Friday, April 8, 2011

Let Love Be Genuine

"We love because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

Man! It has been so good reading and seeing how God has been moving through this study! I am incredibly encouraged by what God is doing in your lives. I feel like I say this all the time but I am getting increasingly more excited for the summer every day.

These past weeks, God has been wrecking me through this study and especially on love. He is reshaping my idea of what love is for Him, how love for others looks like, and how He loves us. His love for us is then poured out onto the campers, church staff, dock staff, and each other through us. One of the reasons God came down in human form was to model how we should respond to God and relate to others. The rejoicing and compassion that Christ shared for his fellow man are things that we should be showing to others.

Disclaimer: Even though this isn't necessarily this week, I was thinking about this and I felt like I would share with you guys what I feel God is teaching me in this.

I'm so glad that part of our study was on John 21. That is my favorite chapter of the Bible. Maybe because I feel like I identify with Peter so much. No matter what crazy awesome experiences I have with God, I never quite get it. Peter walked with Jesus. He saw the Son of God feed 5,000 men, cast out demons, and perform crazy healings. Peter saw the transfiguration for crying out loud! Man! That guy intensely experienced Jesus for three years. But when the time came when he was faced with the fear of persecution for his faith, he quickly turned. He was more concerned about what the crowds thought of him than what God thought of him. Now you can bet that he was overcome with guilt and shame after that. That must have been wrecking him night and day, day after day. When Peter sees Jesus from the boat, he is overcome with joy and repentance. Literally grabs everything that he has and once again, throws it at the feet of Jesus. I just love the imagery of other disciples in the boat seeing Jesus, John saying it is Jesus, and then Peter's reaction of "I can't wait for this boat to get over there and see Him. I want to be with Him as fast as I can. I need Jesus now!" and plunging himself into the water. I want that. I want to be in that place where I throw caution to the wind so I can be in the presence of my savior.

Don't you love it when you're watching a movie or experiencing something that is intended to be secular and God moves through that? This is a clip from a movie called The Patriot with Mel Gibson. In this scene, Mel's character is leaving his family to go fight in the revolutionary war. His daughter, Susan, has not spoken since the death of her mother (If you've never seen the movie before, go out and see it).



I have recently, through this study and through the study of Galatians we are going over in church, been discovering the "Abba, Father" aspect of God. How he is a perfect father and we are his children. This clip reminds me of Peter's/our relationship with our Father. God says "Come to me! Talk with me! Just one word! Please!" God's love for us is genuine love. He reaches out to hold us yet sometimes we back off. I can't imagine how sad God must feel when I sin. God looks at us and says "I love you so much that I let my son go through the pain and punishment so that you don't have to. Why do you continue to go back to that?". But then there are those moments when we realize our sin and what we're missing out on. We cry "Abba! Papa! Don't go! I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll say whatever you want me to say! Let me be with you!" and God comes running back to us saying "You know, you make me very happy. I'm coming back for you. I promise." I don't know about you, but I relate to that a lot.

Romans 12:9 says "Let love be genuine." God intends for us to love campers, church staff, dock staff, and each other the way that Christ modeled. When we are participating in genuine love, we are being Jesus to those whom we interact with. The Father calls us to display the love that Jesus showed us to others in every way that Jesus did. My prayer for myself and for the rest of us this summer is that when we come in contact with those around us, we are embodying the love of Christ to the point where they see right through us and look into the face of God. "He must increase, but I must decrease" - John 3:30

Ps sorry for the super long post

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