Transmitted

Once we start to grasp the meaning of God's love for us, it changes us. To know that no matter what you do, God will always love you is amazing. Not just head knowledge but heart knowledge as well. It's one thing to know that God loves you, but it's another thing to understand that He does. To be loved in a truly unconditional way is something we can never find on earth. To be desired for who we are and not judged for what we do is overwhelming at times. To be loved and then to love.

When we accept this love into our lives, we can then begin to transmit it to others. The greatest commandment is to love God with everything in us but the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. What does it mean to love thy neighbor as thyself? Who is "thy neighbor"? We all know that the term neighbor does not mean those who live next to your house. It means you life neighbors. Those with whom you live and exist. You friends, coworkers, family and everyone you interact with is your neighbor.

We have this idea that we may not admit to but live out. We tend to live like our "thy neighbors" are the people you get on with. The people you tend to have the most in common with and don't mind being with. Or we see our "thy neighbor" as the people who seem to need God more than others. Those who are homeless, poor, in crisis , or in pain. While these people are our "thy neighbors" our neighbor circle is wider than that. Our neighbors are the rich and successful, our bosses, annoying coworkers, liberals, conservatives, Republicans, Hispanics, Democrats, tree huggers, gun carriers, and the pan handler on the corner who would spend your money on drugs and booze. Even if we don't agree with the way our neighbors live or are irritated by the way they are, we love them anyway.

As a Church, we have fallen short in this area. We have decided that the people we should love as ourselves are the people most likely to come to Christ. The people who are so desperate that they have no other choice or the people we are closest to. This is wrong. We aren't the ones that decide who will and won't come to Christ. Just because someone has it all or doesn't seem receptive to the good news, doesn't mean we shouldn't love them. You see ALL have sinned and fallen short and Jesus died for the WHOLE WORLD not just the downtrodden and friendless.

I want to take a moment and say that we need to clean up our love act towards the gay community. We have bought into the idea that gays and the left wing are somehow "beyond help". As if God's love is enough for the right wing and straights but when the gays come on the scene God says, "Whoops! Sorry folks. My love doesn't cover you because you are a worse sinner than this straight ax murderer".

 God's love isn't about what we do be who we are. He doesn't love conservatives more because they don't vote to have babies murdered or take "under God" out of the pledge. Seriously guys. We befriend and minister to those who have committed heterosexual sins but not those who have committed homosexual ones? It's all sin. It's all bad. It's our rejection of Jesus that puts us on the first bus for hell. They are all going to hell. But for the grace of God, you too would be going to hell. Remember that. God doesn't hate gays. God loves gays. He doesn't love them because they are gay like the world does, He loves them because He created them and He wants to be in fellowship with them. Just like you.

You see, your "thy neighbor" may not be someone you feel like you could connect with. They may be oppositely opinionated from you. They may not like you. They may even put you down because you are a follower of Jesus. Or you may just really not care for them. Whatever your reasoning though, at the end of the day they are still thy neighbor and you are to love them as you love yourself.

But how do you love someone like you would yourself? I struggled with this one growing up. I didn't like myself and I knew that as a Christian I was to be selfless. So how was I supposed to love my neighbor as myself? We must look to Christ for the answer.

Jesus was a popular guy. Not so much with the Jewish leaders but with the common people. He was there for them. He taught radical things and He healed the sick and wounded. Wherever He went, there was a crowd it seems. Even when He wanted to get away, five thousand men and their families followed Him. Instead of sending them away though, He let them stay He loved them. He denied Himself that precious alone time and preached and taught and fed them. There are many times we see that He had to deprive Himself of something that was basic such as sleep, and peace so that He could be there for the people.

That's what loving others as yourself looks like. It's being willing to feed those who are hungry, or giving up sleep so you can be there for someone. It's giving others the things you would save for yourself. It's loving people for who they are not what they do. It's not being opinionated with an opinionated person. It's not trying to win someone over to your way of thinking with arguments that sound logical. It's living your life to transmit the love of God to thy neighbor.

No judgement. No giving up hope. No deciding who is and isn't going to believe. Just transmitting.

Shake us up Lord!

Pause

I want to take a moment to pause and put things into perspective. I know that some of what I say can sound radical or even offensive. I'm not trying to be. I'm just writing about what's on my mind and what God has put on my heart. No matter what I say here though, I want you to walk away with at least this: love. I want to take a moment to reflect on the love of God and how it impacts us as Christians.

The love of God is infinite. It has no measure. In our little finite brains, it's hard to get this wrapped around our heads. We talk about the love of God all the time. We sing about the deep, deep love of Jesus and how He loves us all but we have a hard time understanding it. Because God's love is infinite, there is never a shortage of it. He doesn't have to ration out His love in order for it to reach the whole world. He loves all of us abundantly.

Our love is finite. It has measure. We are finite so our love only goes so far. We can't look at someone as if they've never sinned because we can only see what's in front of us. Our love is rationed. It can't reach to the whole world without running out.

God's love caused Him to do something mind-blowing. We read in John 3:16 "For God so loved the World that He ave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." God sent His Son to die for us and yet we rattle off that verse and talk about the Cross like it happens every day. Let's put it in different words: Because the Creator all things, including you, loves you so much, He sent His Son Jesus who is fully God and a part of God to take the penalty of your sin. He did this so that anyone, including you, that puts their trust in Jesus and accepts His sacrifice shall not (I love the verb usage of 'shall' here. Not won't but shall not as in never ever ever-it ain't gonna happen shall not) be separated from God but have life in his presence forever and ever.  You see, God's love made the sacrifice we weren't able for. His love made a way so that we could see our way to Him. Not because we were so great but because God is so great. We love Him now, but He loved us first. He didn't have to but He did.

God's love covers all sins. The act of the cross has paid the price for our sins. Getting us back from Satan had a price and Jesus paid it so He could set us free for Satan's grip. You want to know something cool? Jesus' death covered the sins you committed ever since you were born, including the ones since you became a Christian and it covered all the sins you will ever commit. Think on that for a bit. Jesus' death justifies us so that we have a clean sin slate in God's eyes. Even the ones we haven't committed yet. God doesn't see our sins as soon as we commit them the are expunged from our eternal record because Jesus paid for them already. We stand faultless before God. He loves us. That's all that matters. He doesn't care about your sins. He doesn't get mad when you do something wrong. He doesn't take a step back and say, "Well, you've kinda messed up so I'm going to give you some space to get your act together. Then we can have our relationship back. Of course it's not going to be the same between us because you have broken my trust. You are going to really need to work on those kinks and problem areas." If you are reading this and can relate to that way of thinking, I want you to stop in your tracks. God does not, I repeat DOES NOT EVER take a step back when you sin. He doesn't make you get you ducks realigned before continuing on. He isn't disappointed or angry. He knows you through and through. He knows you better than you do and He loves you anyway. He's never made man take the first step back towards Him because we can't. We never could and we never will. Not on our own. He pursues us wherever we are. He's right there to help us pick up the pieces and fix the problem. Let me rephrase that. He picks up the pieces and fixes the problems. Don't ever think that God loves you any less for your mistakes. Just because we can't see past our mistakes doesn't mean God can't.

God's love cannot be changed. Because God's love is infinite, it can't be altered. It's impossible to change something that can't be measured. We can't make God love us any less by sinning and we can't make God love us any more because we do good. God doesn't care about that. He loves us for us, not for what we do. Believe me, if God loved us for what we did, we would be hopelessly lost. We've never done anything to make ourselves more lovable to a holy God. God doesn't play favorites. He doesn't favor one believer over another because they do all the right things. Our standing before Him is the same forever: child, dearly beloved by God no matter what.

If nothing else from this blog gets read or understood: walk away with this: God loves you for you not for what you do. God can't love you more or less. He loves you infinitely. Always and forever He loves you infinitely.

Shake us up, Lord!