Tag: Love

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The Wrath of God

Daily Reading

Nahum 1-3

Daily Thought

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a brutish people who crushed Israel. The city once repented briefly when warned by Jonah of God’s coming wrath, but returned again to evil and worse, “Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder–no end to the prey!” (Nahum 3:1). This time, there would be no prophetical warning, but a pronouncement of doom, and no nation would shed a tear over Nineveh’s demise, rather, “all who hear the news about you clap their hands over you” (Nahum 3:19). Imagine a funeral where everyone is happy you are gone.

Their doom is set–“the Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies” (Nahum 1:2). Such words seem ungodly to our ears, wrath and vengeance and jealousy, possibly because we like our soft-focused, air-brushed pictures of Jesus, or because we think God a watchmaker who merely wound up creation and turned her loose to run her course, but the true God is intimate and personal. His jealousy is not of the kind we favor, enviously desiring the possessions of others, but the jealousy of God is the loving desire to protect the people who belong to him, wrathfully if necessary, for one does not truly love if there is no anger kindled toward an enemy who brings harm. And where is justice if injustice is not avenged, and who better to trust vengeance to than the holy righteous God. 

Toward Nineveh is written, “Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts” (Nahum 3:5). This was welcome news to Judah in the face of her enemy. “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7). This is the God of heaven and earth, who is an intimate father and passionately protective of his people against evil.

Daily Prayer

Lord God, Maker of the heavens and the earth, God outside of time and space, Creator of time and space, Author of life, the beginning and the end, Eternal Father, Savior and Lord, Yahweh, I Am That I Am.

Thank You for loving me.

Amen

Daily Question

When is jealousy and good thing? Have you ever been jealous in a good way?

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The Image of God

Daily Reading

Obadiah 1; Jonah 1-4

Daily Thought

Of Ninevah had been written, “Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder–dead bodies without end–who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms” (Nahum 3:1, 3-4). Ninevah was an evil nation, hated by Israel, and God called the prophet Jonah to “arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). 

Ninevah was 500 miles east. Jonah immediately boarded a ship for Tarshish, two thousand miles west–the opposite direction. Jonah hated evil Ninevah, so he did not want God to be “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah wanted Ninevah to burn so he disobeyed God and set sail to remove God’s mercy as far from Ninevah as possible.

It did not work, of course. God sent a storm to get Jonah tossed from the ship, “so they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging” (Jonah 1:15); and God sent a great fish to swallow him up and deliver him back to Israel, “and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10). 

“Let’s start over,” God said. “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you’” (Jonah 3:1-2). Jonah obeyed this time, “and the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5), and God relented, just as Jonah feared, “when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 3:10-4:1). 

Jonah would prefer a god made in his own image, a god who would hate the same people he hated. But that is not God.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:43-45

It turns out, the way you can tell God has made you in his image is how much you love the same people he loves.

Daily Prayer

Savior God, You are full of mercy and grace. My love for You is displayed as I love people. In fact, You said it will be apparent that I am Your disciple by my love for others. God, help me improve at love. Teach me Your ways. May I be a servant like Your Son.

Thank You for Your salvation. It has changed my heart. If You can show that kind of love for me, can I not love others the same?

Amen

Daily Question

Is it possible to love your enemies? What would that look like?

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The Lady Is a Tramp

Daily Reading

Hosea 1-7

Daily Thought

Hear the exasperation of God in the words of his prophet Hosea:

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away. ~Hosea 6:4

This, however, is not despair, but hope, for Israel is not the subject in this question, but the object, and God is the subject. It is he who will act and answer.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light. ~Hosea 6:5

A prophet need not speak to be heard, and the Lord commanded Hosea to act out the love of God toward an unfaithful Israel; “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). A word is repeated for emphasis, but certain words need no repetition to stand out. God called Israel a whore. Three times. If Israel knows nothing of love, God does and he will show her.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. ~Hosea 6:6

Hosea was commanded to “go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1). The lady is a tramp, yet the story is not about the morning cloud of Israel’s faithlessness, but the sun that shines forth when the mist burns away. God is faithful even while we are faithless. Our sin is less about the whore we become, but the God we betray. Fortunately for us, God’s love does not depend on who we are, but who he is.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Romans 5:8

Daily Prayer

Wonderful God, You are my Creator, but how often I love the world you created rather than You. All the while, You pay attention to me. You humbled Yourself in love for my sake. You sought me and saved me with amazing grace and mercy, and the more I know You, the better I love You.

May I be not only an object of Your love, but a giver, as well. of grace and mercy to others. May I take this good news of Your steadfast love to a world that needs Your salvation.

Amen

Daily Question

In what ways is God’s love for people different than your love for people?

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Loving Good

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 23-24

Daily Thought

Ezekiel writes of sisters, “Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 23:4); Samaria, the capital of Israel, and Jerusalem of Judah. During the reign of Rehoboam, the Hebrew nation split in half, into two sisters. “To your tents, O Israel!” (1Kings 12:16), cried the older sister as she broke with Judah. Oholah means “her tent,” and Israel began worshipping idols and set up her own temple and priesthood. Oholibah means “my tent is in her,” and God’s temple remained in Jerusalem, but she was no more faithful than her big sister.

Confused yet? The names make this difficult to follow, but here is what happened: “Oholah (Israel) played the whore” (Ezekiel 23:5), and the consequences were terrible. “Her sister Oholibah (Judah) saw this (both the whoring and the consequences), and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister” (Ezekiel 23:11). 

It is baffling! Why doesn’t Oholibah learn from the mistakes of her sister and choose to do what is right?

At youth events, speakers often share with teenagers how bad they had been when they were young teenagers, and the consequences of their badness. “If the kids hear what I went through,” they reason, “they won’t make the same mistakes.” The speakers are usually wrong. What teenagers hear is if someone speaking up front at a youth event did bad things then they could do bad things, too. They ignore the consequences. 

Why? It is not that hard to figure out. It is because they like bad. We like bad.

Oholah liked bad, and Oholibah watched the bad things Oholah did and the bad things that happened and went ahead and did bad anyway. Because they wanted to.

God created this world and called it good. We chose to do things our way and it has gone bad ever since. Consequences be damned, we like bad. 

We will love good again when we love God again.

Daily Prayer

My God, I did not love good, but was delighted with my own way, until You came along and showed me a better way. You loved me and brought me back into a relationship with You, and I found what I needed, my great God and Savior.

Thank You for the righteousness of Your Son Jesus Christ, which became my righteousness when I gave my life to Him. By Your grace, through faith, I can live again displaying Your goodness, serving others with the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. May I, at all times, stand for Your Kingdom and Your righteousness.

Amen

Daily Question

Do people do bad things because they love to do bad things? If so, why do we love bad? If not, then why do we do bad things?

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The Sin of Sloth

Daily Reading

2Thessalonians 1-3

Daily Thought

The Seven Deadly Sins listed in Christian tradition are pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, and sloth. Sloth, the sin of laziness, is possibly the least noticed, but the most insidious. Paul warns the church at Thessalonica, “We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies” (2Thessalonians 3:11). When people are not busy doing what they should, they are often busy doing what they shouldn’t, or at least dreaming about it. This sin of doing nothing becomes a breeding ground for all the other sins.

So Paul advises, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2Thessalonians 3:11), a punishment connecting behavior to consequences, always a good idea. “As for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good” (2Thessalonians 3:13). The best antidote to laziness is love, serving others. Love is a verb, an action verb. There is no laziness in love.

Daily Prayer

My God, may I live life fully, actively, passionately serving others in the Name and to the glory of Your Son, Jesus Christ. May love drive me toward people, toward forgiveness and reconciliation when called for, toward charity to those in need, toward encouragement to the discouraged.

May I have no time for gossip, may there be no room for bitterness, may my life be too full to allow for either idolatry or idleness. May I stay single-focused on love, toward you with all my heart and soul and mind and strength, and toward others seeking their best.

Amen

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A Free Gift

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 10-13

Daily Thought

Paul has a paternal relationship with the Corinthians, he is dad and they are his children, and parents provide for their kids, not the other way around, “for children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children” (2Corinthians 12:14). Jack’s mom came downstairs to start breakfast one morning and found a bill from her twelve-year-old son on the kitchen counter: mowing the lawn – $6; drying the dishes – $1; raking leaves – $6; cleaning garage – $7; total owed – $20. She smiled and made his breakfast. That afternoon, Jack came home from school and found next to a plate of cookies, an envelope with a twenty dollar bill inside and a note from his mom: washing clothes – nothing; vacuuming room – nothing; cooking meals – nothing; driving everywhere – nothing; baking cookies – nothing. Love, Mom.

This is the heart of Paul, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2Corinthians 12:15), love with no strings attached. Any price tag attached to love devalues it.

Daily Prayer

I thank You, God, for Your grace, for the righteousness that comes from Your Son, for the power that comes through Your Spirit. You love is worth everything, but the cost of love is borne by the lover, and that is You, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”

Sometimes I get the idea that I have something to offer You, something You need. I should remember, and I shall remember, that everything I am is because of You. Everything I do, may it give You pleasure and bring You glory. And everything You have given me, may I share it freely, because it cost me nothing and You everything.

Amen

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Love

Daily Reading

1Corinthians 12-14

Daily Thought

I started a sermon on 1Corinthians 13 like this, “Dave is patient, Dave is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. Dave is not rude, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. Dave does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Dave always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Dave never fails.” Then I laughed. Too many of the parts didn’t quite fit. The congregation laughed (a little too much, actually). My wife needed to stop laughing.

They knew what I was doing. 1Corinthians 13 is the love chapter. The Apostle Paul has been dealing with the problems in the Corinthian church for twelve chapters, and finally he stops and says, “now I will show you the most excellent way” (1Corinthians 12:31), and he writes about love.

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. ~1Corinthians 13:4-8

Go ahead, put your name in there. The parts where you cringe highlight the places needing work. This is the way we are to love because this is the way God loves us. In fact, put the name Jesus in there and it reads just fine. 

Paul sculpted this passage, choosing his words carefully, saying it just right, because love is the most important thing to get right. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1Corinthians 13:1-3). Love matters before anything else matters.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, I am learning to love. Keep teaching me because You are perfect at love and there has been no greater display of love than the cross. Help me to be patient, to be kind. Keep me from envy and boasting and pride. Correct me when I am rude or self seeking or easily angered. Let me keep no record of wrongs. Change my heart so I do not delight in evil, but always rejoice with the truth. Teach me to protect and trust and hope and persevere. May I strive to be someone who never fails, but when I do, to get up and strive again, to do the next right thing, to always love. 

Amen

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Free to Choose

Daily Reading

1Corinthians 5-8

Daily Thought

Once a Muslim, now a Christian, he was attending the men’s breakfast, and we were inviting him to enjoy the bacon.”You know, as a Christian, you are freed from all those food restrictions and you can eat bacon or ham or whatever you like?”

He understood, “Yes, I know. I know I am free to eat, but I am also free not to eat it. I go home to my family in Egypt once a year, and when I come up to my father’s door, the first question he will ask me is, ‘Have those infidels taught you to eat the filthy hog meat yet?’ If I say to him, ‘Yes, father,’ I will be banished from that home and have no further witness in it. But if I say, as I have always said, ‘No, father, no pork has ever passed my lips,’ then I have admittance to the family circle and I am free to tell them of the joy I have found in Jesus Christ. Therefore I am free to eat, and I am free not to eat. I choose no bacon”

There are some things more important than knowledge. “’Knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” (1Corinthians 8:1). He knows he is free to eat whatever he wants, and what he wants is for his family to know Jesus.

Daily Thought

My God, You saved me. Not because I was good. Not because I was worth saving. You saved me because You loved me. What an amazing love, too, because I did not love You. I was not good, nor was I godly, and yet You went to death for my life. Now, because of Your goodness, I am becoming like You. 

May I love others, as well, sacrificing my wants for their needs. Make my deepest desire be to do what is good for others. May the choices I make help others choose Jesus.

Amen

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Names

Daily Reading

Romans 14-16

Daily Thought

The last chapter of Romans is like the credits at the end of a movie. I don’t sit through the credits. I usually make it to about verse 4, then I start skimming, but Paul names over thirty people by the end of this chapter. My son-in-law, Staphon, works at Pixar. There is a theater at Pixar and he got me in to see a movie before it was released. As the movie wound to what I thought was the end, I started to get up, but Staphon grabbed my arm and sat me down. The important part was just beginning, the credits. The theater was packed with Pixar people and the names of their friends and co-workers were beginning to roll. We sat to the very end.

Lest we think Paul is merely writing a treatise on theology, building this great religion called Christianity, this last chapter grounds us in reality and reminds us what is really important. This is about real people who live in real community with each other and follow a very real Savior, Jesus Christ. I go to church and I know the names of all sixty-six books of the Bible. God would be happier if I knew the name of the person sitting next to me. Paul knows who these people are and what they have done. He knows their role in the church and their service to God. Paul does not see the church as an organized religion, but as a community of people saved by Jesus Christ and in love with one another. Paul knows their names, and so does God. Every last one of them.

Daily Prayer

Father, I love You and worship You. And You love me. You love people. God, help me love better what You love most. 

Change my heart, God, and teach me to love well, to serve all, to follow the example of Your Son and live a life of compassion, to sacrifice my life for the sake of others.

Amen

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The Cup

Daily Reading

Luke 21-22

Daily Thought

It was his last Passover with the disciples. They did not know that, but Jesus did. He knew what was coming, and, during the meal, Jesus gave them (and us) something to remember, the bread and the wine would be his body and his blood. “This is my body, which is given for you. This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:19-20). The disciples would, the following day, watch these words play out on a Roman cross. “But behold,” Jesus warned, “the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table” (Luke 22:21). Jesus already knew about Judas! “And you, Peter,” Jesus said, “the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me” (Luke 22:34). And it happened. The disciples will remember that Jesus knew ahead of time all that would happen, that he was still and always in command, but foreknowledge does not make the cross easier, rather, all-the-more terrifying.

Daddy had the flu. Five-year-old Sara wanted to help, and in she walked carrying a tray. On the tray, Sports Illustrated, some saltine crackers, and a cup of tea. “I didn’t know you could make tea,” smiled Dad. Sara smiled back and nodded her head. “I put the tea leaves in the water like Mom does, and then I strained it into a cup,” explained Sara. “But I couldn’t find a strainer, so I used the flyswatter.” 

Do you drink the tea? 

Taking some disciples with him to the Mount of Olives, Jesus “knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.’” Jesus knew exactly what was in the cup set before him. He did not want to drink the cup. “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:41-42). He drank the cup, the cup of wrath for the sins of the world.

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” ~1John 3:16

Our choice is not to sacrifice, but to love, and sacrifice gladly follows.

Daily Prayer

My Savior Jesus, You came to this earth and drank the cup of death that belonged to me. You took my sin and made it Your own and bore my penalty of death for my sake. You demonstrated a love that I can barely comprehend. You are God, my Creator, and I rejected You–but You never rejected me. In fact, You became like me so You could go to the cross for me. You knew exactly what was coming.

I want to pray what You prayed, not my will, but Yours be done. Make me into someone who is willing to drink the cup of sacrifice, to display my love for You through my love for others, taking last place in order to serve those ahead of me.

Amen