“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” 1 John 4:7-12

There are many ways we use the word “new” in our vocabulary. One way is when we use it to redescribe a word we have been already using. When we do this we want our hearers to be mindful that we want them to think differently about the words meaning. One example is Math when at some point it started be called the “new” math. I’m not sure what made it different from the math I learned, but my brain was being told it was.

I want to challenge you all to look at love in a new way. Most of our frame of reference for love comes from our families or the people we were raised by. For some that was a good and caring love. For many others that love was harsh, hurtful, uncaring, judgmental, critical, and the list can go on.

God introduces us to a new love. This love is patient, kind, caring, forgiving, compassionate. This love was sacrificial as demonstrated by Christ on the cross.

God has now called us, His children, to love like that. He wants us to love in a new way, to love others in a way they have never known. Our light shines when we are showing the world something clean and refreshing. There are so many today striving for the love of God. Do you love in such a way that they see God as offering a new kind of love?

At Barbara’s Place, our first job and role is to show women who have been hurt by those that claimed to love them that there is a new kind of love, a love that is kind, compassionate, patient, forgiving, unconditional. I am sure you can think of people in your life that need to see and experience love in a new and fresh way.

As we celebrate Easter and a love so sacrificial it changed our lives forever, think about how you can more and more offer that kind of love to the people in your life.

We can draw people to Christ by our love or we can make people run from God by our lack of love. Let others know you are a Christian, and God is safe, by your love.

Dr. Lynne Jahns

Lynne Jahns is a Christian counselor and holds the honor of being the first Director of Barbara’s Place at America’s Keswick, a residential addiction recovery ministry for women. Lynne is married to Bill Jahns, who also serves on staff at America’s Keswick as the Director of Housekeeping. When not working and studying, Lynne loves to be outdoors and to travel. Family is very important to both Lynne and Bill and a lot of free time is spent with relatives and close family friends. Lynne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences from Cedarville University in Ohio, a Master of Arts degree from The College of New Jersey in Community Counseling, and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from Louisiana Baptist University.

As a little girl, I loved to run. I could never refuse a good game of tag or wallsies. I was small so I always ran into the tight places the bigger kids couldn’t get into. Until one day I ran between some cars and didn’t notice the fence was ripped. I tripped, cut my knee, and my pink floral tights were now ruined by a bright crimson stain. I remembered the scrape healed fairly quickly as wounds tend to do when you are young. It’s pretty miraculous how the human body heals itself.

However, unlike a physical wound in the flesh, wounds of the heart and emotions don’t necessarily heal with time. Rather they heal by decision.

Healing from past hurts and pains is a choice. Though not always an easy one, it’s a necessary choice to live free in Christ.

Our emotional pain requires an act of our will – a deliberate decision to face the reality of our situation and move on. Cuts and bruises to our physical bodies heal with time. Significant emotional wounds do not.

The Bible says you should cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

Jesus died so that we may have life and liberty to serve and love God. But as the enemy of our souls would desire it, we get caught up in our baggage. We must decide that enough is enough and choose the freedom, peace and joy that God provided for us.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10

Diera Shaw-Mendez

Diera Shaw-Mendez is a minister and youth leader at New Beginnings Worship Center, Pennsauken, NJ, and works full-time for an educational nonprofit in Philadelphia. She is wife to Chaplain Juan Mendez and mama to Olivia Joy. She spends her “spare time” running an online invitation design shop on Etsy and write occasionally for her personal blog, With Style, By Grace. Diera is a God-fearing, Starbucks loving, tech junkie (…in that order!) who simply wants to inspire women to invest in THE beauty that never fades!

“The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but it has been the strongest incentive in its practice and has exerted so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of His three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.” W.E.H. Lecky

When I first heard the above quote spoken by Ravi Zacharias, I immediately had to find its source and write it down. (Don’t ask why, it’s just the way it is and has always been.)

What I can say is it spoke to my mind and spirit deeply because I love the LORD.

From the day I was born again, up to this exact moment of time, being saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit has been the one and only thing that gives reason, meaning, purpose and strength to my life.

As Lecky infers, it is the character of Jesus, the pattern of virtue He lived that has increasingly become the only incentive wherein I daily desire to practice His way from the inside out.

Dear sisters, may I ask, what is it that motivates you? What is your incentive for living righteously in
this world? I hope and pray that it’s more than high morals or principles. God forbid!

May it be so that your life and living are fueled by a single and holy passion to image Christ in your doing and being because He alone is the reason; He alone is worthy!

Christ and Christ alone!

Stephanie Dale Paul

Stephanie serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy. They have two grown children.
Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.

Well, it’s that time again. Time for planting! Each Spring the grounds at America’s Keswick are filled with beautiful flowers. But there’s a lot of cultivating that takes place first. Afterward, there are typically some left over and the staff may take of that for their homes. I planted red, white, and purple last year in anticipation of my son coming home for a visit from where he was stationed. I hope to do it again this year. A lovely young woman (my dear god-daughter Samantha Dee) helped me with the planting. We cultivated more than a garden that night as we talked and cried, then talked and cried some more. Good times.

It required us to get down in the dirt (we’re not big fans of that). You know down there where all the bugs are, bees, ticks, etc… down where my sister (her mother) wouldn’t think is a very good idea. Well, nevertheless, we did it anyway!

I don’t think Sam would mind me sharing it was a summer of growing and stretching for her. It wasn’t as hard for me because I knew God was cultivating something deep within her heart and soul. I was happy to provide the location for that to take place.

As the weeks passed I often found time to just sit outside and enjoy the beautiful knee-high flowers that bloomed from that work in the garden. Those flowers have long since withered away. But the growth that I also got to watch happen in Sam is still happening and will never wither away.

The Bible tells us that when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty, as she cried, a Man asked her why she was crying. Thinking HE was the gardener, she lamented over not finding Jesus there that morning. Then suddenly HE revealed to her that HE was not the gardener but the risen Jesus. “Rabboni!” (Teacher)

HE definitely showed up in my garden!

Next time you’re at Keswick, remember, God’s growing more than flowers on these grounds.

Blessings,
Dina

Dina Seaton serves on staff in Marketing.

Many things vie for our attention and time. Godly relationships that are easy seem to always find time, but those that are more difficult seem to find excuses.

I list 5 here:
1. Misaligned priorities
a. Remember we do what’s MOST IMPORTANT to us at any given moment (that is not the same as doing what we WANT to do most at any given moment).
b. If cultivating godly relationships is more about us, our enjoyment, etc., rather than God’s glory, our focus can easily misguide us.
c. If godly relationships are not a priority we will not put forth the effort to cultivate them.
d. The urgent pushes out the important. Unless we make conscious, intentional effort – it just won’t happen.

2. Laziness – We all have a long list of excuses to hinder cultivating Godly relationships. We have to decide whether to use those excuses or ignore them.

3. Cliques – exclusive groups are death to godly relationships and to community. It is our responsibility to invite others along.

4. Gossip.
a. A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends. Proverbs 16:28
b. Unsafe people break confidences and talk about it to others. Gossip is destructive to relationships, destructive to churches, destructive to the reputation of Jesus Christ.
c. Don’t instigate gossip; Don’t participate in gossip.

5.Intimacy illusion
a. Beware of the misuse of social media. It can be good when used appropriately but in many ways social media, email and texting are breeding isolation.

Be on guard. Cultivation requires removing the rock and boulders that will hinder growth. Pursue Christ and then pursue godly relationships with others.

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have 2 married children and 4 grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

Cultivation requires effort, care, labor, study. Cultivation does not imply spontaneous generation. Godly relationships take time, preparation, effort. Some develop smoothly; others seem to have more rocks and weeds.

There are a number of attributes that characterize godly relationships. For our purposes today, I will focus briefly on one: Unity.

In numerous places in the Bible we are called to like-mindedness, to have unity in the Spirit.

Cultivate unity.
“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, or one mind…” Philippians 2:1-2

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” Psalm 133:1

“…endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…” Ephesians 4:3

Does this mean we can’t have opinions? Does like-minded require we think the same about everything?
NO. But ultimately it will require compromise and choosing to come into agreement with the other person because you are motivated by glorifying God. Coming into agreement means you choose to agree. You cease to murmur. You stop talking to others about your own opinion. You support the decision. Sometimes she compromises, sometimes you compromise. You seek like-mindedness based on what you DO have in common, not what you don’t have in common.

Psalm 133:1 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.”

Blessings,
Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have 2 married children and 4 grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

“The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. And the same Gospel which melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins” – Spurgeon

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those that heard it.” Hebrews 4:2

How do you prepare your heart to be ready to receive the seeds of truth?

The Parable of the Sower from Luke 8:4ff
And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

I know that the context of this Scripture is referring to the Gospel and salvation. There are theologians that argue that only the fourth soil represents a true Christian while others argue that only the first soil is not a saved believer. Those things are beyond me but the reality of the truth that not everyone receives truth and is changed by it is pretty clear. Some have hardened hearts. “…But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” Proverbs 28:14

Each individual needs to make a choice for themselves to receive or reject truth. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21

How’s the soil of your heart today? Do you listen to the Sunday sermon with a cynical ear? Do you only half listen because you have heard this all before? Do you allow your mind to wander, lacking interest in what is being said? Do you read the Scriptures to check it off your to-do list? Do you read and not change? There are many ways we “reject” truth. If we are not intentionally receiving truth – in some way – we are rejecting it.

Lord, show me the soil of my heart. May it be fertile ground for the seeds of Your truth to grow.

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have 2 married children and 4 grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

Simply stated, cultivating godly relationship can be summed up with one word: LOVE.

Love in not always a natural thing for us; that is why Christ can tell us to love our enemies. Apart from the Holy Spirit’s empowerment that would be an impossible notion. But because of Christ and our relationship with Him, “I can do all though through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

Some relationships are easier than others, but God doesn’t tell us to love the lovely only. Some relationships take more cultivating.

I love this picture of Godly relationships from Romans 15:5-6:
“Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Why? Why do we cultivate godly relationships? Why do we do that which may not be natural to us? Did you notice it in the verse from Romans? “..that you may…glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (5-6) Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. (7) And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17