Favorite Book Friday April 23,2021
It seems like forever since the last #favoritebookfriday. Ya girl also has twenty mosquito bites on her legs so how long will it take before I scratch myself to death. Anyway we’re looking at the next two chapters of “Life Is__” by Judah Smith.
Chapter 3 is titled “Love Leads” and Judah starts with the ideas that as humans, we love clichés. We talk about these ideas of “no pain no gain” or a popular one that’s not in the Bible “God helps those who help themselves.” However the cliche we’re gonna talk about that’s kinda true is “always start with the end in mind”. There’s so many situations in our world that we wonder how they end. We thinks about what we wanna be remembered for. We think that life is about being happy but that’s only temporary and can’t be our lifelong purpose. We should want to be remembered as people who love Jesus. Because we want our lives go end there, we have to start there. However we can’t do it on our own or all the time. In the gospel of John, John calls himself “the disciples who Jesus loved”. John defines Jesus love. He was certain on the love Jesus had for him. At the last supper, Jesus’s disciples promised to be with him but Jesus said they’d all scatter in a little bit. The only one left is John, right there at the cross. He’s right behind the person who he loved the most. Peter’s somewhere panicked and his failures. These two guys show us how to remain faithful to God in the end. At the last supper, John is just sitting there, leaning on Jesus. Peter is panicked and stressing, like the average human would. Something to notice here is Peter means “stone” and John means “the Lord is gracious”. Peter is busy trying to strive, which is about performance and action. John understood what it meant to live the love of Jesus. Let’s keep looking. So all the disciples made the promise to stay by Jesus and they all fled. But love made John run back to Jesus when it counted the most. John was more consumed with Jesus’ love for him than with his own love-or lack of love-for Jesus. We can’t do it on our own but we can filter everything through God’s love for us. It’s hard sometimes and it’s hard to let God’s love lead. It’s not wrong to wanna fix stuff but life has to start and end with dependence on God. Everything else flows from that. They only way we can make it through is to do what doesn’t make sense: lean in and rely on Jesus.
That’s all for Instagram? You can check out Chapter 4: “Love Gives” on the website so check it out.
So the chapter begins with the idea it’s like one thing to lie to other people but another thing to lie to yourself. So let’s look at Mark 8:34-37. This passage of scripture is Jesus’ invitation to abundant life. He says deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. We live life and try to get what we want. And we do, yet we feel hollow and empty still. Goals are good but we can’t expect those things to keep us happy. We’ll enjoy these things more when we focus on Jesus. So what produces life? Love does. True unconditional, sacrificial love. The motive go lose our lives is love. Love is the opposite of selfishness. Love thinks about others while selfishness things of itself. The problem is as humans, were inherently selfish and we have to learn to be generous. Taking of your cross isn’t supposed to be weird and sadistic. Thinking of yourself more is the problem not solution. It’s not trying to do strive and do love on your own because you can’t. We can’t reduce Jesus’s teachings to just a new year’s resolution. That kind of living isn’t very sustainable. We have to remember Jesus said we’re following him so we have to take the attention of off ourselves. We’ll find fulfillment when we stop trying to find it in ourselves. The Bible is a love story for us and it shows us love and life. The early church was really good at giving and they couldn’t be more happy and fulfilled which lead to love. Because being loved and loving God, they loved each other. The last Bible story we’d showing to look at Stephen. He was stoned for loving Jesus which was considered blasphemous. In Acts 7:60, Stephen says “Don’t hold this sin against them.” Which is similar to what Jesus said on the cross “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” Stephen was so preoccupied to the reality with Jesus and his love. He prayed for the men who were murdering him. Wow. What happened? The love of God. If God could do it for Stephen, he can do it for you. Let’s be so overwhelmed in God’s love, we care share it with others. Like the early church. We can find the joy in sharing God’s love.)
Chapter Highlights (Chapter 3-4)
If we believe in God, and if we believe that he loved enough to send his Son, Jesus, so that we could be forgiven, then the next logical step is to realize life points to God. It’s our relationship to him that gives us significance and solidity.
The love of Jesus is (John’s) identity, his focus, his priority. Love was how he started and how he lived his life and love left him go finish well.
True security and strength are not found in fanatic human effort, but resting in Jesus’s love.
We can’t depend on our own efforts and self discipline to stay true to Jesus
John was magnetically drawn to Jesus because he had a habit of letting love lead.
Sometimes we think that what’s important or our suedes, our efforts, or work and out ability to follow God. Those things are great but they aren’t enough to sustain us through the chaos and craziness of life. But the love of God is.
Let love lead your life and you’ll end well.
Jesus is saying that living selfishly will actually produce death. It will steal our joy, steal our fulfillment and steal our lives. However if we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him, we find life.
The point of the passage is not to try harder. It’s to shift our focus.
If we’re interested in following Jesus, if we want to love him and look like him, if we want the abundant life found in him, then we need to stop thinking about ourselves. We need to focus on him and his love for us.
I want to be so caught up in God’s live that I stop thinking about myself. And I also want to be surrounded by a community of people with the same focus, a community that builds each other up.
I wanna be enthralled and in love with him that I lose myself and find abundant life. So let’s take out eyes off ourselves and focus on the God who lives us and is for us and is with us.
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