4 posts tagged “love”
One of the most awe-inspiring parts of the Gospel message is the love of God. This is a love that is so great that it loves even when that love is not returned. To understand this kind of love is to understand the character of God. A God who gives us free will, who lets us choose whether or not to love Him, who has given us the reigns of our lives hoping that we’ll give them back.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
In Exodus 20, God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments. The first two commandments are given in the first person: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” It is believed this is because God was speaking directly to the Israelites, but they became fearful and overwhelmed:
“When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” (Ex. 20:18-19).
The last eight commandments were given to the Israelites by Moses because the power of God was too great for the Israelites to bear. Just listening to His voice was too overwhelming. So how does a God express love for His creation when just showing up is overwhelming? If He came the way He is He’d scare everybody away. The last thing people would perceive is love.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God met people on their level, in their world, on their soil. He came to earth in the form of a man, Jesus the Christ, in order to show His creation ultimate love. (Adapted from Rob Bell’s Sex God).
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Love. This is the essence of God. The essence of the Gospel. No one can be saved without acknowledging this love: “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5
Once someone has accepted this great love, then a process has begun to bring the believer into conformity with Christ. Believers are commanded to love one another, and that by following this command, God’s love will be made complete:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12
Understanding the full meaning of biblical love will change the believer’s heart and the believer’s relationships with both God and man.
I'm pretty sure I posted about The Irresistible Revolution a while back. It was an incredible book! If you don't have time to read the book, here's a video of Shane speaking at a Youth-Fusion conference. It's a little long (50 minutes), but it's incredible. He has a lot of good things to say. His ideas get a little radical, but you know what? Jesus was a radical too.
At the end of the presentation, Shane shows a video clip of a child who is severely malnourished and suffering from PTSD. He is shaking uncontrollably. Until he is touched. The power of a loving touch is amazing. That segment made me break down…sitting at my desk at work. If you don’t watch anything else, at least go to the end of the video* and see that. See the power of love.
*You'll find the segment when there are 7:15 minutes left.
I started reading this book last night, and I keep finding things that I want to share with the world! I'm impressed with the way Bell connects God with humanity. He gives practical applications that seem so normal and natural that you just don't question them. In one section, he's talking about love and what love is (to read an excerpt go here). Then he begins to talk about God and love and how God loves. When I got to the end of this passage, I literally said, "Wow."
So if you were God--which I realize is an odd way to begin a sentence--but if you were God, the all-powerful creator of the universe, and you wanted to move toward people, you wanted to express your love for the world in a new way, how would you do it?
If you showed up in your power and control and might, you would scare people off. This is what happens at the giving of the Ten Commandments. The first two commandments are in the first person: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image...for I, the Lord..." But starting with the third commandment, someone else is talking: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord..." The rabbis believed that this is because God was speaking directly to the people in the first two commands, but they couldn't handle it. As it says in the text, "They trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.' " So, the rabbis reasoned, the switch in person is because Moses gave them the remaining eight commandments.
Just God speaking is too much to bear.
If you're God and you want to express ultimate love to your creation, if you want to move toward them in a definitive way, you have a problem, because just showing up overwhelms people.
You wouldn't come as you are.
You wouldn't come in strength.
You wouldn't come in your pure, raw essence. You'd scare everybody away.
The last thing people would perceive is love.
So how would you express your love in an ultimate way? How do you connect with people in a manner that wouldn't scare them off but would compel them to want to come closer, to draw nearer?
You would need to strip yourself of all of the trappings that come with ultimate power and authority. That's how love works. It doesn't matter if a man has a million dollars and wants to woo a woman, if she loves him for his money, it isn't really love.
If you were an almight being who made the universe and everything in it, you would need to meet people on their level, in their world, on their soil...like them.
This is the story of the Bible. This is the story of Jesus.
Saw this test on Gloria's blog and just had to try it. I'm pretty surprised at how accurate it is!
Mandi, your subconscious mind is driven most by Love
Your instinct to love and be loved is rooted very deeply in your subconscious and affects most of the decisions you make in life — whether you are aware of it or not.
You inspire people to experience their true feelings of love and act kindly towards others. You also value your personal relationships more than most people.
Your unique capacity to love may be greater than those around you, which means you may have more to give in relationships than your friends or romantic partners do.
Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you will understand who you really are.
