6 Ways God Shows His Love

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:7)

How profoundly does God love you? Consider these things.

He created you – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Your existence, your life, is not an accident. You were specifically planned for and created by God. He designed everything about you from you physical appearance to your personality type, to be just the way he wanted you to be. You are God’s masterpiece.

He created you in his image – So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

Nothing else in all the creation can lay claim to being “like” God or in his image. Not trees or rocks or birds or any other animal. Only people, like you. He made you in his image, in his likeness, so that you can have a personal relationship with him.

He died for you – But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Just like everyone else on the planet, from infancy you joined in what has been called, the Great Cosmic Rebellion. You have again and again turned your back on God, rejected his rightful rule over you and chose to follow your own sinful choices. Knowing that you would do so, God came to earth, took on humanity and died in your place. He did that so you could be delivered from sin, given life and set free to be in a relationship with him.

He gifted you – Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7 Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:26

If you are a believer in Jesus, then you have been given gifts of the Holy Spirit. It may gifts of service or mercy or administration or preaching/teaching or knowledge or faith or evangelism or something else. That is, you have a God-given special enabling chosen expressly for you by God so that you can join him in his work of building the church. Think about that for a minute. Don’t take it for granted. The King of Kings of all the universe has especially given you a Holy Spirit powered gift so that you can use that gift alongside him in the work he is doing of building the church – i.e. making disciples. What a privilege and honor that is!

He empowers you – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

This is a broken world filled with difficulties and problems, many of which are too much for us. We are broken people who cannot, through our own power, overcome the difficulties and problems that face us. But, we can be confident that, if we are a believer in Jesus, he will graciously give us all the power we need to face whatever comes our way.

He meets all your needs – And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Whatever needs you have, relationship needs, physical needs, financial needs, spiritual needs, whatever your needs may be, God promises to take care of them for you. It may not be when you want or the way you want. But your needs will be taken care of the way that is best, best for his glory and best for your well-being, in his time and in his way.

Take a few minutes to really ponder these truths. Think deeply about them. The most powerful and amazing Being in all the universe –

·         Created you

·         Made you like himself so that you could have a relationship with him

·         Died for you when you were lost in sin, making a way for you to have eternal life

·         Gifted you so you could join him in his work

·         Empowered you so that you can face any and every difficulty that life throws at you, and

·         Promised to take care of all your needs

Can you see, even a little, how great is God’s love for you? It’s a pretty amazing thing. Let it sink in, let it saturate your soul and your heart. Then let it move you to love him in return, to honor him and worship him and serve him. That’s what life is all about.

What do you think? I'd love to read your comments.

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Let Love Be Genuine - Romans 12:9

            In our families, in our churches, in the world, each of us has a job to do, which is unique to us. To do that job God has given each of us a supply of time, talents, gifts, and energy. There are many jobs. Paul wrote that there are varieties of gifts, varieties of service and varieties of activities. Each has been given “for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). All should be practiced as each is able. None of us will be exactly like another in what we do. But there is One Thing, one most important thing, which everyone must practice, which everyone must do. That One Thing is Love.

            In my last post I showed that Love is the most important thing for the Christian, for every Christian. Jesus said that love for God and love for others was the sum of all the commandments (Matthew 22:36-40). He also said that the One Thing that shows that a person is his disciple is that he loves others (John 13:34-35). Paul wrote that without love we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). And, when Paul went from theology to practical application for Christian living he began, characteristically, with love (Romans 12:9). In this post I begin to explore how that kind of love ought to work out in our relationships with others.

As many have pointed out, love may be the most over used word in language. We love our favorite food, love our music, and love the weather, sometimes. Used like this love connotes “things that appeal to my personal tastes.”

            But, we also love our family, love our friends and love our country. Used this way love means something different. This is the kind of love that, while it certainly involves our preferences, also moves us to work, even sacrifice, for the good of others.

            What is it that Paul means when he says that followers of Jesus must love one another?

            Surprisingly, he never defines love. Rather, he describes it. He lists things that love is and in that way gives a picture of what love in action looks like. The first thing that Paul says about love in Romans 12:9 is that it must be genuine.

The Greek word that is translated here as genuine comes from the same word that gives us the English word hypocritical. It’s a word that comes from the theater. In Paul’s time actors used masks to show their character’s emotional state. If the script called for a character to be happy, the actor put on a happy mask. If the character was supposed to be sad the actor put on a sad mask. To be hypocritical was to wear a mask and play a part.

Love, according to Paul, must not wear a mask. Love must not be a part we play. Love must not be hypocritical. Love must be real. He is saying, “Christian, do not act as though you love one another. Do not pretend to love one another. Really love!”

            Some translators use the word sincere here rather than genuine. Love must be sincere. Sincere comes from a Latin phrase, sine cera, which means without wax. In ancient times a common trick by less than scrupulous merchants to hide cracks in pottery was to fill the cracks with wax. They would next paint over the now disguised crack and then sell the piece as if it was whole and unbroken. But, it was a fake. To counter this practice, honest merchants often stamped their good pots sine cera – without wax, not a fake. It was the genuine article.

            Our love for one another must be sine cera, not fake. It must be the real deal.

So, what is genuine love? What does it look like? Perhaps the best place to go to understand genuine love is 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter. In that chapter Paul makes 15 statements about love. James Montgomery Boice, the former pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, in one his commentaries, helpfully listed and explained each one.

1.     Love is patient. People are not easy to love. Boice wrote that “people are difficult, exasperating and slow.” Love waits, love endures, love seeks to understand.

2.     Love is kind. Scottish theologian Ian Maclaren said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Boice wrote “The world is filled with hurting, suffering people. Love knows this and does what it can to help.”

3.     Love does not envy. Following the first two positives there are eight negatives. The first of the things that love is not, or does not, is envy. Love is happy for others when they get good things. “This is because love knows God and is content with the life God has given. Only a believer can be truly happy when others are preferred before himself.”

4.     Love does not boast. Boice wrote, “The world is filled with boasters, people who in one way or another are calling attention to who they are, how important they are, and how much they have achieved. Love does not do this.” He quotes Ronald Reagan who said, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

5.     Love is not proud. Humility is the contrary of pride. “Love does not have inflated ideas of itself. Love is gracious.” Love puts others first.

6.     Love is not rude. Boice wrote, “The opposite of rudeness is courtesy, and love has good manners.” Good manners show that we are thoughtful of and care about others. A lack of manners reveals self-centeredness. Love treats others well, because …

7.     Love is not self-seeking. “The world looks at somethings and asks, ‘What’s in it for me?’” Love doesn’t do that because “love thinks [first] of the one it loves.” Boice remarked, “Jesus did not seek his own advantage when he came to earth to save us. Rather, he ‘made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross’ (Philippians 2:7-8).”

8.     Love is not easily angered. Nothing is as damaging to relationships, homes, communities and churches as anger. Boice wrote, “Love does not have a short fuse. It is not irritable, not easily provoked. It is not touchy. Love is patient and kind.”

9.     Love keeps no record of wrongs. “Some people have a knack for bringing up mistakes we have made and wounds we have inflicted even decades afterwards.” Not so love. “Love forgets these wrongs….It is not resentful. It is not vindictive.”

10.  Love does not delight in evil.  God is good and God loves what is good. So should his disciples. In Romans 12:9 the next thing that Paul said about love, after saying that it must be genuine, is that it “hates what is evil but clings to what is good.” Boice wrote, “love does not find trash intriguing….dishonest schemes do not please it. Love hates wickedness.”

11.  Love rejoices in the truth. This statement is connected to the previous one about love not delighting in evil. It shows that the evil Paul was thinking of is mainly the evil that lies and deceives. “Love loves truth, above all the truth that is God’s.”

12.  Love always protects. Now Paul comes to four things that love always does. First, it always protects other people, especially those that need protecting the most. “It sides with the weak. It rallies around the one who has been oppressed, attacked, abused, hurt, slandered or otherwise made a victim.”

13.  Love always trusts. Boice wrote that while love is not stupid or gullible, it does “always think the best.” Love does not default to being suspicious of others, questioning their motives and assuming the worst. Rather, love encourages and says “I believe in you.”

14.  Love always hopes. “Love does not stop loving because it is not loved in return.” Love keeps on looking for the best, love keeps on forgiving. “Love forgives not once or even seven times, but seventy times seven. Love is not even counting.”

15.  Love always perseveres. Boice wrote, “Love never gives up. It is unconquerable, indomitable. Love can outlast hate and evil and indifference. Love can outlast anything.” Boice quoted his predecessor at Tenth Presbyterian, Donald Grey Barnhouse: “It is…the one thing that stands after all else has fallen.”

That’s what sincere, genuine love is. That’s what is to mark our relations with one another. How do you feel after reading that list? Energized and excited to go out there and show the world your commitment to Jesus by the way you love others? Or, do you feel overwhelmed and discouraged because it seems daunting to even think about putting that kind of love into practice? I usually feel more like the latter than the former.

“I can’t do that,” I think. “I can’t love others like that.” And the truth is, I can’t. And neither can you. Which, of course, is part of Paul’s point. If we are a disciple of Jesus, we must do these things, but we can’t do these things. Which is why he began this chapter, “In view of God’s mercies…”

In my next post I’ll consider how God’s mercies make us able to love others in ways we otherwise would never be able to do.

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And So It Begins

     The official kick-off of my Year of Living Joyfully was two days ago on January 1. The idea was a good one - a new way of living to begin with the New Year. Sort of like a new year's resolution, but with a different twist. That different twist being the thoughtful, well-organized Plan for Joy that my daughter gave me for Christmas. After receiving the gift from her a few days before Christmas I  looked forward to the New Year and the kick-off with excited anticipation. This was going to be great!

     It did not begin well.

     The last few days of 2012 saw me sliding down into a deeper that usual sadness. A deep, almost paralyzing darkness enveloped me. I felt disconnected from God to the point of doubting if I have a real relationship with him at all. My wife and I fought with each other, which we don't do all that often. Neither she nor God seemed much like friends to me. I felt distant and lost. The only thing that seemed close was my despair that was all around and through me.

     Not a great way to begin a Year of Living Joyfully.

     I did, on the 1st, open up the Plan. The first assignment was to read a verse from the prophet Isaiah, one of my daughter's favorite verses, which is a prophecy of what Jesus would come to do. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isaiah 61:1). Then, having read this verse I was to think of one thing that day that had brought me Joy and record it in the journal.

     I couldn't. I couldn't think of one thing that had brought me Joy that day. And, even more, as I read the verse two or three times, I felt even farther away from Joy than ever. I didn't feel like any of those things were true for me. I was poor (in spirit), I was brokenhearted, I was captive (to my sadness) and felt imprisoned. I felt worse after reading that announcement of Jesus' ministry because I felt like he had not done any of these things for me.

     Today, two days later, the paralyzing darkness has lifted some. I can see some light and I can move again. From today's vantage point I can see that those feelings I had of distance and loss, of abandonment, of despair, were just that, feelings. They were not reality. God has not left me, he's keep his promise to never leave me or forsake me. My wife is still with me, pulling for me, encouraging me, praying for me, loving me. Today, that prophecy about the ministry of Jesus does seem, at least a little, like a promise to me. Today I choose to believe that Jesus has brought good news for me, he is binding up my broken heart, he has set me free. And, my prayer, for today, is that I will live and walk in that reality. That's where I have found Joy today, in holding on to those truths from Bible, that Jesus has set me free so, regardless of what I feel, I am free indeed.

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Joy - Our Deepest Desire

            In yesterday’s blog post I shared that in 2013 I’m going to attempt A Year of Living Joyfully. As a Christmas gift my daughter gave me a year long plan of Bible verses to meditate upon and projects to do that will point me toward Joy. I also shared that as a life-long sufferer from profound sadness (depression?) I was looking forward to see if this pursuit of Joy might turn out to be the antidote for which I’ve always longed.

            As I prepare for the official kick off of A Year of Living Joyfully next week on January 1 I’m spending this week thinking about Joy. What is it? Why is important? Is there something to Joy that’s more profound than just “feeling good?” Here are a couple of things I came across yesterday.

C.S. Lewis, in his book Surprised by Joy, wrote that Joy is “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." Lewis used Joy in a very specific sense. He did not think of Joy as just a synonym happiness, as many of us do. For him Joy was the deepest of all desires that could never be satisfied by any of the pleasures of this world – it as an other-worldly quality that can only be satisfied by an intimate encounter with God.

Another way of looking at it is that the desire for Joy was hardwired into humans at the time of our creation. It is part of being in the Image of God that our deepest longings are not for this world but are for God.

The 13^th Century theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote something similar, “Man cannot live without joy.” The desire for Joy is part of what it means to be human. But Aquinas also went on with the profound observation that when people do not find Joy from their relationship with God, then are then prone to start searching for Joy from the things of the world, things that can never really satisfy. “When man is deprived is true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.”

I know exactly what Aquinas was saying. As I’ve previously written, in my best moments, I’ve tried to treat my sadness with a variety of positive means – nutrition, exercise, meditation, spiritual disciplines, counseling, and medication. But there have been many times, when the sadness as been unbearable, in some of my worst moments, when I have turned to “carnal pleasures” in an attempt to escape – food, drink, unhealthy relationships, entertainment, to name a few. The results have almost always been dreadful.

This desire, no more than that, this need for Joy is not optional. It is a God-given thing designed to drive people, to drive me, toward him. Other things will not satisfy, not for long. It is the way people and the world were designed from the beginning. Ultimate Joy is only found him.

These are some of my thoughts today about what real Joy is and where it is found. What do you think about Joy?

 

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Sandy Hook Massacre - Where Was God? (Part 3)

 

Many of us are still reeling from the recent Sandy Hook Massacre. The murder of 20 five and six year old children along with six of their teachers as caused many people to ask questions about God; how could he have let something like this happen?

The Bible says that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, which means that he must know how to end evil and suffering and that he is able to do so. The Bible also says that he is perfectly good which means that he surely would want to end evil and suffering. So, how could he let such an unthinkable horror happen? Clearly he could have stopped Adam Lanza. Why didn’t he?

In my last two blog posts I discussed what has been called the theological or philosophical problem of evil. In sum, skeptics of religion say that it is impossible to reconcile the Bible’s claims that God is all-knowing, all-powerful and perfectly good with the continuing presence of evil and suffering in the world. The horrible events at Sandy Hook shine a spotlight on what is a continual problem. If God really is as the Bible describes would have the knowledge and ability to end suffering and would certainly want to do so. The undisputed fact that he does not end evil and suffering can only mean that either the Bible is wrong - he is not able to end evil and suffering, which means he is weak - or he chooses not to end evil and suffering when he could, which makes him a monster.

This is a difficult problem. That’s why it’s been called the Achilles Heal of religion. I’m not, in this blog post, going to attempt to provide a wholly satisfying answer to the problem. And, I’m not, here, going to suggest how to help someone suffering from the effects of evil. My purpose here is to answer the philosophical issue. A good resource for someone looking for practical help in dealing with suffering is the book The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis.

To defeat the skeptic’s argument against God based on the existence of evil we don’t need an answer for every instance of evil and suffering. After all we are not God and as the Bible tells us, his ways are not our ways. We will never fully understand why God does what he does. To defeat the argument against God all that is required is to see that could be good reasons for allowing evil. The argument against God hinges on the assertion that a good God with the ability to eliminate evil and suffering would always want to do so. All we have to see that God could have a good reason for evil. So, is there a good reason for evil?

Theologians and philosophers have suggested a number of possible good or beneficial reasons for the existence of evil. In this blog post I’m only going to consider the two reasons that most often put forward to explain evil.

            God wants men and women to have free will, to be free to make choices choose good over evil. If people are compelled to do good contrary to their free choice they are, at best, merely robot-like going through the motions of doing what is right. At worst they would be dishonest.

If that is true, that people must have the freedom to choose good, then they must also have the freedom to choose evil. Otherwise there is not real choice. C. S. Lewis put it this way, “The freedom of a creature must mean freedom to choose: and choice implies the existence of things to choose between.” It is from this ability to choose between good and evil that all instances of actual evil have come.  Pain and suffering, all of which result from evil choices, are then a necessary consequence of the freedom of choice that God has given to people. In order to have a world in which men and women are able to make choices of true significance then there must be evil, and if there is evil there must be pain and suffering. There is no other option. God has determined that freewill for his creatures is a morally sufficient reason for the existence of pain and suffering. Thus, the argument that an all-knowing, all-powerful and perfectly good God would never permit pain and suffering is defeated.

No pain – no gain. That’s the basic idea of seeing evil as necessary for personal growth. None of us is fully developed. We all need to grow. Suffering can give us opportunities to show courage as we face it without fleeing. When we see others suffer our hearts can grow in compassion and kindness and we can learn to care for others. The pain and suffering that comes from evil can provide these and many other opportunities to grow and become better people. Of course going through pain and suffering is not pleasant, but it is necessary for our good. God uses evil to mold us into better people. This, some say, is a sufficiently good reason for God to allow evil and the argument that God would never allow evil is defeated.

 

Admittedly, many people will find these arguments to be not very satisfying. They do not take away the pain we feel because of evil. They don't tell us why in the specific case of Sandy Hook why God thought it was a good thing to let Adam Lanza carry out his horrible, murderous plan. However, the thoughtful person will see that the mere existence of evil does not mean that God cannot exist or that he cannot really be all-knowing, all-powerful and perfectly good. There can be beneficial reasons for the existence of evil.

The Sandy Hook Massacre - Where Was God?

            What happened to God last Friday when Adam Lanza forced his way into the Sandy Hook School? Was he asleep or distracted? Did he miss what Lanza was about to do? Why didn’t he stop it? How could God allow such an unspeakable evil? I thought he was good and kind.

            Whenever there is a tragedy like the Sandy Hook massacre there are people who wonder, “How could God let this happen?” It is a difficult question that can lead to a crisis of faith. It is hard to believe in God in face of such unspeakable evil.

            The problem of reconciling the existence of evil with the Bible’s portrayal of an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God is not a new one. It has been called the Achilles’ heal of religion. Some say there is no way to reconcile these things and the only reasonable conclusion is that God does not exist. I've thought about these things for years and am going to take several posts here at Heart Matters to explore the question.

            For centuries thoughtful people have contemplated this issue and decided that either the Bible is wrong in the way it describes God or that God doesn’t exist. Their conclusion is that Christianity is a fraud and Christians are fools.  Even for those who continue to believe and embrace the Bible’s teachings about God this issue can cause serious obstacles resulting in serious doubts about his love and goodness.

Here’s the issue:

·         The Bible says that God knows all things; he is omniscient. The writer of Job said that God is “perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16) and in the Psalms it says that God’s “understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:5b), it is limitless. If it’s true that God’s knowledge is limitless and perfect, then that means that God is always aware when people suffer, he knows the depth of their pain and he knows how to prevent evil.

·         The Bible says that God is all-powerful; he is omnipotent. God said through the prophet Jeremiah, “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” implying that there isn’t anything too hard for him. And, in the same verse in Psalms where we’re told of God’s limitless knowledge, it says, “Great is our Lord and mighty in power” (Psalm 147:5a). If it’s true that God is mighty in power and that nothing is too hard for him, then that means that he is able to stop evil.

·         The Bible says that God is perfectly good; he is omnibenevolent. David wrote of God that he is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all that he has made” (Psalm 145:8-9).  The apostle John wrote that the reason people should love one another is because “God is love” (1 John 4:8). John did not just say that God loves, but that he is love. Love is the very essence of who he is. If it’s true that God is love, acts in love, is gracious, compassionate and good to all, then it follows that he would want to end evil and suffering.

But he doesn’t. Not only doesn’t he prevent evil when he could, he has created and sustains a world in which evil and suffering is often horrific. He could have stopped Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook. But he didn’t. How can anyone believe that God is loving, powerful and knowing when he stands by and does nothing while 20 little children and their teachers are slaughtered? Let’s explore this together. Check back in a few days for another post.