Love, Reign O'er Me

So we're supposed to boldly Love everyone around us, right? God showed us His love by sending His Son to die, and continues to show His Love through the Spirit, through the countless wonders and blessings He shows us every single day, and - most important to us - through His people. I say it's the most important to us because we are the Body of Christ, the living manifestation of God's Will on this earth. So let's live up to it!

Love that YOU are showing the world, if you bear the name Christian, is the Love of Christ in the world today. When YOU are kind, gracious and patient with the kid at the cash register (no matter how many times you have to say "A number two with Coke, add cheese"), Jesus Christ is being kind, gracious and patient. When YOU go out of your way to help someone in need, the Son of Man is going out of His way to help someone. When YOU take the Love that the Author and Finisher of our faith has shown you and give it to the rest of the world, you have fulfilled not only your purpose, but also the very purpose of Christ Himself. In showing Love, you take on the likeness of Christ, and so show Him to the entire world.

And in that, most beloved reader, you will find a wholly powerful salvation, transformation, and redefinition of your soul, of your heart, of your mind... of everything that makes you who you are.

We are imperfect creatures, born into an imperfect world. In our walk towards God, sometimes we stumble. Sometimes we stumble hard. Sometimes we stumble hard over the same thing, several times. And when that happens enough, sometimes we get to a place where we don't think it's ever possible for us to get past that thing, over that thing, or around that thing without stumbling.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the failures of the past that we begin to think that those failures define us. We start to think that our sins are bigger than we are. We start to think that our sins are who we are.

We start to think that God will forgive a lot... but He won't forgive me. I've just sinned too much.

We start to think that God loves everyone... but surely He's had just about enough out of me. I commit the same sin over and over.

We start to think that even though God created the entirety of existence, stands completely outside of time itself, and is aware of the flight of every sparrow and the blooming of every flower... even though He's God... He can't change me. I'm just too broken for God to use.

I gotta admit... I used to think that way. I used to be trapped in my arrogant, cynical, negative, cruelly sarcastic and downright mean self, convinced that the jerk that I was was the jerk I would always be. I put on the happy face (occasionally) and suppressed my inner butt-head (on a good day) and struggled through acting the part of the nice Christian boy.

But then I found out what it was like to really Love someone. I found that really showing someone Love - even if it isn't returned the way I want it to be - makes me enjoy my life more. I realized - through no wisdom of my own, but rather through the education that came from painful experience - that when I finally made Love an active part of my life, everything worked better. Now, that doesn't mean everything worked out the way I wanted it to, and it doesn't mean that I was (or am) always consistent in showing that Love across the board to everyone I came in contact with. Yeah, I still mess up. Yeah, I still have instances of being a sheer, unmitigated... ummm... I'm having a really hard time coming up with an accurate description here that isn't profanity, but I think you get the idea.

But the thing is - it's not who I am anymore. It's not what defines me. It's not what I have to base my life around - I have been set free. Through the Grace and Love of Jesus Christ, who reconciled me to His Almighty Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, I have been transformed into a new man.

And I'm not the only one.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

- Galatians 2:20 (emphasis added)

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

- Colossians 2:6-12 (emphases added)

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

- II Corinthians 5:14-19 (emphasis added)

Martha said, "Master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you."

Jesus said, "Your brother will be raised up."

Martha replied, "I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time."

"You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?"

"Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world."

- John 11:21-27, The Message (emphasis added)

In my personal reading the other day, I tore through the first 12 chapters of John's Gospel from The Message. John 11 is mostly the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I already knew that story, and knew it well. Or, at least, I knew what happened. I've heard the story from the pulpit, I've read it in the Bible, I've seen it re-enacted on feltboards... Got the gist!

And maybe it was just the way my day had gone, or maybe it was the way my whole life had gone up to that point, but when I started reading chapter 11, I was getting pretty choked up. When I got to verses 25 and 26 (the ones in bold), I was literally wiping away tears and holding back sobs.

The true power of the message of John 11 isn't just that Jesus holds mastery over the physical life and death, it is that He has the power to give you Life right now.

People, I'm not telling you anything I've come to on my own, I'm not making any of this up, and I'm not bringing you any sort of exclusive vision of wisdom.

I'm just telling you the Truth.

The power of the Love of Jesus Christ is not confined merely to the forgiveness of your sins. The Love of Christ frees you from your sins!

They're GONE!

ALL OF THEM!

FOREVER!

He does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is His love for those who fear Him;

as far as the East is from the West,

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

- Psalm 103:10-12

You will again have compassion on us;

you will tread our sins underfoot

and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

- Micah 7:19

I, even I, Am He who blots out

your transgressions, for My own sake,

and remembers your sins no more.

- Isaiah 43:25

For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more.

- Hebrews 8:12, quoting Jeremiah 31:34

So if God isn't holding your sins against you... If God - the one whom you sinned against! - has moved past your sins... If God - the very definition of the righteousness we are aiming for - isn't letting your sin define you... Who in the world are you to argue with that?

I could have stayed focused on my definition of myself as a self-centered jerk. But instead, I let Jesus Christ teach me what life is like when I die to myself and live in Him.

And I'm telling you... if a thick-skulled clod like me can do it... so can you.

You can let go of your past.

You can ignore what the world says makes you who you are, and you can embrace what God says makes you who you are.

You can stop viewing yourself through the lens of your failures, your shortcomings, your sins, your struggles... and you can start seeing yourself in the light of GRACE! In the light of TRUTH! In the light of LOVE!

You can stop living your life as a sinner and start living your life as a saint - BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE!

Jesus doesn't just offer you the gift of eternal life later... He's offering you a HOLY life NOW! He can change you! He wants to change you! He wants to show you how to Love others like He Loves you! He wants to show you how to Love God like He Loves God! He wants to step into your heart and tear down your pride, tear down your fear, tear down your insistence that your sin is beyond His reach, that your life is outside of His care, that your future is not part of His plan.

I wish I could be with you (yes, YOU) right now. I wish I could be there with you as you read this. I wish I could be there, because I figure you're probably going to have one of three reactions.

Reaction #1 - You're going to smile and thank God that you've been redeemed, looking back on your past life before Christ transformed you, and you're going to want to shout it from the mountaintops that God is still working wonders in this world today. And I want to be there because I want to shout with you.

- or -

Reaction #2 - You're going to feel a rush of emotions - guilt, joy, pain, happiness, sadness, excitement - all coming together at once as you start to realize that what I'm telling you is true, that God really has forgiven you, that He is just waiting to show you a completely new life in Him, that even you can escape the gravity of your sins - no matter how terrible and dark you think they are! - to live a better life, and that realization is probably gonna make you cry. I know it made me cry, and I want to be there because I want to cry with you.

- or -

Reaction #3 - You're going to feel a twinge of hope, and you're going to think that maybe - juuuuuuuuuuust maybe - I'm talking to you, and that maybe God really will forgive all of your sins, and that you really can have a life that isn't defined by your past... but then Satan whispers in your ear, and tells you that your sins are too big, too many, too frequent, too deep-rooted into who you are, and you're tempted to give up. And I want to be there because I want to grab you by the shoulders and shake you until your nose bleeds, screaming the whole time, "HEY, DUMMY! JESUS DIED FOR YOU! GOD LOVES YOU!" (I fully realize this might not be the most effective method of evangelism, but seriously - you need to get this. It is important, and there will be a quiz at the end.)

I'm a big fan of #1. I'm an even bigger fan of #2. I do not much care for #3.

For those of you experiencing "Reaction #2" - trust me, it only gets better. God is going to show you something pretty amazing. Just keep your eyes open and firmly fixed on Him.

And for those of you who fall into "Reaction #1" category... I have a huge favor to ask of you. In the comment form below this post, if you would please, leave your story. Tell the world what God has done for you. Share what He has worked in you that others might know that He can still work in them.

I say this because it is true, and it is true only because God changed me: I love you.