BIG LOVE

When I first started to go to church again in high school, I remember making fun of the music. (my apologies Cornerstone Community Church) Not because it was old style hymns or the muscians were untalented, but I just couldn't get over how all the music sounded like love ballads. I used to think - people could sing this stuff to their girlfriends or boyfriends, but they are singing it to Jesus?!?! WHAT?!?!

Well, God is love. The greatest gifts he has given us, including his son, have come from his infinite, unconditional love for us. John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son." Okay. Fact - God loves us. But I think the reason why some Christian praise songs sound like love songs is because our love for God and his love for us can be emulated in one of God's greatest gifts to man - relationships. So we often think that the spouse is the one we could never live without, because we love them in similar way that we love God, and we definitely can't live without him. Does that make sense? 

I believe God has given us mothers, daughters, friends, brothers, wives, and husbands so that we can be like him, so that we can love unconditionally through all the faults and all the obstacles. God loves us despite all that we do, He forgives us when we screw up, and He does everything to ultimately build us up and show us how much he cares. If we are asked to be like him, than we must practice the same type of love. 

Jesus said in one line before the famous 3:16 in John 3:15 - "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." He loved us enough to take upon himself the ulitmate burden. I believe, even if God doesn't call us to take on such huge burdens for each other, that he has given each of us the capacity for "big love" - love for each other modeled after the love we have for God.

The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. We were designed not for eternal isolation, but for living together and interacting with one another. Life’s greatest joys come in our relationships with other people. Love means a willingness to be inconvenienced, a willingness to set aside our own concerns to attend to the needs of someone else. Love is a lot more than good feelings—it must also include good actions. And there is nothing that can make a person feel more fullfilled in life than to love. 

LOVE:

 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

1 Cortinthians 13 

An Equation for Living

Sometimes we ask – what can that person give me? Why have them in my life? Would they make me laugh? Buy me awesome presents? Make me feel loved? Remind me I’m beautiful? Or maybe we ask – what can this new experience give me? Could a trip to Hawaii make me fill happy and at peace? Would a new pair of shoes make me feel worthy? 

In asking this – you are saying to God – you haven’t given me enough. I want more. Just like the Israelites were not happy with miracle bread that fell from the sky, they wanted meat. 

What would happen if we stopped asking about gain and start living the equation found in 1 Timothy 6:6-10:

 “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” 

The equation: Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain 

Pastor James Macdonald explains that godliness is always wanting more of God – the one thing that the Bible says we are allowed to covet and desire. Godliness is a want to always better ourselves. However, 1 Timothy explains that along with that desire, we should temper others. Contentment is defined as satisfaction in God’s sufficient provision, to rest in what one has and seek nothing more. It is a settled sense of peace with what God has given you. Contentment is refraining from saying, “If I had this, I would be happy” or “God, if you give me this, then I will truly be blessed” etc. A lack of contentment leads to the foolishness of having no course, no settled purpose, a back and forth bounce from one thing to another in an attempt to find happiness. Desire for gain is not wrong – but it has made many people desire wrongly, barking up the wrong tree. 

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the light.” That is all we need, right? A way to God, the truth of his word, and the light of his love and teaching to help us see this way and truth. 

There is a story of a young preacher who was ready to give his first sermon. He planned his sermon around Matthew 6:20-21 – “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” However, he thought his first day at the pulpit required a nicer suit. He didn’t have a lot of money, so he thought he would try the pawn shop on the corner. He walked in and to his surprise he saw rows and rows of black suits. He walked over to the counter and asked the attendant, “I never thought the pawn shop would carry so many suits. That is exactly what I came in for.” The attendant explained that the suits came from a local funeral home that went out of business. They were the suits that the dead were buried in, but, of course, had not been used yet. The young pastor combed the racks and found a suit that fit him perfectly. He went home and prepared his notes; however, when he went to place his notes in the pocket of the suit, he found that the suit jacket had no pockets. What a perfect metaphor for his sermon. You see, the suit was made for the deceased and since the dead cannot take anything with them out of this world, why would they need pockets?