“FIRST LOVE”

When you hear “first love” what do you think of?  First crush?  First kiss?  First date? First sport you enjoy?  First car?  If I say, “Sonny James, what comes to mind?  The song “Young Love”?  Sonny James just died at age 87.  He had 16 consecutive No. 1 singles over a 5-year period.  If today’s criteria were used, he would have had 25.  This was a feat never accomplished before or since by any single artist.  His breakout song was “Young Love in 1957.

They say for every boy and girl

There's just one love in this whole world

And I know I've found mine

The heavenly touch of your embrace

Tells me no one could take your place

Ever in my heart

Young love, first love

Filled with deep devotion

Young love, our love

We share with deep emotion

Just one kiss from your sweet lips

Will tell me that our love is real

And I can feel that it's true

For we will vow to one another

There will never be another

Love for you or for me

Young love, first love

Filled with deep devotion

Young love, our love

We share with deep emotion

If I say “the Church at Ephesus”, what comes to mind?  Jesus speaking to the apostle John in regards to the Church at Ephesus said:

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.

If Jesus came to your church, what would He have to say?  Have you fallen from your first love?  When you fell in love with your spouse, or got your first car, do you remember how you felt?  Was there an hour that went by when you did not think about it?  What about now?  What about your passion for the Lord, for His Word?  Does it consume you?  Do you roll it over in your mind, mull over it?  Does it distract your driving in the car? Do you think about it when you are exercising?  Do the sermons and teachings drive you nearer to the Lord, to His Word?  Do you look to His Word for the answer’s to life’s question?

When you have “Church” or Bible studies at you church, are they really “BIBLE STUDIES”?  How much Bible is studied?  In 60 minutes, how much is spent reading the Bible?  One?  Two?  Three? Five? Ten?  Did you really “study” the Word?  “Study” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary means: a state of contemplation, application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of knowledge, careful consideration, careful examination or analysis.  Sadly, many of the Bible studies that I have attended are light on both accounts, sort-of-like decaf coffee, diet pop, or lite beer.  How much time is spent telling personal stories, referencing biblical scholars (note I did not capitalize the word biblical)?  How much of the information is based in the internet?  How much is cross referenced to other Scripture?  Did it increase your love for the Lord, for His Word, His presence?  Are you left wanting more of His Word, more of His presence?

Can we say with the Psalmist:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers?

I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold?

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?  When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.  Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident?

Have we fallen from our first love?  Have we fallen out of love?  Have we drifted apart?  The word is God’s love letter to His people.  People don’t write letters anymore, we send texts and tweets.  During WWII, it took weeks for letters to reach loved ones.  I am sure that many letters arrived after soldiers had died.  Letters meant something.  They were read over and over again.  Do we treat God’s Word like texts and tweets that we hit “delete” after glancing at, or is it valuable like those letters from overseas that arrived long after the soldier had been killed?

Will God remove His blessing from your church or has he already?  A light that no longer shines is worthless like salt that has lost it’s savor; and it is cast out.  Are you, is your church relevant?  Are you just re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic?  Are you playing church?  Are you ministering to each other or a lost world?  Are you being equipped for the ministry of the saints?

 ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?  You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.  ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:  As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. “ ‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.  I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD.  I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.  “ ‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats.  Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? “ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.  Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away,  I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.

What difference does it make?

This was the question asked by Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi Hearing in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee.  My response is, “It makes a lot of difference”.  But in the context of this blog, I want to ask this question in regards to the common thread that continues through almost all of my blogs.

Many of you reading my blogs, may have asked yourself this question or have wanted to ask me that question.  Some may just look at this blog as the musings of an elderly guy with time on his hands and nothing better to do than stir up the pot or more like the tree falling in the woods with no one around.  With no one to hear the sound, is there really any sound?  Sure the musings serve as a catharsis for the elderly fellow, and it’s easy to hit the delete button, so if it makes him feel better, great.  If that’s the case, so be it.

Others may ask the same question in respect to why do I keep beating the same drumbeat?  Am I not just being picky and majoring on minor differences in what churches believe?  Do we not agree on the big issues?

I think, rightly or wrongly, that most Christian churches agree on salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ Jesus.  I agree that is the most important fact; but the fact that healing was a major part of the gospels and Acts, to ignore it, is to ignore an essential aspect of the gospel preached by Christ and the early church.  There are vastly more verses regarding healing than baptism, the Lord’s Supper, giving of offerings and tithes combined.  If you don’t believe, I challenge you to prove that statement wrong.

From the first verse in Genesis to the last verse in Revelations, God, our heavenly Father reveals himself to us and reveals His plan for us.  There are around 100 different names used for God in the Old Testament.  Each reveals aspects of His character and work as He relates to His people.  The ultimate revelation of the Father is the sending of His Son Jesus.  The fact is, He was willing to send His Son, lowering Himself into the form of a man, a baby, to suffer, be beaten and die to reveal His supreme love for His people.  He could have sent Jesus as a full grown Man to die for us; but that would not have required Him to suffer the full humility of lowering Himself, nor would it have revealed His complete character. 

Many “Bible Scholars”, tell you that Jesus performed miracles to prove that He was God.  I believe that He did miracles because He was God.  Jesus did not come to prove He was God. He came to show us God.  Jesus said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also…He who has seen Me has seen the Father”.  Everything Jesus did was to bring glory and to do His work.  His church has been charged with continuing that work and bring glory to the Father.  How did Jesus glorify His Father?  Jesus glorified His Father through His life, death and burial.  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  When Jesus healed the woman that had suffered 18 years from an infirmity, He said that she had been “bound by Satan".

God, our Father revealed himself and His redeeming character in the Old Testament.  He sent His Son to show Himself to us and to purchase our redemption, to show how much he loved us, to show us His goodness.  He showed us who He was.  The God who was, is the God who is; and, the God who is, is the God who was. His character has not changed.  When Jesus performed His first miracle John says that this was the first sign to show His glory, show His Father’s glory, His Father’s character, His goodness.  His goodness has not changed.  His character has not changed.  His love has not changed.  His will has not changed.  In the Lord’s pray Jesus prayed, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven ". 

In John 17, Jesus prays for His disciples but He says that this pray is for all believers.

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.  I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created.

“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from this world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.  This is because I gave them the words that you gave me, and they received them. They truly understood that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  “I'm praying for them. I'm not praying for the world but for those you gave me, because they are yours.  Everything that is mine is yours and everything that is yours is mine; I have been glorified in them.  I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world, even as I'm coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one.  When I was with them, I watched over them in your name, the name you gave to me, and I kept them safe. None of them were lost, except the one who was destined for destruction, so that scripture would be fulfilled.  Now I'm coming to you and I say these things while I'm in the world so that they can share completely in my joy.  I gave your word to them and the world hated them, because they don't belong to this world, just as I don't belong to this world.  I'm not asking that you take them out of this world but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They don't belong to this world, just as I don't belong to this world.  Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.   I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy in the truth.  “I'm not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word.  I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.  I've given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one.   I'm in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me.  “Father, I want those you gave me to be with me where I am. Then they can see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, even the world didn't know you, but I've known you, and these believers know that you sent me. I've made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them."

Yes, how we carry out the work of the church, matters.  It makes a difference.  Paul told the Romans that “the goodness of God leads you to repentance”.  Jesus demonstrated that goodness through His life and through His death, burial and resurrection. We are to show His goodness by words and actions.  This is more than saying, “please and thank you”. This is more than serving coffee and pastries at Sunday School.  This is more than doing “good works”.  These are good but they are not what Christ was talking about or the fruit we are to bear.  We are to do the same works Jesus did.  We are to bring glory to the Father by continuing to do the work of the Father.  That is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit that the disciples and all believers would receive “power” to witness, to teach everything that Jesus commanded them to do, to demonstrate the power of God to the lost world.

There is another aspect in which it makes a difference.  It matters to Satan.  And, why should I care about that?  Because if it matters to Satan, it matters to our Father.  Look through the gospels and the book of Acts.  What caused the biggest problems for Jesus and the apostles?  Whenever Jesus performed miracles, it drew people and it resulted in upsetting the religious people.  Whenever the apostles preached, signs and wonders followed, and persecution.  Miracles upset Satan.  Playing church does not excite Satan.  Religion does not bother Satan.  Wimpy preaching and teaching does not bother Satan.  Playing in that sandbox, is OK with Satan.  Miracles bother Satan.  I challenge any preacher reading this blog to start preaching and teaching healing as part of the atonement accompanied by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil, start preaching and teaching the authority of the church and believer’s role in controlling Satan, start preaching the Word with boldness and passion.  See if that matters to the religious people in your church.  Beware, Satan will attack where the Word is preached with boldness.

There is a difference!