Roberta, Tina…what ya saying?

Roberta Flack – Where is the love? (I don’t know)

Tina Turner – What’s love got to do with it? (EVERYTHING!!!)

There is one, true nature of God clearly represented in and of the Word, and that is LOVE!

1 John 4:16 says,

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

In other word, God does not love, love is the nature of God, yeah God is love, inseparable! Jesus gave us the greatest representation of the true nature of God. Love, unbiased and free flowing. God’s love for us is the most important thing we can receive. First Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (God’s kind of love). After all, think about it, faith will be gone one day, because we will be with the one we fully trusted in. Hope will be gone, because we will see the Lord and being with Him will fulfill all expectations and aspirations, but love will never end. Love will exist forever and ever, because God is love eternal.

Believers should have more than just a superficial knowledge of God’s love. In Ephesians, chapter 3, Paul prayed that the Ephesians would get a greater revelation of God’s love for them. He said, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:14-19).

Notice in verse 18 that God’s love isn’t just one-dimensional. There is height, depth, length, and breadth to it. Many Christians only see God’s love as one-dimensional. They’ve never seen the multi-dimensional reality of God’s love. It includes all space and time. It also encompasses all people. John 3:16 “For so loved the World…“ not just Christians, not just people of a specific culture, not just an explicit nation, race or creed. His love encases the world, His whole creation. Let me say this, anytime we see a preference of who is loved based on religious beliefs, color of skin or any other external factor, as believers you do not represent Him.

In verse 19, Paul said as we experience God’s love, which is superior to mere knowledge of God’s love, then we would be filled with all the fullness of God. Experiencing God’s love equals fullness.

We think we have to do something to earn God’s love and we tether it, like a work contract to our human performance. I need to pray more, read His Word more, do Christian acts more. We have to merit God’s love. That is not what the Bible teaches. We are not employees of God. Our reward is not based on our job performance. God’s love for us is unconditional. Understand, God doesn’t love us because of some virtue we possess. God loves us because He is, not because we are.

Religion is one of the biggest broadcasters of the conditional love of God propaganda. Many “Christian churches” teach that God’s love for us is conditional, based on performance. If we pray, go to church, pay our tithes, etc., then the Lord loves us and answers our prayers; but if we fail, then the Lord won’t answer our prayers. There is no Biblical truth to that theory pertaining to the New Testament church. Remember we are no longer under law but Grace.

People who love one minute and then act the opposite way the next minute simply don’t operate in God’s love. God’s Word tells us to even love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). It is a command. He didn’t say to do it if you feel like it. A command given by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords does not generate an optional, what do you think, response.

Galatians 5:22 says that love is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. This is specifically speaking of the Holy Spirit; and our new man was born of the Spirit, so it has to be true that God’s love has been shed abroad in our spirits too. We have the capability to love as He loves. God’s kind of love is a choice that you make on the basis of what God said, and then you act on it through faith until it becomes a reality in your whole being.

Romans 5:8 says, “God commendeth ( committed) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love wasn’t based upon what we had done for Him or what we deserved but upon His choice, His free choosing to love us. We didn’t do anything to merit God’s love. He just chose to give it. We can receive His kind of love and then give it to others in the same way. The Word (John 13:35) says “By this shall ALL men know that ye are my disciples, my students, my apprentices, my representatives that you have love one to another”. What is the “this”? That we love one another, even as He has loved us. (verse 34)

His love was extended toward Hitler just as much as it was toward Billy Graham. The difference is our acceptance or rejection of it, not His offer of it. God’s love is unconditional. What about your love for the “world”? Can you walk in lock step with God “so loved the world”, recognizing that He is in you and you in Him which would indicate that you too should unconditionally love the world…and ALL of its inhabitants or are you caught up in this spirit of tribalism introduced by the demonic great opposer, Lucifer? I leave with this… 1 John 4:20-21, “If a man says, I love God and hateth (disregards and show little empathy) his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath seen? And this commandment (not suggestion) have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother (another creation of God) also.

I Am Hearing Voices

I have been off-line for a week or so because my youngest son and his family came to visit me here in Florida. I have not seen them in over a year and a half’s time and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. During that time my grandson illustrated something to me. He’s approximately 15 months old and I had not seen him since he was about a month old and obviously he did not recognize me so when I saw him last weekend I went to pick him up and hold him and to show him affection. I was calling his name and immediately he began to cry and to reach out for his father despite my best efforts of trying to woo him and to demonstrate and show him love. He still with adamant fervor tried to make his way into the arms of his father, crying and with tears running down his face reaching for dad. In that, even though it was disappointing I saw the God lesson.

John10:4 – 5 “…and they follow Him because they know His voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” His sheep will not follow a stranger. They indeed will flee because they don’t know this strange voice.

Now in my case, as a grandfather naturally that is kind of disappointing but in the spiritual how much more should we have the reaction of my grandson? When we hear and listen to the voice of a stranger many times we are wooed and pulled in by the voice and its promises or perceived benefits. Draw back to memory the event of Eve and the serpent in the Garden. But the Word of God says my sheep know my voice. They know the tone, yes, they know the accent, yes, but they also have an intimate understanding of the being, the persona, projecting the sound, the voice. They have an understanding of who He is. This understanding is far more than words and sound. It is knowledge derived from personal experience. His care, His loving kindness, his provision, His protection, His tender touch when He draws you in close to Himself. However, His sheep, upon recognizing that the sound, the voice, is not familiar but strange will flee and turn away and will not follow it.

Now traditionally I think most “religious” people put that “voice” that “sound” into context of the stranger being the devil or being something of a demonic nature but let’s have a Nu Mind thought. A lot of times that voice, that sound which we should flee from, are closely related to us. It is recognizable DNA. It is a part of our nature from the first Adam. The sounds are comprised of many things that we are embracing instead of fleeing. These voices or more specifically this sound is foreign yet prevalent throughout the world today. Religious or not, a Christian or not, believer in nothing or an unbeliever in everything, can you hear them? The voice of greed, treachery, manipulation, deception, seduction, adultery, bullying, sabotage, false accusation, superiority, murder, destruction, pride (cultural, self, or national), self-love, racism, sexism, politics and religion etc. They are a strange voice not illustrating or eliminating the voice, the sound, and the character, of the Father. Yet for many these voices are seductive. The promise, the bribe of power, fame and fortune is alluring. Can you hear them? Come here and hear little girl, would you like come candy? Come here and hear young man, sell this dope and make a quick buck. Come here and hear government rulers, politician, corporate executive and “religious” leader and presume a dictatorial stance against your own people and amass personal wealth and prorogate fear to bolster you own insecurities. These are familiar strange voices.

I tried animal cookies to entice my grandson from his daddy’s arms, but to no avail. A one-year-old child said I don’t know this voice, and I am not trying to get close to it. This sound, it is strange and it doesn’t sound like what my Father would say.

My lesson learned and reinforced this past week was this. RUN with arms outstretched to the Father! Flee the voice of strangers and reach out and cry for the one you can depend on to protect, hold and shield you from the strangely familiar. Understand, no matter your race, creed, religion or nationality, these voices are not from without but are from within. They are family by nature. Quit pretending you do not hear them. They are whispering to you in the darkness of the night and beckoning to you in the brightness of the day. BUT my sheep know my voice, my sound, my character and a strange sound he will not follow.

Question, what is the voice, what is the sound that is trying to move you from your Father’s presence? What voice is trying to move you from the lap of He who loves you? What voice is making you curious? What voice is it trying to seduce you with things and with positions and with power and with fortune? What is the promise? What would it take to draw you from the lap of your Father into the arms of a familiar stranger? What is getting you to compromise?