Daily Thought: A Passionate God

"The Bible knows nothing of a stoical god who is untouched and unmoved by human affairs.  The God of Scripture is a passionate God who not only displays great emotion but who very frequently acts upon those emotions.  He does so in perfect harmony with His divine holiness and love, never losing balance or perspective.  In other words, he is not flawed with the emotional deficiencies or excesses of men.  But he does manifest great emotion." ~ Gary Carpenter, What the Bible Says about the Heart, p. 87

Daily Thought: We Need God's Heart

"The church cannot live when the heart of God is not beating within her. God's heartbeat is to seek and to save that which is lost. The church exists to serve as the body of Christ, and it is through this commitment to serve that we are forced to engage our culture...When the church refuses to serve the world, she begins to waste away. She finds herself deteriorating, withering, and losing her strength." ~ Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, p. 23

Loving Other Christians

{Hebrews 6:10-12; NLT}

For God is not unfair. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other Christians, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and patience.

The central command of the Christian faith is love. Love is what sets us apart from the world and makes us beacons of light in the dark world. If we are going to be lights in the world we need to love.

In this passage we notice the writer of Hebrews encourages his readers to love their fellow Christians. It is through this love, he says, that we demonstrate our love for God. I find it very interesting that he states that we are to care for other Christians. After all shouldn't we love everyone equally?

This is a valid question because we have been told that God loves everyone. I have no doubt that God loves everyone and He desires them all to be saved. The Bible tells us this much. The Bible is also very clear that we are to love other Christians first and foremost. Is this a contradiction?

Perhaps we should take a look at our lives. A teacher can love all the kids in her classroom, but the love she has for them pales in comparison to the love she has for her own children. A guy can love all his friends and buddies, but that love is nothing compared to the love he has for his wife. The fact that God loves the Church differently, and expects us to love other Christians differently, doesn't mean that God doesn't love the rest of the world, but simply points out the special relationship that the Church has with God.

Remember that Jesus didn't die for just a person, but Jesus died for a people. Jesus died for the Church, and that makes us very special to Him. We are God's Children and the Bride of Christ and both of these images remind us that we have a very special relationship with Him.

This might seem unfair, but in reality when Christ Followers love other Christians first it makes the Church a very attractive group to be a part of. The world is a hard place filled with rejection and heartache. So many people are searching for a place to belong and place to be loved no matter who they are or what they have done. By loving each other, rather than bickering and fighting with each other, we become a place of hope in a land of hopelessness.

It also appears from this passage that by loving each other we grow spiritually. The best way we grow in our faith is not through a study or listening to a sermon series, but it is through experience and community. When we are able to do things with other Christians because we enjoy their company and have their best interest at heart we begin to develop the heart of God. We desire the things God desires and we become spiritually sharp and full of passion.

It is by having this heart of God beating in our chests which helps us down the road of becoming the people God created us to be. When we care about the things He cares about we become a little more like Him. The people of faith of old were set apart because they had this heart. They were willing to sacrifice in order to do what God wanted them to do, because they wanted the same thing God wanted.

In our quest to become more like the people God wants us to be we have to start loving other people, first other Christians, and then the people around us. This is how we learn what is most important to God and allow that truth to become part of our hearts.

God's Love and My Desire

Here is the most amazing truth: God loves you!  I know for some of you that is seems so hard to believe.  You don’t “feel” God’s love and your life is full of hassles and problems.  In your mind, if God really did love you, He would make your life good and fill your with a warm fuzzy feeling.  Since that is not how your life is, you make the assumption that either God doesn’t exist or God doesn’t love you.  How wrong you are!
    
God loves us.  His love is all around us, calling us to accept Him as our Father and Lord.  We have the choice to either reject or accept that love.  We can choose to see God’s love or we can choose to ignore it.  The choose is ours.
    
Now you may wonder how I can write about God’s love as if it were right out there within our reach.  That is because it is.  Rebecca St. James once wrote, “I really believe so many times God ‘calls out’ to us through everyday things and through His creation, and yet we don’t hear because we’re too busy of distracted.”  God’s love is shown is so many different ways but we miss it.  We are either looking for something that God’s love isn’t (a perpetual warm fuzzy), we are consumed with the day to day of life, or we have chosen to subsitute that love for something else.  Just because you don’t “feel” loved by God doesn’t mean that God’s love for you isn’t real.
    
I know God’s love exists and I know that He loves me.  There is the evidence of that love found in the love of my family and friends.  I have found proof of God’s love in answered prayers and guidance.  God’s love has been revealed in the peace and confidence that I have in my life.  I can see God’s love everyday as I walk among His creation and marvel at what He has done.  But all of this pales in the light of the great revelation of God’s love. Remember the apostle Paul's words from the book of Romans:

When were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:6-8; NLT)     

You know why Jesus’ death is the great demonstration of God’s love?  One reason is that God is under no obligation to save us.  There is no force outside of God that dictates that He has to save human beings.  That was God’s choice.  Because of His mercy, grace, and love God decided to save us rather than destory us. 
    
A second reason is because God doesn’t need us.  Humans do not fill some need God has for companionship.  God, being three in one, has all the companionship that He needs, but it is His faithfulness to creation, a desire to give us a chance to experience His great joy, that God saves us.  His love is totally unconditional.  His love is not based on who we are or want we have done, it is totally based on His character.
    
The third reason why Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love is the pain it caused.  This was not something that was easy for God.  It was not easy for Jesus.  Real pain was involved, pain that exceeded the physical pain of crucifixion.  As Jesus took on our sins, he was separated from God.  We will never fully understand, this side of heaven, the love it took for Jesus to go to the cross.
     
Does God love you?  He loves you more than you can imagine.  It is experienced everyday we walk with God.  It is seen in creation, in our families and friends, and in circumstances as we surrender to God.  But that is key.  To experience God’s love you have to walk in His ways.  If you are missing out on God’s love it is time to surrender your life to Him.  He has the love, do you have the desire?

The Lord Waits

Originally posted Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Take a moment and consider Isaiah 30:18; But the LORD still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the LORD is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for him to help them (NLT). God is waiting for us to turn to Him.

Though when I examine my life I realize that I am full of talk. When I am feeling down it is easy for me to talk about waiting on the Lord and trusting the plans of God, but my actions tell a different story. Rather than going to God for comfort I seek other ways to distract myself from the circumstances around me. Then I wonder why nothing changes in my life.

In Isaiah God makes it clear that He wants to help us. His desire is to show us the love we want, no the love we need to have. Though God’s love is unconditional and is offered to everyone we still must chose to go to God in order to receive it. We will not discover it while we are seeking life on our own.

How do we receive the love God has for us? King David in Psalm 51 gives us an insight on how we are to approach God; You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise (vv. 16, 17; NLT). How we long to do something that shows God our guilt and sorrow, but David reminds us that that is not what God is looking for.

We are not to approach God with a religious piety and tradition. Going through the motions of a religion does not move God’s heart. What moves the heart of God is when we approach Him weak and broken. Not because He enjoys to see our suffering, but because it is at that time in our lives that we realize that only through God do we have hope. Until we approach the throne of God broken and repentant we will never realize the awesome love God has for us. Pride is the biggest obstacle we have in experiencing the love God has for us.

When we are prideful we look to change our circumstance ourselves. We put our energies into pursuing happiness that we want to have. We may say all the right things and do all the right things, but pride will keep us from experiencing God’s love.

I am so tired of mouthing the right things and ignoring God. My pride has kept me from admitting my weakness and my need for God’s strength. I come before God with a humble spirit in search of His love. Will you do the same?

Be Humble and See God at Work

Originally posted on Saturday, September 18, 2004

The circumstances of life have a way of reminding us that the life we are living is not the life we wanted. Too often we find ourselves in positions and situations in which we had no desire to be. Divorce is never part of our plan for a happy life nor is being stuck in a job which you hate. Being broken hearted and feeling insignificant is not what we hoped for in our lives.

No matter who you are or the life you have lived I would bet that you have been broken hearted or wondered about the significance of your life. Situations and circumstances in your life make you wonder what life is all about. You even question whether or not God exists, and perhaps you come to the conclusion that a loving God would not let His people experience these painful circumstances.

When things don’t go the way we planned it is important to remember what Ravi Zacharias wrote in Cries of the Heart; “Only as we remember and remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness can we even see the pattern God has woven in our lives and learn confidence in His working.” God is working in our lives, even when our lives don’t turned out as planned.

My heart is broken. I want the pain to go away so I can get back to living life, yet the broken dream continues to haunt me. Living alone is a constant reminder of the loneliness I am experiencing in my heart, and it becomes easy for me to question God’s faithfulness and wonder about His purpose in my life. Yet, it is at times like this that I am drawn to God’s Word.

I believe when we focus on situations and circumstances we lose sight of how God has worked through our lives. All we see is the present and the selective images from the past which we use to justify the way we feel. We totally miss the bigger picture; and how God has been working through our lives to prepare us for the life He has created us to live. It is easy to forget God’s faithfulness when we focus on our current circumstances.

The apostle Peter wrote; So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you (1 Peter 5:6, 7; NLT).

Humility is the key to seeing God’s hand at work in our lives. When we are humble we are able to remember that life isn’t about us, but it is about God’s Kingdom. We are then able to understand that happiness is found, not in our dreams coming true, but in our seeking His Kingdom.

Though it is hard to believe God cares for us when our hearts are broken, it is important that we don’t allow ourselves to be swept away by our emotions. For that to happen we have to be grounded in reality, and that takes going back to the Bible. In Scripture we discover that the best life we can have is found in the Kingdom. We also discover that God allows bad things to happen to us so that we will let go of our desires for the things of this world and set our hearts on Him and His Kingdom. We can trust that God will get us through the terrible times of life, because the Bible tells us that He cares about what happens to us.

Life won’t turn out like we dreamed it would, and that is okay. Through the pain and struggles of our lives God draws us close to Him. When we humble ourselves we begin to see God’s hand at work all through our lives. He will continue to reach out to us, for He cares about us. God wants us to live the life He created us to live, and that is the best possible life that we could live.

Sunday Quote: The Messiah's Faithfulness

"The Messiah's faithfulness to God's saving purpose has opened the door of the heavenly throne-room itself. That open door reveals not an angry or capricious god, one who might be favourable one day and scowling the next, but the loving father who welcomed them all as beloved children into his presence. Access to him is everything one could want." N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, p. 37