15/07/2024
https://youtu.be/eSxgmK9c8n0?si=jWThxAxmz_T54ujE
How much do you love? Can you measure love with a price tag? Why not? Price tags prioritize things for us. They determine the time and treasure we devote to them…the amount we are willing to sacrifice for them. Price tags demonstrate the esteem we hold…how much we cherish any possession, person, or even…how greatly we value our Creator.
Look. You might say you “love” chocolate chip ice cream, but you’d only pay a buck or two per dip. Right? How much love is that? You might “love” your favorite football team, but would you pay ten grand for a season ticket, even if you had it? Seriously…you might claim to love your spouse and family, but how much time do you routinely invest in those critical relationships?
And then there’s the question of our eternal relationship with God. “How do you love God,” you may ask? Good question. Fortunately, God showed us what love looks like. You want to see love in action? There’s Jesus Christ, hanging on a cross, pouring out His life blood for you and me. Our love for Him, however great or little? That’s our response to His amazing love for us. I John 4:10 says it all, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
So, it’s His love for us producing any I John 4:19 response within us. “We love because he first loved us.”
Maybe you were raised in church. But have you ever been raised up to new life in Christ? Here’s a quick way to know if your relationship with our Creator is real. It’s found in I John 4:8, and it goes back to that matter of love, again. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
If we genuinely love Jesus, we will want to love other people in tangible, real-world ways. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
James fine-tunes things a bit in Chapter 1, verse 27, focusing the love of God on two vulnerable people groups, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.” But even if you give a thirsty person a drink of cold water, you will not lose your reward.
The other night, shortly before I awoke, the Lord gave me a dream. I was looking at a computer monitor and I saw many, formless characters, morphing into meaningless phrases before my eyes…until the final four words appeared. They read, “Love like a disciple.” And then the screen went black.
Wow. So, how did the disciples of Jesus Christ love? They gave their Teacher, their Master, and their Savior all they had. They invested their lives in reaching the lost from India to Europe. All but one, the Apostle John, reportedly lost their lives in His service. Loving God as a modern disciple may not mean we will be physically martyred. But He does ask us to put Him first in our lives. Disciples follow their Master. We are HIS “pearl of great price.” We became His top priority and He paid everything to buy us back.
The bottom line? The greater the love and gratitude we feel toward Him, the more we will WANT to put Him first in our lives and bring Him joy. And the best way to find out what pleases Him is to learn what makes Him tick in the pages of His book…the Bible. Look for the red-letter words in the New Testament. Those are the words of Jesus.
Let’s start really living this life of love. I promise you it will be an adventure. And I am convinced it will be worth it. Jesus’ Holy Spirit living in us will show us the way, daily, as we, lovingly, yield our lives to Him.
How much do you love? Can you measure love with a price tag? Why not? Price tags prioritize things for us. They determine the time and treasure we devote to ...
