Love Wins

Recently I was listening to a sermon by Rob Bell (listen here: Everything I have Said to you). As I remember it he was talking about what should characterize the life of a Christian and obviously one thing that should characterize our lives is love. I think his favorite saying is: Love Wins. And it is so true. Love truly does win. The passionate love of Christ was manifest in his selfless, life-giving, sacrifice thought brought about the cleaning of sins for all and the redemption of creation. On that day, some 2000 years ago, the enemy didn't win, LOVE WON.

So often it seems that many of us believe that Jesus might have been God's Plan B; Israel wasn't working out but it wasn't that their insolence and disregard for God brought about Jesus' death on the Cross. God knew from the beginning, I think he longed for Israel to be the answer but she just wouldn't budge, the nation wanted an earthly king. As followers of Christ we find ourselves living 2000 years after the Cross and the point and the message is slowly slipping from our grasp. Our eyes are being dimmed to what our work is truly to be about. For so long Christians in the Western world, perhaps world-wide, have taken this idiotic escapist mentality. We ask these idiotic questions like: What must I do to go to heaven? Rather it's not about what we have done but what Christ has done. Then one of the next questions we tend to ask is: How close can I get to sin, without it actually being considered a sin? An example of this would be something like premarital sex, How far is too far? We are missing the point, we shouldn't be asking these silly questions about how close we can get to sin without it being sin, we should be running as far from sin as we can and clinging to God.

"Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die" (Augustus Toplady). We shouldn't be inching closer to sin, we should be taking giant leaps towards God.

"Be killing sin or sin will be killing you" (John Owen). It is our daily task, to seek Jesus, to seek the Way, the Truth, and the Life or the corruption of the devil infiltrates our system, and kills us from the inside out. How I long to be purged of such filth, so much time I have spent filling my life with the things of this world, the pleasures, the passions, the desires, they simply do not compare to the pleasures, passions and desires that my Father in heaven, Jesus the Savior of all, Christ the ruler of the heavens and the earth, desire for me, they simply don't compare to the Kingdom of God. These earthly desires are "Meaningless! Meaningless!...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" (Ecc. 1:1 - not trying to take this one out of context but I think this gives us a great story of how filling our lives with everything we can doesn't compare to filling our lives with God).

We should desire "an inner life that is thoroughly saturated with the love of God" (Rob Bell) that is both evident internally and externally in our lives.

"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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. all those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." -- John 3:16-21

It is because of love that Jesus came and died for our sins.

Often times what we experience in life is not truly love rather lust. Lust has a tendency to be disguised as love, fooling us into believing things that are reckless (not only to ourselves but to others) and thoughtless. Lust desires to fulfill instant desire, although I have found that it will slowly manifest itself if it believe the payout is worth the wait. Lust are "objects of desire" in Scripture I don't think I can think of a single place that lust is described as a good thing. Rather this is what we learn about love:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things. hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends..." -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

It should be noted that Paul is writing to the church in Corinthian and insisting that their spiritual gifts mean absolutely nothing unless they are executed in love. Unless love characterizes the believer, their witness counts for nothing. Love can make us do some pretty crazy things, usually they are counter-cultural. God insists that we love our neighbor but also that we love our enemy. Paul writes that not only should be love our enemies but we should pray for them, and if they are in need, serve them and take care of them.

Our lives should be so saturated and overflowing with the love of God that love is the central theme that characterizes our lives. Love urges us to help the sick, the homeless, the broken, the widows, the fatherless, the orphans. Love should cause us to re-act when we see such blatant injustices taking place in our world. It should be the job of the government to care for the orphans and the needy but it should be the job of the church and of Christians. If churches truly did what they are suppose to: first, the edification of the saints; and secondly, the equipping of the saints, to go into our world and bring the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus sat and ate and fellowshipped with the lowest of the low.

So love causes us to act against injustice in the world.

Love also means that we must forgive, no matter what the charge. "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32

Jesus should first be our example of forgiveness: Jesus cries out "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." -- Luke 23:34. I think a lot of times we forget that those that crucified Jesus are un-redeemable, like they have committed such an atrocity that God couldn't or wouldn't forgive them.

In our modern time I think William Paul Young has done a great job of reminding us that forgiveness is a key part of our relationship with God and with others. In The Shack, Young writes: "Mack, for you to forgive this man is for you to release him to me (God) and allow me to redeem him." "Redeem Him!...I don't want you to redeem him! I want you to hurt him, to punish him, to put him in hell..." Mack struggles with the thought of forgiving the man that brutally murdered his daughter bug God reminds him that "...[this man] is my son. I want to redeem him." We must remember that God deals with all of humanity, God longs that none should perish. God loves his enemies and longs that they would seek His forgiveness. If we are truly to be Christ-like we too must love our enemies and forgive them. If you haven't had the chance to read The Shack I encourage you to do so, I think it will make better sense than what I have said in this short paragraph.

My prayer is this, that if for whatever reason you have fallen away from God, that you will recognize that God is Love, and has this massive love for you, that you will run into the open arms of the Father, who washes you and saves you and transforms you. Recently, I took inventory of my life, I realized I was going no where and in fact I was running away from God but I remembered that God is love and it is his love that drew me back and once again I am deeply falling in love with God. I pray that you begin to fall in love with God all over again.

Jars of Clay (the band) has a song called Worlds Apart and I am pretty sure it describes how I am feeling right now:

hopefully this link will work, but here are some lyrics that stood out:

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now
and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away

All for the glory of God.

Grace and Peace.