LIVING ON THE EDGE

Over the past five weeks I have been unpacking what the bible has to say about LOVE and how it is LIFES GREATEST AIM. This has been one of those series of talks that God has used in my life to cause some huge changes. The study has helped me realize that I have loved but only to certain level and have not always loved the unlovely.

We all have VDP’s in our lives, Very draining people. They suck the very life out of you and when the day is over, we are drained completely. We all have them but the question is how do we show love to those VDP?

1 Cor. 13:5 gives us some help here. It says, “Love is not rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and love keeps no record of when it has been wronged.” Dang. I hate that verse. This verse along, with a few selected passages God led me to, have been kicking my butt.

God has spoken to me this week about some past relationships that I needed to make right and this has not been easy for me to do (I’m a little prideful in case you haven’t figured that out) but it has been very liberating. When I seek forgiveness it sets me free. Free from bitterness. Free from resentment and hurt. This week has been that for me, a week of being set free and growing and maturing in Christ. I LOVE IT!!!!

Let me encourage you, if you are holding a grudge and you are full of bitterness you are only hurting yourself. That person you are bitter against most likely has no idea and they are living life. And when you see them happy it makes you mad. You are miserable and making others around you miserable.
Here’s what Jesus has to say about that and I pray you will be set free this week like I have been.

Mark 11:25 (Amp) “Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop, leave it, and let it go, in order that your Father who is in heaven may also forgive you your own failings and shortcomings and let them drop.”

LET IT GO.

Most of us I believe, realize that love is important and vital to our relationships and we want it to be our LIFE’S GREATEST AIM but we forget that so many times. We get distracted. We get side tracked by other things in life that seem to be just as important but if we are ever going to be great lovers, to really love God and love people, then we must learn and keep in mind that love is LIFE’S GREATEST AIM and THE BEST USE OF MY LIFE.

Why would I say that? Why is love the best use of my life?

Because it is true that Love proves that I am really part of God’s family. It proves that I am who I say I am. Love is what validates my faith in Christ and makes me legit.

My son, who lives in Denver and is working for the largest hotel in the state, was interviewed by the secret service a few weeks ago because the president was coming to town and to that hotel and they needed to know that my son was who he said he was. So they did a background check on him to validate his identity. I have not heard from him sense. (Just kidding) Once they had identified who he was and that he was clean, they were satisfied and allowed him to remain in close proximity of the president. (He never got to give the prez a piece of his mind but he was close)

The same is true for those of us who call ourselves Christ Followers or “Christians”. The bible tells us that to validate our identity, God looks at our lifestyle. “Do we truly love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? And do we love our neighbor as ourselves?” Matt. 22:36-39 (LB)

In 1 John 4:8 it says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

God wants us to become like him not just take us to heaven. He wants us to love the way he loves because God is love. He is our example of what real love looks like and acts like. He proved it by laying His life down for us all. He loved me even in my worst condition. In while I was yet a sinner Christ died for me. The bible says that greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.

In 1 John 4:20 it says, “If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.”

So we can’t say we love God and then hate those who hurt us or gossip about us or lie to our face or cheat on us. We can’t say we love God then treat our spouses like dirt and call them a “slug” or the “ol’ ball and chain” or ignore our kids and call them “rug rats” or just use them as a tax deduction. We can’t say we love God then never darken the door of any church just because we “don’t like those people” and then call them a bunch of hypocrites. That doesn’t compute with God. Love is what proves and validates our faith. Love validates our identity. It proves I am HIS kid.

Who do I say that I am? Who do you say that you are? Do we call ourselves Christians? Or Christ Followers? If we do then we need to stop right now and do a quick background check to see if our faith has been validated. To prove we are who we say we are. “No matter what I say or what I believe or what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” 1 Cor. 13:3 (MSG)

LOVE IS THE BEST USE OF MY LIFE!

This blog site has been silent for a long time now because I have wanted it to be a source of encouragement and insight and not just a guy rambling on about stuff. There are too many of those sites out there so today I am trusting God to give me words for you to live by and that will encourage you and speak life into you so you can live life to it’s fullest. Something Jesus promised us when He came to this planet. (John 10:10)

Let me ask you a question. How would you complete this sentence? My number one goal in life is… What’s most important to you? What word or phrase would you use to complete this question?

Is it to be happy or to be a success in your career? Do you want to just have fun? Do you want to be comfortable in life? Is your number one goal just to retire or get married and raise a family? Is it to go on vacation this summer? How would you answer this question?

If you have never thought about it, you need to and you need to understand it because how you answer this question will determine your dominant life principle. We all have a one whether we know it or not.

Every time we need to make a decision, a choice, we access that database and decide what we will do based on our DLP. That thing that is most important to us.

For example if your DLP is to have fun in life and you get two different invitations that day, you tend to choose to do the one that will be the most fun for you because having fun is the most important thing to you.

It is very important we think this question through so we can understand what is our most important value and understand why we do what we do. What’s most important to you?

God has a lot to say about this subject and gives us His thoughts on the issue.

In 1 Corinthians 14:1a Living Bible translation, it says “Let love be your greatest aim.” Or let love be your most important value. Not your status, not success, not stuff, not power, not money. No. Our number one DLP should be LOVE.

When Jesus was asked what He thought the most important commandment was he said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind and all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. There are no commands more important than these.” (Mark 12:30-31) Jesus was very clear on what He deemed was most important in life.

Over the next several weeks I will be posting my thoughts about this subject and who knows, we may even discover that God loves us with an extravagant, unconditional love that we can experience daily.

What our families need, our churches need, our communities need, what America needs and what our world needs is not more sermons about love or more love songs or more “love doctors”. No. We need people who genuinely know and understand that… LOVE IS LIFE’S GREATEST AIM.