Poem wrtten in the Desert

Pursuit of Truth

Carnal hands will never touch the stars; they are much too high, only a walk with God will bring them nigh.

Selfish pursuits will not take us there; our hearts are much to deceitful to make it fair.

What appears as truth in the human mind may not be what it has been; not that truth changes just the views of men.

Religious societies have shaped our thoughts to receive only what they have taught; in the eyes of God they are at naught.

His eyes only convey what His Spirit has wrought.

When human opinion of truth is wrong, it must be remembered who sets upon the throne, for truth is a deity all of its own; Truth bows to no man weak or strong.

Written by Joseph Robinson

Salvation A Pentecostal Perspective

 SOTERIOLOGY IN PENTECOSTAL TRAJECTORY

Colossians 3:14 (NRSV)

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

            Love is the centerpiece of our redemption in the Pentecostal faith; this love is not a flimsy emotional frenzy connected to a mystical feeling, but rather, the very source by which our faith exist. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).

            Love is God at work in us. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  It is His love for us and our love for Him that we understand salvation as a way of life and a way of living.  Salvation is a path taking us from this temporal life to the immortal life of eternity with the one we love and the one who loves us; Father God.

            Salvation is not seen as a one-time event, it is not something we earn or something static setting in the corner of our lives as a memory that we are no longer connected to.  Salvation is a gift given to us by God; it is the life of God dynamically growing in us transforming us in the purchased gift of redemption, not of silver nor of gold but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ the captain of our salvation (1Peter 1:18-20).

            Our pursuit of holiness is holiness pursuing us. “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12 NASB).

            As I see it, holiness is interaction, transformational exchange between our lives and the life of God, “Jesus became like us so we could become like Him.” (Dr. Land)  I am grateful that Jesus did not set up in heaven with His holiness and expect that we would get it without Him.  He became flesh and dwelt among us; He brought Himself and His holiness to us.

            "Our pursuit of holiness is not a means to establish a form of legalism; legalism is choosing certain things to justify ourselves.  Thus, obedience to God’s will and a passion for God’s will is not legalism.  This is where love comes into play; Pentecostal theology of holiness in the process of salvation is whole hearted love to God as we walk out our lives in the revelation of His love for us" (Dr.Land).

            Furthermore, righteousness is the structure that shapes holiness internally and externally in all that God requires, and the content becomes the triune love of God at work in us and for us.  Therefore, holiness is not righteousness against us.  It is His love that empowers us to live righteously, and that empowerment is directing us towards His goal or that which He has in mind.  This becomes Christianity lived out as we participate with God and His nature.

            Once we understand His love for us and realize He is for us and not against us is when our passion for holiness grows stronger.  It is in the crisis moments of our lives that the Spirit and the Word collides with our former nature and our new found nature in Christ. Rather than ignoring the crisis, we Pentecostals see this as redemptive opportunity to walk in the light as He is in the light (1John 1:5-7).

            We do not teach a sinless life, on the other hand, we have no “happy sin” in us; once sin is revealed by the Spirit and the Word it becomes unhappy and remains unhappy until His love wrestles it out of us. “‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other’.  The point of union between these two perfections is the infinite love of God in which all divine qualities are finished.  This is true holiness: pure religion and undefiled before God (James 1:27).” (Dr. Gause) 

            As a result, our spirituality is clearly marked as our beliefs and practices are manifested out of our affections for the one who has demonstrated His love toward us.  We believe that a combination of right beliefs (orthodoxy), right practices (orthopraxy), and right affections (orthopathy) work together as an ethos that clearly marks our path of salvation.

            We begin this journey by activating our faith in the grace gift of repentance; this is where the Spirit and the Word develops within us a godly sorrow induced upon us by the goodness of God (2Corinthians 7:9).  His mercy and His goodness afford this gift to us; and it has been purchased for us by the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross of Calvary. 

            In other words, repentance is not something we can conjure up out of our own goodness or just because we decided one day to be a better person.  There is this deep sense of knowing that comes to us in the form of revelation, and this revelation is birthed in us by the Spirit and the Word of God.

            This revelation becomes a resolve that we are sinful, wicked, and twisted in our human sinful nature.  This deep sense of knowing is a turning in God that sets us on this path of salvation, that in the redemptive process we are continually turning from being distant from God to being to drawn to Him: “…turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth” (Jeremiah 31:18-19). 

            This interaction with God is a faith walk and with our faith in this interaction we are justified by our faith; God’s grace in this relational transformation remits our sinful acts and declares us righteous in Christ Jesus (2Corinthians 5:21; 6:1-2).

            As we interact with God in this process the Spirit and the Word working together creates this crisis development dialectic changing us from glory to glory (revelation to revelation).   Therefore, repentance unto salvation is not just an initial encounter but also becomes revolving in the fuller redemptive plan of God.

            Initially in repentance we are adopted into the family of God by the new birth; we are born of the spirit, not by a corruptible seed, but by an incorruptible seed (the Word of God).  We were dead in our trespasses and sins and now are made alive as a creative act of grace in regeneration; creating a new inner nature.

                Moreover, with this new nature and as a new creature in Christ through regeneration, we are released into a more fruitful growth in and by the Holy Spirit to another definite work of grace, subsequent to the initial work of grace in repentance, justification, adoption, and regeneration; that being sanctification.

"Intimacy" a Pentecostal Model

INTIMACY A PENTECOSTAL MODEL

“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
2 Peter 1:9

“…perhaps the greatest obstacle to a proper understanding of the church is the tendency to absolutize one historical form or one particular image or model of the church. The gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is always greater than our theologies, including our theologies of the church.  When the church keeps its eyes on Christ and remains open to the Holy Spirit, it is in touch with the one necessary power of continuous reform and renewal of ecclesial life.”

(Daniel L. Migliore)

This statement by Milgliore grabbed me the deepest of all in chapter 11 of his book. 

-I’M GOING BACK TO CALVARY-

With what little I have learned of theologies the doctrines of men and all that is concerning them

The greatest thing I’ve ever learned is Jesus died for me and by His blood I know I am free

I am going back to Calvary – I don’t want to be too far from the tree where Jesus bled and He died for me – I’m going back to Calvary –

The most common ground in Christianity is on the cross where Jesus died for you and me

Our enmities started on a tree in the garden and it will end on a tree at Calvary

I am going back to Calvary – I don’t want to be too far from the tree where Jesus bled and He died for me – I’m going back to Calvary –

Song Written by Joseph Robinson

            As I see it, nothing can take the place of intimacy with God. This is where ecclesiology has its foundation, it is from here that it begins and it is from here that all its efforts come back to. Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…” (Matthew 16:18). It is upon the foundational ground that Peter knew who Jesus was and even more so that Jesus knew who Peter was; this becomes the foundation that all things are built upon concerning ecclesiology (2 Timothy 2;19; 1 Corinthians 8:3).

            “He went in and knew her.”  This is a biblical term for intimacy between a man and a woman.  It simply means, in knowing each other, they intimately own each other (1 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 5:31). When we as the church marry what we a doing and become more intimate with our mission than we do God, then what we are doing becomes more important than God.

            This was the case with those Jesus spoke of: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23) [Emphases added].

            I was at a funeral in the country the other day. A ninety year old man walked up to me at the grave site.  I did not know him; he gave no greetings, just spoke this to me: “I have come to know that if I am friendly and open to God, He is willing to be friendly and open to me.”

            Sometimes we get too busy trying to complete an agenda that we miss relationships that can become greater than our mission; what these relationships can offer is lost in our self-interest and self-centeredness.  This is the case with iniquity driven ministries, although they may be full of good intentions; unless our ministries and ways of doing things are not flowing out of intimacy with God, it is our goodness leading us rather than God.

            This is no deep theology or some knew thought concerning ecclesiology; nonetheless, it is simple truth and when lived out, it is called “being led by the Spirit.”  Now that is Pentecostal in nature. As Dr. Gause said, “Pentecostal is Christianity and Christianity is Pentecostal.”

            This was the model of the New Testament Church as I see it.  They were simply led by the Spirit to go places and to do certain things in the places where they found themselves. This was the case with Philip in Samaria (Acts 8:5-25), and this was the case with Paul concerning Macedonia (Acts 16:9-10). As far as that goes, that was the case with the “acts of the apostles” in the whole book of Acts.

            As I read Milgliore’s “Critique of Current Models of the Church” it was as though I was reading something similar to Jesus talking to the seven churches of Asia.  He would point out the positives then he would point out the negatives, then he came to the conclusion I recorded above as what grabbed me the deepest.

            We become blind and cannot see afar off (prophetically) when we lose the gratefulness and the value of intimacy found in the shed blood of Jesus. I was broken down and tore up from the floor up when Jesus reach down with His great mercy and put His love all over me and inside me. If I in my living should walk away from that point of reference, I have moved away from the source that drives me as a believer; my eyes are taken off of the sweetness of His grace and cannot see the opportunities standing right in front of me.

            As I stood out in the middle of the land of Ur serving my country with the 82^nd Airborne Division during the Desert Storm Gulf War, there was this old sheep herdsmen out in the middle of no-where walked up to me.  The way he was clothed, he looked like somebody walking out of the Bible.

            His face was deeply wrinkled from the years of desert life.  As he looked into my eyes, I saw wisdom of a kind I have never witnessed before; I knew that old man knew more than I ever thought I could know. About that time, with curiosity, he reaches out his hand and takes one of the buttons on my shirt and looked at it with amazement. Evidently, he had never seen a button. He could not speak my language and I could not speak his.  However, as we stood there and encountered each other, somehow, we understood each other. 

            Why am I saying this? What does this have to do with ecclesiology?  I did a little sign language for prayer, and the old man closed his eyes and bowed his head and let me pray for him.  When done praying, he smiled at me and walked away into the desert with his sheep.

            We are the church wherever we are.  I shared a prayer and the old man received it; we were from different cultures and whatever else was different did not matter, we gave friendship and relationship to each other.

            This was what Abraham and Melchisedec gave each other, and from that premise a relationship was fostered into something that God was a part of.  When the Bible is living inside of us; when God is living inside of us, we do not need a script telling us what to do.  The life of God is in us and is capable out of intimacy to accomplish anything that needs to be accomplished (Mark 16:20).

            One may ask, if that is all you need to be the church anywhere, then why are you in seminary? I am massaging that intimacy I have with God.  The Spirit and the Word are the agents that inspire us and lead us into being the Body of Christ on this planet.

            One of the things I have noticed in the study of soteriology was that everything in salvation was dynamic in nature. If I understand correctly what Milgliore is saying in his statement above concerning ecclesiology, the life and mission of the church is also dynamic in nature. 

            This does not surprise me; the reason being, if the life of God in us is dynamic in nature, then I am thinking we as the church will be dynamic in nature as well, and as we evolve and come closer to the end (eschatology) we will always need to shape ourselves according to what the Spirit is leading us to do and be.

            This is even so with our revelation concerning doctrine.  For example, in the beatitude discourse Jesus gave, He went into saying over and over, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you.” Here Jesus was teaching us that our understanding and revelation should not become static, but also must be dynamic in nature.

            Therefore, my reflection concerning ecclesiology is that if we keep our intimacy open and friendly to God, then God will keep Himself open and friendly to us.  John the beloved said in his writings that we were to remember the things from our beginning (1 John 1:1-40). I conclude that there is something in what God does in us at the beginning that we need to take with us through to the end.

            I believe “that something” has to do with intimacy; we need to cultivate it and keep it fresh. The life of the church depends upon it regardless of what portion of theology we may be working through.  We, being the church need to hear from God.  I am a proponent of educating ourselves, this is why I am in this seminary; however, there is no knowledge, no brain large enough to take the place of intimacy with God.

            This takes that deep gratefulness, respect, and honor for the gift of salvation that God has given us. If we fail to keep it fresh, our models for the church will become molded and as rotten as the manna did in the wilderness.  Give us “this day” our “daily” bread.

WORD OF WISDOM

The Gift of the Word of Wisdom

Manifested in Jesus

JOHN 6:1-13

        As we look out at our community and further to the global needs of our times.  We may find it as massive as Philip in his as he looked at the five thousand needing to be fed.  We too as Philip, may count the cost from a carnal perspective without knowing that Jesus desires that we see things from a spiritual perspective as He did in this text. 

The Father had already revealed to Jesus by the gift of the word of wisdom how this meal would be provided.  “And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do” (Vs 6).  The revelatory gift was the gift of the word of wisdom because only the Father new ahead of time where the meal would be. 

Consequently, this made it prophetic in nature.  The Father knew the little boy would be there with his five loaves and two fishes.  As small and insignificant as it may have appeared; and against all natural logic, God had a supernatural plan to multiply a child’s meal to feed a multitude. 

God is looking for an Andrew that is willing to stretch their vision beyond natural logic to capture a glimpse of the supernatural.  For example, even though Philips statement in verse nine referring to the five barley loaves and two fishes said; “...but what are they among so many?”  Andrew's find stands as a recognition that the small lunch was a supernatural opportunity. 

How many times have we passed up the supernatural opportunities afforded to us because we are unwilling to believe that by some chance the stretch of imagining the abilities of God can supersede the inabilities of natural logic? 

We serve a supernatural God that is willing to turn our small things into big things.  Peter would have never known how it felt to walk on water if he had not allowed his imagination to catch just a glimpse that the possibilities of God would be in his favor beyond natural logic.

  When Jesus said “Come” Peter made his leap.   As he began to experience his supernatural, his natural began to notice the waves against him.  Likewise, Philips natural saw the many against the small.  However, Jesus said, “Make the men sit down”.  In the middle of Philips supernatural recognition and natural observation Jesus began to multiply the prophetic knowledge given to him by his Father as he broke the bread and the fishes. 

Likewise, Jesus in his prophetic knowledge when he ascended into heaven gave five ministry gifts to the church.  These five ministry gifts while walking in agreement with the two, the Spirit and the Word may be small and insignificant to natural logic when compared to the fragmented Body of Christ and a lost and dying world.  On the other hand, at the head of all this great need is a resurrected Lord who has time and time again defied natural logic to perform the supernatural.

 Jesus prophetically knew these five gifts and the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth would be sufficient to heal the fragmentation of his body and to take the gospel to a lost and dying world.  Once again, Jesus is in search of our Andrew's today that are willing to Praise God beyond the limitations and are willing in faith to stand between the recognition of the supernatural and observation of the natural so that by some stretch of the imagination God would do things that is worthy of himself. 

Paul has written “...What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.  These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within?  So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.  And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.  Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.  For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?  But we have the mind of Christ” (1Corinthians 2:9-16 OAB). 

Every since I have learned that we serve a transcendent God, I seek to open myself for His overflowing.  It is my prayer that we do not miss the big things God is waiting to create out of the small things.  Therefore, we will not despise the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10), for therein the wisdom of God reveals to us the big things.

Have a blessed day,

Pastor Bo       

          

Silent Fire

Silent Fire

There is a Silent Fire burning beneath all this rubble

A combustible heat burning hotter and hotter

It is gonna break out and Burn!

It’s gonna Burn! It’s gonna Burn!

Everything is going to change

Rubble from top to bottom is piled high

A rubble of iniquity twisted and wicked from earth to sky

Elongated piety perching with smirking smiles drapes this pile

Disguising good with evil and evil with good 

Exterior pomp of surety will soon answer the Fire burning beneath this pile

Underneath it all a generation chosen to walk with God is the Silent Fire

There is no need for noise as their small embers burn beneath the pile

Political noise draped and poised will have control over the rubble for only a while

Culture changers - carriers of God’s presence seek not to destroy

Just to burn till all understand the peace of God has no need to rile to reconcile

No picket lines, no angry frowns of lobby clowns will stand against this pile

Such ignorance only fuel their piety filled smirking smiles

The time has come to burn - a baptism of fire that causes one to learn

Not a peace the rubble tends to lend a peace that burns in the heart that will not bend

No tribulation not even a trial can quench the purpose in this fire    

With every step with every mile the Silent Fire burns beneath the pile

PRAYER

PRAYER

Psalm 116:1-2 (KJV)
¹ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
² Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The Psalmist is saying that He loves the Lord as a response to the interaction God has shown to His prayers.  Once we have prayed and God interacts with our request; we will be spoiled to say with the Psalmist, “therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”

Prayer enables and equips us to do the work of God.  Prayer enables us to face things that are perplexing and regretful to face.  Prayer brings us into God’s world and God’s world into ours.

After years of hearing the Word of God we can with our intellect believe that God exist; with prayer to God we are taking the extra step of expressing that belief.  After all, it is not normal to speak to anything or anyone that we do not believe is there.

A child of God that does not pray is missing what the Father of heaven has desired the most from His children.  Prayer brings us into fellowship with our heavenly Father.  Prayer to our heavenly Father is the most basic activity that establishes sensitivity, affection, and the loving awareness that our heavenly Father is as real as an embrace with another human being.

Our heavenly Father is invisible to us; therefore, prayer is the vital connection connecting us to Father God.  Although we cannot see Him, in prayer He is real and present.

Many times in life we as the children of Israel have lived out our lives unaware of His presence, doing whatever we have chosen to do without any regards to His heart or pleasure.  As a result, we find ourselves captive to the things we have wasted our passions on.

This was the case as they found themselves taken from their homeland to be strangers and foreigners beholden to the Persians in Babylonian captivity, and even though their carnal passions had driven them there; Father God extended His love by saying this to them:

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (KJV)
¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
¹² Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
¹³ And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
¹⁴ And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Prayer is what God has chosen to bring us into His favor.  As we call upon Him in prayer, Father God will begin to move both heaven and earth to set us free from the entanglements we have gotten ourselves into with our misplaced passions.

Hebrews 11:6 declares this: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Faith is important, however, faith is not all inclusive to what moves the heart of God towards us.  We can believe that He is, but we also must diligently seek him; prayer is the tool God has given us to seek Him.  “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

Abraham in the scripture is known as the father of faith.  Even Abraham knew that thinking things by faith was not enough to bring our thoughts into being as evidenced in Romans 4:17.  “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

Once again, taking the faith we have in God and expressing that faith in prayer creates an interaction that demands a response.  In the beginning, God said, let there be light and light came into being.  In the Hebrew tongue, when God said let there be light, it was both a command and an invitation, or command as an invitation.

In other words, God was inviting the light to come into being as an interaction to His request.  Likewise, when we pray to God, it too is an invitation; we are inviting God to enter into our world as an interaction to our request.

This is why Abraham’s faith worked for Him.  He called out those things that were not as though they were with an expectation of interaction.  God expected the light to respond and we too must believe that God will respond.

¹ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
² Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

LOVE A SURE SIGN OF LIFE

LOVE A SURE SIGN OF LIFE

1John 3:11-16

11  For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12  Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

13  Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

16  Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

          This is the seventh time the beginning is mentioned in this letter written by John.  As we have said before, how we start with God determines the depth we are willing to go with God.  Consequently, no matter where we wind up with God; our beginning will always follow us to whatever extent we may go (Luke 14:28-30).

          In our society today people enter into marriage with the idea that if it does not work; we can start over again with someone else.  We must understand, anytime we enter a relationship with the idea that it may not work already sets the pace for failure. This is one of the reasons why divorce is so prevalent among us.

          This mentality has also crept into the church of our day; many come to God with a non-commitment in the beginning.  In other words, I am here as long as things go my way or as long as I can act independently with my own choices. 

         The fact is, love demands ownership.  To love and to be loved is to expect demands and to have the heart to court those demands.  We cannot enter into relationships with the idea that we are independent of responsibility to the relationship and expect that the relationship will last.

          Love is not independently its own entity working as a tool to control others; on the contrary, love extends itself with the hope of being received as it is given that it might cultivate relationship in the freedom of interactions. This is expressed in the creation as God said, “Let there be Light.”  In the Hebrew language, this word “let” is both a command and an invitation (the very first spoken word recorded in scripture). 

God being love extended Himself by allowing the light to be light as a response to His request in the command. The command was His desire to see light be.  Therefore, when light came into being love was happening; light was responding to God’s invitation.  Therefore, the creation becomes relational in the act of love. 

You see, love can effect the emotions but cannot be determined by emotion; love is a choice and is responsible to those choices.  Love is reciprocal; it is both giving and receiving.  Therefore, love takes commitment to work as it is designed to work.

          In the beginning of time God made the choice to love us.  He was and is committed to that choice.  God is love – it is in His being to love because He is love.  When He chose to love us He manifested His commitment to that choice by preordaining His journey to the cross before the world was formed, before He actually created us as recorded in Ephesians 1:3-6        “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” 
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Romans 5:8-10).

          Before we had fallen to sin He had already predestined us in Christ to be redeemed by His blood that was to be shed on the cross (2Peter 3:9).  This is love in its purest form; God chose to love knowing we would fail Him. 

          Now, that is commitment.  God committed Himself to love us before He created us.  This is why Salvation is an invitation of love.  God made His move in love towards us before we came into being; what makes that love reciprocal is when we choose to love Him back by letting Him own us and by letting Him set the demands of love in our response to Him.

          This thought is validated by 1Corinthians 6:19-20 “…know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

          You see, we love God because He first loved us as recorded in 1John 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us.”   God being love has already made His move.  He sent us His son Jesus to redeem us from our sins so that we can be committed to Him in love.

          We have got to get this in our spirit and in our understanding; to love God is to become responsible to His ownership, to be responsible to the demands that His love calls for.  This is not God controlling us; this is us choosing to love God, choosing to respond to His love.

          Bringing this understanding into our text will enlarge our understanding of the text.  The message we hear from the beginning is that we love one another.  The same way that God has loved us in the beginning is the way we should love others.

          What His love has done for us is what our love should do for others.  We must also choose to love others with the same preordained commitment, and that is, we choose to love them knowing that they will fail us.  We must already have it in our mind that we will lay our lives down for their advantage in the relationship we have chosen to enter with them as evidenced in verse 16 of our text, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

          This is why it is not about what others deserve in our relationship with them; it is about our actions, it is about our actions in the relationship.  God did not give us what we deserved when He decided to love us, when He decided to enter into relationship with us He acted out His love towards us by laying His life down for us as evidenced in John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Love gave us the power to love God back and love will give others the power to love us back.  When we stop giving people what they are giving us; when we decide that it is not as much about what they deserve as it is about “our actions” is when we take the initiative to love.  Love sets the boundaries for freedom; love opens the flood gates of empowerment.

Are we getting the picture?  Love is not some flimsy loose emotion of lust in sexual encounters; love is denying oneself at the expense of hope, the hope that one will choose to love us back.  Love is not the demand that others bow down and become slaves (John 15:15).  Love is a sacrifice on our part that can only be reprieved when it is love coming back at us in respect for the sacrifice we have made. 
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). The greatest way to solve the aloneness issues we may have is in the willingness to die to our self preservation's; being willing to be over our disappointments before they even begin. Is this not the love God gave us in His death?

The highest expression of love is a self-sacrifice that spares not life itself.  This is why God sent Abraham on his journey to sacrifice Isaac; not that God wanted Abraham to kill His son but that Abraham would have a revelation of the sacrifice love serves.  God wanted Abraham and us to know the sacrifice He gave to love us; the invitation of love He has offered to us. 

2Timothy1:7-10 declares this to us: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,  But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:”

 

            John 17:20-26

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26  And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
 

John 3:35

35    The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

John 5:20

For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.