love

ooh Mr Kotter, Mr Kotter

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Tim 3:16

Most believers know this verse and we know that it means the Bible is the Word of God and we can and should trust Scripture, but let me drop this thought on you. If Scripture is from God then it is Holy, and if it is Holy then we must treat it as Holy, that means to set it apart. We do not drop parts of Scripture here and there pasting bits and pieces like decoupage. No we must care for it and use it in it’s proper and rightful places. Some non-believers run around throwing out Scripture bombs because they do not understand it but we have an understanding and are called to treat it properly.

I have been given the privilege to share the word with some middle school boys today and I give it as much thought and prayer as I did when I spoke in the prisons, to congregations, or in weekly Bible studies because the avenue is not of importance, but the Word is of utmost importance. It does not matter if you speak to hundreds, thousands, or 1 the Word of God is mighty and the fact that you get the privilege to read it and share it is a gift from God. Do not take it lightly.

Just a thought,
Mike

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
James 3:1

Grace & Truth

/ Mike Farley / 1 Comment

John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  

The suffix ian means belonging to, coming from, resembling, adhering to or following, and expert in.  It can be used to form a noun or an adjective.  Add that to the word Christ and you get Christian, someone who belongs to the Christ, coming from the Christ, resembling the Christ, or adheres to the Christ.

That means like John 1:17 I should have Grace and Truth coming from me. If it comes from Jesus it should also come from me because I have Christ in me, and I am suppose to resemble Him.  If you travel abroad you will hear people talk about the American attitude.  We are loud, and proud, and have a sense of entitlement.  Before you can do anything people expect that from you.  It should be the same way with different traits of Jesus.  Do people, when they find out I am a Christian expect to have Grace and Truth come from me, and regardless of that answer do I show Grace and Truth?

To be honest yes…..sometimes.  Sometimes I am a little more Truth, and sometimes I am a little more Grace (not always in the proper ratio).  Both are great and very important but there is something about the proper mixture of Grace and Truth that makes it fantastic.  It is not baking a cake where you always use equal parts of each and you can do it without thinking.  Having Grace and Truth flow from you means thinking in each situation.  Sometimes you need a lot of Truth and enough Grace to show the love of God, but sometimes you need only a little Truth to confirm something and so much Grace that people are overwhelmed by God’s great love.

I want to be known for having Grace and Truth.  If someone says “Hey do you know Mike?” I want them to think “Grace and Truth.”  I figure if I have Christ living in me, and I am in Christ, and I have the mind of Christ,  then I should be able to do this.  I want to do this.  

Just a thought,

Mike

Another Year, Another Word

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Another year has come and gone.  A new year is upon us and that means it’s time for a new word.  First let me explain what the word is for any who do not know me.  Each year instead of a New Year’s resolution my family each picks a word.  Just one word that we want to pursue for the year.  Last year I picked audacious along with most of it’s variants.  While that word is typically used negatively I wanted to be positively audacious in all I did.  I wanted to go for broke, hold nothing back and be so daring it scared the crap out of me.  In my relationship with my wife, children, family, friends, and most importantly with God.  I wanted to trust God so much that I dared to do the impossible.  Of course I needed to be wise in my choices of what to go for so it required a lot of prayer to make sure I was going to make the correct jump.  Jesus says to carefully consider before you build (Luke 14:28-29) so that is what I did.  I am pretty happy as the year ends to say I lived my word.

Now before I tell you my new word let me make one more point about the word.  First for years I made New Year’s resolutions and every year I failed.  I might have had some success but by and large I failed.  I think a lot of people are the same way, and you may be hesitant about picking a word but let me tell you a secret.  I don’t pick the word on my own.  I spend time talking to God about it.  If I picked the word on my own I would probably fail, but by talking to God about it first I have a greater chance of success.  Last year God worked with me on being more bold and confident in my prayer life, and relationships, and decisions.  I am thankful God set up a sort of plan for me saying Mike this year I am going to make you daring and more determined.

So 2014 is brought to you by the word INSPIRE.  I want to be inspired, and I want to inspire.  My goal is to look for ways to be inspired whether by people, nature, movies, books, actions, or what have you .  I going to actively look for inspiration, and I am going to be more intentional about inspiring others.  There is such joy in knowing you played a part of someone deciding they CAN.  Seeing someone finally decide to shred the pain, or frustration, or aggravation, or whatever and do it.  Knowing you played a part in that changes you just as much as them, it pushes you harder, makes you want to go further, do better.  This year will be an inspirational year.

God says in Isaiah 55:11  “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  That is pretty amazing.  God says if I am going to send my word out it will accomplish what I have sent it to do.  That is why I take the word for the year seriously, and talk to God about it.  Because if He says “Mike this year I will Inspire” then it will be accomplished.  

So here is to a great year everyone.  Remember that you can do this, you can make it through this, and you will get there.  There is a God who loves you and who wants you to rejoice.

Just a thought,

Mike

Well then…

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

I do not know your background, history, family, upbringing, relationship status, income, race, etc.  It would be impossible for me to know this about you.  These are not things I can know.  What I do know is all of these things determine how you view Jesus.  The sum total of your life leaves you with a few things and a view of Jesus is one of these things you come up with.  So I am not going to waste time telling you the way you view God is wrong because it may very well be right.  What I am going to do however is tell you what God thinks about you.

I am not going to talk about religion, or being “spiritual”, or whatever funny term some use when they want to talk about knowing Jesus.  No we’re going to talk about a love affair.  A love affair so scandalous that none other in history can compare to it.  A love affair so beyond what you have ever heard that is shakes the core of many people myself included.

Romans 5:8 says “Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.”  (God’s Word Translation).  This is the love I am talking about.  A love that gave all, that spared nothing, held nothing in reserve.  You may or may not understand that so again “Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.”  God sent His Son to die in your place.  OH MY WORD!  I cannot express how amazing that is.  Maybe it is just because of how much pain I had in my life, maybe it is because of the pain I caused others.  To know that the God of the universe loves me and gave everything so I can live is astounding, and scandalous.  You need to understand I was not raised Christian, I caused pain, cheated and wrong people, I hurt myself regularly to let out the pain I felt, I took pills and smoked pot to lessen the pain.  I used to hurt every day.  I was in agony.  Then I find that God the one true God loves me, and He loves me so much He died so I can live.  This is love, this is real love.

I say these things because I cannot know what your view of Jesus is.  What I do know is God’s view of you.  God sees you in pain, He sees you cause pain, He sees that you need help.  You are in a hole that you cannot escape from.  So to prove He loves you He comes to you.  I dare you to prove me wrong.  I dare you to honestly and wholeheartedly call out to God and ask Him to make Himself real to you.  If you do, He will show up and shake the foundations of your world.  He wants you to, He has given everything so you can.

So here is the question some are asking, if God loves why is the world so screwed up?  Easy answer because we screw it up.  You can’t blame God because you are a jerk, sorry it does not work that way.  Lets all stop asking about the innocent victim of this crime or that crime for just a second and focus on you.  You cause people pain, you cheat and lie to people, you try really hard but you are not perfect.  I still do these things so lets not pretend OK.  Let’s follow that question all the way through for a minute.

You say if God is love then He should stop the hurting and punish the wicked.  OK we will obviously start with the murders, and rapist, and drug cartels.  But wait where is the line?  Where do we stop and say OK only these offenses need to be punished.  The pain you caused your spouse with the affair you had makes them hurt real bad so you are out.  You lie to get ahead at work causing someone who should have gotten the promotion to get passed over, now they cannot make the money needed to get their child the treatment needed.  You’re out.  So on and so on.  Injustice is injustice and takes many forms.  Trust me you do not want God to give you what you deserve.  You want mercy.  The good news is it is yours for the asking.

Check this out if you do not think this is scandalous enough yet.  This one may blow you away.  God sees everything, but not just everything that is going on right now, He sees everything that happened and everything that will happen.  He is outside of time and a clock or calendar mean nothing.  So here is the thing; God created the world and was speaking it all into existence and said It is Good.  He could still see you, He could see your need for love and a Savior.  At no point was it a shock to Him that you were in pain.  He sees your yesterday today and tomorrow and He saw it before He created anything.  Revelation 13:8 says the Lamb (Jesus) was slain before the foundation of the world.  That means God foresaw your need and was ready for it.  He saw your pain and made a way before you could even call to Him.   He has done everything.  The work, the timing, the planning it was all Him.  He loves you that much.

I don’t know if I can really say anything else about.  I’ll finish with this.  God loves you, and He wants you to love Him.  He will not make you, He will not force Himself on you.  But He has done everything possible to make the relationship work.  All you have to do is accept the invite.

Just a thought,

Mike 

Submit I say. …. Bow down before me

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

I want to talk about 1 Peter 3:1-4 for a minute.  Now I am sure there are going to be a few Christian men who decided to read the whole article this time and a few Christian women who have decided they may no longer like me.  But in normal Farley fashion (that’s my last name) I am going to put a little different spin on it.  My thoughts on 1 Peter 3:1-4 actually stem Jeremiah 29:7 which I have been spending a good deal of time thinking about.

Jeremiah 29:7 (NLT)
And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.

1 Peter 3:1-4 (NLT)
1 In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over
2 by observing your pure and reverent lives.
3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.
4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

When the nation of Israel was in Babylonian captivity God spoke to them through Jeremiah and told them to work for and pray for the peace and welfare of the city.  In 1 Peter 3, Peter tells the women to work for the peace and welfare of their husbands.  I love that.  Too many people try and use the words of 1 Peter to mean something without understand the point of the verses.  It is not about some abstract submission for the sake of submission.  It is about serving and giving.  It is about loving and wanting the best for the other person.  What Peter says to women here the Bible speaks to all people.  Serve one another, win them to Christ by love and compassion.  Give the best to them.  Don’t worry so much about how you look or what you wear.  Take care of yourself but they are not going to come to Christ because you look like a model, or drive a Bentley.  Pray for them and work for their welfare.

The goal of it all is that Christ is honored and glorified.  That men (and women) come to faith and repentance in Him.  All that we do should be to bring Jesus to them.  We are a body and as a body we should mobile.  Don’t just invite people to Church on Sunday bring it to them on Monday.  Bring the good news with you when you go to work, bring it home when you get there.  Show your husbands why Jesus is better, show your wives why Jesus is greater, show your children why His love is more.  Seek the peace and welfare of those around you.  Pray for your family, for your neighbors, for your nation.  Don’t nag your spouse, your government to death.  Instead nurture and foster love and faith in Christ.

I’m not going to say any more on that, but I do want to drop a sentence of two about 1 Peter 3:7.  Men do you feel like God is not listening to you?  Do you feel like no matter what you do you cannot seem to get ahead spiritually?  Make sure you read verse 7, and then make sure you live it.  Keep it in the forefront of your mind and make sure you remember it.

Just a thought,
Mike