Having spent some time dedicated to learning scripture, both in my own study and in my time at Ozark Christian College, I've learned a very valuable lesson. It doesn't matter how much scripture you've memorized. It doesn't matter how many papers you've written on a topic. It doesn't matter how many times you've exegized a section of scripture...
If..
If you don't desperately chase after it's real world application. If you don't knead this truth into you life; allow it to manifest in your speech, rearrange your priorities, or even redirect the path that you had set for yourself.
It all comes down to letting no one and nothing other than Jesus himself define who you are, because in him you have the greatest amount of value. He is convinced that we are worth dying for. To him, we are worth going through hell and back again.
This whole reality hit me really hard, and seemingly all at once.
I had spent a whole semester studying 1 John. The book of 1 John is very logical, practical and tangible. It speaks directly to my heart.
Take a look at this:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
-1 John 3:16-20
Does that not overwhelm you with a sigh of relief? To know that God is greater than our hearts. To think about what life would be like if we honestly took care of each other.
I want that.
I believe that's worth chasing after.
I believe that's worth making sacrifice for.
We've all heard such cheap talk from Ministers.What get's me most is the definition of this word.
To "Minister" means to provide aid or relief.
That completely takes the religious idea off of the word. Ministry has nothing to do with many of the ideas that have become socially associated with it.
Ministry is simply this... to take care of people.To look out for others, instead of exclusively looking out for number 1.
After meditating on 1 John and letting the reality that it poses sink into my bones,
I'm left with this on my mind.
We love because he first loved us.
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother,
he is a liar.
For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,
he cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
And he has given us this command:
Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
-1 John 4:19-21
So now I'm experimenting and striving to learn what this looks like to be lived out.
Why would anyone want anything less?
Eternal life starts now doesn't it?
