truly increase and overflow in our love for others because He is The Source of Real Love! As your receive God’s love in Christ and build your relationship with Him the overflow of love impacts every other person and relationship in your life.

As we continue with the “one anothers” of Scripture we move to Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica where we find one of the more encouraging commands. Paul very positively praised them for their receiving of The Gospel and walking in it as Timothy had gone to them and returned with this good report.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:12, he simply tells them to allow The Lord to “…cause your love to increase and overflow for each other.” How’s that for encouragement!

How can we, as fallen human beings, who only know love as give and take actually overflow with love for others? Only as we give our lives to Christ and by grace through faith receive Him as Savior and Lord. As we do so we are not only forgiven of our sins and made holy before a Holy God but we are given the gift of The Holy Spirit.

This is how we are able to both be filled with His Love and overflow with that love to others…all others!

Being consistent, as Scripture by The Holy Spirit always is, He places the emphasis on The Lord and the producing of that love by The Lord in and through us. He even extends it to say to “one another and to all people.”

It is The Lord that causes us to increase and overflow by His Holy Spirit. You can do this in no other way.

How are you doing when it comes to allowing The Lord to increase your love for others? John 7:38 says, “The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” This is the overflow of The Holy Spirit pouring out Truth and Love through our lives as we walk by faith in Christ!

Are you allowing His Love to fill you with your time in The Word, prayer and listening…so it can overflow to impact others and point them to Him?

Food for Thought…Are you trying to love others apart from God’s Love to you, in you and through you? Quit trying to love from an empty vessel in your flesh and allow Christ and His Holy Spirit to fill you and flow through so others will know His Love.

Love in Action…

1. Spend time with God and in His Word and prayer every day…begin with the Scriptures in this message.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. Take inventory of your relationships…are they rooted in Godly Love evident to all others?
4. What needs to change, if anything, for you to increase and overflow His Love to your spouse? Children/family? Other believers? Non-believers? Enemies?  

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, I’m learning more and more that the only real love that I have is Your Love in me and through me. Help me to receive Your Love, love you with all that I am, know and love who I am in Christ so Your Love increases in me and overflows through me to one another and to all people as you give me opportunity to do so. In Jesus Name. Amen.

“…admonishing one another…” Paul  (Colossians 3:16c)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Teaching and admonishing others are both very important and necessary aspects of growing in The Lord, and in particular, making disciples who make disciples. May we not neglect our duty to obey these commands and respond when others are obedient in teaching and admonishing us.

We pick up with our next “one anothers” of love and stay in the same verse as our last week’s post…Colossians 3:16c. In this text, from last week’s sharing, Paul has already told us to “teach (one another).” He continues by taking it a bit deeper with “…Admonish one another.”

Okay, that sounds like a big fancy Old English word from the King James Version and that’s exactly what it is so what does it mean? To admonish others means everything from advising or urging to warning and reprimanding. You may be asking, “What’s up, I thought this was about loving ‘one another?'”

I’m glad you asked (even if you didn’t I asked for you to make this powerful point from Scripture) because that’s exactly what it is. Every “One Another” is about loving “others” and this one, as some of the previous negative sounding ones are just as important if not more so in a fallen world.

This requires integrity in The Word for those who admonish. How are you doing when it comes to being in and walking in His Word so that you can teach…and admonish other in love as needed?

We must be able to both humbly give admonition to those we love and be willing to humbly receive it as well. This is God’s Love steering us in His Truth as we help and love others and as they do so with us. May we always be willing to accept teaching and correction from Him and from other believers and may we admonish others as we see the loving need and do so and follow through in humility and grace, covered in Love!

It’s so interesting that, just as with teaching in the same command, The Holy Spirit through Paul pairs this command to admonish with how we are to do it…”with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as we sing with grace (gratitude) in our hearts to The Lord.” Don’t you think we would all better receive the encouragements, warnings and reprimands as they come wrapped in gracious melodies and harmonies and with thankfulness!

Again, this all begins with in Colossians 3:16a with the encouragement and command of “the Word dwelling richly in you.” Does it? What are you doing to make it so that God’s Word is dwelling deeply and richly in you?

How do you respond when others admonish you? What about when you know someone needs to be lovingly admonished… what is your response? How can we look to Christ to both give and receive admonition and together grow in Him as disciples and as His Body, The Church?

Food for Thought…Once again we’re reminded that we don’t readily accept teaching, and certainly not admonition or correction, in our own flesh. That all changes as we receive Christ and walk in His Spirit and not in our flesh and selfishness. Then His Word can dwell richly in us and we can both share and receive teaching and correction in grace, humility and love!

Love in Action –

1. Spend time with Him in His Word and prayer daily – read and study the Scriptures in this message as a way to start.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. Are you pouring into the lives of others with teaching and even admonishing then in grace and love?
4. Do you allow others who are more mature to admonish and correct you in The Lord and His Word?

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, thank You for admonishing me and for those in Christ’s Church that do the same through preaching, teaching and discipling me. I pray that I will be gracious, humble and loving to do the same and may we all do so all and only according to Your Truth to help us grow in fullness in Christ…as disciples and as His Family, The Church. In His Name. Amen.

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching…one another.” Paul  (Colossians 3:16a)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Teaching others…and being taught by others…is central to our maturing in Christ as His disciples and how we make disciples. A once-a-week message is not nearly enough teaching for His Word to dwell richly in us! We need time with Him daily…and with other disciples/believers…teaching and being taught!

We continue our “one anothers” in loving, sharing and working out God’s plan for the Body of Christ as Paul has more for us in his letter to The Church at Colossi. In Colossians 3:16 he tells us to “Teach…[one another].”

Remember loving “one another” has to do with helping each other grow in Christ. Paul states in Ephesians 4:14-16 that this comes about both individually and collectively as we “speak the Truth in Love.” So teaching each other…and being willing to be taught by each other…is a major part of us growing as disciples and together as Christ’s Church.

This is partially done as we gather to hear messages from preachers but that is not nearly enough. This is evidenced by our culture where our churches have allowed folks to simply come, sit and hear a 20 to 60-minute message and think that’s getting the job done. We are losing the culture wars at every turn because we are not teaching to make disciples who make disciples of Jesus Christ who can stand in the face of this pagan culture.

Preaching in our weekend services is needed…but it’s not enough…it is just the beginning of teaching. How can God’s Word dwell in you richly with that little amount of preaching/teaching? Let’s teach one another and be willing to be taught by one another in line with God’s Word and by His Spirit.

This is the only way that The Word of God can and will dwell richly in us as we are willing to teach one another and personally follow through with our own studying of His Word. Only then will we be disciples who stand strong in the face of adversity and be The Church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail or stand against!

Food for Thought…This is our message and our hope…all our preaching, teaching and discipling must be rooted and founded in The Cross and The Tomb…the sacrificial death of Christ and His Victorious Triumph in rising from the dead! This is our greatest teaching and we must never think that anything else has the power to change lives for Eternity.

Love in Action –

1. Spend time with Him in His Word and prayer daily – read and study the Scriptures in this message as a way to start.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. Be sure you have someone (or more than one) who is teaching you and pouring into your life.
4. As you mature, be sure you are teaching and pouring The Word and Life of Christ into others.

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, forgive us for thinking that a few minutes of teaching each week makes disciples. Forgive us for failing to find mentors and teachers to take us deeper and make us disciples of Christ. Forgive us for not reaching out and teaching others, discipling them to be His wholehearted followers. Thank You for Your grace and patience as we teach and train others to be disciples of Christ who make disciples of Christ for Your Kingdom and Glory! In His Name. Amen.