All We Need Is Love

I had every intention of writing sooner, but I was on an amazing missions trip to Brazil (in which I will write about in a later post). I really want to thank everyone for all the support and the encouragement. Words simply cannot explain how completely overwhelmed and grateful I am for it all.

The inspiration of my last post was on how the love between God and us, the love between a bride and groom, has been distorted and forgotten in the Church.  The greatest and most famous chapter on love which is in countless romance movies, TV shows, novels and performed at so many weddings was not written for a lovesick boy or girl, but from Paul to the church at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7, 13

   ¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^{3 -7}If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end…

… ¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

No matter how many ‘good’ things we do, no matter how much money we raise for charities, no matter how many meals we give to the poor, no matter how many people attend our services, no matter how awesome you preach, teach or reach the ‘lost’, if you do all these things with out love…it is nothing. It is worthless and it is a failure, a clanging cymbal.

I ask you, what makes my story, and countless others, so terribly wrong?  It is because it was handled without love. I can understand personal differences or not seeing things eye to eye, but with how we were treated, there was no love.

I think many of us in the Church have forgotten our purpose and even forgotten the God that has called us. We have missed our charge, getting caught up in the traditions and the religion of things.  In Matthew 22:36-40, “³⁶‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ ³⁷And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’ ”

The solution to our problem is not criticizing or pointing fingers at one another. I’m tired of people complaining, bashing and knocking the church. I’m tired of hearing people talking about what is wrong with the church and not doing anything.  I still love the church dearly. It is out of that love I say these things.

And the solution is not isolation. I know how hard is to be open to a new group of believers after being so hurt and ruined by another. To be honest, I haven’t attended a church on a Sunday regularly because just the act of getting up and getting ready Sunday morning is still too painful for me. But I have to realize that this is but a passing shadow. A new day will come, and I will find home with a group of fellow believers… But for right now, I am surrounding myself with other strong Christians, hanging out with them and spending time with them regularly. I constantly am seeking God as to where He needs me to go.  I have not given up on the Church.

When I decided to share my story, it was not to point fingers or to blame someone, but to point out an issue that needs to be addressed. I knew what I was going to say would be controversial, but in the end I knew it was something that needed to be said. My prayer was that in sharing my story, that God would be able to use me. Even though what I went through was terrible and painful, that God will still get the glory.

Before I had decided to post my story, I was reminded of another story. It starts in Acts 4 with Peter and John standing before the council and it continues in chapter 5:12 – 42 when the Peter and the apostles were arrested for spreading the gospel. It is a favorite of mine and I highly suggest you read these stories in their entirety. But a few verses have always stood out for me:

Acts 4:13

 ¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

Acts 5:38-39

³⁸So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!" So they took his advice.

This is exactly how I felt – small, uneducated and common. My prayer for months now has been to have the boldness that Peter and John had, to be bold about the things of God and God’s plan for my life. Even the Sadducees realized that their boldness was not their own, but God’s. One of the chief Sadducees, Gamaliel, had the wisdom to see that if what Peter and John doing was of God, it would not fail. In their own blindness, they could be found opposing God. 

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We have all seen this problem. The solution is we have to remember to love. Selflessly, boldly, unconditionally, just how Christ loves you and I. Have you ever loved someone despite their flaws, your personal differences and without expecting anything back? It is the most beautiful thing in this life. Only by God’s help, because I most certainly cannot on my own, I am trying to love the people, the Church, who have hurt me.

The only way we can change the Church is for us to change ourselves. My intention was to stir hearts, to open people’s eyes. I challenge you to seek God and pray about this. I challenge all of us to now act upon this knowledge, to not be silent anymore. I challenge you to search your own heart…to love, to be bold, to act. Let us pray for the boldness of the apostles, the boldness of Peter and Paul. Let us speak truth like Christ. Let us unite under God’s love and let us start a change that is so desperately needed. Stand with me, for we are the Church, my brothers and my sisters. I cannot do this alone.