Over and over again in the Bible, especially in what are known as the Epistles (the letters written to teach, encourage, correct and mentor different churches and faith communities on how to live their lives as followers of Jesus), the authors of these letters took time to greet the people who would be reading or listening to their messages.

The authors of the Epistles gave thought to how they made their entrance into their readers’ lives. And these author’s knew that—in all they said, wrote and did—they needed to always…and fully…point their reader–listeners back to the loving grace and holy truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Some loving, wise and beautiful entrance examples are included here.

Read them fully. Hear the depth of love…and the humble hearts that continually point to our Lord…and the spirit and attitude of unity, encouragement and care.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through our knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2

 To all in Rome [to all anywhere!] who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:2-3

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Galatians 1:3-5

To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. Jude 1-2

When we enter into someone’s life—whether for a brief and fleeting moment in a chance encounter OR more regularly in our neighborhoods, at work, at school, at church, at organized sports and activities OR continually and daily within our family relationships—do we enter with love? Do we enter with humility that acknowledges Jesus as Lord? Do we enter in a spirit and attitude of unity, encouragement and care?

How would you do—how would I do—on the Entrance Exam…into someone else’s life? 

Is it time for a Refresher Course in the grace and truth and love of Jesus so that we will be refreshing to others as we enter into their lives—whether we enter for a moment or for a life-time?

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

Sylane Mack has been invited to serve as Assistant Chaplain on the 2010-2012 Board of Advisors for BAACC—Black African-American Christian Counselors (a division of AACC—American Association of Christian Counselors). Her first opportunity to join with other BAACC Board Members face-to-face will be September 16-19, 2009 while attending the AACC’s Grace and Truth World Conference in Nashville, TN.

Sylane is so very thankful for, and completely humbled by, this God given ministry opportunity. To serve on BAACC’s Board of Advisors is such a clear confirmation that in our Lord’s Love we are truly One Body–with One Purpose: To be Ambassadors of Christ so that others…all others…may know of, and accept for themselves, the saving and transforming love, grace, truth and power of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Join with all of us in prayer for God to do a mighty, loving and transforming work in the lives of all people, of all colors, of all nations…starting right within our own hearts and our own communities. May we more truly reflect God’s Oneness of Body and Purpose through the ministries of TBG and BAACC…and through all people and ministries who love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ!

God makes it so clear to us, because of who God is and what God has done, that we can have a sure hope of eternal life with our LORD!  We can have a sure hope that all God plans and promises will come about. There is no need for disappointment as we place our hope in our Holy God for every aspect of our lives—in each moment right now…and for all eternity.

And there is no need for our hope to look like or feel like or behave like the superstitious acts that somehow, supposedly, help to make our desired outcomes become a reality. There is no truth…there is no substance…there is no sure hope in superstitious thinking.

We don’t have to cross our fingers. We don’t have to knock on wood. We need only to put our full hope in what was fully accomplished through Jesus Christ on that wooden cross at Calvary!

…and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:5-8 

…those who hope in Me will not be disappointed. Isaiah 49:23

Our God’s love, sacrifice and Spirit all testify to us who have put our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ that we will not be disappointed.

God’s Word is true. And God is true to His Word. In God our hope is sure!

Let us each choose to live in the power and love of God’s sure hope!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

Being a true friend is far different than hanging out with some one…even if it’s a whole lot of fun! Being a true friend is more than being a casual acquaintance with someone…or being a really good co-worker…or even a really good neighbor.

Being a true friend is a lot more than just being friendly. (Although we ALL should work on that! With ALL those around us! Starting right in our homes with ALL the people in our family!)

God’s Word has so much to say about the character of a true friend. Here are just a few passages to think about, pray about…and DO something about:

A friend loves at all times…Proverbs 17:17

He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates friends. Proverbs 17:9

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

Wounds from a friend can be trusted…Proverbs 27:6

And from our Lord Jesus Christ we learn what true love and true friendship really are:

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this that he lay his life down for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:12-14

May we each accept the unfailing, powerful love and fullest act of intimate and outrageously sacrificial friendship that we could ever receive: Jesus laid down His perfect, sinless life for us…while we were still His enemies.

Jesus didn’t wait for us to change in our attitudes towards Him. Jesus didn’t wait for us to be friendly and loving to Him. 

Jesus was a true Friend, a true Lover of our souls. And He didn’t…and doesn’t want any of us to die without knowing the truth of His love, and the power of His friendship.  

And we, who are believers in Jesus, have been given clear guidelines—a very clear command from our Lord Jesus:

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

This is the true measure for what being a true friend is all about!

May we each choose to let our Lord work His transforming power in each one of us so that we will follow this command of love and friendship—in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions and in every relationship!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  

They were terrified and asked each other “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him! Mark 4:39-41

Jesus has the power to quiet the fiercest storms and calm the most overwhelming of waves.

Yet, way too often, when chaotic storms and over-whelming waves come crashing into our lives—in the form of a relationship filled with pain and uncertainty, a body suffering with illness or a crippling disability,  a death of a spouse, a child, a friend, the loss of a job or financial security—we fill our heads with all manner of worry, anxiety, fear, frustration, depression, self pity and anger at the unfairness of it all.

Too often we allow our own fear-fed thoughts to run rampant in our heads. And that is deadly. We need to be able to sincerely respond to the disciples’ question: ”Who is this?” with a firm and faithful: Jesus, You are the Prince of Peace! 

And, then, we need to obey our Lord Jesus, even as did the wind and the waves, when He says, “Quiet! Be Still!”

Only then will the churning thoughts of chaos and crises die down and be completely calm.  Only then will we recognize and receive the power that the Prince of Peace has for us. So, shhhhhhhhhhhh…take some time with Jesus, even now, and choose to obey His loving command: “Quiet! Be Still!”

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

The LORD reached down from on high and took hold of me;

He drew me out of deep waters.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of disaster,

but the LORD was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place;

He rescued me because He delighted in me.

2 Samuel 22:17-20

Are you in the midst of a battle? At work? At home? With your husband? With your wife? With your ex? With your children? With anyone?

Do you feel like you are being overwhelmed by the deep waters of these conflicts, of these battles? Do you feel backed into a corner with no place to go?

If “Yes” is our answer, then we really need to ask ourselves some other questions:

• What part am I playing to keep the battle going?
• In what ways have I gotten myself into these deep waters?
• What have I done to back myself, or the other person, into a corner so that resolution no longer seems like a remote possibility?
• On whose power, strength and support have I truly been depending? On God’s or on my own?
• Do I really want to be rescued from this battle? Or does the conflict itself somehow bring justification to my actions?

If our battles are really for the cause of Jesus Christ, then: Battle on in the power and Word and Spirit of our Living God!

We can be sure these battles will be won by the LORD in His time, in His way and for all eternity.

If, however, our battles have grown out of our pride, our lack of forgiveness, our stubborn-self-focused thinking and our lack of true Jesus-like sacrificial love, then we might as well just suck those deep waters right into our lungs…because we are not breathing or thinking or speaking or acting or living or loving…or battling…in the way that pleases—that delights—our LORD!

When our battles are the LORD’s battles and our foes are the LORD’s foes: sin and death—then, we will be rescued…then, we will be safe, empowered, strengthened, supported and brought into the spacious place of God’s perfect peace now and forever.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is Maker of them all.

Proverbs 22:2

If I truly—down deep in my mind and in my soul—embrace the truth that both the poor and the rich (and all people in between) have been made and have been given life by the Holy God of all creation, then this should make a difference in all of my choices.

My choices in attitude and action, because of our commonality as creations of the One Living God, should be ruled by compassion. And this compassion should show itself in tangible, practical and spiritual ways. Compassion should rule my wallet and my ways, my purpose and my prayers, my time and my talents.

Compassion should rule in my heart and life—for both the poor and the rich of this world—so that I will be a vessel of making the Father of compassion known to others, so that they, too, may accept what God has offered in common to us all: His Son Jesus Christ.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

I know this may seem like a ridiculously, blatant understatement, but: God just doesn’t always do things in our usual way of doing things. God is, as I’ve said on this blog site before, a Counter-Intuitive God! God does things in God’s own unusual-usual way!

Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.

Proverbs 22:4

Yeah, I’m thinking that for so many of us—in our usual way of doing things—getting wealth and honor and life (the way we want to live it) is a whole lot more about us asserting ourselves, our pride and our self-focused desires; planning and working, often fretfully in our own strength, towards our expected and—according to our usual way of thinking—our entitled rewards.

Our Holy, Counter-Intuitive God doesn’t think, plan or work things out for us in this short-sighted manner. God loves us. God always wants the very best for us. And God knows that for us to receive true wealth and honor and life—for all eternity—we need to do things in God’s unusual-usual way.

We need to be humble and trusting before our God. Not prideful and trusting in ourselves. We need to recognize, and choose to want, what God wants for us. And God, far more than we could ever understand, wants to lavish true and unchangeable and imperishable wealth and honor and life on all of us for all eternity! 

This is God’s unusual-usual way! Thanks be to God! Amen!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still;

teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.

Proverbs 9:9

As children of God, wisdom and learning should be much more than attaining a certain educational degree or acheiving a particular level of knowledge and accomplishment in our study.

Gaining wisdom and learning from our Holy, Wise and True God are to be a continuous desire and joy for us each and every day of our lives. The more we gain wisdom and learning from our LORD, the more loving, true, strong, peaceful and powerful we are to live our lives in every way in every relationship!

Unlike the song made famous by rocker Alice Cooper (who I actually met in Stuttgart, Germany a few years back), as children of the Living God—whose ways and thoughts are higher than our ways—School’s In Forever! And that’s a beautiful thing! Amen!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life — Proverbs 10:11

Whoa! That is powerful.

As a child of God, as a follower of Jesus, my mouth—my words—are to be a fountain of life…just as Jesus is—God’s Living Word who is Life Himself!

My mouth—my words—are to nurture and nourish, strengthen and heal, bring refreshment and hope, truth and peace, wisdom and life to all those around me.

I repeat: Whoa! That is powerful!

And I need a powerful God to do this within me…to fill me and flow through me with His life-giving righteousness. I need to make sure that God’s righteous faucet is turned on…and kept on…so that I will be a fountain of life…and not a pool of poison!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane