Thoughts of a Ragamuffin: Part 3—Love and , Beloved, Lovingd

This summer Carol and I were privileged to attend a Sabbath Retreat at Genessee Home in Northern California. The retreat is designed for ministry couples to draw closer together and closer to God. For me it’s a great environment. I do a lot of reading and a lot of praying and a lot of meaningful talking to Carol.

I brought about 4 books I wanted to read and was looking forward to diving into them and hearing from God. One of my pathways to encounter with God is through the written works of His saints.

 Charlie and Bev Bloom are our host couple and they maintain and extensive library and Carol found the book “An Arrow Pointing To Heaven” about the life of Rich Mullins, one of my favorite song writers. A umber of Rich’s songs have touched me deeply, so I put aside the books that I had brought and started reading this surprise.

Sometime near the end of the week I was convinced that I needed to use this book to launch a series of sermons; which brings us here today for part three of Thoughts of a Ragamuffin.

So far we’ve considered our earthly family, our spiritual family and today we are going to focus on the Love of God.

I want you to leave here today assured that you are loved by God.  I want you to know that God personally loves you and what that means to be loved by God.

The scriptures tell us that God is love.

1 John 4:8 (NIV)

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

A few months back I was speaking to our teens on the topic, “If God Loves Me Why Can’t I Get My Locker Open.”

I think we all struggle under the assumption that if someone loves us they do everything they can to make us happy. But as I have told you before, God isn’t concerned about your happiness,  but rather is interested in your holiness, knowing that ultimately it is holiness that brings eternal happiness.

There are the cultured despisers of your faith that say if God is love then why evil, why natural disasters,  why disease,  why suffering, pain and hardship?.

They accuse, saying if God is love, why doesn’t He intervene. Once again its that thought that the ultimate purpose of the person           who loves you is to do what can be done to make you happy.

                   God purpose now seems to make things right. to make things right.

As I have told you before, “we cannot count on God to protect us from suffering of any kind or measure.  The worse evil can happen to the best Christian.  But we can count on God to enable us to draw near to Him whatever happens and, eventually”…in relationship with Him find that joy and happiness we long for.

(Larry Crab, The Pressure is Off, p. 195)

It seems God did something very reckless when He created humanity, He gave us a free will to respond to Him or refuse to do so.  It’s the refusal to do so that opened Pandora’s Box—and I am not talking about the android app, more like in the Greek tragedy that unleashed all the evil    upon the world.

Love requires reciprocation, a person cannot demand that another love him or her, that devotion has to be freely given, and ultimately risk not being returned.

Love, the real thing, may require that you are tested and tried, that you are pushed to your limits, that you have to deal with great difficulties in order to bring the best out of you.

 To be the best an athlete has to stress his or her muscles, that causes pain, but the pain in the price for bring out the best in you.

 Maybe those difficult times are really another sign of God’s love for you.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (MSG)

These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.

Would you mind if I took some time this morning just reviewing some things about love that you already now? I find that I need my memory refreshed from time to time.

Let’s start with the basics:

          God loves you.

First you can know that God loves you because God made you.

“The love of God … is the reason you were made. God loved you into existence.” (Smith, An Arrow Pointing to Heaven, p. 53)

 Scripture reveals the humanity is created in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26 (NIV)

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness

If God is love and we are created in the image of God, love must somehow be vitally important to being human.  We are created in love, designed to participate in love,  to love and be loved,  to be the Beloved and to be loving.  We are most human when we love.

Love is who we have been designed to be. In love we find our being, our identity, our life.

 I’m not real comfortable with trying to define love and then apply that definition to God.  Love is and we fill in the blank. That limits the concept of love and of God to our own ideas. I do think that we can conceive of love as a diamond, and know that our conversation is limited to just a facet or two of the whole,  reminding ourselves that there are many more  facets to consider. There just might be a infinite number of facets. It just might be impossible to exhaust the topic.

We know that God is love and that God created you in love. Being in love is the environment in which we thrive. But the result of Adam’s disobedience was estrangement from God. Humanity was cut off from love.  The heritage from Adam is that “we are dying to be loved. We crave  it, we search for it, and if we never find it, we die spiritually.

(James Bryan Smith, An Arrow Pointing to Heaven, p. 49)

  “The failure to find this love comprises results in our deepest pain and drives us (often subconsciously) into activities that we think will help us find it.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 53).

Cut off from God, like that country western song, we go looking for love in all the wrong places. It creates a world of hurt.

 God is love. God creates Humanity is created in love. And love allows rejection. But cut off from love we all hurt.

 Second you can know that God loves you because God was not content with this separation from the Creation He loves God puts a plan in motion to reconcile every estranged soul to Himself. A plan to reconnect with you.  and I.  A plan to reestablish youus in love.

John 3:16-17 (MSG)

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

Words that say I love you are wonderful and comforting,  the actions of I love you are even better, they cement the message into our hearts.  

I don’t think we can begin to comprehend the magnitude of what it means for the Father to send the Son. It boggles my mind.

 Christians believe in a Triune God.  From all eternity to all eternity God exists in an indivisible communion.  God doesn’t incarnate in a part of himself, the Son. God incarnates,  Jesus prays to the One He calls the Father,  talks about sending the One He calls Holy Spirit, scripture reveals that Jesus is the One called the Son.  So however God worked this incarnation out we can assume it came at a           greater price than we can comprehend. Jesus is a costly gift.

Why is the Son sent? The Son is sent, the living Word of God’s love, The Son is love revealed, The Son is love in action. The Son is sent so that humanity can have whole and lasting life. So that you can live a life of loveyour life to the full. for which you were designed.

Colossians 1:15 (MSG)

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created.

I think that when we look at Jesus we also see what God intended for humanity to be like.  Jesus defines love in action for us, obedience to the Father, seeking to meet the needs of others,  being a good steward of all that has been entrusted  to you,  and doing all that you can to fulfill God’s purposes for your life

Jesus taught Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.    John 15:13 (NIV)

We know that it was by love that the Father sent the Son and we know it was love that motivated Jesus to lay down His life.

That love in action.this has been done is a reason why you can know that God loves you.

God is love. God creates Humanity in love. And love allows rejection. Cut off from love we all hurt.  God personally intervenes to reestablish you in love.

Third you can know that God loves you because of God is promise to make you part of His family.

 This should all be familiar territory to you if you have been in the church for any length of time.

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

          You’ve heard that parents didn’t have a choice with their biological children, but adoptive parents choose you. Think about this—out of all the people in the world, God loves you enough to choose you to be part of His family. God adopts you. (Romans 8:15) God makes you an heir to the family fortune. (Galatians 4:7)

Jesus tells us:

John 15:16 (NIV)

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last.

You know that God is love and that God loves you because:

One: God creates you in love. Two: God makes it possible to reestablish you in love. Three: God choose you to be a recipient of His love.

God is love, but in my In my oown spiritual journey I’ve run into two hindering problems with  accepting that God really loves me..

The first hindrance is understanding God’s love intellectually but not emotionally. I know God loves me, but does God love meI don’t feel God loves me? Head to heart is roughly 10-18 inches,  that little gap is the difference between knowing and feeling that you are     loved by God.can make all the difference in the world. This gap, this separation between head and heart can be   bridged.

What I believe caused this gap for me in the first place was a feeling of inferiority. Perception creates our reality.  I thought I didn’t fit, that there was something wrong with me. I felt I wasn’t smart enough, Athletic enough, Talented enough, Or cool enough. How could anyone really love me?   How could God love me, He made me this way.    Negative perception can block you from feeling that God    does in deed love you

Fortunately God has a way of cutting through our perception and  confronting us with reality. Last week we learned that we are the Church,  We are part of a living spiritual being called the body of Christ. The tool God used to change my perception was and still is the   Church.

“Human love is a reflection of a greater love.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 56) That’s just one reason Church is not optional.  That third habit of a disciple is fellowship.“The love of God is incarnated, becomes manifest, in the love we experience in one another. It is God’s love with skin on it.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 56)

Rich Mullins said:

“I am a Christian because I have seen the love of God lived out in the lives of people who know Him. The Word has become flesh and I have encountered God in the people who    have manifested His presence, a presence that is more than convincing, it is a presence that is compelling. I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of  Christianity to me, but because there were people who were willing to be nuts and bolts.” (Mullins, Smith, Arrow, p. 56)

I can relate to that.

When you are encouraging, kind, when you care, when you show up, when you hold me accountable, I know its because God is using you to prove that He loves me. Your acts of love are God’s acts of love, your touches of love are His.

When I practice that 3rd habit of a disciple, fellowship, I create opportunities to be with you, and its in those encounters in which I am loved by God. Its in those encounters that God changes my perception, and closes that head/ heart gap. “Human love is a reflection of a greater love.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 56)

 It’s through the love of the Church that I feel that God loves me, it’s through the love of the Church that God’s words become flesh to me. Maybe you should practice the habit of fellowship too.

God is love,

          In my own spiritual journey I’ve run into two hindering problems with accepting that God really loves me. The first hindrance for me was a sense of inferiority. The only way I know for that gap to be bridged is through encounter with God,

Continuing encounters are necessary. Someone can tell you that they love you but they convince you through what they do. If I could only impress upon you how important it is to daily practice the seven habit of a disciple. When you read your bible, when you pray, when you create fellowship times, when you use your gifts to serve, when you obey and when you have those heart to heart talks we call contemplation you invite encounter with God.   In those encounters you see God intervening, you see God providing, you experience His love. Its those encounters that add action to the words and you become convinced that God loves you. One of the things that has helped me the most in believing that God loves me is letting other people love me. When you are encouraging, kind, when you show up, I know its because God is using you to prove that He loves me through you.

          “The love of God is incarnated, becomes manifest, in the love we experience in one another. It is God’s love with skin on it.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 56)

“I am a Christian because I have seen the love of God lived out in the lives of people who know Him. The Word has become flesh and I have encountered God in the people who have manifested His presence, a presence that is more than convincing, it is a presence that is compelling. I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there werepeople who were willing to be nuts and bolts.” (Mullins, Smith, Arrow, p. 56)

 “Human love is a reflection of a greater love.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 56)

 The second hindering problem I have encountered is believing that I need to be perfect in order to be loved. We are so used to conditional love. Conditional love “is an emotion based on something valuable in the beloved.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 57) It’s love based on worthiness. When I’m good God loves me, when I mess up, God withholds His love. When we you believe that love is conditional, that we you must be worthy of love, that we you must earn love,  it creates a huge pressure upon you  to perform. To be perfect in order to be loved. That pressure exhausts you. It wears you down, it eats your joy.

 Since you can’t be perfect, you think that God doesn’t love you when you fail. Out of a sense of shame you try harder, you try keeping all the rules in order to win God’s love.

Your behavior, the choices you make are important, they matter. But behavior has no affect on God loving you. God’s love is unconditional. The love that we often speak of , the one we are most familiar with , is an emotion based on something valuable in the beloved.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 57)  “The idea of being loved regardless of our behavior, the notion of being accepted despite our weaknesses,  and the concept of being valued in exactly the same measure day in  and day out are unfamiliar.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 57)

The love of God is not something that is contingent on what we do. It is consistent….many Christians are desperately trying to earn a love they already possess and are fearful of forfeiting a love they can never lose.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 58)

“There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you can do to make God love you less.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 50)

That means you don’t have to be perfect, what you have to be is a person after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22) Obedience is your demonstration of how much you return God’s love. Your obedience determines blessings and rewards, but God’s  love for you doesn’t change. You don’t have to perform to be loved.

Don’t misunderstand me.

          You’re actions matter.

                   You’re either loyal and faithful and can be trusted or you’re working  on it.

                                       God sees your heart (Proverbs 17:3)

          Love will try to correct your foolish ways. But even love can’t save a person from the consequences of their  choices. The day of the Lord’s wrath is a day of grief for God.  Jesus wept and Jesus will weep again over those who by their   choices have condemned themselves.

“The love of God is not something that is contingent on what you do.  It is consistent….many Christians are desperately trying to earn a love they  already possess and are fearful of forfeiting a love they can never  lose.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 58)  God is love and God always loves you. “The only reason Nobody goes to hell because of what they do. a person goes to hell is We go to hell bbecause he or she   rejects the love we reject the grace that God so longs to give.”  to us, regardless of what we do.” (Smith, Arrow, p. 50)

The only way I know how this truth moves from head to heart is through your personal encounters with God.  Those encounters come only as you practice the seven habits of a disciple. It has to be proved to you in order for that head/heart gap to be bridged. It’s through your daily practice of bible reading, prayer, fellowship, service, worship, obedience and contemplation  that you will discover that God loves you.

Bring this seeking to God—Father do you love me even when I am not perfect? The answer will come as you practice the habits.

What does it mean to be loved by God?

          To be loved by God means that regardless of what you have done you can find forgiveness if you seek it. No more guilt no more shame.

          To be loved by God means that God will do everything possible to bring you to a place of eternal fellowship with Him.  Aceptance and belonging are His love gifts to you.

          To be loved by God means that God has your best interest in mind when you face all the kinds of craziness this world can throw at you. All things will be seen to have worked for the good. (Romans 8:28)

          To be loved by God means that God will use tough love if He must to put you back on track in becoming everything He has intended for you to be. God doesn’t give up on you.

Romans 8:38-39 (MSG)

I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, 39 high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

God is love

     God creates you in love.

God makes it possible to reestablish you in love.

  God choose you to be a recipient of His love.

God doesn’t love you based on your worthiness,

God loves you because God is love.

To not only know the facts but feel the reality is to bridge that head/heart gap. Here’s the secret to bridging the gap: Use God’s grace to be loving towards others. Take the love that has been lavished on you and give it away.

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