Posts Tagged ‘love’

Getting into debt

February 14th, 2010 No Comments

No one likes debt. It sucks. Getting into debt is an action much like shackling yourself to the will of someone else. Credit cards, IOU’s, favors…they are all some form of debt or debt-returning devices we use every day. Everyone knows they should stay out of debt—why do you think we have so many seminars, books, and get-out-of-debt-for-free websites in existence today?

But there is one debt that Christians owe continually, and should pay back over and over:

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

Even the apostle Paul knew that we need to stay out of debt. But there is a recurring debt—the debt of love. We don’t simply owe one person a little bit of love, as if only one person ever loved us. Instead, because of the enormity of God’s love for us, we are now compelled to pay that debt off in turn by loving everyone else.

Christ-followers are called to a life of love. What does real love look like? Check out 1 Corinthians 13. The entire chapter defines what love is.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-6

When I stack my life up against the model of genuine love found here, I fall so short. But this is the lifestyle of love that I owe to everyone in the world, people created in the very image of God himself. It’s something to strive for every day, only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can’t truly love in our own strength—only in His.

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Unreal love

February 2nd, 2010 1 Comment

God’s love is unreal. We can try and try again to reach some kind of make-shift righteousness through following church tradition, doing good works, or staying sober over a year. The fact is, our salvation depends on nothing we do, but entirely on God’s incredible mercy.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Romans 9:16

What makes it more beautiful is the fact that God reaches out and calls out the broken-hearted, the lost, the hopeless. He calls those in darkness out into his marvelous light, and calls them his children. His own.

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ’sons of the living God.’”

Romans 9:25-26

If you are a Christian, DO NOT FORGET what was done for you purely by the grace, mercy, and cross of Christ. Don’t forget that love so unreal that saved you.

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It’s not useless

October 7th, 2009 No Comments

1 Corinthians 15:58:
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

I’ve always been told whenever we see “therefore” in the Bible, we should always ask ourselves, “what’s it there for? Paul had just finished talking about the temporal becoming eternal, the natural becoming spiritual, when we pass away and Jesus raises us up. The victory belongs to God and he gives us that victory as well (vv42-57).

Because of the victory that God has given us, Paul says to them, “Therefore, be unshakeable. Be resolute. Don’t waver or falter in your task. Continue to do God’s work and know that what you do is not useless. Because this temporary, physical life will eventually give way to an eternal, spiritual existence, know that everything you do on this earth has purpose.”

Know that everything you do has a purpose. You can either be leading people to the cross, or away from it by the way you live your life. To the Christian, continue to live for the cause of the cross, because although we can’t always see the result of what we do for the kingdom, it has a purpose and it is not done in vain.

Also check these links this morning:
- Perry Noble has given insight into preparing messages. So far you can read part one and part two on his blog.
- DesiringGod – we don’t understand at the time what God is doing.
- Craig Groeschel has something awesome to say on making it YOUR church.

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