Category: All About Love

God Loves You

On By BrianIn All About Love

God loves you.  He proved it by coming to earth as a baby for you.  He proved it by dying on a cross for you. He proved it by forgiving your sin, and giving you a new life with Him now and forevermore.

God loves you – that might be most important you hear today.

God loves you.  But maybe you doubt it because of some sin in your life, and you wonder how he could love someone like you.  But he came and died to pay for that sin, to wash away all the shame and guilt of that sin. That sin is gone.  And he did it, because he loves you.

God loves you.  But maybe you doubt it because of some suffering in your life.  If God loved me, why am I going through this?

But his love is not found in keeping us from suffering.  We live in a fallen world, and because of that, there is sickness and death and tragedy and terrible actions by others.  We will suffer.

Jesus suffered, and we will suffer too.

But his love is not found in keeping us from suffering.  Rather, his love is found in being there to help us in our suffering.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.  He is with you always to end of age. 

And at end the end of the age, He will come again and bring all of our suffering to an end.

He came for you.  He died for you.  He washed away all your sins.  He purchased a new life for you.  He is with you in your trials.  And he is coming again for you.  All because he loves you.

Refocus

On By BrianIn All About Love1 Comment

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
– Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)

Love God and love people. This is the sum of the Old Testament. This is what God expects of us, what he calls us to do. This is what life is all about. But it is so easy to get distracted, and we need to regularly refocus.

Life is not about amassing wealth. It is not about consuming. It is not about power or control. It is not about fame or popularity. It is not about comfort or ease. It is not about pleasure. It is not about defining ourselves, but rather denying ourselves to love God and people.

Life is not even about the myriad of things we do on any given day. Not that those things are necessarily wrong, but they are only the settings in which we are to love. They are the contexts of love. In our families and friendships, at our job or school, in our recreation or sports – these are all contexts for us to express our love for God and our love for people. Love is central.

And so we need to regularly refocus. We need to ask questions: How can I show love to God today in my family, my job, my school, my play, my church? How can I show love today to my spouse, my children, my co-workers, my classmates, my neighbors?

And we need to constantly be looking for opportunities to love throughout the day – in our daily routines and in the interruptions to our routines.

We need to refocus on what is really important: loving God and loving people. May God help us to grow in this love this week.

Our Treasure and Our Pearl

On By BrianIn All About Love, Heart

 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
– Matthew 13:44-46

Is Jesus the treasure and pearl for whom you would give all,
or is he merely an add-on to your life?

Loving the Lost

On By BrianIn All About Love

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
– Matthew 22:39

If we love our neighbor in this way,
we will want them to know Jesus as we do.
We will care about their spiritual condition.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Luke 19:10

Jesus sought the lost.
He died to save the lost.

As we follow Jesus, we will share his heart.
We too will seek out the lost that they might be saved.
We will follow Christ’s call:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
Matthew 28:19

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8

We do this not in our strength
but in the strength of the Spirit.
We begin where we live
and move out from there.
There are countless millions who need a Savior.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.
– Matthew 9:37-38

So let us pray.

And let us go.

With the heart of Christ.

With the power of the Spirit.

Father, grant us a growing burden for the lost.
Help us to seek opportunities to share our faith,
and use those opportunities we find.
May the gospel spread in our

families

places of employment

schools

neighborhoods

communities

and throughout the world

for your glory!  Amen.

Loving One Another

On By BrianIn All About Love, Church Life

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another.
– I John 4:11

The more we grasp God’s love for us,
the more we will love God;
and the more we love God,
the more we will love his people.

As Jesus formed this new people for himself,
he gave them a new command:

 A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another:
just as I have loved you,
you also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.
– John 13:34-35

We are to love as Christ loved us.
That is an incredible love!
And when we love that way,
people will see a difference in us.
They will be attracted to Jesus.
Oh, that God’s church would be known for its love!

What might this love look like? 
Romans 12:10, Galatians 6:10, and Ephesians 6:18
give us some pointers:

Brotherly affection.

Genuine respect.

Doing good to each other.

Praying for one another.

How would our relationships with one another change
if we consistently lived these out in our churches?

Loving God

On By BrianIn All About Love

Because of God’s great love for us, we will love God.

You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind.
– Matthew 22:37

We are to love God with all of our being, all that we are.  We should love God

with our eyes – what we do and do not look at

with our ears – what we do and do not listen to

with our tongues – what we do and do not say

with our hands – what we do and do not do

with our feet – where we go and don’t go

with our minds – what we do and do not think

with our hearts – what we do and do not desire

with our time – how we do and don’t use our days.

We are to love God with our entire lives. 

O God, you are my God;
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
  as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
– Psalm 63:1

Our love is shown in our desire for him.

We earnestly seek him.

We thirst for him.

We faint for him.

We long for him.

We hunger for him.

We pant for him.

  My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
  and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
– Psalm 63:5

And our desire for him is not disappointed.  In him we find

our satisfaction

our fulfillment

our meaning

our purpose

our identity

our lives.

And so in response:

we praise him

we bless him

we honor him

we glorify him

we worship him

we live for him

we love him.

Father, help us to grow in our love for you. 
In response to your amazing love for us,
may we love you with all of our being,
desiring and praising you 
who alone will satisfy our souls.
Amen.

Prayer – A Matter of Love

On By BrianIn All About Love, Habit of Prayer

We have been considering the importance of prayer the last few weeks.  As we conclude, I want to briefly think about how prayer relates to love.  Or put another way, how does prayer relate to this blog’s theme of three passions?

Christ’s Passion For Us

It is because of Christ’s love that took him to the cross that we can pray at all.  We were separated from God because of our sin.  But now through Christ’s death we are reconciled to God.  Through the cross we can come boldly before the throne of grace.  And it is not just Christ’s love that makes prayer possible.  The Holy Spirit must apply the work of Christ to our lives, making us God’s children who call out to God as Father.  This application too is an act of love.  And then the Father loves us enough to hear our prayers.  He actually cares about what we say.  It is the love of the Triune God that makes prayer possible.

Passion for God

If we love someone, we will communicate with them.  In the same way, if we love God, we will pray.  We will want to spend time with him.  We will want to bring him our praises as well as our cares.  Our love for God can in many ways be measured by our prayer life. 

Compassion for People

If we love people, we will pray for them.  The biggest need people have is God.  God is the solution to every problem.  If that is so, then bringing people before God in prayer is one of the most loving things we can do for them.  If we love people, we will want to pray with them too.  What can be greater than getting together with friends that we love to commune with the God that we love?

Three Passions

Which brings me to my final thought:  Praying together ties all three strands of the three passions together.  We lovingly come together to lovingly approach a loving Father through the work of a loving Son and the application of the loving Spirit.  Me, you, and God communing in love.  What an incredible opportunity!

Prayer is a matter of love.  How is your prayer life?  How is your love?

New Life. Loving God. Loving People.

On By BrianIn All About Love

On Sunday, I finished a three week sermon series going through the theme: New Life.  Loving God.  Loving People.  It is a sort of slogan for our church, with each phrase further defined on our church website and in our church brochure.  The goal was to define what our church was all about (living in response to the gospel) in everyday language that might connect with people.  You can judge how well we achieved our goal (feel free to leave your comments).  As may be obvious, it is directly related to the Three Passions theme of this blog.  Here is the entire thing as it appears on our site and brochure:

 New Life
We all need new life: 
Forgiveness for the past. 
Power to live differently today. 
Hope for the future. 
We have found this new life in Jesus.

Loving God
As we find new life in Jesus, we enter into a loving relationship with God. 
Our joy is to grow in this incredible relationship by spending time with him. 
Our delight is to live each day for him.

Loving People
Our loving relationship with God helps us grow in our love for people. 
We begin to love our families more. 
We seek to be a loving church family that cares for one another. 
We want to serve our community
and share this new life we have found with others.

The Story of Love

On By BrianIn All About Love1 Comment

The Story of Love

God

In the beginning was the God of love –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
In perfect loving relationship with each other.

Creation

And this loving God made us in his image
To live in a loving relationship with him and with each other.

Fall

But we rebelled, sinned, spurned God’s love.
We worshipped ourselves instead of God.
We focused on ourselves instead of each other.
God’s judgment fell upon us.
We were separated from God.
We lived in strife with each other.

Redemption

But God’s love was reaching….
The Father sent the Son to become a man named Jesus,
Who lived a perfect life of love for the Father and others.

Blameless, he took upon himself our judgment
By dying on a cross in our place that we might be forgiven
For our rebellious failure to love God and others.

He was buried and rose again on the third day
That we might die to our rebellious ways
And be raised to a new life of love for God and others.

The Spirit applies Jesus’ saving work to us as we believe,
And helps us grow in love for God and others.

The Spirit places us in the redeemed community of love
To trade our self-worship for loving worship of God
And our self-focus for loving care for others.

Consummation

At Christ’s return, the dead in Christ will rise,
And those who are alive in Christ will be changed,
And we will dwell with God forever in paradise
Enjoying a perfect loving relationship with him and with each other.

The Great Exchange

On By BrianIn All About Love

Imagine that you are a begger dressed in dirty, filthy rags.  You work really hard, and after a long time you are able to buy a shirt.  You proudly put it over your rags, but the rags are still underneath, and you can still see the rags on your legs.  What is more, you note that your new shirt is stained with dirt; it is not as clean as you thought.

Then one day, the son of the king comes through town.  You hide in the crowds, but he picks you out, and tells you to come with him.  He casts your new shirt aside, and takes your rags.  To your surprise, he takes his clean robe and places it on you, as he puts your old rags on himself.  What you could not do by your own effort, he has done for you.  And the king welcomes you to his palace.

Dear reader – are you still in the rags of your sin or have you received the great exchange offered to you by Jesus, the King’s Son?  If you are still in your rags, Jesus offers this great exchange to you – he died to pay for your sins, and he offers you his perfect righteousness. Turn from your sins and trust in Jesus and he will give you a new life. If you have received this great exchange, no matter what you have done, you are pure and clean in his sight.

Have you not read:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:23

“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” – Titus 3: 5a

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” – Isaiah 64:6

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:6

“For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” – Romans 3:21-22

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” – John 1:12

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” – Isaiah 1:18