Continue reading]]>

You’re at the grocery store again. The same thing you do every week. Pick up the ingredients for the upcoming week’s meals. It’s a bit mundane, as shopping usually is. You pass children with their mothers down the aisles; some are polite, while others beg for candy. You see the man with the American flag muscle shirt, the teenagers grouped together like giggling hyenas. There’s the middle aged woman examining an avocado, and the 20-something college kid pulling a frozen pizza out of the freezer.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary; regular people following their regular routines. As you pick up your last item and place it in your basket, you turn to head toward the register. You see someone run past the isle in a hurry. “Weird,” you think “I wonder what their rush is?” You hear a popping noise to your left, from the other side of the store. Maybe someone dropped something. You continue to head toward the front of the store, and as you turn out of the isle, you see people running, and hear screams of panic. There’s a woman lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

Suddenly, everything goes in slow motion. Blood rushes to your head, as the perimeter of your vision goes white. You see a masked man and flashes of light before you. He’s pointed to your left, and as you begin to turn to run, he looks at you, yelling something, and aims his weapon at you.

This is it. Time seems to stand perfectly still, and in this eternal moment of accepting your unfortunate fate, you see a dark shadow move in front of you. A muzzle blast leaves a corona of light around this object in front of you. Time somehow seems to stop entirely. There is no sound, there is no movement; a perfect darkened picture of nothingness, with just your thoughts to keep you company. “Am I dead?” you think to yourself.

As reality slowly fades back, you can hear screaming and wailing coming at you like a freight train. People come back into view, and the ensuing chaos with them. The gunman has fled, leaving a bloody mess strewn about the linoleum floor. You gasp, and then look down to check your body for bullet holes, but find none. Breathing a sigh of relief, you look down to see a man laid out in front of you, gasping and wheezing. You run to give him aid, then realize this was the shadow that passed in front of you. His airways filled with blood, he tries his best to whisper to you “are you okay?” You tell him softly that you are fine. Trying to put pressure on his chest wound with your hands, he pushes them away gently. “It’s okay.” He says slowly, “I did what I needed to do. You are safe, and I took this bullet for you. Please tell my children that I love them, and do not waste your life.” The last word sputters out of his mouth, now filled with blood. He takes his final breath and dies in your arms; a complete stranger who chose to trade his life for yours.

As I wrote this short story in my head on my way home from work today, I remembered that someone has already died for me. Taken the bullet with my name on it, and given me a second chance to live a life worth living. That my value has nothing to do with what I drive, who I marry, or what gadgets I own. My life was worth someone else’s. They made that choice before I had a say in it.

How do I talk to myself? What kinds of things do I believe about myself that spit in the face of that man’s sacrifice? If heaven chose to bankrupt itself so that I can live, what does that say about my true value? How should I actually speak to myself, and how should I treat others? Is my life today worthy of someone else’s death? Would they be proud of what choices I am making with the second chance that they gave me?

The man that died for me also died for you. He gave up his right to a fair trial, embraced a brutal beating that marred him beyond human recognition. Suffocated, bled, cried in panic and pain for several grueling hours, with one simple thought that made it all worth it for Him: He gets to have a relationship with you. You were the joy set before him; like a treasure buried, he bought the whole plot of land, just so that He could get to know you. It didn’t matter it cost Him a life savings to buy the land, He simply wanted you.

What would you say to someone dying in front of you, gasping for their last breath from the bullet they took from you?

Continue reading]]>  “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15)

God has continued giving me the revelation of His love for His people this week. The question can be asked from this verse “What are Jesus’s commandments?”

There is only one example of His commandments listed in Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Basically speaking, we are called to first, love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and second, love our neighbor as ourselves. The message I have been given for the church is to love people. I think the greatest fault in the western church is that we have lost the ability to love others as much as we love ourselves. The mindset of entitlement has warped our view. Instead of laying our lives down for others, we expect to have others lay down their lives for us (John 15:13 “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”). It’s not just to say this in a literal sense, even though it may become the case for some. What I mean by this is that we are to sacrifice ourselves for others. Humble ourselves. For instance, how many times have we seen a homeless person on the street corner and not even make eye contact with them? How many times have we asked ourselves how they feel as a human being who is loved and cherished by our Father? Can we even dare to view them as a valued person in the Kingdom of God? Are they not one of His children, as you and I are?

Sacrifice can even mean something as simple as taking time out of our day to go park somewhere nearby and *gasp* approach this person. Maybe spend some time hearing their life story. Listening to their struggles and triumphs. You may or may not be called to give them money, but why not? Tithing can be above just giving your church some cash. Honestly speaking, I have found myself saying “It might be wasted on drugs or alcohol…” Well, who am I to say God can’t use that money to help someone in need? It doesn’t matter what I think they may use it on. God knows their heart. They may actually waste it, or they might not. It’s not for me to decide. I can tell you that if you even spend some time with them, to fully hear them out, and demonstrate that they have even have enough value to someone by paying some attention to them, that it speaks volumes to their hearts.

What I have found that a universal need for human beings is that we all want to be loved. We all want to be accepted. We all want to be valued. We all want to feel significant. Christians in the western church, and even elsewhere in the world definitely do not portray to people that they are loved. It’s quite the opposite. People freely think that we are the most judgmental hypocrites that have ever walked the Earth. Go ahead, ask some of your friends, or a complete stranger. The universal agreement is that we do not love people. We judge them. We display hate, or even worse, love with an agenda. We cannot simply display acts of kindness without attaching religion to it.

Something a friend of mine has told me over and over is that if we were to go out and randomly help people without attaching any sort of requirement to be helped, it would speak volumes to people. For instance, going out to a parking area on a normal basis and randomly putting coins in the meters that were expired. Sure, if someone asked, we can tell them what we were up to and why. Just tell them that we love them, and where we are from.

Another example is a church setting aside a bit of cash to pay people’s delinquent water or electric bill without an agenda. Just send the message that we love them and want to bless them.

People respond to pure love and kindness. It doesn’t have to be recruiting people into a congregation. We just need to demonstrate love.

1John 4:19 says “We love each other because he loved us first.”, and 1 John 4:8-11 says “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.”

I know it seems hard to love others. Loving people cannot be done through our own strength. Love comes as an overflow. First, as Jesus pointed out in His commandments, is to love God. Loving God comes as a response. As I pointed out in 1 John 4:19, we see that we love God because He first loved us. We allow Him to love us, and we love Him in return. What we can do is just meditate, or think of how much He loves us. How does God see you? There is a lot I can speak on just this alone. For example, John 4:20-21 says “When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

Jesus and you (as a believer) are one. God does not see you as a separate being. Just realizing that you are accepted as God’s son or daughter as He accepts Jesus has to give you a mind blowing vision of your value. God loves you as an individual absolutely. Completely. Without end. Romans8:38 says “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”

So how much value do you think God has for you?

Ok, so we see how much God loves us, and we naturally respond in love to Him. The thing is, when we respond to Him with the love He already gave us, we cannot keep it to ourselves. We begin to see others through the love He demonstrates for us. God loves every single person, and values them as much as He does us. So when we see how much He loves them, and how He views them, our perspective changes as a response. We can love people because the love that is in us begins to boil over. Our limited bodies cannot fully hold the love of God. The Spirit of God that lives within us longs to come out. His love spills over like a fountain. John 7:37-39 says “On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)”

What God is calling His people to do is simply love. Love is a universal need every single person has. We are born with this desire. We die without it. Simply put, God is love (1 John 4:16). We are to demonstrate to every person how much God loves them, and it begins with allowing God to love us.

Continue reading]]>

God has been continuing this revelation of love in me. A verse that keeps being spoken to me is 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.” (NLT).

The question remains, what is this love?

What I have found is love is not an emotion. Love is not a thing. Love is a person, Jesus Christ.

This is spoken about in two verses up: 1 John 4:16 “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”

People are hurting all over the world. A lot of them are so full of fear that it cripples them, sometimes physically, but a lot of times mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Many turn to drugs, alcohol, or sex to ease the fear and hurt. 1 Timothy 1:7 says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear does not come from the Lord, but is an old and commonly used tactic by the enemy to keep people in bondage. Just doing a quick search on Amazon.com for the word “fear” in the “Religion & Spirituality” section of books brings up 2,258 hits alone. People are constantly in such bondage from fear, that it keeps them from living out their true identity. There is freedom available for those who turn to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” What a lot of Christians fail to realize is the Holy Spirit is already present and within us at all times! A common prayer I heard, and prayed myself, as I grew up in the church was “I need your presence God”. Something God showed me besides His presence always being already available is that all of Him is available to us as His sons and daughters. What Jesus did on the cross gave us more than just fire insurance. God made available all of His riches and blessings, the full banquet of His power. If we look at Mark 3:16, it says “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.” Notice that the Bible never says that the heavens were ever closed. All of this is to say that we have full power and authority through Christ. He lives in us and through us, and when we realize this, we can experience freedom. When we allow Him to love us, we are given freedom from fear. When He loves on us, we have the revelation of who we are in Christ. We are loved and cherished. Our lives have meaning, and are significant. We find that we have a purpose. We are valued. We can realize the truth: we are God’s children. He made us royalty. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Realizing our true identity in Christ gives us the freedom to love others. Being freed from the bondage of fear gives us the ability to see other people for who they truly are as well. Realizing you are loved enables your eyes to see how much God loves everyone, individually and personally. We need to realize that there is no separation between us and Christ. We have the full ability to live freely through the knowledge of our identity. So go out and love someone today! God’s love for them will free them as much as it has done for you!

Continue reading]]>

Philippians 1:15-18 (NASB)

“15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice”

Something I learned today came from these verses above: Often times, I have found myself trying to separate myself from certain “denominations” of the church. It is usually because I differ from certain beliefs they may have, or certain traditions, or even their past. Something I cannot escape is the fact that I am in Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14), and we are all connected in, and through, Christ.

I think the main thing I got out of these verses is the fact that even if there are different reasons, beliefs, traditions, or others, as long as Christ is preached, there is only glory for God, something that we can rejoice in. God can use very different and interesting methods or reaching people (Numbers 22:21-35), and we may not be able to see the whole picture.

The main thing God has been teaching me lately is to just love people. Doing a quick search on the word “love” in the NASB translation of the Bible on youversion, it comes up with 654 separate verses. I am sure there are much more, but the point is, God has a lot to say about love. Romans 13:9 says: “For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to the lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40: “35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”37 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’38 This is the great and foremost commandment.39 The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Basically speaking, if we love God (with all of our heart, soul, and mind), we will be able to love our neighbors as ourselves. Loving God, and others, is something that has been made easy for all believers. 1 John 4:19 says” We love Him, because He first loved us.”, and continues in verse 20-21 explaining the command of God to love our brothers in Christ, and that we can love them because we have seen God, and if we do not love them, we have not seen God, and if we love God, we will naturally love our brothers in Christ. So, if we love God first, then we can love others, and are capable to do this all because of what Christ did on the cross, enabling us to do so, because God is love. 1 John 4:8-10 says: ” 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Because God is in us, and God is love, we are able to manifest love that we do not have without Christ in us.

All this to say that we need to love each other, not just because God commands us to, but because He has shown us how to love others by demonstration, and He has empowered us to do so. We, as the body of Christ, need to stop trying to divide ourselves (in Christ, and the body of Christ), and see that the gospel (God’s love story to us) is preached. When the world sees that we are in complete unison, they can see the completeness of God. They can see the love of God. They can see God. God’s love for His people is stronger, and we need to see past petty differences in ourselves and others. The question we need to ask is if they are preaching the gospel, and is it the gospel as spelled out in scripture. The gospel is very simple in itself, and all of us know what the basics of it are: Christ loves us, and took our place for the payment of our sins, so that we can have a relationship with Him. He provided a way to escape judgment, and it is something that can only be received, not earned, since the payment has already been made for all of mankind. Anything contrary to Christ loving people to the point of providing salvation for free (as He already overpaid the amount for us) is a lie. No need to get caught up in semantics. Just God’s love for people and us loving others as God loves them. We already have the mind of Christ: 1 Corinthians 2:16: “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”, and have full access to His knowledge. I heard a story of a 6-year-old at Bethel Church that told the following (paraphrased): She heard a voice call her name in the night. She said “If this is the devil, stop talking, and if this is God, please continue.” The voice stopped.

My point is that 1) we have full access to the knowledge of God, and 2) that if God wants us to correct us on something, He will, as long as we listen, and test the spirits behind it (1 John 4:1-3: “1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;”), and 3) that we do not need to argue amongst each other outside of God’s love, and instead we need to focus on empowering each other to preach the gospel. Finally 4) We need to stop seeing the body of Christ as separate. We all have different functions, but we are one.