April 2007-May 2007

VITAL SIGNS: Loving God

My earliest childhood memory of Sunday School includes the memorization of key Bible verses.  If my memory serves me correctly, the very first scripture phrase I committed to memory was, “…God is love…” (I John 4: 8 & 16)  Soon to follow was I John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loves us.”

In our life we experience variations of this thing called love.  There’s If Love: “I’ll love you if you please me...if you don’t hurt me...if you measure up to my expectations.”  There’s Because Love”  “I love you because you are beautiful...because you are talented...because you make me feel special.”  There’s When Love: “I love you when you are good...when you’re faithful...when you are obedient.”  Then there is: I love you PERIOD!  This is the love that focuses on giving rather than receiving.  This is the love God demonstrated toward us “...while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Further, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  (Ephesians 5:25)  Because of his sacrifice of love we are also challenged to present ourselves as a sacrifice of love back to God, as Oswald Chambers said, “The highest Christian love is not devotion to a work or to a cause, but to Jesus Christ.”  Similarly, Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Our congregational Vital Signs begin with the greatest command!  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)   “In congregations where the Great Commandment is emphasized, people are passionate in their desire to follow God in Obedience to Christ who is the head of the Church.  They eagerly share how Jesus found them and brought new meaning to their lives.” (Vital Signs bookmark)

Loving God is expressed in our heartfelt desire to get to know him better through passionate worship, diligent Bible study, and fervent prayer.  Our love relationship becomes intimate as we rely on him and “confess our dependence on God for everything, and seek to deepen our intimacy with Him by living prayerfully.” (BIC Core Value)  The result of such a vital love relationship with God is we just want to obey him. (John 14:15)  Obedience results in complete commitment to God and the fullness of His Spirit in us. (Acts 5:32)  His Spirit produces His fruit, LOVE. (Galatians 5:22)  Inevitably, His mind and passion becomes ours and we just want to be “Conduits of His Grace, not cul-de-sacs.” (John Piper)  We want to minister to others and nudge them closer to God.  “For God so loved the world (every nation, tribe, people and language) that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) The Good News is for everyone! It is impossible to be indwelt by the Spirit of God without beginning to sense the heartthrob of God for those who have not yet come to Christ.

How can it be then that some believers and some churches become rather luke-warm in love for God over time?  Mark Bailey illustrates in this way:  A senior adult couple was out for a Sunday afternoon drive on a country road.  Before long, they came up behind another car with a younger couple.  The young couple were sitting very close.  The woman was in the middle of the seat.  You couldn't have put a slice of cheese between them!  And every time they stopped at a traffic light, she reached up to grab his neck and give him a little kiss. No wonder he didn’t run any of those yellow lights! The senior adult woman turned to her husband to say. “Herb, look at them.  They’re so in love.  We used to ride like that!  Why don’t we sit close like that anymore?  What happened to us?” Herb paused for a moment and then responded, “Well, I didn’t move! I’m still right here behind the wheel!”

No, God hasn’t moved, but you and I may have.  Will you, with me, cultivate a passion for God personally in your households and in your churches?  With the enablement of His Spirit, let’s determine that LOVING GOD is the upper most Vital Sign among us!

In Christ,
Bishop John

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