A Life Worthy

Tag: love

  • One-a-Day Friday, 6/20/14

    number 1For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love (2 Peter 1:6-7).

    There it is again.

    Love.

    You know, no matter what we start looking at in the Word, it seems we always end up back at love.

    I’m not complaining…just sayin’.

    I suppose it goes without saying that love is a pretty important topic to the Lord of the Universe.  It heads the list of spiritual fruits in Galatians, and gets its own chapter in 1 Corinthians.  And John doesn’t say that God so liked us or felt warmly toward us or needed us or respected us or pitied us or feared us…

    He said

    For God so loved the world…

    And love is the culmination of this passage.  All that we become through faith and goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and brotherly kindness expresses itself in love.

    Love for God.

    Love for each other.

    Strangely, at this level, the two are hard to distinguish and impossible to separate.

    God’s love is the root of it all.  Your love is the fruit of it all.

    Walk in love today, Beloved.

  • One-a-Day Friday, 2/14/14

    …God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

    It’s Valentine’s Day, right?

    OK, so let’s talk love.

    Forget the hearts and flowers.  Forget the candy.

    Real love sacrifices.  Real love gives, even when there is no reasonable expectation of a return on the investment.  Real love sees you at your worst, and does not turn away.

    While we were still sinners.  While we were totally unworthy and unlovable.  Beyond pot bellies and vanishing hairlines.  Beyond bad hair and no makeup.  While we were steeped in darkness, inside and out, Jesus died for us.

    For you.

    Want him to prove his love?

    He did.  We call it the Cross.

    When I write these One-a-Days, I often call you “Beloved.”  I’m not putting the moves on you, nor am I trying to be J. Vernon McGee.  I’m praying, along with Paul, that you, “May…grasp how high and long and wide and deep is the love of Christ.”

    In the Song of Songs, God gives us a picture of the love between a man and a woman.  Beyond that, though, he paints a picture of Christ’s love for his Church.

    He calls the Church his Beloved.

    He calls you his Beloved.

    And so will I.

    Happy Valentine’s Day, Beloved.

  • One-a-Day Wednesday, 10/23/13

    number 1…live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  (Ephesians 5:2)

    This verse goes along with yesterday’s.  One of the most powerful features of God’s character is his unending, unstoppable love.  If we imitate him, as verse 1 tells us to do, we will live a life that mirrors that love.

    And what an example we have to follow.  Jesus loved us, and he told us in a way that goes far beyond words.

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

    So how do we do that?  I mean, laying down your life is all well and good if you’re rushing into a burning building to rescue people, or if you dive into traffic to save a toddler.  But, that opportunity doesn’t arise very often, and frankly, you can only do that trick once.

    There is another way to lay down your life—but you probably don’t want to hear about it.  This is the daily act of dying to yourself, of putting other people first.  It’s the little things—taking out the trash even though it isn’t your turn, letting someone else have the last doughnut even though you’ve been salivating over it all morning, letting the other car in front of you even though it means you have to slow down and why should you have to slow down why can’t they just wait their turn like everybody else—

    Yeah, it’s that kind of stuff.  Not terribly dramatic; nothing to get you a mention in the paper, but loving nonetheless.  That’s your challenge.

    So, what will your fragrant offering be today?

  • One-a-Day Tuesday, 10/15/13

    number 1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received (Ephesians 4:1).

    I know; I keep coming back to this verse.  It’s just too powerful to let go.  Paul is leading the way here—he is living his calling, though it landed him in prison.

    So, what is your call?  Let’s keep it simple; after all, it’s only Tuesday.  Your call, beloved of God, is to bring him glory.  How do you do that?  Well, the context of the verse says that you do that by keeping the peace.  At the cross, God brought peace between Man and Man as well as between Man and God (Eph. 2:14-18).  Our job is to live in such a way as to help maintain that unity and that peace.

    Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)

    May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:23).

    Think about the people you are likely to see and deal with today.  How can you glorify God by being, “completely humble and gentle…patient, bearing with one another in love”? Yeah, I know it isn’t easy—and they’re probably thinking the same thing about you.

    Hmmm…prison…solitary confinement…maybe Paul had it easier than I thought.