So often I see Christians, ministers and laymen alike, burnt out on Christianity, holy living and the desire to be the Lord’s hands and feet. Time after time I witness the haunting ghost of depression and the riddling cancer of bitterness consume the child of God with loneliness, failure, hopelessness, doubt, and feelings of abandonment. Fallen ministers, broken marriages, and schisms have spread like a pandemic throughout the church and it is not long before the old cliché question arises, ‘Where is the love?’
In John 15 Jesus reveals to us another facet of abundant living. This revelation is a vital key to living a life of ministry wherein we never burn out, rust out, or fall into the shambles of a broken inner life. In this incredible snippet from the text of John, Jesus speaks to us a life transforming string of words, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This statement is so often passed over or shuffled together alongside the usual verses pertaining to God’s love, yet we must not miss the magnitude of what Jesus is really saying here. Jesus is teaching us that our souls are a like a well, and His love is the only liquid that can fill us. The world so often comes to drink from our wells and instead of receiving the bubbling fountain of living fresh water that Jesus offers, they instead receive the stale and stagnate liquid of our lukewarm theology. The world is not looking for a doctrine: they are looking for love, the love of the Father manifested to them in human form. This is why John urges us in 1 John 4 by saying, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” Without love it is impossible to see God. When we love we literally open up blind souls and reveal the Living God to them. Oh the power of The Father’s Love! The living water of divine love opens the eyes of the lost, searching, rejected and wounded, sustaining them with the heavenly fountain of eternal compassion! No one has seen God, yet they see Him in the eyes of the Son or Daughter that loves.
However, we cannot generate this water ourselves. God is love and apart from Him we are capable of doing nothing good – much less, loving broken people. Here is the secret; we cannot love others beyond the capacity that we have allowed God to love us. Our love comes from His love. We will burn out, rust out, and give up if we seek to love from our own strength and resources. We can only love others as Christ loves us. We do not need more books, doctrinal dissertations, or catchy songs; we need a revolution of love!
The Samaritan woman at the well displays such a beautiful depiction of the world as it comes to Christ. The woman ends up leaving her water pot by the well! She has been filled with the living water of God’s love! So often the precious sons and daughters of God try to love and give and heal when they themselves have not received such from their Father in heaven. I have done it myself, and from personal testimony I can say with authority that it will drain dry the well of your soul, leaving you with an empty and disillusioned heart. We must be baptized with the power of God’s love and love the world from that place. It is not only illogical but also entirely absurd to imagine producing something without first receiving the materials necessary for it! Likewise, we cannot produce the healing love of The Father without first receiving it! If we have not been baptized in God’s love, if we have not first received God’s love then we cannot produce it. Period. Our love is the product of His love and this is the only way that we can communicate the love of the Father in the face of a world overflowing with brokenness, war, and persecution.
Before we can love a hate filled world, before we can heal the wounded masses, before we can kiss the leper, cherish the widow, protect the orphan, or give life to the dying, we ourselves must first be loved by the God of love. We cannot baptize the world in rivers of living water, nor can we quench the thirst of parched tongues if we ourselves have not been submerged and regenerated in the raging waters of everlasting compassion and mercy! Love never fails and we never fail if love has prevailed over us! This is the secret – Love one another as the Father loves you!
In John 15 Jesus reveals to us another facet of abundant living. This revelation is a vital key to living a life of ministry wherein we never burn out, rust out, or fall into the shambles of a broken inner life. In this incredible snippet from the text of John, Jesus speaks to us a life transforming string of words, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This statement is so often passed over or shuffled together alongside the usual verses pertaining to God’s love, yet we must not miss the magnitude of what Jesus is really saying here. Jesus is teaching us that our souls are a like a well, and His love is the only liquid that can fill us. The world so often comes to drink from our wells and instead of receiving the bubbling fountain of living fresh water that Jesus offers, they instead receive the stale and stagnate liquid of our lukewarm theology. The world is not looking for a doctrine: they are looking for love, the love of the Father manifested to them in human form. This is why John urges us in 1 John 4 by saying, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” Without love it is impossible to see God. When we love we literally open up blind souls and reveal the Living God to them. Oh the power of The Father’s Love! The living water of divine love opens the eyes of the lost, searching, rejected and wounded, sustaining them with the heavenly fountain of eternal compassion! No one has seen God, yet they see Him in the eyes of the Son or Daughter that loves.
However, we cannot generate this water ourselves. God is love and apart from Him we are capable of doing nothing good – much less, loving broken people. Here is the secret; we cannot love others beyond the capacity that we have allowed God to love us. Our love comes from His love. We will burn out, rust out, and give up if we seek to love from our own strength and resources. We can only love others as Christ loves us. We do not need more books, doctrinal dissertations, or catchy songs; we need a revolution of love!
The Samaritan woman at the well displays such a beautiful depiction of the world as it comes to Christ. The woman ends up leaving her water pot by the well! She has been filled with the living water of God’s love! So often the precious sons and daughters of God try to love and give and heal when they themselves have not received such from their Father in heaven. I have done it myself, and from personal testimony I can say with authority that it will drain dry the well of your soul, leaving you with an empty and disillusioned heart. We must be baptized with the power of God’s love and love the world from that place. It is not only illogical but also entirely absurd to imagine producing something without first receiving the materials necessary for it! Likewise, we cannot produce the healing love of The Father without first receiving it! If we have not been baptized in God’s love, if we have not first received God’s love then we cannot produce it. Period. Our love is the product of His love and this is the only way that we can communicate the love of the Father in the face of a world overflowing with brokenness, war, and persecution.
Before we can love a hate filled world, before we can heal the wounded masses, before we can kiss the leper, cherish the widow, protect the orphan, or give life to the dying, we ourselves must first be loved by the God of love. We cannot baptize the world in rivers of living water, nor can we quench the thirst of parched tongues if we ourselves have not been submerged and regenerated in the raging waters of everlasting compassion and mercy! Love never fails and we never fail if love has prevailed over us! This is the secret – Love one another as the Father loves you!
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