All We Need Is Love. Really?

What if you loved your neighbor the way you love yourself? Think about it. What if you treated your neighbor the way you treat yourself (talking to yourself in your head, the way you think about yourself, and how you see yourself in God). How much would they like you?

I have been reading and hearing people talk and write about love and how love is the answer as a Christian. The problem is that is not true. Love is not the answer, Christ is. Love is the outworking of what we have in Christ, because He loved us first. We cannot love properly on our own, as it is all self-diluted.

Love has been washed down in Western thought. When you read about it, it is always the same old cheesy examples used. Give to the poor, help the widow and down trodden. Those are great and good, but the easy form of love. A lot of people that write on this subject don’t seem to want to get to the deeper levels and the harder levels of love. Atheists, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and many other religions help the poor and down trodden. Just look at Haiti today as a great example. Not everyone donating is a Christian.

What if your mother, daughter, or sister was taken and brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, the LRA, or some strange occult. What would your love look like when you see them in court? Would you love your enemy? Would you walk up and say, “I forgive you and love you because of what Christ did for me?” Honestly, I cannot say that would be my response, or I would have that kind of love, because it is severely difficult and goes against every fiber of my being.

What about love that hurts? Jesus said that love for Him in comparison should be like hating your parents. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). What about Jesus’ violent act in the temple when He chased out the vendors from the temple? Matthew 21:12 says, “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.” How come He did not walk up and tell them how much He loved them, or did He do this by His violent act?

Seems to me to be much more to love then what we talk and write about much of the time. Probably because we don’t want to think about the harder side of love. The love that disciplines, or allows bad things to happen for God’s ultimate purpose. Or allows people the choice to sin and commit heinous acts of horror; like what happened in Rwanda.

Interestingly enough, we have seen more acts of love in places like Rwanda amongst Christians then we do in most places on earth. They repented as a nation and forgave those that stole their children and turned them into cold hearted killers, which ultimately led some of them to Christ. They could have killed them, or tortured them once caught, but they didn’t. Why? If I knew that my son was made to help bite his own brother to death by one of the LRA leaders, I would want revenge. Wouldn’t you? They did not because the love of Christ exuded through them. This is true love, when every inch of your sin nature wants to take revenge for yourself, to act in violence, and yet you love them. Yes, some did retaliate, and in some ways it is hard for me not to blame them, because I struggle with that kind of love, real love that makes us demonstrate it in non-violent actions against our very nature.

My point is love is not just some warm and fuzzy feeling. And Christ even talks about how non-believers demonstrate this kind of love. What sets Christian love apart is our love is bound in what Christ did for us. While we were yet sinners (enemies of God), He sent His Son to die for us (you and me), so that we may no longer be an enemy of God but His family. Loving your enemies takes on a whole new dimension when thought of in these terms.

Love is not easy. Jesus tells us the whole world is going to hate us, because it first hated Him. John 15:18 says, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.” If that is the case, then even our good acts are going to be seen as bad at times, right? Jesus lived a Holy Life and they killed Him for it. He loved like no other and it cost Him His life.

We tend to forget when Jesus was harsh on people when we talk about love. Love is also telling the truth when it needs to be said in the matter that it needs to be said, and sometimes that is not pleasant. Look at the names Jesus called Peter, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and His disciples throughout the Gospels. At times the love He showed was not easy to hear and not easy to take. He was also blunt at times, though softly, as with the woman at the well, but still a hard truth said in love.

We need to give people the whole picture of love when we write and talk. Yes, giving and helping the needy is a large part, but that actually falls a lot of the time in righteousness and justice. Take time to study those areas in context sometime, though those are aspects of love as well.

Love is giving your life away so that others may love. “To live is Christ to die is gain,” as said by the apostle Paul. Love cares about your enemies and their salvation. Love prays for blessings for those that we despise. Love is only capable through Jesus Christ.

How well are you doing?

Who Did Jesus Say He Was

Isaiah 44:6, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.”

Rev. 1:17, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.”

I have talked before about Jesus in the sense that He cannot be seen just as a great moral teacher, but in this article I want to look at what Jesus said about Himself. Did He believe He was the Savior of the World, or just another prophet or teacher? There are six strong arguments that Jesus believed He was the Christ, the Savior, God’s only Son. He believed He was the only way for us to get to Heaven.

The first claim we will cover is that Jesus claimed to be YHWH from the Old Testament. You can see from the first two verses when compared to each other. The first is from Isaiah when God is talking and the second is from Revelation and Jesus is talking to John, and they claim the same exact thing. Jesus is claiming the same status as the God of the Old Testament. You can also compare these verses as well:

John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep,” compared to Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Jesus claimed to be judge of all people in Matt. 25:31f, “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.”; John 5:27f, “and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.”; compare to Joel 3:12, “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.”

Jesus called Himself the Light of the World in John 8:12, “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” and compare it to Psalm 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”

Probably the strongest claim that Jesus claimed to be YHWH is in John 8:58 where he says, “Before Abraham I was I am.” This statement claims existence before Abraham, but also equality with the I am of Exodus 3:14, “And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Jesus claimed many times to be the same as the God of the Old Testament. No other person has claimed the same authority as God as Jesus has. Not Muhammad, not Buddha, not Krishna, nor any other leader of any other religion.

Second, Jesus claimed the prerogatives of God. As forgiving sin, which is something only God can do. We see an example of this in Mark 2:5-11, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

Jesus claimed power to raise and judge the dead in John 5:21-29, and the O.T. taught that only God is the giver of life in Deut. 32:39. This is another prerogative of God, just as saying He should be honored as God, as Jesus did in John 5:23.

The third argument is pretty much a plain and simple statement by Jesus, as He just comes out and claims to be the Messiah. We even find in the Koran, Jesus being referred to as Messiah, “The Messiah, son of Mary, is no more than a messenger like the messengers before him, and his mother was a saint. Both of them used to eat the food. Note how we explain the revelations for them, and note how they still deviate!” (Surah 5:75). It is also found previously in Surah 5:17.

Jesus said He was the Messiah at His trial before the high priest in Mark 14:61-64, “But He kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.”

Jesus also applies the passage of Psalm 110:1, “The LORD said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” where Father & Son hold a conversation and then applies it to Himself in Matt. 22:43-44, “He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:‘ The LORD said to my Lord,“ Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’

Our fourth application of who Christ is comes from the form of worship. Only God was to be honored with worship, especially in Jewish culture, but Jesus (a Jew) accepted worship. The O.T. forbids worship of anything except God in Exodus 20:1-4 & Deut. 5:6-9. N.T. agrees with this as we see in Acts 14:15 & Rev. 22:8-9. Now compare those verses with these verses in regards to Jesus:

Matt. 9:18, “While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” Matt. 14:33, “Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” Matt. 15:25, “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” Matt. 20:20, “Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.” Mark 5:6, “When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.” Matt. 28:17, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.”

Our fifth reason is that Jesus claimed authority with God. Jesus put His words on par with God, Matt. 5:21- 22, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” Matt. 28:18-19, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

Jesus made a new commandment that only God should be able to do in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Jesus speaks of those that reject Him in John 12:48, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” Only God has the authority to do the things that Jesus is claiming here, thus saying He is God.

Lastly, Jesus requested that His name be used in prayer. In John 14:13-14 Jesus said that what is asked in His name He would do for the apostles. John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 1 Cor. 5:4, “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Acts 7:59, “And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Again, no other religious leader has made such strong claims about themselves. They may have tried to show they are able to perform or come close to one of the points above, but none have ever claimed all of them.

C.S. Lewis put it best when he said that Jesus was either a lunatic on par with a poached egg, the greatest deceiver on par with Satan himself, or Savior and Lord. There is no middle ground with all the claims He has made about Himself. You can shrug Him off as crazy, say He was a deceiver by the claims He made, or fall on your knees and accept Him as Savior and Lord.

There is no other choice, because of the claims Jesus made. He did not leave it any other way, and I believe on purpose. No one can just say He is a great teacher, because no great teacher claims to be God in all ways, or to be God at all.

Acts 4:11-12, “This Jesus is The stone despised by you builders, who has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

HURRY UP & WAIT!!

James 5:10, “Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience.”

I continue down the road of testing and waiting. It seems like every time we think that we may get a result it turns out to be just another piece of the puzzle that is being added for the neurologist to look at. So, we hurry up and wait.

It is easy during these times to become very frustrated and emotionally drained. Many doctors keep asking me if I feel depressed. I look at them as if that is a rhetorical question, then answer, who wouldn’t be going through this at least a little. Then I explain that I don’t stay depressed, as I know where my strength ultimately lies, which gives me a chance to witness. But, I wonder if they think that is another sign of something wrong.

Then there are all the questions you get when you open yourself up like I do in writing and my life. People are always asking you if you heard something, and they do it out of caring, but it tends to test your patience because you know you have nothing to tell them. And it just reminds you once again that you are waiting for an answer. I don’t say this to stop people from asking, but just to say that it is another way that God works on me waiting for Him and His time to reveal my health issue through the doctor.

Attitudes come into play as well. It can play on your reactions and your mood after a while when your life seems to almost be consumed by your health. After you talk about it with family and friends, then spend time reading about it, it takes it’s toll on you. Not to mention the medicines you are on that also effect your body and mood. You see symptoms being treated, but no diagnosis. . .hurry up, take the pill and wait.

If you’re not careful, this can certainly affect your relationship with God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. You become self-centered and think of yourself and start to slip in your communication with God if not careful. Then you stop reading and worshipping like we are called to in any circumstance, and ultimately we become farther away from God, even though this is the time we need Him most.

I have been given this burden and challenge and want to be patient, just as the prophets were, and they went through far worse then me. My goal is to see how I can use this to witness to those going through the same thing, or the doctors God puts in front of me. Maybe even being an example to those watching me that my attitude would be like Christ Jesus through this.

Have I failed in this? Oh Yeah!! But I am going to press on and move forward and strive to be patient in all this and have an attitude of Christ. If this is my cross to carry, or the thorn in my side, or just a test, I want God to be proud that one day when I am standing before Him, He will tell me: “Well done good and faithful servant.”

If there are any out there that I have not been an example to, been short to, or have demonstrated a poor attitude through this time, then I am sorry. I repent and ask your forgiveness. It is not my intention to ever present my Savior in a bad light. My goal is to be like Christ. I will strive to be more like Jesus.

Philippians 2:5, “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,”

Selling Jesus!

Luke 6:13, “No household slave can be the slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t be slaves to both God and money.”

We are all familiar with the typical TBN and other Christian TV stations that have the televangelists that ask for money and promise that if you send them money that you will be blessed. They prey on the promises of health and wealth in our lives and if we just give them a large gift those worldly things we desire most will be ours. The “name it, claim it,” crowd.

But that is not the group I am talking about today, and I wish it were, as it seems to be seeping into the evangelical circles now, but in a more subtle way. I just read a pamphlet or small newsletter and in it there was a quote about the donations they received that struck me. They were asking for money for their online outreach and said, “It takes support from caring friends like you to build, update and maintain our life-transforming websites. Each gift of just $5.25 on average translates to one decision for Christ.” I am purposely leaving out the group, because in other areas they do great things, but there is so much wrong in this one sentence that I do not know where to start.

First, the wording is made to play on your emotions by utilizing words as “caring friends” and “life transforming.” It is used to make you feel emotionally and build a level of responsibility to give to this particular ministry. If it stopped here, I probably would not have an issue, but they take it a step farther that truly blows my mind. If you have taken any political or psychology classes you learn quite quickly that it is easy to devise material to play on a person’s emotions. In later classes you are even taught how to write those letters and polls to attain the results you are looking for.

They say as matter of fact that giving a gift on average of $5.25 that it will bring someone to Christ. This is amazing! We should stop all churches immediately and take all donations and give to this organization and we will have brought everyone to Christ in a matter of days. This truly negates the power of the Spirit to make a claim, but instead is based on your financial gift. You can now buy someone’s salvation. Sounds a lot like Simony, which was used years ago in another misleading fashion to attain more money for the church. In this case it is for a ministry.

What is the difference between saying that your $5.25 will bring someone to Christ, anymore then saying that donating so much will bring your desires to life. In particular, if your desire is to see more people come to Christ.

As I ponder on it more, how do they truly know that person accepted Christ? Yes, we can say that about anyone, but within the church we can at least see the Fruit of the Spirit, as talked about in James. We can guide them through Sunday School, small groups and mentoring programs to help build them up, but in this case they just click a link that says they accepted Christ, as it is all internet based.

Christ never asked for money for bringing people to Christ. The apostles never asked for money to bring people to Christ. They talked about supporting the pastor in his work, taking care of widows and the needy, but when it comes to evangelism then it is the duty of all of us. This gives another great excuse to not live out the command Jesus gave us before His ascension, to go out and make disciples and baptize them. Now, I can just send in $5.25 and let the internet do it for me. No responsibility whatsoever.

I am not discounting the internet in reaching out to non-Christians, but I think we have to temper the reliance and the success that it will have in salvation experiences, especially by saying that we can purchase them. It becomes almost like a works based, or in this case a purchased based salvation. None of us can buy the salvation for anyone, as it is a personal choice between them and God, and the language used in this article makes people believe they can buy someone’s salvation. Puts too much emphasis on man and not on the Holy Spirit, and can lead to money being given too much power.

I will close how they closed and you make the decision on how this sounds:

“With 500,000 website “hits” a month, more than 8,000 of those people indicate a decision for Christ. That means on average every $5.25 invested helps one person choose Jesus. Your gift of $52.50 will lead to 10 decisions for Christ, $78.75 will lead to 15 decisions. And your generous gift of $105.00 will lead to 20 decisions for Christ!”

For the clincher they could have added, “And if you order your salvation today for just $5.25....we'll throw in 2 crowns of righteousness for just an extra $2.00 and your daily cross to take up is absolutely free!"

1 Timothy 1:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”