Archive for June, 2024
Living and Loving on the Right Side of the Cross – Part Three
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22 – 40).
Jesus intended us to operate under the control of our personal will in seeking to love others. It is suitable only when operating in the “Thy will be done” zone.
It is hard to love and rejoice in the Lord when suffering from a case of remoteness.
The Lord God once said of Israel:
“Their heart is far from Me.”
The words don’t relate to physical distance, but to likeness. It is not physical distance, but dissimilarities that cause a sense of remoteness.
Two creatures may be so close together they touch, yet they may be so unalike they are far apart. For example, you and a wild African lion from the Serengeti Plains may be so close you touch, but in your natures you are far apart and that makes you want to get physically further apart.
For this moral unlikeness the Bible uses the word “alienation.” Look in your inner life for evidence of dissimilarities between you and the Lord. Check for:
WRONG ATTITUDES, EVIL THOUGHTS, DISPOSITIONAL FLAWS.
Three facets of our nature are to be involved in loving the Lord.
“Kardia” is the word used. It is a reference to our entire inner nature. It is a term for our personality. Whole-hearted love is the meaning. It is a reference to being enthusiastic about our love for the Lord.
The measure of loving the Lord is to love Him without measure.
“Psyche” is the word for soul. It is a reference to the seat of our will. It means to willfully determine to love the Lord.
“Dianoia” is the word for mind. It relates to our intellect. Love for the Lord is to be knowledgeable. That is what made the difference in the lives of the disciples. After the resurrection they were clued in as to who Jesus was and what His role was.
Albert Sweitzer was asked, “What is wrong with man today?” He replied, “He simply does not think.” Think about it!
Candidly, through the years I have encountered some people I wanted to pray for with a baseball bat. I would like to say I have always been successful in complying with the command to love them, but there have been some times I have struck out. Those occasions have caused me to suffer deferred regret and resolution to knock it out of the park next time.
Living and Loving on the Right Side of the Cross – Part Two
Matthew 22: 36 – 40
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord wholeheartedly. It is also perhaps the hardest commandment.
The Greek word used by Jesus that is translated love was “agapao”. It is self-less love, the kind God the Father has for us.
It is not simply an immediate feeling or natural impulse. That is why the disciples were clueless before the cross. They were trying to work up a warm fuzzy feeling toward some very hard and harsh people. In the energy of the flesh there are some people that simply aren’t loveable.
However, the love Jesus commands and on this side of the cross enables us to love isn’t a natural impulse, it requires the will to obey Him.
When the pressure was on those disciples who heard Jesus teach this command, men who had known the text from infancy, they did such things as draw swords and cut off ears. It wasn’t an ear Peter intended to sever in the garden when the Roman soldiers came with Judas for Jesus, it was a head.
My humorous imagination can just hear Jesus say, “Peter, put up that sword. I am supposed to die on a cross. If you keep that up you will get us all killed right here in this garden.”
Now after the resurrection Peter and the others got the clue. After the influence of the resurrection Peter clued into what Jesus meant by loving, he went forth with such love for Jesus as to die on a cross for Jesus’ cause, all the while loving those who killed him as his Master had.
Peter later wrote revealing the change in his life.
“…love one another fervently with a pure heart” (I Peter 1:22).
“…having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous…” (I Peter 3: 8).
“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8).
That doesn’t sound like a man who at the trial of Jesus swore, cursed, and declared he never knew Jesus? That Peter was the Simon before the cross, he didn’t have a clue. This is the Peter after the resurrection.
People hadn’t suddenly changed and become lovable, but Peter had changed and become loving.
Agape love is a conscious and deliberate act of the will.
It means to seek God for His own sake,
to have pleasure in Him, and
to strive impulsively after Him.
Does it ever seem to you that you just can’t work up an emotional thrill over loving your brothers and sisters? The occasional absence of this emotion causes some to conclude they aren’t Christians. It helps to find your way out of this dark shadow into the cheerful sunlight when you realize there are two kinds of love.
One is “feeling” and the other “will.”
God never intended you to be a plaything of your emotions. We all struggle with our emotions. Living in the “Thy will be done” zone is the only possible way to love. Now go out today (and every day) and find somebody to love.
Living and Loving on the Right Side of the Cross – Part One
Matthew 22: 36 – 40
A group of religious critics asked Jesus a question intended to impel Him on the horns of a dilemma. You know, you have been asked those questions by people not really wanting an answer.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Gotcha!
They had 631 commandments, 248 positive and 365 negative.
Schools of thought developed around most of the major ones and groups advocating their favorite as the greatest. It appeared that if Christ said of any one of the laws it was the greatest advocates of all others would turn on Him saying He was wrong. It was a question not intended to get an answer but to cause confusion.
Jesus reached back into the Scripture and quoted: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. (Deuteronomy 6:5). That doesn’t leave out anything. There is no reserve in the love to be given the Lord.
Jesus knew this commandment was worthy to – – –
DOMINATE OUR EMOTIONS
DIRECT OUR ATTITUDES
DETERMINE OUR ACTIONS.
All who heard Him identify what He declared to be the most important commandment were very familiar with it. It is a part of the Jewish creed known as the “Shema.” The word Shema means “to hear.” It was the first Old Testament Scripture to be learned by a child.
On the other side of the resurrection His followers had an understanding of what it meant to love like that. We are now on the other side of the cross.
They had been part of the body of betrayers in the Garden of Gethsemane. They had seen Him brutalized and not defend Himself. They heard Him pray on the cross: “Father forgive them….”
Now, they who were clueless until the resurrection were to let it have the same impact on them.
We, like them, in light of the resurrection should love the Lord our God with all of our personal resources.
An electrician was called upon to make minor repairs in wiring that required him to go into the church attic over the pulpit. His wife accompanied him and decided to sit in the auditorium and wait for him. A group of visitors quietly entered the place of worship and seeing the lady sitting alone assumed she was having a time of private worship.
Her husband had been unduly long in the attic. The silent visitors were shocked when she turned her eyes heavenward and called out, “Sam, are you up there?” After a moment’s pause she continued, “Did you make it alright?”
After the resurrection the disciples knew Jesus was “Up there”. He had “made it alright.” As a result things are not all right down here, but we are alright living on this side of the cross. Look up and live and love.
How to Face Fear Faithfully – Part Four
“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41: 10
In the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. is President Lincoln’s Bible. The edge is well worn where it has been often opened to the passage stained from his finger having passed over it many times as he read: “I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from my fears” (Psalm 34:4).
All of the reassurance stored in our text should incite faith. Faith makes us stretch and want to live up to the standard set by our predecessors in the faith. Imagine, if you can, a moment of time in the ebbing life of a faithful follower of our Lord in the days of the infant church.
It is the Circus Maximus in Rome. Standing alone in the center of the arena is one of our predecessors in the faith of whom the world was not worthy. Try to conceive of the stress of standing alone in that vast hostile arena. Only a few moments are allowed to elapse before the wild beasts are released. Come now, use your vivid imagination, and stand alone in that theater ringed by tier upon tier of bitter, blood lustful, mocking former friends. Wait in utter isolation and hear the derisive jeers of those with whom you have lived from childhood.
You know full well you will have to wait and endure that indignity only a moment before tasting bittersweet death.
They, your former associates, think you to be mad for you have broken with their way of life and embraced a God they don’t know. You have rebelled against what they call their gods of common sense.
This you have done for a love which only your heart knows.
You are acting in obedience to a voice they cannot hear. You are living and dying for a hope they can’t comprehend.
For this love, for this hope, in obedience to this voice, you are making the ultimate irrevocable sacrifice of your life.
This can be done only by looking away from everything that is not God. You are calmly and peacefully acting because of the intensity of a single allegiance.
Come back now to the present and your personal modern arena. You can live it victoriously as they do. You cannot do it without the intensity of a single allegiance. You must look away from everything that is not God. It is an act of faith.
Practice today and every day hereafter looking away from everything that is not godly. You must expect it to require the intensity of a single allegiance.
How to Face Fear Faithfully – Part Three
“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41: 10
The gospel of comfort is explained in the text. Expressions of God’s companionship with His people (that means you) are heaped one on another.
Cause number one : “I am with you.”
It excites me to think God never takes His mind off me. Actually, the God who was with Moses in the slime pits of Egypt, as well as on the summit of Mount Sinai, is with me.
When I was a college student my mom gave me a quote I carried for years; it still resides not just in my head, but in my heart:
“The light of God surrounds me
The love of God enfolds me
The power of God protects me
The presence of God watches over me
Wherever I am, God is!”
Mark this well. Make it a mental marquee. God never assigns a task or appoints an ordeal without personally accompanying His people in it. Never, no never. He doesn’t say,”You will feel my presence.” Feelings come and go. God abides. Our security isn’t based on our changing moods, but on God’s unchanging character.
Cause number two: “I am your God.” Therefore, let God be God. If He is the loving God scripture asserts Him to be, and which the experience of many of us confirms Him to be, then He has a purpose in what He is allowing in your life.
Faith knows God’s glory is being acknowledged when it is applied because it enables angels and mankind to see God’s faithfulness in response to its presence.
Cause number three: “I will strengthen you.”
This is not a reference simply to natural strength, but to the supernatural. He enhances our ability and increases our capacity. Resort to His word as a means of obtaining His strength.
Cause number four: “I will uphold you.” When His strength is your strength, stability results. When there is danger of falling a support is needed. It is not in the Bible, but the principal is throughout “I got you,” and He has. It is not only OK to lean on Him, it is essential.