What do you know?  How well do you know love? 

The fact that there are there so many movies and books about love, whether searching or finding love, whether winning a parent’s or child’s love, or learning to love oneself, indicates there’s more than just a little confusion about the topic.  

And what about knowledge? Here we are living in the Information Age – inundated with knowledge from Google or Cable networks, RSS feeds to our Blackberry – even information about how Joe’s diet is going on Facebook!  Since this is a spiritual site based on the Bible, let’s start with, I don’t know, God?

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

If God is love, then it stands to reason that we can only know how to love and how to be loved only as much as we know God!  God and Love are interchangeable! 

Recently, I was very ill and at points I really felt like giving up the ghost (I am sure I wasn’t even close, I’m just a big baby) – but I considered heaven and the Scripture (1 Cor 13:8) that mentions that even knowledge will pass away  – I thought “If I die there won’t be any knowledge?  What would be left“?  Could it be we will exist in a state of pure love with God?  My mind thinks “I’m not sure that is that enough?” since from childhood I have always have had such a thirst for knowledge.

  Then there are the Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 that says knowledge puffs up but love builds up, and also Prov 19:22 which says “What a man desires is unfailing love…”

  Okay, so far:

• What a man desires is unfailing love.
• God is love.
• We can’t know God if we do not love.
• Knowledge which puffs up will pass, but love, which builds up, will remain.

So the question remains is love, or God then for that matter, enough for me?

We are not left without similarities in the love we find in one another.  For those of you who are married, consider what is like when you’ve had a hard day, and you get home to your loved one – no matter what the day was like, what is going on in the world, when you’re together, the knowledge of all that becomes nothing compared to love and security you are experiencing…  Or for those who have children, they couldn’t care less about what you know – they only need to know they are loved.  Even back in my sick-bed, no matter of knowledge concerned me, or could help me for that matter.  I only wanted to be better.  My prayers were only for God’s love and mercy.  Would love alone be enough in that moment?  Yes.  Should love be enough in any other moment? Hmm… yes?  Will love be enough for eternity?  Perhaps that’s it.  Who needs knowledge when you have absolute unfailing love? 

When I consider the character of God, knowing where those missing socks went to, or what that dark matter on the far end of the universe is, or was there really a JFK conspiracy, or will there ever be a truly fat free, low cal food that tastes like bacon - well none of that even compares to unfailing love.   Love overpowers knowledge that much.   I have to admit as I looked up a few passages that came to mind, that a number of Scripture have both love and knowledge together, and make clear the perspective to which love is regarded against knowledge:

Ephesians 3:17-19
…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Huh.  What do you know?

There are certain times more than others, that the fabric of time, tissue-thin and translucent, is more apparent against the fragility of my own life.  Yet as I write, I leave tatters of myself in these words.  Ironic it is that time, in its familiar linear form, so resembles these scrawlings; these looping, interweaving  tokenistic threads – meaningless unless otherwise buoyed upon a living heart, mind and soul.

My Maker says that I am mist.  How then shall I make the most of this mist?  As a mist, might I be missed upon the blinking of an eye, or might I refresh upon a face, or dazzle, be it ever so briefly when lit?  Perhaps I may cling to that around me and persist for just a moment longer, like morning dew.

If I am to be a mist, then amen.  My I be driven then, not by storms, but by the will of God.  May I be the swirling illuminated spray that delights the Lord.  May I be no more and no less that what pleases He who made me and purposed me to be.  By reflecting His light, may I bear witness to the beauty of creation, nobility of purpose, and truth of life.

- Based on James 4

I really wanted to read something specifically about Jesus today for my QT. I love the depth of John, so I started there.

This link has a great in-depth analysis of the Scripture…

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/John/john_04.htm  

I love the insight that the Word is in thought before the voice speaks it, and then even after the voice speaks, the Word still exists… So it was with John the Baptist – as the “voice of one calling in the desert” – he was the vehicle, and as the Word, Jesus was before him, and after him. The Alpha and the Omega. A thread that has been fascinating me is Scriptures of the utter completeness of Christ in our universe. I am so glad that one of the dimensions of our relationship with God is discovery. We could have been born “knowing” God – and in some ways that is true – but discovering His character, His plan and purpose, His creation, the manifestations of His love – that seems to be the very essence of “life to the full”. At the point which we are not continually discovering God, I believe, that is where life turns hollow.

Isn't this fun?

This past week I led a Bible Discussion group – and I had an idea that I thought would be very interactive and interesting.  I was perplexed by why we spend our lives learning to care for ourselves and develop a strong self-identity, only to, upon following Jesus, but told we need to deny all that.  It seemed a bit counter-intuitive.  Not only that, but it seemed a bit punitive as well.  I understood of course that unless I follow Jesus in the direction He’s going, then I could not actually claim to be following.  If He was headed west, and I was headed east – how could I claim to be following Him?  But there is something more that I learned as I examined this.  That unless we deny ourselves and obey God, we cannot become part of God’s overall plan – the Big Picture if you will.    I figured this could be illustrated and done as a fun Bible discussion.  Attached are the outlines and the materials needed to do this yourself, should you be so inclined…

Read through and take a look at the attached documents to learn more about  how the concept of “self” is directly linked to your sense of  purpose in life, and how by denying it, you can become part of something far greater than you ever could on your own…

 A video of how it worked for us…

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak before the church on Sunday.  We were in the middle of a series on sharing the Gospel.  Our Evanglelist, Jeff Schachinger was recovering from an operation, and I decided to stick to the theme.  I essentially pulled from my personal studies in recent weeks primarily about drawing near to God.

Below are my notes and the “mind map” I used to put together my message.  I am not sure what anyone will be able to draw from this, since these were just the bullet points aroud which I spoke.  Leave comments if you have any questions or would like more information regarding this message.

Sharing the Gospel Message Outline. Click for full-sized picture.

I use a freeware program called FreeMind.  I think it is excellent.  The above mind map produces the following outline (minus the formatting, I copied and pasted the outline into Word and then did the formatting…)

Sharing the Gospel

• Begins and Ends with the Greatness of God
• Greatness of God
  • Scientific
    • Creation
      • Singularity (explaining what a singularity is)
      • Hydrogen and Helium big bang only
      • Heavier metals in stars
      • The sun the right age to produce a lot of carbon
      • Just the right place in the galaxy
      • Just the right place in universe
      • Moon, just the right orbit
      • Orbit – just right for seasons
    • Precision
      • Angle of water molecule
      • Rate of expansion
    • Biological
      • DNA Information
      • Protein folding
      • Motor Proteins
  • Character
    • Loving Father
  • Story – Foreshadow
    • Cain & Abel
    • Abraham & Isaac
    • Joshua and Jesus
• In creation
  • What doesn’t last
    • All creation
      • Matt 24:35
        Heaven and earth will pass away,
        but my words will never pass away.
    • Men
      • Psalm 103:14-16
        ..for he knows how we are formed,
        he remembers that we are dust. As
        for man, his days are like grass, he
        flourishes like a flower of the field;
        the wind blows over it and it is gone,
        and its place remembers it no more.
    • Our jobs
      • Ecclesiastes 2:21
        For a man may do his work with wisdom,
        knowledge and skill, and then he must
        leave all he owns to someone who has
        not worked for it. This too is meaningless
        and a great misfortune.
  • What lasts
    • God
      Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
    • God’s Word
      • John 1:1
        In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.   Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life,
        and that life was the light of men.
    • Souls
      • Eph 1:3-10
        • Chosen in Him before creation
        • In Love adopted through Jesus
        • Grace through Jesus
        • In Him have redemption
        • Wisdom and knowledge purposed in Christ
        • All things in heaven and earth under Christ
          • Revelation 22:13
            I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
          • How could we ever presume to do anything then without Him?
    • Treasure
      • Matt 6:19
        Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
        • In context of doing “religious” acts
        • God is the sole focus
          • Giving
          • Praying
          • Fasting
          • Evangelism
          • Stewardship
• Draw Near To God
  • John 15:5
    “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Psalm 18:29
With your help I can advance against a troop ; with my God I can scale a wall.

James 4:8
Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Psalm 1

Summary:

• The Greatness of God
  When you focus on the greatness of God, you always have something to share
• What lasts and what does not last
  Realizing what lasts and what does not last puts things in the proper perspective
• Draw Near to God
  Drawing near to God enables you to do anything good at all.
• Begins and Ends with the Greatness of God?
  Begins in our lives every day with our focused time of devotion with God, and it ends and begins in someone else’s life with whom we share the Word and our lives with.

This is one from May 19th 2009. I was focusing on character – considering setbacks. You can see the influences from the books I’ve been reading, but I am encouraged!

Character is found at the trailing edge of a pause. Character is seized in the tired gap of a decision. Character is imbued not upon the rising grade of resolve, not on the foothill leading out of a valley of deceptive ease, but upon the tenth such foothill, upon the twentieth mountain; the hundredth of such pauses. And yet, in such character is found all the brilliance of Spring in the soul. Pain and burden are but companions to hope and promise. A man who is prodded and pushed is likely to be trampled by that which drives him – but a led man, a called man, though he may stumble has a guide at every step. At the heart of character is the calling to do good. Whoever does not turn back then, and who does not give up inherits the journey and is transformed to the core of his being.

From birth, we embark on a quest of establishing self-identity.   Our first words indicate a demarcation from anyone else in the words “no” and “mine”.  We learn to write our name.  We discover and develop our strengths. We are taught to feed ourselves, dress ourselves and in all other ways take care of and serve ourselves.

 Then along comes Jesus and his teaching that if we are to follow Him, we must deny ourselves daily (Luke 9:23).  Huh?  Why did God build in us such a strong sense of ‘self’ only to require the denial of it on a daily basis in order to live in accordance to His will?

 It may be worth noting a difference between self and individualism.  One can be unique in their identity without being self-focused or self-consumed.  Could that be the point of the Scripture: to understand where the investment of will is?  Do I invest the essence of my life to fulfill the will of God, or do I expend myself for my self’s sake?  It seems to go without saying that a self-consumed life greatly limits purpose beyond that life.

 Could it be then, that somehow, the existence of self is somehow directly tied to purpose?  That might explain why we as humans innately search for purpose.  If that is the case, then it is still not clear then why, if self is tied to purpose, Jesus teaches us to deny it daily.

 I believe there is another dimension involved, to which I alluded earlier – and that is will.  Without self-awareness, can there be any free will?  Without this strong sense of self would we have anything more to offer beyond that of a simple tool like say a wrench, or a dish-towel?  Could it be that this wild and powerful force in our lives we call our self then might not be a detraction from the will of God, but absolutely necessary in order to fulfill the will of God?

 Consider a computer screen. It is made up of thousands upon thousands of individual light-emitting points called pixels. They respond to instructions to emit one color or another, to maintain that color, or to change to another color. However, without any programming, they do nothing at all. A program can be written for them to display a picture, and it will be exactly as programmed.  At best, they will only ever light up, go dark, display this color or that. 

 Now imagine each one of us as a pixel, each with it’s own self will. If each pixel were to choose for itself what color it will emit and when, the multiplied effect among all the pixels would preclude any kind of coherent picture.  There could be random swaths of this color or that color for a fleeting moment, but nothing discernable.  So where does the ‘big picture’ come from then?  The Lord, of course.  When I deny myself (still as a pixel here) and display from the full palette afforded my by God, and I display what He wants, when He wants it, and for how long, then my ‘self’ upon being denied, glorifies God in a way that by my own will I could never do.  This would be like someone sitting in front of a computer and the pixels all deciding to submit to the will of the viewer, and by doing so, all coordinate with one another to create something truly miraculous. 

So then, If I choose to be self-ish, I am only lost in a sea of random meaninglessness. I may seek to proudly display my favorite color, or I may react to the colors of those nearby, but beyond that I can’t even know what I should or could be doing….my purpose is unclear.  It is impossible to, by looking only at myself and my circumstances determine what that purpose is.  By denying myself, however, in order to follow Jesus, I have joined something far greater than myself in scope and direction and am able to acheive something that tanscends even my singularly designed purpose! 

 So then, God’s design in the creation of us proves once again to be perfect!