The Church

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THE SOURCE OF LOVE

On Sunday we celebrated Valentine’s Day, the holiday of love.  The word love stimulates a flurry of images, but what is love?  When I first encountered love, I was willing to put aside all other things and become single focused.  Love was about receiving.  Now I know that love is giving as well as receiving.  I have learned that love is caring for and giving to someone else.  Love inspired me to step beyond self-concern and focus on the needs of another.  Love is about relationship.  Yet I wonder how love got into my heart.  Where did it come from?

This whole topic has been stirred by reading 1 John chapter 4, and I think it provides answers for the above questions.  The apostle John first tells us that Love comes from God (verse 7).  In verses 8 and 16 he states that God is love.  I conclude that the reason I have love in my heart is that God put it there.  In verse 19 John says, “We love because he first loved us.”  When I love someone, it is because God loves me.  I am, though imperfectly, a reflection of his love.

The Apostle Paul clarifies for us what love is in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, “Love is patient, Love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  Since God is love, these verses highlight his character.  God loves us with these attributes.

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)  God made the eternal declaration of his love for us via the cross.  The Bible tells us of his love, but on the cross he demonstrated his love.  The great source of love has given his love to us in an irrefutable act.  God loved us in this sacrificial way in order to restore our relationship with him.  His command to us, love one another.  May his great act of love grow and flourish in our hearts.

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UNDEFEATABLE POWER II

The other morning, during our morning coffee, my wife read to me from the book of Acts chapter 12.  As she read the story of the disciples James and Peter in the hands of King Herod, I was reminded of God’s undefeatable power.  James the brother of John was arrested and then executed by Herod.  When Herod saw that the Jews were pleased by this he arrested Peter.  The story of what happened to these two disciples is another display of God’s ability to bring about his plan.

The death of James meant that his work was done.  God called him home.  Herod thought he had shown his great power by executing him, but when he tried the same with Peter, whom God was not ready to bring home, he experienced a different result.  Peter was arrested and placed in jail under the guard of four men.  Two of these men were chained to Peter and the other two stood guard.  Herod was not going to lose this prisoner.  The night before Peter’s trial an angel came into his cell and woke him.  As Peter awoke the chains fell off him, and the angel led him out of the prison.  God had intervened. 

God has a plan that cannot be thwarted by man.  We don’t see clearly what God has planned, but if we get in the way, God will take action.  Herod could not stop God’s church.  This little group of disciples had no worldly power, but they were in the will of God, and he has undefeatable power. 

In our limited understanding, we often judge God by asking why did he let this or that happen.  We don’t know, but he does.  Since we don’t have the big picture, we just have to trust him who does.  In my little tiny part of his plan, I trust him to direct me and keep me on track.  I know that all the power is in his hands.