Living in Love

It isn’t enough to simply acknowledge intellectually that God loves you. To restrict God’s love to the intellect alone will greatly limit our ability to enjoy Him. The raging fire of His love seeks to permeate your mind, your emotions, and your will. Then, having ravaged your soul, His love will leap from your life, through your actions, onto those around you, like a fire that jumps from one tree in the forest to another.

God wants you to both know and to feel His love. There seems to be an overemphasis in many circles, either by focusing on experiencing God through the mind to the exclusion of the emotions, or vice-versa. One group accuses the other of emotionalism while the second views the former as being either afraid or ignorant of the Holy Spirit. One may claim to be led by the Bible, while the other professes to be led by the Spirit, but neither extreme is a biblical position.

God wants His love to invade every part of our being. A balanced life is one in which we clearly understand His love intellectually, deeply experience His love emotionally and purposefully live out of His love volitionally. With life in balance, the written Word guides us objectively and the living Word within guides us subjectively.

From out of the center of His love, we are then able to live the carefree, abundant life that Jesus Christ came to give us. God wants you to enjoy life. He wants you to gulp it down by the gallon! Isn’t that the real we all have?

We have a powerful innate drive to drink deeply of life and, thus, of
 God — to come to the end of our lives saying that we’ve truly lived.
That this urge belongs at the heart of a person’s life makes the
circle complete. Life is good!

There is, however, another side. While we long to live this way,
most of us are actually terrified to do so. Confronted with the
opportunity to dance with life, we cling to our inhibitions and fears and
our little ways of skulking in the shadows of uninvolvement. We may
tap our toes, but we’re firmly glued to our chairs. We aren’t easily
persuaded to get up and dance.

As I read Henry David Thoreau’s, Walden Pond, I was struck by his desire to “suck the marrow from life.” It described my own zest for living. What Thoreau thought he could find in nature, I knew could be found in Jesus Christ.

Imagine a life in which the fire of God so consumes you that you lose all inhibitions; a life in which you charge forth confidently into every day with the assurance that God will guarantee your success that day. This life isn’t imaginary, it’s real! When we live from the blazing glory of His love for us, that is the life we can live.

Tony Campolo once said in a speech, “Most of us are tiptoeing through life so we can reach death safely. We should be praying, ‘If I should wake before I die.’ Life can get away from you. Don’t be satisfied with just pumping blood.” There is an abundant life for the taking for those who have the assurance of God’s unconditional love and commitment to us.

Making Our Days Count

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
 

There is a benefit to understanding that your days are numbered. None of us are going to live forever in this world. Knowing that we have a finite number of days here can motivate us to make the time we have left really count for eternity. For an eye-opening moment, you can check out one of numerous web sites online that will project your date of death based on answers you give about your present lifestyle choices. It is a stark forecast to see your death-date predicted by a computer. Of course, we all know that nobody can be precise in predicting when any of us will die, but I think a powerful point is made, nonetheless.

There is a definite day and hour when you will leave this earth-life and the opportunities of this world will be gone. We need to redeem the time because time is a finite commodity and is limited in duration. On His last night, Jesus prayed to His Father, "I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do" (John 17:4). Nobody ever lived out a God-designed plan with effectiveness that equals the life of Jesus Christ. He repeatedly said that the only way He did it was by depending on God the Father to express His life through the Son. Every aspect of His actions was an expression of the Father’s life within Him.

It is important each and every day to consider the things the Father has for you to do. The grace walk is grounded in being, not doing, but that doesn't mean there is no “doing.” When we understand that we live in union with Deity, we want to do things that honor Him in this life! It’s not a legalistic list of things we have to accomplish but a desire to live our lives to the fullest that motivates us.

You are destined for more than to loiter around on planet earth for seventy or eighty years, then go to heaven. This world isn’t a waiting room. It is the stage upon which we participate in the Expression of Divine Life in this world in a way that is nothing short of supernatural. Your life is a unique expression of His infinite life and love. Your life is a part of eternity’s divine drama. It is the love story of Jesus Christ and you. Let others cower in the wings if that’s what they choose, but don’t choose that for yourself. At a deep level, you sense that you are meant to fulfill a wonderful part He has written for you. His grace empowers you to assume your role with confidence and live out your scene in a way that will send ripples across the kingdom of God. You can make every day count because He has already accomplished in eternity the good things you will experience with your allotted days here.

Isaiah said, “Lord, You will establish peace for us, since you have also performed for us all our works” (Isaiah 26:12). Can you see that it’s a done deal? All you need to do is trust Him to cause you to walk out in time what has already been done in eternity. The Apostle Paul zeros in on this aspect of the Christian’s life mission in Ephesians 2:10. I love the way the verse is translated in the New Living Translation. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”

If you want to wisely make your days count, you may find that as Jesus lives His life through you, you will love people more. You will find yourself showing greater love to your family, to your friends, even to strangers. Jesus in you may even find people who aren't "all that lovable" on the surface and show love to them. Jesus was often criticized for loving the wrong people. Has that ever happened to you?

Don’t be surprised if it does when His love captivates you. When grace fills your heart, you may discover it oozing out as love on the most unlikely people. Human love is highly discriminating but agape is the unconditional love that flows right from the heart of God. As His love overflows in your life, others will find themselves being the recipients of love that makes no sense in human terms but that love becomes a means of healing to them just because they have encountered you. You can leave every person you engage today in a better condition than before they encountered you just because the love of Jesus will flow out of you to them.

Making your days count means voluntarily giving up control over our lives into the hands of our Loving Father. We all act like control-freaks unless we surrender everything into God’s hands. There is such a relief in giving over the control of our lives into the hands of God. You and I aren’t suited for being in control. God, on the other hand, is perfectly suited for it. We cause ourselves needless turmoil when we get the two roles confused. Give yourself and everything associated with your life to the One who loves you and knows what is best for you. You are only a steward of all that you have – your resources, your time, your health, your abilities – all of it has been entrusted to you to manage by your Father.

Claim no ownership over anything but surrender everything to Him. Having disavowed ownership of anything in life and acknowledging that everything is His, you will find yourself experiencing freedom from the need to control. You will act responsibly but leave the results in your lifestyle to God. You will live each day wisely and productively because the outcome of everything you do will ultimately be His responsibility.

 Whatever your age is, be mindful of the fact that your days are numbered. As you submit yourself to Him and realize that life is about experiencing and expressing agape; about yielding control of everything to Him and simply living in and from Love, you will gain the wisdom that only comes from God and you will make every day count to the fullest.

Getting Along With Other People

The newspaper report described a fifty-three-year-old man who was charged with assault after a fifteen-minute brawl at the rural Full Gospel Holiness Church. The brawl began when one person wanted to occupy the back pew, which was occupied, as usual, by a church regular. The article went on to say that the church minister's son suffered a bite to the neck that required 31 stitches.

You can’t make this stuff up. It’s a true story. Hard to believe, but true. While it is unlikely that you've ever been in a brawl inside a church building, the chances are that there is at least one other person in your life with whom you tend to have problems. How can we get along with people with whom it is often hard to live peaceably?

The Apostle Paul had a word on the matter than can help immeasurably. He wrote, "From now on, we know no one according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16). Then in the next verse he said, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature."

What does this have to do with getting along with people? It has to do with the way we choose to relate to them. To know somebody after the flesh is to decide their identity based on superficial, earthly things - such as their behavior, their position, - things like that.

Paul said that he chose not to know people within that context. Instead, he points to the fact that, in Christ, we are new creatures. When we choose by faith to look past the human flaws in other people and to see Jesus in them, it becomes much easier to "be at peace with them." We can't control how others act, but we can determine how we will respond to them.

Jesus described how we are to relate to others saying, ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-38).

The words of Jesus sounded as strange to those who heard Him speak them in His own day as they sound in modern times. How are we to love our enemies? It is by recognizing that He loves them. He blesses them just as He blesses you.
Jesus then goes on to tell us something that seems impossible at first glance. He says,

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” How can any of us possibly do such a thing? The answer isn't complicated. We execute perfection in our love for others by resting in His perfect love.

We don’t muster up love from within ourselves, apart from Him. To the contrary, it is His love that we express to others, even those who we would otherwise find hard to love.

1 John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” The answer becomes clear in this verse. We don’t love those who are difficult by reaching into our own abilities. We simply become channels of God’s love. Love is from God. We are conduits through which that love flows.

When you find it hard to get along with somebody, start by praying a quick prayer for the person. Ask Jesus to express love to them through you. When we react to the bad mood of others with a negative response, we have allowed them to control us. Why let somebody else cause you to get in a bad mood? You can choose to express love to them and not allow the circumstance to rob you of your own joy.

Then, remember that he may have some kind of conflict going on inside himself. A sales clerk in a store once acted very rudely to me. My first impulse was to react the same way, but instead I paused, looked at the lady and sincerely asked, "Are you having a bad day?"

To my amazement, she began to pour out the details of her personal life that were causing trouble for her. I was so glad that I hadn't acted on my first impulse. Her demeanor instantly softened when I asked that question. It was one of those "God-moments" when He allowed me to see the importance of responding in love and not reacting impulsively.

Finally recognize the fact that the problem may be within you and not the other person. There have been times when I've found myself irritated several times by other people before it finally dawned on me: "They aren't doing anything wrong. I'm just in a bad mood today!" Maybe the quality in another person that irritates you isn't a bad quality. Maybe you're just in a bad mood yourself.

Paul determined to look beyond human characteristics and see Jesus in others. Mother Teresa was once asked about her work with the lepers, "Do you imagine that it is Jesus ministering to them when you serve them?" "No," she answered. "When I look at them, I see the face of Jesus."

There's the key - seeing Jesus in others. Look beyond the misbehavior and see Jesus in the face of those you meet. As much as it is possible, live at peace. That choice expresses the life of Christ.
By the way, if anybody ever wants to take your seat in church, especially if it is on the back row – let him.

How I Learned To Dance

I didn’t grow up dancing. In fact, the message I received was that the reason premarital sex was wrong was because it might lead to dancing. Okay, maybe that’s not true, but dancing was one of the big no-no’s at my house. We could tap our feet to the Lawrence Welk Show and I could even sing along with the 1960s Rock-n-Roll music of WRBN but that’s as far as it went.

My wife, Melanie, however didn’t grow up in such an environment. Lively music and dancing in the living room were as much a part of her family life as having meals together. Something about that caused me to envy her when we were teens. I wanted to dance but I just didn’t know how and, plus, I was afraid Jesus might come while I was dancing and was convinced that would be an awkward moment if He did.

Sometime around our 20th Wedding Anniversary we went on a cruise to celebrate. As we sat listening to the music and watching others on the dance floor, Melanie asked me, “Let’s dance?”

“You know I don’t know how to dance,” I told her. I had taken her to two dances when we were in high school but I stood on the sidelines and we didn’t stay long. She didn’t like it then and she still didn’t like it.

“Come on, there’s nothing to it,” she responded.

On the one hand I knew I didn’t know how to dance but on the other I wanted to please my wife. I sat silently for a few moments and watched the other men with the wives on the dance floor. I began to note something I’d not previously known. Most men can’t dance. They’re just props for the women who do dance.

I watched the guys shuffle back and forth from foot to foot with their hand raised to chest level and began to think that maybe I could do it after-all.

“Okay, when they play a good song,” I answered.

Shortly the band began to play a song that caused Melanie to say, “Okay, let’s go. This one is easy.”

“What makes you think this is easy?” I asked.

“Because it’s a cha-cha beat,” she said. “Listen to the beat. It’s one, two , one-two-three; one, two, one-two-three.”

I took a deep sigh and onto the dance floor we went. We started to dance. I watched my feet and consciously counted with each step: “One, two, one-two-three. One, two, one-two-three.”

“Don’t watch your feet,” Melanie instructed. “This isn’t hard.”

“I can’t talk to you and count at the same time,” I replied as I now lost count.

“Look at my face,” she said. “Just relax and feel the rhythm.”

I looked at Melanie’s face. “How did I end up married to such a beautiful woman? One who can dance?” I thought.

As the evening progressed, I found that what Melanie told me was true. When I relaxed and began to enjoy being with her instead of focusing on counting, I began to feel the rhythm of the music and, for the first time, I actually began to dance.

The relationship of the Trinity has been compared to a dance for many centuries. Perichoresis, theologians call it. It refers to the interpenetration of harmony between the members of the Godhead that is often compared to dancing. Father, Son and Spirit have been dancing together all along. He has created humanity to participate in The Dance.

Like I was in the beginning on the cruise ship, all of us are at the dance but not all are dancing. Those who have trusted Jesus Christ are participating in the dance while many are wallflowers at the party. We’re all included in the dance and the divine invitation is to get up off that wall and dance!

Too many of us who are dancing become too preoccupied with making sure we don’t miss a step. We’re watching our feet instead of starring into the face of our Dance Partner. We're there, but we’re not really being there. What we need is to relax, look at the One who brought us to the dance and feel the rhythm of grace.

Are you participating in The Big Dance? If not, go ahead. Let loose. Shake off the legalistic inhibitions that hold you back. Get up and get into the grace groove. It really is quite a party and it would be a shame to miss it.