If only I could truly learn to hate; how much different my life would be.
Sure, I know this may be quite a shock to read, but I really want to take a look at this together, really close and to the heart of the matter.
HATE as described in Webster’s Dictionary: to dislike intensely; detest.
God tells us to hate sin—to hate the evil in us and the evil in the world.
Listed below are some of the scriptural references to God’s hatred of evil:
Psalm 5:4, 5
O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness; you cannot tolerate the slightest sin. Therefore, the proud will not be allowed to stand in your presence, for you hate all who do evil. (NLT)
Psalm 11:5-7
The LORD examines both the righteous and the wicked. He hates everyone who loves violence. He rains down blazing coals on the wicked, punishing them with burning sulfur and scorching winds. For the LORD is righteousness, and he loves justice. Those who do what is right will see his face. (NLT)
Psalm 45:6, 7
Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal power is expressed in justice. You love what is right and hate what is wrong. (NLT)
Psalm 97:10
You who love the LORD, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. (NLT)
Psalm 139:21, 22
O LORD, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who resist you? Yes, I hate them with complete hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. (NLT)
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things the LORD hates-no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord among brothers. (NLT)
Proverbs 8:13
All who fear the LORD will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption, and perverted speech. (NLT)
Proverbs 11:1
The LORD hates cheating, but he delights in honesty. (NLT)
Proverbs 11:20
The LORD hates people with twisted hearts, but he delights in those who have integrity. (NLT)
Proverbs 12:22
The LORD hates those who don’t keep their word, but he delights in those who do. (NLT)
Proverbs 13:5
Those who are godly hate lies; the wicked come to shame and disgrace. NLT)
Hosea 9:15
The LORD says, “All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. (NLT)
Amos 5:15
Hate evil and love what is good; remodel your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on his people who remain. (NLT)
Amos 5:21
I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. (NLT)
Zechariah 8:17
Do not make evil plots to harm each other. And stop this habit of swearing to things that are false. I hate all these things, says the LORD. (NLT)
Malachi 2:16
“For I hate divorce!” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “It is as cruel as putting on a victim’s bloodstained coat,” says the LORD Almighty. “So guard yourself; always remain loyal to your wife.” (NLT)
Romans 12:9
Don’t pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. (NLT)
Revelation 2:6
But there is this about you that is good: You hate the deeds of the immoral Nicolaitans, just as I do. (NLT)
While the above references are quite numerous, this is far from a complete scriptural survey of God’s hatred of sin, but it is a good start for this discussion….Ask yourself:
What is my attitude towards evil; towards sin—sin found in the world and the sins found in my own life?
Does sin even bother me?
Do I not sin because I only fear the consequences of my actions if I am caught?
Do I not sin because I know the consequences of God are too severe?
Do I not sin because I don’t want others to sin against me?
Do I hide my private sins away?
What are I like when no one sees me?
Do I have a sincere desire to please the Lord, and that is what motivates me not to sin?
Or do I covet and enjoy the sins in my life: Do I love those sins?
Gosh, this is something I am ashamed to confess, there are sins in my life that I allow myself to go beyond just temptation and right into loving them.
James 1:13-15 says,
And remember, no who wants to do wrong should ever say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either. Temptation comes from the lure of our own desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. (NLT)
A very interesting translation of this same passage comes from, The Message:
Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
So, I have had to revisit my understanding of sin, of evil, and of desiring to really know the fear of the Lord. It has become an important prayer of mine…not to focus only on the actual besetting sins and character flaws in me, but rather going after the source of it all: To confess that I am constantly tempted/lured to commit these sins because I love these sins (that I don’t hate them). That I desire to truly learn the fear of the Lord and for God to give me a hatred for what I now love—to hate the sins I currently love.
Remember to fear the Lord is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13). May we all truly learn to hate……to hate as God does; hate sin and the evil of and in this world.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Who/What is the Holy Spirit?
Who is the third-person of the Trinity?
If God is in heaven and Jesus is at his right hand where is the Holy Spirit?
Jesus said he needed to leave so the Holy Spirit could come....is the Holy Spirit Immanuel--God amongst us?
What is the job description of the Holy Spirit?
What's he got for us?
What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and is it even important or necessary?
What abuses do we see in the church today because of misconceptions of this topic?
A penny for your thoughts....but I want your two cents worth!
If God is in heaven and Jesus is at his right hand where is the Holy Spirit?
Jesus said he needed to leave so the Holy Spirit could come....is the Holy Spirit Immanuel--God amongst us?
What is the job description of the Holy Spirit?
What's he got for us?
What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and is it even important or necessary?
What abuses do we see in the church today because of misconceptions of this topic?
A penny for your thoughts....but I want your two cents worth!
God's Will Hunting
As we discuss this over the internet you may want to open your Bible to the book of Matthew, chapter 26 beginning at verse 36....
Then Jesus brought them to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go ahead to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he begun to be filled with anguish and deep distress. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want Your will, not mine.” (NLT)
While I was reading a book containing selections by C.S. Lewis, titled, “The Joyful Christian,” I was drawn to a brief comment he made regarding, “Thy will be done.” This opened up a journey for me; digging into the Bible; seeking through much prayer over this statement; and then outlining these thoughts I now want to share with you all.
I’ve titled this blog, “God’s Will Hunting” because in the process of developing this topical study I am discovering to find His Will… it really requires an active ajd very directed effort. Finding God’s will is much more than just “seeking”. To me, seeking something is a term that is not so directed, or purposeful as hunting for something.
Hunting involves having the right equipment and training. It involves having a system or technique to follow that will provide me with the best opportunity of tracking down my target. It requires discipline and even practice.
Take a moment and think about it....The last time you lost your car keys did you “seek them” hoping that the two of you would find each other? Or did you hunt them down? Do you go on a job seek or a job-hunt? When one of those B-52 sized cockroaches gets in your house, do you “just look for it, seek it, or are you on a search and destroy mission, hunting that bugger down, saying, “I will not rest until I hunt you down!” Which is basically true because you know it just might find it’s way into your bed or lay eggs in your box of Raisin Bran cereal tonight, only to pour it into your bowl and wonder if that was just a bad raisin you just eat.
Do you want our nation to just seek threats to our nation’s security like Osama bin Laden or do you want every resource available to the United States to hunt for these terrorists?
We need to be equipped and prepared to find out what God’s will is for each of us. We need to go on the hunt.
We go “God’s will hunting” by recognizing the following six key components:
1) We have a choice
2) We are needed
3) We need to know the cost and benefit of doing God’s will
4) We need to know where to find it, to hunt for it.
5) We need to know it’s more than just words we are saying
and
6) We need to know how to hunt for it.
Do I Have A Choice?
Yes, you do have a choice; God has granted each of us the ability and right to make our own choices. We are not created robots, and this is what we call “Freewill.” And freewill is our greatest gift and our biggest curse. It allows us to make wonderful and amazing choices and can cause us great sorrow, hardship, and ultimately sin.
Proverbs 11:27 states, “If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you!”
Yes, you do have choices; it’s our freewill decisions that we need to make each and every day of our lives. And one critical decision we must make some time in our lives is in regards to our salvation.
In the large and absolute sense we can totally deny God by not choosing salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, thereby rejecting God with finality. As C.S. Lewis describes it, we can look up to God and say, “Your will be done.” or through our absolute, total and final rejection of God, God can look down upon us and say, “Your will be done.” Thus, we find ourselve in the dark and hellish-side of the judgment day we all will face.
I am assuming all of you reading this blog are Christians and we have made the choice to accept God’s gift of salvation. We still need to deal with our “conditional” choice of hunting for and doing God’s Will.
My own past is checkered with prayers, “That God’s will be done in my life,” but it always seems to have the following words attached somewhere:
And,
If,
Or,
But.
.... Fill in the blank yourself: “Lord, Your will be done, but....” or.....” If.......” and .....”
How about, “Lord, let Your will be done in my life, I AM YOUR SERVANT! Send me anywhere and to whomever you want… But , there needs to be running water, clean toilets, and the people must speak English. Did I mention they have to have air conditioning in their homes, get all that and I’m good to go!”
Are we filling in the blank with OUR selfish ambitions, OUR dreams, OUR comfort, OUR rules set against doing God’s will?
REALLY NOW, if God called me to do it;
Am I willing to give up my job? A job I absolutely love, surrounded by people that bless me so much with their friendship?
Am I willing to give up living happily here in Hawaii?
Am I willing to sacrifice my desire to be married and have my own children?
AM I WILLING TO COMPLETELY SURRENDER MY LIFE when I say, “Lord, Your will be done?”
So since we have a choice, we need to make a choice, remember that thing called “freewill” will always be there...
So what does the Bible tell us? Is there something we should know? We see Jesus teaching us the importance of wanting to do God’s will in the prayer model presented in the Gospel of Matthew where Christ says,
Pray like this: “Our Father in heaven, may Your Name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven....”
Jesus knows how critical it is to have God’s will being done here on earth as it is in heaven. You will see how critical it is when we look again toward Jesus at Gethsemane. You see Jesus prays that God’s will be done on earth—on the cross at Calvary, and how that is all part of God’s will in heaven.
Am I Needed?
Yes, we ARE the church, we ARE the body of Christ, and each of us serves a unique function in the body of Christ. When we each function, as God wants us to, we are a fully functioning body, and everything works well together.
When the individual parts of our body are in tip-top shape, we are healthy. If my mind is functioning well (okay, that’s a bad example for me, and no “Amen’s” from my e-friends here), If your mind is functioning well, then the rest of the body is too, just as when your physical body is not well, your mind is not well either.
Think for a moment about an engine… What part of the engine, is the engine. The pistons would claim they are the engine, the spark plugs would claim they are the engine, when in reality together they make up the engine and when all the parts work, there is a sound, clean-running machine. Now, my car’s engine is an example of a bad running engine, I call it my prayer mobile and helps me illustrate the importance that each part of the engine (the body) is needed.
As Romans 8:28 says,
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.
Let me illustrate how we each are needed and that God selected each of us for His purposes through the story of Esther.
You will find the book of Esther in the Old Testament, between Nehemiah and Job. Let me set the stage:
Esther was a Jewish woman who found herself chosen as the queen of the Persian-Mede Empire. Through some very deceitful and cruel efforts by a guy named Haman who hated the Jews, King Xerxes, her husband, was convinced to make a decree that called for the annihilation of all the Jews on a single day.
Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, sends a message to Queen Esther that she must go before the King and beg for mercy. The problem was that unless the King called for you to enter his inner court of the palace you could be put to death instantly.
Let’s pick up from there together, turning to the book of Esther, chapter 4, starting at verse 13:
Mordecai sent back this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that you will escape there in the palace when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. What’s more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?”
You may want to underline that in your Bible: for just such a time as this.
Please realize that God has placed you, where you are, “for just such a time as this.” It may not be in the present sense, it could be some time off in the future and God is preparing the stage, putting all the pieces in place.... YOU need to be ready, to be equipped, ready to do God’s will.
Who do you know that is ready to do God’s will?
Ka’ala Souza—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as the pastor right here at my church, Mana’olana.
Countless missionaries—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this in third-worldcountries as long-term missionaries to the indiginous peoples.
Billy Graham—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this everywhere he goes, with everyone he meets.
President George W. Bush—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this in our nation. Who can say but God that George Bush has been elected and re-elected to the Presidency for just such a time as this?
(What’s the scripture reference…the one stating God choses the rulers of nations?)
Are you ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this, after all, you are needed.
What Are The Costs And The Benefits?
Looking farther into Esther’s life we see she too had to evaluate the cost of doing God’s will. This is her choice:
Beginning at verse 15--Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the King. If I must die, I am willing to die.”
Esther recognized the costs. Fortunately she didn’t die and she saved the Jews from genocide.
Jesus knew the costs--He said, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death,” and He called it a “cup of suffering.”
We see the costs demonstrated in the lives of Peter, of Paul, and of the other disciples. We see it today through the saints and martyrs around the world. We may even see it in those lives around us or perhaps in our own lives...
I’m not going to sugar coat or gloss over the possible cost of doing God’s will. Yes, it is very possible things could get rough, could be difficult, could get ugly, could even cost us our lives. But as Jesus explains;
...”If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?...”
Luke 9:23b-25
Digging deeper, it means if I surrender my will to what my flesh, my sin nature, my mind desires, I will lose my life. Now that is a cost when I choose to ultimately NOT obey God’s will.
Now all this might lead us to think that when it comes to doing God’s will, it means: “Our good thing surrendering to God’s bad thing.” That means I’m not going to like it, that doing God’s will means all sorrow and suffering....
I can tell you, that in all the years I followed my own free will, saying, “Keiger’s will be done,” there was sorrow, suffering, and spiritual-death. Living selfishly, partying, drinking, smoking and focusing only on what I wanted and what felt good to me, was killing me, spiritually, and perhaps closer than I realized at the time; nearly killing me physically on more than one occasion In a song I heard last night by Plankeye—“I realize death takes many forms, even while alive”. ….It was as if I wanted to hold on to, “My bad things not surrendering to God’s good things.”
Now, by looking at the benefits of the Gospel and grabbing hold of God’s will, we will realize that it really means: “Our seemingly good things surrendering to God’s SO MUCH BETTER things.”
1 Corinthians 2:9--
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Let’s now look at Ephesians 1:18--
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future He has promised to those He called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance He has given to His people. That is us.
Ka’ala and his family know the costs and delight in the benefits of doing God’s will.
Those missionaries have weighed the costs of living in remote third-world countries. They have discovered the benefits are much more than enough for them, as they tromp through muddy animal pastures that are not just filled with mud if you know what I mean….
Billy Graham knows the costs and the benefits.
President Bush knows the costs of publicly professing his Christian beliefs and finds the benefits to be more than he could ever dare to ask or hope for.
You and I must hunt for God’s will and know the costs and that the benefits of doing God’s will is greater…for just such a time as this, saying, “Yet I want Your will, not mine.”
Let’s briefly recap: we see that the Hunt for God’s Will involves a choice, recognizing the need for our involvement, and the possible costs and the benefits.
Where Do I Hunt For God’s Will?
First, hunt for evidence of God’s will for you in His Word; the Bible. 2 Timothy 3: 16-17 says,
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for EVERY GOOD THING GOD WANTS US TO DO.
So spend time, energy and an open heart and mind in God’s word, please don’t let today be the only day you read or hear God’s words. If this is your only time each week, you may find yourself one day “anemic” and unable to withstand the troubles, tribulations and struggles of life. If you are not mining God’s word frequently or better yet, daily, you are spiritually undernourished.
Now follow up spending time in His Word, with time really communicating with Him, talking to God and listening to God in your heart.... Continuously hunt for God’s will through prayer!
James 1:5 says,
If you need wisdom--if you want to know what God wants you to do--ask Him, and He will gladly tell you....
But you had better understand the warning that follows in verses 6-8 too. You can look that up later.
Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit....
is what it says in Ephesians 6:18.
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Colossians 4:2
And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 simply says,
Keep on praying.
You need to have a disciplined approach to studying God’s word and to praying.
You need to be equipped with the tools and be trained-up in your faith and in your obedience.
You need to know where to look (the Bible) and who to turn to when you have questions about hunting for God’s will.
You need to ask God—communicate with Him, without ceasing. Pray without ceasing.
God’s Will Hunting Is More Than Just Words!
We have to do more than just hear this message and mouth it with words lacking obedience and effort.
Jesus explains this in the Gospel of Matthew 21:28-31
“But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go. Which of the two was obeying his father?”
What’s your answer? The first, of course, see we need to act upon God’s instructions for us.
James 1:22, it says,
And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.
Luke 6:46-49
“So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you won’t obey me? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.”
Again, I have to ask myself:
If the Lord calls me to do so;
Am I willing to give up my job?
Am I willing to give up living here in Hawaii?
Am I willing to sacrifice my desire to be married and have my own children? See, I could go out in my own efforts and after MY WILL and get married and possibly be miserable for the rest of my life….because I am out of the will of God…Abraham and Sarah moved ahead of God…forcing their will…and he slept with Hagar the servant….that was not God’s Will….and it brought about heartache and hardship….I’d rather skip that one…so, again I have to ask:
AM I WILLING TO COMPLETELY SURRENDER MY LIFE when I say, “Lord, Your will be done”?
Hear what I am saying..... Evaluate it for yourself..... It’s time to ask yourself some tough questions and be willing and able to make a huge decision and go through with it.
“Willing and Able” I say that so often.... it’s the magic phrase that lets me sit in the exit row, with the extra legroom on the plane. But for your sake, you better believe that I really mean it, and that I will go through with that commitment.... because I had better not just be saying it, right?
So imagine what would happen if I was really only mouthing “willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency.” What would happen if I had never paid attention to the flight attendant’s demonstration or the emergency briefing card? What would happen if I had NO INTENTION, what so ever, to do anything at all?
DISASTER!
It has to be more than just words to me and it has to be more than just words when you say you will do God’s will—obey!
Remember the parable of the farmer’s seeds? It can be found in Luke 8: 4-17. It describes a seed that is scattered and the birds quickly eat it; a seed that is scattered in shallow, rocky soil; a seed that is scattered on thorny ground; and the seed that is planted in fertile soil. Each seed represents our lives, the seed eaten by the birds are people who hear of God’s love and gift of salvation through Christ and reject it. The seed on shallow, rocky ground represents those who only try-on God’s will/salvation and when things don’t work out easily, when they don’t get everything the way the see it, they reject God. The seed in thorny ground allows their own desires, selfish ambition, plans to interfere and destroy God’s will. And the seed in fertile soil is obedient and produces a huge harvest…what kind of seed do you want to be. Just imagine the harvest we could have if we all plant ourselves in fertile soil.
How To Hunt For God’s Will.
A great place to start is the whole chapter of Romans 12 will tell you how to hunt for God’s will:
Beginning at verse 1—
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is.
You can hunt for the rest of the answer yourself in chapter 12.....
At the beginning of this message, I read to you part of Jesus’ time in Gethsemane, let’s turn back there now....
We can pick it up from Matthew 26:42…
Again he left them and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away until I drink it, Your will be done.” He returned to them again and found them sleeping, for they just couldn’t keep their eyes open. So he went back to pray a third time, saying the same things again. Then he came to His disciples and said, “Still sleeping? Still resting? Look, the time has come. I, the Son of Man, am betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up, let’s be going. See, my betrayer is here!”
I will finish here, but as I’m sure you know it wasn’t finished there.... Jesus was arrested, His disciples deserted Jesus, Jesus was mocked and beaten, and Jesus was tortured by death on the cross..... As our great and final sacrifice that we might have life eternal.... Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and one day soon Jesus will come back to earth for us and will pronounce final judgment on each one of us-- and we each know in our hearts where we stand.....
Let’s close our eyes for a moment, open our hearts, and let’s go hunting....God’s will hunting.
My favorite prayer for you all….
When I think of the wisdom and scope of Your plan, I fall on my knees and pray to You the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from Your glorious, unlimited resources You will give us mighty inner strength through Your Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in our hearts as we trust in You Lord. May our roots go down deep into the soil of Your marvelous love. And may we have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love really is. May we experience the love of Christ, though it is so great we will never fully understand it. Then we will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from You Lord. Now glory be to You, God! By Your mighty power at work within us we know You Lord are able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May You be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
Now, here’s some questions for you to consider….I know I asked this before, but I want us to delve back in on this again, afresh, anew….
I have never heard the audible voice of God. For that matter, I have never seen the Hand of God writing on a wall; speaking through an ass (Donkey, you guys) or a small still voice--a whisper. Nothing that noteworthy, or in such Biblical proportions.
Now, the Bible has those examples and others, but what I want to discuss is if anyone else "hears God's voice"....
If you "hear from God" how do you know?
What are some things to look for, as evidence it is God?How do you hear Him?What does He say?
Does the Word of God “speak” to you? Can you read a scripture and it strike you differently or afresh?
Is there a difference between hearing God's voice and the Holy Spirit's urgings and promptings?
How do you separate your own inner voice and His?
Hmm, inquiring minds want to know...
Then Jesus brought them to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go ahead to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he begun to be filled with anguish and deep distress. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want Your will, not mine.” (NLT)
While I was reading a book containing selections by C.S. Lewis, titled, “The Joyful Christian,” I was drawn to a brief comment he made regarding, “Thy will be done.” This opened up a journey for me; digging into the Bible; seeking through much prayer over this statement; and then outlining these thoughts I now want to share with you all.
I’ve titled this blog, “God’s Will Hunting” because in the process of developing this topical study I am discovering to find His Will… it really requires an active ajd very directed effort. Finding God’s will is much more than just “seeking”. To me, seeking something is a term that is not so directed, or purposeful as hunting for something.
Hunting involves having the right equipment and training. It involves having a system or technique to follow that will provide me with the best opportunity of tracking down my target. It requires discipline and even practice.
Take a moment and think about it....The last time you lost your car keys did you “seek them” hoping that the two of you would find each other? Or did you hunt them down? Do you go on a job seek or a job-hunt? When one of those B-52 sized cockroaches gets in your house, do you “just look for it, seek it, or are you on a search and destroy mission, hunting that bugger down, saying, “I will not rest until I hunt you down!” Which is basically true because you know it just might find it’s way into your bed or lay eggs in your box of Raisin Bran cereal tonight, only to pour it into your bowl and wonder if that was just a bad raisin you just eat.
Do you want our nation to just seek threats to our nation’s security like Osama bin Laden or do you want every resource available to the United States to hunt for these terrorists?
We need to be equipped and prepared to find out what God’s will is for each of us. We need to go on the hunt.
We go “God’s will hunting” by recognizing the following six key components:
1) We have a choice
2) We are needed
3) We need to know the cost and benefit of doing God’s will
4) We need to know where to find it, to hunt for it.
5) We need to know it’s more than just words we are saying
and
6) We need to know how to hunt for it.
Do I Have A Choice?
Yes, you do have a choice; God has granted each of us the ability and right to make our own choices. We are not created robots, and this is what we call “Freewill.” And freewill is our greatest gift and our biggest curse. It allows us to make wonderful and amazing choices and can cause us great sorrow, hardship, and ultimately sin.
Proverbs 11:27 states, “If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you!”
Yes, you do have choices; it’s our freewill decisions that we need to make each and every day of our lives. And one critical decision we must make some time in our lives is in regards to our salvation.
In the large and absolute sense we can totally deny God by not choosing salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, thereby rejecting God with finality. As C.S. Lewis describes it, we can look up to God and say, “Your will be done.” or through our absolute, total and final rejection of God, God can look down upon us and say, “Your will be done.” Thus, we find ourselve in the dark and hellish-side of the judgment day we all will face.
I am assuming all of you reading this blog are Christians and we have made the choice to accept God’s gift of salvation. We still need to deal with our “conditional” choice of hunting for and doing God’s Will.
My own past is checkered with prayers, “That God’s will be done in my life,” but it always seems to have the following words attached somewhere:
And,
If,
Or,
But.
.... Fill in the blank yourself: “Lord, Your will be done, but....” or.....” If.......” and .....”
How about, “Lord, let Your will be done in my life, I AM YOUR SERVANT! Send me anywhere and to whomever you want… But , there needs to be running water, clean toilets, and the people must speak English. Did I mention they have to have air conditioning in their homes, get all that and I’m good to go!”
Are we filling in the blank with OUR selfish ambitions, OUR dreams, OUR comfort, OUR rules set against doing God’s will?
REALLY NOW, if God called me to do it;
Am I willing to give up my job? A job I absolutely love, surrounded by people that bless me so much with their friendship?
Am I willing to give up living happily here in Hawaii?
Am I willing to sacrifice my desire to be married and have my own children?
AM I WILLING TO COMPLETELY SURRENDER MY LIFE when I say, “Lord, Your will be done?”
So since we have a choice, we need to make a choice, remember that thing called “freewill” will always be there...
So what does the Bible tell us? Is there something we should know? We see Jesus teaching us the importance of wanting to do God’s will in the prayer model presented in the Gospel of Matthew where Christ says,
Pray like this: “Our Father in heaven, may Your Name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven....”
Jesus knows how critical it is to have God’s will being done here on earth as it is in heaven. You will see how critical it is when we look again toward Jesus at Gethsemane. You see Jesus prays that God’s will be done on earth—on the cross at Calvary, and how that is all part of God’s will in heaven.
Am I Needed?
Yes, we ARE the church, we ARE the body of Christ, and each of us serves a unique function in the body of Christ. When we each function, as God wants us to, we are a fully functioning body, and everything works well together.
When the individual parts of our body are in tip-top shape, we are healthy. If my mind is functioning well (okay, that’s a bad example for me, and no “Amen’s” from my e-friends here), If your mind is functioning well, then the rest of the body is too, just as when your physical body is not well, your mind is not well either.
Think for a moment about an engine… What part of the engine, is the engine. The pistons would claim they are the engine, the spark plugs would claim they are the engine, when in reality together they make up the engine and when all the parts work, there is a sound, clean-running machine. Now, my car’s engine is an example of a bad running engine, I call it my prayer mobile and helps me illustrate the importance that each part of the engine (the body) is needed.
As Romans 8:28 says,
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.
Let me illustrate how we each are needed and that God selected each of us for His purposes through the story of Esther.
You will find the book of Esther in the Old Testament, between Nehemiah and Job. Let me set the stage:
Esther was a Jewish woman who found herself chosen as the queen of the Persian-Mede Empire. Through some very deceitful and cruel efforts by a guy named Haman who hated the Jews, King Xerxes, her husband, was convinced to make a decree that called for the annihilation of all the Jews on a single day.
Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, sends a message to Queen Esther that she must go before the King and beg for mercy. The problem was that unless the King called for you to enter his inner court of the palace you could be put to death instantly.
Let’s pick up from there together, turning to the book of Esther, chapter 4, starting at verse 13:
Mordecai sent back this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that you will escape there in the palace when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. What’s more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?”
You may want to underline that in your Bible: for just such a time as this.
Please realize that God has placed you, where you are, “for just such a time as this.” It may not be in the present sense, it could be some time off in the future and God is preparing the stage, putting all the pieces in place.... YOU need to be ready, to be equipped, ready to do God’s will.
Who do you know that is ready to do God’s will?
Ka’ala Souza—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as the pastor right here at my church, Mana’olana.
Countless missionaries—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this in third-worldcountries as long-term missionaries to the indiginous peoples.
Billy Graham—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this everywhere he goes, with everyone he meets.
President George W. Bush—ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this in our nation. Who can say but God that George Bush has been elected and re-elected to the Presidency for just such a time as this?
(What’s the scripture reference…the one stating God choses the rulers of nations?)
Are you ready to do God’s will for just such a time as this, after all, you are needed.
What Are The Costs And The Benefits?
Looking farther into Esther’s life we see she too had to evaluate the cost of doing God’s will. This is her choice:
Beginning at verse 15--Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the King. If I must die, I am willing to die.”
Esther recognized the costs. Fortunately she didn’t die and she saved the Jews from genocide.
Jesus knew the costs--He said, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death,” and He called it a “cup of suffering.”
We see the costs demonstrated in the lives of Peter, of Paul, and of the other disciples. We see it today through the saints and martyrs around the world. We may even see it in those lives around us or perhaps in our own lives...
I’m not going to sugar coat or gloss over the possible cost of doing God’s will. Yes, it is very possible things could get rough, could be difficult, could get ugly, could even cost us our lives. But as Jesus explains;
...”If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?...”
Luke 9:23b-25
Digging deeper, it means if I surrender my will to what my flesh, my sin nature, my mind desires, I will lose my life. Now that is a cost when I choose to ultimately NOT obey God’s will.
Now all this might lead us to think that when it comes to doing God’s will, it means: “Our good thing surrendering to God’s bad thing.” That means I’m not going to like it, that doing God’s will means all sorrow and suffering....
I can tell you, that in all the years I followed my own free will, saying, “Keiger’s will be done,” there was sorrow, suffering, and spiritual-death. Living selfishly, partying, drinking, smoking and focusing only on what I wanted and what felt good to me, was killing me, spiritually, and perhaps closer than I realized at the time; nearly killing me physically on more than one occasion In a song I heard last night by Plankeye—“I realize death takes many forms, even while alive”. ….It was as if I wanted to hold on to, “My bad things not surrendering to God’s good things.”
Now, by looking at the benefits of the Gospel and grabbing hold of God’s will, we will realize that it really means: “Our seemingly good things surrendering to God’s SO MUCH BETTER things.”
1 Corinthians 2:9--
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Let’s now look at Ephesians 1:18--
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future He has promised to those He called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance He has given to His people. That is us.
Ka’ala and his family know the costs and delight in the benefits of doing God’s will.
Those missionaries have weighed the costs of living in remote third-world countries. They have discovered the benefits are much more than enough for them, as they tromp through muddy animal pastures that are not just filled with mud if you know what I mean….
Billy Graham knows the costs and the benefits.
President Bush knows the costs of publicly professing his Christian beliefs and finds the benefits to be more than he could ever dare to ask or hope for.
You and I must hunt for God’s will and know the costs and that the benefits of doing God’s will is greater…for just such a time as this, saying, “Yet I want Your will, not mine.”
Let’s briefly recap: we see that the Hunt for God’s Will involves a choice, recognizing the need for our involvement, and the possible costs and the benefits.
Where Do I Hunt For God’s Will?
First, hunt for evidence of God’s will for you in His Word; the Bible. 2 Timothy 3: 16-17 says,
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for EVERY GOOD THING GOD WANTS US TO DO.
So spend time, energy and an open heart and mind in God’s word, please don’t let today be the only day you read or hear God’s words. If this is your only time each week, you may find yourself one day “anemic” and unable to withstand the troubles, tribulations and struggles of life. If you are not mining God’s word frequently or better yet, daily, you are spiritually undernourished.
Now follow up spending time in His Word, with time really communicating with Him, talking to God and listening to God in your heart.... Continuously hunt for God’s will through prayer!
James 1:5 says,
If you need wisdom--if you want to know what God wants you to do--ask Him, and He will gladly tell you....
But you had better understand the warning that follows in verses 6-8 too. You can look that up later.
Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit....
is what it says in Ephesians 6:18.
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Colossians 4:2
And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 simply says,
Keep on praying.
You need to have a disciplined approach to studying God’s word and to praying.
You need to be equipped with the tools and be trained-up in your faith and in your obedience.
You need to know where to look (the Bible) and who to turn to when you have questions about hunting for God’s will.
You need to ask God—communicate with Him, without ceasing. Pray without ceasing.
God’s Will Hunting Is More Than Just Words!
We have to do more than just hear this message and mouth it with words lacking obedience and effort.
Jesus explains this in the Gospel of Matthew 21:28-31
“But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go. Which of the two was obeying his father?”
What’s your answer? The first, of course, see we need to act upon God’s instructions for us.
James 1:22, it says,
And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.
Luke 6:46-49
“So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you won’t obey me? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.”
Again, I have to ask myself:
If the Lord calls me to do so;
Am I willing to give up my job?
Am I willing to give up living here in Hawaii?
Am I willing to sacrifice my desire to be married and have my own children? See, I could go out in my own efforts and after MY WILL and get married and possibly be miserable for the rest of my life….because I am out of the will of God…Abraham and Sarah moved ahead of God…forcing their will…and he slept with Hagar the servant….that was not God’s Will….and it brought about heartache and hardship….I’d rather skip that one…so, again I have to ask:
AM I WILLING TO COMPLETELY SURRENDER MY LIFE when I say, “Lord, Your will be done”?
Hear what I am saying..... Evaluate it for yourself..... It’s time to ask yourself some tough questions and be willing and able to make a huge decision and go through with it.
“Willing and Able” I say that so often.... it’s the magic phrase that lets me sit in the exit row, with the extra legroom on the plane. But for your sake, you better believe that I really mean it, and that I will go through with that commitment.... because I had better not just be saying it, right?
So imagine what would happen if I was really only mouthing “willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency.” What would happen if I had never paid attention to the flight attendant’s demonstration or the emergency briefing card? What would happen if I had NO INTENTION, what so ever, to do anything at all?
DISASTER!
It has to be more than just words to me and it has to be more than just words when you say you will do God’s will—obey!
Remember the parable of the farmer’s seeds? It can be found in Luke 8: 4-17. It describes a seed that is scattered and the birds quickly eat it; a seed that is scattered in shallow, rocky soil; a seed that is scattered on thorny ground; and the seed that is planted in fertile soil. Each seed represents our lives, the seed eaten by the birds are people who hear of God’s love and gift of salvation through Christ and reject it. The seed on shallow, rocky ground represents those who only try-on God’s will/salvation and when things don’t work out easily, when they don’t get everything the way the see it, they reject God. The seed in thorny ground allows their own desires, selfish ambition, plans to interfere and destroy God’s will. And the seed in fertile soil is obedient and produces a huge harvest…what kind of seed do you want to be. Just imagine the harvest we could have if we all plant ourselves in fertile soil.
How To Hunt For God’s Will.
A great place to start is the whole chapter of Romans 12 will tell you how to hunt for God’s will:
Beginning at verse 1—
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is.
You can hunt for the rest of the answer yourself in chapter 12.....
At the beginning of this message, I read to you part of Jesus’ time in Gethsemane, let’s turn back there now....
We can pick it up from Matthew 26:42…
Again he left them and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away until I drink it, Your will be done.” He returned to them again and found them sleeping, for they just couldn’t keep their eyes open. So he went back to pray a third time, saying the same things again. Then he came to His disciples and said, “Still sleeping? Still resting? Look, the time has come. I, the Son of Man, am betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up, let’s be going. See, my betrayer is here!”
I will finish here, but as I’m sure you know it wasn’t finished there.... Jesus was arrested, His disciples deserted Jesus, Jesus was mocked and beaten, and Jesus was tortured by death on the cross..... As our great and final sacrifice that we might have life eternal.... Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and one day soon Jesus will come back to earth for us and will pronounce final judgment on each one of us-- and we each know in our hearts where we stand.....
Let’s close our eyes for a moment, open our hearts, and let’s go hunting....God’s will hunting.
My favorite prayer for you all….
When I think of the wisdom and scope of Your plan, I fall on my knees and pray to You the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from Your glorious, unlimited resources You will give us mighty inner strength through Your Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in our hearts as we trust in You Lord. May our roots go down deep into the soil of Your marvelous love. And may we have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love really is. May we experience the love of Christ, though it is so great we will never fully understand it. Then we will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from You Lord. Now glory be to You, God! By Your mighty power at work within us we know You Lord are able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May You be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
Now, here’s some questions for you to consider….I know I asked this before, but I want us to delve back in on this again, afresh, anew….
I have never heard the audible voice of God. For that matter, I have never seen the Hand of God writing on a wall; speaking through an ass (Donkey, you guys) or a small still voice--a whisper. Nothing that noteworthy, or in such Biblical proportions.
Now, the Bible has those examples and others, but what I want to discuss is if anyone else "hears God's voice"....
If you "hear from God" how do you know?
What are some things to look for, as evidence it is God?How do you hear Him?What does He say?
Does the Word of God “speak” to you? Can you read a scripture and it strike you differently or afresh?
Is there a difference between hearing God's voice and the Holy Spirit's urgings and promptings?
How do you separate your own inner voice and His?
Hmm, inquiring minds want to know...
Monday, June 13, 2005
What's Love Got To Do With It?
Recently I spoke at my church on this topic. I have now looked over my teaching notes and I present to you the expanded rewrite-new wordsmith of the teaching in the effort to discuss this all with you over the internet. Since there is no time constraints in writing I have expounded more on this subject then when presented at church.
So, let’s first discuss the following profound, yet secular statement:
“Oh, what's love got to do with it? What's love but a second hand emotion? What's love got to do with it? Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?”
Obviously this is the chorus from the song, “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner. I think she has legitimate concerns and questions.
We must all realize how we throw the word, “LOVE” around very casually, very callously, and often times incorrectly….
“I’m lovin’ it!” is the current marketing slogan for Mc Donald’s fast food restaurants….It is near impossible to love any fast food (or any other food for that matter) when we apply the biblical definition and understanding of love. Granted we can come close to “loving” their “Happy Meals” but even then it’s just the cool toys in the box that we enjoy…..for our kids of course. Wait, I don’t have any kids…..
How often have we said, “I loved that movie?” Can I really love a movie? Or how frequently have we walked into a store and said, “Oh, I love these shoes.” Again, can we love these things once we understand what love really is? Hmmm, we need to raise the bar on our use and understanding of what love is.
Admittedly, the chorus brings up two very interesting questions I hope to answer:
1) Is love only an emotion, a second-hand emotion at that?
2) Why love at all—why expose my heart to possibly being broken?
These are the questions Tina Turner asks….
First, understand God declares He is LOVE:
1 John 4:7, 8
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God--for God is LOVE.
So now we have the start of the biblical definition and understanding of love. So, If God is LOVE, then when we answer Tina Turner’s question, we must say LOVE has EVERYTHING to do with it. Understanding that love is the basis of everything we do; love is the basis of everything we should do; and love is the basis of everything God does for us, through us, and around us.
So what does LOVE consist of? Well, it says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Again, looking at Mc Donald’s marketing effort; you will be hard pressed to apply the truth of this scripture to the experience of eating. Perhaps you could argue that patience can be applied here, and that is only because “fast food” has become, not so fast food.
Nowhere in the above passage is love focused on as an emotion….Understand our human emotions are not consistent; our human emotions are not stable; and our human emotions are not everlasting.
Our emotional sense of love can and does change from moment to moment, situation to situation, day by day, feeling to feeling, person to person, and year to year. If and when our love is rejected, abused, or otherwise broken, we tend to stop feeling the emotion of love….Emotions change.
God wants all of us to love beyond our emotions, beyond how we feel at any one given moment. God desires a consistency in our love based upon scripture, based upon who God is, and based upon how God loves us. This is because God is love.
Do you remember your first “crush?” I do. (Sigh)I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I’d draw her name over and over again in block letters sometimes with hearts and flowers and kisses next to her and my name. I’d replace her last name with mine and silly things like that... But at that time, “I knew what love had to do with it.” When we would pass in the hall, she was the only one I could see—walking in slow-motion, wind blowing through her hair, music playing in my mind….you get the picture. She could do no wrong, and what ever she did, I thought she was the best. The best at tether ball, the best “jungle-gym” athlete.
It’s kind of sad to think about now because I can’t even remember her face or her name now….See that “crush” was in elementary school…. And I was full of emotions…full of “love.” Had you asked me at that time what love was….I would have pointed to her as the definition of love.
Even as adults things are not much different. We can get so impassioned, so caught-up in the emotion of love that we do some pretty crazy things. Like, tattoo’s we will have a hard time removing and explaining later on in life….especially if we marry someone else.
I think it was C.S. Lewis who is quoted as saying that it is easy to fall in love, but it is difficult to stay in love.
See, as you develop a friendship, a relationship, or continue dating someone what was once cute and unnoticeable….begins to be glaringly noticeable…after time you begin to notice their nose hair, or that annoying laugh, or that they are not air-brushed beauties like in all the glamour magazines…We have carried over so many misconceptions of love based solely on marketing efforts, TV, movies, by the world’s set of standards and definitions…we think that love is love.
Take a moment and consider our “love” of a puppy. We “love” the puppy. We let it jump all over us, we allow it to lick us all over, and we start talking baby-talk to it, right. Well, that same dog is now 95 pounds and we would simply “love” for it to stop jumping up on us; keep its dog breath and tongue away from us; and we send it outside.
The dog is closer to an unconditional, unchanging, forgiving, hopeful, enduring love than we are. We changed our emotional sense of love for the dog somewhere between the initial puppy stage and several months or years of cleaning up after it and having the burden of “loving” the dog. The dog did not change, we did, and the poor creature can’t comprehend why its affections are now unwanted and discouraged. “Down Fido, down!” Yet, as a puppy we encouraged it to jump into our lap. The dog doesn’t know it got bigger, it only knows what it can know….
So, let’s go back to our discussion about relationships. When we are in a relationship, one day that person does upset you and the emotion of love changes to something else……and some not-so-nice thoughts…. Intentionally or not, the relationship changes and we fall out of “love”, when we hold on to the secular, popular emotion of love as our base….It is an unstable, weak base.
In the emotion of love we can also chose to love the wrong person: an abusive person, a selfish person, or a lying person. Perhaps a person who wants more of our body and less of the rest of who we are. They devalue us, bringing us down to the level of a “pleasing object, a trophy, or a toy. We might discover they have no sense of what true love is, because they don’t really know God.
Chose now to hold to the solid foundation love: God who is our rock!
Let me offer you a test to determine where we are in how we love, using 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
It is called a “Gap Analysis” It is a business tool to measure the ideal standards of quality control and customer service against actual business practices and applications.
What you want to do is read aloud the following scripture:
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Now, re-read the scripture; replacing the word “love” with your own name.
For example:
Keiger is patient and kind. Keiger is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Keiger does not demand his own way. Keiger is not irritable, and Keiger keeps no record when he has been wronged. Keiger is never glad about injustice but Keiger rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Keiger never gives up, Keiger never loses faith, Keiger is always hopeful, and Keiger endures through every circumstance.
So, now you try it, reading it aloud, see if you can make it through without fail, or an embarrassed laugh, or without feeling the weight of truth….I can’t make it past the first one or two sentences without feeling that weight….See, that is the gap of where I stand and where God wants me to be. I have things I need to work on so that I can truly love. It is a wonderful tool to help us to close that gap.
________ is patient and kind. ________ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. ________ does not demand his/her own way. ________ is not irritable, and ________ keeps no record when he/she has been wronged. ________ is never glad about injustice but ________ rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ________ never gives up, ________ never loses faith, ________ is always hopeful, and ________ endures through every circumstance.
Taking this analysis can help us see what we need to pray about and work on in our lives…. It can really show you where your love stands and where God says to stand in love.
Staying with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 let me break it down further as to:
1) How to understand our love toward God.
2) How to understand our love towards one another.
As we walk in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ ask yourself:
Am I patient—in my prayers and requests of God? It’s like when I ask for patience, but I want it now. So often we want God to fix stuff in our lives immediately…as the goal, yet God sees it all as a process that helps us grow as we go through it all. I need to realize that God will be with me at the start, in the middle, and at the end of each and every circumstance. In fact, God never left my side. For God will never leave me, nor forsake me. So often, we want the “quick-fix.” We want the end results without having to go through the middle.
Realize it is in this process of learning patience that we are lead to progress—to endurance, perseverance, empathy and all the other benefits God grants us. That is why God says love “endures THROUGH every circumstance. It’s not love bypasses, eliminates, or removes every circumstance. In learning and holding on in patience and longsuffering, there is a maturing, a healing, and even a ministry to others as we go “through” it all with patience.
Am I kind—in my response to God and in my motives for the things I ask of God? Do I treat God as if he is a Genie in a bottle? Opening up the bottle when I want something and then shutting him back in the bottle when I want to live according to my carnal desires. I need to ask myself, “Why, do I want this?” Is my motive kind?
James 4:3
And when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
Too often my prayers have been focused on my pleasures and about pleasing me…..that is often unkind toward God. I need to pray, “God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and may this part of the earth begin with me.”
Am I jealous of what God seems to have given others and not to me? Do I think I should have been given other things in answer to my prayers?
Am I boastful or proud of my “spirituality” or of the sacrifices and things I give or do for God? “If you only knew the sacrifices and sufferings I have gone through”….Do I look and sound like the Pharisees Christ warned against? Too often, I do act and sound like one of them. I have to be leery of spiritual pride for it says in Proverbs 3:34
God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.
I have a prayer I say nearly everyday….”Lord, please teach me humbleness by choice, rather than humility through circumstances.” I sure would prefer to be humble and not be humiliated…wouldn’t you?
Am I rude toward God—Do I grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)?
Do I demand my own way with God….holding my breath and stomping my feet like a little child?
Am I irritable towards God, because he’s not functioning like the God I would have designed?
“God, you’re not listening to my good counsel here…..hello.” Who am I to counsel God? I must realize his ways are higher than my ways….
Do I keep a record of when I feel God has “wronged me” by not giving me what I want, when I want it?
“Yeah God, you didn’t answer this, and you didn’t answer that, gosh, according to my records you NEVER answer my prayers the way I ask for them to be answered.”
Am I glad about injustice in the world or am I truly glad when God’s truth wins out?
Do I give up on God? Do I walk away and turn my back on Him? I did….and it cost me dearly because I dragged myself through some serious circumstances.
Do I easily lose faith in God? Disillusioned by a not so powerful, or not so all-loving, or not so all-giving small “g” god I created in my mind…. See I misunderstand God by my own preconceptions and selfish wants. I can’t create God in my image.
Am I always hopeful for the things of God?
Do I endure in my love for God through every circumstance God permits in my life? Look, God’s love for us has certainly endured through every circumstance that we’ve chosen to go through.
Now, if you have ever wondered if God really loves you; if you have ever feared that God does not love you, it may be because you have been misled and deceived by the world as to what love is and what’s love got to do with you, with me, with us.
For a long time I thought God could no longer love me because I turned away from Him when I was young, then got into drinking and parties, a later attempted suicide, and extremely selfish actions of this world…. I was wrong, see I don’t have to prove myself to God, to gain his approval. I don’t need to do more, be more, work harder so God will love me, not at all. See, God REALLY LOVES ME. He even likes me and He REALLY LOVES YOU and likes you too. Whew heugh!
It’s been a struggle for me to toss out the past failings of my own doing and that of my father who abandoned me and the family through divorce, a priest who sexually molested me, and a mother who threatened and/or attempted suicide more times than I can remember.
If I base love upon those experiences I have much to fear. If I base love on the bible—God’s Word and I come to understand God’s perfect love…. I have nothing to fear, for God’s perfect love castes out fear. That is the truth.
1 John 4:16-18 richly explains God’s love and how our faith grows as our trust and knowledge of God’s love increases. It also speaks the truth that perfect love expels all fear.
If you struggle with a fear that God does not love you then memorize Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Understand God loved first and he is the source of all true love. True love flows from God to us; out to others and back to God.
Why are we called to risk exposing our hearts? It’s because God did!
1 John 4:7-12
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God--for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.
Romans 13:8
Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others.
So, why love others when a heart can be broken?
Have you had your heart broken by another person? It’s tragic, it hurts, and it’s a big deal. I understand that. Now we can take all that hurt to God, or we can try to hold on all of it, which will lead to more pain, a longer period of suffering, and a stagnation of love for God and for others. Get rid of it by surrendering your broken heart and all your hurt to God.
Again, understand that’s what God is willing to do for us…What if God had been worried and unwilling to allow us to break his heart? We would have never gotten past the first few pages of the Old Testament….Right when Adam and Eve were disobedient and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And again, next time it rains, look for the rainbow and what it represents….
We all have broken God’s heart, and God loves us so much he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to us….Christ had his body, his blood, his life and his heart broken for each one of us. He’s willing to go all the way, exposing his heart for us.
Go rent and watch “The Passion of the Christ,” and ask yourself in God loves you even when you break his heart…….Yes, yes, yes, with every whipping, and with every blow of the hammer onto the nails in his feet and his hands…. YES, He loves you, even when it hurts to do so!
Yes, God loves us; he will never leave us and he will never forsake us.
How can we see if we really do love others?
Remember Godly love is not sugar-coated niceness to one another (That’s more like Valium or Xanax medications). Godly love is a genuine concern that will not depart from God’s truth.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Gap Analysis:
Am I patient—in my relationships with others? I imagine they have been more patient with you then you realize…..I know that is true of the people in my life.
Am I kind—towards others and not differentiating if they are my friends, co-workers, or enemies?
Am I jealous of what others have? Or jealous over what I think I deserve?
Am I boastful or proud over the things I have, or say, or do?
God clearly warns against this throughout the bible. Pride leads to a nasty fall…Pride is the root of so many different sins and pride is what caused the angel Lucifer to become Satan.
Am I rude to others—Do I give them the attention and respect they deserve?
Do I demand my own way with others—my way or the highway….
Am I irritable toward other’s imperfections, habits, personal traits?
Do I keep a record of all the times someone has wronged me?
I am happy to write that this morning I threw my list away, and even deleted my back-up files on my computer. So I don’t have any records of when anyone of you has wronged me….yeah right.
Am I glad when an injustice falls on someone I dislike? Do I rejoice when God’s truth wins out?
Romans 12:9-10
Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
Do I give up on others when they fail me, disappoint me, or hurt me?
Am I saying, “You’ve gone too far, I can’t love you now”?
Do I lose faith in others? “Yep, they’ll fail me again, what’s new.” “Sure, I trust them….I trust them about as far as I can throw them.”
Am I always hopeful for others….Do I pray and desire the best for them? Do I encourage them in anyway?
Do I endure in my love through every circumstance in my life like Christ has done for me?
Matthew 5:43-48 tells us to love our enemies…
Colossians 3:12-14 says we are to clothe ourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Allowing for others faults and to forgive those who have offended you….to love others and love is what binds us together in perfect harmony.
John 13:34
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
Ask yourself: Do those close to me know they can fail and do foolish things, yet I will not falter in my love for them? That is what God has done, and it is what God is asking of us.
Love assumes the best about others, and when it is less than best… you choose to believe the offense was unintentional and regardless to forgive unconditionally. Furthermore to endure all things…practicing the same unconditional love towards others that Christ gives to you.
So how might you expose your heart to one another? You might want to try the following:
Love one another
Be kind to one another
Forgive one another
Forebear one another in love. That’s putting-up with a difficult person.
Teach one another
Admonish one another—warning through instruction
Comfort one another
Submit to one another
Serve one another
Receive one another—welcome and take a special interest in one another
Point one another to God—as our source and model of what love is.
What’s love got to do with it? EVERYTHING!
Luke 10:27 tells us to Love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (it must not be tough otherwise we wouldn’t need to use our strength); and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It has never been a problem to love ourselves….that is why Christ says to love others---as ourselves….we do that quite naturally. How often do we look in the mirror, or in our mind and say “Who loves ya, I do.” We are full of self-love…too much so and the Bible repeatedly warns against it. Self-love leads quite often to pride.
Who’s your neighbor….the people you live around, work around, or otherwise pass in your life…..Make your neighborhood as big as you can….stretch your understanding of what a neighborhood is.
When the church operates out of God’s definition of love we are fitted together perfectly, each doing its own special work helping the other parts to grow so the whole body of Christ is healthy and growing and full of love (Ephesians 4:16).
As I learn to be patient and kind, as she learns not to be jealous, boastful, proud or rude, as he learns to not demand his own way, as I learn not to be irritable and so on….we become the church, the body of Christ, that never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
YES, Love is much more than a second-hand emotion.
Through love, God exposed his own heart and allowed it to be broken for each of us, and we should be willing to risk it all for love. We need to use and expose our hearts….willing to be broken or otherwise spent.
Ephesians 5:2
2Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him.
Understand that because God is love, all our interactions with one another are to be motivated by love, expressed in love, and acted in love.
My prayer for each of you reading this blog:
From Ephesians 3:14-21
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
So, let’s first discuss the following profound, yet secular statement:
“Oh, what's love got to do with it? What's love but a second hand emotion? What's love got to do with it? Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?”
Obviously this is the chorus from the song, “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner. I think she has legitimate concerns and questions.
We must all realize how we throw the word, “LOVE” around very casually, very callously, and often times incorrectly….
“I’m lovin’ it!” is the current marketing slogan for Mc Donald’s fast food restaurants….It is near impossible to love any fast food (or any other food for that matter) when we apply the biblical definition and understanding of love. Granted we can come close to “loving” their “Happy Meals” but even then it’s just the cool toys in the box that we enjoy…..for our kids of course. Wait, I don’t have any kids…..
How often have we said, “I loved that movie?” Can I really love a movie? Or how frequently have we walked into a store and said, “Oh, I love these shoes.” Again, can we love these things once we understand what love really is? Hmmm, we need to raise the bar on our use and understanding of what love is.
Admittedly, the chorus brings up two very interesting questions I hope to answer:
1) Is love only an emotion, a second-hand emotion at that?
2) Why love at all—why expose my heart to possibly being broken?
These are the questions Tina Turner asks….
First, understand God declares He is LOVE:
1 John 4:7, 8
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God--for God is LOVE.
So now we have the start of the biblical definition and understanding of love. So, If God is LOVE, then when we answer Tina Turner’s question, we must say LOVE has EVERYTHING to do with it. Understanding that love is the basis of everything we do; love is the basis of everything we should do; and love is the basis of everything God does for us, through us, and around us.
So what does LOVE consist of? Well, it says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Again, looking at Mc Donald’s marketing effort; you will be hard pressed to apply the truth of this scripture to the experience of eating. Perhaps you could argue that patience can be applied here, and that is only because “fast food” has become, not so fast food.
Nowhere in the above passage is love focused on as an emotion….Understand our human emotions are not consistent; our human emotions are not stable; and our human emotions are not everlasting.
Our emotional sense of love can and does change from moment to moment, situation to situation, day by day, feeling to feeling, person to person, and year to year. If and when our love is rejected, abused, or otherwise broken, we tend to stop feeling the emotion of love….Emotions change.
God wants all of us to love beyond our emotions, beyond how we feel at any one given moment. God desires a consistency in our love based upon scripture, based upon who God is, and based upon how God loves us. This is because God is love.
Do you remember your first “crush?” I do. (Sigh)I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I’d draw her name over and over again in block letters sometimes with hearts and flowers and kisses next to her and my name. I’d replace her last name with mine and silly things like that... But at that time, “I knew what love had to do with it.” When we would pass in the hall, she was the only one I could see—walking in slow-motion, wind blowing through her hair, music playing in my mind….you get the picture. She could do no wrong, and what ever she did, I thought she was the best. The best at tether ball, the best “jungle-gym” athlete.
It’s kind of sad to think about now because I can’t even remember her face or her name now….See that “crush” was in elementary school…. And I was full of emotions…full of “love.” Had you asked me at that time what love was….I would have pointed to her as the definition of love.
Even as adults things are not much different. We can get so impassioned, so caught-up in the emotion of love that we do some pretty crazy things. Like, tattoo’s we will have a hard time removing and explaining later on in life….especially if we marry someone else.
I think it was C.S. Lewis who is quoted as saying that it is easy to fall in love, but it is difficult to stay in love.
See, as you develop a friendship, a relationship, or continue dating someone what was once cute and unnoticeable….begins to be glaringly noticeable…after time you begin to notice their nose hair, or that annoying laugh, or that they are not air-brushed beauties like in all the glamour magazines…We have carried over so many misconceptions of love based solely on marketing efforts, TV, movies, by the world’s set of standards and definitions…we think that love is love.
Take a moment and consider our “love” of a puppy. We “love” the puppy. We let it jump all over us, we allow it to lick us all over, and we start talking baby-talk to it, right. Well, that same dog is now 95 pounds and we would simply “love” for it to stop jumping up on us; keep its dog breath and tongue away from us; and we send it outside.
The dog is closer to an unconditional, unchanging, forgiving, hopeful, enduring love than we are. We changed our emotional sense of love for the dog somewhere between the initial puppy stage and several months or years of cleaning up after it and having the burden of “loving” the dog. The dog did not change, we did, and the poor creature can’t comprehend why its affections are now unwanted and discouraged. “Down Fido, down!” Yet, as a puppy we encouraged it to jump into our lap. The dog doesn’t know it got bigger, it only knows what it can know….
So, let’s go back to our discussion about relationships. When we are in a relationship, one day that person does upset you and the emotion of love changes to something else……and some not-so-nice thoughts…. Intentionally or not, the relationship changes and we fall out of “love”, when we hold on to the secular, popular emotion of love as our base….It is an unstable, weak base.
In the emotion of love we can also chose to love the wrong person: an abusive person, a selfish person, or a lying person. Perhaps a person who wants more of our body and less of the rest of who we are. They devalue us, bringing us down to the level of a “pleasing object, a trophy, or a toy. We might discover they have no sense of what true love is, because they don’t really know God.
Chose now to hold to the solid foundation love: God who is our rock!
Let me offer you a test to determine where we are in how we love, using 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
It is called a “Gap Analysis” It is a business tool to measure the ideal standards of quality control and customer service against actual business practices and applications.
What you want to do is read aloud the following scripture:
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Now, re-read the scripture; replacing the word “love” with your own name.
For example:
Keiger is patient and kind. Keiger is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Keiger does not demand his own way. Keiger is not irritable, and Keiger keeps no record when he has been wronged. Keiger is never glad about injustice but Keiger rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Keiger never gives up, Keiger never loses faith, Keiger is always hopeful, and Keiger endures through every circumstance.
So, now you try it, reading it aloud, see if you can make it through without fail, or an embarrassed laugh, or without feeling the weight of truth….I can’t make it past the first one or two sentences without feeling that weight….See, that is the gap of where I stand and where God wants me to be. I have things I need to work on so that I can truly love. It is a wonderful tool to help us to close that gap.
________ is patient and kind. ________ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. ________ does not demand his/her own way. ________ is not irritable, and ________ keeps no record when he/she has been wronged. ________ is never glad about injustice but ________ rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ________ never gives up, ________ never loses faith, ________ is always hopeful, and ________ endures through every circumstance.
Taking this analysis can help us see what we need to pray about and work on in our lives…. It can really show you where your love stands and where God says to stand in love.
Staying with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 let me break it down further as to:
1) How to understand our love toward God.
2) How to understand our love towards one another.
As we walk in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ ask yourself:
Am I patient—in my prayers and requests of God? It’s like when I ask for patience, but I want it now. So often we want God to fix stuff in our lives immediately…as the goal, yet God sees it all as a process that helps us grow as we go through it all. I need to realize that God will be with me at the start, in the middle, and at the end of each and every circumstance. In fact, God never left my side. For God will never leave me, nor forsake me. So often, we want the “quick-fix.” We want the end results without having to go through the middle.
Realize it is in this process of learning patience that we are lead to progress—to endurance, perseverance, empathy and all the other benefits God grants us. That is why God says love “endures THROUGH every circumstance. It’s not love bypasses, eliminates, or removes every circumstance. In learning and holding on in patience and longsuffering, there is a maturing, a healing, and even a ministry to others as we go “through” it all with patience.
Am I kind—in my response to God and in my motives for the things I ask of God? Do I treat God as if he is a Genie in a bottle? Opening up the bottle when I want something and then shutting him back in the bottle when I want to live according to my carnal desires. I need to ask myself, “Why, do I want this?” Is my motive kind?
James 4:3
And when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
Too often my prayers have been focused on my pleasures and about pleasing me…..that is often unkind toward God. I need to pray, “God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and may this part of the earth begin with me.”
Am I jealous of what God seems to have given others and not to me? Do I think I should have been given other things in answer to my prayers?
Am I boastful or proud of my “spirituality” or of the sacrifices and things I give or do for God? “If you only knew the sacrifices and sufferings I have gone through”….Do I look and sound like the Pharisees Christ warned against? Too often, I do act and sound like one of them. I have to be leery of spiritual pride for it says in Proverbs 3:34
God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.
I have a prayer I say nearly everyday….”Lord, please teach me humbleness by choice, rather than humility through circumstances.” I sure would prefer to be humble and not be humiliated…wouldn’t you?
Am I rude toward God—Do I grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)?
Do I demand my own way with God….holding my breath and stomping my feet like a little child?
Am I irritable towards God, because he’s not functioning like the God I would have designed?
“God, you’re not listening to my good counsel here…..hello.” Who am I to counsel God? I must realize his ways are higher than my ways….
Do I keep a record of when I feel God has “wronged me” by not giving me what I want, when I want it?
“Yeah God, you didn’t answer this, and you didn’t answer that, gosh, according to my records you NEVER answer my prayers the way I ask for them to be answered.”
Am I glad about injustice in the world or am I truly glad when God’s truth wins out?
Do I give up on God? Do I walk away and turn my back on Him? I did….and it cost me dearly because I dragged myself through some serious circumstances.
Do I easily lose faith in God? Disillusioned by a not so powerful, or not so all-loving, or not so all-giving small “g” god I created in my mind…. See I misunderstand God by my own preconceptions and selfish wants. I can’t create God in my image.
Am I always hopeful for the things of God?
Do I endure in my love for God through every circumstance God permits in my life? Look, God’s love for us has certainly endured through every circumstance that we’ve chosen to go through.
Now, if you have ever wondered if God really loves you; if you have ever feared that God does not love you, it may be because you have been misled and deceived by the world as to what love is and what’s love got to do with you, with me, with us.
For a long time I thought God could no longer love me because I turned away from Him when I was young, then got into drinking and parties, a later attempted suicide, and extremely selfish actions of this world…. I was wrong, see I don’t have to prove myself to God, to gain his approval. I don’t need to do more, be more, work harder so God will love me, not at all. See, God REALLY LOVES ME. He even likes me and He REALLY LOVES YOU and likes you too. Whew heugh!
It’s been a struggle for me to toss out the past failings of my own doing and that of my father who abandoned me and the family through divorce, a priest who sexually molested me, and a mother who threatened and/or attempted suicide more times than I can remember.
If I base love upon those experiences I have much to fear. If I base love on the bible—God’s Word and I come to understand God’s perfect love…. I have nothing to fear, for God’s perfect love castes out fear. That is the truth.
1 John 4:16-18 richly explains God’s love and how our faith grows as our trust and knowledge of God’s love increases. It also speaks the truth that perfect love expels all fear.
If you struggle with a fear that God does not love you then memorize Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Understand God loved first and he is the source of all true love. True love flows from God to us; out to others and back to God.
Why are we called to risk exposing our hearts? It’s because God did!
1 John 4:7-12
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God--for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.
Romans 13:8
Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others.
So, why love others when a heart can be broken?
Have you had your heart broken by another person? It’s tragic, it hurts, and it’s a big deal. I understand that. Now we can take all that hurt to God, or we can try to hold on all of it, which will lead to more pain, a longer period of suffering, and a stagnation of love for God and for others. Get rid of it by surrendering your broken heart and all your hurt to God.
Again, understand that’s what God is willing to do for us…What if God had been worried and unwilling to allow us to break his heart? We would have never gotten past the first few pages of the Old Testament….Right when Adam and Eve were disobedient and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And again, next time it rains, look for the rainbow and what it represents….
We all have broken God’s heart, and God loves us so much he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to us….Christ had his body, his blood, his life and his heart broken for each one of us. He’s willing to go all the way, exposing his heart for us.
Go rent and watch “The Passion of the Christ,” and ask yourself in God loves you even when you break his heart…….Yes, yes, yes, with every whipping, and with every blow of the hammer onto the nails in his feet and his hands…. YES, He loves you, even when it hurts to do so!
Yes, God loves us; he will never leave us and he will never forsake us.
How can we see if we really do love others?
Remember Godly love is not sugar-coated niceness to one another (That’s more like Valium or Xanax medications). Godly love is a genuine concern that will not depart from God’s truth.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Gap Analysis:
Am I patient—in my relationships with others? I imagine they have been more patient with you then you realize…..I know that is true of the people in my life.
Am I kind—towards others and not differentiating if they are my friends, co-workers, or enemies?
Am I jealous of what others have? Or jealous over what I think I deserve?
Am I boastful or proud over the things I have, or say, or do?
God clearly warns against this throughout the bible. Pride leads to a nasty fall…Pride is the root of so many different sins and pride is what caused the angel Lucifer to become Satan.
Am I rude to others—Do I give them the attention and respect they deserve?
Do I demand my own way with others—my way or the highway….
Am I irritable toward other’s imperfections, habits, personal traits?
Do I keep a record of all the times someone has wronged me?
I am happy to write that this morning I threw my list away, and even deleted my back-up files on my computer. So I don’t have any records of when anyone of you has wronged me….yeah right.
Am I glad when an injustice falls on someone I dislike? Do I rejoice when God’s truth wins out?
Romans 12:9-10
Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
Do I give up on others when they fail me, disappoint me, or hurt me?
Am I saying, “You’ve gone too far, I can’t love you now”?
Do I lose faith in others? “Yep, they’ll fail me again, what’s new.” “Sure, I trust them….I trust them about as far as I can throw them.”
Am I always hopeful for others….Do I pray and desire the best for them? Do I encourage them in anyway?
Do I endure in my love through every circumstance in my life like Christ has done for me?
Matthew 5:43-48 tells us to love our enemies…
Colossians 3:12-14 says we are to clothe ourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Allowing for others faults and to forgive those who have offended you….to love others and love is what binds us together in perfect harmony.
John 13:34
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
Ask yourself: Do those close to me know they can fail and do foolish things, yet I will not falter in my love for them? That is what God has done, and it is what God is asking of us.
Love assumes the best about others, and when it is less than best… you choose to believe the offense was unintentional and regardless to forgive unconditionally. Furthermore to endure all things…practicing the same unconditional love towards others that Christ gives to you.
So how might you expose your heart to one another? You might want to try the following:
Love one another
Be kind to one another
Forgive one another
Forebear one another in love. That’s putting-up with a difficult person.
Teach one another
Admonish one another—warning through instruction
Comfort one another
Submit to one another
Serve one another
Receive one another—welcome and take a special interest in one another
Point one another to God—as our source and model of what love is.
What’s love got to do with it? EVERYTHING!
Luke 10:27 tells us to Love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (it must not be tough otherwise we wouldn’t need to use our strength); and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It has never been a problem to love ourselves….that is why Christ says to love others---as ourselves….we do that quite naturally. How often do we look in the mirror, or in our mind and say “Who loves ya, I do.” We are full of self-love…too much so and the Bible repeatedly warns against it. Self-love leads quite often to pride.
Who’s your neighbor….the people you live around, work around, or otherwise pass in your life…..Make your neighborhood as big as you can….stretch your understanding of what a neighborhood is.
When the church operates out of God’s definition of love we are fitted together perfectly, each doing its own special work helping the other parts to grow so the whole body of Christ is healthy and growing and full of love (Ephesians 4:16).
As I learn to be patient and kind, as she learns not to be jealous, boastful, proud or rude, as he learns to not demand his own way, as I learn not to be irritable and so on….we become the church, the body of Christ, that never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
YES, Love is much more than a second-hand emotion.
Through love, God exposed his own heart and allowed it to be broken for each of us, and we should be willing to risk it all for love. We need to use and expose our hearts….willing to be broken or otherwise spent.
Ephesians 5:2
2Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him.
Understand that because God is love, all our interactions with one another are to be motivated by love, expressed in love, and acted in love.
My prayer for each of you reading this blog:
From Ephesians 3:14-21
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Angels and Demons
I heard in Christian/Spiritual Warfare circles that demons can and do inhabit inanimate objects....figures, rocks, etc. Do they? Or do demons just occupy locations/regions/areas?
If angels and demons were all once angels, do angels occupy objects too, seems there are 2/3 more of them to inhabite "holy" relics......hmmmm
If angels and demons were all once angels then do they all have freewill? Some chose to follow after Satan and were caste out of heaven.....
Do they recognize various levels of beauty...Lucifer was the "most beautiful angel." Is there a rank and power structure to angels and demons (archangels)?
What ya' thinking?
If angels and demons were all once angels, do angels occupy objects too, seems there are 2/3 more of them to inhabite "holy" relics......hmmmm
If angels and demons were all once angels then do they all have freewill? Some chose to follow after Satan and were caste out of heaven.....
Do they recognize various levels of beauty...Lucifer was the "most beautiful angel." Is there a rank and power structure to angels and demons (archangels)?
What ya' thinking?
Changing God's Mind?
Okay Blogsters,
I have some of my own thoughts and beliefs on this matter and I'd like to ask for YOUR thoughts and beliefs on this question:
Can we change God's mind?
Can God change His mind? (Is that the same question?)
In answering this question please notate scripture. Furthermore, in explaining your answer, please include how prayer, specifically intersessory prayer applies to your explaination. You may reference theologians and go as deep as you'd like.....BRING IT ON!
(Yes, I had asked this same question back in 2003 on the old blog)
I have some of my own thoughts and beliefs on this matter and I'd like to ask for YOUR thoughts and beliefs on this question:
Can we change God's mind?
Can God change His mind? (Is that the same question?)
In answering this question please notate scripture. Furthermore, in explaining your answer, please include how prayer, specifically intersessory prayer applies to your explaination. You may reference theologians and go as deep as you'd like.....BRING IT ON!
(Yes, I had asked this same question back in 2003 on the old blog)
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Generational Sin/Curse?
Please define what generational sin is and what generational curse is.....Are they valid concepts or just for OT times? Show me it in the WORD.....
If there is such a thing as generational sin/curse the only one that exists is the one started by Adam and Eve.....the Fall of Man.
Do I need to know/declare each G-sin and G-curse to be set free? What if I'm adopted and don't know about my family history?
What if I miss one or two of them.....
Is Christ's work on the Cross sufficient?
Is this another gospel, as Paul warns against?
Hmmmm, I'll tell ya' what I understand later, for now: What ya' thinkin?
If there is such a thing as generational sin/curse the only one that exists is the one started by Adam and Eve.....the Fall of Man.
Do I need to know/declare each G-sin and G-curse to be set free? What if I'm adopted and don't know about my family history?
What if I miss one or two of them.....
Is Christ's work on the Cross sufficient?
Is this another gospel, as Paul warns against?
Hmmmm, I'll tell ya' what I understand later, for now: What ya' thinkin?
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