So last night in my readings, it was pointed out to me that God's love is the most powerful force on Earth. When we don't sense it, life pretty much sucks; life experiences just cannot add up to the amazingness that is trusting God's love. A big part of knowing someone has that love, is their delight in sharing it... When you really touch it, it is not something you can just try and contain... God thought about containing it before he created humans with the ability to share a relationship with... Think about it: if God couldn't keep His love to himself, how do people really think that they can pull it off? This is something I've really been trying to understand as of late, due to getting outside of the C4C & house church bubbles more and more, discovering that not all so called Christ-followers share in this untameable spirit to share His love.
The earliest believers were so transformed by what they experienced that even when they were beaten, they maintained their love relationship with the Lord, and continued to share it, even with those who were beating them; Acts 4:20 - "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." This uncontainability is in the nature of God's love. If once you've truly experienced God's love means that you simply cannot keep it to yourself, then one assumes that there must be a real lack of experiencing God's love in so many Christians. I don't really believe it is necessarily their fault; it is an area of severe lacking in the Western Church... the problem is beyond the scope of a few individuals not "getting it."
1 John 4:10 states: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Love starts with God's love. Once we experience it as God defines it, we should not be able to keep from sharing it with others as it has been shared with us.
... and experiencing this love doesn't come from "spiritual knowledge"...
1 Cor. 8:1 tells us that Paul placed love on a higher plane than spiritual knowledge, noting that knowledge can easily puff us up whereas love will build up others. I think this concept is really expressed through me; someone who has relatively little spiritual knowledge in comparison to many others, but who does seem to "get" a lot more of this whole loving God & letting Him exude from you, more than others... I know this may sound like I'm tooting my own horn or something, but it is truly not meant that way: I see so many people who are so knowledgeable and yet lack in what the Bible is telling me is the Big Kahuna of the message of Jesus...bare with me as I try and talk this out without coming off too condescending...
In a sense, I do wonder if this is why so many people are so very intrigued by me & my journey with the Father... I think Christians and non-Christians alike see this in me and are so curious... it is why I seem to have great conversations with so many people... I am so grateful that God has given me the "tools" for listening and engaging people in conversations. It is purely all Him and not me too, which is exciting for me (and you too I suppose :P)! I don't think I could arrange the "random" encounters and crossing of paths with in even a stone's throw of what He can. And thank goodness too; can you imagine the stresses in planning those things?!?! :P
Anyhow, back to the love thing... Here are four big things that have great potential to change big time when people stop putting x,y, and z in the way of what Jesus can accomplish and actually seek to experience His love on a deeper level:
1. You will no longer find yourself desiring for others to conform to what you think is right... in essence it is because you know that they're on their own journey, just like you! Doing this allows others to have the same freedom that God gives you. This is one that I personally struggle with from time-to-time... it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, not ours... gah... so easier to write than practise all the time!
2. Instead of getting angry with people who sin, you will become more and more touched by the depth of the bondage that holds them captive. Booyeah. This is one where I wish I could staple it to my forehead so that when I'm hanging out showing "compassion to sinners" it doesn't come off as any weird form of flirting, or the like. God has really given me a compassionate heart for the lost -- I think it probably stems from the environment that I've grown up in as a Christian so my heart goes out to the Christians that really have to work on this one. :P.
3. Instead of saying what you think people want to hear, you'll look for ways to be gently honest with them... "Human love seeks people's comfort at the expense of truth. God's love seeks people's comfort in the midst of truth." If anything I personally probably suffer from being too honest and so have to work on the "gently" part. Thankfully, the Lord is "gently" reminding me of all sorts of things, so as long as I keep on trying to emulate that, I should be moving forward in this part of the journey. w00t
4. You'll start looking to God as the resource for your needs and not burdening the people around you. I know God often uses other believers to extend his gifts, etc., but we all need to recognize that you don't get to choose the vessel [person] He uses... I was hands down guilty of this even less than a year ago. The "spiritual advisor" expectations that are placed on relationships really do destroy them though because we're looking to others in ways God wants us to look to Him. When we give up our expectations of people, we'll find God using some of the most unlikely people to lend us a hand. I've seen so many cases of Christian leadership burnout in the past two years that it's not even funny... something is up and it's not what God intended.
In closing, Jesus tells us to love Him... His greatest commandment... and not just to love Him, but specifically to love Him in the same way He first loved us -- until we really get that love, the loving Him part is going to be kind of wishy-washy and missing its full potential. Once we fully know that He loves us [and I know we will never 100%... I'm just asking for more], we can't help ourselves not to love Him, in the same way that He first loved us... and this loving Him is exuded from within.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. -- 1 John 4:10
-----------------
Ahaha. I do know that I sound like a hippy with all this "God's love can change everything wrong in the world" view of the world. I wonder if God is letting me go on and on with these tangents to give me something to laugh about later (or you to laugh about now!)? :P Good times :) 'tis fun to be an optimist for once though :)
And PS, I am more sick than yesterday with this blessed head cold. Thankfully, my next commitment isn't until Saturday morning, so I have time to bum around and get better. Hopefully I will not have to consider taking cold medication (my anti-drugs-as-much-as-possible is another story for another time if you've never heard it) any time soon. If I haven't seen any drastic improvement by Monday though, it might be time to bite the bullet as I really have to practise prior to auditions on a quasi-regular basis before they actually occur...
No comments:
Post a Comment