Posted on October 29, 2009 at 7:31am.
“You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” Those words are found in I Corinthians 6:20. The costly love of God, which is freely offered to us, came at a great price to God. While we often sing of the joy and blessing his love is to us have you ever thought of it as scary? You see if I am saved completely by his love and grace, nothing I have done, then there is nothing he cannot ask of me. There is no situation that I can stand before him and say “YOU OWE ME”. I am truly not my own, I do not call the shots. The wonderful love of God can also seem a little scary.
Posted on October 28, 2009 at 6:31am.
Love really needs to be seen in action. The problem is that it is so much easier to put into words. Jesus lays out the pattern for us in John 15:12 - “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” To love another person is hard enough but when you add the idea that it is to mirror the way Christ loves me, well that seems impossible. Yet, that is the distinguishing and identifying mark for those of us who claim to be Christ followers. I would encourage you to first sit, reflect and write down the way that Jesus loves you. When you have your list let that be your guide as you pray and ask the Spirit to give you the power to love others like Jesus.
Posted on October 26, 2009 at 7:59am.
Here is one of those sentences I wish I could claim as my own, but it belongs to Brennan Manning. He is describing the love of God.
“But someday, the adjectives will give way to the reality.”
I think of all the adjectives, the words I feebly use to try and describe the love of God that come up short. It is more than describing however, I am trying to understand the depth of his love that is directed at me. The words are colorful and sound powerful but unless they wash over my soul and seep into every fiber of my being they are impotent.
Posted on October 23, 2009 at 8:18am.
I have recently read three books that are by three very different authors who are all speaking about faith. An ex-Catholic priest, a Jewish sports writer and a pastor who had been planning to be a postal worker, it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. Brennan Manning, Mitch Albom and Tim Keller have each left me with much to think about. I would recommend each of their books, not that you would agree with everything in them but they will cause you to think. Manning in “the furious longing of God”, Albom in “have a little faith” and Keller “the prodigal God”.
Posted on October 21, 2009 at 6:20am.
I have always said that my biggest fear is that if people knew my heart and could see what is in there they would walk away from me. That same fear is probably in many if not all of us. There is a Biblical description of that reality found in the Book of Jeremiah. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The answer follows immediately - “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind…”
Here is where I am blown away and humbled. God knows my heart, every deceitful part of it and he will not walk away from me. He loves me and it is a love that knows no boundaries. Wow!
