Week 4: Love Does Not Boast

This is a funny one for me, as I come from a family of boasters.  We don’t mean any harm.  We would be genuinely happy for you if you did something great, so we assume if we do something great, you’ll be happy for us, too. I know it can be annoying. I’ve seen people’s faces. I’ve heard their comments. I’ve even seen people pull away and be bitter. Why? Why does it bother people so much when someone is bragging? Think about it. Is it really THAT big of a deal?

Well, God seems to think so.

Bragging is instantly annoying to others because it’s like saying, “I care more about myself than you.”  Generally, humans actually believe this, but bragging displays right out in the open (in your face), “I don’t care about you.” That isn’t actually what I’m thinking when I brag. It’s usually more like, “maybe if this person knew the things I do, they’ll like me and be my friend.”  How ironic.

If I actually loved everyone the way God called me to, I would be eager to hear what THEY have to say, not eager to tell them how great I am. 

In my case, and probably for a lot of others as well, it stems from an insecurity. If you catch me talking about myself, it’s usually because I’m so nervous we’ll be standing together in silence and awkwardness with nothing to say. I have explained recently to some women in my church that if I just stop talking and walk away, it’s because I generally don’t know how to carry on a conversation successfully, so I leave when I have nothing else to say. I’m not really sure what I’m nervous about, but nonetheless, in addition to loving better, I’m working on my people skills.

The original Greek word found in 1 Corinthians 13:4 means “to boast or point to oneself.” I like this phrase, “to point to oneself” because it is the opposite of love. Love points outward. Love lifts up, encourages, and exults. Not to itself but to God and others. Boasting is a form of selfishness. My fear of empty space in conversation is also a form of selfishness. If I cared more about you, maybe I’d be able to converse better with you. I’m not great on the spot, so usually when I know I’ll see someone, I think of a list of about 10 questions to ask them when the moment is ready. This is just an exercise for me to get better at talking and listening, but it’s also teaching me how to think about other people instead of myself.

If Love does NOT Boast, than maybe this week I should try to be a better listener, caring more about what others have to say than getting all my thoughts out. Want to try it with me?

How can God be called ‘Jealous’?

The bible definitely talks about envy and jealousy in the way we understand it. Psalms and Proverbs are constantly telling us to not envy the wicked and their riches. Ecclesiastes talks about our envy of others causing us to strive in achievement. There is no mystery about what this word means when it was translated from Greek to English. So how can the bible say “Love is not jealous”, and yet say that God’s own name is ‘Jealous’ (Exodus 34:14)? Not to mention the hundreds of verses where it says ‘God is jealous’. The bible even mentions a few times when God provokes jealousy in His people because He wants their hearts to turn back to Him. Even Paul writes to the Christians that he wishes he could make the Israelites jealous so that they would want Jesus. Why would God want us to be jealous, but then say, “love is not jealous”. Isn’t God Himself Love?

Confusing. But I think there’s so much here we can learn. I think it would help if we looked at it the way we look at…sex. (Sorry, PG-13, but hear me out.) There is healthy sex and there is unhealthy sex. Healthy sex brings life and healing and joy. Unhealthy sex brings pain and longing and damage. There seems to be a “healthy jealousy” in the bible. When God is jealous, His desire is for us (mostly after we’ve turned away from Him.) He is angry with His bride, Israel, because she’s broken her covenant with Him and whored around to whoever would sleep with her. His jealousy is a healthy jealousy that invokes Him to fight for His bride. What woman doesn’t want to be chased by the man they love?

I recently watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 with my kids and was blown away by a scene where the main character (Hiccup) finds his long lost mother (thought to be killed by a dragon 20 years ago) reuniting with his father, the ruler of the Vikings. He’s a big, scary, stubborn kind of guy. When he sees his wife for the first time in a long time, he is serious, yet full of emotion, and he is…gentle. He loves her, and welcomes her back to be his wife again even though she wandered off without looking back.

I love this scene because it reminds me of God’s heart for us. It doesn’t matter what we do. He always desires for us to come back to Him. He just keeps trying, keeps waiting, in patience (week one), and kindness (week two), for us to love Him back. He is jealous for us, because we are His bride, and He’s supposed to be jealous for His bride, just like we are supposed to be jealous for Him.  This is healthy jealousy.

So what is unhealthy jealousy? 1 Corinthians is saying that love is not jealous for the wrong things. Love isn’t jealous for a nice house, a good job, a better personality, a smaller nose, quiet children, or a helpful husband. Love is jealous only for the Lover of our souls! Our jealousy can not be aimed at anything but His heart and loving Him. That is what Paul meant when he wrote “Love is not jealous”. He means love doesn’t look around and see all the things it doesn’t have.  Love is being so committed and connected to God’s heart, that we just want more of Him, and all the other stuff we want fades away into the distance, because Love realizes nothing comes close to the Lover's embrace.

Week Three: Love is not Envious

I typically don’t envy other people. I don’t see the point. Being jealous doesn’t bring me any closer to having what someone else has, it only makes me feel bad about myself, so what’s the point?  But just because I don’t normally get jealous of other people, doesn’t mean I don’t need to improve in this area. You know what the opposite of not being jealous of others would be? (Other than being happy for them of course.) Being thankful for what I have. That would pretty much cure our envy most of the time, wouldn’t it?

My husband and I bought this house that needed a ton of work. When we first looked at it, we saw what it could be. It needed paint, new bathrooms, floors, some new walls, new appliances, and the entire outside of the house, roof, and yard needed a complete overhaul. What were we thinking? We saw the potential, and we fell in love with it, so we bought it. We’ve done a TON of work, and it’s a  decent house now. But do you know what I see when I look at it? All the stuff we haven’t done yet. That’s all I see. I can’t enjoy my yard, because all I see is the pile of junk there, the weeds that aren’t getting cut over there, the overgrowth of whatever that is over there. There is so much work to do! I’m not exactly envying someone else, but I’m not at all being thankful for what I have. What if when I looked at my yard, I saw how much beauty we’ve sowed, how much transformation has taken place?

I know this is slightly different from envy, but I think it will help us to see how we can be loving in this area. We think the opposite of being envious is saying “oh that’s so great that they get to do that (poor me I can’t) but I’m not going to focus on me, I’m going to be happy for them!" I’m not sure that’s going to work. I think what will work is saying “oh that’s so great that they get to do that. I’m so thankful that I have this or that I get to do that.”

Does that make sense? We’re kind of killing two birds with one stone. I know there isn’t a ‘Love is Thankful’ week, but don’t you think thankfulness will remove all our envy? 

Maybe I can apply this to more than just my yard. Maybe I should apply it to the people in my life who aren’t what I want them to be. (CAUTION, DANGER ZONE.)

Don’t we look at people the same way I look at my yard?  There’s just so much to do. He has such a long way to go... If my son was just more like that... If my daughter was just less like this... If my husband would just treat me like this...

Isn’t that a dangerous place to be in? Somehow this feels like envy to me. Wishing people were something they’re not. Instead of being thankful for the things they are. Wow. Imagine if I lived like that!

Imagine if you had a mental list of all the ways your husband blesses you and is wonderful that you could tell yourself when he does that thing that he always does that you can’t stand!  Don’t you think it would help your heart to love him more?

I’m fortunate to have an amazing husband, so maybe it’s not fair. But he still has his moments. He has a lot of them.  There are things I think he should do, ways I think he should change. But you know what? I bet he could say the same for me. (AH!) And I DO NOT want to hear those things. You know what I hope he does when he’s mad at me? I hope he remembers all the good things about me. I hope he thinks about how I pick up his dirty socks off the floor by the laundry basket EVERY DAY, and I hope he remembers that I bring him his favorite coffee when he’s at work, or that I’m fun to be with. I hope he thinks of all those things when I do something stupid, because when I think about it, I do A LOT of stupid things.

I hope he doesn’t get jealous when he sees some other perfect wife. That would be crazy. And totally unloving. So it’s not okay for me either. 

Since this week is a Love-is-NOT-something week, and since just trying to NOT do something is really hard, I think our practice this week should be in thankfulness.  

And don't forget to be patient and serviceably kind, too.

Love Is Serving

I’m trying to think of how I can serve more, or how I can be more of a servant. I’m not coming up with much that will actually work. Oh, I have all kinds of ideas on how to improve and serve more. But do you know what I don’t have? Time. Volunteer at a soup kitchen? That’s a great way to serve. But I work all day and have my kids alone all weekend. Cook someone a meal? Yeah, that would be great if I wasn’t going on vacation next week. Clean a new mom’s house? Sure, sure, but that will take too long so I’ll just hire someone else to do it.

It’s not that I don’t know HOW to serve, I just don’t know how to FIND THE TIME to serve. Being kind is super hard.

Don’t think too poorly of me. Mostly, I don’t have time to serve because I’m already serving. I’m constantly serving my kids and my husband. I try to watch my friend’s kids when they need help. I’m always having people over for dinner to serve them. I try to clean up when I’m at people’s houses (I learned this from a good friend who always cleans up at my house when she’s over and wow is it a blessing!) I visit friends who need a visitor. I write to people who may need an encouraging word. I pray. I feel like I do try to serve others. But there are so many people who serve a lot more than I do! I know I’m not doing as well as I could.

I think the "serving" that God wants from us in LOVE here is more precise. I think it’s listening, serving the person in need. I can’t think of any story to show “kindness” and “serving” better than The Good Samaritan.  We know the story… a guy gets robbed and beat up and left on the side of the road to die. A bunch of good religious people see him and leave him there. But then this Samaritan (the guy's enemy) helps him, nurses him back to health and makes sure he’s okay.  That is the kindness found in 1 Corinthians 13:4. 

Am I like the Good Samaritan?

No, I’m just not. I generally leave others to fend for themselves. In fact, in emergency situations, I freeze. I am 90% sure that if one of my kids was about to fall off a cliff, I would instantly freeze instead of diving to save him. I know that sounds awful, but it’s probably true. When I see a bad situation unfolding, I go blank. Sometimes I pass out. (Hopefully if something like this ever happened, my husband would be around, because he is the total opposite! He instinctively runs TOWARD danger and saves everyone. HERO!)

But since Christ is in me, and I’m being made new with the renewing of my mind (Rom. 12:2), then I should be changing. I should be more of a servant. I should see when people need help, and be able to help them.  That’s what Christ did. So if I’m taking on the nature of my Father and His Son a little more every day, then surely I can lend a helping hand to someone in need (in a timely fashion.)

It’s not just about danger and near-death experiences. There’s another point to be made from The Good Samaritan. These guys were enemies. They were from opposite sides of the track so to speak. Are there people in my life who need my help that I don’t want to help? Yeah *sigh*. Kindness in LOVE would help them.

Wouldn’t it be great, if we loved our enemies like Jesus said we should? “Serviceable kindness” would be a great place to start.

A New Meaning for “Kind”

Being “kind” is confusing. I know we’re all wondering if it’s more than just being nice or polite. So what is kindness and how do we practice it?

The Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 13:4 is pretty interesting and not even close to the word “nice”.  The actual definition for the word here is: “I am kind (full of service to others), gentle.”

Weird. I am….full of service to others? Another site defines it like this: "useful, profitable, well-fit for what is really needed; kindness that is also serviceable.”  They are getting this because of the Word Origin (meaning the word here is a variant of the original word: χρηστός or chréstos) which means “serviceable, good”.

In other words love isn’t just kind as we understand the word kind. Love is useful or full of service.

So if I love, I am useful to those I love. If I love, I am of service to those I love. Or I could say I am a servant to those I love. That makes sense doesn’t it?  You know who was THE perfect example of  “servant”? I’m sure you can figure that out.

The kindness here is an action. Oh man! I was hoping it was simpler than that. I was hoping I could just be nicer for a week. It looks like I have to actually be aware of God speaking to me, and listen to Him when He tells me to DO something for someone.

Have you ever heard of the Five Love Languages? It’s a book and idea that we express and receive love in 5 different ways. One of those ways is “acts of service”. You may feel really loved when someone serves you, or you may show love by serving.

I bring this up because it ties some of this together for me. God is saying here that LOVE is 'usefully kind’. So if we walk in love, we will be naturally useful, naturally serving others. And guess what? One in 5 people (not a precise calculation) may actually see these acts of service as LOVE! They may feel loved because of your kindness, your service.

That’s pretty cool.

I think to really understand Week Two we need to change “Love is Kind” to “Love is Serving”. 

So how does God want me to serve today?

Week Two: Love is Kind

What is kindness exactly? Is it just being a nice person?

I’m not inherently nice. I don’t want to be mean, I just don’t understand the whole “polite” thing. Why add fluffy words to sentences just to make them sound better? Let’s just all say what we mean.  Wouldn’t that make the world a better place?

I can not lie. It’s not like I’m completely unable to, I’ve just found that if you lie, you have to have a good memory. You have to remember your lie, and then possibly lie some more to cover it up. I don’t have a good memory, and I have no interest in trying to remember all the lies I told. So I prefer to be honest. It comes very naturally to me. Because of this, I’ve had a struggle all my life with the idea that being nice is actually being fake, it’s sort of like a lie, right? It’s something that we add to our sentences because it makes people feel better. “Pass me the ketchup” is what I’m thinking. But what I have to say is, “Sweety, would you please pass me that ketchup?” Isn’t it just a waste of time to add all those unnecessary words in there? Get to the point!

I’m also the youngest of 4 children, in a family where everyone had an opinion and expressed it loudly. I learned that if I want to speak, I have to speak precisely and quickly. There was no time for niceties. Yet the older I get, the more I realize “you catch more bees with honey.”  (I’m not sure why anyone would want to catch bees exactly, I usually want them as far away from me as possible. But I understand the idea.) When I smile and look people in the eye and tell them to have a nice day, I generally get treated better. Now that I have kids, I also want my kids to speak to me nicely even if they don’t mean it. So I’m starting to understand. I can be nicer. But is that what God means when he says, “Love is kind”? I’m not sure that’s the fullness of it.

The dictionary defines it like this: having or showing a friendly, generous, and considerate nature. That sounds nice.

Friendly. Generous. Considerate. In other words, loving. This is so cool: “having or showing”. So people should be able to see it. Because it shows. That’s the whole point of this love thing in the first place.

Someone spoke at church yesterday about their week in patience. He explained that in order to be patient, he had to ignore someone at work. He literally didn’t talk to them or interact with them. He ended up being way more patient with them! But not really, right? He realizes that ignoring people in order to be patient with them is not exactly loving them.

Showing. I realize kindness is different from patience, but wouldn’t it be great if we could love so much that is showed? So that we didn’t avoid people or situations in order to love them, but that we loved so much that our patience and kindness for them would just show?

That would be cool.  And I’m pretty sure that’s what Jesus wants us to do.

I’ll look up the Greek word for ‘kind’ and try to get some more meaning later. But this is a good start for me since I have a long way to go in showing kindness.

Remember, it’s Christ in me that will bring this forth. I’m not going to be fake in my kindness, I actually love people, so I actually want to show them that love. And part of that love is being kind. So it should start coming naturally, if I die to myself and let Christ live in me. Right?

And don't forget to keep walking in patience.

The funny thing about patience is…

I am realizing I don’t know anything about patience. I thought I at least knew what the word meant. But as I’m trying to be patient this week, and as I’m studying patience, and trying to understand God’s patience, the more I realize I don’t even know what it means. It’s a confusing subject. Does it mean waiting? Does it mean not getting angry? Does it mean not being frustrated about little things? Does it mean not overreacting? Or does it mean enduring? Long-suffering? Being content with things in life that won’t change for a long time? Is it ignoring the things that drive you crazy or accepting them with joy?  Does patience apply to a long-term event, like patience for things in life that aren’t settled yet, questions unanswered, or does it apply to daily frustrations, like not bursting out at my children?

Do you see my problem here?

Patience and endurance seem to go hand in hand in the bible. I have seen this phrase “patient endurance” or “patiently enduring” like a hundred times in the New Testament letters. I haven’t counted, but it’s a lot. The funny thing is, when we look at the 15 Love Attributes, “patience” is #1, and “endurance” or “perseverance” is #15. So there’s a chance we’re going to start and end with patience. Maybe it’s going to take us more than one week to understand this…(duh.)

What “Love is Patient” means

I have a list of 15 different verses in the bible that talk about patience, each one expressing patience from a different perspective. Then I had a thought.  This letter written to the Corinthians was not in English. The writer didn’t technically write, “love is patient”. So I decided to look up the original Greek word. Maybe that will help me figure out what God is trying to say here. The actual word in verse 4 (which Week One is based on) is Makrothumeo which is defined in the following way:

“to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart, to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles, to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others,  to be mild and slow in avenging, to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish”

No wonder I can’t figure out what patience is. It means so many things. It means long-suffering. It means not getting angry quickly. It means not punishing people for the offenses they have caused against you. To let things go. It almost means to forgive! How did we get there? I thought we were talking about patience…

I think I’m starting to realize that patience isn’t just being nicer while you’re waiting, or being a little more tolerant of your kids, but it has to do with something much longer, much grander.  It’s looking at the bigger picture, and being content to wait on God.  I may feel very strongly a certain way today, but instead of throwing a fit, or demanding my way, or looking for comfort to replace my misery, I’m going to tell myself to be quiet, to wait, tomorrow I may not feel this way. God will come. He will take care of it. Wait for Him. I know it’s hard to wait for Him, especially when we don’t see Him. When I feel crazy angry or sad it’s hard to tell myself to get through until tomorrow. But I think that’s part of what patience is. Enduring through those times with gentleness, quietness, or patience, not with a searching for something to fill my need, or answer the question, or make it all turn out right. Just realizing the answer is not here yet, but it’s coming.

And then wait.

Am I really going to be more patient?

Two nights ago, the first night of the Campaign and Day One of “Love is Patient”, I had one of those nights with my kids. Or I should say, ‘my kids had one of those nights.’ I have twin 5-year-old boys. That sentence in itself is supposed to tell a whole story, but you have to read between the lines.  In any case, they’ve never been good sleepers.  They were up every night for at least the first three years. After that, once in a while we’d have a night where we actually slept through until morning.  It very slowly got better, and now we’re mostly sleeping straight through the night.  Surprisingly, this did not come in handy for my practice in patience.  I have gotten used to sleeping all night! So let’s just say I was…not happy to be woken up 6 times out of the blue.  

Sometimes, when my husband isn't working, I can pretend I’m asleep so I don’t have to get up. He does it too, so I don’t feel bad.  It’s okay, I know when I can’t handle something.  I know when I’m not going to have the patience that I need to help them. But when I’m alone, I don’t have a way out. If I can’t find the patience, I yell. I cry. “Why are you doing this to me?!” might come out of my mouth in there somewhere. I know it sounds childish, but when you’re desperate and honestly just need sleep, strange things happen to you.

I had to stop and think. I couldn’t figure out why my son was so upset. I asked him. He said he didn’t know. Of course he doesn’t, he’s 5.  This isn’t a parenting blog, so let’s just assume I already tried everything that could be suggested. Nothing was working. And my patience was wearing thin. In fact, it was gone.  Then I got mad. I got mad at my little, precious 5 year old because he was crying for no reason in the middle of the night.

“God!” I cried out, “I have no patience! Give me your patience!” I was desperate. How can I teach others to be patient when I literally couldn’t find a string of it left in me? Jesus is in there somewhere. He said He lives in me. So I’m going to tap into that. I’m going to need some patience when I literally don’t have it. I’m coming up short. But with Him, all things are possible. He can even teach this old dog some new tricks.

Did I instantly feel better? No. I still felt helpless. I still really didn’t know what to do. But I asked God to come, to fill me up with His Spirit and give me the things I did not have.  I went back to my son’s room and spoke quietly to him for the third time. I told him I loved him. I don’t even remember what happened after that. But somehow the night quieted down and we all got some peaceful sleep.

I’m not sure I learned how to be more patient that night. But I learned to stop and cry out to God when I needed His help. I think for Day One, maybe that’s a good start.

LOVE - The 15 Weeks to LOVE Challenge

Yesterday, to kick off the campaign, I gave a teaching about LOVE at Family of Hope Church in Saugerties, NY (check out the video if you’d like to hear it. Here is a link in case you can't see the video above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfnE68bMp8s&feature=em-uploademail).  This is my home church, and I’m so happy to be sharing this campaign with my family here and teaming up with them to make it a success.  I’m also encouraged by other friends and family who are joining the campaign in their lives, and in their churches. Just think if we ALL grasped the importance of learning to really love! We could actually change the voice in our nation and start showing people God’s love!

I’m super excited! But I am also a little embarrassed that I don’t already love like I was supposed to. I think there comes a little repentance in the beginning. Realizing how short I’ve fallen from what God wanted for me. But here’s the beautiful part: we don’t need to sit and feel condemned.

We sing a song in our church that says “Death to the past it’s gone. Here’s to a new beginning.”  Let’s start fresh in love. You may already be loving WAY more than me, but I know we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. (I know this because the bible says it.) So just because you’re a lot better at loving than me doesn’t mean you’re good at it compared to let’s say…Jesus.

I’ve been told this idea is radical. It’s a little out there. And I get it. But it really shouldn’t be. Jesus was radical, right? Jesus was a little out there. But we don’t call ourselves ‘Christians’ for no reason. It has a purpose. It’s because we’re Christ-followers. We’re Jesus followers. And right now, we need to think a little outside the box to undo some of the damage we’ve done and move in the right direction.

Check out the teaching and consider joining us. Ask your friends or co-workers or your church to join us as well. If we work together, I really believe we can make a difference in this world!

Why Love is more important than sin.

Okay, so we’re going to stop walking in fear, and start walking in love. This doesn’t mean we’re accepting sin and saying it’s okay. We’re just saying we’re going to stop focusing on what’s ‘right and wrong’ and start focusing on love. 

Do you know why this is important? Because God can wipe sin away in one second. God can literally remove it from us: as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) We know this. We know Jesus wipes our sin away. “My sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”  Right?

But do you know how long it has taken God to get us to LOVE Him? It’s the year 2014 AD, which means it’s been like…two thousand years since Christ came, and how many more thousands were before that? (I honestly don’t know, although I’m sure I could google it.)

We still haven’t gotten it. We still don’t love him with all our hearts and with all our minds and with all our strength. AND THIS IS WHAT HE’S LOOKING FOR!  This is what He created us for!  So isn’t it possible that LOVING HIM may be more important than NOT SINNING, which He can take care of (and has already taken care of) in one second?

There’s a lot of things that Jesus did in the bible that we kind of feel like….well that’s great for Him but that doesn’t actually work. There’s a limit. You gotta draw the line somewhere. It’s just not practical. I’m a very practical person, so I get it. But I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t come down and tell us to be like Him just for fun. He served a pretty serious sentence, and actually requires and expects us to do what He says.

I was thinking of this story in the bible:  Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)  I know seventy times seven is 490, but I think the point is to stop counting. 

Here’s how the story goes in my mind: I go up to Jesus and I say, Ok yeah, yeah, forgiveness is great, but how many times do I REALLY forgive? There’s a limit right? I mean your whole hippie, peace, love and forgiveness thing sounds really nice on paper, but you don’t expect us to actually live this out?  Cause my neighbor has done this thing to me 7 times and I’ve forgiven him all 7 times Jesus, but if he does it again, he’s dead to me. That's acceptable, right?

Jesus puts his head down and just shakes it back and forth slowly. How does she not get this? No, not seven times. Stop counting.  He follows this conversation directly with a story about a servant who owed a TON of money to this rich guy but he pleaded for mercy and the guy forgives him his debt and sends him home. But when he gets home he demands this really small debt from his friend and does terrible things to him because he can’t pay. Do you know why Jesus tells this story directly after his conversation with Peter? Because he’s saying, "Peter, or J.J. (that’s me), you’re the one with the huge $100,000 debt, and I forgave it, because you asked me to. Your brother causing you pain 7 times (I know it hurts), but it’s like a $10 debt compared to yours! And you think it’s too great to forgive? Change your perspective, and keep forgiving.

So is 15 Weeks to LOVE possible? Is it practical? Can it work? Yes! We just have to change how we think.

That’s what this is all about. Changing how we think, how we act, and how we feel -- taking on God’s heart and replacing our shortcomings with His love.

Love is on tap.

We’re not meant to do this in our own strength. This is really key here. We’re not just trying to be better people, doing good deeds, making people smile, although that will probably take place.  (In general, if we love, we’ll be better people.) But that’s not the point. The point is to allow the ‘Christ in me’ thing to take place. Christ in me, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27)  That is my only hope here. I can’t fully walk in love without God completely helping me out.

My Goal:  Learn how to let ‘Christ in me’ shine through all my natural stuff: my impatience, my selfishness, my memory (or lack thereof), my flesh, and just let Him take over and do His work through me. I almost think of it like I’m “tapping in” to this part inside me, and I’m going to allow it to spring forth. So what’s on tap today? Jesus. And Love. Love is on tap.

15 Weeks to Love

 

WHY?

In John 13:35, Jesus tells us, "...everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

The voice of the church in this country is many things: judgement, correction, criticism, but love seems far away. Don't get me wrong, there are many acts of love; good people loving Jesus and serving others. But unfortunately, the majority of the church, or at least the loudest voices, are not portraying the love Jesus requires us to.

Our lack of love has caused so much pain...to all of us. Not only do we not love 'the world', we also don't love each other. How many Christians do you know have been hurt by other Christians?  Let's face it, sometimes we're just too sensitive, but mostly we don't love each other like we should.  How will anyone know we are His disciples if we don't love each other?

It's time to stand up and show the world what love is. Let's make the voice of love louder, so that not only will others know we're His disciples, they'll want to join in this irresistible, unstoppable love!

HOW?

15 Weeks to Love is a campaign to promote love in our lives by applying the 15 attributes of love shown in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  We'll apply one attribute to our lives each week, building additional attributes until we are fully walking in love.

Week 1.    Love is patient
Week 2.    Love is kind
Week 3.    Love is not envious/jealous
Week 4.    Love does not brag/boast
Week 5.    Love is not arrogant/proud
Week 6.    Love is not rude/does not dishonor others
Week 7.    Love does not seek its own/demand its own way
Week 8.    Love is not irritable/easily angered
Week 9.    Love does not count wrongs suffered/keep a record of wrongs
Week 10.    Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or delight in evil
Week 11.    Love rejoices with truth/when truth wins
Week 12.    Love never gives up/always protects
Week 13.    Love always trusts/never loses faith
Week 14.    Love always hopes
Week 15.    Love always perseveres/endures

FEAR OF SIN

Our biggest challenge here is to not be afraid of sin. We're so scared that extending more love and grace will cause sin. This is a lie! And it's a purposeful one to keep you from loving to the fullest, the way Jesus called you to love. Just lay down your whole 'what's right and wrong' thing for 15 weeks and try to love more.

Jesus said, 'if you love me, you will obey my commandments.' So if we can get people to enter into this love, maybe HE can get them to obey Him. Maybe the more we love Him, the less we sin. It's true! It's in the bible.

Right now, our fear of sin (and sinners) is so much louder than our desire to love that it drowns love out and makes it non-existent. No one can hear your love when they hear your judgment. Let God convict others. You just love them.

Love so that when people hear God's word, they can embrace it, not despise it.

Love, giving no reason to reject the conviction that God WILL place in people's hearts. Conviction isn't your job. It's His.

Love your spouse, love your kids, love your boss, love your friends, love His children. That's our job.

His job is to make people holy. And when we teach people how to love Him, they'll accept His correction and discipline. (I just have to point out because I know you may still be doubting, that I am not promoting sin. I am not saying there is no such thing as sin. Sin is real. I'm just saying, let's look at it the way God does.)

I know it may be hard, but if you can lay down your fear of sin for these 15 weeks and just try to walk in love…I think you'll be really surprised at the results, and you'll want to let go of fear and walk in love forever! Because hey, love never fails.