Filed under: SERIES: LOVE DARE | Tags: commitment, couple, couples, husband, integrity, love, marriage, promise, promises, wife
LOVE. I DARE YOU TO DELIVER. There was something in John’s letter that reminded me of something Solomon once wrote: “When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 NLT)
The series we began this month reminds us that we dare to love because God first loved us. We also forgive because we have been forgiven. John wrote that simply saying you are going to do something isn’t enough.
“This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” without keeping His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected.” (1 John 2:3-5)
Love doesn’t just make a promise. Love keeps a promise. Love delivers on a promise. Essentially, love does. It does what it says. To deliver means to do or to carry out as promised.
What promises have you made? How are you doing at keeping them? John talked a lot about how you “walk.” He said that the one who says with his talk that he is a Christian walks just as Jesus walked. (1 John 2:6) Walking is how you conduct your life. How you live. Your lifestyle. You walk your talk. How are you doing at living out what you’ve promised?
Filed under: SERIES: THE CROSS
The Cross. Everything was reconciled to God through it. The list of selfish thoughts, words and actions that stood as evidence against us was taken away and nailed to it. Powers and spiritual forces of evil were made a public laughing stock by it. Those same spiritual authorities were humbled and humiliated as defeated foes forced to surrender at the sight of it
The Cross. Our old self was nailed to those wood beams. Our sin was done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to it. It was on that old rugged cross our Savior Jesus Christ gave His life up for us that we might have real life in Him. That act of sacrifical love would be made once. For all. It would never need to happen again. His sacrifice was for all people for all time. His blood was poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins. For the many. For the multitudes. For all time.
In response to His dying on the cross for me, I pick up my cross and live for Him. In future letters, I hope God’s radical and intense love for you drives you to die to yourself to live for Him.
“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:19-20
“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
FOCUS.UP: Where do you need His peace today? What do you need to deny yourself of this week? How will death in one area of your life actually bring life in another?
The cross changed the course of human history. Though a symbol of torture and death, the cross actually brought us life. More than just a piece of jewelry we wear, the cross shows us how intense God’s love was and is for us. It was that message of the cross that radically changed my life as a sophomore in high school. I have struggled since then to know what it really means to put into practice Jesus’ words: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) He would say again, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) I am inviting you to join me on a journey as we look at this radical love of God portrayed on the cross… and our response to His love by dying to ourselves and following Jesus. It’s crosstraining. It’s painful, but it brings incredible growth and healing.
For these next few weeks leading up to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, I’ll be writing you to encourage you to take a deeper look at what the cross has meant, and will mean for us. Are you ready for some intense cross training?
I’ve been focusing my devotional life on the Cross lately, writing and reflecting on that most pivotal event in history. Next Wednesday will begin a season of reflection and preparation called Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Saturday. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days of Lent because each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter”, a celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death.
The series we began last Sunday reminds us that we dare to love because God loved first. We also forgive because we have been forgiven. John wrote that if we walk in the light “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) When we confess our sins, admitting our guilt, “he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
What have you been forgiven of? Just think, we have been purified from ALL sin and cleansed of ALL unrighteousness. What does “ALL” represent to you? Take some time to really think about that one. Most of you received the TueTXT: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13)
I hate that part. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Oh, I don’t hate that he has forgiven me ALL my sins and cleansed me of ALL unrighteousness. I hate that I need to forgive others as the Lord has forgiven me. What if the Lord withheld His forgiveness like I sometimes withhold my own? What if He dealt with me the way I sometimes deal with the guy on the freeway, or the slow clerk at the store… or my wife… or my girls… or my mom… or the brother/sister in church who ticks me off… I am running into a lot of people who continue to hold on to resentment instead of living a lifestyle of forgiveness.
My two favorite online tools for Bible study are http://www.biblegateway.com and www.dictionary.com. Forgiveness is releasing someone from liability and indebtedness and ceasing to feel resentment for something done against you.
“I can’t do that.” Neither can I. It’s impossible on our own. It’s impossible to love until we know how much we’ve been loved. It’s impossible to forgive until we know how much we’ve been forgiven of. Jesus said, “the one who has been forgiven little loves little, but the one who has been forgiven much loves much.” (Luke 7:47) There is a direct link between our ability to forgive and our capacity to love… and be loved.
I’d love to tell you to forgive when you feel like it, or that it’s a good suggestion. It’s actually a command. We have to. If you want some psychobabble, holding on to resentment is killing you from the inside. You’re hurting yourself as much as you think you’re hurting the other person.
If you want the harsh truth, unforgiveness is sin.
“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25) After Jesus taught his disciples to pray he said, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
For some situations this just seems completely impossible. Yet, that’s what living the verticallife is all about. It’s not about trying to get ‘er done with our own strength of will. It’s about looking up when a lack of forgiveness has got us down. So when life’s got you down, focus up.
Filed under: SERIES: LOVE DARE
This week we begin a series on John’s first of three letters, simply titled 1 John. The series is called “LOVE. I dare you!” since love is such a huge focus of all of John’s writings. You’ll catch him call himself throughout his gospel as “the one whom Jesus loved.” You get the idea that if you are truly going to be one who lives a daring life loving those around you, you first need to know you are loved.
