all you need is Love

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Dana

Everyone remembers the Transitive Law of Equality from Algebra, right? “If a=b and b=c, then a=c.” So if Jesus is God and God is Love, then Jesus is Love.

We read verses like: “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus,” but do we really believe it? “All you need is Love” (or God or Jesus) sounds a bit simplistic but if, as a child, I trust the Father so much that I really believe He is all I need, then I am finally understanding Jesus’ teachings. “Look at the birds and the grass… Are you not more valuable than they? The Father knows what you need! If you ‘evil’ parents know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (See Matt 6 & 7)

Our problem comes when the storm rises or sickness lingers or death enters the picture. Mary and Martha thought, “All we need is Jesus,” but their Friend didn’t arrive on time and their brother died. “If You had been here, Lazarus would not have died.” But God’s Love transcends our thinking. Through the death of a friend Jesus revealed himself in a deeper way: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” And after He made this profound declaration He asked Martha the same question He asks us, “Do you believe this?”

Our friend Fred Grapes passed away last Friday. Fred was my age and died of liver disease. He’s not been raised from the dead as Lazarus, but he is alive. “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (Jn 11:25-26) This truth is a source of comfort for his family and friends. I witnessed Saturday, in a small memorial gathering, how Love is really what we need. The Love of God… and the Love of God’s children engulfed Fred’s family in a powerful way. “God has poured out his Love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Rom 5:5)
Why does He do this? Because He knows Love is what we need. When we bear one another’s burdens and unselfishly serve one another, we are being Jesus on the earth. He is Love and Love is God.

“All you need is Me,” the Father said to a lost world. So He sent Jesus to save us and asks, “Do you believe this?”

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemns already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-18

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hey Jude

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Dana

“Hey Jude, what’s this we’re hearing about your brother Jesus? Some say he’s become a rabbi?! Some say he’s healing the sick?! Some even say he claims to be Messiah?! What’s going on?”

Jude, James, Joseph, and Simon heard such questions regularly. After Jesus returned to Nazareth after his baptism, the hometown people asked: “‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary and aren’t his brothers and sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him.” (see Matt 13:54-57)

Unfortunately, Jude and his brothers were also skeptics. During the Feast of the Tabernacles, they gave Jesus some sarcastic advice: “‘You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” (Jn 7:3-5)

But something changed for Jude. Maybe Mary explained the truth… or maybe it was the Resurrection… or maybe the Holy Spirit convicted a hard heart… whatever happened, Jude became a follower. He wrote a letter to warn Christians of false followers. In his day (as in ours), some “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” and some “deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Jude reminds readers of Old Testament stories recounting foolishness, selfish pride, and sexual sin. Jesus taught that false teachers could be identified by examining the fruit of a life. Jude uses similar words: “They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees without fruit and uprooted – twice dead.”

Despite these important warnings, there is an interesting ‘mercy’ emphasis in Jude’s writing. “Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.” “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Jude knew he had received mercy. He remembered he had doubted. He realized he had been snatched from the fire. He must have also remembered his Brother’s beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Mercy takes a sad song and makes it better. We can thank Jude for a reminder.

“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.” Jude 20-21

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” Jude 24-25

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imagine

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Dana

Imagine that we could even imagine the Oneness of the Father, Son, and Spirit. A couple of years ago in a small village called Taipu in northeastern Brazil I was asked to share at a town gathering. Ten or twelve Americans and ten or twelve Brazilians divided into four ‘mixed’ teams and spent the afternoon walking through the streets and neighborhoods inviting everyone to the gym in the center of town to hear about the King of kings. Taipu was known for spiritual darkness; witchcraft was openly practiced and many were involved in the occult. Walking was the main mode of transportation there, so we were all excited that evening to see nearly three hundred people of all ages assemble in the old gym. We sang a few songs and several Christians shared testimonies. I spoke at the end.

Renata, our friend and near-perfect interpreter, helped me share about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I’m not sure how well we communicated but I remember feeling the glory of it all. Two memories stand out. When talking about the Son, I remember pointing to a baby in the back of the gym. Everyone looked at this infant held by his mother and thought about Jesus being on earth in a similar way. Expressions of joy transcend languages; everyone in the building was smiling as we realized a simple and wonderful truth. The young mother, holding her baby so all could see, was beaming. She was so proud of her son and I was reminded that a Father in Heaven was so very proud of Jesus as he spent time on earth. God is still proud of his Son!

The second thing I remember was choosing a random lady out of the crowd to stand up and receive the message God wants us all to hear. I can’t remember exactly what I said (and I’m sure Renata made it better), but this lady from a simple village stood, looked at me as I spoke a sentence, and listened to Renata’s explanation as if Jesus was speaking directly to her. She was mesmerized… her eyes shone with tears and her face glowed as I talked of God’s amazing love. After the gathering, Chris, our friend and neighbor, fought his way through the crowd to ask me a question: “Did you know that woman?” I told him I had never seen her before. Chris said, “We led her to the Lord in her home just a few hours ago. She came to this meeting as a new follower of Jesus and you picked her out of the crowd to tell her how much God loved her. How’d you do that?”

The Holy Spirit did that… I didn’t know what I was doing… and I imagine the Father was applauding… and Jesus was probably standing next to his throne with hands in the air in celebration. Can we even imagine? The Father, Son, and Spirit are in perfect harmony… they always have been. They cooperate with one another perfectly… with never a hint of competition. But best of all… they love perfectly. They love each other and they love us. They also want us to experience the same unity they have. “You may think I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only One.” This is what Jesus prayed: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one.” Imagine…

“I pray also for those who believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23

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come together

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Dana

John Lennon wrote the chorus of Come Together for his friend, Timothy Leary, who was planning to run against Ronald Reagan for Governor of California. Legal problems and a jail sentence hindered the campaign, but the strategy of ‘coming together in unity’ has been around a long time.

The heart of Jesus for his followers has always included one great desire: “Come together right now over Me.” In the first week of this new year over 22,000 college-age young people gathered in Atlanta to hear God’s Word, to worship the Lord, and to encourage one another to let the Light of Christ shine on their college campuses throughout the world. Our two oldest children, Taylor and Kinsey, and their future mates, Emma and Jordan, attended this event last year and were built up in their faith. The leaders of the Passion Conferences always challenge the young people to ‘do something now’ to meet urgent needs. During this past gathering, thousands of blankets and socks were donated for the homeless of Atlanta and well over a million dollars was given to target specific world challenges. Here are a few: dig wells in India to provide clean water for villages, rescue women and children caught in sex slavery in the Philippines, serve a family from Haiti, help provide loans to start businesses in war-torn Afghanistan, feed starving children in poor countries, and perform life-saving surgeries on babies in South Africa. Amazed that lofty goals in every single area were surpassed, I could not help but think, “Wow, these must have been some wealthy college students,” but the person who shared the report gave an astounding statistic: the average gift per person was $52.

Jesus’ call to come together goes far deeper than meeting financial needs. If the builders of the Tower of Babel had power in unity to accomplish ignoble purposes, how much more power will there be for the children of God to accomplish Kingdom purposes? We see the effects of the ‘law of gravity’ (drop an apple and it falls), but I wonder if there is an unprovable ‘law of unity’ (come together in mind and purpose as God’s children and all things are possible).

“‘Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…’ The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’” (see Genesis 11:3-9) God understands the power of unity… and so does the devil. Have you noticed the lengths to which he goes to divide families, communities, and the Body of Christ? Our enemy fears unity greatly, Jesus desires it greatly… so perhaps we should pursue it greatly.

“‘…Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of the Lord boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one proclaimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” Acts 4:29-32

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revolution

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Dana

These are the words of the “Prince of Peace”: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) What? This sounds like a battle cry! Why would the One who claimed to give peace make such a statement?

The Beatles sang: “You say you want a revolution… well, you know… we all want to change the world…” God did not want to simply change the world, He planned to save it. The salvation of the world required a “revolution” – one that would unseat the “prince of this world” and crown the “King of kings.” From the moment the Savior was born, the devil’s aim was to destroy. What we see in the hatred, the anger, the jealousy, the persecution, and the murder on earth are reflections of heavenly struggles. Jesus is the Way to peace; He calls his followers to be peacemakers; and He knows there will be conflict.

Local controversies over “Christmas” or “visible crosses” or “public prayers” pale in comparison to the swords, guns, and bombs used against our brothers and sisters in other lands. The “father of lies” hates the “Truth” and anything that threatens his position in a heart, a family, or a society will not be easily surrendered. The children of Light are called to fight the good fight with these unlikely weapons: prayer, love, forgiveness, mercy, and God’s wisdom. The perfect “revolution” looks like this: a perfect Man pours out his Blood, a perfect Father does the unthinkable and allows sinful man to torture and murder his only Son, and a perfect Holy Spirit baptizes all that receive salvation.

Our challenge is to walk in the Master’s steps and hear his heart. “Trust my Father to be the perfect Judge; He will bring justice in the end. Until then follow my example and listen to my words. Don’t strike back. Don’t repay evil with evil. Love your enemy; pray for those who treat you wrong. Love those that do not understand. Remember that you were once in darkness… lost and without hope. As you have received mercy, extend mercy to others. Speak truth, but be gentle. Love, love, love… and you too will be an instrument of peace.”

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Matthew 10:37-40

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