The depths of love

I posted before on owing no one anything except love. Paul wrote to the Roman church, "don't run up huge debts, except the huge debt of love you owe each other."

Lately I've been meditating on true, real, heart issued love. Loving when we're wronged, when we're cheated or over looked. Keeping our mouths shut when we have a right to say, "I told you so."

I want to love like Jesus loved. When He was chained to a poll or stone and whipped, He said, "Father forgive them." As they nailed Him to the Cross, He endured.

Love is patient and kind. Keeps no record of wrong. Endures. Does not seek it's own, it not arrogant.

Can I say I love in this manner? No. But more and more my heart yearns to love with all sincerity. I find comfort in the back row, being forgotten, over looked.

Yet, here's where love can crash into the ditch. I've seen it in many true believers who desire to exemplify Jesus. They embrace sin.

Loving like Jesus doesn't require us to embrace sin. It actually challenges us to speak out against sin. How can a man or woman turn from their "wicked ways" if we don't point the way to Jesus and the Cross?

If loving my fellow man means I look like the world instead of heaven, then I can't love. But I'm convinced loving my fellow man demands I look like and act like heaven.

For me, it means I don't grumble or complain. I don't compare myself and wonder why this person is getting that thing instead of me. It means I give of myself without demand or expectation of return.

It requires prayer and devotion to the Word in order for my heart to be changed. Love is not about others changing, but me becoming conformed to the image of Christ.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds," Paul wrote to the Romans.

Loving like Jesus transforms. I'm convinced of it. In '09, I want to love. To walk in humility. I'm confident He loves me, has good in store for me. I don't need to elbow my way into the future.

What about you? Can you think of areas of your heart and mind love can transform? Are you waiting for someone else to change? Really, your prayer should be, "change me, Father."

Let's take the journey of love in '09. Real love. Study 1 Corinthians 13.

Romans 5

I love, love, love singing the Word. Get a three or four chord progression going and God's Word opens up and speaks to the human heart.

I've been super-duper busy lately and while it is NO excuse, my prayer and Word time has been scattered.

So, I sat at the keyboard this afternoon and opened to Romans 5.

I love this... starting in verse 3:

"Exalt in tribulation and trials. It brings about perseverance. Perseverance helps us develop proven character and out of that we have hope.

Hope does NOT disappoint. Look, God poured out His love within our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He gave to us."

Isn't that amazing? God purposefully poured out His love in us, then gave us His Spirit to keep us in love.

One of the problems in American today, the Church chief among them, is we don't want to endure. We want the quick fix. We want life easy and simple, someone to fix everything for us. We don't own up to our own weaknesses and faults.

Listen, if the first thing out of your mouth when times are hard is, "Well, my mother..." Or, "My Dad..." Or, "My boss..." Substitute what you will... husband, kids, agent, editor, neighbor, pastor...

Stop pointing the finger, look inside, confess your sins and endure. Develop proven character. We need a whole lot more character in this world. We are so busy blaming and spinning the truth. Let it start within me, within my hearts.

I want proven character. I want hope. I want the love of God dwelling in me richly.

Here's the best part of this Roman passage. Verse 8.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

I've written four books in first person present. I am. I go. I want. I say. The reason I did this was for the immediacy. It has a "now" feel.

"God demonstrates" has the same immediacy, now feel. God demonstrating His love for us is not past tense. It's every day. Current. Happening even now.

As I was singing this verse, taking a direction of Jesus dying on the Cross, singing how He faced the grave, defeated all of Hell, took the keys of death, I stopped.

Whoa. Heavy reavy.

God is life, right? Holds all of life in His hands. Adam, in the Garden, surrender his authority over death to his enemy, Satan.

Jesus came as a man, faced His enemy for all of human kinds, think David and Goliath, defeated Satan and took the authority over Death from him. Now Jesus, a Man, holds the keys. A man of love, an intercessor, who also happens to be God.

Look, I know we all know this at some level. But it hit me deeper today. Jesus. A man. Fixed what Adam screwed up. Only a human could take the keys of death away from him. So God said, "I'll do it for them by becoming one of them."

Amazing!!! There is NO other religion in the world with this kind of Hero. None. No one compares to Jesus. None. Investigate for yourself. Compare. You'll see.

Well, off  to check on my cake.