May Our Love Be Contageous

“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… We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:7-8, 19-21)

John’s commandment to the churches echoes Jesus’ commandment to his disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus combines his commandment of loving your brothers and sisters in Christ with the idea of loving others as well.

Love is the mark of a true disciple. If God is love, and we are letting God reign in our lives, then how is this love overflowing from us into the lives of other people? How are we making a difference in our community? Are we taking care of the poor, the destitute, the disabled, and the broken?

When we are truly loving people, we begin to make a difference in our world. That could be people outside of the church, or people inside of it. Think about it: how many of us have treated someone in our church family poorly? Maybe you spoke behind their back, or argued in anger, or lusted over them, or cursed them... Maybe it is simply excluding others from our group. You aren't like us, so we wouldn't be hurt if you just went away... Oh, we'll never tell you to your face, but we sure won't do anything to make you feel welcome, either.

As Christians, we cannot act like the world. We are called to love and unity because of our faith in Christ Jesus. We must put behind the things of the world (jealousy, backbiting, arrogance, hatred) and focus instead on building one another up in love. I am not sure when we get to heaven if God is going to be concerned as much about our complete doctrinal understanding as much as he is with the answer to this question: "How well did you love your brothers and sisters, and how well did you love and serve the world in my name?"

When we are truly loving people, if we are truly making a difference in the lives of people, then others will begin to take notice. They won't be able to help it. It will be infectious, a viral movement spreading to people all around us.

Much like what we see in this video. It starts out small, but by the time others join in and we are working together in perfect unity and harmony, others begin to want to join in. May our love be infectious, and may we always be "viral" in our world!

Love One Another

The church gets a bad rap. Too often she gets beat up, not just by non-Christians but by Christians too!

“The church is full of hypocrites. Oh they claim to believe it, but they don’t practice what they preach…”

“Church is out of touch. They don’t have a clue what is going on in the REAL world…”

“Church is boring. They don’t sing the songs I like, the preacher is too long-winded, everyone is off-key. Seriously…”

And often those criticisms are based in fact. All of us can be hypocritical. Sometimes we are out of touch with culture and the world. Sometimes church can be a little boring. Sometimes we sing off-key. Sure, those criticisms are sometimes based in fact.

But here’s my definition of church: Church is the perfect place for imperfect people. We believe in the God who was, is, and is to come, and he is at work on each of us making us what he means for us to be. As Christians, we are under construction. As the church, we are a place where people come to be built up. Sometimes we function as a hospital, working on those who need healing. Sometimes we function as a therapy session, helping those who are hurt and broken. Sometimes we are a family dinner, a place where joys are shared and accomplishments are rejoiced over.

Ultimately, the church makes the biggest impact when we love one another. The Christian community, when it is loving one another, makes a huge impact on the world. Look at Acts 2 and Acts 4: these are people who are making a difference! This is why Jesus tells his disciples to love one another. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). So church, get to loving! Check up on one another. Encourage one another. Say more than hello to someone as you leave. Love can change the world, and it starts here with us

The Bride of Christ

Nothing is more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day! For those of you at Nick and Lindsay’s wedding, you understand what I am talking about. Brides have such a glow as they walk down the aisle, her eyes only on her (soon-to-be) husband. At that moment she is the most beautiful person in the world.

I have always enjoyed turning and watching the groom’s face as his bride walks down the aisle. (And yes, I had the idea before watching “27 Dresses.” Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t have admitted watching that out loud…) His eyes light up, a smile beams across his face, and often tears begin to well up as he sees his beautiful bride coming towards him.

Now, both individuals have their imperfections and their flaws. Neither one of them is perfect. But they have chosen to love one another and dedicate themselves to one another, and at that moment all they see is the perfect person standing right beside them.

God uses this same metaphor to describe his relationship with his church. In Revelation 19, John is invited to the wedding celebration of the Lamb. John describes his vision:

“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear…” Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " And he added, "These are the true words of God.”

We, as Christians, are the Bride of Christ! We have been chosen by God to be his bride, his chosen one. Yes, we have our fault and flaws. No, we aren’t perfect. But God has chosen us, and because of that we have been made perfect! And at the moment of that wedding celebration God believes that we are the perfect ones to be standing right beside him. Because of his great love for us we have fallen in love with him.

May we always remain faithful to the one who loves us this much!

True Love

There is an old song title that sums up the attitude I perceive from many of the students at KU: “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.”

This week, the University Daily Kansan published their annual “Sex on the Hill” edition. If you didn’t see it, please don’t go looking for it. If you were to peruse the articles within, I think you would come to the same startling realization that I did: everyone is looking for love and acceptance, but they are willing to take whatever they can get.

So many people just want to be loved. They want to feel accepted for who they are (or at least who they are pretending to be.) They want people to value them, to respect them, to see them as worthwhile. They desire nothing more than to have others acknowledge them as important. The problem is, they are looking for this acceptance in all of the wrong ways and they are willing to settle for being used in order to feel “valued.”

As I talk to students, I come to the realization that all of their bravado is simply a mask used to hide the fact that they can’t get satisfaction from the world around them. The choices they make, the things they do, the way they spend their nights and weekends… it all shows that they are looking for a way to fill the void. Don’t worry, they are trying hard. And they are willing to keep trying until they can either find that “love” or dull their pain. We all want to be loved, but if we can’t find true love then we are willing to settle for whatever we can get.

I believe that our job is to give hope to the world. As Christians, our mission is simply to be ambassadors of hope. The hopeful message the world needs to hear is simple and yet profound: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). True love, the most fulfilling and amazing kind of love, can only come from our Father. As John sums up the message of the Gospel he states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son…” (John 3:16ff). This is true love! This is the love that the world has been looking for. This is the love that the world needs to hear about. They no longer have to settle for cheap love or conditional acceptance, because they will never find trueness in these things. They can only find their hope in the one who created them to love them, and who showed his love by giving up everything to be with them.

Now we have to show them how to look for love in all of the right places.