How to Love Everybody

Do you have trouble loving anybody? I mean anybody. Do you find yourself being a loving person, but then along comes so-and-so and you sense that love goes out the window.

Well, that’s because there is love, and then there is love.

I’m talking about Natural Love, and Supernatural Love. Natural Love shouldn’t be denigrated or put down. Without Natural Love, mothers wouldn’t take care of babies, brothers wouldn’t protect their sisters, husbands and wives who are not Christians wouldn’t treat each other right, people wouldn’t give to starving natural disaster victims, and so on. Natural Love is a wonderful thing that God has, in general, graced humans with, and for that we should be grateful.

But there are times and places and situations in which Natural Love fails. And there is scriptural indication that Natural Love will decline as history winds down.

And the main drawback of Natural Love is that it is virtually always conditional. It depends on circumstances, personalities, moods, feelings, and all kinds of things that change. And "change" is the key word.

Husbands who adore their new wives end up abandoning them. Why? Something changed. Him…her…circumstances…physical beauty…something changed, and Natural Love went out the window. Or I love people of this race, but not that race, or this nationality or that nationality. Or I find it easy to love beautiful people, but not homely people. Or I love lowly people, but I can’t stand rich people. Or I love my family, but not YOUR family. And on it goes.

If all you have is Natural Love, then it's impossible to love everybody. It’s conditional, and how many conditions we place on our Natural Love will determine how many people we love.
And so there are wars and rumors of wars. There are fights and conflicts. There are Adolph Hitlers and Saddam Husseins who love their grandchildren but massacre other people’s grandchildren.

Supernatural Love is different. Drastically different. Why?

Because Supernatural Love is the fruit of the Spirit.

That means it’s produced in us by God, through His Holy Spirit. And since He gives us a new spirit when we are born again, and joins our spirit to His, we have His love shed abroad in our hearts, in our spirits, too.

Well, there are three implications of that:

1. Supernatural Love is unconditional. It’s literally a miracle. If we are born again, we who once had only Natural Love, now have the capacity to love anybody, of any age, of any color, of any class, of any disposition, friendly or mean, beautiful or ugly, healthy or smelling of putrifying disease, left-wing or right-wing, commie, nazi, friend or enemy, man or woman, saint or sinner.

Now, if I mentioned a group or individual there that causes your hair to stand on end trust me, Supernatural Love can rescue you. Because if there is anybody that you think you can’t love, you need rescuing. But there is great hope. Because…

2. Supernatural Love comes in a package, which is called the fruit of the Spirit. The package includes the following: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. Each one is directly connected to love.
But…

3. Supernatural Love doesn’t come Naturally. That makes sense, doesn’t it? We are made up of body, soul, and spirit. And it's our spirits which have been "born again" or made "new creations". And Christ has come into us and made His Spirit one with ours. And the Flesh is still with us, and sin still indwells our Flesh.

We now may "walk by the Spirit", or "walk by the Flesh". Flesh can only have Natural Love (and it's not even very good at Natural Love, because it's self-oriented).

So...
We need to be filled with the Spirit, and walk by the Spirit, if we are to have Supernatural Love.
And we need to be in fellowship with Jesus Christ in order to walk by the Spirit.

You wanna see what Supernatural Love looks like?

Look at the One Who always walked by the Spirit.

--Jesus, eating with the sinners.
--Jesus, having compassion on the crowd of people who followed Him for bread, knowing full well that those same people would shortly be shouting, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him"
--Jesus, on the cross, saying, "forgive them, for they know not what they do."
--Jesus who, while we were yet sinners, demonstrated His own love toward us (Rom. 5:8)

But just seeing Jesus as an example is not enough. We, too, need to walk by the Spirit.

You can love everybody. You don’t have to pick and choose. You don’t have to settle for Natural Love that comes and goes. Change your mind about that. But it must be Christ in you the hope of glory. It must be Christ, Who is our life, living His life through you.

Draw near to Him, and He will draw near to you.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

While We WERE Yet Sinners

Just a reminder that, although we Christians still sin, because of the deceit of the world, the flesh, and the devil, yet we are not sinners in our new natures. We are saints (set-apart ones).

Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

1 Corinthians 6:11, "And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God."

He who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Just a reminder, Saints.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Are Charismatics "Spirit-Filled"?

Walking In the Spirit And the Charismatic Movement

Often you will hear Charismatic Christians speak of themselves and their church or movement as "Spirit-Filled". For example, "I'm Spirit Filled, are you?" "Oh yes, I'm Spirit Filled, too!" "Oh, that's wonderful. Where do you go to church?"

Or, "Our church is Spirit Filled, is yours?" "Yes, we're a Spirit Filled church, too." And so forth.

What they mean of course is that they consider themselves "baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues". There are slight variables between one Charismatic and another, but that's the basic.

This short post will not be a treatise on pentecostal theology in general. Although I'm not prepared to say that God has boxed Himself in such that He could never give someone the true gift of tongues, I believe what passes for "tongues" in the modern Charismatic church is a tragic joke. "Shandala mandala preekoo yaba daba doo" is not the supernatural gift of another language that characterized the apostolic age.

I flirted with the movement in the early 1980's, when I was "taught" how to speak in tongues:

"Just let words come out of your mouth, but make sure they're not English."

"Shai rah pahnee doi..."

"That's it! You've got it! You're baptized in the Holy Spirit. You're Spirit-Filled!"

"I am? Uhh...All-righty then!"

Then I was taught not to doubt that the "tongues" were real. When I would read about real tongues in the Bible, and my mind would say, "This is ridiculous. It's a sham on the level with the Emperor Who Had No Clothes," I was taught to "pray in tongues" until the doubt goes away. Well the doubt never went away, and I eased back out of the "Movement".

I was a co-teaching-pastor-elder of a Charismatic church in Grand Rapids, Michigan for about a year. When I said I must resign, 'cause I don't believe this stuff, the other two co-teaching-pastor-elders begged me to stay. They said, it's O.K. if you don't believe in the "baptism with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues" (showing how important they really thought it was). I told them that if they had so little belief in their own Charismania that they would want ME to stay, then they ought to consider resigning, too.

Anyway, I was teaching things like the sovereignty of God, justification by faith, walking in the Spirit, communion with Jesus Christ, etc., and the people in that Charismatic church were really appreciating it.

The Tragic Part

What I saw, and have seen ever since, is the tragedy that a person who thinks they are "Spirit-Filled" because of some one-time experience, has typically lost the understanding of really being "filled with the Spirit".

Ephesians 5:18 which tells us to not be drunk with wine, but to be "filled with the Spirit" is the key verse. In the original Greek, the meaning is literally "be being filled with the Spirit". In other words, it's a continual and repeated thing, a goal of being "re-filled" or "kept full" as a lifestyle. To put it another way, after the "filling" we leak. The world, the flesh, and the devil deceive us, and we may quench the Holy Spirit. We then need to "be being filled with the Spirit" anew.

Another angle by which to understand it is regarding control. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit, or to "walk in the Spirit", or to be in "surrender" to Jesus Christ.

"Surrender" is my favorite biblical way of looking at it, because it not only is a beautiful thing in itself, it's the key to "be being filled". When we seek close communion with Christ, and surrender to Him in the moment, such that we can say, "Not my will, but thine be done", then we are subject to the real filling of the Spirit.

What's the result? The fruit of the Spirit! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, and self-control.

That's the easiest way to see the error of the Charismatic who says they are "Spirit-Filled". When they exhibit fleshly behavior, as we all do at times, they simply are not "Spirit-Filled". And the sad thing is they don't even know it.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Slaying the Dragon of Legalism

You know how in those thriller-type movies when the bad guy or monster is killed. And you can finally take a breath, and relax? Evil is destroyed, and all is finally well? Your adrenaline subsides?

Whew!

But then the bad guy or monster sorta twitches, and then jumps up to attack the good guy again, right?

That's Legalism.

It never rests. You can expose it, argue against it, show how unbiblical it is, show how destructive it is, and stab it right in the heart. And you think, "There! That oughta take care of that!"

But then it sorta twitches, then gives a little movement, then jumps up and screams, "You know what a sinner you are!"

It rages, "You call yourself a Christian! You think God could really love a hypocrite like you!?"

It screeches, with it wings spread, "You'll never be holy! You know your performance isn't good enough to earn the favor of the Holy Creator of the universe!"

It spreads its claws and flaps its wings and jumps up to scratch your eyes out, bellowing with breath of fire, "You're not good enough for Jesus, and you know it!!"

And fear grips you and you think, "Maybe this Grace-After-Salvation thing is all a lie. Maybe I do need to try harder, struggle more, really earn God's love."

That's when our Champion charges in on his steed, and raises His Sword, which is the Word of God, and plunges it into the dragon's head, and draws it back and slices the dragon's head off with the power that formed a trillion galaxies with, "Let there be..."

And He picks you up, and dusts you off, and says, "Nothing you do could make me love you more, and nothing you do could make me love you less. I love you. And nothing can separate you from my love. I kept the Law for you. And when I said, 'It is finished', I meant it. When I justified you, declared you righteous, I meant it. When I said your sins were forgiven, I meant it. When the next dragon of Legalism stalks you, call me. It was for freedom that I set you free. Therefore, keep standing firm, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." [Galatians 5:1]

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Stress vs. Trials

Do you get "stressed out". Do you have a lot of "stress" in you life? Before you answer, let’s take a look at stress from a Biblical slant.

I know what you hear or read all the time about stress and how bad it is for your health, your high blood pressure or your heart. There's even an actual organization called The American Institute of Stress!

Time Magazine, in their June 6, 1983 cover story called stress "The Epidemic of the Eighties", calling it our leading health problem. Surveys show that adult Americans perceive they are under much more stress than a decade or two ago.

I won't go into all the bodily changes that take place under stress, but they include the release of powerful hormones and neuro-transmitters. These bodily changes are actually good if, say, a bear is chasing you. It's sometimes called the fight or flight mechanism, and it’s very useful in such cases. But when we have such things as fear, or worry, the same hormones and neuro-transmitters jump into play, and if we sustain those emotions for very long they can destroy our health, which can of course affect other parts of our lives.

So what do we do about stress?

God has ordained trials as a means of growing us, sanctifying us, teaching us, conforming us to His image. That’s why James wrote, "Count it all joy, brethren, when you encounter various trials." We will never escape having trials in this life.

But the question is, How do we handle the trials? There are many answers, but we can illustrate them in general like this:

Picture a fork in a road, one road going one way, the other going another way.
One road we’ll call the Biblical Spiritual Road. The other we’ll call the Unbiblical Unspiritual Road. Now when we encounter pressures or trials, we will tend to handle them by taking one or the other of those two roads. We will handle that trial in Biblical Spiritual ways, or we will handle them in Unbiblical Unspiritual ways.

So let's attempt a biblical definition of STRESS… here it is:

"Stress is the result of an unbiblical unspiritual response to pressure or trials."

God hasn’t made us to "stress out" for escaping trials. He has given us the biblical spiritual road for trials. He has given us precious instruction in handling those trials that come our way.

I can only scratch the surface in this brief post, but let’s just look at one example, to show the difference in the two choices at that fork in the road.

One of the most precious is Philippians 4:6: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God".

Let’s break it down just a little. A trial comes along and we have two roads to choose from. One says. "Be anxious"… worry, fret, stew, get uptight, try to figure it out, try to escape it, wring your hands, envision the horror of it all, get mad at somebody, get mad at God, and so forth.

The other road says, "Don’t be anxious" ... but pray, supplicate (that is, ask God's help), don’t worry, don’t fret, don’t stew, don’t get uptight, walk by faith, not by sight, don’t try to escape it, don’t wring your hands, envision the good of it, let it work it’s work in you, don’t get mad at anybody…pray for them…and above all do it with thanksgiving.

Be thankful for the trials, or at least be thankful for the grace to bring you through the trial, be grateful you have a Lord who loves you. Be thankful for eternal life, peace with God, the peace of God, forgiveness of sins, love shed abroad in your heart, the promise of heaven, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the ability to approach God in prayer, the promise to be like Him one day, freedom from the power of sin, the ability to understand the scriptures by his Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the promise of Romans 8:28, etc. You get the idea.

Praise Him in the midst of the trials, and trials won’t become stress. Remember our definition of stress: "Stress is the unbiblical unspiritual response to trials."

We don’t have to experience stress, and we don’t have to resort to the world’s solutions…taking hot baths, chanting mantras, hooking up to bio-feedback machines, and then stressing out all over again.

Seek Jesus… seek Him in the stillness of your heart. As you read your Bible and pray, look for the Biblical Spiritual Road, and take it.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

True Biblical Counseling vs. Psychology

Psychological counseling strengthens the flesh. Paul said "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;" Who wants to strengthen that!?

Better to zero in on the new man, that spirit which is now joined to His Spirit, that spirit which now loves Jesus and hates sin.

The Word of God, and the Wonderful Counselor is what we need in our times of trials (which is almost always), not a psychologist.

"Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4:16) Too often we need counseling because we avoid the throne of grace. First counseling instruction: draw near to Him!

A caution, however, regarding so-called Biblical Counseling. Sometimes "Biblical" or "Nouthetic" counseling is reduced (as the Gk noutheteo --admonish-- implies) to merely "admonishing". That is, it becomes merely rule-oriented, or Law-based. Sort of, "Repent, don't do that anymore, do this, and everything will be O.K." Duty, duty, duty. And if the counselee doesn't comply pretty darn quickly...well then they're just stiff-necked and hopeless.

True Biblical counseling will encompass such important doctrinal foundations as the sovereignty of God, His great love for His children, His total acceptance of His children "in the Beloved", the ongoing grace of God after salvation, the attributes of God which engenders love for Him in true believers, and training in how to walk by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit in an ongoing lifestyle.

Without those kinds of foundational truths, instead of the "love of Christ constraining us", and true repentance of the heart as a lifestyle, it becomes a Holy Behavioral Modification that makes someone look good, smell good, but wither on the Vine. Without preaching the whole counsel of God, and particularly feeding the sheep with Him Who is the Bread of Life, even so-called Biblical Counseling can become the "letter [that] kills" (2 Cor. 3:6).

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.