April 2005
 Our
goal is to affect the way you see God.
We intend to reach the lost, the backslidden,
the unchurched and the unproductive, and
make them whole through the love of God,
thereby launching them into productive,
personal service. Our desire is to always
have others feel loved, and to help them
understand that God loves them.
How Do You See God?
How we see God affects
the way we see and react with others.
If we see God as creating us in His image,
we will value the life of one another.
If we perceive God as judgmental and always
angry, we will reflect a critical heart.
If we know and perceive God as love, we
will reflect His love to those around
us. Mother Teresa said that the greatest
disease of mankind is the absence of love.
She hit the nail right on the head.
This may sound over simplistic,
but how I see you is a reflection of how
I perceive God and His love for me. If
my heart is filled with God's love, I
will love you unconditionally. Conversely,
King Solomon said: "He who has
a crooked heart finds no good."
1 If our hearts
are crooked and twisted by sin, we will
see only the bad in others. If your god
is evolution, thinking mankind is derived
from an animal, you may be helplessly
treating others in a very self-gratifying
manner. In other words, if you believe
man evolved from monkeys; your way of
looking at human issues (the need to provide
for the poor, the need to take care of
the sick and injured, aborting rights,
the goal of an education system, for example),
could be different than if you believe
man was created "a little lower
than the angels" by a loving
God. 2 if you don't
believe in God, it is impossible for you
to have anything other than self-gratifying
relationships with those around you.
It is extremely important
for you to see God as love. For this to
happen, there must be a change of heart
to receive God's love. This is called
repentance, from the Greek word metanoia,
which is a radical turning from our sin;
our selfish way of thinking to God's self-sacrificial
way of love. The sinner must repent before
he can become the recipient of God's love
by grace through faith. 3
Our Misconceptions
Our minds can be filled
with many misconceptions. I grew up never
really understanding my parent's faith
in Christ. I did not understand that His
sacrifice on the Cross was a display of
God's love. I was ignorant of spiritual
things, hopelessly confused. My closed
mind was full of darkness. I was far away
from the life of God because I had shut
my mind and hardened my heart against
God. I didn't care anymore about right
and wrong. I had given myself over to
immoral ways. My life was filled with
all kinds of impurity and greed. 4
My parents loved me deeply, but I still
did not know how to receive their love.
In selfishness, I was looking for love
in all the wrong places.
After God changed my
heart, I became aware of the many kinds
of love, all described by different Greek
words: (Excerpts from James P. Gills,
M.D. and the book The Four Loves
by C. S. Lewis).
Epithumia is an earnest
desire, impulse and lust. In a positive
sense, married couples desire to unite
sexually. But in a negative sense, it
can be a passionate desire for forbidden
pleasure, which consumes, controls and
devastates individuals and society.
Eros is the sensual,
romantic erotic love between male and
female, which Cupid has grown to represent
in our culture. This love is to only
be consummated sexually between married
couples.
Phileo is
an ardent affection and feeling, absent
sexual motivation, between people who
are physically or spiritually related
to each other -- brotherly or sisterly
love.
Storge is
affection; the glue holding the other
loves together; the medium by which
they operate; the humblest love and
appreciation for God and others expressed
with thanksgiving for their works; to
respect, serve, help, care for and encourage
others; the framework in which agape
love is expressed daily in our response
to God's love; family love.
Agape is divine
love, the God kind of love. It is unconditional;
a self-sacrificial love from the nature
of God living in the born-again believer
flowing out to others. 5
We are called not only to love our neighbor
with this love, but also our enemy.
6 It has been
said that it is like oil to the wheels
of obedience that never fails, but always
flourishes.
This God kind of love
is absent from every heart that does not
know God through Jesus Christ. The lack
of God's love leaves a person open to
substituting almost anything in place
of it. Because of the absence of God's
love; the world, the flesh and the devil
are allowed to destroy many souls. When
we believe and receive Calvary's love
where Jesus Christ became the sacrifice
for our sin, defeated the devil and rose
from the dead, His love takes up residence
in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
We become born of God, victors over unbelief,
fear and lust, which are no longer able
to reign in our lives. 7
Instead, the Lord opens our eyes to righteousness,
peace and joy, where we begin to live
by grace the life of the new man. 8
The Lord Opens Our Eyes
I came off San Quentin's
death row in 1972. For two years, I pacified
myself with hobby craft and my prison
job. I had no peace, and felt a void in
my life. Those who knew Christ reached
out to me, telling me of God's love. The
goodness of God led me to repentance.
9 This gift of repentance
is an inward change produced by the convicting
power of the Holy Spirit as the Word of
God is proclaimed. By faith, I received
Christ's sacrifice for my sin. He took
my guilt and judgment upon Himself and
gave me His righteousness as a free gift.
Only then did peace and joy fill my heart,
10
After Jesus healed the
blind man in John, Chapter 9, the blind
man said, "... one thing I know:
I was blind, but now I can see!"
11 The Lord opened
my eyes and gave me an eagerness to be
changed to His way of thinking. As faith
increased in my heart, my gaze turned
solely towards God as my Heavenly Father.
I learned how to experience His unconditional
love by resting in His arms. He gave me
an entirely new prospective on life. I
began to experience His creative power
flowing through my life, giving me new
desires and abilities.
The deep secrets of the
Lord are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
12 Long ago, even
before God made the world, He loved us
and chose us in Christ to be holy and
without fault in His eyes. His unchanging
plan has always been to adopt us into
his own family by bringing us to Himself
through Jesus Christ. 13
The prophet Isaiah prophesied that the
Spirit of the LORD would rest upon Jesus
to bring God's plan to pass. The Spirit
of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit
of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge
and the reverence of the LORD. Righteousness
shall be the belt of His loins. 14
The Apostle John reveals these qualities
as the seven-fold Spirits of God sent
forth into all the earth to empower us
with His love from the beginning of creation
throughout eternity. 15
The Lord desires to open
our eyes to who He is so we will see His
divine-love plan as the only reality for
life. Jesus said that it is best for you
that I go to the Cross, because if I don't,
the Counselor [the Holy Spirit] won't
come. If I do go away, He will come because
I will send Him to you. He will convince
the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness,
and the coming judgment. The world's sin
is unbelief in Me. Righteousness is available
because I go to the Father, and you will
see Me no more. Judgment will come because
the prince of this world [Satan] has already
been judged. 16
Oh, what a powerful expression of love!
How Is Your Love?
We all learn what love
is like by those who we grow up around.
We reflect the love that has been planted
in our hearts. If we grew up around a
lot of hugs and kisses, with much positive
affirmation, most likely we will reflect
the same. We pass to others what has been
passed to us from one generation to another,
through an exchange of love.
We are motivated by love,
to love. If we have not known love, we
are not motivated to love. But regardless
what fervency of love we have experienced
from others, we know that real love is
exemplified by Christ, Who gave up His
life for us. And so we also ought to give
up our lives for our Christian brothers
and sisters. 17
I recently reread A.
W. Tozer's book, The Pursuit of God.
I felt led to memorize this quote from
his book: "The continuous and unhindered
interchange of love and thought between
God and the soul of the redeemed man or
woman is the throbbing heart of New Testament
belief." I've experienced this continuous
interchange of love between God and me,
which has changed my life. I pray that
you will come to know the same.
As we come to know God's
great love, we are motivated to love those
around us with God's love. The Apostle
John says it is by our actions that we
know we are living in the truth, so we
will be confident when we stand before
the Lord. If our conscience is clear,
we can come to God with bold confidence.
And we will receive whatever we request
because we obey him and do the things
that please him. 18
This Is God's Promise
This God kind of love
not only empowers us to be able to love,
but enables us to receive answers to our
prayers. Jesus says, "if you
abide in me, and my words abide in you,
you will ask what you desire, and it shall
be done for you. By this My Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit, so
you will be my disciples." 19
We are His disciples,
and He promises us: "As the Father
loved Me, I also have loved you, abide
in My love. If you keep My commandments,
you will abide. in My love, just as I
have kept My Father's commandments and
abide in His love. These things I have
spoken to you, that my joy may remain
in you, and that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment, that you love
one another as I have loved you. Greater
love has no one than this, than to lay
down one's life for his friends."
20
In His love, Jesus says:
"You did not chose me, but I
chose you and appointed you that you should
go and bear fruit, and that your fruit
should remain, that whatever you ask the
Father in my name He may give you. These
things I command you, that you love one
another." 21
As we do, we will see His miraculous power
working through us -- His love.
A PRAYER FOR YOU:
O God, I have tasted
Your goodness, and it has both satisfied
me and made me thirsty for more. I am
painfully conscious of my need of Your
grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
0 God, I want to know You! Show me Your
glory; I pray that so I may know You indeed.
Begin in mercy, a new work of love within
me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my
love, my fair one, and come away."
Then give me grace to rise and follow
You up from this worldly lowland where
I have wondered so long. In Jesus' name.
Amen. 22
Footnotes:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8) |
Pro.
17:20a
Psa. 8:4-5
Eph. 2:4-9; Gal. 5:6
Eph. 4:17-19
Rom. 5:5
Matt. 5:43-44
John 4:7-19
Rom. 5:17 |
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9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14(
15)
16) |
Rom.
2:4
Rom. 14:17
John 9:25
1 Cor. 2:10
Eph. 1:4-5
Isa. 11:1-5
Rev. 4:5; 5:6
John 16-7-11 |
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17)
18)
19)
20)
21)
22) |
1
John 3:16
1 John 3:19, 21-22
John 15:7-8
John 15:9-13
John 15: 16-17
A.W. Tozer |
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