Lent - Week 5

Finding God’s Love In Our Hearts

Study Materials:

A Clearing Season, Reflections for Lent, by Sarah Parsons
Wondrous Encounters, Scripture for Lent, by Richard Rohr
Give Up Something Bad for Lent, James W. Moore
Unpacking Forgiveness, Chris Brauns
Sifted, Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges and Disappointments, Wayne Cordeiro (with Francis Chan and Larry Osborne)
Hearing God, Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, Dallas Willard
Lord, Teach Us to Pray, Andrew Murray
How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Finds from a Leading Neuroscientist, Andrew Newberg MD, Mark Robert Waldman
http://christianity.about.com/od/prayersverses/a/basicstoprayer.htm
John Wesley – Sermon 26

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.   “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people. – Jeremiah 31:33

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:35-40

That’s it then. God has put love in our minds and written it on our hearts.  His commandments of love are not simply laws that He expects us to live by.  They are the only mechanism through which we can find true happiness and fulfillment in life. Our love of God and others completes a great circle. We see this in Matthew’s gospel.

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ – Matthew 25:34-40

Of course, it is not only Christians who can love. Love is God’s great gift to everyone, and He has given everyone a seemingly unlimited capacity to love, and an unlimited desire to be loved.  Everyone who has lived knows this. Thousands of songs and poems have been written about love, and few of them can be classified as gospel.  There are truly beautiful lyrics that have spoken to our hearts, some of which have healed us and others that have buried us in sadness. Ann Murray sang “You Needed Me”, a song so beautifully written by Randy Goodrum about unconditional and undeserved love. 

I cried a tear, you wiped it dry
I was confused, you cleared my mind
I sold my soul, you bought it back for me
And held me up and gave me dignity
Somehow you needed me

You held my hand when it was cold
When I was lost you took me home
You gave me hope when I was at the end
And turned my lies back into truth again
You even called me "friend"

You gave me strength to stand alone again
To face the world out on my own again
You put me high upon a pedestal
So high that I could almost see eternity
You needed me, you needed me

John Denver wrote “Annie’s Song” for his wife, and forever lay to shame every note that you will ever write your spouse.

You fill up my senses
Like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again

Come let me love you
Let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter
Let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you
Let me always be with you
Come let me love you
Come love me again

God’s great gift of love is at its best when we are giving it. Love truly is the gift that keeps on giving. My office is situated outside a hub of several offices, and it lends itself to my innocently overhearing a few conversations. Recently, I overheard a conversation at work between two women. One was describing how her husband bought her flowers for Valentine’s Day, and the other woman said that sounded so lovely. But the first woman didn’t think so, and went on to say that the love in her marriage seemed stale. Then I heard the other woman ask a wonderful question. She said “When was the last time you told your husband how much you love him, and how much better your life is with him than without him?” The first woman said she couldn’t even remember, and wasn’t sure if she felt that way anymore. The second woman challenged her to go through the motions, and see if planting this seed in her marriage might make a difference in their relationship.

This exchange reminded me of something my grandmother said once. She said “Jeff, love is a choice.” I couldn’t see it at the time, but now I realize the power of that statement. We reap what we sow, and when we sow love, we reap love. Incidentally, I overheard those same two women talking a few weeks later, and it sounded like a remarkable change had taken place in the first woman’s marriage.

But unfortunately, not all of the love in our hearts is of God. Some of it has been corrupted by the world. Don Henley noted it well in “The Heart of the Matter”, where he asked

“What are these voices outside love’s open door, that make us throw off our contentment and beg for something more.”

It is exactly these voices that have corrupted God’s great gift to us. People’s lives have been ruined by this corruption of love. Wars have been fought and millions of people have been killed in the name of this love. This love is possessive, selfish and self-serving. This love finds its way into lust and greed. It is sad that like every great gift from God, although love has been put in our minds and written on our hearts, it has been corrupted by our capacity to sin.

The Bible points to this so well. If you have only seen Protestant versions of the Bible, then you might have missed the great story in Daniel 13 (which is included in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles). In the story, a beautiful Hebrew wife named Susanna is wrongly accused of adultery by two Elders, and their story is bound in their own lustful desires for her.  Daniel comes to the woman’s rescue, insisting that the men be cross examined separately, and eventually their lie is exposed.  Lust is a corrupted form of love that plants further corruption in our lives.

We see a similar story in the John's gospel, and we are left to wonder whether the accusations in this instance are warranted or fabricated. Thankfully, Jesus makes it clear that the woman’s sin or lack thereof is NOT OUR CONCERN.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:2-11

Again, I return to the statement in the previous paragraph. Jesus makes it clear that the woman’s sin or lack thereof is NOT OUR CONCERN! Our concern is loving God, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

The Bible also speaks to the corruption of love that takes the form of greed.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” – Mark 10:17-25

Take care when reading this story. Jesus is not saying that there is sin in being rich. Jesus simply recognized that this particular man’s stumbling block was love of money, and Jesus makes a wonderful point that many people do not appreciate near enough. Notice how Jesus subtly steps past the second commandment when he lists the commandments to the young man. Jesus knows our shortcomings. He knows our weaknesses. The young man was worshiping money, and this is a problem that can rear its head in any person’s life. I challenge you to look up the list of the past lottery winners and learn what has become of their lives. Money truly can become the root of all evil. An abundance of money can open doors of temptation to sin that were previously closed.

When I think of this, I am reminded of a something a friend said to me once. He said, “Whenever I meet someone who says they have never been a slave to a particular form of sin, I wonder if they have ever been placed in that sin’s path.” I am also reminded of the multitude of young people who wish for great beauty, completely unaware of the added troubles it can bring to their lives through temptation that they would otherwise not experience.

God never intended for love to take these forms. Our love is meant to be unconditional. Paul said it best in his letter to the Corinthians.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13

I challenge you in this Lenten Season to once again find the love of God that has been put in our minds and written on our hearts. Plant love, and you will sow a great reward. Love unconditionally, expecting nothing in return, and God will give you his love in abundance.