All You Need is Love...Rump Da Da Da Da

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. But, what does that mean? What is love? Love, love, love. All you need is love. Book of John….John Lennon. What is Biblical love? Does God have a warm feeling in his tummy for us? Love is a verb…an action, a conscious decision which, at times, surpasses all reason and understanding. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son, so that whosoever believes on him would not perish, but have everlasting life. When we show Christ like love, it is conscious and it is fearless. If a situation should occur where it came between a non-believer and ourselves needing to give up life for the other, out of Christ like love, I should be willing to give up my life for someone I may not even like, but have Christ’s love for. I would be able to do this because I have the confidence of my assurance that my salvation is secured, and in that the non-believer would be provided an opportunity to come to himself and find Christ love at some later point. Romans 5:7-8 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us on a rough wooden cross so that his sacrifice would be the payment for my sin. We give thanks during our time of communion for this act of true and undeserved love that surpasses all reason and understanding. If you believe Jesus paid the price for your sins on the cross where he sacrificed his life and have made him your LORD, we ask you to join us in this time of communion.

Leadership or Ownership

Back in the 90’s I was a GM of a corporate run restaurant and our district manager was into all the management books that came out. He would give us a copy and at our next managers meeting, he would ask us to review them. You know the short books, the One Minute Manager… Who Moved My Cheese. The book he gave us was James Belasco’s “The Flight of the Buffalo.” The premise was the reason the buffalo nearly went extinct because they had a single leader and if the Indians could get that one buffalo, the others would be easy pickings. Geese, on the other hand, took turns leading and encourage each other with honking and that is why they were successful. I read the book and said hogwash. The reason the buffalo nearly went extinct was because no one owned them. They just wandered around. You could pick them off from a train and no one would say anything. Now cows, someone owns them. You cannot just go around shooting cows. Some farmer will come looking for you. He purchased his cows, sometimes at great expense. They belong to him and he watches over them. They are his. We belonged to the world wandering aimlessly, but Christ purchased us at a great price. We have been purchased with his own blood he shed on a wooden cross. When we accepted his Grace, we became his. This is good, because this world is perishing, and God is eternal. In John 10:28 Jesus states, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. We do not serve a fallen leader, but a risen savior who we belong to and are cherished by. This world is passing away, but we shall never pass away. We have been promised eternity with the risen Christ. We take time to think about this and give thanks when we gather for communion.

No, I Won't Go

If we are not careful, we can take Grace for granted. Especially during a Holiday weekend such as this, we get distracted. There is a lot going on in town. We get busy. From the beginning of time, God understood that our gift of being created with free will would lead us to sin. He was never distracted. He knew the price that would ultimately have to be paid for our sin nature. We see that knowledge in the prophesies of the Old Testament. When Jesus was in the garden on the night he was to be betrayed, he knew the suffering he would endure, and it was coming fast. Although fully God, he was also fully man and would experience the pain and suffering. He prayed to the father, “if this cup could pass from me…” and then, what if he said… No, I am not going to do this. I am not going to go through this for these sinful people. At that moment, the great chasm in Sheol disappeared plunging the Old Testament saints into the same torment as the unbelieving pagans. Lazarus, as well as Abraham, Moses, Daniel, David, Joseph, and all others of faith would find themselves in the same Hellish place as the rich man of Luke 16. All who had died, were living, or to be born would carry the same price for the sin of Adam. But no…..Christ at that moment said, Not my will, but yours, the Father’s will be done, rescuing from eternal torment all who put their faith and trust on the saving and redemptive Grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He allowed himself to be scorned, beaten, and nailed to a Roman cross so we would have a sinless sacrifice worthy of covering our sinfulness. Something to think about as we take time during communion to remember Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, but because he lived, we too shall live in paradise and not in torment in the presence of a Holy Father.