In The Name of Love

Alrighty folks, settle in with your cup of tea and a warm blanket because this is a bit of a long one... But, after I wrote it I could not bring myself to change a thing. I know it sounds strange but I woke up at 5 AM the other day (This had to be a special occasion because I am not a morning person...) and these words just flowed from my heart. God has just been working in my life in some amazing ways lately and this latest revelation sums it all up pretty well. I know its long but I really encourage you to take the time and read it. Christian or not. I know God laid these words on my heart for someone. It might be you...

Let's Dive Into It

Ephesians 3:17- 19 states, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 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 is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

This verse describes how as Christians, we should grow in the knowledge of Christ’s love for us. ‭‭This verse caused me to begin re-digging the wells that once brought me to surrendering my life to Christ. And one of those being the Love that Christ has for me. The reason I gave my life to Christ was because I realized how much God loved me. And by not living for him, I rejected that love and ultimately, rejected him. In fact, I was running from him. And my actions reflected this. But when God got a hold of my heart, I opened my eyes and realized the rejection of his love was like me nailing him to the cross all over again. Just as the Jews rejected him and nailed him to the cross, so my rejection of him did as well. But, all at once God laid upon my heart that realization and opened my blind eyes to the love he had for me and it convicted me to the bone. I knew I had been living wrong and I no longer wanted that life. The point is, at the very root of it, Christ’s love was the key to my salvation. It was because he loved us so much, that he died for us, that I gave my life to him.

After watching a group of people in my life make certain choices, I began to wonder “Why?” I came to the conclusion that they must not fully understand God’s love for them. Because if only they did, they would not have made those choices! Then I thought about myself... why do I make some of the sinful choices I make sometimes. Or why do I constantly view myself as unimportant or less than others. And I realized... it’s because I have taken my eyes off of the wonderful love that God has for me.

And I believe as Christians at times, we can get so caught up in our walk with God that we can lose sight of that love. As our faith begins to grow, we do not grow in the knowledge of his love like the Bible calls for. This can come in many different forms. We may be focused on the goals and milestones we want to reach in life and in ministry. Or maybe the works and actions of a disciple become our focal point. Or is it the politics of the church that distract us from the reason we are there in the first place. Now to be clear these can be good things! But are they distracting us from the root of our faith?

But what about the not so good things. Have we lost sight of his love to the point that it has caused us to not see ourselves the way God sees us? Do you view yourself less of who you are in Christ? Maybe the misplacement of his love in your heart has caused unrealistic expectations of yourself. Maybe, it has caused you unrealistic expectations of others, or even a mistreatment of others. Or is it the politics of the church that distract us from the reason we are there in the first place. It might be that you feel your Christianity has become all about harsh unrealistic rules that you feel pressured to live up to. And ultimately, this loss in sight of his love may have led you to not serve God like you should... At the end of the day, you may be left feeling disappointed in yourself, others around you, or even in God. If this is you, let me be the first to share with you that all of this IS ME. This has been me so often and so frequently.

Now before you begin thinking of me as the type of Christian that tries to condense Christianity into a Hillsong love song, making you feel all fuzzy inside while never encouraging a changed life, hear me out.

Gods love is so strong, it should bring redemption through conviction.

If you remember the bit of my testimony I shared, it was the conviction I felt after realizing that I had rejected his love that changed me. And that is what can, and should change you as well. If you are serving God out of fear of hell, or in hopes of blessing, it is for the wrong reason. If you only pray to get something from God you’re doing it wrong. If you are living righteously because you fear if you don’t there will be punishment from your peers or punishment from God, you’re doing in wrong. If you are serving God out of obligation, then you are doing it wrong. The only way to serve God that will last is in the name of Love.

Let’s dive a bit deeper. In Romans, Paul writes that we are justified by our faith. “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:9-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is what we believe. That we enter into a relationship with our Lord simply through our faith and trust in Christ. Let’s take it back... all the way to Genesis. In the very beginning God created Adam and Eve to be in very close relationship with God. They did nothing to earn that relationship. They were simply granted that up until they sinned. Then, skipping forward in times to the father of our faith, Abraham. The Bible says the Abraham was made righteous by his Faith.

“Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭15:5-6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

You see, far before all the Old Testament rules came about, sacrifices and atonement's for sin, or the death of his son; God intended to be in a close personal relationship with you. I think that is a beautiful thing that from the very beginning he simply wanted us to serve him out of our faith and love for him.

But then, James writes that we must be justified through our works. Or in other words, in how we live our life. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” James‬ ‭2:21-22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ This is proven as we look back at Abraham once again and see that Abraham’s faith was confirmed by his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac at the Altar just as James states.

And so this is where the word, “Repentance,” comes into play. Theologically it is the idea of returning to God, or turning away from evil. Under the New Testament covenant, it is the call to not only believe and ask forgiveness of our sins, but we turn away from them! Because our belief and our actions must be in accordance of one another as believers. This is proven time and time again in scripture. For example, in Matthew Jesus says, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:18-20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Moral of the story: If you understand and appreciate Gods love, your actions and your faith will reflect that. Not only reflect it, but be rooted in it, just as Ephesians 3:17 states, “rooted and established in Love...”

His Love For Us...

So let’s talk about his love for a minute. His love for us was so great, that even from the beginning, his desire was to have a close personal relationship with us. But, unfortunately, the wrongdoings of man set us far apart from him. So, the Old Testament laws were set in place to atone for our sin. But yet, still serve Him out of love. A perfect example of that is King David in the Bible. The Bible says that he was a man after God’s own heart. He states, “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51:16-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ This is where God desired our hearts to be.

This wasn’t enough for God though. He wanted a close personal relationship with us regardless of our fallen sinful nature. So, he sent a sacrifice that would atone for all of mankind, forever. And that man was Jesus, his son. This meant that his son had to die, in order that we could enter into his presence without guilt or shame. That through our repentance and our belief in him, that we would be made whole. That we would have the key to fill that hole in our heart. Then ultimately, we would someday get to spend eternity with him. I may write these words with ease, but it wasn’t that simple... Jesus became a man, just like you and I. And had to suffer. And ultimately die in our place.

“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53:4-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Let’s take a minute. Reread Isaiah 53 again. This chapter in the Bible brings me to tears. It blows my mind that Jesus would endure all of that for the worst of the worst. The lowest of the low just to have a personal relationship with me. So my sin and my wrongdoings would no longer separate me from him. So that I could spend eternity with him.

The thing that blows my mind is that he loved us so much that he died for us in this way, with the full knowledge that we would reject him. That we, being the selfish, fallen, humans we are, would look at his sacrifice and love for us and constantly choose our own selfish will. We would brush off his story as simple fiction and folklore. We would acknowledge his love and sacrifice, even take communion in his honor, and yet go out searching for something more to fulfill our lives. We would praise him and do good works in his name and yet reject him in private. We would misuse his grace and forgiveness to justify the way we want to live. That we would curse him and blame him for the wrongdoings against us. He endured all that knowing that we would do these things. And on top of that... he loves us anyways. He loves you anyways.

Christian or not, sinner or saint, broken or unbroken. He loves you. He desires to be in a close relationship with you. His heart yearns to spend eternity with you someday. There is no path we can take that has strayed us too far from his love. No road you can embark upon that disqualifies you from having the ability to accept that love. Jesus waits for you, my friend, to fall into his arms and find rest from your burdens. To receive forgiveness from your sins, and to be set on a new path.

And that my friends, is only where the journey begins...

Now that we are believers, saved by his Grace, how we live our lives matters to Him. As I mentioned earlier, James speaks of how our works must reflect our faith. He goes as far as to say that if they don’t, are you even saved? As we begin to grow in the knowledge of his love we should desire to please God and no longer find our fulfillment in the damaging things of this world. The Holy Spirit gives us a new desire to walk with the Lord and live right for Him. But like I mentioned before, if we begin to take our eyes off of his love and place them on the things of this world or even getting caught up in the other aspects of our Christian walk, we can easily find ourselves serving God for the wrong reason, or not serving God at all.

My friend, God was not satisfied with the sin that separated us from him. So, through the sacrifice of his son, he did away with that sin. The Bible says, when we are forgiven, it is cast as far as the East is from the West.” So why would we ever want to pick back up that same sin? I’ve said it before in a previous blog post but the more of the world we allow in our lives and the less of our sinful nature we surrender to God, we once again drive a separation between us and God. God has offered us the solution to the hurting of our hearts and yet we would rather keep a hold of those things that are breaking us. My challenge to you is, to grow in the knowledge of his love. And as you grow in that appreciation, let your actions reflect that! Surrender it all to God.

The Resolution

My resolution is that as Christians we must honestly and genuinely take the time to reflect and meditate on the love Jesus has for us. We must, “...grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18. If you’re like me you may have been surrounded by these bible verses about God’s love, and songs about his love for you your entire life. You may have grown up taking communion in remembrance if his sacrifice, or hearing the phrase, “Jesus loves you,” one too many times. I’m not talking about the over exposure to his love that we have. I’m not talking about jamming out to the song “Reckless Love,” alone in the car after work. I’m talking about truly basking in the knowledge of our reward. And yes, there is plenty of earthly satisfaction that comes from a relationship with our creator. Like the joy and peace that his love brings to our lives. How he elevates us and brings us out of the mire and into light. How he heals our broken heart and brings us purpose. But, abounding all of that, I’m talking about our eternal reward. You see, Paul, James, and the other apostles that penned the Bible always refer to our reward being heaven! When was the last time you laid back and took the time to fully comprehend that as believers, we get to spend eternity with Jesus! The man that loved us so much that he died for us. When was the last time you walked through the day rejoicing in the fact that someday you will be walking on streets of gold! Regardless of your trials here on earth, all eternity will be spent in absolute paradise and perfection with Him. That our bodies will be healed and restored in heaven. Our heartbreak and disappointment on earth will be filled with his glory and goodness in HEAVEN. This is what we have promised to us, my friends. That our efforts to serve God on earth will be rewarded in HEAVEN. And we should rejoice together because we get to spend eternity together. When we live through the lens of His grace on our lives, and the freedom that His forgiveness and love brings, we will live victoriously. Christ offers deliverance from sin and a cleansing of our hearts through this realization. That is what he has done for me through all of this.

People ask me how I’m so positive. They call me amazing and brave for trusting God with such great faith through all I’ve been through. But its not that simple. God has transformed my heart behind the scenes. Healing me from guilt and shame from the mistakes I've made and delivering me from sin and brokenness. The Farmer has planted within me a seed of appreciation of his sacrifice. And that seed sprouted into a small sapling. At times it seemed as if that tiny tree would be choked out by the weeds of sin and human desire surrounding it. But now, that little sprout has blossomed into a large thriving tree. With roots that are grown deep into the rich soil of the farmer's love. Roots; so large in fact that they have uprooted the weeds that surrounded it at one time, giving the tree even more room to grow. It's trunk has chips, cracks, and carvings on it. But inside runs life. Life so abundant, that it can withstand the storms that come it's way. And most importantly, the tree blooms. It blooms with blossoms of love that turn into fruit in the spring. The love, brought up from the roots that continually grow deeper and stronger produce something beautiful that can be shared with others. Just as the farmer intended.

I am simply living in the love and grace of God. And walking through life rejoicing of my future reward. And the rest follows. But honestly, it took me getting Cancer to realize this. It took me hearing from the doctors, “We are here to prolong your life, not cure you.” It took my entire life being shaken to come to these realizations. And I believe God has brought this realization to not only help me walk every day I have on this earth with Love and Joy but to also help you, my friends, to do the same. Cancer has helped me learn and grow so much. And I hope it has helped you learn more and grow as well!