True Love

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

I love that hymn. What beautiful words.

We sang that song this morning in church, and it really reminded me of God's love for us.

Turning our eyes upon him, looking fully into His WONDERFUL face, I seriously can't wait for that day!

What an amazing day that'll be. 

God is so wonderful. Even as Christians, we underestimate that thought. We think lightly of His death and resurrection. We don't stop to think about WHY he did that, or for WHAT reason. He loved us so much that he sent his one and only Son to DIE for us. 

wait.......................ME?

ME?

He wanted to die for me?

Think about this. 

He loved us SOOOOO much that he actually gave his life for us. 

But then the question arises,

"Would I be willing to die for someone I love? Someone dear to my heart?"

"Oh yeah. Totally", comes the reply. 

hm.....

You know, I've realized recently. No one really ever knows the importance and significance of something until they're put in that position. Forced to make that decision right then and there.

...And that's when the devil wants to whisper in our ear, "Hah! You'll never make it through! You're not strong enough. You could actually be doing something in your life. and you waste it on a little friend? Someone you think you love?"

Guys.

Lately, I've realized the true importance of friendship. I've been thinking, "What if my life was put in a position where I had to decide right then and there, if I had to decide if I should either give my life for that friend who I loved most or to let him or her die and I continue on with 'normal life'?"

ASK YOURSELF THAT QUESTION. RIGHT NOW. RIGHT HERE.

Now, put your life in Jesus' shoes for a couple seconds. Just a couple. Think about what He went through in order to give us life. ETERNAL LIFE.

So, guys?

Let's think about what's ahead of us. If Jesus was so loving as to give us eternal life by dying on the Cross to save us from eternal damnation, how much more should we be stewards with the time he has given us? How much more should we start loving others? Challenge yourself to live that. Like a true Christian.

LET'S BE WILLING TO BE LIKE JESUS. 

Life as a Grape

Real Christians have been described in many different ways over the years.... they're disciples, they're image bearers of God, they're courageous, they're loving, they're filled with joy, and they're faithful.

They're also grapes.

Around two weeks ago, I (Hannah) was browsing around Ellerslie's website when I found a message called "Life as a Grape". I thought the title sounded entertaining, so I checked it out during my quiet time that day. A large part of this devotional is based on the ideas brought up in that message. After listening to that sermon, I started taking a real interest in grapes. My dad and I have figured out lots of different ways to eat grapes over the years. Our most recent rendition is putting grapes in the freezer for a few hours, and eating them during football games. I never realized how sweet grapes were!

Me and my dad weren't the first ones to figure that out. For years, the "pressing of grapes" was a huge ceremony that was always full of rejoicing. People would literally stomp and dance around in the grapes to squash them, and pour out their sweet juice. Grapes were tended lovingly in their vineyards, but ultimately, it was for a purpose:

Grapes Are Tended to be Poured Out

Think about a grape for a minute. What really makes a grape sweet?  I don't know if you've ever tried a grape skin by itself  (I've only done it once), but they're pretty disgusting. The life that makes the grape what it is, is its juice.

People don't plant vineyards so that the grapes can live a happy life on a vine, and then grow lifeless and shriveled up in a few weeks. Grapes are designed for more. Grapes are grown so that the life inside them can be poured out.

Christians are exactly the same. God didn't set us on this earth so that we could live a happy comfortable life for a few decades, and then die. Think of how unsatisfying that would be!  All humans seem to come to a point in their lives where they realize that there must be some purpose to their existence, or else it's all meaningless. We were made to be poured out, for His glory.

Two Cups (Two Comings, in Revelation)

When God created mankind, He gave us minds of our own; we're accountable for our own decisions. Ultimately, we have two choices on this earth: glorify God, or glorify self. There's no middle ground. Either Jesus has control of our lives, or He doesn't.

When it comes to the grape metaphor, there are two cups referenced in scripture: the cup of Life, and the cup of Wrath. The cup of Life holds a massive amount of significance in the New Testament. On Sundays, we drink out of this cup during Communion.

Matthew 26:27-28

New International Version (NIV)

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (emphasis added)

The cup of Life is the cup of the new covenant of Jesus Christ. He gave His life up on a cross to give us that cup. THAT is the cup into which we, as Christians, are designed to pour ourselves. We were created for the sole purpose of glorifying God. 

The cup of Wrath, on the other hand, is filled when we put ourselves above God. Those who thirst for righteousness will receive the cup of Life, but Jeremiah makes it clear that those who thirst for unrighteousness will get exactly that:

Jeremiah 25:15

New International Version (NIV)

The Cup of God’s Wrath

¹⁵ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it...¹⁷ So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it...²⁸ But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: You must drink it!

The Bible doesn't sugar-coat the dangers of a self-centered life. Throughout the gospels, we can see through Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees that those who live only for themselves have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven. I always think it's interesting that it's the Pharisees - the church leaders of the day - that Jesus references here. Even followers of God can fill the cup of Wrath. The phrase "thirsting for unrighteousness" isn't normally used in our modern-day vocabulary, but think about it.......how often does that describe us?  How often do we WANT to sin?  How often do we long to make ourselves the center of our lives?  I'll be the first to confess - I struggle with that all the time.

As C.S. Lewis once said, there are going to be two types of people on judgement day: those who, while they were on earth, sincerely prayed "Thy will be done," and those to whom God will say, "Thy will be done."

It's definitely easier to fill the cup of Wrath. All we have to do is follow our own nature of sin, and await the results. The call to fill the cup of Life is much more difficult. Look back at Matthew 26... "This is my blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin." The cup of life is filled with blood. Jesus Christ, the ultimate grape, had to pour out everything He had to fill that cup. But He was willing to, for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Are we?

The Winepress 

Grapes can release their juice through plenty of different ways, but, really, it's when the grapes are crushed that the sweetness inside truly comes out. That's when our biggest opportunity to fill the cup of life shows itself. 

When the people of this world are crushed, bitterness and anger are all usually the emotions displayed. But when God's Grapes are crushed, spectators see something entirely different flowing forth: love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. And JOY. 

Christian grapes have endured torturous crushing over the years:

      Stephen was stoned.
      Philip was crucified.
      Paul was beaten, imprisoned and beheaded
      Matthew was slain with the sword
      James was stoned and clubbed
      Matthias was stoned and beheaded
      Mark was dragged to pieces
      Jude was crucified
      Bartholemew was severely beaten and crucified
      Thomas was thrust through with a spear
      Luke was hung
      Simon was crucified
      John was thrown into boiling oil, and exiled to Patmos
      Peter was crucified upside down

The reactions?

"I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds." (Paul, 2 Corinthians 7:4b)

"In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.." (Peter, 1 Peter 1:6-8)


 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Jesus, Matthew 5:11-12)


"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Paul, Philippians 4:4)
 

These are some really, really tough ideas to implement into life. But guys?  Have you ever noticed that grapes ALWAYS grow in clusters?  You are not alone, as you seek to pour yourself out for Jesus. Feel free to comment, drop me a Hangout or email me, I'd love to pray for you.




#inspiredbyEricLudy'smessageLifeAsAGrape

Weekly Devotional- Love (Part 2)

"Love is an excellent thing and a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy. It bears a burden without being weighted, and renders sweet all that is bitter. Love knows no limits, feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, because it believes that it may and can do all things; for this reason it is able to do all, performing much where he who does not love fails and falls." ~The Imitation of Christ

Last week, I wrote a devotional on the love between God and men. However, as you might have noticed if you went outside recently, there's somebody besides God to direct our love towards: other people. There are several different types of love that can exist between two people (if you haven't read it already, C.S. Lewis's book The Four Loves goes into a lot of wonderful detail on this), but for the purposes of this post, I'm going to be talking about agape love. Unlike other types of love, we are called to have this kind of love for everybody. It is self-sacrificial and is a mirror of the love between men and God. The love we have for other people should be modeled after the love God has for us. "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (1 John 3:16)

So what does this kind of love look like?

First of all, like God's love for us, our love for others must be steadfast. "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." (Psalm 103:8) Love endures through difficulty and hardship. It does not fall away or diminish when it encounters obstacles. "A friend loves at all times." (Proverbs 17:17a) In addition, our love must be steadfast even when it is not reciprocated. God calls us to love others regardless of whether they love us or not.

Second, love is merciful and forgiving. Forgiveness can be difficult. Bess Streeter Aldrich (she's a Nebraska author whose books I really enjoy) said in her book Miss Bishop that "love is not blind, it merely sees that which another cannot."  To forgive people, we often must ask God for His eyes, to see that person as He does, to see what we otherwise would not. God loves that person, as must we. However, this does not necessarily mean feeling pleasant towards them or treating them the exact same way as you would someone else. In certain cases, if there has been wrong between two people, it is not possible to go back to relating to each other in the same way they did before. However, we are always called to desire the best--ultimately, salvation--for each and every person, whether or not they have harmed us.

Finally, and most importantly, since everything else springs from this, true love is self-sacrificial. Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) Now, this rarely means that we must physically die in order to show love for our friends. But as St. Paul says in Romans 12:1, we are called to be "living sacrifices." We don't have to physically die in order to sacrifice, but we must "crucify the flesh with its passions and desires." (Galatians 5:24) That is, we must give up our own desires in order to serve others. "Love does not insist on its own way. it is not irritable or resentful." (1 Corinthians 13:5, emphasis mine)

This love shows itself in small ways. Mother Teresa said, "Smile at each other...it doesn't matter who it is... and that will help you grow up in greater love for each other." It pleases God when we do little things, everyday tasks, with great love. Smiling at your family, cleaning the house without complaint, doing schoolwork in a timely manner, making use of the gift of time He has given us, refraining from unkind words, getting a little brother a drink of water--even the most insignificant duties can be glorified with love.

It will not always be easy. No, sometimes we will not feel like loving people. But true love is not based on emotion. Emotions arise unbidden and depart when they please, and a love based on emotion is inconstant. Love is a giving of oneself, no matter what. One trap Satan sometimes uses here is the bogey of legalism. Some Christians fall into thinking that if they don't "feel" love when doing something, but do it anyways, that is just "fulfilling duty" or "legalism." My friends, this is not legalism, this is spiritual discipline. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters that Satan's cause "is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do [God's] will, looks round upon a universe from which ever trace of Him seems to have vanishes, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys." We must sacrifice and obey even when it is difficult, even when we do not feel like it. However, even if the path of love and obedience seems hard, how much more full of pain and suffering is the road of indifference or hate!

Love is the center of the Christian life. I have not even begun, with my small wisdom and weak words, to touch upon it. This is a Bible study blog--if you have something to add, by all means post in the comment section and build up your fellow sisters in Christ.

Weekly Devotional- Love (Part 1)

"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing...So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:2b, 13)

I have been offered the privilege of writing on this virtue which the apostle places above all others. I believe that there are two dimensions to love: there is the love between God and man, and the love men have for each other. The two are interconnected and somewhat inseparable, but this week I'd like to talk about love between God and man.

Throughout the Bible, we see on a grand scale the love God has for His creation. After all, God didn't need to create us in the first place, and yet He did, purely out of love. Repeatedly throughout the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to His people and demonstrated His willingness to form covenants with them and be their God, all out of love. His people were often, to put it plainly, jerks. But God was patient and steadfast, and did not forsake them. Sometimes they returned to worship Him with their whole hearts, and He welcomed them with open arms. More often, however, they fell away into ignorance and sin. After a while, I would have gotten extremely fed up. I probably would have said something like, "Well, you want to go your own way, do you? I've offered to help you time and time again and you don't listen. Fine. Have it your way. I've given you seventy times seven too many chances, and it won't happen again."

What did God do?

He became a man. He took on the nature of one of those creatures that repeatedly forgot Him, ignored Him, and offended Him.

Why?

So that He could adopt us and make us a part of His family through His covenant. In 1 John 3:1, it says, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." We are not just called His children...we are His children. Not in name only, but truly His children. When we look at the love God has shown to human kind throughout history, we cannot but be a little awed. "We know and believe the love God has for us." (1 John 4:16a, emphasis mine)

This is the love God has for us. But what about the love we're supposed to have for God? What does that look like? Fortunately, we don't have to answer that question for ourselves: God gave us the answer. (Sacred Scripture is amazing that way.) "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Now, most of us have probably heard this verse before. But what does it really mean? We truly are called to love God with our whole heart. To ever consider anything more important than God and His will is idolatry. That's an ugly word, because most of us (myself included) have at some time or another put something before God, and we don't want that called idolatry. But that's what it is. If speech and debate, or the desire to excel in school, or earning money, or spending time with friends, or being attractive to that one amazing guy, are more important to us than God, that's idolatry. None of those things are necessarily bad or evil; in fact, to lesser or greater extents, they can actually be good, but only if they do not become more important to us than God or cause us to do things that are displeasing to Him.

We've all heard that God is a jealous God. But suddenly, the other day, it struck me what that means. We know what jealousy is. It's not fun to think that the aforementioned amazing guy actually barely notices you and would rather hang out with that one thin, talented, gorgeous girl than with you. It can make a person feel very insecure and second-rate.

But when we don't give our whole hearts to God, aren't we doing the same thing? Aren't we treating God like He's second-rate? We don't like it when people treat us that way, but so many times, without realizing it, we treat God that way. God cannot be simply part of our lives; God must be our lives. The Christian life calls for nothing less than total abandonment of self to the Will of God.

I challenge you all this week to take a look at your lives. Are you living totally for God, or is there an area of your life that is captive to your own desires and plans? If there is, surrender it to God, and pray for the wisdom to know how to live the life God has blessed you with in total submission to Him. Later on down the road, you may need to do it again. Submission to the Will of God is an ongoing process. Sometimes it may seem as if nothing is getting better. But "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:58)

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013

MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013

WHEN TRIALS STEEP SWEETNESS

My Mom has always been the picture of feminine grace and elegance. I always thought she looked more like a heroine that stepped out of a Jane Austen novel than a 21st-century woman. She carries herself with the dignity of a proper English dame and has a deep fondness for tea, just as you’d imagine every stately lady should! 

 

I share many of dear Mom’s passions, but our feelings towards tea are not mutual; I simply do not like this hot beverage so many fawn over. Since I’ve been married, I have not kept tea in the house (except my Raspberry Leaf Pregnancy Tea; which was hard to stomach) so when my Mom came over for a visit recently, she brought some of her favorite tea in a little Ziploc baggie all the way from South Africa.

 

One of the things I don’t like about tea is the smell that immediately overpowers all others the moment you pour boiling water on it. A little teabag releases its contents and fragrance in the midst of intense heat. Constant whiffs of that signature tea smell at eleven, four, and right before bedtime (my Mom’s “tea times”) every day, have caused me to consider the precious principle hidden in those tea leaves. 

 

Just as you can immediately tell what the contents of the teabag are when the heat of the water touches it, you can immediately tell what is inside of a person when they are placed under the heat of difficult or trying situations. What comes out of us when the boiling water of life’s trials, difficulties, and challenges fall on our souls? It is easy to showcase peace and patience when things are going our way and we feel like we are walking on sunshine. But the call for us as Christians, is to emit and diffuse the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Christ, not only when it’s easy, but especially in the moments of pain and difficulty! We ought to be so filled with His Spirit inside, that He is the scent that spills out of us when the heat is turned up!

 

Spurgeon–not surprisingly–says it well: “Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.” What a mighty testimony Christianity is when it stands strong, remains calm, endures patiently, and radiates joy in the very flames of difficulty! Meditating on this made me rethink the way I respond to not only the bigger trials in my life, but also the every day challenges we all face. Am I spreading the sweet smell of Christ in and around my home, husband, and my little baby girl, even when I feel tired after a long day of tending to the domestic affairs of the family?

 

Let us remember the words of James (1:2) “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;” and may the Christ-life within us become all the more visible and fragrant in the midst of every trial.