Do You Love People?

Yesterday I took Zed to his soccer practice and was blessed by the love of total strangers.  When Fred and Mary sat down and started a conversation, we didn't stay strangers for long!  For the duration of Zed's practice we talked about all kinds of things:  sport, family, work, Australia, WWII, the weather, and Jesus.  Towards the end of practice we exchanged details.  Our family has been invited to share a meal with two of the most delightful people imaginable.  Before we shook hands and left for the evening, I was struck by a statement Fred made:  "We love people."  And it really showed!

A heart of love is not revealed by words but by caring actions.  God's love is so unnatural but comes through people in the most natural ways.  How many practical ways was I shown genuine love?  Fred and Mary sat right down next to me and started talking.  They were interested and happy to chat.  During our conversation I was offered a toffee.  When the rain began to fall I was offered shelter under an umbrella.  Instead of distance, I was invited right into their lives through the sharing of experiences.  After all this, they were delighted to extend an invitation into their own home to share a traditional Italian meal.  They gave me personal details and entreated me to call them soon.  Why?  Because they love people.

This kind of unsolicited love is also seen in my Saviour, Jesus Christ.  God's active love is revealed through deeds.  Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit will reveal the same quality of sacrificial love seen in Jesus Christ.  The love of my friends reminds me of Matthew 25:31-40:  "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

As Christians, we ought to love like Jesus.  Sometimes we struggle to see what shape this should take in our families, workplaces, or even at the soccer field.  It is hard to fathom that when we see the lonely and sick, the imprisoned or thirsty, the hungry or destitute, we are looking at Christ.  It is not physically Christ Himself, but when we do good towards those in need we do it to Christ.  Consider this quote from Mother Theresa's book, No Greater Love (pages 66-68):

If you are really in love with Christ, no matter how small your work, it will be done better; it will be wholehearted.  Your work will prove your love.  You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless.  To work without love is slavery...You can touch the sick, the leper and believe that it is the body of Christ you are touching, but it is much more difficult when these people are drunk or shouting to think that this is Jesus is His distressing disguise.  How clean and loving our hands must be to be able to bring that compassion to them!  We need to be pure in heart to see Jesus in the person of the spiritually poorest...We consider it an honor to serve Christ in the distressing disguise of the spiritually poorest; we do it with deep gratitude and reverence in a spirit of sharing.

It is impossible to share the love of Christ with the world in a moment.  But it is possible to share His love with one person in need.  That is how Jesus reached the world and still does today:  one person, one act, one conversation at a time.  Even when sharing God's love with one person seems overwhelming, the power of God works to empower us to do what we naturally cannot.  2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."  All things are possible for those who believe!  Jesus loves all people, and we ought to love them too.  And because we love both God and man, we do.

Agreeing With God

As Christians, our faith in God is exercised according to knowledge.  God has revealed Himself through creation, the perfection of His Law and Word, the person of Jesus Christ, and the person of the Holy Spirit.  Instead of telling us to believe without thought, we are to consider Christ's claims and choose to place our faith in Him willingly.  It is an amazing irony, that the intellect God has given us to consider the Gospel can both aid and hinder us in our spiritual journey in following Jesus.

It is no recent realization to me that many Christians who take initial step of faith to follow Jesus stop short of the grace and gifts He desires them to operate.  The apostles followed Jesus while He lived, but remained in unbelief after His resurrection.  It is written in Mark 16:14 of Christ:  "Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen."  Most people are surprised to think that the ones who had been willing to leave their nets and occupations to follow Christ would remain in unbelief, even after hearing Jesus with their ears prophesy:  "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  The most devout believers can cultivate hearts hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  It's not only the Pharisees who turn the temple into a den of thieves, for even Christians can allow the Temple of the Holy Spirit to become a den of iniquity.

I believe it is normal for our faith in Christ to lead us places we hesitate to go.  Faith in Christ also leads us to places we initially refuse to go!  God told Jonah to go preach to Nineveh, but Jonah ran from his responsibility.  God may tell you to give up a hobby or throw out some stuff in your house.  You may have faith to trust that Jesus cleanses you from all sin, but stop short of obedience because of an intellectual hindrance.  Your experiences may erode your faith that the promises in God's Word actually apply to you.  Sure, you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father, but you are not convinced He will lift you from depression or remove your shame.  What a scourge our intellect is when it hinders our faith!

It is just as impossible to convince a heathen person that his sins have doomed him to hell as trying to convince a born-again Christian that it is God's will He be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  How can this be?  Because the natural man cannot receive the things of God because they are foolishness to him.  The natural man does not operate according to faith, but by sight.  We desperately need the Holy Spirit to teach, guide, and enable us to desire to receive the great gifts God has provided for all His children.  Solid reasoning is nothing without the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of the blind.

Do any of your opinions or thoughts stand in opposition to God?  These arguments will stumble you until they are thrown down by the power of God.  Praise God He has given us the means to overcome through Him: 2 Cor. 10:3-5:  "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. [4] For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, [5] casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ..."  Do not argue with God and fight against His Word or your conscience, brothers and sisters.  Can you understand the infinite God with your finite mind?  Consider well what hinders you from being baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Return to your first works of repentance and trust in Christ as a child.  Jesus will run to you and His reward is with Him!

Salvation Psalm

"The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, the Rock of my salvation!"

2 Samuel 22:47

 

Our God is above all gods!  Since He lives whom should we fear besides Him?  How great is our God and worthy to be praised!  The earth shakes, the ground opens its mouth.  The rocks are torn with great shaking, waves destroy the face of the earth.  Trees are splintered, hills sink and become valleys.  The mountains are broken by fierce wind, and mud covers the land as a shroud.  Above this God reigns in glory and power, a Rock of Salvation that cannot be moved.  He holds the stars in His right hand, and the earth is His footstool.  His arrows are bolts of lightning, and His power is revealed in thunder.  He is a God exalted who reigns on high, mighty and full of glory.  What man or nation can stand before Him?  He makes the earth as water and the mountains melt in His presence.  Where shall you flee, O man?  Where can you hide from His presence?  The whole earth trembles before its Maker:  are you too proud to tremble before Him, O man?  Hear our cries for help O Father, for our only hope is in you.  Come speedily to our aid for there is none to deliver.  Those who are proud will be brought low, even to hell, and those who are contrite He will exalt to His right hand, even to the heavens.  God is exalted and therefore can exalt.  Jesus is exalted over all and has been magnified in glory above all others, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is LORD to the glory of God the Father.  The stone rejected by the builders has become the Chief Cornerstone, and this is marvelous in my eyes!  Praise God there is healing in His wings.

Jesus Loves You!

"And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. ¹⁶ And He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them."

Mark 10:13-16

All morning the words of Christ have been running through my mind:  "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not:  for of such is the kingdom of God."  As I meditate upon this scripture, I am led to consider the context.  People brought their children to be touched by Jesus, but the disciples withstood and rebuked the parents who did so.  Why would they do this?

I am convinced that we have sanitized our ideas of Jesus Christ by picture books we've seen since we were young and in doing so have weakened the Gospel.  In our pages Jesus sits wearing His white robe and blue sash, and little happy children are sitting on his lap.  They don't look smelly or dirty or covered with fleas.  They don't look diseased or sick or have muddy drool and sweat all over their faces.  Most pictures show fully-clothed, lily-white, clean, perfect little kids without frowns, hurts, or tears.  Do you think that is how the kids really looked?  I bet the kids brought to Jesus were from the poor lower class of folks who had no hope in the world except Jesus.  And when they brought their scruffy looking kids the disciples said, Not a chance!  Why would you trouble the Teacher with these dirty kids crawling with vermin?

This angered Jesus, who had come to seek and save the lost.  Jesus didn't come to earth so people could be turned from Him, but so He could save them.  Do you notice that He did much more than these hopeful parents could have dreamed?  Jesus not only blessed them, but He gathered them up in His arms!  He put his hands on them and prayed over them.  He didn't recoil because of their stench or lack of sanitation.  He didn't put on gloves or quickly go to His bottle of hand sanitizer after he touched a child.  He didn't change into His back-up robe because some dirt or mucus dripped onto Him.  He blessed those kids and hugged them just the same.  He kissed those sick kids like a loving dad.  And He sternly rebuked His disciples:  DON'T YOU DARE hinder the children from coming to Me!

When you saw those pictures as a child, did sadness fill your heart because you weren't happy or pretty or perfect?  As an adult do you feel that Jesus is too aloof to reach out His hand to touch you, take you in His arms and bring comfort to your soul?  You see your filth, you smell your stench of sin and think, Why would God trouble Himself with someone like me?  Sometimes well-meaning disciples of Christ hinder people from coming to Him because of requirements they place on others.  But Jesus has no requirements except that we come to Him in faith, trusting in Him alone.  Are you sick in soul, deeply wounded, feel like an outcast, or afraid Jesus doesn't want you?  Don't buy that lie of the devil!  Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind, heal the sick, release the prisoners from their addictions and oppressions, and set people free.  He came to breathe life into our souls dead in sins, and fill us with His Holy Spirit that we might know Him intimately.

Come to Jesus today as you are.  He will not only bless you, but hold you close with comfort.  Repent and have your sins washed away with His precious blood.  Those who come to Him He will never cast out.  You need never again be apart.