A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

BIBLE = Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

"The Challenge of Radical Love!"

The following are my sermon notes from today's sermon by Pastor Wayne Putman at the Exeter Church of God.

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that! -- Ephesians 5:1-2 Message

Agape love is a choice I make through the actions I take.

Choose to respond peacefully -

You have heard that the law of Moses says, 'If an eye is injured the eye of the person who did it. If a tooth gets knocked out the tooth of the person who did it.' But I say, don't resist an evil person!If you are slapped on the right cheek, turn the other, too. -- Matthew 5:38-39 NLT

Choose to forgive freely -

If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done. -- Matthew 6:14-15 TEV

Choose to view others gracefully -

Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and He will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. Matthew 7:1-2 TEV

Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get. Matthew 7:12 Msg

The title of today's blog post is a saying I heard a few years ago from a friend about the Bible. That the Bible is really our basic instructions before leaving Earth. I'm going to be using this title for blogs from time to time when I hear a sermon I like and decide to post the notes I take from the sermon of the day.