Christian Living
Love is what it’s all about, right?
The world sings the cadence, “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won’t you say you love me too.”
Now that you have the tune in your head, I want you to think about something for a moment. Go to your browser and type in Love and see what you find. Everyone is concerned about love and everyone is searching for love. You can find, Love support groups, Love Fest, Love Connections, Love Coaches there is even a Loveaholics support groups! Love the whales, Love the trees, Love mother earth, and Love everybody!
It is interesting to me that love is quite a topic! Ask almost anyone and they can tell you about their first love or their lost love! Many are searching for love, and finding it in the wrong places. Even in our churches we talk about love. The love of God, the Love for our brothers and sisters, the Love of His Word, but do we really mean it? Do we really know what love is?
Do you recall the moment you realized that God loves you? Do you remember the excitement that you felt? Can you remember the fire that burned deep within you? You felt there wasn’t anything you and God couldn’t do! You talked about him to everyone! You had a dance in your step! You sang! You whistled! You studied His Word!
So what happened?
Revelation 2: 4 nevertheless I have something against thee because thou has left thy first love.
The church has ‘left’ their first love. Notice the scripture says left, not fallen out of love, but rather ‘left.’ We make the choice to walk away from our first love. We live in a society where love can be lost in the blink of an eye; where a divorce is as easy to get as a marriage license. Everyone knows that if you get married and you’re not happy, you can simply get a divorce. Our intentions may be good when we start, but when the passion fades, often the original love is cast off like worn shoes. Sad fact is, divorce rate is very high in the church today.
The brass tack is this! We teach our children the Barney song, and we promote love in our words, but our actions, as Christians are not in line with what we are saying! I am going to be very bold as to say, if you do not love those around you, then you don’t love God!
Wait! Before you get upset, it is scriptural.
I John 4:20 if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
I John 3:15 whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
There’s no need in skirting the issue, we’ve done that for too long, and look at the condition we are in. Hebrews 4:12 the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The commandment has been given! We are to love! We are to forgive! We are to restore! We are not supposed to hold grudges and point guilty self-righteous fingers! We teach our children to LOVE and to forgive-and-forget, but we harbor bitter feelings over words spoken in anger, or violations, or abuses or you name it. Offenses brought against us, create seeds of unforgiveness which grows into hatred and that my friend is not LOVE!
The thing that saddens me is this. I understand why the world hates. They have a reason! They don’t know God! What hurts me is that the church is filled with so much bitterness and hatred. Think I am joking? There is more contention within our four walls than you will find in the government! There is more fighting and bitterness between the board members, the pastors and the congregation, it’s even a wonder we still call it church. Then step out to the congregation; many are sitting on the pew and have not forgiven the person that hurt their feelings twenty years ago, yet they are worshipping as if everything is okay!
I have been guilty of performing acts of worship with unforgiveness in my heart. Sad thing is, the enemy had convinced me that there was nothing wrong. He had made me to believe that I had a reason to be angry and unforgiving. They abused me! They no longer were worthy of my love or forgiveness. But, when I began to focus on the cross (what a concept for a Christian) and the work that was done there, the Holy Spirit began to reveal the innermost parts of my heart. It was ugly, but the Blood was powerful!
Forgiving was a process for me! I am thankful that God is merciful and that once I realized I was corrupted with sin of unforgiveness, He helped me push through to healing and deliverance! He helped me to realize that he didn’t harbor a grudge against me when I walked away from Him, but when I came crawling back, he was there with forgiveness freely given! All I had to do was ask!
You see, we point our fingers at the addict and the prostitute. We look down our noses at the homosexual or the fornicator, but if God were to reveal the innermost parts of your heart, what would He find? Sin is sin, and due to the many self-help topics available today, we have grown complacent with forgiveness! We have grown to accept unforgiveness as a way of life.
It is time that we go back to the Word and the work that was done on the cross! Jesus gave His life on the cross so that we might be saved! So that we might be healed! So that we might be delivered! We don’t have to take it to Dr. Phil, we can take it to the foot of the Cross and His Blood that was shed, still flows like a mighty river today! For me and for you!
Isaiah 53:5 but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
So often when we hear about healing, we think only about a physical ailment, but it goes beyond broken legs and cancer, God longs to heal us from the spirit of unforgiveness. He longs to deliver us from the bondage of past hurts and abuses that have created this evil spirit. He longs to deliver us out of sin.
Isaiah 53:6 all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all. The scripture says ‘all’ yet we tend to think our oppressors are guiltier than we are. When in fact we are just as guilty if we hold something against someone. Romans 14:10 but why doest thou judge thy brother? Or why doest thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Is there someone in your life that at the very mention of their name you get all worked up? You feel anger swell up within you? You pray for vengeance? I challenge you to humble yourself at the foot of the cross, and as the Holy spirit to reveal that which is in the inner most part of your heart, and once revealed (cause the precious Holy Spirit will reveal it) ask the Lord to help you push through it! Cover it in the blood and seek God for forgiveness of your unforgiveness! The Lord promises to heal, but according to scripture we must humble ourselves (II Chronicles 7:14).
Cause love really is what it’s all about, isn’t it? God loved you enough to deliver you from the bondage of sin. Although you may profess to know Him, and claim deliverance from addiction or adultery, if you are harboring unforgiveness, there is work that still needs to be done.
How can we expect the lost to be attracted to our unloving nature? How can we expect the world to be drawn to our spiteful personality? How can we expect our co-workers to want to go to church with us on Sunday, if we talk bad about the preacher and the saints? We have all been hurt, and we will have occasions arise until the day Jesus returns, but we must heed the warning and recognize that Love is the key! When we can love the person that abused us, or hurt our feelings, then we can love the addict that might walk in the door of our church.
So as the world sings the anthem, I love you and you love me; as Christians lets find out what that really means, as we visit the cross!
John 14:15 if ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 15:9 as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 13:35 by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Romans 14:10-14 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
© August 6, 2005 Jounda LaMance
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