Extravagant love

Matthew 26:50

Friend, why have you come?

Already two weeks have passed this year and for me personally the year has started on a high. I considered the first Heart of Worship meeting with me as a youth leader a success and I just accepted my first full-time job after graduating university. Now that is what I call a good start!

The last couple of messages had love and meeting each other as a topic and I think this is an extension of those, or rather it is at the base of those messages. In our church the main focus for the start of the year is 'seeking first the kingdom' (Matthew 6:33), which is great. It is always good to reset the focus to Jesus at the start of a new year. In light of community and friendships, Jesus is the best focus and the best example there is.

One thing that is certain for the coming year, is that we will be offended at some point this year, to varying measures within our community. Maybe one of your best friends will say something that offends you or someone in your connect group does something that hurts you. In Matthew 18:22 Jesus answers Peter when he asks Jesus how many times he should forgive a brother that sins against him. Jesus answers with 'seventy times seven.' Jesus tells us to forgive every time somebody sins against us. It is okay to be angry, as Paul writes to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 4:26, but don't stay angry. Forgiving someone is as much helpful to the person needing forgiveness as to the person needing to forgive.

As more often, Jesus leads by example. Jesus already knows that Judas will betray him, yet still accepts him. Moreover, Judas was there at the Last Supper. Judas was always welcome. Matthew 26:50 shows the full extent of the largeness of His love. Even at the moment of betrayal, Jesus calls Judas 'friend', and he does not judge Judas at this point. That is what I call extravagant love. That is setting the bar high for us in our relationships. Who do we call friends? Let this be a year where we worship passionately, forgive quickly and love extravagantly.

His love never fails.

Loving each other

1 Peter 4:8

And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."

Yes it has been a long time! A lot has changed since the last post in June. I graduated university, traveled to Australia and New Zealand and I came back a different guy. A lot has changed and is about to change in our church in Amsterdam, but our God stays the same.

More and more this verse lives in my heart. This has such a huge impact. To me it is a game changer. The point is very simple. We are no saviors. Jesus is the Savior alone. If that is the case, this verse points exactly to what we are supposed to do. We are to show the world how much Jesus loves them. How much we love them.

We know that the Bible mentions different types of love. The word for love in this context is a form of philos, meaning brotherly love. This is exactly what it means: the way we love people and to what extent can actually cover a multitude of sins. This is radical. We do not take away sins, because that is not something we can do. But this is something that is bigger than most of us know. Your love is powerful!

In verse 10 Peter mentions something else that seems very critical to me, because this how we show love to each other. Loving others is not just something verbal, it requires physical action. "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another." Ministering each other sounds great, other translations mention it as - and the meaning of minister in this context is - serving. Serve each other with the gift you received from God. This is how we show love to each other.

Love never fails.

Keep coming back!

Psalm 22:21b

You have answered me!


Last post was about putting God in the right context and making God personal. This post continues on that. For me, Psalm 22 is pretty intense. David is explicit when talking to God here:

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
² O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.

and

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

and

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.

These are intense things to say to God. We grow up thinking we always have to be respectful to God and of course that is true. I do think though that most of all we have to be honest. God showed us that He wants a personal relationship with us by giving us His Son. Jesus showed the greatest love of all by offering himself up for our sins. One of the least things we can do is be honest about what we think and feel! He can handle it.

That is not the only aspect that gives David breakthrough and new inspiration. He is honest to God, but still comes back to God to give Him honour. "You are  holy." He still asks God for help. Despite his circumstances he still trusts in God. When the circumstances are extremely peril and David doesn't have anywhere to go but to God..

He answers.

God answers. The tone in verses 22-31 is so different. David has found new life and new inspiration. When we are in worship or when we are praying, do we tell God literally everything? Do we allow God to work with our deepest thoughts and inner feelings? Do we give God glory even though the breakthrough hasn't happened yet and do we trust Him completely? Do we keep coming back to God with everything that's happening? This all takes time, but I think that if we do, there is a whole new space for us to enter into in our prayer lives and worship moments. Because God will answer you.

L

The right context

Psalm 20

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
² May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;
³ May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah

⁴ May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
⁵ We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

⁶ Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
⁸ They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.

⁹ Save, Lord!
May the King answer us when we call.

Oh man, this Psalm is such a good start to the week. This is such a beautiful blessing. More than it just being a beautiful psalm, I think there are some lessons that we can draw from this. Also because I think this book can be potentially mega powerful, if we just understand some of the principles behind it.

First of all, this is David speaking out of his personal life. Not specifically in this chapter, but throughout this book we can see David calling out to God, calling God his Shepherd, his Fortress, his Stronghold, the Deliverer who shatters his enemies. He does so in his own personal time with God. This is actually how he worships God. And very importantly he calls God how he sees him. How he experiences God in times of hardship. We should think about how we experience God and how we call God. As a city boy, it is hard to see God as a shepherd even though I understand the principle. In modern times I don't even know if I'd like to see God as a Deliverer who shatters my enemies, even though He can. God saved me from addictions and past experiences, so I will call Him Saviour. And I know He will be a Saviour to my friends and family as well. I know that God has guided me to the place I am today, therefore He is my Guide.

I love reading Psalms and I love to sing worship songs about God being my Shepherd, moreover I have written said songs myself. But I also think now it's very important to put God in the right context, to acknowledge everything He has done and will do and give him the right place in your life to work His miracles. It's time to put Him in our own context, just like David did.

A heart of worship

Psalm 132:7 "Let us go into His tabernacle, let us worship at His footstool." (AMP)

The last weeks we have been talking with our Heart of Worship band about our attitude in worship. There is so much power in worship. Why? Simply because God loves it. Being around the presence of God is powerful stuff. In Revelations 4 John describes how angels constantly sing "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come." There is a constant atmosphere of worship in heaven. You might describe that worship has the potential to bring the atmosphere of heaven to earth. In any way, it is incredibly powerful.

There are so many 'ingredients' to create an atmosphere of worship. In earlier posts I talked about God's unfailing love for us. I think that our worship has to be a response to His love. God will always love us, and our worship is a step towards God. A heart and attitude that is totally focussed on him is so important. There is no such thing as half worship or indecisive worship: worship is full-on.

In Matthew 28:17, it says that the eleven disciples went to the mountain as Jesus had told them and when they saw Him, some worshipped and some doubted. Now the Greek word for worship here is proskyneo, which means to worship or kneel down; total surrender. To enter in God's presence it is so important to lay down everything. Lay it all down at the cross. In Psalms it is described how David used to cry out to God. You don't cry out with half of your heart. Don't worship with half of your heart either. Next time your worshipping at home or in church, put aside what your going through and surrender. God knows what your going through. Surrender and give him your all.

His Love Never Fails

L

Togetherness

Acts 2:44 And all who believed (who adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ) were united and together they had everything in common (Amplified Bible)


I just came back from band practice. It's so great to come together and worship God and play music for him, together as one band with one mind and purpose. For me personally, but I think that it applies to everyone, it's really necessary to gather with other people and share or do something together. In this chapter in Acts in the first verse that they were all assembled in one place. Powerful things happen when we gather and agree on something and pray for it. Besides that, I guess it's just plain comfortable to have people around you, whether life's treating you good or bad. 


And I absolutely love what it says between brackets here: who adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ. The Greek word that is used here is pisteuo, which means exactly that; trusting in and relying on. We don't just come together for the sake of gathering or having a good time, even though these are really good things. We come together trusting in and relying on Jesus. We know that we are in good hands, in good and bad times. 


Love never fails,


L

Prologue - love never fails

Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8a)

To be very honest, I don't read many blogs. I love listening to online messages, but for some reason I'm not the blog reading person. Not because I dislike reading, actually the contrary is true.

Still there are several reasons to start blogging. Firstly I don't seem to be able to keep my findings and revelations and experiences to myself, which might be a very healthy quality (most of the time). Moreover I'm the type of person that finds it fairly easy to pray and to worship God, but it takes more effort to really read and think about the Bible for myself. So this blog might be some sort of journal or maybe it might just be my notes when reading my Bible, actually it doesn't matter.

As said before, worshipping God is quite easy for me. I mean, God created everything we know about, and still cares about us. Jesus describes in Matthew 30 how even sparrows do not fall outside of God's care, how all the hairs on our head are numbered and how much we mean to God. God cares for us. God loves us. Knowing that the Most High loves me, forgives me still after all the things I've done wrong and cares for me and wants to take care of me gives an indescribable feeling. It makes me want to be in His presence.

I hope this encourages you to spend more time in worship. God is almighty, but God is also caring and loving. Love never fails.

L