Roots of Love

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 says,

 If I speak in the tongues 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. 

God my Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Please bless these words and make them Your own to move me and all who read them. Thank You.

The line at the top of the post is the introduction the Bible gives to this passage titled simply as "Love." A way of Paul telling us blatantly that Love is the most excellent way. Paul starts talking about this excellent way by using examples of actions known to Christians of the time with the apostles. He uses speaking in tongues first. 

Paul writes that if he were to speak in the tongues of not only men, but of angels as well, but did not have Love, he would the equivalent of a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. He would be nothing but a bunch of noise. To speak in tongues is to speak in the other languages. Paul's first example then is that if he could even speak in the language of angels, but didn't have any Love in it, he would just be making a bunch of loud somewhat irritating noise.

Next Paul gets more extreme. He writes that if he had the gift of prophecy and could fathom all mysteries and knowledge and if he had the faith that could move mountains, but had not Love, he would be nothing. So in other words, Paul is saying that if he could understand all the mysteries of existence and had all knowledge of the everything and had the faith that could move entire mountains, but did not have this Love, he wouldn't just be like a gong or cymbal, he would be nothing.

Paul then uses an example that easier to relate to for most of the Christians of the time. He writes that if he were to give up all his possessions and surrender himself completely but did not have Love, he would gain nothing. So even if he gave up everything for the sake of others, but didn't have Love, he would gain nothing from it at all. 


Paul no doubt rattled the Corinthians mindsets with this part of the letter. The instant response I think to this would be, what then is the Love that makes all of this worthless? The answer is next. The entire next paragraph of the passage is the description of the Love Paul was writing about. Go back and read it again slowly thinking about each part as you read them off...


Patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices with the truth, always protecting, always trusting, always hopeful, and always persevering. The first thing to realize about this description is that there is nothing in this world that meets this full description. So what is Love? 1 John 4:8 "... God is Love." 

So no wonder you can't find this in this world. Only God could be all these things at all times. It's a happy thought to think that we could put our name in place of the word "Love" in this description, but no matter how much I change in God and try my hardest, I just can't even get half way before I have to stop reading. The only One to ever be in this world that could match that description has been Jesus Christ. He met it from birth all the way to His death on that cross to pay for our sins. So going back to what Paul said before, what does it mean to not have Love?

Throughout Paul's letters and in James letter, it says that you need both faith and deeds. But Paul gave examples of both at the same time with himself as the example as a way of stating, "If I am faithful and give everything but have not Love, then I am nothing." So then there is a third element to go with the two. An element that if missing, would make the faith and deeds worthless. So we have established that the element is Love, and that this Love is God. So 1+1, we need to have God in order for anything to matter. But wouldn't having faith and works already entail that we have God? Not always. Even if I believe in God and say start writing this post to serve, if I do not have God and His Love in it, then it's merely for me to do. The difference of having God or not is ultimately what is driving the uses of what we have. I could speak the languages of angels, but if I do not do it for God, then it's worthless. I could be a prophet and have true understanding and great faith, but if I do not let God use it, then there's no point. I could become rich and give everything away, but if I'm giving it away to make sure I do not feel bad or for the act of giving instead of because it's what God wants, then there is nothing to gain from it, except some people getting some new stuff. 


We need to be rooted in God and change our motives to fit His. I do believe, and I do serve in the church, but so often I find myself doing things and believing all for the wrong reasons. I do not give it up to Him. I find that things do not go well when I do this either. It ends up being all wrong. If I am not rooted in Him and planting myself in His Love, then all the fruits produced are worthless, they're sour. Whether it's talking to people, playing worship music, volunteering with children's ministries, or writing this blog, if I do not turn to God and let all of these attributes of Love come out with those things, then I'm doing something wrong here; then I AM NOTHING! But thankfully the faith I do have, is in a merciful God who's Name is Love. Without this Love and Mercy I would be dead. I am so convicted by this. 


The solution to this is to check on whether we are matching our actions with the attributes of Love in the passage. But wait, hasn't Jesus Christ been the only one ever able to meet this mark? Yes. Then how could we ever do so? We can't. That's why I bring up God's Grace and Mercy, because we could never meet up with what's expected. But even though we are forgiven for the times that we can't, it doesn't mean there's no point in trying. Would a soldier meeting impossible odds give up or fight to the end for what mattered most? I want to say that I would fight to the end for God in this life. I want to war against myself and my worldly desires and reasons for my faith and deeds. I want them to be changed as much as possible in this life to be a servant for my God. Not because I could gain something from it, I have already been given everything I could ever want by God through forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I want to do it because I already have everything. I do not need more. I want to give it all up for God, and I want to do it for Him and by Him. That means doing it with His Love. To know what that looks like though, I need to know what each of those attributes actually are. So I've given myself a challenge that I am now giving you. The challenge is to take one of the attributes of Love and each day write it on my wrist or a piece of paper in my pocket and have it there for 24 hours while I read in the Bible about it, pray about it, and truly ponder it and what it would look like in my life as a servant. So this is a 15 day challenge, but it could change the way we act for the rest of our lives and help us to let God base our actions in His Love. 


I really encourage you all to do this challenge. I started with patience today. This challenge must not however be for the wrong reasons either. As you do it, you realize just how easy it actually is to mess it all up. Which is another positive side to it, it brings me closer to God and helps me see just how forgiving and Patient He is. A Christian should always desire to get to know God more. He is our greatest relationship, we should work on getting to know Him more than anyone or anything else. Convicting words that even hurt me as I type them. My thankfulness for His forgiveness only seems to be growing as this goes on. One last thing to remember, is that these 15 things, are only an infinitely small fraction of what His Love is. We could all spend each day of our lives looking at attributes of His Love, but it wouldn't be enough. All the more the reason to start now. A statement to remember during this challenge and dare I say the rest of our lives, is this: "We can only grow and share Love, if we have our roots in it."

Thank You For Reading

Long Live Jesus Christ

Amen 

Opportunity: Love and Mercy at the Brink

Jude 1:17-23

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's Love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear - hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

God, let these words be Yours for Your purposes and Will.

This passage is titled "A Call to Persevere." Jude wrote this letter to all Christians that this letter could reach. That includes us today. He was addressing the topic of godless men that infiltrate the Church and lead other Christians away. Jude starts this passage with the topic by quoting the early apostles. They wrote that men who follow their own ungodly desires would appear. They would show up and divide Christian and would follow their own natural instincts because they are without the Holy Spirit. There are different denominations of Christianity that have their own sets of rules and guidelines today, some even with their own edited versions of the Bible that they keep adding to. There also entire religions with very similar basis. People over time have been split up among these different faiths. Some of these have and still cause fighting and warring by their members. Speaking of the truth in Jude's words. These people have caused rifts and fights among us all. So often because of what they want. But there is only One true God and One true faith. Moving to that, Jude wrote next about it. 

The arguments over this and that in Christianity alone, let alone other religions, can be so overbearing and draining. But the thing is that it's not gonna go away. It's only going to get worse. There will be as many lies and false teachings as there are men who follow their own desires; a number that is always growing. So Jude tells us to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. Not to mean our faith is like a bunch of coats, "I'll wear my most holy one today." No. He means that our faith itself is holy and set apart. It is not normal or of this world. It is something that feels like it doesn't fit in this world, because it doesn't fit. Which is why it can be hard to build it up. But by staying in God's Word, we can strengthen it. Because we can run what we hear from teachers and writers by what we read in the Bible. We just need to read properly and study it honestly in order to listen to exactly what God is trying to say, not ignoring something because it isn't what we want to hear. We need to take in all of it and put it into practice. By doing this our holy faith is built up. And when the faith is built up, it is stronger than anything. The faith of a mustard seed has the power to move mountains into the sea. The false teachers in this world will try anything to conform you to their teachings, for the Evil One's work is subtle, but if our faith is built up then we can see right through it. Galatians 1:9 says that all people who preach a gospel other than the one we have heard based in the Love of God and His Son Jesus Christ's sacrifice will be eternally condemned. So as long as we also keep ourselves in God's Love until our time here on earth ends, then we can fully test and approve of God's Will. To Love, we must give up ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Jesus. If we do these two things at all times, our God will build up our faith and wisdom and keep us from following the wrong paths. But this Love will also lead to these false teachers and believers, but in another way: In Loving them.

Jude addresses how we should then act towards these people and those who follow their ways. He splits it into 3 kinds of people. The first is the doubter. Jude calls us to have mercy on the doubter and not show contempt for them because of their doubt. I have gone through my own bouts of doubt even during the time of this blog's operation. We have doubts sometimes because we don't know whether or not we belong. We end up feeling unsure about something, and the Evil One takes hold of that and makes it worse and worse. We end up with a desire to belong, and in these times, we often look in the wrong places feeling more and more empty as we go along. Jude calls us to have mercy on these people who struggle to find out where they belong. To have mercy, is to not judge them or treat them poorly, to not rebuke them or brush them off because they ask the weird questions, or to ignore them because they aren't like us. It's just the opposite. To have mercy, to bring them in and Love them and show them the Love of the Father and show them that we all have a place of belonging with God our Father. It's to show them that we are all meant to live for something more, for God. 
The next person is the one who can be snatched up from the fire. These are the people that are already right on the edge of Christianity but also of death. These are the people we have true opportunity to share the Gospel with and Love on and welcome in. They can be saved with just a gentle Word of God. They are the Opportunity, we just need to take it.
The last type of person is the one who has no interest in looking very much and just want to do what they want to do. We are called to show them mercy as well. Because anyone who follows their instincts is trying to find the place they fit in and the thing that fits the hole inside them. We need to Love them no matter what, but we also need to mix that mercy with fear. Fear of becoming like them and losing the forgiveness of God. It's easy to deny that we as Christians are not easily influenced by the world, but it is just the opposite. When our faith is built up it is strong, but when there is a chink and it gets weaker, it can fall apart. And when our faith falls apart we can fall into a sinful binge that if not broken quickly can lead us away from God completely. As 1 John 3:19,20 states, our proof of Salvation is the conviction of our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But speaking from experience, once this "binge" starts, that conviction grows less and less convicting. Eventually there is a crossroad of choosing God or the world. You know it when you hit it because it is a gut wrenching and painful transition. When we hit it we can either turn to our sin for comfort or back to God begging for forgiveness. I am so thankful that when I hit this, God called me one more time and brought me back to Him. It hurt so much to go through it. I am deathly afraid of falling back there again and feeling like that and hurting God like that. We need to hate anything belonging to the sinful person's life, but not the person.

When I was in that point I went to what could have been my last Bible study at my youth pastor's house. I admitted I was angry at God and myself, but my friends didn't throw me out or rebuke me. They prayed over me one by one. It was that night that I hit the crossroad and chose God. I, therefore, cannot stress how important mercy and Love for people in these times really are. Sometimes just living the Loving Christian life around others and doing what the Holy Spirit calls us to do, can be what snatches people from the brink and saves them. To live as a Loving Christian, is truly taking the Opportunity. So build up faith and take it every chance you get, God might just use you to save someone.

Thank You For Reading

Long Live Jesus Christ

Amen 

Opportunity

Acts 22:30-23:11

The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to GOD in all good conscience to this day." At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"
Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult GOD's high priest?"
Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'"
Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say the there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.)
There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. "We find nothing wrong with this man," they said. "What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.
The following night the LORD stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."

GOD, let these be your words, not mine. Amen

Paul was arrested for preaching the Gospel in Jerusalem just prior to this. He had felt GOD calling him there to preach, so he followed. His speaking however landed him in jail with beatings. Words are the most powerful tools man has been given on this earth. They can be used to make a career and life, they can lead entire nations and armies, they can bring comfort to those who are completely broken. How powerful then, are the words of GOD when shared by man? Powerful enough where a ruling system of a people, the Jews, worry that they will lose all power to them. The Jews wanted nothing more than Paul to be executed and done away with. But GOD had other plans. Paul was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the ruling authority of the Jews in the Law. 

Paul speaks only twice in this passage. We're going to look at what he says. First is his insult to the high priest. Paul calls him a "whitewashed wall." Basically put, Paul is stating that he is nothing of importance and has no substance. What he did not know was that he was the high priest. When Paul found out how he had let his mouth fall down the stairs, he quickly apologized. How often have you started a very important conversation with a big mistake of saying something completely inappropriate to the other person? I have done this a many times, regretting each one to this day. Like I wrote earlier, words are a powerful tool that can make or break something. Paul's mistake could have cost him the opportunity to speak any further and spread the controversial message of the Gospel. We need to keep a hold of our tongues at all times and not let things slip so easily in life. A slip could cost us the position or experience that GOD wants for us. Keeping a tight reign over our tongues allows us to wait and listen to what GOD has to say to us. If we are constantly talking, GOD will not be able to get a word in. How can we even begin to do His work if we do not listen to the instructions? We must first be silent, listen, and then wait for Him to tell us to speak.

Paul put this into practice before the Sanhedrin with the second chance he received in the situation. Paul recognized that some of them were Sadducees. Meaning just what the passage said, they did not believe in the resurrection. Paul then said that he was there because of his faith in the resurrection. This of course started the debate among the Pharisees who did believe and the Sadducees who did not. Paul said nothing else, but caused an uproar among leaders that made them more like animals than men. All Paul did was speak the truth of the Gospel that he believed in the resurrection. Those words were enough to bring a group of highly praised men to the point where they were ready to tear Paul apart. Thankfully the commander took Paul away before that could happen. Paul knew that his words would cause such a reaction by the high priest being ready to strike him after a few words. They were tense and easily turn against one another by their beliefs. How frightening it must have been to say those words if that was the outcome? GOD called Paul to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem before all men, and when he did, he was arrested, beaten, and almost torn apart by the Sanhedrin. What made all that worth it? 

Often we become scared of sharing the Gospel because of the consequences. We ask, "How could this be worth it?" It seem so much easier to keep talking and talking about other things in this life with others at school, work, and everywhere else than to talk about Jesus Christ. I am guilty of this myself. I now say painfully that I have lost count of the people that I did not take the Opportunity to share the Gospel with. I capitalized the "O" in opportunity for a reason, to emphasize that it truly is an Opportunity to share the Gospel. One that benefits us, them, and the Kingdom of GOD. It is never a sin to speak of the Gospel in a Good manor. I love that statement, "It is never a sin to speak of the Gospel in a Good manor." But it is wrong to not do so when we have the Opportunity. To not do the Good we know we ought to be doing is a sin. We all know why we don't speak though. We're afraid, we're busy, we're not gonna do a good enough job, we're not in the mood to do so. The excuses go on. But what makes taking the Opportunity worth it? In this life, nothing. There is no promised benefit in this life for spreading the Gospel. If anything, it will just bring persecution like it did Paul. But there is still a benefit. It's just not here. The benefit comes in heaven. To let GOD take over and speak for us His own words allows Him to work His way to those around us. We do nothing ourselves when we share the Gospel. All the credit for what happens goes to GOD. But to take the honor of becoming the instrument GOD makes the words flow out of to save those around us is the greatest honor of words. That is the true reward, to be used by GOD for His works of Salvation. Does He need us to do so? No! Not at all! But He gives us the Opportunity to do so. It can be hard, but it is beyond worth it.

After Paul's ordeal, the LORD stood near him and told him to take courage! He told Paul that he wanted him to speak again, not just in the city of Jerusalem, but in Rome. I would be terrified, but the one thing I have found in sharing the Gospel is 2 things. 1 It does not get easier. It really doesn't. But the 2nd thing is that it becomes more and more worth it to see what GOD is willing to do with me for others. To see the instances where I know it was Him speaking and the reaction and Love that filled the other person is so very worth it. Even more when I remember it has nothing to do with me. GOD will call us to where He wants us to speak, but if we do not take the Opportunity and open our mouths, nothing will happen. If we don't close our mouths, nothing will happen either. There is a balance, and that is the truly hard part: figuring out the times to speak. I look at 1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words or GOD. So I try to keep quiet until I know there is an Opportunity to speak the Gospel. I still mess up, but thankfully, we have a GOD of mercy and second chances. But overall, there are plenty of Opportunities to use our powerful words for GOD, we just need to take them.

Thank You For Reading

Long Live Jesus Christ

Amen