Define: Love

I wrote a blog back in 2009 with the same title but really this is not related at all.

1 John 4 NIV

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Sometime we ask the question how can God let such and such happen if God is Love.

If you believe in the truth of the scriptures you find above that you are required to believe that the definition of Love is GOD.

So why do we think God doesn't love in certain situation? I can think of only two ways.

1.Our definition of love doesn't match Gods. (which I am certain most times it does not)

2. We don't see it from Gods perspective or you could say don't have all the information (which I am certain at all times we do not)

So what do we do about it. I believe God intends that we wrestle with Him and ourselves about it so that we can correct our errors and believe the truth.

So what are some hits about how to do that. 

God see the big picture and is a focused vet that has your eternal life in mind. He would not sacrifice your long term eternal life for some short term enjoyment.

Romans 8 (NIV)
¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  

Jeremiah 17:10 (NIV) 

¹⁰ “I the Lord search the heart

    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

Evil Heart

Jeremiah 17:9 New International Version (NIV)
⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things
         and beyond cure.
   Who can understand it?

Matthew 15:19 New International Version (NIV)

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Whether it is the bible, C.S. Lewis or other books God seems to be telling me that humans at their core are not rational. 

I am reading a book called "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss" It it he says that humans are irrational at the core. He says that we make most of our thoughts from a fast instinctive and emotional point and then we make a rational argument for our thoughts. You see the key instinct first and they we rationalize it in our head.

Ezekiel 36:26 New International Version (NIV)
²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Philippians 1:6 New International Version (NIV)

⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 4:23 New International Version (NIV)
²³ Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it.

God help us to let you change our hearts
God help us give up our hearts of stone and change them to a heart of flesh
God help us to give up our rationalization of evil
God speak your truth to us
God help us to speak to the hearts of others
God help us to listen to you
God help us to trust you

Revelation vs Reason

Revelation: The divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world.

Reason: Think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.

Is revelation and reason at odds? is it one or the other?

I don't believe so. I believe that they are both tools in our tool chest. So often we like to lift a tool up and worship it instead of using it as a tool as designed.

Most Christians will agree that we shouldn't worship reason because it is very human.  I think we forget that reason is as much a gift from God as revelation.

The problem of worshiping reason is we forget how limited we humans are and how limited reason is. Personally I think that we are ending the age of reason. Why? Scientifically we are taught the uncertainty principle, observer effect ... etc. We are also learning how much the human is controlled by emotions even though we "think" they are from reason. Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

I believe as Christians we have to watch we don't worship a revelation. There are tons of stories of people following a revelation that turns out to be false (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events). Can we worship the revelation but forget the reveler himself? I think worshiping a revelation (and not the reveler God himself) can be just as bad as worshiping reason.

Personally I think they need to work together just as two tools can work together. I think the below passage is a good example.

1 Samuel 17 (NIV)
^"34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”"

You see how David is using reason and revelation. Because God rescued me from ... will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine"

Eternal Vet

C.S. Lewis A Grief Observed

"Two Widely different convictions press more and more on my mind. One is that the Eternal Vet is even more inexorable and the possible operations even more painful than our severest imaginings can forbode. But the other, that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.'"

^{Ecclesiastes 2:17} "So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me."

^{Daniel 12:10} Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.

Is it that for some people the suffering/work/toil is refinement but for some people it is only suffering.

If you believe in a loving God that cares about us and loves us more than we can imagine.

If you believe he is outside time and sees the beginning and the end at the same instant

If you believe he is creator of all and has power over all

If our eternal soul is worth more than anything

If we believe that trials and challenges bring about refinement in us and make us better or make our eternal soul better 

Would then God (the Eternal Vet) spare us some trouble at the expense of our eternal soul?

No I believe he is the diligent Vet/Saviour/God who will focus at all cost till the wrong is righted. No mater what his patient does or say.

How long Do I Wait for you

Cord 1
XX0222

Cord 2
OO22oO

Em

(Cord 1) How long lord do I (cord 2)Wait for you
X2
(Em) I will wait yes (cord 2) Wait for you
x2
(Cord 1) you are God and (cord 2) I am not
x2
(Em) so I will wait yes (Cord 2) Wait for you
x2

Time and Money

God is leading me in thinking about time and money lately and how it appears to God they don't matter as much as we think they do. God can do allot of work with very little time and very little money. Jesus even trusted his money purse with a person he knew as a thief. Jesus ministry is estimated only about 3 years.

God lead us to your understanding
God lead us to your wisdom
We need your leading in our life
We need your presence
Help us to see your way of seeing things
Help us to internalize your teachings
Help us to trust others

Debate

A debate that happens in Christian circles and which outsiders don't understand is that of miracles.

When someone is diagnosed with an illness do they just trust God to heal them or do they trust the medical professionals to heal them? There is certainly christian groups that strongly believe in either side but is there a right side.

We came to this conclusion in a recent bible study we had. If our relationship with Jesus and with God is compared to that of husband and wife or friends or dad and child could we not apply this to this same issue.

In any of those relationships one could say hey I got this don't worry about it. Or hey I really think you should see a doctor. Or how bout we do this ... etc. you see there could be a variety of different answers depending on the circumstances but the key is to have a good relationship to have those conversations.

Of course this leads to the next question about how can I have a better relationship with Jesus and God.

Help us to trust you
Help us to love you
Help us to listen to you
We need you every day
Our breath is yours
Our lives are in your hands

Work

Exodus 16:^17-18 The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren’t short—each person had gathered as much as was needed.

^{Leviticus 25:18-22} “Keep my decrees and observe my laws and you will live secure in the land. The land will yield its fruit; you will have all you can eat and will live safe and secure. Do I hear you ask, ‘What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or harvest?’ I assure you, I will send such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant in the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and continue until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

This is hard for us to understand. But I believe God is saying that sometimes it is not how hard you work that matters. God clearly says I am in control of blessing no matter how much you work. But does this mean we don't work and wait for God's blessing. I think on the contrary, I believe he asks us to work hard and to live generously.

Dear God
Teach us your ways
Teach us to understand
Teach us to listen to you
Teach us to follow you
Help us see truth in a world of uncertainty
Help us see your ways in an evil world
God Bless us

10,000 Horses

God lead us in your ways and lead us to be face to face
Speak your truth speak your wisdom
Help us to fully trust you
God lead us
Open our ears, eyes and hearts to you

July 7, 2017

God help us to understand you
God help us to understand your forgiveness
God help us to listen to you
God speak your truth
God speak your encouragement