Reckless Love

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."


Our pastor keeps on reminding us that "he loves everybody" and he often quotes one of our brethren's words to live by, which is:"don't get offended".

I mean yes of course, many are smart enough to know that we need to do those, but we all know that these are easily said than done.

But guess what, one man did it.

The same man, loved you, even before you we were even remotely close to being lovable.

The same man, did not get offended when you talked trash about Him or those who believe in Him.

The same man, waited patiently for you to get your act together, and loves you even though you still are a work in progress and knows that you may not get there any time soon.

The same man, being so gentle, never made us feel inadequate or miserable or make us out to be a bad person, rather He nudges us back towards the right path whenever we lose our way.

This same man lived by His Word -- always humble, gentle, and patient with people, He made allowances for people's faults because of His own Father's fatherly love. He made every effort to keep His unity with His loving Father and His gentle Spirit and He never lost track of His purpose. And that is the key.

This same man is killing your old self and old nature not with force or guilt or human manipulation but is putting it away with love, grace, mercy and more love but and this is a big but, if we continue to be hard hearted, then He will have no choice but to leave us be.

Now that does not mean that He does not love us or care about us. He does, and as a Shepherd, He is incredibly pained with even the very thought of losing one of His sheep.

Scriptures say that He will leave the 99 other sheep to look for you, that one sheep. But, because He allows us free will, He will never ever force anything on us that we do not want to do on our own accord, He allows us to make decisions that sometimes will not be good for us but allows us that freedom to learn that on our own, like what happened to the Prodigal Son. So in the same way, when we come to our senses and come back to the fold, guess what, the same man will celebrate with everyone else that one of His lost children has come back.

His love is the key.

And it is the same key we need in our relationships with one another. And then, we can also say that "I love everybody".  And only because we know fully well that we are the recipient of God's reckless love and so we can use the same kind of love, to love everyone else.


Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:2-6 (NIV)