4SpiritualSecrets

“…  Everyone who loves has been born of God…” (1 John 4: 7 NIV)

The apostle of love continues to tell us why we must love one another with a third reason – because love is the credential that identifies an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ.

One of the great challenges of our day is that if we were determined to shoot all the authentic followers of Jesus Christ, how in the world would we know precisely who to shoot? According to the author of the verse quoted above we should shoot those who love with a unique quality of love.  It is those who love in this special way that have experienced what Jesus described as being “born again.”

Based upon His greatest discourse, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus taught that this unique love will resist no evil and love their enemy, the one who is persecuting them, the adversary or competitor, the neighbor and especially the brother and spiritual family members.

The Apostle Paul gives us a great “cross section” of this quality of love in the middle of his so-called love chapter (1 Corinthians 13).  In verses four through seven of that chapter, Paul passes this concept of love through the “prism” of his Holy Spirit inspired mind and it comes out on the other side as a cluster of fifteen virtues that analyze and describe this love.

Consider the way Jesus, John and Paul profile this love and then decide if you are an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ because you love in these ways.  John will tell you in the real love chapter of the Bible (1 John 4) that this love comes from God and He gives it to those who are born again.

“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4: 20)

Tradition tells us that the Apostle John escaped from the Isle of Patmos by swimming out to a ship that was bound for the city of Ephesus where he lived to a very old age and was buried.  I have visited his grave there.  With white hair and a long white beard he was so feeble they had to carry him to the meetings.  While at the meetings he would bless those who attended and would cry “Little children, love one another, little children, love one another!”

As we have seen in this chapter, John gives us 10 reasons why we must love one another.  One reason is that God is love and if we plug into the love God is we make contact with God, and as we become a conduit of his love He makes contact with us.  John gives us a second reason that if we say we love God and we hate our brother we are liars.  Because if we do not love the brother we can see how can we love God whom we cannot see?

His point is that it’s not easy to love God, because we cannot hug a Spirit.  There is an inseparable vertical and horizontal dimension of this love that God is.  These two dimensions form a cross. We cannot say we love God if we do not love one another.

Do you love in these two critical dimensions?

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” (1John 4:16 NIV)

In this Scripture the apostle John, who is called the Apostle of Love, is giving us ten reasons why we must love one another.  Among those ten reasons is the one expressed above.  We must love one another because God is love and the person who loves in this way is living in God and God is living in that person.

One application of what he is writing is that when we plug into this love that God is we live in God and God lives in us.  In 1955 I made this great discovery.   As a social worker, while responding to a night call at 3:00AM, I prayed a prayer something like this: “God, You say You are a special quality of love.  I believe You are probably doing Your love thing where people are hurting.  I’m now going to where hurting people are.  When I get there pass this love You are through me and address their pain.”

There were times when I prayed that prayer I thought I was being electrocuted with the love of God.  I challenge you to accept the challenge of the Apostle John.  Go where the hurting people are with that prayer on your heart.  When you become a conduit of the love of God, you will discover that the experience is like an addiction.  You will never be satisfied with anything less than having that experience again and again.

This is because as a conduit of the love of God you will have experienced Who, What and Where God is – and where you want to be for the rest of your life!

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do^£?” (Psalm 11: 3)

Greek is a very precise language.  Hebrew is not.  That’s why we frequently find footnotes that suggest alternate readings in the margins of our Bible when we are reading Old Testament passages of Scripture.  The NIV translation of the verse quoted above has such a footnote.   The alternate reading suggested for this verse is: When the foundations of your life are breaking up, “What is the righteous One doing?”

In a long life I have experienced several periods when it seemed that the foundations of my life were breaking up.  I have found the suggested alternate reading of this verse to be a reliable response that turned many of those crises into very significant spiritual datelines in my journey of faith.

My faith walk began in 1949, and along the way I dropped two words out of my vocabulary: “fortunately” and “coincidentally.”  Because I believe in Divine Providence, I no longer believe in luck.  And I agree with the spiritual “heavyweight” who stated that when a devout believer thinks they have experienced a coincidence that just means God prefers to remain anonymous.

The Chinese characters for “crisis” are the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.”  I believe we should factor into all our crises this knee jerk response: “What is the righteous One doing in my life now?” I find that He is always up to something and ultimately it is always something very good.  It is not primarily for our good but it is what accomplishes His good for His glory.

If you are in a time of crisis right now, or when you find yourself in one, I enthusiastically commend this reliable response to you.

“For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?” (2 Corinthians 2:2)

You can’t control the weather or rainy days but you can control the emotional climate that surrounds you. There is a principle of communication in a relationship that tells us communication is a two-way street.  Whatever you send down that street comes back up that street and into your relationship with another person.

That is what the Apostle Paul is teaching when he essentially writes “If I say things that get you down who is going to build me up or pull me up?”  The reality is that you are probably going to pull me down because misery loves company.  This is a negative way of stating a positive truth.  That truth is if I say things to you that build you up, I have equipped you to build me up.

In another place Paul wrote: ^“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)

In every relationship you have, with your spouse, your children, your parents, those you work with, those you work for, and those who work for you  – make the commitment to say and do things that build them up and minister the grace of God to them.  You will be surprised by joy to discover that what you send down that street will come back up that street and into your relationship with that person.

Jesus gave an unstable man named Simon the nickname Peter, which meant stable like a rock.  After calling Peter a rock for three years Peter was a rock. Try that in your relationships.

“Enlarge the place of your tent… Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.” (Isaiah 54:2)

In the day and culture in which Isaiah used this inspired metaphor, many people lived in tents and would have clearly understood what the great “Prince of the Prophets” was preaching.  When a person wanted their tent larger, they had to drive their stakes deeper before they made their cords longer.

By devotional and practical application when we as one of the people of God want to expand the impact boundaries and influence of our life and ministry, we must first drive our stakes deeper.  For example, there is a sense in which we do that when we make the commitment to get more education before we begin to work in our career field.

One of the best definitions of maturity I have ever heard was simply the two words “delayed gratification.” I once asked a very gifted oriental piano teacher why most of her students were oriental.  She responded that she could not find students in this country who were willing to practice six to eight hours a day to become a concert pianist.  When people are willing to accept the discipline of delayed gratification they are driving down their stakes before they lengthen their cords.

If you are experiencing a growing conviction that God wants to use you in a deeper and broader ministry than you have known so far, be aware of the spiritual hard reality that God may want to deepen you before He opens a door of greater and more fruitful opportunity for you.

Are you willing to accept the ways in which God may want to deepen you so He can enlarge the tent of your life and ministry?

“Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth…” (Luke 3:5)

One of the greatest sermons was preached by the Prophet Isaiah and quoted by the man Jesus called ‘the greatest prophet ever born of woman,’ John the Baptist.  The sermon used a metaphor that was well known in Isaiah’s time.  When a king was going to travel to a distant province in his kingdom, they would build a highway on which he would travel.  While the highway was under construction they referred to it as “The Kings Highway.”

When you build a highway you do four things: you fill valleys, you level mountains, you straighten crooked places, and you smooth out rough places.

As Isaiah predicted the coming of the Messiah he proclaimed that God was coming into this world and the highway on which He was going to travel was the perfect life of His Son.  In that perfect life His valleys would be filled with the Holy Spirit.  The mountains of pride would be completely leveled, the crooked ways of sin would be completely straighten, and He would respond to the rough ways of His cross perfectly.

One of the most dynamic truths in the New Testament is that Jesus sent His followers into this world in the same way He was sent into this world.  That means that our life in Christ is designed to be a highway on which God travels into this world.  I dare you to ask God to make your life such a highway.  If you do, don’t be surprised when God’s “bulldozers” show up. Then you can write, “Caution: God at Work” over your life.

“…  ‘To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children’… to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”  (Luke 1:17)

When the birth of the greatest prophet ever born of woman was prophesied, it was predicted that as he prepared the way of the Messiah to come into this world he would do so by exhorting fathers to prioritize their relationship with their children.  The challenging truth by application is that the way of the Lord in the lives of children is prepared when fathers are faithful in their responsibility toward their children.  

One example of this reality is when our Lord taught His disciples how to pray, He instructed us to address God as “our Father.” What images come into the minds of people when they address God in that way?  Their relationship to their earthly father can strongly influence the way they perceive their heavenly Father.

As a pastor I have had parishioners say to me in private “When I address God as my father I experience a spiritual short circuit.” When I asked them to tell me about their earthly father I often heard a story about a very dysfunctional father /child relationship.

Professional Christian clinical psychologists and psychiatrists strongly reinforce the hard reality of the profound influence fathers have on the lives of their children.  The profound truth that was focused when the life and ministry of this great prophet was profiled is confirmed in millions of lives every day.

As we in America call this Sunday “Father’s Day” may the vision statement that was prophesied for John the Baptist raise awareness in all of us who are fathers of the solemn mission objective we have been assigned by God when He made us fathers.

“…  who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

They say an evangelist is “one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is.”  Paul is telling us in this passage of Scripture that a minister of comfort is “one hurting heart telling another hurting heart where the Comfort is.” According to Paul, every time you enter into a deeper level of suffering God gives you a diploma you can frame and hang on your wall of credentials.

Jeremiah Denton was in solitary confinement in Hanoi for seven years.  While he was alone in that cell he made an amazing discovery: God was there and God Himself comforted him.  Have you entered into a level of suffering that was deep enough for you to make that same discovery?  If you have, then you are a qualified minister of comfort and you can tell other hurting hearts where the Comfort is.

As a pastor for just under six decades I have made a discovery.  The best one to comfort a parent who has lost a child is a parent who has lost a child and the best one to comfort the person who has lost a spouse is someone who has lost a spouse – when those who have suffered these losses have been comforted by God Himself.  The same is true for women who have had mastectomies, those who are going through divorce, battling cancer and every other shade and grade of suffering.

When God Himself has comforted you in your deepest levels of suffering are you willing to reach outside yourself and become a qualified minister of comfort?

“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful…And what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Corinthians 4: 2, 7)

The biblical word “steward” is not fully understood or appreciated.  It is actually one of the most important words in the New Testament.  A synonym for this word is “manager.” Many people believe this word primarily relates to a person’s money.  But that application falls far short of the essential meaning of this word.

When Paul asks the probing question: “And what do you have that you did not receive?” he is telling us that our stewardship applies to everything we have received from God.  This means our time, energy, gifts and talents, our health and all the things that make up the essence of our very life, including all of our money and possessions.

At the age of 65 my best friend had what he refers to as a “halftime” experience when he came to fully appreciate this word “steward.” His regular custom was to draw a line down the middle of the top page of a legal pad.  On the left side of that line he wrote “My business” while on the right side of the line he wrote “God’s business.” When he fully appreciated this word “steward” he erased that line because, as a very successful wealthy businessman, he realized it was all God’s business.

Remember, the important thing about a steward is that we be found faithful.  Do you realize there is nothing in your life you did not receive from God?  Do you know that you are to faithfully manage everything you have received from God?  Are you willing to have a halftime experience and erase the line between what is yours and what is God’s?