"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:16).
But unfortunately, churches don't truly express this very foundational and important truth: God's love is vastly distinct from human love and christians should learn to discriminate between their own love for people and God's love for people. God so loved the world. God loves humans; humans do not.
At the very beginning of civilization, the third recorded human alive killed his own brother. When God asked him where his missing brother was, his response was arrogant: "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?" or in contemporary English, "I don't care about him. I'm not responsible for him."
"Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours." christians who don't know or sense the things that are on God's heart (what gives Him joy and what causes Him sorrow) are not connected to Him. For them, sincerely asking God to allow them to think and feel about the world as He does would inevitably rehaul and overhaul their reality.
I had a 'church experience' 20 years ago that started to open my eyes to the experiential reality that God's love and our love are distinct. My older brother, a prophetic person, told me that the charismatic churches were "soulish" and "emotional". I didn't know what he meant, but one day at the charismatic church we attended, I drove some guy home. I had met him at the front of the church when anyone can go up after church and get prayer or pray for others. I prayed for him and in the emotionalism of the moment asked if he needed anything. He asked if I could give him a ride home. I remember how much love I thought I had for this guy I didn't know... until I parked in front of his apartment. No exaggeration: as soon as I parked my car, that 'love' evaporated. It was gone, all of it. Gone. I was all alone with this guy and suddenly couldn't wait for him to get out of my car. He apparently sensed the sudden change in me, and I never saw him back in church.
Many christians experience this change between strong pleasant emotions and intentions vs. suddenly not having those emotions or motivation anymore, especially the 'happier' christian denominations that are quick to 'be nice' to everyone. (I know because I can see in their faces when the emotional and sentimental 'love' lifts and they're left alone, "Just as I am without one plea.") Unfortunately, most of them don't address this tremendous cognitive dissonance, the reality that the 'love' they feel for others is shallow, shaky, and flaky. They don't confront the stark reality of their rapidly changing emotions and instead keep repeating the same attempts to love others. And keep falling short. Their churches don't teach or model God's love, so they have no access to it. I, however, did confront this inconsistency and began to learn that goodwill and good intentions are the human equivalent of God's love. Paul said, "Love never fails" (1Corinthians 13). He was talking about God's love, not human love. Differentiating between the two types of love was the theme of the chapter though Paul, unfortunately, doesn't plainly say it. He stated that it's possible to give all you have to the poor and even sacrifice yourself (ie. human love) and still not have love (ie. God's love).
In verses 4-7, Paul defines God's love (the total opposite of human love) and what God's love looks like in practical action: "Love suffers long and is kind..." Patience is one of the attitudes that no one can fake to themselves. You can fake it to others, but as soon as you get impatient, you can't lie to yourself because impatience is a very imposing and obvious feeling. We as humans love only people who do something good for us-- not necessarily an action but just a reality or feeling: our spouse, our children, our pets, people we like, more people we like, and even more people we like. When we love, we do it primarily for our own sake. It's natural, but there's a lot of room there for error. God's love is very distinct from human love. Most people have never sensed God's love and so can't discriminate between the two. Even petting a friend's animal, I have sensed Jesus's love for the animal which is very distinct from mine. For one, I'm not a pet person and don't really care for pets at all. There were two instances when I was praying for someone who had tried to destroy me and sensed God's love for them. His love is pure is really the best word for it. We love people and things that do something [good] for us. God just loves.
Paul said, "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1Cor. 6:17). Many christians are not 'joined to Christ', therefore, they don't know His thoughts and feelings about anything. A healthy married couple (even an unhealthy one) in time comes to know each others' mind and heart. In Ezekiel 9:4 God told one of His servants, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it." If you are a christian but can't sense God's mind and heart on the brokenness, suffering, sin, and lostness in the world-- and if you aren't grieved or at the very least disturbed by it-- then you are simply 'experiencing' what it feels like to not be connected or joined (or "one spirit") with Jesus. Matthew West's old song 'My Own Little World' captures the essence of how God views the world and people. A few christians run with bleeding hearts to fix world issues, but God wants them to instead run with His own mind and heart so they can approach people and situations the way He would (and therefore have the correct and restorative effect) rather than the way we do (like I did that guy at that church and had no lasting or redemptive effect): "Break my heart for what breaks Yours." That is what co-partnering with Jesus is. No one can carry out any 'great commission' or any commission at all if they aren't "one spirit with Him". Partnership (connectedness, being 'joined') is vital, essential, and indispensable for any christian who wants to make a difference in the life of someone else, because God loves humans; humans do not.
But unfortunately, churches don't truly express this very foundational and important truth: God's love is vastly distinct from human love and christians should learn to discriminate between their own love for people and God's love for people. God so loved the world. God loves humans; humans do not.
At the very beginning of civilization, the third recorded human alive killed his own brother. When God asked him where his missing brother was, his response was arrogant: "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?" or in contemporary English, "I don't care about him. I'm not responsible for him."
"Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours." christians who don't know or sense the things that are on God's heart (what gives Him joy and what causes Him sorrow) are not connected to Him. For them, sincerely asking God to allow them to think and feel about the world as He does would inevitably rehaul and overhaul their reality.
I had a 'church experience' 20 years ago that started to open my eyes to the experiential reality that God's love and our love are distinct. My older brother, a prophetic person, told me that the charismatic churches were "soulish" and "emotional". I didn't know what he meant, but one day at the charismatic church we attended, I drove some guy home. I had met him at the front of the church when anyone can go up after church and get prayer or pray for others. I prayed for him and in the emotionalism of the moment asked if he needed anything. He asked if I could give him a ride home. I remember how much love I thought I had for this guy I didn't know... until I parked in front of his apartment. No exaggeration: as soon as I parked my car, that 'love' evaporated. It was gone, all of it. Gone. I was all alone with this guy and suddenly couldn't wait for him to get out of my car. He apparently sensed the sudden change in me, and I never saw him back in church.
Many christians experience this change between strong pleasant emotions and intentions vs. suddenly not having those emotions or motivation anymore, especially the 'happier' christian denominations that are quick to 'be nice' to everyone. (I know because I can see in their faces when the emotional and sentimental 'love' lifts and they're left alone, "Just as I am without one plea.") Unfortunately, most of them don't address this tremendous cognitive dissonance, the reality that the 'love' they feel for others is shallow, shaky, and flaky. They don't confront the stark reality of their rapidly changing emotions and instead keep repeating the same attempts to love others. And keep falling short. Their churches don't teach or model God's love, so they have no access to it. I, however, did confront this inconsistency and began to learn that goodwill and good intentions are the human equivalent of God's love. Paul said, "Love never fails" (1Corinthians 13). He was talking about God's love, not human love. Differentiating between the two types of love was the theme of the chapter though Paul, unfortunately, doesn't plainly say it. He stated that it's possible to give all you have to the poor and even sacrifice yourself (ie. human love) and still not have love (ie. God's love).
In verses 4-7, Paul defines God's love (the total opposite of human love) and what God's love looks like in practical action: "Love suffers long and is kind..." Patience is one of the attitudes that no one can fake to themselves. You can fake it to others, but as soon as you get impatient, you can't lie to yourself because impatience is a very imposing and obvious feeling. We as humans love only people who do something good for us-- not necessarily an action but just a reality or feeling: our spouse, our children, our pets, people we like, more people we like, and even more people we like. When we love, we do it primarily for our own sake. It's natural, but there's a lot of room there for error. God's love is very distinct from human love. Most people have never sensed God's love and so can't discriminate between the two. Even petting a friend's animal, I have sensed Jesus's love for the animal which is very distinct from mine. For one, I'm not a pet person and don't really care for pets at all. There were two instances when I was praying for someone who had tried to destroy me and sensed God's love for them. His love is pure is really the best word for it. We love people and things that do something [good] for us. God just loves.
Paul said, "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1Cor. 6:17). Many christians are not 'joined to Christ', therefore, they don't know His thoughts and feelings about anything. A healthy married couple (even an unhealthy one) in time comes to know each others' mind and heart. In Ezekiel 9:4 God told one of His servants, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it." If you are a christian but can't sense God's mind and heart on the brokenness, suffering, sin, and lostness in the world-- and if you aren't grieved or at the very least disturbed by it-- then you are simply 'experiencing' what it feels like to not be connected or joined (or "one spirit") with Jesus. Matthew West's old song 'My Own Little World' captures the essence of how God views the world and people. A few christians run with bleeding hearts to fix world issues, but God wants them to instead run with His own mind and heart so they can approach people and situations the way He would (and therefore have the correct and restorative effect) rather than the way we do (like I did that guy at that church and had no lasting or redemptive effect): "Break my heart for what breaks Yours." That is what co-partnering with Jesus is. No one can carry out any 'great commission' or any commission at all if they aren't "one spirit with Him". Partnership (connectedness, being 'joined') is vital, essential, and indispensable for any christian who wants to make a difference in the life of someone else, because God loves humans; humans do not.
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