"If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love." John 15:10 (Amplified Bible)
We deal in today's world with the constant stream of 'loveless' situations; the murdering of a spouse because you think you're better off with them dead, the abused children that walk the hallways of our godless schools, and the wounded families that dot the landscape of the modern church.
We fear relationships because we fear a situation without love and only steeped in pain and suffrage.
We isolate ourselves from the very answer to our woes.
I have come to learn that I cannot love. My spouse, my children, my fellow brethren, or even the lost of this world. I cannot, because I myself am a danger to the cause. I would much rather isolate myself from the societal woes and personal suffering that a relationship with others can pretty much guarantee. And yet, I long for the connection that only true relational living can bring. I live in duality and as Christ tells us, no one can serve two masters. Typically, we express that verse in financial terms, but I would submit that it also applies to the relational needs we deal with.
One master: Protection of Self.
One master: Need for communal relationship.
We are in constant struggle against ourselves if we don't commit to the God-design for relationship, that no-holds-barred kind of relating to our fellows that causes us to reach out--- despite the painfulness of relating and the certainity of disappointment-- to others in community. To deny relational living is to deny your most basic need of being accepted, of being LOVED.
It is everyone's greatest accomplishment and worst fear.....that when the time comes for us to depart this world; either for the golden streets of Heaven or the fiery, pothole littered roadways of Hell, we all want to have mattered...at least a little, to someone other than ourselves. A legacy left behind; someone who will stand at our casket and say, "We will miss them" and mean it.
It is my greatest fear, despite the loving support and relationship I have with my son and my daughter. Despite the relationships I am developing with other men, such as the group from the Men in the Woods and the M3 meetings on bi-monthly Saturdays.
I find I cannot love, unless I relate my love to others. I find that my love is meaningless if it is self-centered and self-serving. To have meaningful love means I have to be relational; relating to God's commands for me to love, relating to others demandingness to be love, and to be relational in the realisation that risking love will be painful and sometimes cause me to suffer for the sake of another; in varying degrees.
If we look at this verse, Christ tells us to be relational to love....which He is and we will abide in love only when we follow His commandments, just as He showed us as He followed the Father's commandments and lived in love with Him. Not only did Christ come to the earth to save all of mankind (excuse me, PC---humankind) but He also came to show us how to live until the restoration of the body to its original design. Live by the commandments of Christ and we will live in love. We are called to live in love and can only do so as we follow the commandments, which enable us to reflect the love we are called to live in. A complete circle, ever rotating on the axis of Christ.
Of all the things that Christ commands us to do; i.e. go out and preach the Gospel to all the nations, be in fellowship, obey the Lord your God......this is the one that underscores it all. Love.
The love of the Creator created Adam and then Eve. The love of His creation caused the rejection from the garden due to sin. The love of the Father sent His only Son to the world to die for the world. The love of the Son taught us the power of living in His love. And the love for one another causes us to seek out each other in relational fellowship.
I don't know if I'm making any sense. Throwing around big words just makes me feel like I'm.......throwing around big words.
All I know is this verse brought home to me the method of my contentment and peace in the struggles of my life. Living for love, seeking God in the obeyance (as much as this broken human can) of His commandments, and then expecting the peaceful contentment of knowing God's love will carry me on.
There is no way to fake love, especially if you believe that your capability for love comes from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and therefore is dependent on God. You might be able to fool someone a little while, but you will be exposed in short order.
As Matthew Henry said, "The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, but the joy of those who abide in Christ's love is a continual feast."
You can always spot the mature Christian, because they look like they are in love...you know, that special look, the certain glow, and that abiding peacefulness. They are in love.......
In love with a Heavenly Father,
In relationship with the Spirit,
because of the loving sacrifice of the Son.
JMT
Jim
Friday, February 22
Thursday, February 21
We have nothing to fear but fear itself....
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7 (Amplified Bible)
Over and over in my head is the story of Elijah and his servant, at least I think it was Elijah. I can't seem to locate the story in the Old Testament, but I have heard it spoken during some sermons I have attended. The one where the servant is freaking out because the Egyptian Army is coming to kill both the prophet and his servant, yet the old prophet just sits there and watches them come. The servant wants to run but Elijah won't have anything to do with that.
Finally, Elijah asks God to open the servant's eyes so that he can see. And WHAT a sight he does SEE, the Heavenly Host surrounding both of them….that will not allow the approaching army to harm them. All the protection they need surrounded them unseen, except when you had the veil removed by God.
I have been much like that servant lately, running around like a chicken with its head chopped off (and yes, I have seen such a sight----on a farm), crying like Chicken Little that the sky is falling directly and squarely on my head. And my accountability partner and brother has stood there telling me to calm down and do the things I know to do and pray for the rest.
And I have been immobile, not only physically in regards to transportation…my car is toast and I have no funds for another….but also spiritually. I haven't attended Chapel in over a week, although that was scheduled with Chaplain John, but mostly I haven't spent time with God as I usually do in the mornings. I feel His guidance in my blogs, but most of the rest of the time is spent in rantings and ravings about the dangers and stresses I am facing. I am sleeping less, worrying more, and generally suffering greatly.
I am tired of getting a handle on one crisis and having to deal with another. I am starting to fear solving them because I don't know what else is going to happen……..except on the last day….
Then this verse shows up…..
God hasn't given me fear, doubt, or anguish……that is the direct opposite of what He has given me. I have the spirit of power, love, strength, and wisdom that will carry me through the trials and tribulations that I am facing and will give me the fulfillment of the promise of "nothing to harm but to prosper me" that God has already promised.
I have forgotten what I had read and was believing what I was seeing.
The Gospel has to be, to us as Christians in a fallen and hateful world, not merely a head-nod to the King but a deep abiding love of the value that is contained in the words that were written and inspired and protected by the Heavenly Father.
This is where we have the advantage over the enemy and his dominions. The Word tells us that God is committed to us, and will help us through our struggles. It is when we focus on what we can do by our own strength, financial ability, or charm that gets us into difficultly.
It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit, that dwells in the heart of all believers, that helps us endure and overcome, and even go through. We cannot lean on our own understandings or our own heartfelt desires to gain wisdom that will get us beyond the struggles we face.
We need to return to the Word, abide in God, and weather the storm…….
At least, that's what this verse from nowhere means to me……
Over and over in my head is the story of Elijah and his servant, at least I think it was Elijah. I can't seem to locate the story in the Old Testament, but I have heard it spoken during some sermons I have attended. The one where the servant is freaking out because the Egyptian Army is coming to kill both the prophet and his servant, yet the old prophet just sits there and watches them come. The servant wants to run but Elijah won't have anything to do with that.
Finally, Elijah asks God to open the servant's eyes so that he can see. And WHAT a sight he does SEE, the Heavenly Host surrounding both of them….that will not allow the approaching army to harm them. All the protection they need surrounded them unseen, except when you had the veil removed by God.
I have been much like that servant lately, running around like a chicken with its head chopped off (and yes, I have seen such a sight----on a farm), crying like Chicken Little that the sky is falling directly and squarely on my head. And my accountability partner and brother has stood there telling me to calm down and do the things I know to do and pray for the rest.
And I have been immobile, not only physically in regards to transportation…my car is toast and I have no funds for another….but also spiritually. I haven't attended Chapel in over a week, although that was scheduled with Chaplain John, but mostly I haven't spent time with God as I usually do in the mornings. I feel His guidance in my blogs, but most of the rest of the time is spent in rantings and ravings about the dangers and stresses I am facing. I am sleeping less, worrying more, and generally suffering greatly.
I am tired of getting a handle on one crisis and having to deal with another. I am starting to fear solving them because I don't know what else is going to happen……..except on the last day….
Then this verse shows up…..
God hasn't given me fear, doubt, or anguish……that is the direct opposite of what He has given me. I have the spirit of power, love, strength, and wisdom that will carry me through the trials and tribulations that I am facing and will give me the fulfillment of the promise of "nothing to harm but to prosper me" that God has already promised.
I have forgotten what I had read and was believing what I was seeing.
The Gospel has to be, to us as Christians in a fallen and hateful world, not merely a head-nod to the King but a deep abiding love of the value that is contained in the words that were written and inspired and protected by the Heavenly Father.
This is where we have the advantage over the enemy and his dominions. The Word tells us that God is committed to us, and will help us through our struggles. It is when we focus on what we can do by our own strength, financial ability, or charm that gets us into difficultly.
It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit, that dwells in the heart of all believers, that helps us endure and overcome, and even go through. We cannot lean on our own understandings or our own heartfelt desires to gain wisdom that will get us beyond the struggles we face.
We need to return to the Word, abide in God, and weather the storm…….
At least, that's what this verse from nowhere means to me……
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