April 1
Learnings: Guys Group
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 @ 10:57 am by Josh Burcham
I meet with a group of guys every week where I’m challenged, held accountable and encouraged all at the same time. This quote from @john_popovich. It isn’t something new to all of us, but it did hit us in a new way.
Forgiveness never makes sense.
Being a Christ-Follower never makes sense. Christ calls us “to be last … to be a servant of all” and to love our enemies. He calls us to humble ourselves to the point of washing peoples feet. The job of the lowest servant on the food chain in the households of Jesus’ day. He expects us to love people. Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment and he reply with this, “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.” Matthew 22:37-39. Jesus was asked for the GREATEST commandment, not the top two, but yet He felt it to be that important. “Love you neighbor as yourself”! They go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. We can’t truly love God if we don’t love people. “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” You’ve heard this before: love is an action. To show love to somebody takes action and to not show love, takes action as well:
41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.‘
We were created to love God and love people! Genesis records the creation of the earth and of mankind and Adam’s need for a mate.
“God created the first human, Adam, in His image, and they shared a prefect relationship. But still, God said it was not good. Why? Because Adam was created to love God and love people, yet at this point he was only loving God. The solution to Adam’s problem is Eve. So God created Eve, and Adam went from having a perfect relationship with God to having a perfect relationship with God and Eve. And it was good.” Vince Antonucci in I became a Christian and all I got was a lousy t-shirt.
We are called to love people. We are called to forgive people. And though it doesn’t make sense, we are still called to do so. Even if it feels like we are getting the short end of the stick or justice isn’t being served. We are called to love and forgive. Not an easy lesson I’ve had to learn, but a lesson am glad I learned. It frees me to love God in a way that I’ve never loved Him before.
I don’t care what somebody has done to you. You can’t love God fully if you can’t forgive and know it isn’t going to make sense!
Go into life with that heart and people are going to meet JESUS!
Verses quoted: Mark 9:35, Luke 6:35, Matthew 5:44, John 13:1-17, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 25:40.
