Tag: Compassion

Posted on

Who is God that He Should Love Me?

Who is God that He should love me? That’s a crazy question. This post is part one of a two-part post. The second part answers, “Who am I that I should love God? That will be next week.

So, who is God that He should love me? First of all, who is God? I believe in this fundamental concept; God created all the laws of science and every word inscribed in the Bible; if there is conflict, there is something about one of them we don’t understand. Therefore, any conflict between God’s word and science is artificial. It is a misunderstanding.

The Incredible God of the Universe

Job 12:7-10, "But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind."

According to Forbes, the known universe has over 200 billion galaxies. Curious Kids states that the universe has approximately 200 billion trillion stars. Or, to put it another way, 200 sextillions. “Around 95 percent of the universe is still a mystery with unknown exotic particles and new forces awaiting discovery,” a quote from Professor Elisabetta Barberio, University of Melbourne. That is the bigness of God.

Colossians 1:16, "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him."

A caterpillar has 228 different muscles in its head. The Amazon is estimated to have 16,000 tree species. Spiders can produce up to seven kinds of silk and an oily secretion that stops their feet from sticking to their spider web. Plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, while humans take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. Also, a tiny acorn has everything it needs to grow into a massive 150-foot White Oak with approximately six million leaves.

The God of creation is beyond our understanding. God is both enormous and intricate. God did not create all this to throw it into the ether to see what would happen. He did it to show His majesty and glory.

Psalm 19:1-4, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night, they reveal knowledge. They have no speech; they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun."

God Created Man

He knew us from the beginning.

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Psalm 139:16 "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book  before one of them came to be."

Man was part of the initial design’s tapestry of creation: His crowning joy. God calls us His children, friends, and heirs to His Kingdom. We are not ants in God’s ant farm. On the contrary, He prizes us the most of all His creation.

John 1:12, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
John 15:14, "You are my friends if you do what I command you."
Galatians 4:7, "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."

So if all of this is true, then the most critical question becomes, “Why me?”

Psalm 8:4-6, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet."

God Chose Us

Who is God that He should love me? Maybe you can grasp why the creator of the universe might love His creation. He may marvel at the beauty of His galaxies, solar systems, or planets. They are innate; they are under the control of His master plan. But man, why man, and of the eight billion on this earth, why me? Why choose any of us when we rebel against His authority? We can not bridge the divide between our sinful nature and God’s perfection. We cannot comprehend what it means to be God.

God condescends toward man. He brings Himself low to allow us to understand who He is. He shows Himself to be less than He is so we might understand Him more. As a result, we cannot truly grasp the complete character of God. He is greater than anything we imagine and simultaneously involved in the most minute aspect of our lives. He created us as unique individuals so He might choose us to proclaim His glory.

John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you."

God is Love

Romans 8:38-39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God is love; it is an innate aspect of His character. He is perfect love and altruistic in nature. His love for us endures through time because it can not change. Because of this great love, He sent His Son to die for us.

1 John 4:9-10, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Who is God that He would love me? He is the only being in existence who can love you perfectly the way you are because He knows you intimately. God created you with the specific intent to have a loving relationship with Him. He will go to any extreme to show that love to you. He, and He alone, built the bridge for us to gain access to Him. Just ask Him.

Posted on

Swimming with Jesus

Ever wonder what it would be like to go swimming with Jesus? Are you holding on to the side of the pool for safety? Maybe you can swim with Jesus, but only in the shallow end of the pool. You know, where the water is shallow enough to touch the bottom when things get rough. How many of us venture into deep water with only Jesus to protect us?

1 John 5:14, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

Intimacy with Jesus takes the same courage and practice as swimming when we were children. When we were children, we relied on our parents or a swimming instructor to guide us through learning to swim. In the beginning, we spent most of our time either hanging onto the side of the pool or wading into the shallow end, where we knew we were safe. Only after much encouragement and practice did we even think about going to the deep end. But, unfortunately, the pool’s deep end did not provide the safety we needed.

Prayer is like swimming; we tend to cling to the edge and not let go. We want to trust in Jesus enough to set our worries aside, but we aren’t that sure. In time we feel more comfortable trusting Him with some things, but we want the security of taking control if it is not going how we want. If we are to mature in our prayer life, we must be able to swim in deep water and turn everything over to the one who loves us unconditionally. We must learn to trust Him even when we do not see His plan.

Hanging on to the Edge

1 John 5:15, "And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."

When we first started to learn about Christ, we probably did not understand the power of prayer. Prayer was more about asking for what we needed and then hanging on until it arrived. We felt we lacked faith if it didn’t arrive or God didn’t hear us. We certainly didn’t live as though we thought God would answer our prayers. It was more of a fallback position than looking for an answer.

Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

We didn’t approach prayer confidently. Who were we to expect God to care? God is busy; surely,  other prayers are more important than mine. My need isn’t as great as other people’s needs. Satan doesn’t like us to pray. He will do what he can to get us to stop. If he can’t convince us that our need is too big for God to resolve, he will convince us our need is too small for God to care.

Psalm 18:6, "In my distress, I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple, he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears."

Wading In

James 1:6, " But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

As we grow closer to God, we become emboldened, asking what is on our hearts without restraint. The problem is that we still don’t fully trust God to answer our prayers how we want them answered. Somehow, we have come to believe in answered prayer, but not that God’s answer is the best. We want to stay in shallow water where we can stand on our own if the need arises.

Mark 11:24, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

The shallow end is where most Christians spend their lives—praying but doubting the power of prayer. Because of this, they never see God’s hand in their life. It is a spiral that leads them to become more skeptical of prayer’s power. They find themselves standing in shallow water, thinking they can swim.

Swimming with Jesus

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

For the advanced open water diver, the Marriott Gold Coast in Australia has a private saltwater lagoon with an artificial reef visitors could use to prepare for diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Open-water divers are the ultimate swimmers. They are diving fifty to a hundred feet under the water, miles from shore, with only their scuba gear to sustain them. They are literally emersed in the experience, totally dependent.

That is the experience God wants for us when we pray. He wants continuous communication with an expectation that He will meet our needs. God wants us to be totally dependent on Him. Not so that He can control our lives, but so He can show us the power of His grace and compassion. God has a great life planned for each of us. God wants us to experience what He created in us.

Ephesians 6:18, " And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."

Be a deep-water diver of prayer, swimming far from shore, deep under the surface, and completely secure in what God has in store for you.

Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Posted on

Normalization

Response to Normalization

Normalization: Any process that makes something more regular typically means conforming to some regularity or rule. To cause something previously regarded as anomalous (aberrant, incongruous, abnormal) to be accepted, as usual, thereby altering the accepted norm.

I just returned from an IMED trip to India. Every trip to a new environment brings unexpected revelations. It is interesting how people normalize their environment. A person is born into or raised in an environment that becomes their ecosystem. It is all they know. They don’t see activities as abnormal. As an outsider, the same activity seems strange and out of place.

What is Normal?

When I visit Africa, they live in houses with dirt floors and no electricity or running water. They don’t go home to watch TV or surf the internet. But they dress impeccably. They are happy for the most part. They have the same concerns as most people regarding politics and the staples of living, but the scale is different.

When I travel to South America, they live by a little higher monetary standard. They have electricity and running water but must deal with the Cartel. A certain amount of money has to be paid for security. To them, it is the way it has always been and will always be.

My trip to India was noisy and chaotic. One of my friends described it as someone kicking over an ant hill. Honking horns seemed to be the primary way of steering through traffic. Crossing the street is an adventure; there is never a break.

Behavior has been normalized to all the people who live in these environments. They don’t see it. It is the way it is and will be. There are so many experiences in our lives that have become normalized. Over the years, modern society has accepted more deviant behavior as normal. Children born in this century have been raised to believe that behavior that a few decades ago was unacceptable is now standard. It is so normal that one cannot speak against it.

As outsiders, we should see it differently. It should seem strange and out of place, but does it? Have we normalized behavior that is unacceptable to God?

The Greatest Commandment

What should our response to this new normalized behavior be? The answer lies in the Book of Mark.

Mark 12:29-31, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none another commandment greater than these.”

The first part is to love God. Jesus is quoting right out of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

Our love for our Savior dictates our behavior. One of the most significant indicators of this love is to keep his commandments.

Joshua 22:5, “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

In a broken world, that means not letting the new normalization creep into our lives. It is holding to a standard of behavior that pleases God. It is not compromising when the world screams for compromise. Do not go along just to get along. Loving God is holding to a single truth.

The Second Greatest Commandment.

But loving God is the first part of what Jesus had to say. He also said that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

Leviticus 19:18, “Don’t seek vengeance. Don’t bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself, for I am Jehovah.”

Compassion and grace should be the leading indicators that we are children of God. As we deal with people who do not share our Biblical perspective, we must remember who we are. Biblical doctrine and theological preference are not more important than love. We must stay steadfast to the truth but not in a way that condones loveless behavior.

You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.  – Anne Lamott, on page 22 of Bird by Bird

I am uncomfortable with some of the life decisions I see being made by others. I have to remind myself that I am only responsible for the decision I make, not the decisions others make. Non-believers do not operate on the same set of standards. Before salvation their lives are given over to sin. The only way to have a meaningful dialogue is to be a person with whom they want to engage. The life of a believer must be seen as a better life than the life of a non-believer.  Presenting truth must be accompanied by understanding. They don’t prescribe to what we believe. Until they see the benefit of God’s love, they will not seek change.

Love

I wrote recently about “Love’s Reaction to Anger.” In that post, I tried to present that anger over sinful behavior is Biblical, but we should guard against our reaction to that anger. Sin causes us grief; the sinner is caught under sin’s influence. Our goal is to influence the person controlled by sin to seek deliverance. That cannot be accomplished outside the umbrella of love.

You can be absolutely right in your point of view and ineffective in your communications of that view. The object is not to be right but to be effective.

1 John 4:7-10, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Posted on

Finding the Heart of Christ

The world does not understand theology or dogma, but it understands love and sympathy. – Dwight L. Moody

A hard concession to make to myself, as a man, is that love galvanizes me. Men are supposed to be aloof. My father, a great man, instilled in me the identity of a warrior. Not the brawling, fisticuff type of ruffian. But a man with a plan and the tenacity to see it through. That tenacity tended to create silos of emotion. It was a learned skill of compartmentalizing distractions. It was a way to cut through the clutter with a laser focus on achieving a goal. It was about making hard decisions. Winning was extending my ability and expectation. It conjures an image of always moving toward the fight, the fight being an obstacle or challenge, an obstruction. You run toward things, not away from things.

Somewhere my heart changed. I started to see the beauty in all of God’s creations. The outdoors morphed from a place to grow physically stronger to a place to experience creation. It was awe-inspiring, and at times emotionally overwhelming, to see what God had done. It started with the beauty of nature and slowly took over my being. We each became beautifully crafted images of God’s love.

Colossians 3:14 “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Love binds everything, all our virtues, passion, and effort, into an unstoppable force for God’s kingdom. If what we are searching for is not rooted in love, then we need to hit the pause button. Paul wrote this eloquent passage to the Corinthians concerning the power of love.

1 Corinthians 13

“1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

You can’t fake it. People will see right through you if you try. You cannot seem all loving and caring one moment and distant and cold the next. Your purpose cannot be an activity that helps others. It has to be life-changing for both of you. “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” The echo that remains is love. The feeling of having loved and being loved is the most potent drug I know.

They say your eyes are the window of your soul. The other day I was listening to a speaker at a conference. The first part of the presentation was more about what and why. The second part was about how to apply the learning. There was an astounding transformation between the first and second parts. Her entire body language changed; her tone became softer. She became more relaxed and focused on the audience. Her body tilted toward them as she spoke of life-changing answered prayer. She connected with the people in the room. She had compassion for those who had not experienced what God can honestly do through prayer. It wasn’t just a passion for the topic but a love for the audience. She wanted good things for each of them.

1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”

When you make this connection, you will know God’s passion and purpose for you in life. Then, when you drive toward using your God-given resources to help people experience the love and joy of knowing Christ, you know you are on the right road. It is not enough that you can be successful in your chosen field; you have to want to be transformational. That is the purpose.

1 Corinthians 2:9 “However, as it is written: What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived — the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

Posted on

Sic Parvis Magna

1 Peter 3:3-4, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as elaborate hairstyles and wearing gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Sic Parvis Magna is the motto of Sir Francis Drake. Sir Francis Drake was knighted by the Queen and given a ring inscribed with this motto. It translates to Greatness from Small Beginnings. It means that anyone can become great no matter where they started. It gives a sense of hope to those who dare to believe it.

Why should you dare to believe such an outrageous statement? What is there about you that greatness would rest its head on your lap? Maybe it is the belief that greatness is relative. The truly great, the big, do the world-renowned acts of courage and bravery. The common great, those who are small, are appreciated for their small contribution to the welfare of humanity. They are the invisible great, the meat and potatoes of greatness.

Isaiah 54:4, “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. “

God implanted in each one of us at creation the seeds of greatness. Not the invisible great, but the greatness that reverberates through time. It is immortal greatness that bridges generations and millenniums. There will be people from times you will never see that will give thanks for your act of courage. 

1 Corinthians 16:13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”

How many times have we told ourselves, or someone else, if we hadn’t been in a particular place at a specific time, doing whatever, we never would have had that chance encounter? Ester spent her whole life wondering why the things that happened to her kept happening. Then one day, she knew. Joseph spent time in prison, wrongly accused, before he saved all of Israel.  Greatness lurks in the shadows until its time.

I know a man named Robert, a good man, a Godly man. He has had a dramatic impact on my life without him ever noticing it. We were in each other’s company many times but seldom talked. I watched him. I watched his grace, compassion, and almost innate ability to bring peace to every situation. He was unselfish to a fault. Greatness was so part of who he was that he never noticed. Today, as I write this, his family is by his side as he says his last goodbyes. It is way too early in his life. I don’t always understand the fairness of it. God is God, and I am not. But I see the waves starting to crescendo. The ripples of his life growing to be tsunamis for generations. That, folks, is the greatness of God exemplified through man.

Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Why do we close our eyes when we pray, when we cry, when we kiss, when we dream? Because the most beautiful things in life are not seen but felt by our hearts.  – anonymous

Never discount who you are in Christ. Never minimize your potential or your value. Never question your relevance. Pursue Him, pursue His plan for you, and you will prosper according to His will. Your greatness will ripple through eternity. Lives you may never see or know will be changed. Greatness is no more than compassion, love, kindness, and obedience to the will of God. Greatness is not a trumpet’s sound but a child’s whisper. It is the moment when you give of yourself in a way you thought impossible. It is when sacrifice is seen as gain.

2 Timothy 1:7, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”

Greatness from Small Beginnings. Eternity with Christ for someone else that was started in your life. And that new life spread to another, who passed it on to another, and it kept growing.

2 Corinthians 10:12, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

When you think that you don’t matter or that your life is an endless challenge of meaningless tasks, remember, there is someone special that God has put in your path. You are eternity to them. Seeing our greatness is not looking inward but looking outward. Someone took a chance to be great for us. Now it is our turn.

Hebrews 10:35–36, “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”

Posted on

Splagchnizomai

Greek: Splagchnizomai (splangkh-nid’-zom-ahee), To have the bowels yearn, be moved with compassion, have compassion (the nobler entrails – the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. These gradually came to denote the seat of all affections).

In Luke, compassion is described using the Greek word splagchnizomai. Luke is describing Jesus’ compassion for the sinners around Him. It is more than a pragmatic need to help; it is an emotional connection to their condition. Christ didn’t just have compassion for their lives but more profound compassion for their eternal existence.

Matthew 9:36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Compassion is the root of God’s purpose for your life. It is through compassion we learn to love. It is through compassion that we act. The challenge is to move compassion from your head to your heart. Many good causes evoke compassion. Who can look away when a small child is hungry? Scenes of poverty elicit a strong sense of compassion and the need to do something.  

James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I want to delve deeper beyond the intellectual understanding of caring for others. God loves us with an indescribable passion not because we deserve it but because He knows we don’t. His love for us is driven by compassion for who we are, not admiration for who we are. He understands that we can never repay Him for His investment in us. His heart is moved by our suffering and wondering.

He needs nothing. It is His very nature to love us altruistically. He is the model for what we should aspire to when we engage others. Our reaction to others shouldn’t be rules-based or environmentally conditioned but a visceral swell from deep within us. It should be a reaction too intense to control.

1 Peter 3:8, “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.”

That is a lot to ask in this chaotic, busy world. We are constantly influenced by people whose agenda requires more time to decipher than we have. We go along to get along, to make it through the day. It is hard enough to show compassion for the ones we love; how do we extend that? How do we slow down our heads so that we can engage others, not just roll over them on our way to the next thing?

“Compassion costs. It is easy enough to argue, criticize, and condemn, but redemption is costly, and comfort draws from the deep. Brains can argue, but it takes heart to comfort.” – Samuel Chadwick.

First, we don’t eat the elephant in one bite. We have to decide who we want to be. The account of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) has two storylines. The first one is the big one we all think about. It is how the father showed compassion for his son upon his return; it is easy to recognize and relate to. The second is subtle and closer to home (v. 28-30). The good son has little compassion for his brother because he feels he has stayed behind and supported his father after the prodigal son left. The good son has this sense of righteous indignation that overshadows compassion. The father’s compassion was splagchnizomai, while the good son’s compassion was rules-based and pragmatic.

Are we the father or the good son? Can we show compassion even when we have been taken advantage of, or do we have rules that we feel are reasonable and correct? To truly love those God has put in front of us is to scrap the rules. We all have a lot of rules. Many of those rules were taught to us by well-meaning individuals who didn’t want to see others take advantage of us. The good son has a plausible argument, but his position lacks genuine compassion.

Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

To love the way God intended us to love, we need first to have compassion for those God has sent our way. Like Christ, it can’t be compassion just for their current situation, but compassion for their eternity. Once we start to see people as an extension of their eternal existence, we can start to look past who they are now. We start to see them as God sees them.  Loving someone you will spend in the presence of God for eternity is a lot easier than loving the person who can irritate you with just a look.

In life, it is the journey, not the destination. The destination is a gift through grace. The journey is all the beautiful things God has in store for us as He helps us help others.

Galatians 5:14, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Posted on

God’s Insatiable Love for Us

Psalm 31:7, “I will be glad and rejoice in Your unfailing love, for You have seen my troubles, and You care about the anguish of my soul. “

Love is a tricky animal to tame. It can be the thrill of a lifetime while simultaneously being our greatest fear. Love is one of those things we crave to the point of distraction. We know, untamed, it will destroy us, and yet true love is a bond that can’t be broken. We have committed so many sins chasing after love. If we were ever the fool, it was because of love. But there is only one pure, deep, passionate, and powerful love; it comes from Christ.

The love that God lavishes on His people never operates apart from His holiness, mercy, omnipotence, justice, or other divine attributes. It is the glue that holds all of His attributes together.

PURE

1 John 4:18, “Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love. “

Pure love drives out fear. When we rest in the arms of the one who truly loves us, we are secure. Pure love is described in Corinthians. When we read this passage from a human perspective, we see a goal or an objective to which to aspire. To be all of these things for another seems impossible. But God is all of these things for us. Corinthians not only describes how we should approach love toward each other, but it also describes how God loves us. God did not create two standards, one for us and one for Himself. He created a single standard of how He loves us, then asks us to try to love others the same way. Reread this passage; this time, read it as God’s description of how He loves you.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud, or rude. It does not demand its way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. “

How pure is this? He was scourged, humiliated, and hung on a cross to demonstrate His love for us. He did not do this because we deserved salvation. He did it to open the door to salvation for wicked, stubborn people. His love for us was not dependent on our love for Him.

Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

DEEP

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Several passages in the Bible help us understand that God’s love runs deeper than anything we have ever experienced. This last week, NASA reported to have observed a single star 28-billion light-years away; that’s 168 trillion miles. When God says that nothing in all of creation can separate us from His love, imagine 168 trillion miles in front of you, in back of you, above you, and below you. His love is greater than all of that. But more importantly, it is the depth of His love within your heart. It goes to the core of who you are; who you were created to be. You were created to be loved by the author of the universe.

Ephesians 3: 17-19, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

PASSIONATE

John 11:35, “Jesus wept”

Jesus wept. I don’t know of a more provocative statement than this. The God of the universe, a perfect being in nature and existence, cried over one of His own. Knowing the nature of Christ and the nature of man, it is incredible that He would weep over us, but Christ does. He does because we are part of His family; we are errant, headstrong, wayward children, but we are His children.

1 John 3:1, “See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are!”

One of the more remarkable aspects of God’s passion for us is that He knew what we would become from creation. All of our pigheadedness still gives Him great pleasure to call us His own.

Ephesians 1:5, “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.”

All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of His wings; His passion for us is unceasing. There is nothing we can do to make Him desert us. All we need to do is repent, and He is gracious to forgive.

Psalm 36:5-7, “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is Your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings. “

God left us a guide and companion so that we would always know He is present in our lives. He understands that we cannot love as He does. He gave us a voice to reassure us when we feel alone or forgotten. The benefits of the love of God towards His children are blessings of joy for those who keep His Commandments.

Romans 5:5, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. “

POWERFUL

Job 36:22, “God’s power is unlimited. He needs no teachers.”

Job said it very succinctly; His power is unlimited. There is nothing He can’t do; no task is too small or too big. His power is beyond our ability to understand. The God that loves you, the God that wept over you, is the God of unlimited power that can make your life meaningful. He not only wraps you in His love, but He also has the power to protect you from evil. Here in Job, we read the definition of His power.

Job 26:7-14, “God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds don’t burst with the weight. He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds. He created the horizon when he separated the waters: he set the boundary between day and night. The foundations of heaven tremble; they shudder at his rebuke. By his power, the sea grew calm. By his skill, he crushed the great sea monster. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent. These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

LASTLY

1 Corinthians 2:9, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him'”

Posted on

Kindness

Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”

Kindness (noun): the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate; a kind act. — English Oxford Living Dictionaries

We are wired to do acts of kindness; the longer we think about it, the less kind we become. We negate the natural tendency to be kind by overthinking the return on investment. Being kind is intuitive; it is the way God made us. It is part of the design specification from before the universe was formed.

FOR THE GEEK IN YOU

God designed us so that we would benefit from acts of kindness. Kindness produces a significant hormone, oxytocin, “the love hormone.” Oxytocin is associated with stress reduction; it achieves this by inhibiting sympathoadrenal and stress response activity, which includes preventing the release of adrenal corticoids. Oxytocin acts both on the psychological level, increasing bond formation, and on the physiological level, via inhibiting stress hormone release and producing opiate-like effects. (The Science of Kindness).

This explanation is science-speak for “Kindness makes you feel good,” both emotionally and physically. So, why did God create this natural reaction to acts of kindness, and what does God say we should do about it? How do we integrate this into our everyday lives so that they are not individual disconnected acts?

LEAD WITH COMPASSION, FOLLOW WITH KINDNESS

Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Let’s start with the basics. We are, and always will be, sinners. God could hold that against us, but He has compassion for His creation. It is through this compassion that He expresses kindness toward us. Without compassion, there would be no foundation for kindness. We would be rebellious, wayward sinners unworthy of reconciliation. His compassion toward us paves the way for His kindness to us.

We are to mirror God to others. To do that, we need to build a foundation of compassion toward those we do not see as worthy of compassion before our acts of kindness start to looking like genuine kindness. We can be obedient without experiencing kindness. We can act out of obligation or submission without being kind.

Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

A place we might start is to heed Ephesians 4:29. If we focus our speech on building up those less fortunate, it leaves little room for criticism. Whenever we emphasize a fault or weakness, we should instead point out virtue or strength. Would we start to look at people differently? If we do, we start to see the gifts God gave them rather than their shortcomings? Once we recognize their unique value, we can more easily show kindness. Kindness no longer becomes an act of submission or obligation but becomes an act of gratitude.

Matthew 5:24, “leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

Matthew reminds us that we must first make our gift worthy before presenting it to Christ. So you make kindness a worthy gift by making its foundation, compassion.

GIVE TO GIVE, NOT TO RECEIVE

Luke 6:35, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

The other trap we need to avoid is Quid Pro Quo. It is the natural inclination of all people to calculate, even subconsciously, the value of the act. If I extend this amount of effort, what happens? We do not expect a direct tit-for-tat; we expect that we have invested with future value. That value may not come from the person for which we have extended the effort, but it exists just the same. Have you ever thought, or said, why has this occurred with the good I have done? Is there some karma in the world that withholds kindness from those who do not practice it? If I show kindness, should it not benefit me?

Kindness is an act, in and of itself, that does not require external motivation. It is a gift you give to yourself. It is an attempt to be more like Jesus.

FINDING YOUR RHYTHM IN LIFE

Kindness is not an obligation or submission to a higher authority. It isn’t a habit to be performed mindlessly over and over. It does not reach out from your subconscious to grab the moment and steal away. Kindness is a conscious act of will that integrates you into the lives of those around you to share what God has given you. Kindness should be the heartbeat of who you are. God loves you unconditionally. Because of that love, He has compassion for what you are going through. That compassion is expressed in kindness toward you. He paid the total price.

Kindness should flow from you as a natural part of being. It should be like breathing, inseparable from life itself. When kindness becomes the music in your head that lightens your step and softens your outlook, you have started to live the life God created for you.

1 Peter 3:9, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

Purpose Driven Life Proudly powered by WordPress