Love is an ACTION Word

I just want to start by saying that this is written from frustrations and sadness. I look around and I see marriages broken, families fractured all because we have changed love from an action into a feeling. We, as a society, have forgotten the parts of the vows that say "for better or worse". I recently heard one woman say that the reason for leaving her marriage was because shes "didn't feel passion" for her husband any more...... WHAT!? This isn't what the Bible tells us! But besides being frustrated, I'm broken hearted. So many broken hearts, dreams and family's because of this "love"ly lie. So any ways. Here is my view on the matter.

We all know 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. Paul lays out for us the traits of love; Patients, kindness, 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. It does not fail.

 All of these traits are not things that we as humans cant fully accomplish on our own. Paul here isn’t describing how he feels about a Woman, or what he is hoping for in an earthly relationship some day. He is telling us about the perfect love of our Savior. A love that He fills us with and we are able to exhibit once we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This is important because without a Christ kind of love it is impossible to forgive, submit, lead, be selfless, ect.

 Its important as we talk about marriage to look at love from a Biblical perspective. We live in a culture that has confused Lust with Love, a culture that has made Love an emotion. When we look at 1 Corinthians 13 we see that love does things, love is an action.

 We want so desperately to have “passion” and “butterflies” when the reality is that those things are fleeting and fit more soundly under the heading of “lust”. Don’t get me wrong! It is good to lust after you SPOUSE, but it is NOT something to build your marriage around.

 When you consider a biblical perspective, what we now consider “love” had NOTHING to do with marriage during the time that the Bible was written. The Lord told wives to submit to their husbands and for husbands to be so committed to their wives that they would lay down their lives during a time when marriages were arranged!

 Can you imagine being married to a man that you met on your wedding day and being told by the Lord to love them?! You cant imagine can you? That is because our definition of love is SO wrong!
Love is not something that you can fall in and out of. If that were the case it would depend on the day whether the Lord loved us or not! You see terms in Corinthians such as “love ALWAYS” ending with “it DOES NOT FAIL”. Quite contrary to the “I’ve fallen out of love” or “I just don’t have passion for you any more”!

 If you are sitting, reading this blog, and there is an emptiness in you, a need and a desire for something deeper, for passion, for fulfillment and you are looking to your spouse to fill those roles, you are going to be let down. There is only ONE man who can fulfill you, only ONE relationship that can complete you on the deepest levels and that is Christ. If you are searching those things out in your spouse, you are putting them in the role of your functional savior, a role that they can’t even begin to fill.

 Your relationship with Christ needs to be one that you are complete in Him, needing nothing from your spouse to make you truly happy. When there is no passion in your marriage, there is passion in Christ. When companionship is lacking, there is companionship with Christ. When YOU are lacking in your role(which I promise you, you are) the Lord is graceful and shines through in those moments.
A marriage that works is one where Christ is the center of both parties and center of the marriage. When you are lacking your partner exercises a Christ kind of love and loves you when you don’t deserve it because love is patient, kind and does NOT fail.

 The love we are called to as Christians is not an emotion, it is an action. An action that we must choose to make all the time. Love is not something that you fall in and out of, it is not butterflies and it is not passion. Love is being kind when the person doesn’t deserve it. Love is protecting someone who has hurt you. Love is trusting, that even in a marriage where you can’t stand your spouse, that the Lord will be faithful to fix, repair and fulfill as long as you are willing to take the actions of love, even when you don’t have the feelings of lust.

Without a Christ kind of love, the action, your marriage will fail.

Prodigal? Back Slidden? Decieved.

Matt 7: 21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

In many conversations with many different people this topic keeps popping up, the "carnal christian". Even one of my favorite pastors, a self proclaimed Calvinist, has been sounding an awful lot like a Arminian lately as he has preached on this. Don't get me wrong, this has NOTHING to do with John Calvin vs Jacobus Arminius, so please, lets not go there! This has to do with the question, "can Christians go to hell?"

The Word very clearly tells us that once we become a Christian that we cannot "fall out of grace". "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand."(John 10:29)

So what about Matt 7 then?

Who casts out demons but Christians?

Aren't those two ideas contradictory?

Well, all through out the Bible it tells us to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing and that they will "have a form of godliness but deny its power."(2 Tim) The Word tells us "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."(1 Corinthians 6:9-10) "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like."(James 1:22-24) "The profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good works,"(Titus 1:16)

So what does that say to us? That we can be deceived into thinking that we are saved, we can even have the appearance of Godliness and not be saved. How does that happen? How does a person think that they are saved and not be? How could it be that two life long members of a church, both deacons, are cleaning up after Sunday service and one goes up in the Rapture and the other is left behind?

If I said the prayer I'm saved right?

Well, its a bit more complicated then that. There is no magic incantation that you can say that will grant you access to heaven. Just because you have a card that you filled out at summer camp that says "So and so was Saved on this day" doesn't mean its your ticket in. Being baptized as a baby doesn't mean you don't have to think about eternity until your standing at the pearly gates. Salvation is a heart issue. Salvation is a choice. I liken it to little Sally who hit little Johnny and her mommy made her say sorry. Little Sally crosses her arms, kicks the dirt, and with as much attitude as she could muster and without making eye contact she says "sorry". Was Sally sorry? Obviously not! She just didn't want a whoopin from mumma! The same goes with Salvation; raising your hand or going down front because of peer pressure, or to impress the opposite sex, or to shut up who ever has been harping you about Jesus, or simply because you have gone to church your entire life does NOT make your a Christian. Repentance does.

Having a point in time where the Lord has broken you and you come to Him with a heart that is broken for the wretch that you are, a heart that is willing to be given completely over to the Lord and you ask Him to take it and transform you into a new being(Ephesians 4:24), THAT is a heart that has accepted Jesus. The Word tells us in 1 Chronicles 28:9 that "the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts". Obviously we cannot know or judge the salvation of anyone, The Lord is the only one who can do that.

So whats the point of this? If you cant judge a persons salvation why even bother with this whole Topic? Well, two reasons. First of all so that we can look at ourselves and question our own walk, so that we are not deceived. The second, is because we can judge fruit. Then we can take the words of 2 Timothy 4 and Matt 18 and apply them:

"Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2Tim)

 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (Matt 18)

Let me just come out and say it, I am terrified for certain people in my life. I look at them and I see men and women who are fooled. They know the Bible, they go to church, some are even heavily involved, yet I see no fruit in their lives, absolutely no growth. I see people who have continued down the same path that they were on when the came to the Lord 15 years ago. Don't get me wrong, NO ONE is perfect, we all have our issues that the Lord is working through and will continue too until the day that we die. BUT its too easy to simply say that they are back slidden or prodigal. Really? Was there ever progress that they backslid from? Or are they really prodigal? Because if they were, they would come BACK. Or is it the more sinister?

The words in 1 John have been haunting me for months:

"They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. "(1John 2:19)

Brothers and Sisters, i don't NOT want this to be me or you! There should be NO question mark above us(Saved?) it should be an explanation point!(Saved!) Our lives need to be full of fruit. We are the salt and light to the earth(Matt5) and people should KNOW us by our fruit(Matt7)! Look at your life. Do you have a thirst and Hunger for the Word? Do you have a desire to walk closer to God? Are you a NEW BEING(Colossians 3:10) or are you still doing all the same old crap that you were before(or worse, even deeper in sin)?

I challenge you too look at your life, at your heart. Where are you at in your walk with God? Do you even HAVE a walk with God? Brothers and sisters we are CALLED to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling"(Philippians 2)! Do that now! Do NOT be deceived!

So what, you can win bible trivia, you even have great doctrine; it all means jack crap if you don't have a relationship with the Lord that is changing you and transforming you!

Are you prodigal, are you back slidden? PROVE IT, get your happy butt back into a relationship with the Lord, BE IN THE WORD!

Revelation 3:15 - 22

"15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

I REFUSE to be spit out of the Lords mouth! I will be hot, BOILING even! Let it be known by the things that come out of our mouths(or the things that don't!) and by the things that we do and don't do that we are SET APART, that we are the Lords. Let there be no question about who we serve by others or by ourselves!

Let me be blunt, if you aren't offending some one by your walk or beliefs, if people are surprised when you tell them that you go to church, YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me." (John 15:18-21)

I end with this Brothers and sisters, we are branches of the True Vine and the Lord says that any branch out of Him that does not bear fruit, the FATHER will take away. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, do not be an unfruitful vine, do not be lukewarm and most importantly if you are those thing DO NOT BE DECEIVED. Time is short, surrender to the Lord and let there be no question in you mind or anyone elses that you are set apart!

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:1-8)