June 2011
Friends,
Sometimes, I wish you wrote a letter back to Grace Klein Community every month sharing of God’s faithfulness. It would be neat to hear what God is doing in your heart, in your home, in your friendships, in your world. I imagine you sharing how you were afraid and God gave you peace, you were lonely and He comforted you, you were isolated and He befriended you, you were hungry and He fed you, you were discouraged and He gave you hope, you were happy and He celebrated with you, you were sinful and He forgave you, you did not love, but He loved you anyway. Maybe I imagine these encounters, because I have experienced them all myself and I know He wants to be all that for you… your Lord, your Savior, your Comforter, your Sustainer, your Protector, your Hope, your Rescuer, your Redeemer, your Friend.
Last night I had the most horrible nightmare, dreaming my aunt lost all hope and committed suicide. I woke up sad and wondering if she knows God or just knows about God. Then, I started thinking about all the people I love, all of you, and wondering the same. Do you KNOW God or just about Him? For many of us, we have grown up in the South, expected to go to church on Sundays and do the right thing. We are taught all about God and Jesus, but are we taught to live moment to moment with Him? Do we rely on His love?
1 John 4:15-19 says, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.”
Do you KNOW Jesus? He wants to know you, sweet friend. He wants to live in you and be your God! He satisfies when the world does not. Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”- Revelation 3:20. How beautiful, He wants to join us for dinner, He wants to be family to us, He wants us. When we acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior, God comes to live in us. When God is in us, we can rely on His love.
We cannot rely on anyone’s love except Jesus. Maybe you think that is harsh, but everyone you will ever love in this world will fail you. Every time you and I ever try to love by ourselves, we will fail. Sad, but a true reality. Without God, we cannot love. God is love and without God we cannot, we are incapable of, love. We may do kind things, give our resources, outwardly do the right thing, but in our flesh we have motives, we have intentions, we have expectations. Real love has no motives, no intentions, no expectations. Real love expects nothing in return and gives sacrificially.
Hallelujah, if we KNOW Jesus, we can love, because He is in us giving us the capability to love beyond our selfishness, beyond us, so that He comes pouring out of us. To be able to love others, we must accept His perfect love. Then, we love because He loves us. We know how dirty and yucky and undeserving we are and if He loves us, then we know He loves all people. When we are in Him and He is in us, we have the ability to love others.
Maybe you are tired of loving others? Do you love the same people month after month with seemingly no response? Do you give up your time or your resources and never receive a thank you? Does the lack of the thankfulness or the seemingly unchanged lives make your heart hard or make you want to quit loving? Do your kids still show you disrespect? Does your friend forget to return your call? Are you forgotten for a Saturday night dinner? If you are starting to resent sacrificing for others, evaluate your private, personal time with our Father. Have you disconnected from the one and only source of true love? Remember, we are incapable of love without Jesus.
Jesus loved us so much He died for us. He sacrificed His life so we might live moment to moment with Him. His sacrifice did not feel good. His sacrifice was selfless. He was rejected by many men He loved, but it did not stop Him from loving. He was patient with apathy, with our unthankful hearts, with our distractions and our desire for His blessings more than our desire for Him. He loved us when we did not love Him back.
Find intimacy with the Father. He refuels us. He strengthens us. He gives the strength to keep sharing His love, even if it does not give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. Love is messy. Love is hard. Love is sacrifice. Love is laying down our lives for others. 1 John 3:16 “This is how we KNOW what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” We are God’s children AND His friends. When we are His sons and daughters, then our love for Him demands our love for others. If we “love” anyone, outside our love for Christ, it is not love. We might think our actions or our sacrifice are love, but if we do anything outside our love for God it will frustrate us, discourage us and disappoint us. Why??
We cannot love on our own. To really love, we must lay down our lives and that takes God being with us every moment of every day. We must constantly rely on Him and not ourselves. When we have God’s love, we show we are a letter from Christ… written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3) Lord, help us be a letter from You to the hurting, to the hopeless, to the lost. Help us never forget how much we need you so that we are drawn to share Your love, a love that does not leave us, does not get tired of us, does not get too busy for us. We all need You, Jesus. We want to love, but we cannot apart from You. We only love because You first loved us. Teach us how to be like You. Amen
John 15: 12-17 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not KNOW his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
When we love God we love others and when we love others we obey His commands. Let us make intimacy with God our first priority. When we KNOW God and listen for His voice, then we love like Him. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)
So who are you going to love this week, in the name of Jesus?
All for Jesus,
Hebrews 13:16 “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased