February 29, 2012

^"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;  whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

James W. Moore says, "One of the greatest comedy acts in the history of show business was the beloved husband and wife team of George Burns and Gracie Allen. In real life, Gracie Allen was a bright, wise businesswoman, but she always played the part of a naive, off-the-wall personality, sweetly simple in her approach to life. On one of their radio programs, Gracie became very upset because her new electric clock kept losing time. Each day it lost lots of time, so she finally called a repairman. He discovered the problem immediately. There was nothing wrong with the clock--it just wasn’t plugged in! "When George asked Gracie why it was unplugged she said, 'Well, I only need it when I need to know what time it is and I decided to turn it off in between to save electricity.'" God's CRAZY LOVE is all around us because He is an Infinite, Eternal Spirit Who is all around us. As we have learned, He reveals His love through His creation and through His character and especially, through His Christ. CRAZY LOVE is a constant. God doesn't turn it off and on. It isn't conditional. It isn't fickle. I can't be earned. You can't buy it because it has already been paid for. You can connect with it and plug into it by trusting Christ as your personal Savior. When you receive Him you receive God's love. CRAZY LOVE is eternal love that brings eternal life but it must be lived out in time and how you use that time will impact your eternity. To keep CRAZY LOVE love fresh and real and growing in your life you must make time for God and His Word. You must make time to worship Him and work for Him and walk with Him! To get to an eternal place where time doesn't matter you must learn to use your time wisely and order your life well. Staying plugged into CRAZY LOVE in the midst of crazy living requires a moment by moment relationship with an eternal God. Relationships require time. It takes time to know God and to grow in God. How do you find the time to nurture CRAZY LOVE? You make it! You take time from things you shouldn't love and give it to the One you love and desire to love more. You schedule time for Bible study. You schedule time for prayer. You schedule time for worship and for serving Him. If you say you love God but you give Him no time or if you squeeze Him around the edges of your day you may be fooling yourself. Your day-timer is evidence of your true love. Your time goes to where your heart is. Don't lose God's CRAZY LOVE in the middle of crazy living. Set aside time to start your day with God and order your day around Him! Live each day like it's your last and you WILL last!

February 28, 2012

^"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."  Romans 5:7-10

In one of our LIFE Groups last night there was some discussion about the significance of the title "CRAZY LOVE".

That question didn't come up in my group but if it had I would have answered this way - at least for today!

You are familiar with the definition of insanity that maintains "insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results."

By that standard you could make a case for God's love being a little crazy! The Bible tells us that God demonstrated His love before people recognized it or even recognized they needed it. That seems a little crazy to pay such a heavy price for people who either ignorant about God's love or indifferent to it.

But now, for the past 2,000 years since the death and resurrection of Christ, God has continued to show His love for sinners. He keeps loving and they keep sinning. That seems crazy!

If God stopped loving these arrogant, clueless sinners and rained judgment down on them like He did for Sodom and Gomorrah that would make sense in my reasoning. But God just keeps loving sinners and calling sinners and woeing them with His love. Crazy!

But really, who is the crazy one, is it those who continually refuse to receive His love. Do is it those people who think they can ignore or disregard His love and then expect to get to Heaven? That's crazy! Or is the loving God the Crazy One because He just keeps offering that love?

God's not crazy. Love isn't something He does, love is Who He is! He is not being crazy to keep loving unrepentent and unresponsive people - He is simply being Himself! To stop loving He would have to stop being God and that's impossible!

But you CAN change! You CAN stop ignoring His love or abusing His love or refusing His love and you are crazy not to! Will you turn from your crazy ways and receive His crazy love?