We are called to love our Neighbours, Love God and love like Christ loved.
What does this mean?
So often I see Jesus portrayed like some feminine Hippy, walking around in white robes and speaking with a soft easy-listening American accent. This isn't Jesus...
The Jesus I know hung around with the lowest of the low, the prostitutes, the people with body altering diseases which literally caused parts of the body to puss and break off.
This is the Jesus I know
The Jesus that doesn't just 'love' attractive rough-cut men in robes...
I love the Jesus that cries at his friends death
and the Jesus that had dirt encrusted hands
I love the real-life Jesus.
Jesus showed love to everyone, even those who in societies eyes didn't deserve it or weren't worth it. He healed the sick, gave food to the hungry and shared food with the lost.
It takes a lot to love against all the odds.
Love is not a bland or imasculine thing
Real love is probably the most masculine thing a man can do...
How incredible is that mans love for his kids.
I also hear stories of bible smuggling that cut me to the core.
Today as Christians we are called to this sort of love.
Ferocious love
Love that changes the shape of the planet and moves mountains
Love that hurts.
The thing that sadens me most about the world today is the lack of love.
I live in a suburban area with fairly equal amouts of old, middle aged and young people and as a community our area is probably quite a 'privilidged' one.
and even so, if i was a stranger in my community I could walk around for days without anyone Saying 'hi' or offering a kind smile.
What a hurting, sad and messed up world we live in.
and thats why as Christians and brothers and sisters of Christ we need to show Real love.
There was once a man who committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. His suicide note, left in his apartment, read thus: "I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump." He walked through all of San Francisco and still jumped - out of all those thousands of people he passed, not one person smiled at him.
One smile to save a guys life... Its hardly costly
Love is not cheap however...
True love is the most expensive thing a man can give
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
It hurts
I heard another story that was about a prisoner of war camp in Japan.
(bloated tummy happens with extreme malnutrition)
After a hard days work digging the trenches for railway line sleepers to lie in, a group of prisoners heard the prison bell go and hurried back to their camp. When the spades were brought in and counted, the armed officer in charge of that particular group of prisoners ordered the armed guards to get the prisoners into a line. The Officer then questioned the prisones about the whereabout of one spade that had gone missing. All of the prisoners refused to say that they knew anything about the missing spade. The officer repeated his question. Again, there was no response. He was starting to get annoyed now and he ordered the guards to raise their rifles and prepare to fire. The officer asked one more time, demanding that he know the whereabouts of the spade. Still nobody said anything. The officer signalled the guards as if to give the kill order. Just then a middle aged man stepped forward to confess that he had hidden the spade. He was taken away and shot.
The next day as the men went out to work on the next bit of the track , they saw the spade thrown down to the side of the track.
some thinking points...
We are called to love our neighbours and friends, what is the best way of showing Chirst's ferocious love to them?
How can we effect our communities?
How can we learn to love those who society hates?
What is stopping us from reaching out to the least and the lost?
feel the love,
ben
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