Love and Stuff

As of late, I have been learning a lot about grace and mercy and stuff. I am not gonna rehash that because it is all in the previous blog, but in thinking about all this grace and mercy and stuff (on a 17 hour bus ride to Nairobi), God showed me some awesome things. So here was my train of thought. We are saved by grace- what is grace? Why do we get it? Of what importance am I and God would show me and offer this gift to me? What is mercy? How does all of this come about? 

-keep that in mind as I digress. I have also been reading Romans. And around Chapters 12 and 13 it begins to talk a lot about Love. And how that is the mark of a Christian. Our love.

- back to the questions about grace. The answers are very simple. Everything that God has done for us is a direct result of His love for us. Thats all. There is no more to figure out. All philosophies and crap have to stop there. Because His love is the only way to explain it. Yay. Good for Joel. Nothing mind blowing right? But in seeing how He loves us, it made me to wonder as to the way in which we are called to love. As believers, we are to do ALL things as a act of love for those around us. 

Here is the part of Romans 13 that I found very exciting. Romans 13:11-12. Paul gives from Chapter 12 through 13:10, reasons to love. Then in verse 11, He says, "besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come to awake from sleep..... 12-so put on the armor of light..."

When I read "besides this" it was as if I could hear Paul talking in conversation. Like he was saying, all these reasons to love are good, but THIS ONE, is obvious. YOU MUST SEE IT. "You know the time"- what time is it?

Well, He tells us. IT IS DAY TIME! WAKE UP! Go put on some armor. The day is at hand. When Jesus came, He DEFEATED the world (time) of darkness, and sin, but He did not END it. He began the world (time) of light. Salvation through Him. But it has not fully come yet. Not until He comes back. So Paul says, it is daytime. Not night anymore. That means, although we still live in a world riddled with sin and death, we ALSO live in a kingdom of light. And Hope. 

So what time is it? It is the time of Christ. Sin and Death are defeated. So even though Jesus' world has not fully come yet, it is still here. And we hope in that day that He IS coming back. 

So often we get bogged down in the world of Sin and guilt and death, and we forget "TETELESTAI"- It is finished. Christ defeated that world. We, as believers, don't live by the rules of that age. It is done away with. For the time being, we coexist with it, but we are Children of Light, as the Bible clearly puts it. So what does this have to do with love? 

Remember Paul, "besides this"- He is giving another reason to love. The age we live in in a different one than that of non-believers. Thus, we have the upper hand in the ability to love. If life's end was death, and the sin we live in, than YES. Sin. Sin all you want. If this life is it, why not have as much fun and get as much self fulfillment out of it as you can. BUT thats not true. We know that age is defeated. It is still here, and very present, but we are living in triumph over it. We, through Christ, have overcome. And the hope of a new age should compel us to love. To love everyone as Christ exampled. In all humility. 

So I need to daily, take off my pajamas. And wake up. The day is here. Not night... maybe I won't even sleep in pajamas anymore. Cut out the middle man in the mornings.

Peace,

JOel