Great cost

P 3481 Our greatest treasure.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about love – Our Father’s love, and ours. First of all, we are not qualified to decide what love looks like. Almighty God already did that … with the Ten commandments and the subsequent birth of Christ Himself, His example, plus some truly awesome scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3!

However, living in, and for His Love, does not always mean we will end up feeling fantastic. Living a life of love sometimes means we will have to back down when we don’t want to, and shut up when we want to defend ourselves. Aren’t you glad I said that?… Me neither! … God’s Love is not like that feeling of floating-around well-being that we get when we think about someone special to us. It is a decision made and carried out using our faith. In other words, even if the other person drives us nuts, the bible tells us in Romans 13:8, that we owe them love. That’s the response, there is no other.

God’s Way of love requires us to live aware of the fruit of self-control, despite our circumstances. Plus we are told to give away grace, mercy and kindness. Let’s remember that self-control won’t just fall on us! It has to be worked in us as we learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit. Living in God’s kind of love is costly, and I strongly suspect that is why some of us do not want to do it! Let’s look at someone who loved Jesus beautifully and well – this is described in Luke 7: 37&38. Just pause please and notice who is loving Him commendably.

“A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” 

It would be a huge mistake to simply read the above scriptures as a lovely story about one woman’s attitude to Christ. Because it is in the book, then it is in there to show US something about ourselves. The first thing I can ‘see’ is that this woman took the lowest place in the room. Nobody needed to explain to her that she had been living her life badly …she already knew that … but she did something extraordinary about it. Instead of hiding from the Lord’s pure gaze, she overcame her fear of exposure and sought to minister to Him, out of her love for Him. She had no other motivation in her dear little head other than blessing Jesus!

We need to look closely at any people we know who have a heart like hers, because we can learn so much from them. People like this woman do not think much about themselves, their aim is to bless and minister love and honour to others. They are just grateful to be included! Unfortunately, like the other guests at this party, we can easily be distracted by this woman’s sin, and forget about our own. If you or I were in that room where would WE be? Sitting at the table talking to Jesus? Asking questions? Discussing this scripture or that? Or crawling along the floor trying not to be seen at all, because you want to wash Jesus’ dirt-laden feet and honour Him?

Let’s move down to verse 37, where Jesus says: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Um! That’s one heck of a sentence! Jesus is using this woman as an illustration of what great love looks like. It is so easy to quote: “Love is patient and kind etc.” or “Clothe yourselves in love.” The theory is easy – however, practicing this kind of humility and Grace, shows up all the dents and dings in our character. Those things we hope nobody else knows. This woman had nothing to lose, nobody respected her anyway – but she did stand to lose big time if Jesus reviled or rejected her.  And that thought would probably keep many of us from crawling along the floor to wash and kiss His feet.

Instead we prefer to say: “I’m this and that – the bible says so. I don’t have to crawl along the floor, Jesus died for me and I’m a new person” …Sigh.  Sadly, for a new person, we can still have a very old, unpleasant attitude! Great love is expressed at great cost. For people with a fear of rejection, it is almost a death threat. Loving others when they hurt you, could leave you battered and beaten down by their treatment of you. But Jesus sees this kind of love and He kindly and gently elevated this woman’s heart attitude by what He said. He recognised her actions, because her actions spoke louder than any words. It brought her forgiveness and a brand new start.

I’ve heard many sermons on how much the perfume she used cost, how precious it was to her, etc. etc. But I prefer to see how much the Lord Himself valued what she did as she humbled herself before Him, and the surrounding company. It’s time we began to realistically contemplate our own hearts – instead of excusing stuff. This woman clearly gives us hope that sinful or not – we will be received! When we humble ourselves, we will not get rejection, but Love Himself will see us in our clumsy efforts to bless Him.

His love for us and through us is now our greatest treasure. Jesus is the prize, all we will ever need. In the Presence of His glory, none of us qualify to stand with Him. Whatever we have, has been given to us, gratitude is our only response. Bye. 👋

P 3433 Entitlement.  

/ DVH

Entitlement. Now there’s a buzz word in today’s world. A  lot has been said about the younger generations who are responding to this life differently than we did. Many older people think these young people live entitled lives. Here is my idea of balance:  they are facing a different world to the one we grew up in. I can’t afford to assess their responses by my own experiences or standards, they don’t apply. 

I didn’t have an Xbox, or TV the size of a wall, or Co-Vid, bird flu, or trolls on social media facing me. It was quite safe for me to leave my house after dark, and I could leave my front door open and people would still knock. Life whizzes by, and many many things are changing at an incredible rate — the impact of those changes cannot be judged by yesterday’s standards — and yet they can affect the way we view this world and the people in it, today.

Actually, they shouldn’t be judged at all, that’s not our role – it’s HIS. But let’s move past that obvious fact, onto today’s  point. Entitlement isn’t just a problem for our youth. People my age have unrealistic expectations too. The thing is we simply cannot afford to look at this life through our own eyes. We need a filter – the bible is that ever-present active filter. I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is for Christians to know the bible. This book needs to be written inside us. We are simply fooling ourselves if we are not coming from the Lord’s perspective.

It is much too easy to become selective about what parts of His book, we choose to read, or even believe. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5&7 there is a prophetic prediction, that seems to be becoming more and more accurate in our world today:  “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people … … always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 

It is important to realise when we read verses like these, we must not excuse ourselves, by explaining away our own behaviour. Instead we need to ask ourselves: ‘Am I always learning but I haven’t arrived at practising my knowledge of the truth? Am I satisfied with theories, not spiritual life-skills?’ Unfortunately that one attitude can be quite easy to hold onto. So can an entitled attitude: “Jesus wants to make my life happy.” He will, but not necessarily in the way we imagined!

“But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” 2 Corinthians 10:12b. Jesus is always the only standard, not us. He will judge this world, not us. We aren’t qualified to do it. Only the One Who paid the ultimate price on our behalf can judge mankind. The sad truth is we are often way too busy excusing ourselves, to be in a fit state to judge anything. The way to read verses like these, is line by line, asking the Holy Spirit to show us where we have missed His mark. Dismissing or overlooking stuff arbitrarily, is a huge mistake.  

So let’s take a really quick look at Timothy.: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.”  Sadly, it is not too hard to put a tick on that one, I just need to look around me at the way people treat each other. “Lovers of themselves” … every time I choose me, my ideas, my feelings above His or yours, I am not choosing to do things His way. “Lovers of money …” There is this crazy theory that if you don’t have money this doesn’t affect you. Rhubarb. It’s when you don’t have it that you desperately chase after it. The people who love money don’t have to be rich! On we go: “…boastful, proud, abusive …”  

… Let’s look at Matthew 5:22: “You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.” FYI, Jesus said that. The bible will assist us to read itself, let’s just be open to its correction. He makes these things impossible without the Holy Spirit’s help… that’s the point!

I haven’t got room to talk about all 6 verses, but I would like to end on this note and highlight one more verse. Verse 5: “…having a form of godliness but denying its power…” That’s self-explanatory and it dismisses the whole: “I can’t live like that. I’m too hurt, sad, mad, bad, indifferent to do it.” We can’t afford to excuse ourselves from obedience. Like I said, these may not be not our favourite verses… but they are necessary, for godliness, life and healing. The power of God has been given to us, at great cost — it is here to help us with our inner thoughts and attitudes.

What Paul says to Timothy brings us quickly back down to earth again. We stop judging and feeling entitled – pity wells up inside us, and suddenly we find that we have compassion for other people who aren’t perfect either. Our sense of entitlement, that me first, last, and always attitude—bites the dust and what comes out is: “Please forgive me Lord.” Bye.🙏.