Tag: Love

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God’s Smile

Daily Reading

Psalm 80-85

Daily Thought

God made the nation of Israel out of a promise to Abraham, raising her and caring for her, delivering her from Egypt and planting her in a land of her own. “I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves” (Leviticus 26:12-13). Israel was the family of God, and in all families, there are rules, “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments…” (Leviticus 26:14). Israel had broken a lot of rules, important rules like, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), and now they were in trouble.

“No throwing a ball in the house,” was one of our rules. My son threw a ball. It broke a vase, so he hid the pieces, but he was 5 years old and 5-year olds do not hide well. “Go to your room,” I growled, holding the pieces in my hand.

I waited. Five minutes feels like five hours when you are five. Opening his door, I walked in with my mad face. He was sitting on the top bunk, frightened, but not of being punished. His damp eyes met mine with one question: “Are we still okay, Dad? You and me?” We were and I smiled and then he wasn’t scared anymore. He knew he was still in trouble, but trouble is okay as long as he knows Dad and Son are still okay.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved! ~Psalm 80:3, 7, 19

Daily Prayer

My God, though I turn away and do my own thing, and break rules, and wander off the path, Your grace is still before me. When I turn back to You and see Your love and say, “I’m sorry and I’ll stop,” You forgive me. Even when I do it again. And again.

God, I don’t want to take You for granted, and I’m sorry when I do. I do what I don’t want to do a lot, but less often as I grow in my trust and faith in Your goodness. I’m amazed that You still smile down on me, and forever I thank and praise You. You are my refuge, my strength, and my salvation.

Amen

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Upside-Down

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 14-16

Daily Thought

Deuteronomy 15:4 says, “But there will be no poor among you.” Seven verses later, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land” (verse 11). Which is it?

It’s the latter. Verse 11 is an admission of reality. Jesus repeats it years later, “For the poor you always have with you” (John 12:8), and it is still reality today. Verse 4 is conditional. It is not true, but it would be true if the second half of the sentence was true. I left off the second half: “if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.”

God would turn our world upside-down (which means the right side would be up) if we would obey him, but we don’t. We don’t even understand what he is asking of us, because we don’t understand the heart of God. For example, the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal” (Deuteronomy 5:19). We think stealing happens when someone who does not have sees someone who has and takes it from him. God says stealing is more than that. Stealing happens when someone who has sees someone who does not have and does not share with him. Read that again. 

“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8)

Does God have rules? You bet he does, and he expects us to keep them. If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15). But following God is not about following rules. It is about love, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And it is about life, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  If we truly desire what life has to offer, if we truly desire to love others, if we truly desire that there will be no poor among us, there is a way. Desire God and do what God says.

Daily Prayer

Lord God, You have come to bring Your justice into the land, to give Your grace to the repentant, to bless the meek and the poor, to comfort those who mourn, to bring righteousness and goodness to those who seek Your face. May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done.

Father, I pray that my heart would be free of darkness, full of light. That I would see others, love others, and serve others the way You do. God, that I would look at others as more important than myself, that I would be sensitive to needs, that I would have open hands, and feet ready to go wherever You lead. That people would praise Your name because of the faithfulness of Your followers.

Amen

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The Act of Love

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 5-7

Daily Thought

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). If we love because we are commanded to love, is it truly love? Isn’t love “a many-splendored thing,” a rapturous mystery that springs from my heart, over which I have little if any control?  

Not according to God’s Word, and not according to life either. Attraction springs up and disappears at its own whim, but not love. True love begins with a decision, I choose to love you. I choose to love you no matter how I feel or how you make me feel. I love you the way I have learned to love, the way God has loved me. No matter what, even at my worst, God sacrificed his best for me–”God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God wills his best toward me, and I in turn will my best toward others. I love them as I love myself.

More than feeling and beyond choice, love is action, and often an act of sacrifice. “God so loved … that he gave” (John 3:16). Count the emotions in 1Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” I count one, maybe–irritable could be an emotion, and even that is what love is not, not what it is.

What love is is displayed by God toward me in his Son, Jesus Christ; and by me, in turn, toward God, presenting all of me, my heart, my soul, my might, to him. When I love God in this way, I will love those he loves, as well–my neighbors.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, I am amazed at Your love. Your Son sacrificed for my sake. Your Son considering me and everyone else on this planet above Himself. He released His hold on Your presence, and emptied Himself of glory, and died. Shamefully died for my shame.

Thank You. You saved me, showed me what love looks like, and gave me the capacity to love others. If You had not first loved me, I would not even know what love looks like, because I was consumed with me first. But now, I too am learning to consider others before and above me. To love them as I love myself. What an amazing love.

Amen

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Sodom and Springer

Daily Reading

Genesis 19-21

Daily Thought

Genesis 19–what a chapter! The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are a carnival of perversity, but their time is up. The depraved men of Sodom clamor for sex with two men/angels staying in Lot’s home. Lot offers to them his daughters instead. Are you kidding me! Their sin has eclipsed the threshold of God’s patience. God’s mercy is drained as he destroys the cities, yet God’s grace endures and Lot and his family are rescued before the downpour of fire and brimstone. Still, as the cities smolder in the distance, Lot’s unrepentant daughters get their dad drunk and take turns sleeping with him. Both end up pregnant.

It’s “The Jerry Springer Show,” the original trash TV. Jerry was asked if it was difficult to find his outlandish guests. “Are you kidding?” he laughed. “They are in every neighborhood in America. Yours too.” He’s right, of course. Millions of people watched Jerry’s show. If you watch the show, you are like the show. Look at our entertainment, our websites, our video games, our politics, or look at the daily news headlines. Nothing stays in Vegas. Lot’s wife looked back with a longing desire. She loved the lifestyle, and we do, too. What’s wrong with the world? In the words of G.K. Chesterton, “I am.” We all are.

And still God’s grace endures. Jesus took our sins, like those of Sodom and Springer, and mine, and made them his own. He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He took what I deserve. That’s mercy. Then he gives me his righteousness. That’s grace. He became like me so that I can become like him. That’s love.   

Daily Prayer

My Lord and Savior God, Your love is overwhelming. You love me and I am not worthy of it. You love me anyway. Thank you for that, and thank you, as well, for hating sin. I need to hate sin more. What it does to me, what it has done to Your creation. I look forward to Your coming Kingdom, when sin is removed, when holiness is the way of the world, when Jesus reigns. Turn my longings toward You, my desires toward Your ways.

Amen