Category Archives: love

Leftovers

31 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in disciple, living, love

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As I write this, I’ve just finished preparing the Wednesday Bible study at work from Frances Chan’s Crazy Love.  This week we covered the chapter titled “Serving Leftovers to a Holy God” and it has convicted me again that I so often go through my day focused primarily on me and a little on God.  The Holy God.

I really want to be a better son and a better disciple.  I really want people to see my faith in my life, in my actions.  I really want to give God all that I have, the very best of me, each day and all day.  I know his mercy and grace cover me, I know his love for me abounds but I simply want to return love to him, to let him know that I cherish being his child more than anything else, to live boldly and be a light shining in this world to glorify him.

I want to live for God’s glory, I want to be light in a dark world, I want to give God all that I have.  That is my prayer.

Grace and peace to you.
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My Call

24 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in boasting, Lecrae, love

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So in times that are good, in times that are bad
For any times that I’ve had it all I will be glad
And I will boast in the cross, I boast in my pains
I will boast in the sunshine, boast in his reign
What’s my life if it’s not praising you
Another dollar in my bank account of vain pursuit, I do
That count my life as any value or precious at all
Let me finish my race, let me answer my call
–Lecrae, Boasting


Grace and peace to you.

Helen Waite

23 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in heaven, hell, love, Rob Bell

≈ 2 Comments

I always get a kick out of the sign I see in some businesses that say something like “our credit manager, Helen Waite, handles all requests for credit.  If you want credit, please go straight to Helen Waite.”

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I’ve spent some time reading more and more of the fallout surrounding Rob Bell’s new book, “Love Wins” and the question of what Bell thinks about hell.  I’ve found a blog from a pastor who lost his job because he no longer believes in a literal hell full of fire and eternal torment.  I’ve found a blog written by someone who thinks he’s on the fringe of religion and think the discussion of hell is a complete non-issue.  I’ve found a blog that defends Bell and I’ve found a blog that shares how people have labeled Bell a universalist and heretic.

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Sadly, I don’t know enough about the titles people are given (I’m still trying to ascertain exactly what liberal and progressive means in the churches of Christ) so I can’t speak to what Bell is or isn’t and, I would guess, that applies to the people who have taken to name-calling.  However, it has made me stop for at least a brief moment and think about what I believe about the concept of hell and has made me realize it’s another one of the many things I need to go deeper in studying.  It has also reinforced the idea of God’s love and the importance of living in the knowledge of that, more important than anything I can be doing right now. 

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It has also opened the door on thinking how I feel about the wars we are engaging in and the justification our country has made for getting involved.  If love conquers all, why are we dropping bombs.  If heaven is the place we really want to go, why are we killing people we fear?  In Ephesians, we are given the tools we need for battle and I can’t remember where we get the bullets, grenades and bombs in the deal.  Does it mean I’m a pacifist?  It very well could.  I’m already past agreeing with the death penalty in any form or fashion.  Does it make me weak?  Maybe in some eyes but it is where I’ll have to live on faith.

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I look forward to reading Bell’s book and to dig deeper into heaven, hell, who God is and who he wants me to be. 

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Grace and peace to you.
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Kids and Hell

22 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by in heaven, hell, love, Rob Bell

≈ 1 Comment

A compelling title?  Two different subjects today.

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A mother of two teenage daughters gave me a napkin that cracked me up.  It says, “I’ll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go, please.”  Cracked me up.

Rob Bell has come out with a new book titled “Love Wins” and it seems he touches on the topic of hell and whether it is a literal place and the book seems to have started a firestorm of it’s own.  I’ve heard from friends things being said online and read some stuff on Facebook and can’t help but wonder what difference it all makes.

I’ve heard people in the past rationalize their faith by saying something to this affect, “I rather follow God and find out there is no God than not follow God and find out hell is real.”  I guess my thoughts today revolve around the knowledge that God is love (says so in the good book!) and I have become compelled to follow God and love him back because he LOVES me and gave his son for me.  I can’t imagine loving my children simply because they are afraid of me and I can’t imagine God loving me if I was “loving” him just so I wouldn’t have to go to hell.  I understand the consequences of bad actions because I got my fair share of spankings when I was a kid but I love my parents because they loved me, not because they had me cowering in fear.

All that to say, it’s sad to me when Satan wins a skirmish by getting Christ-followers up in arms about a book someone wrote debating something that isn’t completely spelled out in God’s word, at least not to my level of understanding.  On the other hand, I do believe heaven is real, it’s the place where God exists and heaven is the place he has prepared for me and that’s where I want my focus (but it doesn’t mean I know what heaven is all about either).

I hope the arguments soon cease, that God is praised and glorified and that people who don’t know God will know that he loves them so much, he sent his only son to die that whoever believes in him will be saved.

Grace and peace to you.

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A Good Start

17 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in Crazy Love, love, sin

≈ 2 Comments

Wednesday was the kick-off day for our workplace Bible study using the book Crazy Love.  Yes, you know I love Crazy Love and I’m excited to begin a study around the ideas offered by Francis Chan in this book.  The first class was an introduction of the book idea, my approach to getting through it and to me.  Several of the people in the study know something about me but I went back deeper in my history than usual and walked them through my growing up and how I got to this point in life and why this book has helped me know God so much better than I think I would have done on my own.  I got some positive feedback from a few of the participants and am thankful my prayer all morning worked – simply that God would make me a conduit of the words He wanted everyone to hear. 

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Here’s something that crossed my mind the other day.  Who’s more concerned with sin; God or me?  Who’s more concerned with living out of love; God or me?  I think God is more interested in seeing me live a life of love than He is concerned with me sinning.  I’m caught up in 1 John 4 saying that “perfect love drives out fear.”  I can’t get this verse out of my head because I want to live in God’s perfect love and I want to be a man who shares God’s perfect love with everyone I come in contact with.  I’m not there yet but pray that I will be one day. 

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God, work on my heart, work in my heart and work through my heart.  Make me a light shining brightly, eliminating darkness and reflecting the glory of your majesty.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Brrrr

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in fear, God's love, love, snow

≈ 2 Comments

That has to be one of the more compelling titles I’ve ever written.
I drove to work on Tuesday in 2 wheel drive at normal speeds because there was no ice.  The TV stations don’t always help and don’t always report very accurately.  Tuesday morning, Channel 8 was reporting a rollover wreck at 287 and 2264.  Hello?  That happens 6 times a year; summer, winter, spring and fall, daylight or dark.
I heard the roads around Decatur were treacherous.  Heck, I couldn’t spin my tires anywhere and I like going in circles as much as the next guy.

The deal with Michael Young is looking a little ugly.  I hate to see that right now but, it’s business.
I’ve never met Wayne Jacobsen and yet he has written a book about me.  Here’s a segment I’m going to be sharing in 2 Bible studies I’m doing soon.  “The motives of conformity do not produce intimacy.  This is where organized religion so often gets it backward, and why so many people in the pews remain so distant from God and so unchanged in their character.  We think conformity to God’s ways will lead us closer to him, when the opposite is true.  If we focus on our own fears and performance, he will seem more distant.  It is only by living in the security of God’s affection that he is able to transform us.”  He Love Me, p. 80
He goes on to talk about love being stronger than fear.  In Psalm 111:10 we are told that fear is the beginning of wisdom.  I believe this is true because I believe that people who do not strive to know God, whether they go to church or not, may one day know his wrath.  (Please know that isn’t a judgment, that is my belief.  I might be wrong and find out that God isn’t punishing anyone and that’s His call to make and no skin off my back.  As much as He’s put up with from me, I’m just tickled pink I get to keep learning how much He loves me each day.)  While fear may be the beginning of wisdom, John says in I John 4 that perfect love drives out fear.  If I really love God I don’t have to fear God because there is no fear in love.  I take it to mean that our walk with God is a journey that started with understanding His power and growing into a more and more loving relationship with Him day by day.
I have a desire to love God more, to know Him intimately, to live in His love and to glorify Him in all that I do.

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Grace and peace to you.
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What I Hear

25 Tuesday Jan 2011

Posted by in abundance, love, overflow, sin, Son

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It’s part odd, part funny sometimes to say something and people hear something different.  I look back on a life of hearing what so many people have said and wonder now if I heard what they said or heard something else.  Here’s an example.  I’ve been going to church all my life, going to Bible classes, listening to sermons and what I have heard most of my life was more about how I needed to avoid sin instead of how I need to love God and be obsessed with living for Him.  I wonder if I just heard it all wrong.  Regardless, I am finally coming to understand that an obsession with trying to live right kept me focused on my weakness but and obsession with being close to God, soaking up the fact that I am living in His presence, is keeping me focused on His power.  It seems like such a small thing in words but in my life it is making a very big difference. 

In the old days, when I sinned, I beat myself up and slowly began to convince myself I was just a sinner and would never be more.  These days, when I sin, I realize I have only pulled myself away from the Father, I’ve only cheated myself out of being in His presence but it is not who I am, just something I did.  Who I am is His son, His loved child who He still desires to be in His presence, soaking up His abundant love. 

For years I lived focus on my need for His grace and mercy.  While I do need that, God is love and that is what I want to be caught up in because I have found that by living in His love, He gives me all that flows from that (grace, mercy, compassion, etc.) and I am drawn closer to Him and live in the growing understanding that being made in His image means that I too can overflow in love. 

My cup overflows when I live in His love.

Grace and peace to you.

Thanksgiving. The Day After

26 Friday Nov 2010

Posted by in Lord, love, Thanksgiving

≈ 1 Comment

I have spent some time this past week wondering what all people will say and what I would say when asked, what are you giving thanks for.  My world has been turned upside down and I have been separated from what has meant the most to me on this earth.  Honestly, I still don’t feel very thankful at times but there are some things that stand out to me:

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I’m thankful for the people who have loved me knowing my failings and my darkest secrets.  You have given me courage to continue facing a new day each morning.
I’m thankful for the people I have asked to pray specific prayers for me because I am in a season where I seldom pray.
I’m thankful for the people who have prayed for me not knowing what to pray for or ask for.  God knows your heart and I trust He has used your love for me in ways He knows are best.
I’m thankful for people who have suffered greatly before me because you can speak to my pain and sadness and heartbreak with understanding.
I’m thankful for people who have challenged me in my thoughts and desires.  Your desire to keep me from going backwards by lovingly, and sometimes harshly, pushing me forward has been a blessing.
I’m thankful for Christian counseling.  I have learned things about myself, my heart and my mind that have walked me through years of mistakes to the root causes allowing me to begin working on changes that will hopefully aid me in making good decisions into the future.
I’m thankful for brief words of kindness and a hug.  Knowing you care means more than I can put into words.
I’m thankful for people who let me be honest when they ask how I’m doing.  You know that sometimes what you will hear will be painful, ugly and filled with tears and you allow me to do it anyway.
I’m thankful for people who have brought their brokenness to me.  You have shown me that God can and will use my grief and pain for His glory.

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I’m sure I could go on but there is one more that overshadows all of the above.

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I am thankful for a loving and patient Lord.  You, Lord, have taught me that the prodigal son story isn’t just a Bible story but my story.  You have shown me that my story fits in your story, a story of broken people who have fallen and continue to find your love ever-present.  You have shown me what love is and should be.  You have shown me that it is OK to live through the mistakes of my past because you love what will be, not what was.  You have shown me that there is healing in confession and the power of relationships that are aligned with you.  You have shown me what it is to wait, patiently.  You never quit me,  you never let go, you never stopped loving and being faithful in your hope for me.  Without you I know there would be nothing to be thankful for.  With you, I know there will be joy in the days ahead.  You, Lord, are what I am truly thankful for.
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Email, Facebook and Twitter vs. The Power of God

04 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by in action, emails, Facebook, love, service, Twitter

≈ 1 Comment

I’m stepping up on my soapbox today.  Give me space and give me leniency.

I get lots of emails and Facebook messages and a few tweets wanting me to forward on some new thing that people are in an uproar about.  It makes me want to scream.  Instead, I have refused to forward them or reply to them.  I have refused to jump on the “outrage of the moment” bandwagon.  Does that make me a good person?  Nope.  In fact, maybe I should jump on the bandwagon but every time I get one of those there is this thought inside my head saying “do something more.”

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Here’s the deal.  I read John 14:15 and it says “If you love me, you will pass along emails complaining about what someone you don’t agree with is doing.”  Whoops, hang on.  I messed up because it says “If you love me, you will keep my commands.”  Now, I don’t remember the commands to forward emails or Facebook statuses and then sit back at the water cooler and talk about why the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  I do remember “go” and “give” and “make disciples” and some things that had Jesus out doing, not passing along scrolls.  I suppose he could have had God write out some rules and then sit in the temple courts and ask people if they had read it and to forward it on…but He didn’t.  Instead, He served.

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I don’t think emails, Facebook and Twitter have the power to win the world for Christ but I think service does.  My friends who work at WARM touching the hungry and the poor live in that power.  My friends who work up at Gear Up live in that power.  People I know who move into neighborhoods that are poor and drug-infested and crime-infested so they can model Jesus to rough characters live in that power.  People I know who go into prisons sharing the Good News live in that power.  People I know who do simple acts of kindness to the hurting live in that power.  People who encourage others live in that power.

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I want live more deeply and more rooted in that power, the power that speaks volume in actions towards the disenfranchised of this world, the hungry and the poor, the hurting and the lost – not because my actions are anything – but because the love for God and love of God that provokes those actions can change and heal hearts.

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An email, a status update, a tweet won’t mean diddly until the whole world sees the power of God’s love played out in the lives of service of His children.

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God, give me your eyes to see what you see and the understanding to go where you would have me go and the courage to do what you want me to do.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Home Sweet Home

02 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by in Abilene, Allelon, love

≈ Leave a comment

“Our homes have become a shrine to the worship of self because we see them as our refuge instead of Jesus.”

I got this off of Twitter last week.  I thought it was a powerful message in itself.  Then I spent the weekend with some kids from Abilene who have made the decision to live and work in the worst neighborhood in the city.  They open their doors to their neighbors.  They provide meals twice a week that everyone is invited to.  They eat rice and beans for most of their meals because they want to live more like the world lives than in the excess of what most Americans think is normal.  Their home is a not a refuge but a mission field.  They eat with drug abusers.  They eat with convicts.  They eat with people who know how to resolve things with their fists…and knives…and guns.  They eat with the very people who break into their house and steal from them and when they find out who the thief was, they let him/her know that they love them.

John was an ex-con who started coming around.  He is a gang member, a school drop-out and an all-around rough character.  He came and ate with them a few times.  He talked to them a few times.  Eventually, John spent the night at their house a few times when he had nowhere else to sleep.  John’s cousin stole a bike from their house and when the guy that owned the bike saw the cousin riding it, he pulled up next to the cousin and talked to him as a friend, not an accuser.  The bike owner put the word out that he had given the cousin the bike because he needed it.  John couldn’t quite figure that out.  John went back to jail for a former crime and while he was incarcerated, decided that people did love him.  It was something he hadn’t experienced for most of his short life.  John got out of prison, got his GED, still hangs out with these guys some and is trying to turn his life around.  A few weeks ago, John called one of the guys and asked for the phone number of one of their former roommates, Ben, who had a very expensive camera stolen from the house.  A little while later, John called back and said he had called Ben to tell him he has stolen the camera (before his recent jail time), that he was going to sell the $1,000+ camera for $20, that the guy he was selling it to started looking through the pictures and it was the guys in the house playing with the neighborhood kids, pictures of love and community.  John tried to take the camera back but the buyer was bigger and maybe had more weapons.  John ran and didn’t get any money.

John’s punishment wasn’t more jail time.  It was a guilty conscience that grew out of being surrounded by love instead of hatred, by people who wanted to be his friend, not prison guards.  Love is changing John in ways jail never could.  Who knows where this story may go?

I did this exercise with our youth group last week because it’s one I need to do myself over and over.  Ready 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and insert “God” in place of “love” (or where the words refer to love).  God is love.  Now read it again and put your name in place of “love” and see if the scripture still fits.

I will keep doing it until “Jeff is patient, Jeff is kind..” and “Jeff never fails” is more reality than a good idea.

Love can change the world.

Grace and peace to you.