LOVE

1 John 4:7

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world, that we might live through him.  This is love, not that we loved God, but that he first loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.”

 

So today as I write this, I am hit hard with the fact that I am probably the most selfish person out there…  I mean, if true love, the love that Jesus displayed, is to “consider others as better than myself,” then boy have I missed it!!  I honestly can’t go 5 minutes without thinking about myself..  I take so much time fussing over me…

  Im so sick of me!!!

Today I heard a statistic, that in Uganda, 140,000 kids are made into orphans every day!  I sit here, and after this im probably gonna go out and eat some lunch, maybe spend 10 bucks on myself, while on the other side of the world, kids just like me are going to go without a lunch… maybe without a dinner… maybe even for a few days…..

 

     What makes me so much better than them???

 

Why can I go for so long, only thinking about myself??!  I mean, its all about me!  Im seriously so disgusted!  God BREAK ME!!!!  I hate this about myself!! 

 

   The world is looking for someone who is real..  for someone who is different… for someone who is selfless….  That’s what John was saying in these verses..  That no one has ever seen God, but if we truly love, then something of his character shines through..  When we love, we show God, because HE IS LOVE!  When we are selfless, and really think of others as better than ourselves, then we truly begin to paint a picture of who our God is!

I read in Matthew 25 a few days ago, and it was talking about how when God returns, he will separate us like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats..  And basically, he is going to tell those who loved all people, no matter how gross they were, or how poor they were, or how “down and out” they were, to come on in and experience the fullness of God!  He says that every time, we go out of our way to help someone who is “lowly” in our minds, that we have done it for Him… we have helped HIM.  We have done it for God.  Our King.  Our Love.  Our Savior.

  How many times though, am I too caught up in myself, and my agenda, that I pass by God, and simply think that someone else will “take care of it?”  its really sickening…. If I could just learn to live life like Jesus did..  Im so sick of just being a “singer of songs, and a faker of life!”  Cause when I continue reading in Matthew, I see that the other people that God speaks too, are a lot like me.  He says to them: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat.  I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink.  I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in.  I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me.  I was sick, and in prison, but you didn’t look after me. 

 

Wow. I don’t want to get to the end of my life, and realize that this whole time, I had it wrong!  I don’t want to look into the eyes of my God, and see disappointment. 

 

   You know, these 140,000 orphans shouldn’t have to stay like that forever.  Why not try and change this??  Why not become selfless and truly learn to love??  Why not pour out ALL of your life??  ALL of your dreams?? ALL of who you are??  See, at the end of all this, I don’t want to stand before God, having done nothing to show his love!  So, with this time that I have left, I am going to give it all to HIM!  Im sick of this!  SICK OF SELFISHNESS! 

 

Oh God, here I am.  Take me!  Every selfish bone on my body wants to run my own way, but you have called me to love you, and to love people.  That’s how they’re gonna know how great you are, by how much I love!!  It’s such a huge responsibility, but God, you are so worth it!!  Take me! ALL OF ME!!  EVERY PART!!  Let me learn to love!!  To live in love!!  To be love!!  To be God to every person I see!! It starts today God!  Start with me!

 

 

Friends, lets live this.  Love, Love, Love!!  Be love!!  Change your world!  Don’t wait for someone else to do it!  Catch a dream and go for it!  Don’t find yourself at the end, with God in front of you, saying “I never knew you…  you didn’t quite get it…  you didn’t live to love.”

Clapping and Chewing

have you ever thought about clapping??

If you really think about it, we do some weird things!! i mean seriously, how is clapping normal?? Who determines “normal” anyway??

And what about chewing? Its so stinken weird too!!

haha don’t ask me why im thinking about this right now.. I really have no point behind this post!! haha

People are so weird, but i love them! Life is good isn’t it?!!!!!

Today i went to Jason’s deli for a little meeting. We had a blast and ate some stinken awesome food… While we were there though, i happened to look across the room, and see a lady who was sitting in the corner eating all by herself…

what would you do in a situation like this??.. A few minutes later, i got up and went to the bathroom, and in doing so i walked right past her table… i tried to make eye contact, but none was made. Then on the way back to my table, i felt like i needed to go and sit with her… She just looked like she needed to talk.. But, I decided to take the easy way out. I did exactly what Jesus wouldn’t do, and i ignored her kindly… I then continued on in my “meeting” and didn’t think about her again until i saw her get up to leave. It was then that i got smacked in the face with the fact that she was in the same restaraunt I was in, yet the whole time not one person had even said hello to her… So, she got up and simply left.

why is it so hard for us to get uncomfortable?? what am i so afraid of?

When i look at the way Jesus lived, and then compare my life to his, i realize how far off i really am. I can just imagine the compassion that was in his eyes. Have u ever thought about what it would ‘ve been like to look him directly in the eyes?? i can’t even imagine it…

I believe that we need to start taking those simple little walks, as uncomfortable as they may be. If God could look across time, and see us in our lonliness and desperation, and take that huge walk which ultimately led him to death, then why would i ever be too scared to walk?

In Isaiah 58, God talks about the kind of fast and sacrifice that is acceptable to him…  SO many times i try and bring him a sacrifice, yet  my heart is so far from where he wants it to be.  I mean, if its hard to stop and talk to a lonely lady, i have a LONG way to go!  I heard a quote that said “True ministry are the things that come as intrusions to our schedule…  People are not interruptions, they are opportunities!”

So lets try and live this friends!