Every Day

This quote by Pooh Bear is heart-warming.  It is also exactly how a loving God feels about every single one of His children.  He rests nearby ever waiting for you to "come to play".  To reach out to Him, to have conversation with Him, to be with Him.  Envision God saying every day, "It's always a sunny day when <insert your name> comes to play."  Any other illustration in your mind of how God's relationship with you is intended to be is incorrect.  

“Any day spent with you is my favorite day.” - Pooh

The Lord of all creation wants to spend time, conversation, and share His Spirit with you right now, today, this instant. Yes, even you and even me. He desires an intimate relationship with you, that the two of you will share together.  

How precious is your unfailing love, O God! - Psalm 36:7

You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. - Psalm 86:5

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 136:26

Behold the manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God - 1 John 3:1

The Lord is waiting on you to call upon Him.  To reach out to His outstretched hand, to talk to Him, to join His Spirit.  He looks, listens, and longs for you today.

30 Years

I find myself curious about the first 30 years of the life of Jesus.  Most scholars believe that Jesus was around 30 when He started His ministry and after three short years it ended in His crucifixion.  The first four books of the New Testament mostly reflect on those last three years.  Apart from that, there is descriptions of His miraculous conception and birth, and there is a reference to an event when he was around 12 years of age. 

Overall, very little is known about the first 30.  What a wonderful book Mary could have written about this!  Or Joseph!  It puzzles the mind to understand why there is so little information, except to understand the time period and lack of tools and education.

I find it is important to realize a few other details about Jesus.  He was sinless.  He did not sin.  This means that He was exceptional in the presence of everyone else (sinners).  It seems like He would have stood out.  My experience is people either hate or love the person who is good and does what is right.  Therefore, I would expect that He was, by His very presence and action, a divisive person to His community and most probably, immediate family. 

A disturbing read is to find Jesus going and calling disciples to follow Him as He starts His ministry.  That’s an odd sentence isn’t it?  But considering that He was sinless and a kind just person with wisdom, shouldn’t He have drawn people to Him as a result?  Let’s be truthful, this is the commonly accepted evangelism method used by the majority of Christian churches today.  If we’ll just be the “right” kind of person exhibiting Godly character traits, then people will be drawn to us and when they are we can tell them the good news. 

Yet, Jesus lived 30 years in a community and did not sin!  How are we possibly going to live as the “right” kind of person exhibiting godly character traits and be more than He was?  That is insanity.  We know nothing of who Jesus influenced before His ministry, but we know a lot about who He influenced once His ministry started.  He lived in a community for three decades and we know not of a single person who was healed or who grew closer to God for it.

I’m not sure there is an accurate estimation of how many people Billy Graham influenced / persuaded / compelled to come to Christ.  He spoke at crusades all over the world with stadiums full of people night-after-night.  Would we even know who Billy Graham was if he has simply resolved to just be a good person and trying to influence people to come to Christ by exhibiting Godly character alone?  Of course we wouldn’t.

Would we even know who Jesus is if He had simply stayed in His home community and continued a sinless life exhibiting complete and perfect Godly character?  I don’t think so. 

The simple fact is this: they witnessed to who God is and testified about God’s greatness to anyone who would listen.  They preached and taught salvation and how people can be redeemed through God’s gift and their repentance.  The undying hope is that everyone would hear the gospel message and choose to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and accept His free gift of salvation.

Jesus had to tell people who He is and who God is.  It caused controversy, confrontation, and His death.  People have to hear the gospel message; they have to be confronted with it.  They do not seek it on their own.

Are you a silent witness today, hoping that maybe someday someone will ask you a question about Jesus?  Be aware, you will likely die before that happens.  Be bold and speak out the gospel message.  Do not be ashamed to stand in front of the whole world and speak confidently that there is one true living God and His son is Jesus.  Through Him and Him alone is there salvation.  Refuse to cower in the corner. 

Now is the time for the church to believe again!  Now is the time for the gospel message to be proclaimed without apology!  Now is the time for believers to refuse to be ashamed for following the Words of their Savior!  Now is the time for people to repent and turn away from their sins!

Do You Have Love?

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NKJV)

What a minute, let’s break that down.  If we are able to speak incredibly well to the world and even to the angels in heaven, it is empty and worthless?  What if we can prophesy about the future and have wisdom and knowledge of mysteries in this world?  What if we are so strong in our faith that we can move a mountain?  What if we sacrifice everything we can offer that we are able to give?

Verse 1 is about the heart.  Jesus taught us that “those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man” (Mt 15:18).  I’ve never heard an angel speak, but I have heard marvelous eloquence from men, and I must assume that angels speak so much more so powerful and with authority.  Yet, if we do not speak from a heart that has the love of God in it, it is worthless.  Our speech is corrupt and not worthy to be heard.  The term “sounding brass, or a tinkling or clanging cymbal” means emptiness and confusion, even unpleasantness.  The message of the gospel must rule in our hearts.

Verse 2 is about the mind.  Knowledge alone is not enough.  Maybe we’ve memorized every word in the Bible.  It is not enough.  Understanding alone is not enough.  Soloman writes in Ecclesiastes 1:16-17, “I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.”  And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.”  God’s love and gospel message has to be added to the knowledge and to the understanding. 

Verse 3 is about the will.  Will you follow the commands of God?  Are you going to do what He says?  If you do it must be done with the love of God and His gospel message or it is of no value.

Let’s look at it this way.  We’re going to write down a string of zeros.  Eloquence = 0; Prophecy = 0; Knowledge = 0; Understanding = 0; Faith = 0; Sacrifice = 0; Martyrdom = 0.  That’s seven 0’s: 0,000,000.  Put them all together and you get zero.  But, if you put a ‘1’ at the front, then every zero now has a value, it amounts to something: 10,000,000.  Love is the thing that has to be added to every gift, otherwise they are worthless.

The song, The Proof Of Your Love, sung by “for King & Country” is a great song describing these verses.  I also like the interpretation as give by The Message Bible:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7, The Message)

All that we say and do must be done with the love of God that is the gospel message.  

If we speak, it should be from the foundation of the gospel message.  

If we have knowledge and understanding, it should be from the foundation of the gospel message.  

If we sacrifice anything or give of ourselves, it should be from the foundation of the gospel message.

This compels us to ask a very important real question.

   -     How does someone “have love”? 

You receive the gift of God, who is love, into your heart.  You believe His gospel message with your mind.  You are willing to follow His commands with your will. 

Ask yourself:

1. Is God the focus of intent of your heart?  Does He come out in your speech?
2. Is God the focus of your learning and understanding of the mysteries of this world?  Do you look for Him everywhere in the world?
3. Is God the focus of what you do?  Are you following Him?

Ask your church:

1. Are we sharing the love that God and Jesus shared?
2. Are we sharing the message that Jesus shared?
3. Are we doing everything as someone that has love?

What Is Love?

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:7-11

1 John 4: 8 tells us that the person who does not love does not know God.  This is a serious charge.  It becomes imperative then that we know what love is. 

Did Jesus love everyone?  I’m not sure I know anyone who would answer “no” to that question.  Yet, He didn’t treat everyone the way we believe someone who loved them would treat them.  When He ran the money changers out of the church, was that “love” as we would define it?  When we think of His description in Revelation, riding a white horse with His sword drawn and robe dipped in blood, leading the armies of heaven against the enemy, is that “love” as we imagine it?  How about when He called the leaders of the church “serpents” and “brood of vipers” (Mt 12:34, 23:33)?  He was essentially calling them devils.  He also called them sons of their father, Satan (Jn 8:44).  Is this name calling “love” as we would describe it? 

Shouldn’t Jesus had just been a nice kind person who “loved” them?  And if He would just love them correctly, they would see that He was God and come to Him?  I mean, this is our evangelism style today isn’t it?    

We think of exhibiting love to be cuddly, teddy bears, and people that just make us feel good about anything we do, encouraging us to just be happy.  Yet, that’s not the Jesus I read about.  That’s not the love He shared.  If He had done that, we wouldn’t even know His name today.  He certainly wouldn’t have been purposely humiliated, falsely accused, and murdered on a cross.

   -     So, what was the love that Jesus shared?

If we are told in 1 Jn 4:8 that “anyone who does not love does not know God”, then we need to know how to love if we claim to be a follower of God, a Christian!  This is damn important!

Verses 9 and 10 answers this question along with John 3:16-17. 

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – 1 John 4:9-10

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. – John 3:16-17

   -     How did God show His love to mankind? 

He gave Jesus.  Not just to be born and live alongside mankind and impart wisdom and miracles.  This aspect is not even mentioned as a reason.  He gave Jesus for the sole purpose of being a substitute for our sins so that God can have fellowship with any person who wants to have fellowship with Him. 

Again, let us ask ourselves then:

   -     What was the love that Jesus shared?

It was and is the gospel message, the good news:

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:14-15

The gospel message is the message of forgiveness for sin through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  You can have your sins forgiven and be saved from the hell in your heart by believing upon Jesus as the Son of God having come to save you, so you can be reconciled with a just and holy God.

The love that Jesus shared is the same one that God shared.  Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice.  There is one God and He came here to us and made a way for us to have fellowship with Him, if we will only believe that He is the only God and His Son Jesus is the only way.  He is the Lord, the One true Living God.  We simply are not.

Going back to 1 Jn 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”  We are taught that the way the love of God is “manifest” in us is that Jesus came into the world and we can live “through Him”.  That is, God’s love is exhibited in us through Jesus.  How do you live “through” someone?  You would have to be with them to live through them.  Or, they would have to be with you.  We are taught that when we believe upon Jesus as the Son of God and as having lived, died, and resurrected as the “propitiation for our sins” (v 11) we receive the Spirit of God.  And, in such, we are able to live through Him since He is then dwelling with us intimately. 

Okay, let’s walk this back.

   -     If God is love and the love He gives is Jesus, and

   -     If Jesus is the gift of God’s love and the love He gives is Himself, then

   -     What should our message be?  And what is the love we should give?

It should Jesus!  It must be the gospel!

If you want to truly love someone, give them Jesus.  If there is anything important in your message to others that you must say, it should be the gospel message.