Last week, we discussed another picture of God, language. David Livermore once pointed out in a lesson that Hebrews 1:2 states, “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” which is translated in the original language as “spoken to us in Son.” Americans speak English, Germans speak German, people from China speak Chinese, so how can we share God with those around us who have never seen or experienced Him? Speak Christ. When you model your life after Christ, you’re not only getting to know God better, you’re speaking his language to the world around you. Still not sure what speaking God’s language means…read the passage below through the lens of communicating God to those around you.
1 John 4:7-12
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
How are you speaking God’s language to those in your school…your sports team…your workplace?
James chapter 2 verse 8–
“This royal law is found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” If you obey this law, you are doing right. But if you treat one person as being more important than another, you are sinning, and guilty of breaking Gods law.”
This verse seemed to direct me right to James, and adds a twist on the age-old commandment of “love your neighbor as yourself”. Sometimes we do this without thinking, and as James states, break God’s law.
So i was thinking over the service from tonight (november 5) and had the chance to talk to nathan about it after..
He told me that he was really hoping Macey would cooperate with him when she was brought up front to illustrate the point of Jesus as Shepherd. I realized that she clung to him submissively because that is what is natural to her. Nathan never had to coax her into holding him and never intimidated her to stay attached.
I think that God does the same thing with us. He really wants us to cling to Him because He knows that His Grace is the best possible option for us. And, even though we ( I in particular) screw it all up a lot, He is right there with open arms to accept us back. Like Nathan, God doesn’t have to manipulate us to stay near Him because over time the desires of this world are going to be chiseled out of us and all we want to do is fall into Him. Macey was completely satisfied in Nathan’s embrace and knew that if she could just stay close to him, everything will be ok.
Accepting God’s Grace is a big struggle for me because I know what i’m capable of and sometimes don’t get how He can love me anyway. I know that i will find a way to ignore His love, try to do life on my own, and end up hurt. I wish that i could always have this amazingly strong faith i hear about in miraculous testimonies but maybe Christianity for most of us isn’t going to be a quick conquering of sin. Instead life may be a day to day battle that can only be won by clinging tightly to God and the freedom He gave us through Jesus’ death on the cross.
I went a lot longer than I expected and I never answered the question so its not much but here it is… What if the way we spoke God’s language to those in our schools was not by pretending that we never screw up because we’re Christians? What if I was free enough to, like Steve Brown says, tell my non believing friends “I really mess us sometimes, but let me tell you something really good: God is still quite fond of me.” I think that is an attractive and, more importantly, Biblical view of what we as Christians can put our hope in and share with others.