love

Though the volume has increased in recent years, the American Church has been dividing over whether it should be primarily about proclaiming truth or about serving others since at least the mid-20^th century. But, it’s an unnecessary choice to make. These two things need never be separated and should never be separated. On the same night Jesus commanded us to remember how His broken body and shed blood rescues us from sin (that’s the truth), He commanded us to demonstrate our new life by serving others (that’s love).

This week, we’ve been exploring practical ways to experience Jesus more intimately during this Christmas season. Today, let’s focus on the wrong way to respond to his unconditional love, then we’ll choose the path that leads to his best for us.

Yesterday, we focused on God’s call to trust him not just for our salvation but also for our sanctification, yielding every dimension of our lives to his lordship. As Oswald Chambers noted, our Lord “never asks us to decide for him, but to yield to him, a very different thing.”

Today, let’s consider the countercultural nature of such a lifestyle, then we’ll focus on two simple but transforming ways to “yield” our lives fully to our Lor

How can we make God’s offer of redemption in response to our repentance more available and attractive to those who need it? Consider two sentences I believe every American needs to hear.

Jesus judged not to shame but to love. Not to lift up Himself but to lift up the one in need of judgment. Unlike the Pharisees who arbitrarily judged others against their own self-imposed standards of living, Jesus judged others against God’s Word, the only standard by which Christians are called to live and hold one another accountable.

We often think that Jesus died to save us because we were worth saving. The fact is, he died to save us because he loves us. In fact, he loves us enough to die for us again, right now. And he loves us because he is love. Not because we were or are lovable. Not because there is anything in us that merits his love.

We’ve focused this week on ways to love our neighbor during the pandemic by loving God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30-31). We’ll close today by focusing on loving God “with all your heart” (v. 30).

Satan wants to use the current pandemic to tempt us to neglect the Helper we cannot see as we focus on the help we can. When we face a medical crisis, we seek the help of medical professionals. When we face a financial crisis, we seek the help of financial advisors. As we should.

But we should also trust the Great Physician who owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). We were created to need his omniscience and omnipotence today and into eternity.

In his book “Where is God in a Coronavirus World?” Dr. John Lennox gives answers to the skeptic’s arguments. He also wrote this book in order to “convey some comfort, support and hope,” to people who feel disoriented, concerned, even fearful because of the coronavirus pandemic and all of its consequences and disruption in our lives.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 31 at 8 PM Eastern Time, Ed Stetzer will join me for a free webinar “How Christians Can Love Their Neighbors During the Coronavirus.” Though this webinar is the first session of a 5-part short course on responding to our culture’s brokenness, we are also offering it completely free to anyone, even if they are not signed up for the rest of the course.