I want to sit at your feet, drink from he cup in your hand, lay back against you and breathe, feel your heart beat. This love is so deep, it's more than I can stand. I melt in your peace, it's overwhelming.
I always loved this song. The idea of leaning back against God and hearing his heart beat. Any guy I have ever truly loved (My dad, brothers, even some friends) I have done this with simply as a pure form of love and the expression of it. If you are a girl (I would venture that this applies to guys as well but I am not one so I wouldn't know) you know what I mean. I really hope you have been blessed to have soeone in your life that can be that "Daddy" like portrayance of God to you.
Turns out this isn't just a modern deal, or even an unrealistic thing. The disciples even did this. The HOLY GOD allowed the disciples to lean up against him and hear his heart beat. It was a simple expression of love and connection. "One of them. the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, 'Ask him which one he means'. Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, "Lord, who is it?"
This is the kind of relationship that the disciples had with God. Lately I have been struggling to not focus myself on only one aspect of God. I used to be so wrapped up in the love of God. And recently it has been the wrath and awesome might; when in reality it has to be all of those characteristics together. We have to realize what a mighty war we are in and how much God had to pay to win us back from the enemy. Because as we are born sinfully... Satan own us. It takes a high price, the price of a human life, to ransom any one of us. God faught long and hard for us. But God also loves us. In fact that's why he faught so hard. He loved us so much. He wanted us to have abundant life next to him.
I praise God that he has given me an earthly daddy who can begin to portray this concept to me and has all my life. God is that personal God. God is that righteous God. God is wrathful. But better... God is love.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Gods love never fails.... and it's the only one
So yesterday in my modern social problems we were talking about marriage... and divorce; which is a hard topic to avoid these days considering over half of all marriages end in divorce. It got me scared. The entire class was pretty much bagging on getting married saying that you are bound to fall out of love and have a miserable life. Then the class was asked to define love. It was funny watching them trying to scramble for words such as "sacrifice" and "trust". So I started to define love:
Patient
Kind
Not Envious
Not Boastful
Not proud
Honoring
Not Selfish
Slow to anger
No record of wrongs
Rejoices in the Truth
Protects
Trust
Hope
Perserverance
In short... this list is God. And it was provided to me from God in His word (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Now in all honesty, I look at this list and am just a little bit intimidated. There is no way I can do all that. And I think that's where all the divorce comes in. We start out thinking we know what this whole love thing is about but in the end we come to realize that.... We as sinful humans don't have the capacity to love. We are simply... unable to love.
Then why on earth does God call us to love? And why would God form an institution that relies on love? Because God is LOVE. And if something relies on love, then in reality it relies on God. A friend of mine put it this way, "I love you so much, but none of that is on my own. In my own I have no capacity to love you. I have no capacity to accept your faults and mistakes. If it were up to me I would hold them against you. But I have GOD's love to fill me. I am possessed by God's love and am able to love you through that. And the mere fraction of God's love I can love you with is so much smaller that the fullness of the love that God has for you."
While she wasn't talking about marriage, I am fairly sure the principle applies there as well. ONLY GOD'S LOVE NEVER FAILS. When I say love never fails it means that God never fails. There is nothing that God's love can't do. Sure... if left to our own devices, divorce is a garentee, falling out of love is a garentee. But that is because they aren't understanding the true meaning of love.
So yeah... I'm not married and have no plans on being married soon but class kind of shook me up last night and I had to turn to God's word to fix it. And I decided to share that with you
Patient
Kind
Not Envious
Not Boastful
Not proud
Honoring
Not Selfish
Slow to anger
No record of wrongs
Rejoices in the Truth
Protects
Trust
Hope
Perserverance
In short... this list is God. And it was provided to me from God in His word (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Now in all honesty, I look at this list and am just a little bit intimidated. There is no way I can do all that. And I think that's where all the divorce comes in. We start out thinking we know what this whole love thing is about but in the end we come to realize that.... We as sinful humans don't have the capacity to love. We are simply... unable to love.
Then why on earth does God call us to love? And why would God form an institution that relies on love? Because God is LOVE. And if something relies on love, then in reality it relies on God. A friend of mine put it this way, "I love you so much, but none of that is on my own. In my own I have no capacity to love you. I have no capacity to accept your faults and mistakes. If it were up to me I would hold them against you. But I have GOD's love to fill me. I am possessed by God's love and am able to love you through that. And the mere fraction of God's love I can love you with is so much smaller that the fullness of the love that God has for you."
While she wasn't talking about marriage, I am fairly sure the principle applies there as well. ONLY GOD'S LOVE NEVER FAILS. When I say love never fails it means that God never fails. There is nothing that God's love can't do. Sure... if left to our own devices, divorce is a garentee, falling out of love is a garentee. But that is because they aren't understanding the true meaning of love.
So yeah... I'm not married and have no plans on being married soon but class kind of shook me up last night and I had to turn to God's word to fix it. And I decided to share that with you
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Scars on My Arm: The Truth about Self-Destruction
If you were to look closely at my wrist you would see two old scars… and two fairly new ones. You would also see a few carefully penned letters. As you backed up you could begin to see a word appear. That word is Grace. This is my word. Grace is pretty much a combination of getting something that you don’t deserve and not getting something that you do deserve. That is my life. When you look at my life it is pretty obvious to see what I deserve. I deserve bondage, suffering, and ultimately death. When it comes down to it… that’s what we all deserve. I mean when was the last time you took a look at the Ten Commandments? Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” I mean if you want my whole sin list , I can give it to you but as far as the Bible is concerned. We are all in the same boat. So it doesn’t matter what I have done, or what you have done; this life is a pass or fail course and we have all failed.
This is where grace comes in. We have already established what I deserve. I deserve death. Romans 6:23 says , “For the wages of sin is death…” So where is the grace there? Well here is the second part of the verse, “… BUT the GIFT of GOD is eternal LIFE in CHRIST JESUS.” It’s like being three trillion dollars in debt and having someone hand you a hundred trillion dollars. Not only do you not get the debt that you do deserve but you get so much more. But honestly…I HATE talking about Christ’s gift in terms of money. The fact is…. There is an amazing God who loves you no matter what. I want you to think of any love anyone has ever had for you. Whether it was temporary or long term, intense or weak. Now I want you add all that love together, and multiply it by 100. That is less than .0000000000001% of God’s love for you. And the best part: NOTHING you could ever do or could have ever done could ever give you less love, or more love for that matter. You are loved extremely and all you have to do is let God love you.
Now here is the main part of the blog. Yeah I know, but those last two paragraphs were just kind of an introduction. But if you don’t have the foundation you can’t put up the walls. I want you to think back about my wrist. There were two old scars… but there are also two newer ones. Those scars were even made over a word that once read “Loved”. Now I know I have probably confused you by now. You are probably wondering all about that God’s love stuff and how it was supposed to make everything better. And it does make everything better…but not in the same way you would think. You are still you, with all your same destructive tendencies. And realizing that Jesus loves you does not make you a better person overnight.
I have heard from several people, and I have even thought so myself, that they are afraid of “self-destructing”. That is basically the idea that I am going to become a “Christian” and then screw up a few months down the line and fail. And in reality…. This ALWAYS happens. Self destruction is a part of being human. As long as we are human we are imperfect and are going to screw up. We are going to fall back. But here is the beautiful part. God love doesn’t end there. God’s love NEVER ends. Ephesians 3:17-19 says “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with al the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, And to know that his love surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Screwing up does NOT cancel God’s love for us. If you are a musical person like me, this song will speak to you to. Tenth Avenue North puts it this way. “So let’s not pretend, stop your parade. Trying to convince me that you’re alright and everything’s ok. Yeah, Do you even know me? Cause I already know who you are and all the things that kept us apart. So reach in and touch my scars and KNOW the price I paid for your heart. And it’s not enough, it’s not enough just to say that you’re ok. I need your heart and I need your pain. It’s not love any other way. “
It’s not true love if God doesn’t love us through our mistakes. God needs our hurt and our pain. You will never fully understand God’s love unless you hand all of yourself over to God. Honestly there is nothing you could do to stop God’s love for you. And that’s the beautiful part of it.
When God looks at my arm he sees something more than I could ever imagine. He sees something beautiful. He sees his son who covers all of my sins, past present and future. He sees something that he loves. Sixteen Cities sums it up in a song, “All the pieces of your heart, and all the lovely scars, are someone’s work of art.” We are God’s masterpiece and He loves His crazy works in progress.
This is where grace comes in. We have already established what I deserve. I deserve death. Romans 6:23 says , “For the wages of sin is death…” So where is the grace there? Well here is the second part of the verse, “… BUT the GIFT of GOD is eternal LIFE in CHRIST JESUS.” It’s like being three trillion dollars in debt and having someone hand you a hundred trillion dollars. Not only do you not get the debt that you do deserve but you get so much more. But honestly…I HATE talking about Christ’s gift in terms of money. The fact is…. There is an amazing God who loves you no matter what. I want you to think of any love anyone has ever had for you. Whether it was temporary or long term, intense or weak. Now I want you add all that love together, and multiply it by 100. That is less than .0000000000001% of God’s love for you. And the best part: NOTHING you could ever do or could have ever done could ever give you less love, or more love for that matter. You are loved extremely and all you have to do is let God love you.
Now here is the main part of the blog. Yeah I know, but those last two paragraphs were just kind of an introduction. But if you don’t have the foundation you can’t put up the walls. I want you to think back about my wrist. There were two old scars… but there are also two newer ones. Those scars were even made over a word that once read “Loved”. Now I know I have probably confused you by now. You are probably wondering all about that God’s love stuff and how it was supposed to make everything better. And it does make everything better…but not in the same way you would think. You are still you, with all your same destructive tendencies. And realizing that Jesus loves you does not make you a better person overnight.
I have heard from several people, and I have even thought so myself, that they are afraid of “self-destructing”. That is basically the idea that I am going to become a “Christian” and then screw up a few months down the line and fail. And in reality…. This ALWAYS happens. Self destruction is a part of being human. As long as we are human we are imperfect and are going to screw up. We are going to fall back. But here is the beautiful part. God love doesn’t end there. God’s love NEVER ends. Ephesians 3:17-19 says “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with al the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, And to know that his love surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Screwing up does NOT cancel God’s love for us. If you are a musical person like me, this song will speak to you to. Tenth Avenue North puts it this way. “So let’s not pretend, stop your parade. Trying to convince me that you’re alright and everything’s ok. Yeah, Do you even know me? Cause I already know who you are and all the things that kept us apart. So reach in and touch my scars and KNOW the price I paid for your heart. And it’s not enough, it’s not enough just to say that you’re ok. I need your heart and I need your pain. It’s not love any other way. “
It’s not true love if God doesn’t love us through our mistakes. God needs our hurt and our pain. You will never fully understand God’s love unless you hand all of yourself over to God. Honestly there is nothing you could do to stop God’s love for you. And that’s the beautiful part of it.
When God looks at my arm he sees something more than I could ever imagine. He sees something beautiful. He sees his son who covers all of my sins, past present and future. He sees something that he loves. Sixteen Cities sums it up in a song, “All the pieces of your heart, and all the lovely scars, are someone’s work of art.” We are God’s masterpiece and He loves His crazy works in progress.
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