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Published: 24 September 2015

I like leftovers.  Sometimes the leftovers are better than the original meal!  Of course I am referring to food but I also have leftovers in my sermon and lesson preparation.  One of the keys to clear communication is figuring out what to leave out.  For example, so far in this study of the Great Commandment I have read all or portions of over a dozen books and I have written at least 20 pages of notes.   Reducing all that to a 35 minute sermon means there are leftovers.  I’ll have to leave some things out on Sunday so I thought I would share some leftovers with those of you that are readers.  In J. I. Packer’s book titled “Knowing God,” he makes helpful observations about what it means that “God is love.”  He explains that since love is God’s disposition, everything He is and does is characterized by His goodness and mercy.  As Packer (and others) point out however, we cannot reverse the order of the words and say, “love is God.”  This is because God is also spirit, light, just and covenant keeping etc.  Therefore Packer writes, “Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love, we may look to Him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness or to shield the ones He loves from trouble when He knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification…”  It is pain and trouble that people often use as an objection to God’s love for the world.  But it is often that very pain and trouble that causes broken creatures on the run from Him to stop and return.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  Laura Story asks reflectively in song, “What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy? And what if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights are Your mercies in disguise?”  God’s love and mercy is sometimes quite severe.  We so often assess God’s love based upon our current circumstances.  “He loves me, He loves me not…”  There is only one way to get past this fickle undulation.  We must give ourselves to knowing Him.  The more we know Him the more we’ll realize His disposition forbids Him from allowing anything in our lives that is not driven by love.  To know Him, prayed Jesus, is to know life eternal!  If we want to experience the abundant life Jesus said He came to give, we’re going to have to get on with it.  The knowledge of the Holy is not possible without practices.  A personal relationship with God is developed like any other relationship.  Time.  Effort.  Conversation.  Struggle.  People who love God most know Him best.  He really is quite lovable once we get to know Him.  What is in the way of that knowledge and experience for us today?  How could we rearrange our days to get to know Him better?  What lesser thing could I set aside for the surpassing greatness of knowing Him and receiving His love?  And, if His mercy seems severe right now, will I look beyond my present circumstances to His character and love Him by trusting Him?  “God is love.”

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Published: 17 September 2015

I often get overwhelmed as I study for sermon preparation but this week has been exceptional.  I am swimming in the deep end!  I have been studying a passage I can quote from memory and have referred to hundreds of times but I “feel” like I know so little in comparison to the immensity of the subject and its implications.  Anybody who has been in church for a little while should know the Great Commandment.  Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  The smartest human that ever lived said that this is the greatest command and the summary of the entire Old Testament!  Too often we pass over the familiar to get to the novel but it would be to our peril to skip over this marvelous teaching.  I’m almost afraid to open my mouth about the subject given its profundity.  In a few sentences Jesus addressed the questions of philosophers down through the ages.  He revealed why we are here.  He summarized the Law.  He gave the standard for ethics and morality and called people to an ideal that no one else has ever stated.  The apostles grabbed this and in their fulfillment of the Great Commission they taught everything Jesus commanded.  This double love command is at the heart of their writings.  In spite of this, think of how often we have let the main thing become subject to peripheral things.  How did the Crusades and the Inquisition ever even happen?  How have we let music, Bible translations and dress codes become a big deal?  How can we snipe our own brothers and sisters in Christ?  How can we make worship about us when it is clearly about Him?  May the Lord have mercy upon us.  That we should love God makes sense but how we should love God is another matter.  Jesus made it very clear that we cannot love God if we do not love people and that loving people is actually one way we love God but loving God is still the first command.  We’ll try to address the subject Sunday but at a minimum it seems that our love for Him would include praise for who He is, incredible gratitude for all He has done and contentment with His person.  God wants us to be satisfied with His goodness.  Our chief end is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever.  That sure sounds like love to me.  As we prepare to meet with one another on Sunday, let’s think about the main thing…loving the Lord our God with all that we are and loving others as we love ourselves.  If we could meet together and do that, it will be a pretty spectacular day .