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Tuesday 2 March 2010

Who do you love??

Love

That's a word that is flung about in Christian circles without much thought. We talk about how important it is, and we all agree on this, but often how it looks can vary from person to person. Who we share it with can be decided on many things such as sexuality, morals and values, ethnicity, nationality and various other things.

I've been thinking recently about love. As usual this spawns from my latest read; "Jesus Loves You, This I Know." The book is written by Craig Gross (The Porn Pastor) who has dedicated his life to loving the unloved and the scorned. He and his friends go to porn shows, conventions and spend a lot of time in places Christians generally are afraid to go. He wants to communicate the message of Jesus' love to those who need it most. I love what he does, and personally think that where Craig spends his time is biblically where Jesus would spend his time. I love the quote on one of the t-shirts his ministry sells; "Don't blame the darkness for being dark, blame the light for not shining bright enough." (Information on Craig's ministry can be found at www.xxxchurch.com). Jason Harper is the other author. He is the pastor of a 'superchurch' in America and was convicted about spending too much time in Christian circles and so decided to spend some time working in a 'normal' job to see how it would feel to try and communicate the message of Jesus in an everyday setting. To spend more time doing what most people do, and to use that as a platform to share Jesus' love. I recommend this book to everyone. Its a great read, and stirs up some interesting thoughts on what this love thing really means.

Anyway, I was doing a talk at my church youth group and I decided to speak on a verse from Luke. The verse is simply; "I chose you, remember, you didn't chose me" (MSG) I thought about what this verse means, and the implications it has for me. Jesus chose me. Which means before I ever believed in him or made a choice to follow him. Romans puts it like this; "While we were still sinners..." Jesus loved us so much that he died to save us, knowing all the hurt we would cause Him and each other. Think about that for a second. We did nothing to deserve his love, but he gave it anyway.

So what does that have to do with me? I'm a Christian now, I've decided to follow Jesus and all the sins he died for have been forgiven. Well Jesus once said "Love on another as I have loved you." He tells us to do as he has done. He has showed us what it means to really love, and wants us to do the same. Jesus' expression of love is undeserved, unconditional love. Not the kind of love that only loves those who deserve to be loved. Not the kind of love that only loves those who love us. 'Even pagans do that!' No, Jesus calls us to love everyone, because he does.

I understand that sounds difficult. How do you love a paedophile, a murderer, a rapist? How to you love someone who has decided to make your life difficult? Someone who has hurt you? Someone who doesn't care if you love them or not? But thats the kind of love Jesus calls us to share!

Its so easy to love your neighbour, when your neighbour is a well mannered, kind, generous person. But when he's not...?? But Jesus died for, and loves the people we refuse to love even if we don't. Jesus died as much for the porn star as he did the pastor.

Who do you love? I think this is an important question to ask yourself. Are you going to get dirty? Are you going to stop making fun of the 'foreigners' and the people who sell the Big Issue? Are you going to offer the drunk or the homeless 'bum' on the street corner a smile and maybe an ear to listen, even when you can't understand what they are saying? Are you going to chose to love and forgive the person who has hurt you? Or are you going to chose to love? Are you going to use love like money, and dish it out to those who deserve it, or are you going to give it as freely as it has been given to you?

The reason I think this is important is because love changes people. Condemnation and judgement does not. I won't go into detail, but a great example of a story that illustrates this well is Les Miserables. Love takes a crook, and changes him into a good person.

If you want to see someone give their life to Jesus, love them like Jesus loves them. With no conditions, no rules, no set of beliefs to adhere to before their 'in.' Just love. I think thats all Jesus wants us to do, and he can do the rest.