VBS Message 2025

 

What was this week all about?

OK, Monday was about remembering those who gave the last full measure of devotion for their country. It was about those who gave their todays for our tomorrows. We should remember those who did not return every day that we live in liberty.

The rest of the week was this thing called Vacation Bible School or VBS. But why?

Why do VBS?

It’s not that anyone who was teaching or making snacks or leading songs didn’t have anything else to do this summer.  Do you know anyone these days with time on their hands?

So why?

It’s a money maker for us, of course. Not. VBS is fairly expensive in time, resources, manpower, and money. 

So why VBS?

Parents, would you let you children experiment with drugs so they could decide if they wanted to use heroin or meth or maybe a little acid? Would you let their 12-year-old mind contemplate those choices without some education and counsel?

Parents, would you just give you 9-year-old the car keys and say, “Good luck” or send them to the tattoo parlor with $200 and then go to Wal-Mart for a couple hours and see what your kid looks like when you come back?

So you thought a swastika on your forehead would be cool? Oh, it was a by one-get one deal. You got a what, where? At least it was on sale.

Would you just let them eat junk food all the time? It’s their body and their choice, right? I can’t believe that some of you let your kids eat frozen chicken nuggets. Put those things in the microwave for 38 seconds first.

The world will tell you just those things. The world will tell you to let your child choose their own gender even though your child may not understand gender. Many of them are still wondering about cooties. If you follow the science, there is really no such thing as a sex change.

You can play Mr. Potato Head all you want, but you were born with two Xs or an X and a Y, and you can’t change that.

What’s that got to do with VBS?

Would you let your child go through their formative years without education, guidance, or counsel?  Do you want them to know the truth?

Of course we do!

So, is the purpose of VBS to indoctrinate? No, it is to educate.  But what then?

Then, these young people need to look at the examples of those who believe in God and profess his Son, Christ Jesus as Lord. It’s simple education and example.

The education part sounds good, but I don’t know a single Christian who hasn’t made a whole bunch of mistakes, some very serious.

And for those who have been educated in the ways of the Lord, we know that the world doesn’t always forgive, but God does.

God forgives!  For the believer, God has promised to forgive us whenever we confess our sins—our missteps, our mistakes, our attempts to hit the target of right living that just missed the mark.

God forgives.

There is a way in which we should go that God has prescribed. It is for our own good and we are blessed to follow it, but nobody can get it right every time.

Don’t throw in the towel because God has loved you with an everlasting love. He knows you and your struggles as well as your victories. He knows you and he loves you.

Why VBS? People need to know:

·       God is real. He is more than a concept.

·       God is good. God alone can define what is good.

·       God is important. He is not an option. He is central to life.

·       Knowing God is important.

·       Trusting God is important.

·       Receiving God’s love through Christ Jesus is important, most likely the most important thing anyone of us will ever do for ourselves.

·       Bringing up our children in the way they should go is absolutely important, and surely the most important thing you will do for them. Parents, don’t leave your children’s future to chance. Bring them up in the way of the Lord.

VBS is about education. It’s not just rules to follow but what happens to us when we fall short, and we all fall short.

VBS is about knowing that God will always love you and wants the best for you. His law was given for our own good.

His forgiveness comes from a divine heart of love. He did not create us to throw us away but for us to realize everything that we can from life. God wants us to have full lives.

I didn’t say trouble free lives for you will have trouble in the world.

Do you want to know how much God loves you? While we were still sinners Christ died to take away our sins. God through Christ did everything to make us right with him.

I see this meme too often online. I sinned more than you could imagine, but God dropped the charges.  It sounds good but it is nonsense. God did not drop the charges. You were charged and found guilty. The sentence was death.

Jesus stood in your place and took your punishment so you could live. The gift of God that we know in Christ Jesus is life, life abundant, and life eternal!

It’s a gift. We did nothing to earn or deserve it. We have nothing to brag about. It is 100% gift.  All we have to do is receive it. We receive it in our profession of faith.

One day, these VBS students will wrestle with the idea of life and the many theories of what life is all about. They may flirt with worldly models and concepts. They may explore the world’s religions.

In my day, many were becoming Buddhist because it was the cool thing to do. Some explored other Eastern religions. The common denominator among them is the ultimate goal in life is to reach a state of nonexistence.

Some of us grew up with cogito, ergo sum or I think, therefore I am. That was Rene Descartes for those who want to fact check this message.

I think, therefore I exist, but my life goal is not to exist. Tom has to put that one in the that dog don’t hunt category.

I’m not here to beat up Eastern religions, but I hope that we train our children to think about and become educated about what they say they believe.

I can’t imagine what it was like to grow up as a child in my household. One of the kids would say “I’m all about that,” or “This is what I believe,” and Tom—Dad—would say, “Let’s examine that.”

So much for casual dinner conversation. I’m sure that ranked right up there with reading A Message to Garcia a dozen or more times. That’s each, not total.

One day, these young people will need to make some serious life choices. Most of these children are not quite mentally or emotionally equipped at this time to wrestle with what God says and what the world says. They rely on their parents for a while and we pray they believe in the one true God and the One he sent to do what we could never do—make us right with holy God.

This week these young folks learned about magnifying the Lord. On the surface, it sounds like an oxymoron. How can we—people created by God—make God appear greater than he is?

In the context of this week and most of the Bible, magnify is to exalt—to lift up and proclaim God’s greatness and righteousness and most of all, his love.

It is for others to see God in our very lives. My heart, my soul, my very being exalts the Lord. The Lord is magnified as he lives in me and I live out his commands the best that I can.

Others will not see a faultless human just because we profess Jesus as Lord. They will see a fault-filled human who is forgiven. We are forgiven!

I hope that these VBSers—when you are the preacher, you get to make up your own words—know these things:

·       God is Great!

·       God is Good!

·       God loves us!

·       God wants us to believe in him and profess his Son as our Lord.

·       God want others to see his love in us so much that we are known as his followers by our love.

Do you remember how we began our service?

GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER

There is more to it, of course, but if these VBSers—I have used that term twice now so it’s officially a word—can remember that God loves them and they are to love each other, the week was a success.

And if they know this, magnifying the Lord becomes our first nature. Exalting God is always on their minds.

OBTW—God loves you, love one another applies to parents as well.

Kids, remember what you learned and learn more, for one day, the world will try to teach you anything but the truth. Give yourself a chance to Stand firm when the world wants you to give in to whatever it is selling this year or decade or century.  Stand firm in the truth.

Parents, while you have the chance and these years go by so quickly, bring them up in the way of the Lord.

·       Do not let them become victims of your own comfort zone.

·       Lead them to worship.

·       Bring them to Bible Study.

·       Pray at home.

·       Forgive as God has forgiven you.

·       Be an example of love. Be known by your love.

One day, these young folks are going to ask, “What is the purpose of life? Why am I here? Why am I alive? Why?”

I hope they come to this conclusion or something like it. The purpose of life is to bring glory to God and to enjoy him very much.

Our lives should be lived so that God is glorified through them.

Note, the second part of that is not to enjoy life but to enjoy God. That’s part of our purpose. As it turns out if you are enjoying your relationship with your Creator, you are very likely enjoying life—even in the struggles and trials that come with it.

Bring glory to God and enjoy him very much.

I have covered quite a bit, so, we will wrap up our short time together with something to take home that is easy to remember.

GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Amen.

A Prayer for Koinonia

 

Lord, we pray,

That we seek service over selfishness.

That you open our eyes to the trust you have placed in us.

That we surrender our God-given talents and Spiritual Gifts to produce fruit.

That you open our hearts so you may fill them with love.

That we become your love during this special time.

 

That when we are poured out and have no more, you fill us.

When we feel exhausted, you refresh us.

When we hold on to personal preferences, you extract them from us.

When we see no other options, you ignite the creative spirit in us.

That when we gravitate to those we know the best, you lead us to those we know the least.

 

That this mission never be a burden,

In our minds,

To our bodies,

For our spirit,

Or in the heart that we have given to you.

 

That we find your joy as we serve,

Through our sacrifice,

Through our suffering,

Through our humbleness,

And by being love as you are love.

 

Amen

The greatest of these is Love

 Read 1 Corinthians 13

See if any of this sounds familiar.

We take the word of God to the world and make disciples.

We trust in the Lord completely.

We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on towards the goal.

We desire to please God more than we fear that which we must overcome.

We trust and obey.

I hope that sounds familiar. How about this?

I am a soldier of the cross. I serve God and put his commands into practice and they are not a burden. I am prepared to give my life to the One who gave his for me.

I will never surrender to the enemy, for in Christ I am victorious.

If I am surrounded, I will strengthen what remains.

If captured by the enemy, I will trust God’s Spirit to give me the words to say.

I will never stop trusting God and obeying his commands.

I will never forget who I belong to and will give my life to bring glory to his name.

That one was of my own construct, but biblically based. Check the online version for links to the originating scriptures.

But let’s say we did all of those things; would our lives be complete?

You might think that you left out the tithe. You left out prayer. You left out partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Really?  How can the list be complete without the peace that goes beyond understanding?

You would be right, but adding twenty more statements wouldn’t get you to completeness. Twenty or fifty more after that won’t help either.

Remember that what I gave you in this short mantra was in the spirit of being a soldier of the cross. That was the context.

But let’s think to being complete as a disciple of our Lord. What’s missing but so essential?

Love. Being known by our love. Resting in the love of God and getting off our butts motivated by love.

I don’t enjoy preaching the Love Chapter as much as you might think. Why?  Because Paul nailed it. It’s poetry.  Wedged between chapters talking mostly about spiritual gifts is what we have come to know as the Love Chapter.

This Love Chapter actually begins at the end of chapter 12.

 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

What is Paul talking about?

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I am eloquent—fancy—but don’t have love, I’m just making noise.

 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Even if I have a spiritual gift—that’s got to be a good thing, right—but don’t have love. I’m nothing. God expects to see love at work in us.

Even if I have the faith that moves mountains but don’t have love, I am nothing. God expects to see love emanating from us.

Spiritual gifts, prophecy, healing, and faith are some big ticket items, but without love they don’t amount to diddly.

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

If I am doing the stuff that I am supposed to be doing but doing it without love, I have gained nothing. I’m just a hamster on a treadmill. I’m running my race like crazy but not getting anywhere.

The church at Corinth had spiritual gifts and practiced godly things but missed the love that went with these things.

Does that sound like anyone you might know from the gospels?

How about the Pharisees? They knew the law backwards and forwards but missed the love—the divine heart of God—that was essential to their understanding and employment.

What happens when a church embraces the hypocrisy of the Pharisees? We miss the target. We think we are running a good race but we are on the wrong racetrack. We are missing the target.

So, what is it about love that is so essential?

Understand that in the Greek language, there are three main words that mean love. There is eros which is romantic love. There is phillia which is brotherly love.

That’s two of them, but there are other lesser known words such as Storge, Philautia, and  Xenia. These are love as in parents for a child, self love, and what we might call hospitality today.

And finally, there is agape love. This is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love. This is the love of which Paul writes.

Let’s do a little etymology. That’s words, not bugs.  Agápe is the love that God prefers. Agape is the highest form of love.

Strongs describes it this way.

In the Greco-Roman world, various forms of love were recognized, but agapé was distinct in its emphasis on selflessness and sacrifice. Early Christians adopted this term to describe the love that God demonstrated through Jesus Christ, particularly in His sacrificial death on the cross. This concept of love was revolutionary in a culture that often valued power and self-interest.

Agapé is not based on emotions or feelings but is an act of the will, characterized by a commitment to the well-being of others.

Let’s continue in chapter 13.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is not in our nature but must be in our new nature, for it is God’s nature. God is love.  The apostle John told us that if you don’t love, then you don’t know God for God is love.

If you studied what composes the human body, you would discover that about 60% is water. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorous make up much of the rest. There are other elements in trace amounts, but we are mostly water.

God, on the other hand, is in his very essence love. You can’t find that on the periodic table, but when you get down to the rat killin’ we find that God is love.

Love must be our first nature as a new creation. Let’s give Paul a little more time with us.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Everything that we know on this earth is temporary. God is eternal. Love is eternal.

Our obedience is important. Love is essential.

Our faith is important. Love is essential.

Our hope is important. Love is essential.

Our prayers are important. Love is essential.

Our trust is important. Love is essential.

Do you remember The Money Message? I did a number on debt. Debt steals much of the abundance in abundant life.

But do you remember the one debt that we should all have?  It is the continuing debt to love one another.

The debt is owed to Jesus but payments on that debt are made to our fellow humans.

Do you remember reading about the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15?  Part of the discussion was the inability of even the Patriarchs to fulfill the law. They couldn’t do it. No one ever had.

Jesus said he came to fulfill the law and he did.

We think that we can never fulfill the law either, but I say we can. We can fulfill the law.

We are told that love fulfills the law. Some think this is a cop-out. Some think it’s an easy way out, but it is far from it.

Love—unconditional love—is more difficult that following a list of rules. Sometimes the rule-following seems easy, and sometimes, it seems impossible.

Jesus told his disciples that he was giving them a new command. That command was to love each other as much as he loved them. Jesus gave his life for them and for us. That’s a whole lot of love.

Loving like Jesus loved is really tough, but if we live a life of love, we can fulfill the law. In love we may satisfy the demands of the law.

In fact, we find part of our identity in this new command. We are to be known as followers of Jesus by our love.

God is love. We are made in his image and continually growing in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.

We are becoming love. It’s how we are to be known and our true identity as a new creature.

Peter wrote that love covers a multitude of sins.

John Lennon wrote that all you need is love. That’s not too bad for a Brit with a bowl cut.

Let’s conclude with Paul’s words.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

As you depart today, I want Paul’s words, not mine, to echo in your mind. Just listen.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Faith, hope, love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Amen.

Targeted Love

 Read Luke 6:27-28

He is not here. He is risen.

He has gone ahead of you to Galilee.

Tell the disciples and Peter to meet me in Galilee.

Why do you look for the living among the dead.

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!

Up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foes.

He arose the victor over the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign.

A week ago, many of you arose early for a sunrise service. We couldn’t wait. We were excited, plus there was breakfast.

Some of you, most of you returned to worship this morning and Tom has the audacity to preach love your enemies on the heels of Christ arose.

What’s up with that?

Love your enemies.

Here is the escape clause.  Here is the golden parachute for those who are not up for this whole love your enemies business.

What’s that?

Jesus didn’t say this for everyone. He was not talking to everyone.  Well, to whom was he speaking?

But to you who are listening I say:

Really? That seems a little flimsy.

Jesus said, I’m really only talking to those who are actually listening.  Who is listening?  Those who profess Jesus is Lord and are ready to put his words into practice. That’s who Jesus was speaking to—those who were ready to hear his words and put them into practice.

Lord, I am READY to trust you completely!

Those who were listening wanted to understand more so they could do more.

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

This is not for the Christian tourist. It is not for the casual follower of God. It is not for the slightly interested until something comes up.

This is for those who have professed Jesus is Lord and who know and understand what that means, and they embrace it. We embrace that profession. Jesus is Lord!

  Jesus is not an app that you go to when things get tough. That’s too transactional.

We do go to Jesus in times of trouble, but it is a short trip for he is our Lord and he is already with us and we are already doing the things he told us to do. We are walking with the Lord.

Let’s see where this pericope lands us.

This chapter tells us that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.  The religious leaders were so fixed on the rules that they forgot the relationship with the Lord was what was central. They followed the rules and missed God’s heart.

This chapter tells us the names of all the disciples.

This chapter parallels the Sermon on the Mount and Beatitudes found in Matthew 5, at least as it concerns suffering and persecution.

This is the chapter where we find love your enemies and most of us say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Life is hard enough without loving those whom we are perfectly equipped to hate with all of our hearts.  What’s an enemy for if you can’t hate ‘em.

Today, I will tell you that loving your enemies is not really an impossible command. It is overly practical. It blesses you as much as your enemies.

Sure. In the eternal realm, I will be blessed for loving my enemies. Yeah, OK, whatever.  In the meantime, my enemy is running all over me.

Really?

How many times do you have to contend with an enemy?  I proffer that it is much less that we might think and surely less than we advertise.

When is the last time that you were face to face with someone who wanted to kill you?

When is the last time that you had to check and see if you had enough ammunition to make it through the night?

When is the last time that you had to defend the perimeter of the school against all enemies foreign and domestic?

Our troubles do not lie in our enemies. Our Lord and Savior has overcome our enemies. Our struggles lie in the heavenly realms. Our struggles are with evil as it has occupied the world and has too many encampments in our own hearts.

Our struggle is very seldom with an enemy of flesh but with one of darkness in our own hearts.

Our struggles are so often so close to home that we are blinded to them.  Who can hurt us more—someone we don’t know who would just as soon shoot me as speak to me or someone that matters to me?

Really, who can hurt us the most?

The guy or gal or kid who philosophically has been conditioned to hate you for being an American or a Christian or someone who speaks up for good morals and ethics…

Or

Someone close to you? Someone near and dear to you? Someone that you love very much?

Over the past several years, I have proffered the following statement for your consideration.

The law as given for our own good—that’s straightforward in writing stuff right there.  But I also ask us to consider that the law mitigated the evil in our hearts. To mitigate is to reduce the effects of something and it doesn’t go far enough.

Jesus wants us to cast aside our hearts of evil and stone and receive the divine heart of our Lord, whom we know mostly through the Spirit.

Jesus uses hyperbole on a recurring basis but this statement is not one that says pluck out your eye is it offends you. It is one that says demonstrate love and care and kindness for someone that we don’t know very well.

What does that mean?  It mostly means pray for them. Pray for those who hate you or persecute you or are otherwise lost in the ways of the world.

Our direct involvement with those whom we might lump into the enemy category is minimal.  We spend most of our time sorting out our own hearts and minds as we deal with people that we say we love.

Jesus expands our thinking. If loving your enemy is even possible, how much more can I love those that are flesh and blood?

Can we not do a better job of caring for each other?

We do a lot in that area, but what if we posed the question in this way.

How can I take the time, money, energy, and effort that I currently expend on enemies that I will never see and use these valuable resources to love my friends and family?

And there you have it. Tom managed to work in the Parable of the Talents yet one more time.

What did you do with what God gave you?

We have gone from He arose the victor over the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign to Discipleship Time.

We are saved.

He is risen and so too will we be risen.

We take the good news to the world and along the way, we learn to love one another. Loving your enemies seems absurd, but it actuality, it just practical.

Don’t spend your time on that which does not profit you and your discipleship. Where will your love produce the biggest return?

With you and your demeanor and countenance and readiness to do what God tells you to do.

Imagine taking your money—however much that is or isn’t—and going to a financial institution to invest it. The fund manager says that 75% of your investment will make great returns but 25% is just being thrown away on stuff that we know is not profitable or productive.

Do you not look elsewhere to invest what you had to work hard to get? Don’t you want a return on your full investment?

Love your enemies is practical. Hating them takes too much time and effort that could produce good results at home.

That’s not the case for everyone. Some are called to take the gospel into the heart of enemy territory. If that is you, then love your enemies takes on a more personal nature.  But for most, we just need to pray for our enemies from afar and love those who matter so much to us, who are likely much closer.

Does this lessen the intensity of the command?

On the contrary. Our best efforts for those who have declared us as enemies is to pray for them and then be known by our love wherever we go.

Love your enemies. That’s an easy one.

Focus your time and effort of loving, forgiving, blessing, and living this life to the full with those whom you say you love.

If I am already praying for my enemies, then loving those whom I really want to love becomes so much easier. It begins to become our nature.

If I can love those far away by praying for them, how much easier is it to help the kid or the family or the traveler when we encounter them in our own neighborhoods.

How much easier is it to forgive those whom I love and don’t want something brewing between or among us? How much easier to forgive and love and embrace those whom I love when my enemies don’t suck one iota of energy or life from me. I will pray for them.

This is not adopting the pagan practices of loving those who will love you back. This is not tit-for-tat. This is targeted love.

I will target my enemies with prayer. I will be faithful in those prayers.

I will target my friends and family and those who just happen to live on the same part of the planet as me with very intentional or purposeful love. Yes, that will include some prayers but it will also include the hugs and smiles and forgiveness and assurance that we are a forgiven people.

To target my love when I am led to deliver it is grace lived out in our lives.

Love your enemies. Love those whom you want to love even more.

Jesus has raised our sights. We pray for those whom we will likely never see and we pray for, forgive, and rejoice with those whom se see almost every day.

Amen.

Blessed is the One who heeds Wisdom's Instruction

 Read Proverbs 29

As we draw near the end of Proverbs, we come again to where we began.  There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Consider my governing framework for this book of wisdom in the context of verse 18.

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;

    but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

That was from the NIV. Some of you my age may have learned this in the King James Version.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

The English Standard Version puts it this way.

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,

    but blessed is he who keeps the law.

When we do not receive the vision sent to us by God—in whatever form that takes for us who live in this age—we depart from the blessings of living God’s way into the minefields of the everything else.

When we don’t listen to and abide in what Dad, Abba, Father has been telling us, we are surely headed out of the land of blessings into the wasteland of peril.

I’ll take one more crack at this.  There is God’s way and there is everything else.

God’s way – Everything else

Blessings – Minefields

Wisdom – Foolishness

Righteous – Wicked

Industrious – Lazy

Obedient - Rebellious

Life – Death

God’s way – Everything else

For all of the parallel construction, positives and negatives, A-B structures, provocations that require some deep thought, metaphors and other comparative tools, Solomon brings us to the ultimate dichotomy.

There is living God’s way and there is everything else.

If we don’t look to God’s way and are blind to his revelations, we live without restraint.  We live lawlessly.  We perish.  In modern rural vernacular, that dog don’t hunt.

If we go back to the original language, we find that God’s way was delivered most often in what we call the law—the Torah.

There is much discussion whenever we use the word law or Torah, so much so that many Christians lose sight of the command to be known as disciples of Jesus by our love and substitute being known by our interpretations and self-righteousness.

Too often we strain out gnats and swallow camels in wanting people to agree with our way, instead of being known as disciples of our Lord by practicing God’s way, by living a life governed by love.

The problem is that we too often place what some would consider negative or confining attributes on the words Torah and law.  We should consider these terms in a fuller meaning, hopefully, closer to their original intent.

What is Torah?  It is direction.  It is instruction.  It is law, but it is also customs, rulings, teachings, but most of all it is God’s way.  Whether we frame it as a command, a directive, an instruction, a ruling, or guidance—it is God’s way. Commands, directives, instructions, and the like can all mean the exact same thing or vary in significant ways.  That variance is often our language mixed with our perspectives and sorted by our bias.  It is also our vulnerability to being lured into the everything else.

Understand that God revealed his way to us for our own good. We should receive, understand, and live out the instructions that God gave us.

Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

He that keeps the law is happy

Blessed is he who keeps the law.

But I thought we were free from the law?  I thought Jesus was the way to heaven?  I thought the ultimate sacrifice for our sins had been made?

I thought we were saved by grace through faith?  You are!

But how will you respond to this wonderful gift?  Will you live to bring glory to God?  Will you enjoy your relationship with God?

God has revealed his way to us.  He has also revealed the everything else.  Much of this revelation came in those first 5 books of the Bible.  Much came through the prophets. Much came in the wisdom books of the Bible.  Much came in the life and teachings of Christ Jesus—the Word made flesh, and much comes from the Spirit of God that lives within us.

When we dismiss or devalue one part of God’s revelations to us, we discount his sovereignty in favor of our own and are not heeding wisdom’s instructions. 

Our atonement came in the blood of Christ Jesus—the only one to ever fulfill the law, but our response to this great love is left to us.  Will we stop resisting when God is directing our steps?

God is moving us forward to a better relationship with him.  One obstacle to that is our interpretation of this statement:  Love fulfills the Law.

Too many think that those who live by love are getting off easy.  God’s laws must be rigid and strict and compliance must be lock-step, and to some degree difficult.  Consider, instead, that God has raised—not lowered—the bar for us, at least for those who will follow him and be known as his disciples by our love.

Love fulfills the law does not abandon obedience.  It embraces it.  I know several people who can do tasks over and over again and do them well.  They are obedient and compliant and do exactly what the specifications require. The specification may be difficult, but skill comes with repetition.

Others note the specifications for individual tasks and have been given eyes to see a house or a ship or a space station.  We do not denounce those who can only see the step-by-step directions.  They are living their lives as fully as they are equipped to do.

We should also embrace those who can see the house or the ship when they read the directions.  They do not see less.  They are not less obedient. They see the designer’s passion and embrace it. They live by love and in so doing fulfill the law.

They—in many cases that is we—didn’t get off easy.  We accepted the challenge to live completely in God’s way.

If you think you are getting off easy when you say, love fulfills the law; you have not understood God’s ways.  Living by love is not joining the French Foreign Legion never to be heard of again. It’s living to the glory of God, growing in his grace, and enjoying the relationship knowing that the life you have called your own truly belongs to the one you proclaim as Lord.

The old standard for us was to love God with everything we had and love each other as much as we love ourselves.  While difficult, we sometimes obtain that second part.  Loving someone as much as we love ourselves is possible.

Now consider that Jesus gave his disciples—that includes us in this age—a new command.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We don’t just love others as much as we love ourselves.  That would be easy in comparison to what he called us—commanded us—to do.  Love one another as much as he loved us.  He loved us to the point of giving his life for us.  Yep, that raised the bar.

Remember, all of the points of the law hang upon, rest upon, come together in the commands to love God and love one another.  Loving God and loving one another are the supporting uprights and beams of the law.

Let’s get back to the proverb.

Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

He that keeps the law is happy

Blessed is he who keeps the law.

Why follow the law?  Why live a life governed by love.  Why seek to live God’s way?

As with so much that has been revealed to us in our studies, God does things that are for our own good and instructs us to do things that bless us.  They are the directions that give us hope and a future.

We do not live God’s way to obtain salvation.  God has done all that is required to save us from our sins and from death.  Jesus paid it all!

In response to this unfathomable love, we want to please God.  We want to live in his ways.  We want to do the things that bless God. We want to bring glory to his name and enjoy the relationship he has in store for us. We want to live as he designed us to live.

When we do, he blesses us even more.  We are happy.  Sin and death are no longer hanging over us.  So, what will we do?  Will we go on sinning so grace can abound even more?

BY NO MEANS!

We will live God’s way.  We will live as he instructed us, not so much in lock-step compliance—though some may find this to be the limits of their God-given abilities—but fully governed by love.  In so doing, we will be happy and blessed.

There is God’s way and there is everything else, and God’s way is love.

God’s way is love!

Blessed is he who lives by Love. To live this life given to us in the blood of Jesus, and to live it without love, is lawlessness.  It is rebellion.

God is love.  God’s way is love. His law, his prophets, his wisdom, his Word made flesh, and his Spirit that lives within us bring us to love.  Love directs our steps.

There is God’s way and there is everything else, and God’s way is love.

We can live in God’s way.  Remember that he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  You are equipped to live God’s way.  You are equipped to live by love.

Amen.