- araratchurch
- Oct 11, 2022
- 4 min read
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV
I have a confession to make. I really don’t care for the way most people minister on the topic of love. Here’s why:
First of all it can be kind of a “default” message to go to when you feel no inspiration from the Lord. As such, it is by rote and devoid of any power.
Additionally, for those who have put thought to their sermon on love, often the topic of love is used as a way to advance an agenda of “cheap” grace and a very erroneous definition of what love truly is.
Allow me to offer an example of what I’m talking about in terms of my latter reason for disliking most sermons on love:
Here is an often (out of context) quoted scripture concerning love:
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”
Ephesians 4:15 ESV
First, if it says “rather,” there must’ve been another case to which this case is being offered as an alternative. That point is rarely offered.
Secondly, when this scripture is presented, “truth” is often lost entirely. So, what we end up with is a an interpretation saying that challenging anybody with the word of God, or telling the truth about what God says about sin, is not “loving.” Sadly, that is exactly the opposite of the point of this scripture; and it’s clear to see if you look at it in context.
In the part of the letter before this Paul is talking about gifts given to the Church: the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. He then explains that these gifts are given to mature the Church into the image of Christ. Then, we see the following verse coming immediately before the one beginning with “Rather.”
“so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Ephesians 4:14 ESV
So, the instruction to speak the truth in love, actually is encouraging people to always tell the truth about what God has said BECAUSE they love!
Now, we know that it is also God’s desire that we speak nothing out of any other motive except that of love. In other words, if there was someone I didn’t like and they were doing something that goes against some biblical principle, it might be easy for me to challenge them—not because I love them—but because I want to bring them down a peg or two. But, for the “hyper-grace” crew, any speaking of hard truths is seen as being unloving. And, given the context of the scripture, we can clearly see that that is the farthest thing from the intended meaning!
Having said all of that, let us now examine why I would present being loving as an important aspect of your spiritual development, your process of enlightenment.
First of all, our Lord said that the demonstration of love is what actually marks us as being His followers.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 13:34-35 ESV
Sadly, I have known people who professed having great depth of understanding in the things of God; but they did not show true love. And yet, the clearest indicator of our spiritual maturity is that we walk in love.
In our opening scripture today we see that the Apostle Paul is making the point that no matter how many wonderful spiritual gifts we have, or how much depth of understanding and knowledge in the Lord we may obtain, not walking in love negates the possibility of truly being spiritually mature and walking in the deep things of God.
Now, if you need a measure against which to compare your life to know if you are truly walking in love, here is part of the rest of that passage:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV
Now, if you don’t feel you measure up to that, and you wonder if Paul was really talking about spiritual maturity when he was talking about love, he goes on (in the same conversation) to say this:
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV
Clearly, Paul is saying that love (by God’s definition of what love is) is the clearest indicator of spiritual maturity. Additionally, reading on we find that love tops the list of the greatest spiritual attributes.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
So, in terms of spiritual illumination and enlightenment, we must understand that if we are not loving (as defined by the Lord), we are not growing spiritually. If that is the case, we must repent of being unloving and seek the Lord to help us to walk in love.
We light an eleventh candle of illumination today by knowing this:
The deeper you go, the more love you’ll show.
Day 10 of Illumination: If you can’t handle the basic things of God, you won’t receive deeper things
- araratchurch
- Oct 10, 2022
- 3 min read
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT
For 15 years I had a wonderful little poodle named Addie Mae. Now Addie Mae had a good appetite. Sadly, Addie Mae had an extremely sensitive digestive system. Just to give you some idea of her sensitivity: once, one of my sons was eating
Chick-fil-A beside me in the front seat of the car. Addie Mae was in a carrier between us. Somehow, a small piece of the fried crust dropped into her carrier; and, of course, she quickly scarfed it up before it could be retrieved. Now, the crumb couldn’t have been bigger than the size of maybe a large Lima bean. But it was enough to send her into an episode of sickness that was very scary.
She would look at things we would be eating and it was sad to know she couldn’t even taste it. Now, I understand that you’re not supposed to feed dogs table food; but you know as well as I that folks like to sneak in a taste of something to their furry friends. But that certainly couldn’t be done. I even had to be very vigilant about what might drop on the floor at home and I basically had to keep her in a restricted area if I couldn’t watch her every move. Even eating something like a tiny dried up bug would put her into a terrible state. I’m sure she would’ve enjoyed something other than the prescription food that she ate; but she just couldn’t digest anything else.
It’s not just animals that might want something that they’re not ready for or that they can’t handle. Little children might hear the term “sex” and ask what that is. Yet, you know full well that they cannot handle the whole load of that information.
This principle also applies to Christians who want to operate in great authority in the Lord, or be able to do great and mighty things, or to know deep things of God, and yet they have not become controlled by the Holy Spirit in the area of their appetites, temperament, or in any other area of their life. With that, if you are not prepared for the deep things of God, you will not receive them.
“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”
II Timothy 2:20-21 NKJV
In our opening scripture for today we see the Apostle Paul mourning the fact that he cannot share deeper things with the church at Corinth. This is because they have not allowed the Holy Spirit to direct and control their interactions with one another. What a sad state of affairs.
The writer of Hebrews gives a similar admonition referencing the things that should already be learned, but apparently have not been.
“There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”
Hebrews 5:11-14 NLT
If we want to know and walk in the deep things of God, we must first make sure that we have mastered the basics. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves being like poor Addie Mae: desiring something that we cannot handle.
We light a tenth candle of illumination today by knowing this:
If you can’t handle the basic things of God, you will never receive the deeper things.
- araratchurch
- Oct 9, 2022
- 2 min read
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.””
Matthew 7:24-27 NKJV
I want you to set your mind to two scenarios:
First, I want you to take a moment and think about something you were interested in doing. Maybe you saw someone do it; maybe you looked up how to do it; but you never really got around to applying what you had learned. Now, do you still remember how to do it? Chances are, you don’t.
OK, now think about something you needed to learn to be able to do. Then, you either learned it from someone, or read about it, then immediately did it. You probably still remember how to do that, right?
You see, memories are not stored together in one “place.” Things you see are stored separately from things you hear. The same goes for the introduction of information (all memories are information) from your other senses; the information is stored in that sense’s area of the brain.
Now, if you combine an emotion—particularly a strong one—with other sensory input, your chances of remembering are even better. [Of course, traumatic events can be so overwhelming to the senses that it can wipe out a memory.]
Simply put, the more senses involved when you’re learning something, the more likely you are to remember it. So, actually applying what you’ve learned, is essential for “owning” it.
Now, there is a set of senses secular researchers do not take into account: those associated with our spirit. As a matter of fact, our spirit has all the senses our physical body has! They just don’t work in exactly the same way, but they work, nonetheless.
Therefore, If we really want to grow spiritually, we must immerse ourselves into hearing, seeing, speaking, meditating on, and doing/applying what the Lord has taught us, using our mind, body, soul and spirit.
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”
James 1:22 NLT
In our opening scripture the Lord uses a powerful metaphor to convey the importance, the critical need, for doing what He has said, rather than just hearing it.
Let’s not in any area of our lives, particularly not in our relationship with the Lord, become “consumers,” but not “absorbers,” of what we learn. Remember, if a person loses the ability to absorb the nutrients of what they eat, they can starve, although they gorge themselves.
We light a ninth candle of illumination today by knowing this:
If you don’t use/apply what has been revealed, it will not benefit you.