1 Corinthians 13:13
"God loves you ... and so do I!"
You've heard it said; you have formed an opinion of the statement and no one will change that opinion and that is not what this post is about... changing your attitude toward it.
God loves you. It is just fact.
I do, too. It is just fact.
Taken separately, they are two of the most awesome and precious phrases in the human language. Together they form the most life-transforming products of joy!
The first (God loves you) is just basic fact to the Christian - we believe and therefore affirm that God LOVES everyone with an awesome, sacrificial
love...we are His creation and it is natural that He loves us all and seeks
our best. Thus, He freely gave of Himself (Jesus) to pay for the sin which is
mankind's under the fall. It matters not what we THINK of the why's and
wherefore's of that fall (i.e. why did God allow sin to be a part of it all?);
it remains that it IS there (rebellion) and He made provision to escape the
consequences by sending the best that heaven had... His Son Jesus Christ.
Yes, God loves you.
The second part (...and I do, too!) is the real sparkler. Some have recently
decided that, because a Christian chooses to stand on the complete Word (i.e. love, joy, compassion AND God's detesting of sin and the coming judgement of and on sin), that we (I) do not therefore show "love".
Some maintain that love must be "tolerant" to the point of allowing any and all "dogma", "isms" and "beliefs" to filter out the truth of the Word of God. I
disagree and therefore stand on the Word, rather than the "thoughts" of man.
For the born-again, there is NO OTHER need than the precious Word of God - we do not seek nor believe nor pretend to receive any "other gospel". There IS none; thus we minister it and it alone. Since we have that knowledge, some (I) get headstrong and, at times, downright bullish about it. We (I) believe it that strongly.
Now: To say "I love you" is TELLING love (we can all do that and should) and it is so easily and readily received because it costs nothing. Yet -- to really
love is to care enough to warn of the precipice ahead and the ditch awaiting
when we see it and others do not or will not. That is CARING love. Both are
good, but the latter (for me anyway) is the ultimate.
When I started out (goodness, almost two years now?), I was filled to capacity and overflowing with that TELLING love. I shared and others joined in and it was exciting. When a question arose from a lost person, it was sincere and the Word was received and grew as evidenced by much kind and exciting E-mail received. It was a real ministry of love - caring love and telling love.
What the various subs have become today, however, are a far cry from that kind of ministry. Where Christians shared and witnessed, now pagans and wiccas subvert the subs and do so ONLY to cause strife and arguments (which they get because ALL Christians do not sit down for such, nor should they). It is a plan well carried out; but still - IF we love these people with a CARING love we will NOT allow them to go to hell without our expounding the facts of God's Word. God never told us to expound only to those who would be open to it, but to "the world" ... and then, when they receive, rejoice; when they reject, dust the feet and go on.
Do I love the wicca and pagan? My, yes; it is a CARING love that says "you
are in gross error - turn now while there is time - while the blood of Jesus is
still made available to you -- while there is room at the cross -- you are in
error and headed toward a massive ditch ... turn."
I do not apologize for this kind of love. It may be misunderstood; but it is
necessary. If the pagan, wiccan or any other "ism" (which is, to the
Christian, part of the anti-Christ spirit) wants tolerance, I will gladly
"tolerate" them listening to God's Word and coming to Him through the blood of Jesus as we ALL must ere Jesus returns...to be saved by the wonderful grace of God through FAITH in Him.
The true Christian MUST stand up and be counted for Christ if the lost are ever going to be won -- they may scream "tolerance!" let me be me and die and go to hell if I want to"; but we cannot, MUST not let them do that without planting the seed of God's Word. For indeed the Word is true when it tells us that that person's blood will be required at OUR hands.
I have been called names and all such silliness, which amounts to naught; but I would rather be called His Slave and all that than to have that person stand before Christ and say "Accept Jesus Christ? Repent of sin and turn to God? He never told me it was this way!"
Listen, God loves you.
