2nd Week of Advent; Love

I started watching “The Passion of the Christ” yesterday afternoon, and I had to stop right at the point when he had been handed over to the Romans. I haven’t watched it since it came out in theatres. I thought it was time again, but to be honest I don’t know if I can make it through. I want to remind myself of what he did for me and the world. I don’t want to take that for granted anymore.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” (Mark 1:1-3 ESV)

Tomorrow morning in church I have been asked along with another woman to read scripture in front of the congregation. This is the 2nd week of advent, and it is about love; God’s love. This is a huge deal to me because I never thought I was good enough to do this with Christians. I asked one of our pastors why and, he gave me an incredible compliment that encouraged me to learn even more about God; he said you are an example of God’s love. I have to remember though I am still learning what it means to be his and his alone. I have to accept his love, but I also have to accept his anger and wrath.

He was given to us out of love, and he wanted us to be forgiven. The sad part is in our current society that is where it stops there. We have been taught how to pretend to be a follower and not a true follower. I don’t believe that we can understand the love of God without understanding the wrath of God. If it was meant to just be about the love we would not have the scripture regarding his anger with us. The below verse is why he was born.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39 ESV)

I have read this verse before, but never really paid attention to it. It goes against everything we have been taught in the church and society. We have been told that God brings us peace, but we haven’t been taught what He is going to do in our lives to bring peace. The hard core truth of this is to truly be your family must not come above him. If we don’t love him the way the scripture reads above we have failed him in how we love others. I don’t believe that we can truly love another without understanding the sacrifice of his son.

God gave us his son. He had him beaten. He had him mocked and belittled. They forced him to carry the very cross that he was going to be hung from through Jerusalem. He had them nail his hands and feet to a cross screaming in pain. He yelled “forgive them father for they know not what they do.” We still don’t know yet do we? How sad it is to really watch our nation and the world. He did not come here to make us feel good about ourselves. He came here to break us so we could be forgiven by God. Christ came to protect us from his father’s wrath.

John MacArthur’s books and website has become a study guide for me now. He is incredible when it comes to understanding what Christ was trying to teach us in the New Testament. “In contemporary Christianity the language is anything but slave terminology. It is about success, health, wealth, prosperity, and the pursuit of happiness. We often hear that God loves his people unconditionally and them to be all they want to be. He wants to fulfill every desire, hope, and dream. Personal ambition, personal fulfillment, personal gratification.” The book Slave

He goes on to describe current “Christians” in society. They seek him as their personal assistant to seek self gratification in their choices; a personal assistant. The New Testament is the opposite of that. He owns us which means the above scripture is very important in how we are to be in our relationships. We are his possessions and we are to submit to him above all others. I often have heard the term “it is how we say it”, or I should say the tone of how we say it. That is a pretense in our minds of what a Christian should be. I am not saying that we should lose our temper and yell, but I am saying that we must be firm in telling another the truth. This has been hard to understand for me, because I have been taught in my journey the pretense of being Christian. We will lose people in our lives and we have to accept that. Also, we will have to remove people for him.

If it is backed by scripture and we are upholding him in our actions or words, we will be valued more by him. This may mean that you will lose job, your money, your family, your friends…everything. The disciples did and that is why he used them as an example to us in scripture. God killed his son, but remember Mary had to do the same. Do not for a moment pretend that we are so worthy that he will not strip of us everything to bring us to our knees and beg for forgiveness. I hope that I lose people in my life when they read this. It shows me that they should not be there and I have more to work on with him. Just another distraction from him. It has already started. The people that are to willing to stand by you are the ones you want in your life no matter what. They are ones that do not fear God in telling us the truth.

“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38 ESV)