Saturday, June 26th, 2004
“No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”
1 Corinthians 13:3b (The Message)
Rick Warren lays it on the line today: Life is all about relationships. Everything else is secondary. The two big mandates given by God - love God and love others as we love ourselves.
And the challenge for followers of Jesus? Loving his people.
Life without love is really worthless.
This is where the quote above comes in. You can be great at anything, but without love you are nothing. Larry Norman picked that up in his song, Righteous Rocker, way back in the 1970s. Lauryn Hill did in the 1990s.
Love will last forever.
Love leaves a legacy. Rick talks about being at the bedside of people as they die. They don’t call for their diplomas, they call for the ones they love. I’ve seen that too. But I’ve seen people dying who have during their lives have lost the capacity to love and be loved. It is tragic. There is so much truth in the catch cry of Moulin Rouge: The greatest thing is to love and to be loved in return.
We will be evaluated on our love.
This is a challenge. We don’t take our bodies, achievements, doctrine or education beyond death. It all gets left behind. It is our character that marks us as who we are. And that character is almost entirely to do with how we relate to other people. True, true.
The best expression of love is time - focused attention, Rick says. I wonder how that relates to the five languages of love: quality time, gifts, loving touch, affirmation, practical service. Rick tells us that what really counts is what we give of ourselves.
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Monday, June 21st, 2004
“God is the One who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory.”
Hebrews 2:10a (New Century Version)
“See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are!”
1 John 3:1 (New Living Translation)
“God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.”
Ephesians 1:5 (New Living Translation)
A good start - using translations that emphasise the relationship we have as children of God - not just ’sons of God’.
We enter the privilege of being in God’s family through faith in Jesus. That invitation is open to everyone. Its a universal invitation that needs a response.
Rick draws our attention to the benefits of being in God’s family:
The family inheritance: being with God forever, being completely changed to be like Christ, being freed from all pain, death and suffering, being rewarded and reassigned positions of service, and sharing in Christ’s glory.
Rick then goes on to remind us that baptism publicly announces our membership of God’s family. He describes the instant baptisms of the Ethiopian eunuch, the 3000 on the day of Pentecost, and the Philippian jailer and his family. In other words, “don’t put it off”. A bit simplistic I think to say baptism must happen immediately. More of this ‘instant obedience’ thing. Though I think people can procrastinate on the baptism issue. But for generations of people rightly sceptical about the number of once-converted now backslidden or ineffective born-agains, baptism is like marriage - not to be entered into lightly.
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Saturday, June 19th, 2004
“The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.” Isaiah 8:17 (TEV)
Rick Warren writes today, “God is real, no matter how you feel.”
He goes on to make a reference to Phil Yancey’s book, “Reaching for the Invisible God.”
Phil writes:
“Any relationship involves times of closeness and times of distance, and in a relationship with God, no matter how intimate, the pendulum will swing from one side to the other.”
I remember back in the late 1970s when I first got involved in the charismatic movement - there was a strong emphasis on being able to feel the experience of the Holy Spirit. Intimacy was cast in terms of joy and peace and feelings of praise and love. Looking back I think that as wonderful as such experiences are, it is dangerous to base a framework of faith on those. Such experiences, and I’ve had a few of them over time, are great bonuses. But I wouldn’t describe them as the measures of my spirituality. I appreciate the reassurances from St John of the Cross and Henri Nouwen and other contemplatives - feeling distant from God is par for the course at times.
I don’t think the feeling of being distant from God is God testing us. It’s more about the way we’re wired psychologically.
Rick’s advice for people feeling distant from God is grounded in the experience of Job’s suffering:
Tell God exactly how you feel. Focus on who God is - his unchanging nature. Trust God to keep his promises. Remember what God has already done for you.
I think also that yesterday’s advice applies here. Sometimes we are left numb by a spirituality culture that just doesn’t cut it. If you’re inspired by works of art and nature and need to respond visually, more sermons about being saved from going to hell may lead to a sense of inner dryness. If you’re an introvert, attending large scale worship services are likely to leave you emotionally stranded.
Another angle is spiritual burnout. Pleasure loses its power when it becomes a matter of routine or obligation. “You must” is one of the biggest turn offs I’ve ever seen in the church.
I appreciate C.S. Lewis writing about God being hidden in “A Grief Observed“.
A Grief Observed, at Amazon.com
Terry Falla writes it as:
Why, in terms of grief and distress,
when there is no light in the window,
do we find a door slammed in our face,
and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside?”
Terry Falla goes on to write:
“Know this, God, know this: if faith were dependent on feelings, if our trust in you were no more than a matter of the mind, we would be done with you, done with you forever.
And hear this God, hear this: if it were not for that man who was friend of the poor and the damned, for that man who healed the sick and gave sight to the blind…
If it were not for that man whom we cursed and crucified, and who is crucified still, for that man bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and who carries them still…
God, God eternal, God of Jesus, God who said yes to life, his love, his suffering, his death, God of the cross, crucified God, sharing our pain, bearing our sin…
If it were not, O God, for you, for you our lover, you our judge, you our hope, you our friend…
We would be lost.”
Be Our Freedom, Lord, Open Book Publishers, Adelaide, 1994 (Published in USA by Concordia Publishing House)
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