love

Let God Be God!

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It’s so easy to look at the small world I am involved in and see the sin, the pain, the brokenness, the messed up relationships, messed up thinking and become really discouraged and wonder if the Gospel really is powerful over everything. I’m one that tends to react by getting impatient with the person and almost be a bug in their life. over the past few years it’s been a real journey for me to see sin, dishonesty & many other things in people and not feel like I am the one to set things straight and to show them their faults. To often I’ve “spoken the truth in love” yet kept pressuring like their salvation depended on me.

The Truth is, God needs none of us to carry out his work here on earth, he doesn’t NEED any of us! God is the God of the universe and too many times, just like I have been sometimes, we are actually in His way! Like the song by Casting Crowns puts it-“The world is on their way to you, but they’re trippin’ over me”

You see, we are obligated out of sincere Love for each other to stand by each other and point out sin in our Christian friends lives and to share the Gospel with our unbelieving friends, but the minute we think it all depends on us we are basically trying to play a roll that only God can play. Share the Gospel with your friends, but let God do the saving work, speak truth in love to a believer but let God do the saving work. Simply put, stop trying to be God! When this truth really hit me was when I looked around and saw just how crazy this world is, all the brokenness, sin, hurt and it’s easy to feel hopeless and feel like i have to do something about it, yet I can only see a tiny tiny tiny drop in the bucket of all the sin, pain and hurt that goes on around the world! God sees ALL the pain, hurt, sin and whatever else goes on .How do you think He feels? Hopeless? Angry? NEITHER! God IS hope! He responds out of love and sends His only begotten Son to die for me and you so that all who put their faith in Him have eternal hope!

So the next time you are feeling hopeless about just how messed up the world you interact in is and are tempted to try to play God’s role in your friends lives, just remember, God sure was patient and merciful with you! Besides, who are you to feel hurt or anger because how messed up some of your friends are? God has wayyyy more reason to be angry, yet he responded out of love. Shouldn’t this be our example?

Love your friends! That will mean some tough moments of speaking Truth about sin in their lives sometimes, but speak Truth and let God work out the redemption.

Sometimes we need to get out of the way and let God be God!

Love Finds Meaning in Sacrifice

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by Jon Walker

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2 NIV)

When Mary used her hair to rub perfumed oil down between her Savior’s toes, the disciples only whiffed the aroma of waste: “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor” (Matthew 26:9 NIV).

But Jesus suggested such a great sacrifice leads to great influence: “I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Matthew 26:13 NIV).

Perhaps Jesus could smell the sweet fragrance of Mary’s sacrifice because he knew that love finds meaning in sacrifice: “We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers” (1 John 3:16 GW).

Perhaps, in Mary, Jesus could smell “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God,” a life “poured out like a drink offering” (Ephesians 5:2; 2 Timothy 4:6 NIV). We become living sacrifices when we no longer see the waste of giving to others; instead, we see the gift we give to others.

The Holy Spirit presses us toward radical transformation, where, instead of seeing sacrifice, we see opportunities to love; instead of seeing perfume wasted on the floor, we see ourselves like Jesus, prepared for burial, ready to be “crucified with Christ,” so that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Matthew 26:12; Galatians 2:20 NIV).

You may be hitting one of those “I can’t, but God can” moments, but our brother, Paul, reminds us that God gives us the grace required to become living sacrifices, and he places the Holy Spirit in us to create us holy and pleasing to God.

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2 NIV).

God Covers Your Faults with His Perfect Love

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by Jon Walker

The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son. John 1:14 (TEV)

The love of God is intimate and personal. He came up-close in Christ, and that means we cannot hide our imperfections and faults from him. He knows about them anyway.

This model from God means we need to love each other intimately and personally, looking past the faults and weaknesses of one another, seeing the handiwork of God in each one of us, knowing that we also have weaknesses and faults but that God is active in our lives, too.

When we know and believe that God is determined to love us no matter what, we can stop being concerned about our faults and conform to Christ instead of our fears (Romans 12:2). When we don’t believe that God loves us no matter what, we try to put on masks that make us look perfect in order to hide our faults. When we try to hide behind masks, we undermine God’s plan that we live together in transparent, loving communities, such as small groups.

The reality is, God’s love is perfect, and he wants to cover our faults with Jesus Christ.

God goes beyond merely diagnosing our problems or judging our faults (Psalm 103:10); instead, he steps forward to address the areas of our lives that are broken:

  • Into our emptiness, he brings fullness and completion (Colossians 2:9-10).
  • Into our deficit, he brings supply (Philippians 4:19).
  • Into our death, he brings life (Ephesians 2:1, 5).
  • Into our separation, he brings reconciliation (Romans 5:10-11).
  • Into our imperfect love, he brings perfect love (1 John 4:10).

The more we’re conscious of God’s love, the less self-conscious we become about ourselves. We spend less time and energy looking to appear perfect and have a life where everything is exactly the way we want it to be; instead, we invest more time and energy pouring ourselves into other people, who, along with us, make an imperfect community, but one infused with God’s love.