True Love

I Jn.5:3 - For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments...

Love goes through phases on this earth. When I fell in love with my wife in 1977 at Bible College it was overwhelming. I was 25 years old and she was the first Christian girl I had ever dated. I had promised the Lord that I would not date in my first year at school so I could grow Spiritually. Christine came as a freshman in my sophomore year and we began dating right away.

I found myself thinking about her when I was in class or when I should have been studying, and anytime I saw her speaking with another guy I would feel a tinge of jealousy. Now my unsaved family did not approve of her for some reason, but that did not matter to me. If they rejected Christine, they rejected me. They finally realized that I was committed to her and they accepted her as my wife and together we had a good relationship with them, as good as you can with unsaved relatives.

In 1975 I became a follower of Jesus Christ. I did not know any theology, I had never been in an evangelical church, I saw Billy Graham on TV and that's how I became a follower. Now I felt emotions that cannot really be put into words. Back in 1975 there wasn't as much Christian paraphernalia as there is today, so I made T-shirts and bumper stickers to proclaim my faith. I absolutely was not ashamed of Jesus and again my family rejected my conversion.

When you love someone, it doesn't matter who does or doesn't like it, you're in love. When the church attempts to camouflage and water down Jesus they are betraying their love. Who would try to change your mate in order to please others? Then why would we change Jesus to accommodate our culture? It is blasphemous to ever present "another Jesus" to a lost world that desperately needs redemption. We rail against the cults for preaching "another Jesus", a Jesus who wasn't God, who wasn't virgin born, and all the other "damnable heresies". But we have little by little brought another Jesus in the pulpits and in publications. This Jesus is like "snake oil", He'll make you wealthy, He'll make you healthy, He'll help your relationships, He will help ever area of your life. (ok, eternal life too) No sacrifice, no cross bearing, no persecution, no surrender, no suffering. Nope, it's all good. That my friends is "another Jesus" and people that present that are "anathema maranatha" which means "a divine object of God's wrath when He comes".

For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus...you might resist him (II Cor.11:4) Who are these preachers? "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ" (II Cor.11:13). That is who they are but only God knows their name. We have a responsibility as followers and lovers of the Lord Jesus to flee from those who slander the Person of Jesus Christ by changing who He is. God Himself forbid Israel to make any graven images in the Ten Commandments because He didn't want His children to worship something that did not represent Him. It is a serious matter for all of us and our hearts should be broken over what man has done to the gospel. If we change the essence and nature of Christ we change the power of His salvation and instead of life changing conversion experiences we see ceremonial formalities that add to the church rolls but show little if any supernatural effects of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because in many cases they have embraced a man made caricature of Jesus that is presented as the servant of man rather than the Lord of Glory.

Where are the prophets of God preaching like fire against the sin of the church - the adultery, the gossip, the greed, and the prayerlessness. Isaiah lives in the midst of the people who were about to be carried away into Babylon and he cried,

"Awake, awake, put on thy strength, ...shake thyself from the dust. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. Honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee".

Now Isaiah died before Israel was carried away to Babylon by the judgment of God, but Jeremiah is on the scene and he rebukes the false prophets who were still preaching "good things" when in reality God's judgment was coming. He cries,

"The prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward".

Many of God's people found a nice home in Babylon(America). They worked, they prospered, and they were allowed to worship God in the midst of the Babylonians(Americans).

When God called Ezra and Nehemiah back to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, many stayed in Babylon. I believe God is calling out a remnant to rebuild the message of the church(us). It will not be easy, it will take a lot more prayer than we are now giving, it will take repentance. We are in the last days(how easy that cliché rolls off our tongue) and our priority must be to "Press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus".

It won't be easy, but when you love someone, it's worth it.