Encounters with Jesus ~ Called

I haven’t been able to watch a lot of the Olympics this past week, but what I have been able to see has been amazing. The other night I was watching the men’s snowboarding half pipe event and was amazed at what Shaun White is able to do. When snowboarding first became an Olympic event I questioned why is this a sport, but after watching these athletes jump and twist and flip in the air while hanging on to a little board and then landing and moving forward on the snow into another trick, I began to understand just how athletic an event it really is. Whether it is learning to do a double McTwist 1260 in snowboarding, or a triple axle triple toe loop combination in ice skating or just keeping your balance in speed skating, the Olympics remind us just how far we can go with hard work, disciple and practice.

What all of these athletes have in common and one of the things that sets them apart from many others is that at some point in their lives they went out on to the ice or snow not for the first time, but for the second time. Anyone can try something once, but it’s going out there again and again that sets these athletes apart. As many of you know, I enjoy running and yes I did receive my first ever medal in a 5k race. I came in second in my age group and to answer the one question that everyone keeps asking – yes there were more than 2 people in my age group. There weren’t a lot, but there were more than two people in my age group!

The reason I am running today isn’t because I went out there that first day and ran, it’s because I went back out the second day. I didn’t feel much better the second day, but I kept going out day after day and running that one mile over and over again until I could run it without stopping. And then I ran a little more than a mile, and then a little more and very slowly I was able to run 2 miles, then 3. Olympic athletes are all made the same way, by men and women stepping out to try something once and then going back out there again and again and again. And every race is won the same way, one step at a time, and every journey of faith is lived out the same way, one step at a time

My hope is that during this season of Lent it will be our desire to grow stronger in our faith. My hope is that we will want to know more of God’s love and grace, experience more of God’s power and understand more of God’s will for our lives. Now this doesn’t happen overnight and faith development doesn’t take place in one giant step – our faith grows step by step as we hear and respond to the call of God. The truth is that God is calling each and every one of us in some way today. You are here right now because in some way God has called you to be here. Maybe you are here for the first time because you heard or sensed God calling you to come closer to him; maybe you are here because for years God has been calling you to go deeper and every week you take that next step of faith. It doesn’t matter who we are or how long we have been walking with God, every one of us here is being called to go deeper with Jesus, it is up to us how will we respond.

God calling us to go deeper in our faith today is exactly what we see happening in the encounter that Jesus has with Simon on the shores of Lake Genneserat. Jesus is on the lakeshore teaching and such a large crowd has gathered that people aren’t able to see or hear him anymore, so as Jesus looks around, he sees that Simon’s fishing boat is not being used at the moment and so he asks Simon if will take him out onto the water a little bit so that he can preach to the people from this floating stage. Since Simon is not doing much at the moment other than washing his nets, he agrees. Now taking Jesus into the shallow water doesn’t require much of Simon. There is no great risk involved here and there is no real investment other than a little of his time, so Simon agrees and takes Jesus out in his boat.

We might look at this story and assume that this is the first step of faith for Simon, but it is not. If we look back in Luke 4 we wee that Jesus had been to Simon’s house and while he was there Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law. So Simon not only knew about Jesus, he had heard his teaching about the kingdom of God and he had seen and experienced for himself Jesus’ power. So Jesus calling Simon to work with him by taking him out on the water didn’t come out of nowhere – they were not strangers. Jesus had already established a relationship with Simon before he called him, and I think this the way God wants to work with us.

God doesn’t call us to follow him out of nowhere; God first works to establish a relationship with us and then calls us out of that relationship to take another step. God takes the time to get to know us, maybe calls us by name and assures of his love and grace before he calls us to follow him. Looking back on my own life, the call to be a local pastor didn’t come out of left field; God had been working in my life for years to establish a relationship with me. God spoke to me as a child in church and nurtured me through Sunday School and youth group. Later on in college God assured me of his love and he made to clear to me that I was forgiven and saved through Jesus Christ. All those things happened before there was any deeper call to follow him. I think that’s how God wants to work in all of our lives. Before God calls to follow him and serve him, God calls us by name and God offers us his love and grace. Maybe that is where you are today, maybe for the first time God is calling you by name and letting you know that he is present and active in your life. Maybe God is helping you see that in Jesus there is forgiveness and grace that can transform our lives and make us new. If that’s where you are today, what a wonderful place to be; there is nothing sweeter than understanding that God knows us by name and that we belong to him. Some of the most powerful words of scripture come to us from God through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 43:1 says…

So our journey of faith begins with God calling us by name and redeeming us and letting us know that he is with us to help us, that’s the first step, but it’s not the last. Many times it is this first step that just gets us moving. One of Simon’s first steps of faith just got him out onto the water, but then Jesus calls him to go deeper, literally. Jesus calls Simon to go out into deeper water where he could put down his nest to catch some fish. While Simon’s first step of faith didn’t require much risk or investment, this step does. Not only was there greater risk in going out into deeper water, but there was also the risk of looking foolish because what Jesus as asking Simon to do made absolutely no sense and Simon knew this. While it made perfect sense for Jesus to use Simon’s boat as a stage from which to preach because sound carries so well over water and from the boat Jesus would be more visible to the people on the shore, it made no sense for Simon to go out during the day and drop his nets into the lake to catch fish.

There are several reasons why this call of Jesus made no sense:
First: Simon and his partners had fished all night and caught nothing. There were simply no fish in this part of the lake at the moment and Simon, a experienced fisherman, knew this.
Second: it was the wrong time of day to go fishing. You didn’t catch fish during the middle of the day when the sun sparkled off the water and scared the fish away. Again, Simon the experienced fisherman knew this.
Third: the kind of nets Simon and his partners were using were known as trammel nets and trammel nets were woven from a heavy linen which was visible to the fish in the daylight, so not only would the sun keep the fish away, but the nets would as well. Trammel nets were only successfully used to catch fish at night and Simon the experienced fisherman knew this.

So here we have Jesus, a man who grew up in a carpenter’s shop and was now a teacher and preacher, calling Simon, an experienced fisherman, to fish in waters were there were no fish and to fish at a time of day when no fish would be caught. Jesus is calling Simon to go deeper and take another step of faith but this step involved some risk. Following the call of God and going deeper in our faith always carries with it some risk. While the first steps of faith may seem somewhat easy for us, Jesus never stops at those first few steps. Jesus always calls us to go deeper.

When I was in college God called me to go deeper and join a Bible study. I had never been in a Bible study before, I had never prayed with people before and it was risky to get involved. I took that step of faith, and like Simon, I was rewarded – my faith and trust in God grew stronger. I began to experience more meaning and joy in life, and I began to explore God’s greater purpose for my life. When Simon heard the call of Jesus and went out into deeper water to let his nets down, his steps of faith were also rewarded. Simon caught so many fish that his nets began to break. He caught so many fish he needed a second boat to haul them all to shore. Simon’s steps of faith were rewarded and ours will be too. The rewards aren’t going to be financial; they are going to be spiritual and emotional. Following the call of God and walking with Jesus will bring a peace and purpose and power that is simply not found in the world around us. Stepping out in faith today to follow the call of God may require some risk – but with God the risk is always rewarded.

Now, you might think that these were the last steps for Simon, but they weren’t, God always calls us to go deeper. When Simon got to shore he takes another step of faith, this time a step down. Literally Simon falls before Jesus in confession and humility. The miracle Simon has just experienced showed him that he really was not in control of his life and that God was and that God wanted to be more in control and so Simon begins to give his life over to God which leads to the next step and the next call of God, (Luke 5:10-11)

When Jesus calls Simon to leave behind his boats and nets and the huge catch fish they just hauled in– Simon aggress. Now this is a huge step of faith for Simon. This is a decisive and radical step in his faith journey and we often look at this decision and wonder how it was possible for Simon to just leave it all behind. Simon was able to do this because Jesus had led him step by step to a place where it was possible. Jesus started by building a relationship with Simon, then called him into shallow water, then he called him into deeper water, then called Simon to take some risks and trust him and start fishing, and then he called Simon to take a bigger risk and leave fishing behind for something much greater – fishing for men and women.

Sometimes I think we look at this call of Simon and worry about how and when Jesus might call us to leave it all behind and follow him. Well, here’s the thing, God will only call us to take this radical step of faith when we are ready. Simon wasn’t ready to become a fisher of men and women the first time he met Jesus. Simon wasn’t ready to leave everything behind and follow Jesus in the morning when Jesus was preaching on the lakeshore. Jesus had to prepare Simon step by step to hear this call of God, and God prepares us well, that’s what this encounter with Jesus teaches us. .

Simon’s encounter with Jesus shows us that God calls us to follow him, but the call comes step by step. Jesus doesn’t call people in take one giant step of faith, but a series of little steps that take us deeper into the heart and will of God. Looking back on my own life I realize God didn’t call me to be a minister in one big step at the very beginning, the call came step by step. The first call was to simply be involved in my home church. The call was to attended worship and Sunday school and get involved in my youth group. In college there was the call to go deeper and join a Bible Study and then lead the Bible study, and then go on a leadership retreat.

The next big call came to go to Seminary and like Simon going out into deep water to fish, that call didn’t make a lot of sense to me because I didn’t want to a pastor, I didn’t want to be the minister of a local church so why go to Seminary? I went because, like Simon, I heard God calling me to just take another step and let God work out the rest. While I was in seminary and working in a church I heard God call me to take that next big step and leave my will and my plans behind to become a local pastor. Now if I had heard that call in high school or college or even in my first year of seminary, I would have refused, but God didn’t call me to take a giants step at the very beginning, he called out of a relationship of love and trust to go deeper and step by step follow him.

God calls all of us out of a relationship of love and trust to simply take one step of faith at a time. God calls us to worship and then maybe sing in the choir because we like to sing, then we hear the call to join a small group or Bible study because we want to learn more about God our faith, and then we hear the call to go on a mission trip, or we take a step of faith and agree to lead a bible study, or provide leadership or prayer support for one of the church’s ministry. Step by step God leads us deeper into a relationship with him, and step by step God leads us to a place where he can use us to accomplish his will and purpose in the world.

So how is God calling you today? What step of faith is God calling you to take? Don’t think God isn’t calling you, He is. God is calling all of us, it may be a call to receive his love and grace, it may be a call to get out there and get involved, it maybe a call to go into deep waters and risk it all, for each of us the call is different, but the common reality for all of us is that God is calling us, what step of faith will we ? Olympic athletes are made one step at a time, the disciples of Jesus were formed one step at a time and God is calling us today to go deeper and simply take one more step of faith, so as we enter into this season of Lent let’s just step forward with Jesus.

Listen to Him

This story of the Transfiguration of Jesus is one of my favorite stories in the gospels and one reason I love it is because it takes place on the top of a mountain. I love to go hiking and my favorite hikes are always to the top of mountains because from the top of a mountain you can stand and see far off into the distance. For many years I have hiked in the Smoky Mountains and my favorite hike is to the top of Mt. Leconte. It is the second highest peak in the park and there are 5 trails that lead to the top of the mountain and I have done each one at least once, most of them twice. From the top of Mt. Leconte you can see for miles all across the Smokies into NC and TN. Another mountain top I love is Cadillac Mtn. in Maine. Although you can drive to the top of this mountain, what is amazing about Cadillac Mountain is that this is the place in the US where you can first see the sun rise. The top of Mt. Washington has experienced the worst weather in the world and has recorded the highest wind gusts, although the day I was there the wind was gusting at 7 mph, and then from the top of Avalanche Peak in Yellowstone NP you can see the Absaroka Mtn. Range off in the distance of Wyoming.

Anytime you stand on the top of a mountain you just know you are going to see something spectacular, so when Peter, James and John go with Jesus to the top of a mountain, they just know they are going to see or experience something special. Something exciting always takes place on the tops of mountains in the Bible. Moses received the 10 Commandments on the top of Mt. Sinai. Abraham went to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac and it was once they got to the top of the mountain that God provided the lamb. Mountain tops are special places, so when we read about Peter, James and John going with Jesus to the top of a mountain, we just know something exciting is about to happen and as we keep reading, we are not disappointed.

While Jesus was praying it says that his clothes suddenly became dazzling white. Jesus’ entire presence radiated with the divine light of God and then suddenly standing there with Jesus were Moses and Elijah. It is here on the mountain top that the entire history of Israel is represented. There was Moses who stood for the law and Elijah who represented the prophets, and Jesus the Messiah who has come to fulfill them both. So all the history, hope and promise of Israel was standing right there on the top of the mountain in the power and glory and light of God What a sight that must have been for Peter, James and John. While we go up to the top of a mountain to get a good view, they were able to see the glorious past and the hopeful future of Israel. They were able to witness not the majesty of creation, but the glory and the majesty of God. It was an overwhelming sight and in that moment Peter is so overcome that all he can think of to say is, look Jesus, how about we build some shelters so that we can just stay here. It may seem like a foolish thing to say, but really, who wouldn’t have wanted to just stay there, stay on the mountain top and dwell in the glory of God?

But as Peter is thinking about staying on the mountain top, a cloud settles around them, Now anyone familiar with the history of Israel knows that a cloud on the mountain top is always a sign of God’s presence. When Moses went up to Mt. Sinai to get the 10 Commandments it says he went up into a cloud. In Exodus 19:9 God says to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and always put their trust in you.” So clouds on the tops of mountains were always a sign that God was present and that was going to speak, so as the cloud gathers around Peter, James and John we just know that God is going to say something and what God says is, this is my beloved, listen to him.

And then as suddenly as the cloud and the glory of God appeared, they are gone and the disciples are left standing alone with Jesus with three words ringing in their ears – listen to him. Imagine all of this all taking place: you are standing there with Jesus when suddenly he radiates light – Moses and Elijah appear and then a could settles on the land and the voice of God speaks and then s suddenly as everything took place it is gone and three words hang in the air - listen to him.

And it is those words that are at the heart of this story. There are only two times God speaks in the gospels, one is at Jesus baptism and the other is here on the mountain top and what is interesting about these 2 times is that in each case God says almost the same thing. At the baptism of Jesus God says, this is my son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased, and then here God says, this is my son, my chosen (or my beloved) but this time God says, listen to him. And so God himself is giving us some clear direction, we are to listen to Jesus.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating – listening is a lost art today. We might hear all that is going on around us, but are we really listening? Listening means taking the time to not only hear the words that are being said, but reflecting on what they mean and what they mean for our lives. In public discourse and in political discourse today, there is a lot of talking and maybe even some shouting, but not a lot of listening. Democrats don’t listen to republicans and republicans don’t listen to democrats. Children don’t listen to parents, and parents don’t listen to children. The world isn’t listening to the church, but the church isn’t listening to the world. Listening takes time and reflection. Listening takes respecting and valuing others. Listening takes thought and prayer. Listening might require some silence and silence is not something many of us are comfortable with. Think about how we fill every moment of our day with sound, the TV comes in the morning, the radio comes on in the car, the ipod comes on when we go for walk, we simply don’t take the time or find the place to get quiet so we can listen.

While all of our electronic gadgets make it hard for us to listen today, it wasn’t that different in Jesus’ day. Notice where Jesus has to take Peter, James and John so that they can hear the voice of God, they have to go up to the top of a mountain. It wasn’t that they just needed to be in that symbolic place to hear the voice of God; they also needed a quiet place. Wherever Jesus went there were crowds of people crying out for him to heal them or care for them. Everywhere he went there are religious and political leaders wanted to debate and argue with him. Everywhere Jesus went there was noise, so it is on the mountain top that they were finally able to get away from all that noise in order to hear the voice of God, and we need the same thing. We may not need to go to the top of a mountain, but we do need to find some places of quiet so we can begin to really listen to Jesus.

Listening not only needs places where we don’t have a lot of noise and distractions, but listening also needs still and quiet our tongues. At times listening requires us to keep our mouths shut. We have to stop talking so we can start listening, that is another lesson from this story of the transfiguration. When the power and glory of God comes up Jesus and when Moses and Elijah show up, instead of just standing in awe and wonder and worship and listening to God, what does Peter do? He starts talking – he just has to say something. He doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t really understand the consequence of his words, he just has to talk. Can you identify with that? I don’t know about you, but I am so guilty of this - I talk more than I listen. In conversations I am thinking about what I need to say instead of just keeping silent so that I can listen to what others are saying. God teaches Peter a valuable lesson here. Notice that it is immediately after Peter has opened his mouth to talk that God comes in the cloud and brings silence. I think that’s what the cloud coming is really all about; it tells Peter to be quiet, to stop talking so that he can begin to listen.

We need those clouds in our lives. We need those reminders to stop talking so that we can really start to listen. This coming Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and maybe this can be a season of listening for us. I want to invite you to come here on Wednesday evening at 6:30 to just sit in silence and reflection and listen for God to speak before our Ash Wednesday worship. Maybe these next 6 weeks can bring intentional periods of silence for us. If we go for a walk, can we leave the ipod at home? If e drive in the car – can we turn off the radio every once in a while. When we get up in the morning, can we take some time to listen to what God has to say for we turn on the TV?
We can’t listen to God without some silence, but it’s not just in silence that we hear God’s voice; we can also listen for God by reading his word. The disciples were fortunate because they could actually sit and listen to Jesus teach and preach. They could hear his voice explain parables and offer words of forgiveness and grace. They had those actual encounters with Jesus, but so can we. We can sit down and read God’s word; we can hear the same words of truth and love and hope that God spoke 2000 years. Again, maybe this season of Lent can be a time for listening to God by reading His word and studying it with one another. Studying God’s word together is important because sometimes we will hear God speak through the voice of others. Sometimes it will be the question or the insight of someone else that will help us hear what God has to say. That’s why it’s important for us to be part of a small group or a Sunday School class so we can hear God together. Notice that Jesus did not take just Peter or James or John to the top of the mountain, he took them together, he took a small group so they could experience and hear God’s voice together. This is a model for us to follow – we need to spend time in small groups listening to Jesus.

So those three words, listen to him, stand at the very heart of the Transfiguration story and they are still a clear directive for us today, but these three words also lead us to a deeper truth about how we are to live our lives. When we hear God say, listen to him, one of the natural questions for us to ask would be, why? what did he say? What did Jesus say that we are supposed to hear? Look back to the beginning of this story, it says, eight days after these sayings. So 8 days after Jesus has said something, Peter, James and John are told by God to listen to him. So what was it that Jesus said eight days ago that we’re supposed to listen to? Let’s look back and see.

Luke 9:18-21. Now let’s stop here for a moment. Can we see how these stories fit together? Eight days ago Jesus was asking his disciples, Who do the crowds say I am? Who do you say I am? And then eight days later God answers that very question by saying, this is my son. So we see that these 2 stories are woven together so that what God wants us to listen to is going to be found in Jesus teaching here, so let’s keep reading, Luke 9:23-24. And there it is! This is what God wants us to listen to, if anyone wants to follow Jesus we need to deny ourselves and take up a cross. If we want to follow Jesus and experience the full power and glory of God, then we need to deny ourselves and take up a cross.

Now the kind of self denial Jesus is talking about has nothing to do with our possessions; it has to do with where we place our faith and trust. Denying ourselves means we stop looking to ourselves and trusting in ourselves for salvation and life and we start looking to Jesus? Denying ourselves means we stop trying to find the full meaning and purpose in life in what we do and instead look at who we are in relationship to God. Salvation and life and the glory of God are found when we see ourselves as children of God who are accepted by God’s grace and love alone.

And taking up a cross doesn’t mean physically dying, it means we stop living for ourselves and start living for God and for others first. It means we place God’s will above our own and the needs of those around us before our own, but knowing how to do this, knowing what the will of God is for our lives and knowing how God is calling us to meet the needs of others us before our own requires us to do one thing first – it requires us to listen to Him. The only way we will know what God’s will is for us is, the only way we will be able to figure out how to live for others before we live for ourselves, the only way we will know what it means for us to carry a cross will be for us to find those times of silence so that we can listen to him.

So let us listen to Jesus.

Love ~ 1 Corinthians 13

This past week I once again saw this kind of love lived out in a relationship. For 48 years of marriage the wife has battled all kinds of sickness and disease, and through some of the most horrific physical and emotional times I have ever heard of, her husband stood by her side. He cared for her and sacrificed for her and now when there is nothing left for him to do - he sits by her side and holds her hand. The love this man has for his wife is truly a love that is patient and kind. It is a love that continues to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things, and even now as they face the separation of death, I can say with certainty that their love will never end, and I say that with certainty because it is what God tells us. True love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never ends.

Because this passage is often read at weddings, we may think of it only in terms of marriage, but the love Paul is talking about here is not just the love between a husband and wife. It’s also the love we should see between a parent and a child. I leave this afternoon to go visit my parents and as I look back on my own life I realize that my parents love for me has beared all things, it has believed all things, hope all things, and it has endured all things. Their love for me endured through the many highs and lows of my life. I also realize that though I’m 46, soon to be 47, their love for me doesn’t end. If you are a parent of grown children you know this to be true. The love of a parent doesn’t end when their child turns 21, it endures and continues to hope and believe all things are possible.

While this kind of love is what is needed in marriages and families today, we really need to expand this out and understand that Paul is not just talking about family relationships here. Look back and remember the larger context of this passage. The last 2 weeks we looked at 1 Corinthians 12, and what Paul has just been talking about is how the Holy Spirit gives gifts to the people of God in order for us to become one body. Look back to 1 Cor. 12:4-7.
God gives each of us gifts so that we can be one body.

It’s like a good choir; we need the sopranos, altos, tenors and basses all singing their unique parts in order for the song to sound good. We not only need the different musical parts, we need the variety of tones and expressions of voices to give the song depth and character. What Paul is saying is that for the church to be a reflection of Jesus, for us to be the body of Christ in the world, we need everyone singing their part, we need everyone using the gift God has given them, but then Paul says there is something else that is needed, there is something else to strive for and it is the glue that holds the body together, and that is love.

Look at 1 Cor. 12:31, Let me show you a still more excellent way. That more excellent way is the way of love, and so the kind of love Paul goes on to describe is not reserved for husbands and wives, or parents and children, this is the kind of love that holds the body of Christ together. This is the kind of love we need to have for one another. We need to be so committed to our brothers and sisters in faith, to one another gathered here this morning, that we will be patient, kind, forgiving, and humble with one another. The love we show needs to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things, but let’s be honest, if we struggle to show this kind of love in the covenant of marriage and in the commitment we make to our families, what hope is there that we will ever be able to love each other in the church with this kind of love.

There is no hope of our being able to love each other like this if we are looking within ourselves for the source of this love. If we just try harder, we won’t love like this. The only hope for us to be able to truly love one another is if we are willing to turn to God and ask him for this gift of love. This is what Paul is saying in 1 Cor. 12 & 13. God gives us gifts so that we can be the body of Christ. The gift of prophecy, leadership, wisdom, teaching and healing are given to us to help us become the body of Christ, and the same is true with the love that holds the body together. The love we are called to have for one another doesn’t come from someplace deep within us, it comes from God and it is formed in us when we place our faith and trust in Jesus.
If we want to be more loving to our spouses, family and friends, if we want to be patient, kind, forgiving, humble and hopeful with one another in the church, then we need to stop trying to be more loving on our own and start turning to and trusting in God.

If we go back to the gospel of John, we hear Jesus say, this is my commandment that you love one another. So Jesus commands to love, but he only says this after he first says this, John 15:4-5. So love is only possible when we abide in Christ. Loving one another is only possible when we draw our strength and power from God. When we connect ourselves to God and , we will bear much fruit and the first fruit of God’s spirit that is formed in our lives is love. Again it’s Paul who tells us that the fruit of God’s spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, but notice that the first fruit is love and in many ways, it is the love God gives that brings all the rest of those qualities, or fruit, into our lives. As love forms in us we will be more joyful, peaceful, patience, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.

So this love that Jesus commands us to have for one another and the love Paul calls us to have for our brothers and sisters is a gift from God and it flows into our hearts and gives shape to our lives when we accept that God first loves us. I have to say that when I have read 1 Corinthians 13 in the past I have always read it as God speaking to us about how we are to love, which of course He is, but I read this a few weeks ago and began to think about how the love talked about here is really a reflection of God’s love for us. Listen to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 again and think about how this really is talking about God’s love for us.

God is patient with us, God is kind and forgiving. God does not rejoice in our wrong doing – or our sin – God forgives us. God’s love bears with us through all our faithfulness and failures, God’s love believes all things are possible for us, and God doesn’t just hold out hope for us - he paves the way for a future with hope, and God’s love endures through all things – look at Romans 8:37-39. There is nothing that can separate us from this love of God. God’s love endures

If we aren’t sure about how much God loves us, then we need to take a good look at the cross because it was on the cross that the love of Jesus beared all things, believed all things, hoped all things and endured all things. The love of Jesus didn’t just bear the physical pain of being nailed to a cross; the love of Jesus bore our sin and the separation from God that our sin brought. On the cross Jesus said, My God, my God why have you forsaken me, and many believe it was that moment that the sin of the world was placed on Jesus and instead of escaping that moment, Jesus’ love for us bore that sin and paid the price so that we could know God and the life God offers us.

On the cross, the love of Jesus believed all things were possible. Right before Jesus breathed his last breath he said, it is finished. Jesus isn’t talking about his life being finished because he knows his life is not over. Jesus knew there was a resurrection coming, so what was finished was the power and the consequence of sin. Jesus believed that a new life was possible for all of us. He believed that we were now going to be able to experience the fullness of life and life eternal. On the cross, the love of Jesus bears all things, believes all things, it hopes all things and it endures all things. The love of Jesus didn’t just endure the physical pain and the pain of being separated from God, but the love of Jesus endured the ridicule of the people and the betrayal of his friends. It’s on the cross that we see so clearly just how much God loves us, and when we accept this love for ourselves and when we allow God’s love to wash over us and work in our lives, we will be able to love one another the way God calls us to.

On our own, loving others this way is impossible. We might find one or two people that we could maybe love this completely, but not everyone in the body of Christ, this kind of love is only a gift of God and it is only formed in us when we can accept the love of God for ourselves. God’s love for us bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things and it endures all things. God’s love for us never ends – so let us accept this love so that we can then love one another.