Love Beyond

When is there a time that we don't need love?

Holiday seasons only illuminate and exaggerate the truth of our need for love. And here is the absolute of love's truth: In Christ we encounter the fullness of love. Yes, in Jesus we meet the "realness" of love because when we encounter Jesus we encounter love.

It is a love that is beyond... It is a love that is here... Now

A love that is crazy, insane, inviting, intoxicating, scandalous, scrumptious, fiery, fierce, radical, relentless, real... 

It is a love that has come to saturate our hearts, our souls, our minds and our bodies so that we might fall deep... oh so deep, into the heart of God. 

But please be mindful of one thing... It is a love that will mess you up... It will rock your world... 

Problem for so many of us is that we are afraid of love. We are afraid of entertaining the idea that we are lovable.

And so we close ourselves off. To each other. To ourselves. To Jesus.

What is holding you back from opening up? The greatest gift you could give yourself this Christmas season is the gift of love. 

He is here. He is waiting. He is love...

To Become...

Sometimes don't you want to call a timeout on faith so that you might live according to the flesh just this one moment?

Yes, to be honest, I do... But then again when Paul talks about being the greatest of all sinners, he looks over at me because he knows a wrestling match is about to begin regarding this very title.

Daily I struggle with living out the truth, the way and the life of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was one crazy dude that mesmerized life with His all-consuming, all-combative, all-conquering, fiery love.

I mean how many of us would look at the one who just beat us so fiercely that we have but one breath still in us and with reckless abandonment of love ask that this person be forgiven of their actions?

How many of us would look our abuser in the eyes and tell them,

How many of us would look into the eyes of the one crushing our wrist bone as he pierces through our skin such that our flesh tears from the bone and with tears in our eyes softly whisper, "Friend, you know not what you do. You know not who you are. But I know... And I want you to know this, I love you."

This is Jesus... This is Love... This is who I want to become...

Who do you want to become?

Podium Participant

Transformation...

Such a wonderfully sexy word, concept, slogan...

So what is transformation? In the midst of the "olympic world" right now, transformation seems to be akin to one who was 4th in 2012 but worked hard so as to become "transformed" over the last 4 years into a "podium" participant.

But is this really what transformation is? Nothing more than behavior modification? Is the podium participant truly transformed? What happens after the podium? Truth is, the podium is not the epitome of transformation - at least not in the realm of faith...

When speaking from a Christo-centric perspective, transformation takes on eternal significance because it is rooted in the way, the truth, and the life of the One who came to transform our hearts, our souls, our whole humanity... He came to transform so we might go and act...

Truth is, Jesus was intentional in His act of transformation. That is, He came to us - to you and me - so as to invite us into His eternal act of love. And if and when we say yes, we find that in Christ transformation is real.

Participating in the will of God occurs when through the Holy Spirit, Christ becomes the pattern of our life, when He becomes our first love. As Paul writes:

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5.1-2).

A life that has this world as its first love seeks peace and hope in the comforts of the world. But a life in love with Jesus stands in stark contrast to a life lived in love with the world. For the truth of the Christian faith is that peace and hope are only found in the One who is peace, the One who is hope.

When He is our hope we can step into everyday and see it as an opportunity to be intentional in how we love the other. That every moment is an opening to be love.

And how do we become love so as to be love? We follow in the way of the Master Builder who told us, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

We become love by building up the other through our intentional acts of love. Moments that will open up into amazing encounters that allow us to invest in the heart of our community by investing in the hearts of the other.

Truth is, this world is in need of more people who seek to elevate the other rather than tearing them down. Daily each one of us should strive to be a servant who seeks the betterment of society. Daily each one of us can make a difference through our intentional acts of service. For when we seek to serve the other, we live out the truth of being love. And in our intentional acts of love, grace, compassion, mercy, and justice erupt and overflow so as to begin transforming the landscape of this great nation of ours.

Let us this day be love by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, welcoming the stranger, and freeing the enslaved. Let us this day step off the podium and become transformation by lavishing our love on the other...

Transformation begins with the heart…it begins with you…

Fall into His heart

Read James 1.2-25

Ever have those times when you feel like doing nothing but crying? Times when you hardly want to get out of bed and have no energy to do anything, let alone prayer or reading the Bible. You know those times when every door seems to close, every way seems to be darkened and everybody seems to have turned their back to you?

Times when even God seems distant and unloving and you actually wonder if He even sees you…

Strange truth of faith is that through our trials we find growth, because we find Him… 

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (vs. 2-4).

Joy? How so? Because such trials have a way of pressing us to go deeper with God. When we are brought to our knees we see fresh truths about God intersecting with our lives in the hardest of times. When we fall to our knees so as to cry out to His heart we realize what David did: “He sent from on high, He took me…He rescued me,” –and here is the best part—“because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18.6-19).

How many of us, when we cry out to Jesus, realize that He has entered into our suffering with us, broken down the barriers of sin and eradicated death so as to reach out and rescue us because He delights in us?

In our trials we are not expected to fall back on our own power, control or resources. No, Jesus wants us to embrace the Spirit so as to “rely not on (myself) but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1.9).

All Jesus wants is for us to fall into His heart so that He can take care of us.

There in our suffering and through our trials Jesus says to us, “I want you to have peace. I want you to be deeply joyful. I want you to believe in what I say and what I do — to have unshakable faith. I want you to have the kind of peace that I give, not the world. The kind of joy that I give, not the world. The kind of faith, I give, not the world. I want you to have the truth of love and the truth of faith—I want you to have Me.”

Do you want Jesus? Then go to Him, embrace Him and receive His love…Amen Jesus!

Choose Joy

Read Psalm 100; John 15.1-11

All around people struggle to find happiness. I know I get caught up in this battle. But what I have come to find is that I am not in search of happiness, but joy…And He is right there before me.

Truth is, there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is usually something on the surface—it comes and goes with our feelings. But joy…joy is different. It is deeper. It is alive and in our soul.

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen once wrote:

“Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us…Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow. I remember the most painful times of my life as times in which I became aware of a spiritual reality much larger than myself, a reality that allowed me to live the pain with hope. I dare even to say: ‘My grief was a place where I found joy.’ Joy does not happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to Jesus and have found in Him our refuge and our safety, and that nothing, not even death, can take Him away from us.”

Yes, unlike happiness, joy is essential to spiritual life. When we are not joyful we cannot bear fruit. Jesus calls us to Himself so that His joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete…if only we go to Jesus.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, wandering, oppression, doubt, war, or even death — can take that love away.

Right now (you may need to find a “secret” place) let yourself celebrate joy…let yourself celebrate Jesus. Stand up, dance around, sing out, throw your hands up in the air, laugh uncontrollably, fall to your knees, cry profusely… whatever you need to do to celebrate heaven’s joy, do it. 

Right now forget formalities and normalcy. 

Right now enter into the joyous praise from Mercy Me and let this beautiful song fill your heart… Greater.

Right now embrace the Spirit and choose Joy by stepping into the crazy insane love of Jesus and celebrating His undeniable love for you. Amen Jesus!

The heart of Jesus

Read John 17

Every moment I spend with Jesus is yet another moment I am filled with wonder. Every minute I spend in prayer is time I spend taking in the beauty of eternity. In Christ and through the Spirit, I have come to know this—Love.

When we come before His throne of grace we find the peace, the hope, the joy of heaven. We find that in Christ we are not alone.

We are not alone because He is our strength, our defender, our refuge in the storm. When we embrace the Spirit so as to step into the heart of Christ we come to find that through all the trials He has always been faithful, bringing healing to our soul.

Let Jesus be your everything. Today, become engulfed in the prayer of Christ—His prayer to the Father for the protection, the blessing and the glory of His beloved.

“I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (v8-9).

For the truth of His love is the truth of our eternal joy. He came to wrap us up in His arms so that we might have peace, so that we might know that we are His own. Jesus’ prayer for us should bring our hearts to such a place of worship that we can do nothing but proclaim:

“You amaze me, Redeem me, You call me as Your own.”

If we say we love Jesus, our lives must show we love Jesus and the greatest way to do this is to jump into the “heart of Jesus.” Take a moment and listen to I am not alone by Kari Jobe and let the truth of this song invigorate the glory of your day. Amen Jesus!

The way Jesus did...

Read Luke 22.39-46

The days after Easter can be a time when many of us “get back to the grind.” That is, it can become the road to moving on all the while forgetting the magnitude of what was just celebrated.

If today slides into the realm of “moving on” we fall prey to moving beyond the glory of the empty tomb. So how do we move into the glorious truth of the empty tomb so as to live out the momentous truth of Easter?

Prayer…

In order for the glory of Easter to become the truth of our lives, we must always remember what Jesus stepped into before stepping up to the cross and stepping out of the tomb. We must always remember how He covered Himself in prayer.

Think about it, before He went to the cross so as to bring about the truth of Easter, what did Jesus do? He prayed. In fact, He told His disciples the action they needed most was prayer.

“When He arrived at the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” (40).

Jesus knew that when faced with turmoil, chaos and evil, the disciples would be tempted to either run away, or attempt to solve the problem on their own, and such is the case with us today. When the world confronts us how often do we attempt to fight against it on our own? And when we do this, when we seek resolution of our own doing we fail to fight with the most powerful source we have been given—prayer.

When we seek to solve life on our own we act as if we actually believe that prayer is not enough. We act as if prayer is our last solution when in fact, prayer should be our first response…just as it was for Jesus.

In the midst of the chaos and the eruptions of struggle and turmoil, those who know Jesus, need to pray. The world needs more prayer because it needs more Jesus.

“And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (44).

Let us this day seek to continue the Easter miracle by kneeling down in prayer. Let us face our troubles and struggles in life the way Jesus did…

“Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears…and was heard” (Heb 5.7).

In His Silence

Read Matthew 27.46; Romans 5.1-11

The weekend begins with the brutal, tragic, and paradoxically beautiful death of Jesus Christ. And then there is silence...

It is almost as if time stands still - everyone staring at the limp, beaten and broken body on the Cross. And then they watched as the body is taken down, placed in a tomb and left alone.

Everyone—followers of Jesus, haters of Jesus, those wondering who Jesus was—everyone sat in silence. They could do nothing but wait. And so they did: wait, wonder, hope. Is He the Christ, the Messiah? Or is He nothing more than a false promise, a dream breaker, hope wrecker?

The deafening sound of Saturday’s silence should be a day of contemplation for followers of Christ… Who is this man called Jesus? And what does He want with me?

Truth is, the sound of Saturday's silence is the rumbling of love that explodes from the empty cross of Sunday. It is the sound of the One who abandoned His throne so as embrace us in His arms of love. Saturday’s silence should remind us that the King of Heaven became the least of these so as to usher us into His joy...if only we embrace the silence.

What if today we started living the hope of tomorrow by praying for the world? What if we filled the silence with the sound of our prayers?

Today is a gift from God for in His silence He speaks boldly, asking us, how will we respond to the actions of Christ? Will we step into the shadow of the cross so as to transform the tragedy into a beautiful wedding feast? What if today we stepped into the silence so as to step out into the noise of the world and begin living out the hope of heaven today?

Take a moment and listen to the words from Downhere as they remind us of the truth that Christ was born to save a world torn apart.  

Let us step into the sound of Saturday's silence so that the eruption of Sunday's glorious love will explode from our words, our actions, our lives! Let us embrace the One King who poured out His heart for you and me…