Don’t You Want Somebody To Love?

Real love is a mystery to most people. Most people never realize the true potential or value of love. It is usually very poorly defined. There is a great deal of confusion and cross-referencing of the terms LOVE, ROMANCE, INFATUATION, AFFECTION, TENDERNESS and so forth.

Love may include romance, infatuation, affection and tenderness. But even if those elements are not present, it could still be love.

How? Love can come in many ways, facets and or degrees.

But love requires one aspect… giving. Love requires the giving of one’s self to another. It involves an element of self-depletion, self-exhaustion. Love also may involve RISK. Love is empathic. It puts itself in someone else’s shoes. Love seeks to understand another’s perspective yet love is bold and honest and truthful. Love cares. It does not pre-judge. It does not pass sentences. Love does not jump to conclusions. Love does not throw down ultimatums. Love does not declare war on its object. Love is tender, it is kind, and love is forgiving.

Love is tuning into another’s sensitivities. Love sense’s another’s strengths and weaknesses. It uses the other person’s measuring stick. It suffers and rejoices on another’s terms.

Love seeks rapport and connection. It seeks to bond in every facet of being. It seeks to relate emotionally, intellectually, physically and spiritually. Love sacrifices personal whims if they are incompatible with the one who is loved. Love abandons pursuits that hurt the one who is loved. Love will do without. Love bends. Love stretches. Love must sometimes keep silent, while screaming inside. Love is a desire that someone will fare better than yourself. It is the willingness to spend all that you are for the well being of another. Love will pay a debt the other cannot pay. It will bail them out for the sake of survival. Love wants the other to survive even if it means death to oneself. Love will die so someone else can live. Love is color blind, it does not deem one nation, culture, country or race over another. Love seeks o satisfy those who would partake of it.

Sound familiar?

SO JOHN SAYS SOMETHING SIMPLE YET PROFOUND…

      For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

God so loved the world that He “gave.” This is the secret of love, to give, to share, that others may benefit. Jesus Christ, the begotten Son was given to the world for all and to all.

God delivered His love through the Son. It wasn’t enough for God to speak from Heaven and say, “I love you, world.” God showed His love through His action. His Son dying on the cross for our sins saw the apex of God’s love. In fact, God IS love.

When Christ walked our world He shared His love by opening the eyes of the blind, healed lepers, caused the dumb to talk, and raised the dead. He gave power to His disciples over all the forces of the devil. Christ gave us an example that we ought to love one another. He set the example of how we are to be in this world. How far it seems we have strayed from the foundation He laid. As Christ loved us, we are to love one another.

We are called to be disciples. We are not disciples of Christ by building a huge church and having a huge membership that do not exemplify the love of Christ. We are not disciples of Christ by giving large sums of money. The cattle on a thousand hills are His and even the thousand hills are His. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Believe me He is not impressed by our stuff.

We are not disciples of Christ by outward appearance. We are disciples of Christ if we LOVE one another.

The O’Jays had a song back in the day, perhaps you heard of it. It says, “People all over the world, join hands, start a love train, a love train. ISIS is tweeting and propagating hate, murder and mayhem. How much more should we use the same venue and proclaim LOVE is King. PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD… let YOUR love reign and rain down on this dry and thirsty world desperately in need of its benefits.

 

I Hope you are still Hoping..

Well….we’re going back on the grid…

I have been away for a while doing other projects. i am currently working on a music CD and was a little focused these last few weeks. The world has been presenting a lot of unpleasant situations both here in this country and abroad. ISIS is murdering under the guise of religion and trying its best to intimidate. As I looked at these event and more importantly listened to different commentary, it appeared to me that a basic principle was being attacked. That principle is HOPE! The news people, the radio talking heads, the “we should be worried” people all propagate hopelessness. I applaud the Jordanian nation as they said to ISIS because of the cowardly way you murdered our pilot, you have not only invigorated our hop, but also stirred our righteous indignation. What you were hoping produced the opposite effect.

Romans 8:18 – 8:25

What is hope? Hope is usually defined as a longing, a desire, or an expectation of fulfillment. It can be passive or intensely active. It can be for evil or for good. It is vitally important that we have the right hope because the Bible says that along with faith and love, it is one of the three timeless and enduring eternal values. There will never be a time in eternity when hope is not on our minds! Think about that! It is that important.

Hope is a powerful motivator. What we love, we pay attention to, , our hope will motivate us in that direction. Hope influences us either to take or not to take certain actions, depending upon what we hope for. We will generally do all that we can to make sure that what we hope for happens the way that we foresee it happening. If we hope something does not happen, we generally do what we can to see that it does not happen. Hope motivates us to move in a certain direction and to do certain things.

What if we hope for something that is beyond our immediate control? We will still pray that what we hope for will happen. If there is nothing else we can do, we will still pray. That is how powerful hope is. It will make us do things even subconsciously, bending us in a certain direction because our hope is so strong. At the very least, even if we do not pray, we will at least wish, fret, and worry about it until something is resolved. Our hopes, whether we are conscious of them or not, are constantly playing on our mind.

No matter how difficult or how desperate our situation seems, Paul says we can face it with hope.

You don’t have to be real sharp to notice that we live in a world that struggles against hopelessness. If you talk to people at all, you are going to get in a conversation with someone who is going to tell you that they are discouraged. Listen to any of the radio talk shows or watch the news and you are going to hear people who are cynical about life. They think the world is going down the tubes. And on a world scale, it seems that we go from crisis to crisis. Some here acutely remember things ISIS, just to name a few of the highest profile conflicts. And in spite of our best efforts, we know there will be more conflicts. Plus, there have been economic crises.

Right now we live in a world that is less than perfect. This world is subject to a law that states that everything in this universe is decaying. What seems fresh and new one day will someday be old and broken down. Something that is growing and vibrant will someday shrivel up and die. To use Paul’s language, this world is in “bondage to decay.” But it wasn’t always this way though. In the early days of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, we see the sin of Adam and Eve caused several things to happen that were previously nonexistent.

So Paul tells us that creation is frustrated and it even groans for the day of redemption. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Now we groan and become frustrated because of evil in the world. We long to once and for all time rid the world of evil. We long for the time where the world will be free of evil and corruption.

Hope is not just an optimistic and positive outlook but also the drive to persevere, to endure whatever comes, to push us forward. Only the hopeful will do this. The hopeless will give up. For the Christian, there is no such thing as a hopeless situation. It is true that we will endure suffering in our lives. Hopefully it is for Christ and not our own foolishness. But the great news is we have a hope even though we suffer.
We as Christ followers have hope because we are God’s adopted children. We can look forward to the blessings ahead. We have an inheritance that is not of this world. We know for certain that it will not always be like this, something better is coming, we will be made new!

And now we come to one of my favorite verses: Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

That hope gives us the ability to turn our eyes away from our pain to God’s glory. The good news for those who are in Christ Jesus is that YOU ALWAYS HAVE HOPE. Through Jesus we have hope. Hope of better things to come. We can know even though this isn’t how it’s supposed to be, things are going to get better for those who follow Christ.

A Generation of Four “F”s

The world has seemingly lost its moral sense of decency, love, care, and humanity. Murder, mayhem, destruction is an everyday common occurrence. Mothers against daughters, father against sons. The more gruesome, the more heinous, the more exposure, the more people garner attention to themselves. WHAT? Decapitation and cannibalism has become Internet entertainment.

ISIS, yeah we are hearing about your barbaric actions, supposedly in the name of Allah, but it is also the grandfather who lives a few miles away that murders his 6 grandchildren and daughter, the Cartel drug gangs that are fighting for territory and money. It’s the teenagers seeking to see what the real thing of killing feels like after being dulled by video images and games. It’s the demented co-worker influenced by what they see on television that seeks the same glory and exposure.

Proverbs 30:11-14 “There is a generation…” A foolhardy and foul generation (30:11). It is a generation that curses their father and mother. Now the word “curse” is not a meaning of “cussing them out” as in calling someone out of their name. No, the Hebrew term is means to discount, to bring to contempt, to dishonor, bring their influence to insignificance. The proverb is saying there will be a generation that will devalue the values of the forefathers and mothers. They will count them trivial. The father and mother is not necessarily someone’s immediate parents, because the scripture does not say “parent”. Let’s be honest some of our “parents” were far from being a Godly example and many of us had to overcome many obstacles despite our upbringing. “There is a generation…” A filthy and faithless generation (30:12). This is a generation of people who are pure in their own eyes but morally filthy in the eyes of a Holy and Righteous God. Note, the scripture does not say “dirty” but filthy. The word here is used for “excrement”. Think dog poo! Great Dane poo not Yorky. Before we start condemning others let’s quickly look at ourselves, however. The prophet Isaiah in chapter 64 says “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags…” In other words even when we do everything right by human and mankind moral standards, to God they are as clean and pure as a woman’s menstrual pad or a baby’s dirty diaper. That is the reason for the GREAT exchange that took place on the cross. “Christ exchanged HIS righteousness for our sins. No, when God the Father looks at us as believers He sees us righteous THROUGH Christ Jesus. So if we think our works will some how earn merit in the eyes of God then we are members of this “F” group. Filthy! Their faith is in their own means and abilities. When one rejects Jesus, they reject the GREAT exchange leaving them to their own righteousness. “There is a generation…” A fearless and self-flattering generation (30:13)”. It is a generation that has no respect for authority whether it comes from God or man. They are filled with pride, self-flattery and conceit. They think that their own ideology is the one they should govern their lives. The problem is that we all can have our own ideology. Then the question arises which one is “right”. And as we now see with ISIS, dictatorships and other oppressive groups, one tries to FORCE through fear, intimidation and violence the acceptance of rule. What they want, they take having no regard for human life. Deep inside the valley of their reasoning they see themselves as being superior. Mere men trying to rule as the supreme head over billions of people. I am always amazed by the so called experts that have a solution for everything yet are responsible for nothing within in the context of their “solution”. “If I were the President, I would”…. Yeah whatever. The simple truth is you are not the President, so you are just pontificating without accountability. “There is a generation…” A fierce generation (30:14). A generation that has become dulled and addicted to murder and violence. Cannibalism, decapitation, rape and debauchery have become the norm. Nothing is shocking to us anymore. Zombies, walking dead, real life murder documentaries showing actual bodies have dulled our senses. We feed our society’s psyche this junk and wonder why we have reaped this strange bitter fruit. For the weak minded, it is a catalyst to explore the realm of evil. Do not be deceived this realm is real. IT IS THIS GENERATION THAT WILL OCCUPY THIS EARTH JUST PRIOR TO CHRIST RETURN. Matthew 24:37-39 – “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” What was significant in those days? Spiritual Decline, shameless depravity, demonic delusion, increase in crimes, exploding population and sudden destruction. All signs say we are living in the same vain as the “days of Noah”.

What are we “the followers of Christ” to do in this perilous time?

Do not fear, but stay strong with no possibility of quitting. Why… because He has overcome the world, even the condition of this time and generation. Psalm 91 implores us to decree, “I will not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day… and with my eyes I shall behold and see the reward of the wicked.” So let’s counter this “evil” generation and be the “fearless, fervent, faithful, formidable” children of the God of ALL victory. Let’s up our game and SPEAK and declare into the atmosphere the “flood of Noah”.