love

wp-1457890772751.jpgBeloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 4:7-21, NRSV)

Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also…

So to justify ourselves like the Pharisees we ask Jesus, “Who are my brothers and sisters?”

And I believe Jesus would tell us those who are a part of me, are your brothers and sisters. All of those who believe and are followers of my way. We can not say we love Jesus and love God and follow after Him if we hate those who do the same. Regardless how they are different from us or believe that Jesus says something we do not believe. If they confess Jesus as Lord then they are someone you should love.

Oh and actually in another part fo the Bible Jesus says to love your enemies, those who would want to persecute you, so in actuality, you need to love everyone.

So love, as God loved you, a sinner of His own redeeming.

Do not be a liar, love everyone.

gift or wage

170315What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, NRSV)

Why did Abraham get what God gave him?

Did he earn it?

Did he work for it?

Or was it a gift?

The scripture tells us what Paul quotes to the Romans above, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” God told Abram what He was going to do and Abram believed Him, and because of that Abraham was gifted and blessed by God.

It was not Abraham’s doing it was all God.

We can not earn God’s love, it is a gift freely given. Embrace it and live into it. Working out His love into the world.

no one…

170314Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” (John 7:53-8:11, NRSV)

Jesus was in the temple and the leaders brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. Now, why only the woman, because that was the mind frame of the time, and the woman was guilty, but the man, well. But they bring this woman who should be stoned to Jesus and ask Him what should they do.

Jesus looks at the leaders and says, “Let the one among you, who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

And one by one I imagine they drop their rocks and walk away with their heads down.

And then Jesus asks the woman where are those who were condemning you? And they were gone, no one was found to condemn her. And the one who could have cast the first stone says, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”

Jesus came to save us, not condemn us. The law is about love, to fulfill the law, we love others.

Chosen

170313Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Genesis 12:1-4, NRSV)

God chose Abram and called him to go from his homeland.

God promised to make him a great nation and that God would bless Him and make his name great.

And Abram believed and followed where God was leading him.

Remember just like Abram you too are chosen, and God is asking you to follow.

condemn or save

170312Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:1-17, NRSV)

This is a great passage of scripture that raises many questions. It also has one of the most quoted Bible verses John 3:16. I don’t think that John 3:16 is complete without 3:17 though.

You see Nicodemus knows that Jesus is a great teacher and so he goes to Jesus at night to hide his seeking. Their discussion goes deep and Nicodemus wonders about birth of water and Spirit and how all fo this happens. But you see Jesus did not condemn Nicodemus for not getting it. He kept telling him things to try and help him. And if we follow Nicodemus through the gospel of John we see him growing as a disciple. He comes first under darkness here in chapter 3, then in chapter 7 Nicodemus speaks in Jesus’ defense at the high council meeting, and then we see him in public removing Jesus’ body from the cross and helping to put Him in the tomb. Slow steady growth.

For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that who so ever should believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. This is true, God loved us so much that He sent His son to die so that we can have life in Him. But God did not send His son to condemn us, God sent His Son so that the world might be saved through Him. Jesus came to show us how to live as God’s children and to help us embrace our lives as God children, not to tell us once and when we don’t get it to condemn us. No Jesus came to save us all.