Philippians 1:9-10
So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings10 so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of:
Learning how to not just love much, but love well is the part that sticks out in my heart this morning. It is so very easy to just lay on thick the love that is as it is put in this verse the sentimental gush. but this type of love will not touch anyone. It is a phony love that does nothing but serve myself. People were created to crave the deep personal love. The love that is committed, tenacious, and long-suffering. We... I need to go past my feelings, my comfort zone, my rescue for the sake of rescue reaction and show others the deep love they are created for. When others see this type of love, they begin to get a glimpse of the love of a father that would send his son to give his life just because we needed him.
This is loving well. This is living well. This is the great commission that I am called to.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
What Changed?
I think if there was one person identified with most in the bible, it would have to be Peter. He and I could be twins! … ok in thinking anyway. Peter like myself seemed to have great plans. He had zeal like no other! Until it left the brain and moved into action, and that was where things seemed to fall apart.
He was the first to jump out of the boat and walk on water…. For about 10 seconds and reality set in! He was the one praised for proclaiming boldly who Jesus was…. And then turn around and be corrected for his wrong thinking in the next breath. And it was Peter who proclaimed that he would never leave Jesus and jumped at the chance to protect his master and friend, cutting off a guard’s ear in the process, hours later only to deny ever knowing him not once, not twice but three times!
How devastated Peter must have been when the rooster crowed and he found himself eyeball deep in the reality of his failures. His master and friend, the one he declared his life to, the one he shared life with, the one he thought he would usher in the new kingdom with, the long awaited messiah being tried and beaten before his very eyes and he walked away!
Life must have been breathtakingly hard at that point. All that you have known stripped from you.. all that you had ever hoped, all that you had ever dreamed, crumbled like sand between your fingers. So Peter did what I would most definitely do, went back to the only thing that He knew to do, He went fishing.
The next that we ever hear of Peter is when Jesus find him after a long frustratingly empty night fishing, He has been resurrected and tells his friends to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. And they bring up a huge catch! It is then that Peter recognizes his friend!
Jesus later comes to Peter and they go for a walk alone on the beach…. Peter is a changed man… He no longer has the cocky conquer the world at any cost attitude. He is humble, and broken, very aware of his limitations…. What changed in Peter in the days between his denial and Jesus’ resurrection meeting with him?
If I would guess it would be Peter had probably been the kinda guy that we all want to be. Self assured, liked by most, had the world by the tail…. Until he came to the end of himself… until he was shown who he really was and life came crashing in on him.
This is were Jesus met him! Humbled and broken Jesus, the one he betrayed and walked away from, walked up to him. Peter for the very first time in his life truly understood forgiveness.
It was this forgiveness that brought Peter to honestly tell Jesus that although his heart longed to love him unconditionally, in reality only loved him as a good friend… and it was here that Jesus put his hand out and took that friendship and taught Peter how to unconditionally love.
Why is it that we choose misery and bitterness over doing what is right and what our heart longs for? It is such a natural reaction! We have been wronged! We have a right to be hurt! It wasn’t fair! In our zeal we declare we will right the injustice done and never let it happen to another person the way it has happened to us! All well and good, but in the end we find ourselves the same place Peter found himself, breathtakingly lost in the reality of our failure. And we go back to what we know.
It is only through forgiveness, through the letting go of all that we thought was right and true, letting go of what should have been and allow Jesus to teach us unconditional love that we can embrace who we were really created to be.
He was the first to jump out of the boat and walk on water…. For about 10 seconds and reality set in! He was the one praised for proclaiming boldly who Jesus was…. And then turn around and be corrected for his wrong thinking in the next breath. And it was Peter who proclaimed that he would never leave Jesus and jumped at the chance to protect his master and friend, cutting off a guard’s ear in the process, hours later only to deny ever knowing him not once, not twice but three times!
How devastated Peter must have been when the rooster crowed and he found himself eyeball deep in the reality of his failures. His master and friend, the one he declared his life to, the one he shared life with, the one he thought he would usher in the new kingdom with, the long awaited messiah being tried and beaten before his very eyes and he walked away!
Life must have been breathtakingly hard at that point. All that you have known stripped from you.. all that you had ever hoped, all that you had ever dreamed, crumbled like sand between your fingers. So Peter did what I would most definitely do, went back to the only thing that He knew to do, He went fishing.
The next that we ever hear of Peter is when Jesus find him after a long frustratingly empty night fishing, He has been resurrected and tells his friends to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. And they bring up a huge catch! It is then that Peter recognizes his friend!
Jesus later comes to Peter and they go for a walk alone on the beach…. Peter is a changed man… He no longer has the cocky conquer the world at any cost attitude. He is humble, and broken, very aware of his limitations…. What changed in Peter in the days between his denial and Jesus’ resurrection meeting with him?
If I would guess it would be Peter had probably been the kinda guy that we all want to be. Self assured, liked by most, had the world by the tail…. Until he came to the end of himself… until he was shown who he really was and life came crashing in on him.
This is were Jesus met him! Humbled and broken Jesus, the one he betrayed and walked away from, walked up to him. Peter for the very first time in his life truly understood forgiveness.
It was this forgiveness that brought Peter to honestly tell Jesus that although his heart longed to love him unconditionally, in reality only loved him as a good friend… and it was here that Jesus put his hand out and took that friendship and taught Peter how to unconditionally love.
Why is it that we choose misery and bitterness over doing what is right and what our heart longs for? It is such a natural reaction! We have been wronged! We have a right to be hurt! It wasn’t fair! In our zeal we declare we will right the injustice done and never let it happen to another person the way it has happened to us! All well and good, but in the end we find ourselves the same place Peter found himself, breathtakingly lost in the reality of our failure. And we go back to what we know.
It is only through forgiveness, through the letting go of all that we thought was right and true, letting go of what should have been and allow Jesus to teach us unconditional love that we can embrace who we were really created to be.
Friday, January 8, 2010
My Life as a Story?!
I am an avid reader… oh not so much the dry dull learning stuff, but give me an adventure, a romance or mystery and I can be entertained for hours.
I have heard through out my life the phrase “The Greatest Story Ever Told” in relation to Jesus, His life, Death and what it means to the human race…. What it means to me. Like any story though it tends to have a beginning, middle and end in my mind. Yet when thought through, this end is not where I would first think.
It is kind of like a cliff hanger in my mind. You know you are reading through an exciting book and find yourself at the last few pages, yet you know that there is still so much more to happen.
It is then that you realize that much to your dismay you will have to wait till the next book is released to find out what happens. Why is it that I have never thought of my life in the same way?
If I were to look at my life as part of a best seller in the making, I wonder how it would change my perspective on things?
The reality is I AM part of “The Greatest Story Ever Told” my name is written in the Lambs book of life, not among a list of names to be checked off, but, I get to be one of the key characters in the book being written by the greatest author of all times.
I have heard through out my life the phrase “The Greatest Story Ever Told” in relation to Jesus, His life, Death and what it means to the human race…. What it means to me. Like any story though it tends to have a beginning, middle and end in my mind. Yet when thought through, this end is not where I would first think.
It is kind of like a cliff hanger in my mind. You know you are reading through an exciting book and find yourself at the last few pages, yet you know that there is still so much more to happen.
It is then that you realize that much to your dismay you will have to wait till the next book is released to find out what happens. Why is it that I have never thought of my life in the same way?
If I were to look at my life as part of a best seller in the making, I wonder how it would change my perspective on things?
The reality is I AM part of “The Greatest Story Ever Told” my name is written in the Lambs book of life, not among a list of names to be checked off, but, I get to be one of the key characters in the book being written by the greatest author of all times.
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