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Weekend Recap – 3D Love

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My 9/9/12AM sermon, 3D Love, from Hebrews 13:1-3 is now online.  This sermon, coming almost in the same breath of a revelation that God’s a consuming fire, helps us orient our lives in worship properly by displaying love to those around us.  The three dimensional love taught to us is an inward love for other Christians in the church, an outward love for those outside the church and a particular love displayed for the needy, as if we have the same kind of need.

I hope you had a great Lord’s Day, as well.  Now, with Monday, we have the opportunity to live out what we experienced yesterday.  I pray you do that in a way that pleases God.

Weekend Preview – Love, Love, Love

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This coming Lord’s Day, we will be looking at Hebrews 13:1-3 and it’s call upon our lives to a 3 dimensional kind of love.  One of the rubs in our day and age (especially in the church) is that we talk a good game of love.  For instance, we can probably communicate how hard we are sacrificing in this or that area.  But, if we’re honest a lot of that is hot air.  We’re not that inconvenienced.  We have time for others if we make time for others.

The author of Hebrews just lays it out there, though.  We must be a loving people if we are going to live before a God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).  This weekend, then, ask God to prepare your heart to receive God’s Word that we may emerge a people characterized by love in striking ways.

True Love

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From Octavius Winslow’s Morning Thoughts, Feb 14, out of 1 John 4:10.

“Herein is love!” as though John would say, “And nowhere else but here!” That God should punish the innocent for the guilty- that He should exact the blood of His Son to cancel the guilt of His rebels- that He should lay an infinite weight of wrath on His soul, in order to lay an infinite weight of love on ours- that He should sacrifice His life of priceless value for ours- worthless, forfeited, and doomed- that He should not only give His Son, but should bruise Him, put Him to grief, afflict Him, should make His soul an offering for sin- that the ‘Lord of Glory’ should become a ‘man of sorrows’, the Lord of Life should die, and the Heir of all things should be “as him that serves.” Oh depth of love unfathomable! Oh height of love unsearchable! Oh length and breadth of love unmeasurable! Oh love of God, which passes knowledge!

Today, bask in the glow of a God who is crazy for you.

Bitterness: A Marriage Killer…

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We all know that the Scriptures tell us to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).  But, as I noticed in a book on bitterness, bitterness can keep us from walking in this way.  Specifically, bitterness remembers details.

How can we tell if we are bitter?
One good rule of thumb is this: bitterness remembers details. You have had thousands of conversations in your life, most of which you have forgotten. But this one took place five years ago, and you remember every single word, his intention, and the inflection of every part of his voice. You know exactly what happened–which means you are bitter.

In contrast to this, Scripture tells us to get rid of all bitterness. Is there any bitterness you need to turn away from today? Don’t let the canker of bitterness sour you! Kill it, by the power of the Gospel, and walk in victory.

Love Your Enemies

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a couple of great posts on the recent death of Osama Bin Laden and what this means for us as believers (i.e. how we should think about it).

D.A. Carson weighs in with these clarifications on Love in Hard Places from a section he entitled “Hard Case Two: Osama Bin Laden,” written after 9/11. Here’s an outline:

1) It may be helpful, first of all, to reflect on pacifism and “just war” theory in the light of the biblical commands to love and forgive.
2) On the other hand, all war, even just war, is never more than rough justice. Even the just war is prosecuted by sinners, and so injustices will occur.
3) Several other factors are often thrown into the debate about how we should respond to Osama bin Laden and other terrorists.
4) Historically, wars have changed their form from time to time, generating fresh discussion about just war theory. It is time to begin this process again.
5) As with racism, so here: Christians need to reflect on how some of the fundamentals of the faith bear on just war.
6) One more theological reflection is relevant to the concerns of these lectures. Complex discussions about justice, forgiveness, enemies, and just war theory may entice us to forget that they were all precipitated by the effort to think exegetically and theologically about love.

The conclusion:

Therefore, in the present struggle, even while we must try to prevent the terrorists from doing more violence, we must eschew a vendetta mentality. Love demands that we do not demonize Osama bin Laden. He is a human being made in the image of God. He is an evil man, and he must be stopped, but he is a man, and we should take no pleasure in destroying him. Vengeance is the Lord’s alone. Do not offer the alternative, “Should we weep for Osama bin Laden or hold him to account for his genocide and prevent him from carrying out his violent intentions?” The right answer is yes.

I was also helped by The Resurgence and their reflections on what it means to love our enemies. I hope these help you as you wade through these things.

Weekend Recap – New Humanity Love

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Yesterday’s sermon, New Humanity Love, from Colossians 3:12-14 is now online. The sermon came on the heels of the preceding sermons in the context, showing that for those who are being renewed and made to look like Christ and for whom Christ is all and in all, those people are to be putting on virtues and actions which lead to harmony with others.

Too often, our expressions of love are really selfish. We love to get. Paul calls on these believers to love because of who they are in Christ. And there is a huge difference.

Healthy Evangelism and the Local Church…

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Just finished reading J. Mack Stiles book Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel. In one particularly moving section filled with application on how evangelism relates the local church, he gave 16 Ways to Demonstrate Love and Unity in the Church and In So Doing Become a Healthy Evangelist:

1) Attend a church that takes the gospel seriously (Hebrews 10:25). Treat form as secondary, the gospel as primary. Incense and candles, rock band worship, liturgy, Gregorian chants, a pastor with tattoos…these are “form” and therefore secondary. Clear gospel proclamation from the leadership is primary.
2) Become an actual member of a church. I’m serious; membership shows your loving commitment to one another. This is truly radical. Go against the grain and show that you are really crazy in love with Jesus and join a church. And just think, the less cool the church the more opportunity to demonstrate real love!
3) Read C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility once a year. This book is a powerhouse of practical help for anyone who desires to be great in the kingdom of God. Mahaney gives us practical tools for demonstrating love and unity in the context of community.
4) Turn down jobs that might take you away from church even if they pay more.
5) Arrange family vacations around your church’s schedule. Or better yet, take your family on a short-term mission trip with other members instead of a family vacation. This will blow people’s minds.
6) If your church doesn’t have a church covenant, think about developing one that expresses your love for each other.
7) Move to a house closer to the church and use your house as a place of hospitality (Romans 12:13).
8) Practice church discipline. It’s biblical (Matthew 18:15-17). This is truly, off-the-charts radical. Church discipline is not usually what people think it is; the goal of church discipline is always to restore, not to punish. You may offend people, but then again you may save some from living a hell on earth.
9) Respect, even revere, the authority in the church (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).
10) Turn heads–really practice the biblical teachings of giving and receiving forgiveness. Be quick to forgive others (Ephesians 4:32). Be quick to say you’re sorry (Matthew 5:23-24). Forgiveness may be one of the most radical ways to express love and unity in a congregation, and it’s rarely practiced.
11) Take care of people who are in need physically in your congregation (Romans 12:13).
12) Pray for each other (Ephesians 6:18). Don’t just say you’ll pray. Actually put into place some ways to pray for each and every member.
13) Sympathize with other believers (Romans 12:15). Check a critical spirit.
14) Focus on caring for one another spiritually by discipling one another (Galatians 6:1-2). Though discipling only looks like having lunch, it’s secretly and subversively radical. Over a Caesar salad ask the dangerous question: “How’re things spiritually?”
15) Share your faith together (Philippians 1:27). A loving church committed to each other will see the Lord add to their numbers (Acts 2:42-47). Involve your friends at church with your evangelism.
16) Read Mark Dever’s 9 Marks of a Healthy Church.

J. Mack Stiles, Marks of the Messenger (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010), pp.107-109

Which of these things need to be applied into your life? Let’s show the world we’re Jesus’ disciples by practicing active love and demonstrating unity toward one another.

On Brotherly Love

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Here’s the newsletter article I wrote for our church’s newsletter, the Edifier, coming out this weekend:

I love the book of Hebrews. Much like Colossians (which we are currently going through on Sunday mornings) the book of Hebrews is on a campaign to demonstrate how Jesus is better than anything. He’s better than angels, Moses, Melchizedek, the Old Covenant and anything else we could dream up. The truth that Jesus is better than everything is easy for us to mouth a confession to in the church. What becomes really difficult is living out the ramifications of what that means.

In Hebrews, for example, after a compelling picture of Jesus’ greatness for twelve chapters, chapter 13 begins by saying: “Let brotherly love continue.” In the bigger context, we read in Hebrews 12:24, of Jesus, who is the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You remember that story don’t you? Abel and his brother Cain both were children of Adam and Eve. Abel kept sheep; Cain was a worker of the ground. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock as an offering to God. Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but not Cain’s. Cain was angry and his face fell. And God said to him, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:6-7). It is on the heels of this that Cain and Abel go the fields and Cain kills his brother.

Back to Hebrews, when the writer says “Let brotherly love continue” there must be something that would provoke this urging. In the immediate context of Hebrews 13:1, at the end of chapter 12, we read that we should “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). What is all of this getting at? Here are some things…

To continue in brotherly love, we must fight sin. Sin is in all of us. We all have sinful tendencies. Maybe some are more outrageous or easily seen than others, but we are all tempted with sin. It’s easy for us to hate our brother because they seem to be “blessed” with something more than we are. When we get in this trap, we are skidding down the slippery slope Cain experienced. Therefore, let’s fight sin. Sin is crouching at the door to pounce on us and master us. But we must rule over it. By God’s grace, let’s fight sin.

To continue in brotherly love, we must worship God properly. We forget that we are always before the face of God (we live coram deo). If we understood who God is and thought more about Him than our selfish desires, we wouldn’t drift into hateful attitudes and actions towards others. When the vertical relationship is proper, horizontal relationships will be right. Remember who God is and let that inspire your love for others.

Finally, to continue in brotherly love, believe in Jesus. We are so quick to forget who we are in Christ. We forget the sin that characterized our life before Him and how we have been rescued. Remember in Hebrews 12:24 & Genesis 4 that God was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice, but Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than Abel’s. If God was pleased with Abel, using the logic of the writer of Hebrews, He is ecstatic with the sacrifice of Jesus. To continue loving people as God intended we must center who we are in Jesus and the Gospel.

Therefore, let’s glorify and enjoy God, forever, by continuing in brotherly love.

Love Story by Arwen Eastman

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It’s an honor and privilege to post a link and ask a couple questions of Arwen Eastman, who is a member of our church and wrote the song “Love Story” for an offertory this past Sunday, 2/14. Here’s the link to the audio, which was a rough recording from our sound booth.

Love Story by Arwen Eastman

Question #1 – What is the concept behind this song?
The idea of this song is that we so often look for love and acceptance according to the worldly standard of love. In reality, God fulfills our need to be loved in every way, but to a way greater extent than any person could, because we’re all sinful.

Question #2 – How did God work to bring this to fruition for you?
I’ve always had a burden for younger women and girls. The age where girls are looking for romance gets younger and younger all the time, and the fact that we have such a loving Father who desires a relationship with them is a message that I feel led to emphasize. These lyrics I think have been in my heart for a long time!

Question #3 – Why the language of what our fathers, brothers, and sons are asking?
Addressing these people groups is supposed to represent the different generations and what each generation might look for in love. A desire for passion might turn into a desire for security which might turn into a desire for friendship and longevity. God fulfills whatever we long for in love no matter what our age. His love is so much greater than we can fathom.

Question #4 – What are the lyrics?

Our children say sing us a love song
A story of passion and romance to sweep us off our feet
They long to feel what the world says love should be
But do they know what I long to say to them?

This is our love story
A Prince who has wooed us
A Groom who calls us His bride
And gave His life that we might live
Might live, might live forever and reign with Him
This is our love story, yeah, ooo

Our brothers say sing us a love song
A story of faithfulness and sacrifice for love
They long to feel what the world says love should be
But do they know what I long to say to them?

This is our love story
A God who has called us
Long before there was time
He knew He’d give His life that we might live
Might live, might live forever and reign with Him
This is our love story, yeah, ooo

For “greater love has not a man
Than he who lays his life down for a friend”
And yet, when we were enemies
Christ’s song of love was faithful to the end

Our fathers say Sing us a love song
A story of friendship where true love is doting to the end
They long to feel what the world says love should be
But do they know what I long to say to them?

This is our love story
A God who still loves us
A God who still calls us friend
And covers our sin that we might live
Might live, might live forever and reign with Him
This is our love story, yeah, yeah, yeah

This is our love story
This is my love story
Is this your love story?

Thanks Arwen, for not only taking time to answer these questions, but also for giving us another song to use in our delight of our great God and Savior. We are thankful. If you are interested in a chord chart for the song, leave a comment and I’ll see if Arwen can pass it on to you.