the very annoying little brother

Last week as I was reading Luke 15, I felt my annoyance grow against the younger brother; he not only cussed his dad by wishing him dead and taking his money, but he only wanted to go back to his family home because he was thinking about his stomach! There was no remorse or consideration about how much pain he had caused- both to the hearts of his family, the reputation, the relationships..

I come to this chapter a few times during a year and he has been getting more and more on my nerves! I find him selfish and self- absorbed, without any cares about hurting anyone else- just as long as he gets what he wants. I think he probably brings up all my personal annoyance towards those in my own life who I have felt hurt and offended by! (Mirror, mirror in the Word!) So when I read about how the son was then making a script about becoming one of his dad’s servants, I thought how merciful that would be on a human level for the dad to accept this. His dad even thinking of accepting him back into the house- even to serve- would be human’s high mercy… But then we read that his dad doesn’t even respond to the son’s script but goes WAY above and beyond and invites him back to come and live as his SON!!

How challenging is this to us- when our great mercy would look like allowing the son back in our lives at all!

This parable shows us the kind of standard of love that God is showing us the example to live by- that we should love others so much that we hold nothing against them including unforgiveness and offence.

This higher law is beyond feelings and ‘our truth’, and even beyond what others will say and opinionate about our dealings with such matters, it is beyond how we will look to others (weak, pathetic, doormat, walkover, etc).

It was such a cold smack in the face as I was reading this as this is the Truth that we need to live by if we want to be fully free and fully secure and active in our true identity. But as the smack started to fade in its sting(!), I consider how much I need God to help me in absolutely everything, and how amazing that He desires to help me in everything!

the offence of Love

God is Love.

He wants us to have life in all fullness so He is not afraid to challenge our unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, selfishness, pride… but in a world where challenging someone is seen as not loving them and as hate-speech, this is now totally twisted.

If someone you love is planning on slowly dying would you really be loving them by agreeing that “that is what they want so I’ll respect that”? Is love truly that insincere and weak, feeble and pathetic??

Does love really look like agreeing with something that sees people binge on selfishness and be totally consumed by self? 

Doesn’t love look more like being kind when we totally disagree? Or staying friends and respecting people while having opposite ideas in life?

Love shows itself best in hard times. In times where we have to make decisions.. to lovingly call out the crap we see in each other as well as the gold.. To stay faithful to our word when we want to run, to be committed and fully respecting to our spouse when they are not as ‘exciting’ as so and so..

Love is absolutely resolute. It is not weak or flimsy. It is strong and painful. It is patient and faithful. It is being honest when that will create pain instead of a fleeting pleasure.

Let us never make the mistake that agreement equals love. It absolutely does not.

Love is self-sacrificial, truth, challenging, patient, kind, compassionate, painful, persevering, clear, uncompromising with death, faithful.

Remind you of Anyone?

love makes the tough decisions

As I read the Word of God, and also Watchman Nee’s ‘The Spiritual Man’, it is so strongly clear that love is hardly anything to do with feelings and so much more
to do with decisions and the will of man.

We see that Jesus sweated blood as He prayed for the cup to be taken from Him. This shows that the greatest act of Love- Jesus laying His life down and dying a criminals death- was not out of “feeling good” about how gorgeous humanity was; but that He prayed, “yet not My will, but Yours be done”… and submitted Himself wholly to the Father’s plan- a plan in which love was the most painful choice and decision to make.

How many of us (especially in the west) believe that love is more to do with happiness, feelings, emotion…, rather than tough decisions, painful commitment,
faithfulness that hurts, lifestyle that costs..

If we are true followers of Christ then love will cost us everything and be (very likely) painful in the process. It will be mocked, laughed at, cause offence, and cost us more than we desire to pay… which is where our will needs to come into the submission of our lives not being our own.

Maybe that is why marriage is so weak and broken- because we are all looking for something (or someone) to serve us, rather than living with our lives laid
down for others, and ultimately God.

Love has very little to do with feelings and we would benefit to remember this especially when we have decisions to make, or when there are people who are vying to get our attention and affection outside of the boundaries of love. 

Love can also seem to repel those around us who are wanting yes-men instead of honest friendship and relationship.. 

Keep love bold, alert, and ready to engage.

“am I good to you?”

This was a question that my man used to ask me. My response would be that only he knew if he was good to me, because only he knows of his faithfulness, his
heart and mind towards me. I can be aware of how he is when he’s with me, but have no idea if he is respecting me when we’re not together. I have no idea if
he is honouring and backing me up to others, or if others even know anything about me..

How often can we be like this in our relationships- all about the façade and nothing about the unseen building of commitment and respect? It is such a farce.

Let us not be like this in our Christian walk with God- looking good when our actions are ‘in front of’ Him and/or others and yet having pure selfishness and a
self-serving heart and lifestyle.

Let us remember that God cannot be mocked (even if we can be) and that He sees the deepest part of our hearts and minds and knows us completely. He
knows exactly if we “are good to Him”…

a lesson from a psycho

A few months ago I listened to the testimony of a psychopath before and after Christ. His story was powerfully hard hitting and at the end he talks about how he is married with kids etc. I found this really difficult to understand as I thought that loving someone would be an emotional connection. But as I listened to his story unfold, I realised how I have been almost brainwashed in this western culture that love is all about feelings and they come and go and you just flow with them, but actually love is a choice that we have to make choices about daily (many times daily). The guy explained how although his life has been transformed and changed, he still does not have emotions, but he is able to know how to love as this is about choices and commitment. He gave the example about Jesus going to the cross. We know that Jesus prayed for this to be taken from Him, and yet submitted that desire to the greater act of Love that took Him to His horrific death.

How much we can learn from submitting our emotions to a Higher Authority.

How absolutely devastating is it to be “loved” by someone who doesn’t make the daily choices of love and therefore allows his (or her) heart and mind and attention to wander to others, and then find themselves “loving” someone else. This is such a deep betrayal that breaks hearts and trust and value, and ultimately tears families apart and breaks down communities.

We can see the western culture is all about how we feel- about ourselves (identities, sexualities, etc)- and there is no value in submitting our feelings and emotions to our previously made commitment or vow, or even to the truth of the matter. All we desire is to have our way and we make sure that we become the best lawyers to defend that this is the best way for us.

We are so self-consumed and selfish that we don’t consider how our decisions impact others- even those we have professed to “loving”. All this culture does is break hearts, trust and people. It creates further selfishness as everyone is protecting their own selves and not able to trust or confide in others.

This is not okay.

Let us not be like this. Let us rebel and rage against the system by loving others when it’s difficult, by staying true when we want to leave, and fighting for each other during dry or hard times. Let us make up our minds to love and be faithful and value this over our ever-changing fleshly desires.

Let us change the narrative and become a counter cultural resistance.

notches on the bedpost- the christian version

Recently I’ve felt that as Christians we can have the same spirit of the world- but just with a different manifestation. Our manifestation will bring us the same spirit of ‘conquering’ others though.

As a christian, I totally believe that we should be spreading the amazing news that everyone is loved beyond any love ever known, and that the price has been paid for each and every man, woman and child to come into the very presence of Almighty God by accepting that Jesus Christ came to live, die and rise again for the sins of all humanity. This is amazing news to each and every soul.

It is the cry of every spirit to be seen, known, and loved. The cry that no man, woman or child can ease. Only God. Our Creator and Father.

I believe that the closer we walk towards and with God, the closer we will be to His heart, and in His heart is the yearning for every single one of us to come to Him and be loved by Him- a Love that transforms the most cold, wicked, indifferent, self-sufficient hearts..

So, please don’t misunderstand me- I totally believe in not being quiet about this Love. However, people are never projects. Sharing the gospel is not about how great we are, or how many we have conquered, how much ‘work’ we have done..

Sometimes, I feel as though there is a spirit that rallies the troops to “go get ’em” and it can become like the competition of people sleeping around; “how many have you slept with..?” (With the more notches/people, the greater the stud/respect/accolade.)

I have such painful issue with this. What person wants to be a stat or a notch on a bedpost, or a trophy head that’s been hunted and now hanging on the wall for everyone to see how great the hunter is?

Let us not have the same spirit of this world; the spirit that is deceiving, dark, self-centred and self-serving. We are to test the spirits. If the devil himself presents as an angel of light, we need to be very sensitive to which spirit we are being ‘moved’ by.

May God Himself lead us with overwhelming love for the lives of others- to pray fervently for their adoption as sons and daughters of God and our brothers and sisters in Christ. May God fill our hearts with His heart, and break our hearts for what breaks His. So that we are aware of the urgency as much as His love, and His love as much as the urgency.