Something to Ponder

I love deeply
I do..I really do.
Those closest to me know me well. It takes very little to break this heart of mine. I always pray to keep a tender heart, even though I know there is a great cost to having one.
While as tenderhearted as I am, I am also called to raise a cry for truth.  The two often are at odds…the tender heart vs the need center us back to truth.
It does not mean I love any less……

The love of Christ is engulfed with truth. He never separates love and truth..there is perfect unity in that He is truth and He is love…always and forever. Never loving less and never having less truth. There is no bend in His love…nor in His truth.

There is the truth of sin and the pain it causes
And the judgement it brings down from a Holy God.
Not because He loves less…but because He loves purely and we are called to be holy as He is holy. For He is a righteous judge.  He also desires what’s best for us..when we do not even realize what that is.

He already proved His love for us when He sent His son to pay for our sins. Does He love less because He requires obedience? No He doesn’t. He loves fully…and perfectly. No one else died for you and I…and took our place on a cross…no one else endured a scouraging that tore His flesh with you and I in mind. This is love.

Should He now allow sin so we may “feel” more loved? Perhaps He sees what you and I do not. Maybe what we call love isn’t really love at all…according to Christ. I see much counterfeit love now raising it’s head in our nation. “Love” that embraces all things, tolerates all things, remains silent about all things, and now much is allowed in the name of this “love.” I often have said over the years that I tend to see two extremes in various churches….ones who has no authentic love of Jesus and then others who are “loving” folks straight to Hell…. both are equally as wrong and equally as devastating to mankind. You see… our kind of love winks at sin, enables addictions rather than tough love, rescues our children from jail because we can’t bear the thought of them in there, or allow abuses to continue as if Christ would nod His head at any type of injustice..but somehow we have called this “love.” ….when what God sees is that in that cell they will finally hear His voice and He will heal their hearts for good…and perhaps they are safer there….or maybe that when abuse is confronted there is an opportunity for one’s heart to turn to truth while also rescuing the abused. You see its a perfect love that works in all things….in absolute truth. Love confronts sin….that we might be free. He doesn’t spare us pain from sin…He uses it to bring us to Himself. He doesn’t cause the pain…we do…and admittedly I’ve had my fair share of misdirected blame to my sweet Father…

His kind of love allowed Joseph to be sold to slavery, falsely accused, and imprisoned….so he would draw near to his God and reach his 2nd in rank promise land..then save many people from a famine. Christ’s kind of love allows an orphan girl to get pulled into a King’s harem to raise her up to one day save her entire people group…when our kind of love would spare ourselves walking before the King afraid we might perish. …His kind of love allows God to become flesh..then to be rejected, despised, mocked, beaten, abused, betrayed, and denied rightful comforts in order to offer eternal life to mankind. This is our example of love. In life we too will experience these things as we stand for truth and righteousness. I can safely say that if we are moving with the crowds today…we likely are heading in the wrong direction.  Few are now choosing the path to righteousness. Many have chosen now the broad road.

In our earthly minds love is rather shallow and full of ourselves…our kind of love refuses to confront sin…we simply embrace it…our kind of love rarely has eternity in mind..only the temporal. Its a weakness of us as humans…it’s hard for us to think past today..or tomorrow..or how things will affect us in any given moment.  We long to avoid conflict, we desire fellowship with others, and we hope to be embraced and loved….but often when you choose truth and the love Christ speaks of….we may not gain these temporal pleasures on a grand scale.  Yet we must hold fast.

Here.. sin has few consequences it seems at times and should we choose to avoid all we can we are deemed critical or judgemental…and assumed to love less.

Yet people are getting caught in subtle nets set by Satan which drag them from eternal hope in Christ. We never know when the moment will occur that steers one into error…in which Satan joyfully uses us, the Saints, as His own vessel some moments. We pass the first alcoholic drink to an unsuspecting alcoholic bent heart and suddenly one is catapulted into a lifetime of addiction. Whom shall God inquire of on that great day? The unsuspecting alcoholic…or perhaps the Saint who helped him to it? Something to ponder….isn’t it? I could give many other examples not to only pick out one..but you do understand I pray. When we approve of things, give a nod of agreement, or simply remain silent at a surging wind….our influence carries weight.  We were called to guard the hearts of others. To keep them safe as possible.  This is the love of Christ. The Shepherd who protects the sheep shows us true love. This is the kind of love that transforms lives into their God given destinies. Lovingly steering people from that which could cause them harm is the love of Christ. Never warning them of such consequences isn’t love at all.

Some of those over the generations who have preached the hardest truths have loved far more than those who have compromised it. There is a matter of restraint in pure love. Loving fully is hard at times and moves us away from anything that might lend deception to our own hearts or the hearts of others. Should we spend a day in the life of one of these we would find lives given over to the love of Jesus…meeting needs of the poor and lowly…yet still proclaiming truth. Certainly…they do go hand in hand.

Be careful friends that we do not misunderstand hearts steering us towards holiness…for we need them in this hour. There is coming a day when Christ will call us to account. Did we live by His word…and did we lead others in truth..or perhaps our flesh was unwilling to be crucified and left wanting…thus we led many astray…maybe not in the big things…but perhaps in the little things.

March 23, 2017