Agape

God loves me “just as I am.”

True.

But, God’s love doesn’t leave me “just as I am.”

It can’t!

Why?

Because God’s love is both static and dynamic. Static in that it does not ebb and flow. There is nothing we can do (or not do) that will change His love for us. It’s fixed. God’s love isn’t just part of His character, it’s who He is (1Jn.4:16). His love is also dynamic, in that it is always active and moving in our lives to bring about change. This involves an ongoing process - a work that is continually healing and restoring us to Himself. We call this sanctification, and the goal is for us to become more and more like Christ.

God’s love is so pure and holy (set apart) that it is hard to compare and impossible to fully comprehend.

When Jesus Christ (in response to His Father’s love (Jn.3:16)), volunteered to come and lay down His life for us, there was no word to describe His kind of self-sacrificial love. What His followers witnessed, as they watched the way He lived and ministered love to people, was foreign to them. So foreign that the writers of the New Testament had to come up with a new word for this kind of love.

Agape.

According to BibleProject, the New Testament writers had to redefine their very concept of love. And they did this, not by looking in ancient dictionaries, but by studying Jesus’ teaching’s and His life. That's how we got the Greek word, agape.

To imitate this agape love, we must look to the one who modeled it perfectly by seeking the wellbeing of those who could not return His generosity.

The ultimate test of agape love is to demonstrate it to your enemies, like Jesus did.

(Remember, before we were God’s children we were His enemies. “But God demonstrates His own love (agape) toward us, in that while we were still sinners (enemies), Christ died for us.” (Rms.5:8))

How can we do this?

With the help of His indwelling Spirit.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. (Ezek.36:25-28)

We can agape others because He first agaped us (1Jn.4:19)…. just as we were.

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

Contentment

(by Lorie Codispoti)

“So, where are you going on vacation this summer?” the store clerk asked me as I placed my groceries on the counter.

I barely had time to think of a response before she chimed in with her family’s vacation plans. Her entire persona emulated that of a child as she added, “We’re leaving for the beach tomorrow!” Her fingers danced over the cash register keys as if she was playing with The Beach Boys and singing about Kokomo.

It was in that moment that I began to feel incredibly deprived.

All the way home, I had one question that kept repeating, over and over, in my head: Where are WE going on vacation? “Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahama…?” Nope! We weren’t going anywhere. (Cue the sad music.) We had no plans, and even if we did we couldn’t bankroll anything beyond our backyard.

After my encounter with that clerk all I wanted to do was plan a grand adventure and be giddy about it like she was. This full-on pity party rapidly spiraled downward and the more rotations I took the worse I felt.

As I approached our house I was distracted by a very active squirrel, busily scampering about filling his nest with the abundance of acorns from all our oak trees.

After working himself to exhaustion preparing for the winter months ahead, I think I heard his entitled self turn to the misses and say, “I’m tired of this place. I’ve worked hard and we deserve a break. I hear the acorns in Kokomo are twice the size they are here. Grab the kids and let’s go on a trip before the weather turns. We’ll take in all the new sights and sample the abundant delicacies.”

The sound of excitement was deafening, as the whole family prepared themselves for the great adventure that awaited them.

For Papa squirrel and his family this was the equivalent of a cross-country adventure, and I now found myself struggling with the reality that I had become envious of a tree rat. (I told you - downward spiral.)

Wait a minute!

What’s the matter with me?

I know where this leads. I've been rescued from this pit before.

Do I really want to revisit this dark hole?

No!

I came inside and prayed, asking God to forgive me for being so foolish. I was perfectly content before the enemy baited me with the idea of what vacations were supposed to look like.

The Lord began to remind me of all the fun our family has had over the years by perfecting the ability to staycation (the frugal way of having a vacation while staying at home). It turned my heart around and kept me from falling into the enemy's trap. I was even happy for the clerk and her family. Amazing how applying God's goodness can change your trajectory.

Staycations are nothing new.

People who know how to think outside the preverbal box have been practicing this portmanteau for a long time. While there’s nothing wrong with a vacation in Kokomo, there’s also no need to give up on a great adventure simply because you can’t swing the expense.

For many years our family vacations consisted of local attractions and places we could fit into a day-trip. I can’t tell you how many times “camping” meant setting up the tent on the back deck. If it was raining, we’d move all the furniture in the den, set up the tent, and fill it with sleeping bags and bodies. These were great times for laughing, story telling, and dreaming out loud. Sure, we probably would have jumped on a jet and traveled the world over if our piggy bank would have been a little larger, but rather than fretting over the fact that it wasn’t we focused our attention on local attractions. What we discovered was that fun and memorable moments are limited only by your imagination and not by your wallet.

So the next time someone asks you where you plan to take your family on vacation, remind yourself of what happened to Papa squirrel and his family when they became discontent with what they had and ventured into the Kokomo forest.

The giant acorns were, indeed, quite alluring, but when they arrived they discovered that the Kokomo Forest had an evil secret. The people who managed this forest had strategically planted a fake oak tree and scattered artificial acorns over the top of a well camouflaged pit. It was all designed to entice and lure discontented squirrels.

(I like a good ending, so I’m going to imagine that, rather than becoming squirrel stew, this family escaped and made it back to the little forrest they called home, where they lived happily ever after. )

“And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’” (Lk.12:15)

“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” (1Tim.6:6-8)

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com