Sometimes, facts are not important to others …
Until we first acknowledge their pain.
Category: Simple Love
There would have been no eventual redemption …
Unless the father first let go of the prodigal.
Most mornings I wake up grateful.
Before the day starts, I like to sit and quietly watch the sun rise while prayerfully contemplating the many blessings God has restored in my life.
I’ve learned not to dwell on what I’ve lost as He prunes me for new growth …
By forgetting to appreciate the wonder of new opportunities, new relationships, and even new purposes and meanings in Christ.
He makes all things new.
”Christians” who interpret Christ and judge His Word by their own notions of love …
Rather than conform their notions of love to Christ and His Word …
Know not Christ and misunderstand love.
God’s norms apply to all cultures, for the blessings of all …
But often are uniquely expressed in each.
While holding to those norms, don’t interpret another’s situation and culture through the lens of your own situation and culture.
Doing so thwarts mutual esteem and understanding.
That’s true even when it’s done with the best of intentions.
In contrast, the Great Commission requires us to go beyond our own reality and enter into very different realities …
Where people are very different than us.
They may be across the globe, or just down the street.
Few do it.
Nonetheless, Jesus bids us “go” with a fierce love that takes us outside our own limited perspectives.
Only then can we truly embrace “others” as brothers in Him.
Authentic love brings truth …
And truth is never neutral.
Christians who dismiss some as beyond the reach of God’s grace, repentance and redemption …
Stand outside His grace, repentance and redemption.
Charity and ministry are good, but not when we treat those we seek to help …
As “others” rather than “brothers”.
When possible, be at peace and move on …
By letting those who don’t appreciate your presence appreciate your absence.
God redeems His creation …
Despite its fallenness.
And reconciles us to Himself …
Despite our brokenness.
Because He loves us, Jesus affirms in Romans 13 – and elsewhere – the State’s obligation to stop evildoers and protect innocent lives …
Through the judicious use, if needed, of deadly force.
Some deny this by reducing love to a distorted sentimentality which lacks substance …
While sacrificing others on the altar of a false Jesus of their own creation.
Real love doesn’t just affirm what is good and right, but also opposes what enslaves and destroys.
Those ministering authentic grace to folks who are lost and know it …
Understand this.
Those peddling a conceptual faith that’s never put into practice …
Don’t.
Doing for others what they should be doing for themselves …
Is no mercy.
Daily, I see how God delights in creating beauty from wrecked lives.
Our role is to recognize it’s not all up to us …
And let Him do it.
Only fools sacrifice the lifelong joy of authentic …
For the short term thrill of illicit.
Joy seldom comes without risking failure …
In love, business, faith and all of life.
Love and truth …
Give substance to all the other fruits of the Spirit.
Truth without love can be just as corrosive …
As love without truth.
God owes us NOTHING.
Get over it.
Then, and only then, will we begin to apprehend the wonders of His grace.
In the cool of the day, God walked side-by-side and fellowshipped face-to-face with Adam in Adam’s garden …
To enjoy together the fruit of Adam’s passion, creativity and labor.
It’s OK to be human …
That’s where God wants to meet us too.
Cynicism denies Christ’s sovereignty over a world He yet loves.
True disciples, however, don’t expect the world to be perfect …
But go forth to redeem its brokenness, as Christ commands.
Everyone loves the prophetic, until it speaks of them …
Everyone loves discipleship, so long as there’s no discipline …
Everyone loves ekklesia, without submitting to each other …
Everyone loves truth, except when there’s a price …
Everyone loves God’s Kingdom, but not the dictates of His rule …
Everyone loves Jesus, yet seldom on His terms.
Bottom line?
Don’t be everyone.
Sometimes, love means letting others own the consequences …
Of their own choices.
Unless compassion is combined with steely-eyed realism, I trust neither.
God never intended for either of those gifts to work in isolation.
Love turns its own cheek …
While protecting other cheeks.
Plumbline Faith 