Onions?

Whenever I work in the kitchen, at least one of my two cats figures there must be something good just out of reach. Last night as I cut up onions, Chiara (the cat above) wandered around my feet, crying. Often the only way to quiet her is to let her smell what I'm cutting up.

It reminded me of myself. And all of us. How many times do we cry out to God telling Him what we need, demanding the meat we know He's hiding just out of reach? Why can't I have that promotion? Why can't I get out of this marriage and into a happy one? Why can't this circumstance change to what I've imagined? Is God being stingy or is He cutting onions?

When I do have something good for my cat, I find it humorous that she feels the need to cry till I give it to her. How would she ever know the good available, if I had not given it to her in the past?

We also only know of good gifts because of what God has given to us before. Why then do we cry out in unbelief, I wonder, so sure that this time He'll be mean? All we know of good has come from God.

God tells us to pray and keep on praying. But, at the back of our prayers is the belief that even if it isn't the "food" we crave, it may be something new and altogether better.

The next time we ask for what we think would be best, I hope you and I both can remember, it may be just onions. With onions come tears. So, let's trust and wait for the good God is preparing.

When You Say You Love Me

I have a confession. I hate Valentine's Day. I don't remember a time in my life where I actually liked the "holiday." Maybe it's because it has the commercial shallowness of a chick-flick.

Regardless of why, it is actually more coincidental and not because of the holiday that I have been pondering on love . . . or the lack thereof.

I'm not sure what started it, except recognition of how easy it is to fall into routine, to make other things priority, which in turn sap my strength or distract me from wholeheartedly seeking God. It isn't really bad things. The activities are neither good nor bad, excepting how my heart responds. So I've begun praying again that the Source of love would give me love to love Him.

It's pathetic, actually. Can you imagine a spouse or child coming and asking you to help them to love you? Ouch! Yet God knows our lack and longs for our honesty. How freeing it is to live without needing to hide from the All-Seeing-Eye, because He also is Love.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)

So what does it mean to abide in love? Is love a romantic feeling or a loyal friendship?

The Bible shows us that love is an action, but not just any action is love.We think of helping the poor or being willing to die for someone or something as love. But Scripture says that all this can be done without love.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^b but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)

What then is love? 

Most of you could quote it:

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. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

We can emphatically make two conclusions from this passage.

1. Hollywood knows nothing of love, either on or off set.
2. Humans cannot love like this, but God commands this kind of love from us.

Furthermore, if we love God, we will love others with this kind of love.

And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.  (1 John 4:21)

Do you think if love came naturally to us, it would be necessary for God to command it from us? And, if it doesn't come naturally, then how can we feel we can "fall out of love" or even "into love"?

Love is an alien attribute to human kind. We crave it. We demand others give it to us, but we have no source within ourselves to conjure up an unselfish love. Whatever emotion, obsession, or lust that we label love always comes with a price-tag.

What's the point? As with everything, we cannot afford to disconnect from God. We need to have love. We are designed to give love, but it is only from the Source that we can get love.

If today you feel love towards someone, it's great to feel that, is it not? But it won't last.

"Ironically," in my church bulletin today was an article from Gary Chapman (author of The Five Languages of Love). In it, he shares about a man who came to him saying he no longer loves his wife.

Since this husband couldn't manufacture warm, romantic feelings, he concluded that his marriage was over. . . True love, the kind of love that keeps a couple together for a lifetime, is not a feeling but an attitude. It says, With the help of God, I'm going to do everything I can to enhance the life of my spouse. . . . .

Remember that warm, romantic feelings are the result of love, not the essence of love. . . . The good news is that whatever God commands, He enables us to do.

That is good news and applies to all our relationships, even our relationship to God—do all you do for His glory whether you feel good or not. It also is a love I long to give to my friends and family—one that loves without requiring an equal return. May God make it so in all of us!

Do I Know You?

Have you ever been introduced to someone through other people's descriptions long before you met the person?  If so, were you disappointed or pleasantly surprised?

On the other hand, have you ever known someone all your life only to find a mystery in their person that you'd never guessed?

Both of these levels of acquaintance are applicable to our introduction to the Christ or Messiah.

You've Heard the Whisperings
Dr. Richard Liverance explains that the promise of a Messiah is the most ancient hope of humanity.

A misconception among many today is that Christianity began two thousand years ago. In reality, it began at the fall of mankind when God promised a "Seed" that would strike the head of the devil (Genesis 3:15). From that time forward, thousands of generations retold the expectation to their children and their children's children: There will some day be a Hero born who will save us.

When God chose Abram (later renamed Abraham), He further narrowed the promise (Genesis 12 and 15). The Seed would come through Abraham and would bless the whole world.

When in faith Abraham brought Isaac to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him to Yahweh, we see a foreshadowing of the Heir to come.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:7b-8)

Narrowing still further, Jacob announces that the Seed will be a King and be born from Judah's descendants (Genesis 49:8-12).

Why is this important? It's a telescopic lens focusing our attention on someone to come. Every birth in Judah's line could have been accompanied by a drum role. Is this the one?

But it's made clearer still. We're told where He'll be born.

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity." (Micah 5:2)

Then Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 go further to elaborate on the illustration we glimpsed on Mt. Moriah. This King would suffer and die for our sins.

Surely He took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered Him stricken by God,

smitten by Him, and afflicted.

But He was pierced for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,

and by His wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on Him

the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6).

But You've Known This All Your Life!

In a sense, you're reading an assignment I was given this morning at church.

How many of you, who have sat here for years listening to the exposition of Scripture, could show through the Old Testament who Jesus was?

It is astounding. I've barely touched on the detailed predictions of the "Jewish" Scriptures concerning the Messiah. It is some of these passages that Jesus used to explained the prophecies concerning Himself to the two on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32). It is from these that Paul also argued the truth of Jesus as Messiah (Acts 17:2).

To most of us, this assignment isn't a hard task (although it is a necessary one to be able to voice what we know to be true). Yet I believe we often, like the disciples, have become so familiar with aspects of who Jesus is—with truths that we have memorized, with good habits of learning that we have formed—that we fail to grasp the fear of Him.

The transfiguration was one of the early moments that Jesus used to give three of His followers a glimpse of who He really was (Matthew 17). Peter, whose astonishment left his tongue loose, rattled something nonsensical till God the Father's voice boomed from heaven. The three fell on their faces before Him. All cliche's crumbled from their lips. Instead of giving Him answers, they seek the answers from Him.

We all need that revelation from God to scare us out of complacency; to understand, as my pastor pointed out this morning, that He did not come to bring peace to the earth, but to bring man peace with God (Matthew 10:34-39). 

The peace He puts in our heart becomes the power to obey. Those who reject this peace fight against those who have it and against the One who gives it. Our concern should not be with being agreeable, but with lovingly sharing the Truth. Some will hear and gladly receive it. Others will hate us for it. 

The claims of this Christ are such that every man ought to be busy fighting Him, or fighting for Him.
~G. Campbell Morgan 

If you have ten minutes to watch, I love the last part of this opening to The Passion of the Christ where Satan taunts Jesus. Suddenly Jesus stands and crushes the serpent's head—a beautiful visual illustration of a spiritual fulfillment.