God's Great Love - The Kry - I Know Everything About You

I've noticed something about myself in recent years that has changed dramatically as I've grown in grace. In the song below, which I first heard probably in 1994, the lyrics go, "I know everything about you but I still love you." Those are great, encouraging, assuring words to any Christian about God's unconditional agape love. This song also has a very encouraging message about the finished work of Christ and God's never-changing love.

But what's changed for me - and I don't mean to be a stickler but this is just reality - is that I would change "but I still" to "and." "I know everything about you and I love you." No need to add "but I still..." In other words, God's love and grace that my heart has been growing deeper in, has convinced me of His love without Him having to convince me nearly as much as before that "even when I mess up He 'still' loves me." I know that all my actions don't line up with the reality of who I truly am in Him, but the issue of His love and acceptance of me has been resolved over the years. ALL of it is based upon His unconditional love and the finished work of Christ!

...Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but (Jesus), having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Heb 10:11-14 NASB

I was bought for a price. I didn't pay the price. He did! There's nothing that I've ever done or will ever do that adds to or cancels His purchase. Again, I'm the one who's been redeemed. He's the one who paid the price. Let's keep that straight! Even when we were still sinners, even when we were still His enemies, Christ died for us and reconciled us to God (Rom 5:8,10). It's through nothing we've done. Only His love and work has accomplished this! We did nothing to accomplish any of this. He did it all! MUCH was accomplished on the cross and with the burial and resurrection of Jesus. "MUCH" is a huge understatement!

And so if I was a sinner and His enemy when He did all this because of His great love and grace, who am I to question or even make it an issue of whether or not He still loves me! Of course He does! Nothing I ever did made Him love me, and even being a sinner and an enemy didn't keep Him from loving me. I can see why a sinner and an enemy might question God's unconditional love (even thought they don't have to!), but now that I've died as a sinner and an enemy and have been raised again as a brand new creation, to a brand new Life, joined together with Him, having been justified and having peace with God through the blood of Jesus, why would I ever think there's reason to question His great love?

The Kry - I Know Everything About You


Bought with a price
Nothing you've done
It's a gift to you
My love is unconditional

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Each time you fall
Look to the sky
It won't change My love for you
It won't change My mind

Lift your head up
You will always be Mine
My grace for you
Will last until the end of time

Mr. Spock's Love Language?

Just had to link to this post from Ralph Harris. Mr. Spock's Love Language?

Quote:

Which is better: to believe that God makes an every day, every moment decision to love, or that God IS love and every decision of every day and every moment comes from love?

There is such a subtle but deadly difference between making a decision to love, and every decision coming from love.

I think this one difference is one of the huge reasons why there is such a focus on "how to's" in the church today. "How to love," "how to live the Christian life," etc. The church is teaching people "how to love" rather than "living from love." Again, it's so subtle, but so HUGE a difference!

Love - The Essence of Who God Is

The Bible says that God is Love, and we find a great description of the many facets of love in 1 Corinthians 13. This week we talk about God's unconditional love, and how it's interwoven into every last aspect of our lives in Christ. We cannot be separated from love in any way!

God so loved the world - even while we were still sinners - that He gave His Son. God demonstrated His love for us in this way. How can we ever think we're somehow outside of His love?!

gigcast.graceroots.org

Love is supernatural

My post the other day, We All Wanna Be Loved, was inspired by several thoughts that I've had over the past few weeks and months, as well as by the conversation that happened on Day 5 of the week that Steve McVey was a guest on the Canadian program It's A New Day (a couple of weeks ago). I enjoyed every program that week, and if you haven't checked it out I highly encourage it! If nothing else, do take some time to check out the link and take in all the wisdom, vulnerability, brokenness and love shared on Day 5.


Jesus was put down, criticized, persecuted and hated for eating and drinking with tax collectors, prostitutes and all kinds of other "sinners." He loved the unlovable. He spent time - eating and drinking - with "bad" people. He had loving, close, friendly fellowship with them. He wasn't afraid of being contaminated by them! He didn't care what people said about Him. I believe He was compelled by LOVE to love them, touch them, heal them, accept them, befriend them, share wisdom with them, sit with them, hug them, talk with them, listen to them, give to them, mourn with them, defend them, take their burdens, take their guilt, take their shame.

He was so unlike the religious people of the day. The religious people were there to make sure the people stayed in line. They wouldn't dare be seen with the "sinners," but they sure laid down the rules for the sinners. They put heavy burdens on people. They condemned people. They pointed fingers and pronounced people guilty. They even added their own rules and laws and stipulations onto God's laws. You know what? It's EASY to do all of that! It's easy to talk about how bad other people are and how good you are. It's easy to protest the sins of others and even pass laws against their sinful behavior. (Your own sins, of course, don't need laws... right?)

What's hard, though, is loving others unconditionally! In fact, "hard" is too soft a word. Loving people unconditionally is impossible. The commands to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself, are impossible commands to obey. I've heard people quote these commands quite nonchalantly, as if true love for God and others is so simple. To love as Jesus loved - and really He was showing the love of the Father - is something that can't be done through trying to obey commands.

Love - that is, agape love - is supernatural. It's not of this world. It's not of the flesh. It's of the Spirit. No law or rule can cause love. No set of disciplines or principles produces love. The kind of love that loves unconditionally doesn't come from obedience to a command. It comes from the very love and life of Christ in us. Love cannot be faked. If you have to "fake it till you make it," it's not love.

To love others like Christ loves others is a supernatural act of God that wells up from inside a weak clay jar and overflows miraculously into the lives of others and back to God. To be vulnerable, and to be real and authentic is the same. As I look at the list of various people on my We All Wanna Be Loved post, I see that I've carried some fleshly fears, prejudices, pride and self-righteousness - and quite simply, a lack of true love - into the way I view others. I can't deny any of it... but I also can't fake any of it away! In order for me to love others as God loves them - without conditions - it can be nothing less than a supernatural, miraculous work of Christ in me. And it can't be rushed, so I rest peacefully in Him knowing His love is working a perfect work and bears its fruit in due time.

"Love" in 1 Corinthians 13 (Part 1)

Another post that I've have in draft mode that I decided to just go ahead and publish. I hurt my back on Sunday morning and I haven't felt like sitting at the computer for long periods of time, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get some of the pre-written drafts cleared out! (By the way, my "Whatever the law says..." series is on automatic pilot, scheduled to be posted daily for a few days).
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Throughout my life, "the love chapter" (1 Corinthians 13, specifically vss. 4-8) has been one of, if not the most quoted passage of scripture I've ever heard (perhaps second to John 3:16). The setting is usually a wedding, or else a sermon that's based in one way or another on "how to love."

But during the past dozen years or so I've seen a handful of people look at this passage from another angle - an angle that has really helped me to grow in my understanding of God's love - and I'd simply like to pass along some of what I've gleaned out of all of it. "Love," in 1 Corinthians 13, is the Greek word agapē (ag-ah'-pay). I've heard lots of definitions of agapē, but one thing that is done in 1 Corinthians 13 is that agapē is actually described. It shows what agapē-love looks like in action.

Ok, well that by itself might not be new news to anyone. In fact, the many "how to love" sermons I've heard have generally been based upon the idea that 1 Corinthians 13 shows Christians "how they should behave" (how they should love). Paul is indeed saying that as a Christian, I can do all kinds of things - speak in tongues, have the gift of prophecy, can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, have faith that moves mountains, surrender my body to be burned, etc - but if I don't have love, I'm nothing.

But here's the thing. Does a Christian automatically know and understand God's love? A Christian is complete in God, and the love of God has come into the Christian and is integrated into their new identity, but does it work itself out automatically? Can a Christian simply "work on" these things as a matter of "principles" to follow in order to love people? I don't know about you, but as I read 1 Corinthians 13, and set out to "try" to do these things, I really only end up in failure. It's simply something that all the "trying" of my flesh will never be able to accomplish!

John says, "In this is love (agapē), not that we loved (agapē-d) God but that He loved (agapē-d) us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved (agapē-d) us, we also ought to love (agapē) one another" (1 John 4:10-11). The thing is... with all the rules and principles and legalism and religion out there, and with the huge external (fleshly) focus on "doing the stuff," people may be learning how to do the stuff without actually knowing God's love. They know they're "saved by grace," but yet they don't have a clue about God's love. The love of God is actually in them, but they are so focused on the externals (the flesh, "doing the stuff") that they don't know the power and love that's in them!

John also said "God is love" (God is agapē). As we see Paul describing agapē in 1 Corinthians 13, he is not only showing us what our love for others can look like, but what the love (agapē) of God looks like! In fact, unless we know God's agapē (and unless we know God as agapē), we're going to always continue to have a really hard time (an impossible time) with all our "trying" to agapē people! And so I've looked at this passage during the past dozen years or so from the perspective of seeing what God is like.

If 1 Corinthians 13 shows us what agapē looks like, and how it's demonstrated, and if God is agapē, then isn't this a good look at what God is like? And if God wants us to agapē people in these ways, is He not going to first demonstrate it Himself? In other words, can we not look at 1 Corinthians 13 as a demonstration of God's love?

I believe the first person I heard this whole idea from was my pastor in the late 90's. Then, over the years my friend Mike (with whom I record the Growing in Grace program) has talked with me about it and has also brought it up on our program from time to time. He and I had the same pastor, so I'm sure he got this idea from the same place as I did. In recent months and years, I've heard Paul Anderson-Walsh sharing about it, as well as Darin Hufford. From what I understand, Darin talks about this in his book "The God's Honest Truth" (which I haven't read, but I know several of you have) and he talked about it in this "The God Journey" podcast (14MB download). I believe I've also seen this idea on a blog or two in the past year, but I can't remember specifically which one(s).

More on this in Part 2, and I'll also look at the various descriptions of God's agapē in action from 1 Cor 13.

It's just so ridiculous

God's Ridiculous Agape Captivating Everyone

(I heard this from Paul Anderson-Walsh, describing his "Grace Commission.")

"Let me be clear... God's love is absurd, it is irrational, it is irresponsible, it is downright stupid if you ask me."




Isn't it though?