Love - Obedience -Faith

John 5:19, "Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly,  I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."

I have discovered that the recent posts on love are spiritually provocative, and a little bit controversial. On one level pure, perfect, agape love represents the unattainable. And because it is unattainable, then perhaps these discussions are pointless. Perhaps it is too difficult a task for any individual to look in the mirror and honestly say to themselves I can never achieve perfect agape love. But reality is this is the very thing that needs to happen. Until we can look in the mirror and say that very thing we will never experience it.

T Austin Sparks wrote in 1927, "...it is necessary to settle it once and for all that we, in ourselves, will never be overcomers, and that opens the way for the whole of this theme and its reality of meaning to come from the Lord to us. There is only one Overcomer in the universe, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and if there are ever any other overcomers, they will not be others at all, they will simply be the extension of His overcoming — the expansion of His victory." Until we can admit this truth to ourselves I fail to see how we can ever overcome the arrogance of our ego to truly love. (Please understand that I use self, ego, and flesh interchangeably and believe them to be the same inner man referred to in scripture.) In admitting our weakness, acknowledging Christ strength, then God's perfect love can begin to work in us. Leading to the second point.

Obedience to God is what makes the "act" of love perfect. But how can we obey when the voice is still and the vision is as in a mirror dimly? Jesus did it with a perfect connection to God. He did and said what the Father did and said. Hear the words of Christ, "the Son can do nothing of Himself." Even the love shown by Jesus was not His own, but belonged to the father. So what then of this obedience? Is obedience the barrier that prevents us from loving?

I think not. This is one of the many paradoxes of life. God loves us, so that we can love others, so that God can love us again, and so that we can love others. The relationship is critical, but the acts of love become a reflection of what we see the Father to be. The perfect acts of love are God's light shining through us in His act of first love. So the spiritual reality is that obedience is not a limiting factor because we can only reflect what we see. We can only obey what we hear, and it is God's responsibility to speak as much as we have responsibility to hear. Bringing us to the final component or point.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Because we see poorly, if at all, and because we hear poorly, if at all... we must have faith to fill the gap. The spiritual "thought" has to be seasoned with faith inorder to become an act of love. We love in faithful obedience knowing that even if not a perfect act of love, God will cause it all to work together for good.

Lets jump to the practical. If we will approach life with the attitude of being in relationship to God, then we will find the opportunities to be a refection of His love. This does not have to be done a church, on the mission field, or in any other "institution" of Christianity. This can, and is to be done, right where you are. How about the Boss who takes the file clerk to lunch and just listens to them? Or the file clerk who on the way home throws a quarter into the beggar's cup? These can be practical acts of love triggered by God's tug on the heart. To yield to that tug is the faith that makes the act love. The act can be anything, and in any direction. I am reminded of a story I heard about Abraham Lincoln. It was of an old lady making him cry with her gift of cookies. He was used to people coming to his office wanting something. This woman just wanted to bring him some cookies. The tears were obviously an acknowledgment of the love.

Last I will share this. My mom text-ed me the other day that she wanted to pay my phone bill. This was absolutely an act of God's agape love. Not because it is my mom. Not because it met a need. It was an act of God's love because she did not know the bill was not paid, and hours from being cut off. This was God saying to me... I love you and your quest to discover Me as both provision and Provider will not go unanswered. Equally, had she know those facts, I would not have received it as love, but rather her attempt to fix the situation. I'm not looking for my situation to be fixed. I am looking for God's love, so that I can love, and be loved again... continuously by God.

Who can you show the love of Christ to today?

If you need love, or prayer, please feel free to contact me.

Misguided?

Mark 8:33, "But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, 'Get Behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's'"

Invariably the misguided (bad) advise we get comes from someone close to us like a friend of family member. It will come with a pure heart and in a genuine best interest.  However, because it comes from someone so close it makes it hard to ignore. For Adam it came from his wife Eve. Jesus received some misguided advise from Peter yet being Christ remained uninfluenced by it. Daily we are going to face decisions of following God's advice, or following the advice of someone or something else.

My mom sent me this, and I have altered it to my understanding. But she basically said, if we depend on organizations, then the best we can expect is what organizations can do. If we depend on education, then we get what education can do. If we depend on men, then we will get only what a man can do. But if we depend on prayer (God), we get what God can do.

Everyday the Morpheus' of our life give us the opportunity to take the red or blue pill. The red pill is the blood of Jesus Christ and it let's us perceive the truth of what the world really is. The blue pill allows the taker to linger in the ignorance and deception of organization, education, and all that encompasses man's ability. The blue pill, following the advice that is contrary to your mission mandate from God, that is the path to remain enslaved. Enslaved and not even know it.

Let's face it. God's voice is still and soft. It is often accompanied with the sense that "this is good, but it is crazy." And the crazy aspect, the part that requires faith sends us looking for confirmation. Who do we turn to? Friends, family, pastors, teachers... anyone that will listen and has our respect. Invariably, with good intentions, they will give advice that alters the command from heaven in some way. Sometimes there experience will down right discourage the path to begin with. But their opinion is not what matters. What encouragement you get in prayer, that's what matters. Confirmation will come, but it usually comes on its own without asking.So feel free to skip the bouncing of godly ideas off those closest to you, and let God bring the confirmation on His own. Trust me, He's a big God and very capable of the task.

The other side of this equation is how do we not become part of the blind leading the blind with our own misguided advice? The simplest practical technique that I can think of is this. Begin your advice with, have your considered...? There is a cost to following Christ, and the Bible says for us to consider it. (Luke 14:28) So a negative comment in the context of a consideration question really is probably a good thing v. being presented in the context of discouragement. Turning advice into a question allows the person to think deeper, go deeper with God, and find out for himself what is God and what is not. The answers they give will cause us to do the same - - go deeper with God.