This Is The Way
Hello, precious Beloved Family!
What a joy and honor to have been with you and experience the grace that was in our room on Sunday! It is so refreshing and powerful to see and experience the amazing things that are happening among us all. All of the different ways we get to serve and fellowship together, like at Grace Groups and this Saturday at the Harvest Fest, genuinely excites me!
The truths from Sunday are still resonating in my heart (and also many others who have reached out to me)… the applicable reality of “love looks like something.”
John 3:16-18
16 For God SO loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Some may miss the subtlety of the small word, “SO,” in verse 16. In the Greek, that word means, “exactly or in this way.” True Agape (the God Kind of Love) has an expression that will always follow it. It is not an emotion, a feeling, or a thought. It carries action and activity. The greatest way it is activated is through the simplicity of giving and receiving… This Is The Way!
Giving is the greatest expression of love.
2 Corinthians 8:7-8, 24
7 Therefore, as ye abound in every [thing, in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in] all diligence, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also. 8 I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.
24 Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf.
These verses make it abundantly clear that the, “proof,” of love is in giving. The radical reality is that there are no other New Testament verses that say so plainly what love looks like. This Is The Way!
In order to humbly express my heart, this is NOT about money. In my own life, and in the biblical precedent of God’s nature, the greatest gifts that have been expressive of the Father were not necessarily in “things:”
- Jesus was not a thing: He is our very life.
- Grace is not a thing: it is Divine Empowerment.
- Salvation is not a thing: it is the Heavenly reality for us all.
- Holy Spirit is not a thing: He is the very essence and breath of God.
- Peace is not a thing: it is a power that pushes all other influences into obscurity.
These are ways that we can see, know, and experience the, “proof,” of the Father’s great and unconditional love for each and everyone who is humble enough to just hold out their heart and say, “I am willing to receive.” Anytime I find myself doubting the Father’s willingness or passion to provide for my needs, release grace into a situation, reconcile a problem, or provide for a physical or financial shortfall I may have… it comes back to me not “seeing” the Cross. The Cross forever stands as a monument to the giving love of God that goes WAY beyond anything I may be facing. The Cross should forever separate us all from the brokenness and poverty of this world and propel us into the God-Kind-of-Life that we have been recreated to obtain and live. This Is The Way!
I love and appreciate you all deeply and pray that this day you know and experience the giving Love of the Father and reflect it brightly onto your love-depraved world!
I cannot wait to see you again soon!
In Great Love!
Steve
