Monday, October 8, 2007
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Our friend, Cathy, has walked to get around most of her life, but recently she started floating. She's got this glow. She's got a new bounce in her voice when she answers the phone. She's got a new confidence. Cathy's more alive than we've ever seen her. Now what magic could bring about all these wonders? If you haven't guessed by now, you have been away too long. She's in love! She's in her twenties, and this is her first really big romance. It might be her life-long romance, and it's pretty exciting to watch.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Original Love."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Revelation 2. It's about love. God's talking to a powerhouse group of believers. He says in verse 2, "I know your deeds. I know your hard work. I know your perseverance. I know you cannot tolerate wicked men. You've tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and you found them false. You have persevered. You have endured hardships for my name. You've not grown weary." Man, these are believers who were doing a whole lot of things right. They're going to get the Church of the Year Award, right? No, they're missing what Jesus values the most. Listen to Revelation 2:4, "Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." He says, "You guys have fallen. You don't love me like you used to. Oh, you've got the right theology. You've got the right lifestyle. You've got the right activities, but that's not it." The height of your relationship with Him was when you loved Him with original love.
Could Jesus be saying to you right now, "You don't love me like you used to?" So much is right in your life, and I'm grateful for that, but maybe the big thing isn't right. You don't love Him like you used to. The idea of first love has taken on flesh and blood again as I watched it come alive in Cathy's romance. First love isn't cerebral, it's emotional. Do you have deep feelings for Jesus, or has the passion of loving Him grown cold? I want to be more moved by Jesus; more moved by what He did for me on the cross than I've ever been in my life. I have more to be moved by than I ever did when I first started with Him. Cathy's original love is expectant. She looks forward to each new day of being with, and talking with, and going places with the man she loves. That's how a Jesus-lover looks at his or her day - being with Him, talking with him in the many different experiences of this day.
I'm watching in Cathy a love that is buoyant. No problem seems big enough to sink her now because of a love that's bigger than all of that. Well, those who deeply love Jesus experience buoyancy. It's so easy for the warmth of first love to die. In our relationship with Jesus, first love gets quenched by rules, and rat-race, and religiosity, responsibilities, and sometimes by plain old spiritual adultery where we let something else have the best of our love.
Maybe Jesus is calling you back in to that love; that love you had when you knew him a lot less, but you loved Him more. Loving Jesus has always begun at the same place, "that old rugged cross" the hymn says, "stained with blood so divine, has a wondrous attraction for me. Where the dear Lamb of God left His glory above, to bear it to dark Calvary." In the middle of all our Christianity, it's easy to forget what it's all about. It's a relationship; it's a love affair with the Lord Jesus.
It's a relationship, perhaps you've never ever really begun. You have Christianity, but you missed Christ somewhere. You've never really experienced His love; His religion, yes - His love, no. This could be your day if you'll just say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." If we can help you make that connection, then I invite you to go to our website yoursforlife.net.
Maybe right now Jesus has got His hands on your shoulders, and He's asking you what He asked His man, Peter, "Do you love me?" "Oh yes, Lord, if ever I loved you, my Jesus, 'tis now."