Radical Love

Our little country at the end of the world had a huge wakeup call just 10 days ago when 50 muslims were slaughtered in their place of prayer by a radical extreme hater.  New Zealand became world news for a time, not only for the heinous crime but more so for the amazing outpouring of love and compassion for the communities that had suffered loss.

Sadly such crimes go on somewhere in the world every day and we have almost become hardened to it, unsurprised at man's inhumanity to man.  We must remember that ".... we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."  Ephesians 6:12.  This verse tells us who is behind these radical haters who make it their business to rob, kill and destroy.  His name is Satan, the devil.  He will play both sides against the other, he doesn't care who gets killed in the process. Hundreds of Christians around the world are murdered on a daily basis in similar fashion.  No matter what ethnicity, when you see such crimes, remember that it is the evil rulers of the unseen world at work.  People deceived, believing, as the Bible already told us, "doctrines of demons", 1 Timothy 4:1.

As we lead into Easter I am reminded of the night that Jesus was betrayed by his friend, Judas who was also deceived by Satan into betraying Him for money which soon destroyed him.  In the Garden of Gethsemane that night radicalism raised its head through Peter, Jesus most outspoken disciple.  In trying to protect Jesus from being taken captive, Peter raised his sword and cut of a man's ear! Jesus rebuked him, reached out and healed the man's ear in an act of radical love. He then quietly faced the 'kangaroo court' that found him guilty and sentenced him to an excruciating death on the cross. Jesus was guilty of nothing but love, His purpose was to reconcile you and me back to God through bearing our sin, past, present and future on the cross.  That is radical love.  He had earlier said that there was no greater love than one laying down his life for another (John 15:13).

As you look at world events you can decide for yourself the source of actions by their 'fruit'.  Whether it be of the sinful nature (flesh), which is controlled by Satan or, of the forgiven and renewed life for those who have received Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord who are then controlled by the Spirit.  "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,   idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!" Galatians 5:19-22

The Holy Spirit will never activate hate crimes.  He inspires radical, forgiving love because that is God's nature.  Follow Him and find joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control all rooted in His radical love.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father please comfort those who mourn the loss of loved ones this day.  Bring them comfort and peace and help me to live in your radical, forgiving love today. Amen

Unbelievable

In the early 1900's Robert Ripley realised he was onto something.  He later became the founder of the now worldwide Ripley's Believe it or Not franchise.  I don't think we have one in New Zealand but I have seen one at The Peak in Hong Kong. Ripley seemed to specialise in finding freakish things that would fascinate a certain side of human nature.

How many times have you heard and said the words "I can't believe it"?  It can be for good things (like winning Lotto, though you probably haven't said it for that reason!), or because you can't believe someone would be so generous, skilful, or even stupid.   I had a dear Korean friend in Hong Kong who often exclaimed "unbelievable!".  We used to tease her.

In reading Numbers 13 and 14 this morning I was struck by the unbelief of the Israelites.  Twelve men had been sent to spy out the land of Canaan (the land promised to them by God).  They spent 40 days checking out the land and found that it was indeed a 'land flowing with milk and honey' (13:27).  They also carried back proof of the bounty of the land, a cluster of grapes so large that 2 men carried it on a pole.  Now that's unbelievable!!

They reported briefly on the bounty of the land then prefixed their next statement with 'nevertheless', (in other words BUT) .....'the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are large and fortified, not only that we saw giants there.'  Two men of faith, Caleb and Joshua, stood up and bravely took the 10 to task.  'Let us go up', said Caleb, ' for we are well able to overcome them.'  But the 10 persisted in unbelief.....They went on to say that they felt like grasshoppers when they saw these giants and that's how we looked to them! (13:33).  They projected how they felt about themselves onto the other people.  How often do we do that? 

The people listened to the fear-filled report and wept.  They refused to believe that God would help them conquer, instead they had a pity party.  Consequently they missed out on the blessing of seeing what God wanted to do for them because over the next 40 years they all died in the wilderness, except Joshua and Caleb and the younger generation.  These were the people who went on to conquer that same land 40 years later!

This morning I came across a quote I'd written in an old Bible years ago......."There is no strength in unbelief." George MacDonald. Now that's worth pondering.

Has God encouraged you to believe him for something?  Don't let doubt and unbelief rob you of the blessing of seeing how God is able to work things out.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, forgive me for not believing that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or even think.  Help me to believe.  Amen