"Love to God will dispose a man to give honor to God. Love will dispose to worship and adore him, heartily to acknowledge his greatness and glory and dominion. So love will dispose to all acts of obedience to God. The servant who loves his master, and the subject who loves his prince, will be disposed to proper subjection and obedience. Love will dispose a person to behave towards God as a child to a father. Under difficulties, to resort to God for help and to put their trust in him. It is natural for persons in cases of need or affliction to go to those whom they love for pity and help. They who love God will be disposed to give credit to his work and to put confidence in him. Men are not apt to suspect the veracity of those for whom they have entire friendship. So love will dispose men to praise God for the mercies they receive from him. Men are disposed to gratitude for any kindness they receive from those they love. Love will dispose the heart to submission to the will of God. Persons are more willing that the will of those whom they love should be done than that of others. They naturally desire that those whom they love should be pleased, and things should be agreeable to them. A true love and esteem of God will dispose the heart to acknowledge God's right to govern, and that he is worthy of it; and so will dispose it to submit. Love to God will dispose to walk humbly with God. For he that loves God will be disposed to acknowledge the distance there is between God and him.
It will be agreeable to him who loves God to exalt him and set him on high above all, and to lie low before him. A true Christian delights to have God exalted in his abasement, because he loves God. He is willing to own that God is worthy of this; and it is with delight that he casts himself in the dust before God, because he loves God." - Jonathan Edwards, Love the Sum of all Virtue, "Charity and its Fruits: Living in the Light of God's Love."
Ridiculous & Harmful
Lately, for me, there has been a good amount of meditating on being a Christian in this day and age. I have thought several occasions, especially browsing through my facebook feed, that being a Christian and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is taboo. I often think and wonder if people truly know what the gospel really is, and that it's not ridiculous or harmful to society, but that if we truly understood it, our world would look extremely and positively different.
The thing is, the gospel involves a kind of thing called sin that has cursed humanity since the fall. You know, that time when Eve ate of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden? When she deliberately chose to eat of the one tree God told her not to eat from? The only one?
We (humanity) are like sheep that have gone astray. Each of us have turned to our own ways (Is. 53:6).
It's kind of sad. I mean, that we would rather have our own way. Wretched, wretched sinners who want their own way.
Yes, that's me.
I despise my way. But in the moment when I turn away from God, it seems so nice. It seems so delicious, like that fruit, like that one fruit. Heart beating fast, running for goodness in the opposite direction. There is adrenaline, visions of greatness, wonder, beauty; bam. Then, nakedness. How did I suddenly become so aware of my sin?
It is always one thing or another. But when the entanglement of all of my sin becomes wrapped around me, I can hardly breathe. Gasping. Gasping. Gasping for air. For Jesus, my Savior.
I reach out with everything in me. Tears that have been wiped all across my face, "Jesus!"
Jesus I need you.
Guilt, shame, condemnation, bitterness, anger, discontentment -- disappear in the presence of Jesus. It all disappears.
Then love. Unconditional, forgiving, gracious and merciful, compassionate love. The love of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
He is sooooooooo good. So wonderful.
The Confusion
I think the confusion with those who have a hard time understanding Christianity, is that they are confused by a people who are wretched sinners, reaching their hands up to a Savior who reaches back and saves them.
What they don't understand is that Christianity isn't about the people.
It's about God. It's about Jesus.
"All of us like sheep have gone astray
Each of us has turned to his own way.But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
to fall on Him" (Isaiah 53:6).
This verse is the Gospel. It's Jesus crucified on the cross for our sins. It's salvation.
Redemption, redemption, redemption. Amen, amen, amen.
"He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him" (Isaiah 53:3).
I guess it's confusing to tell other people they're sinners when we live in a culture that is swimming in entitlements. We are Americans, I guess. When I tell someone they're a sinner, I'm simply telling them we're the same. We're alike. We're both sinners. We both need Jesus. But people don't like that.
But needing & wanting are two different things, too. I need Him and I want Him. He makes it all beautiful in the end. He takes our brokenness aside, he leaves all of our crap at the door and sees us for who we are. He knows the innermost parts of our beings. He forgives, he gives grace and loves us unconditionally.
Love Will Dispose
"Love will dispose to worship and adore him, heartily to acknowledge his greatness and glory and dominion. So love will dispose to all acts of obedience to God."
Everything Jonathan Edwards says what love will dispose us to, is a sanctifying work in every Christian. Every single person who says they believe that Jesus is God, they are a work in progress. None of us have it on straight. None of us know it all.
We are still naked, and we know it.
We are still ashamed in our sinful natures and strive to be holy, like God is holy. Our righteousness is not from us, but from God. Our self-righteousness is not from God, but from ourselves. God is the one who makes us holy. We can do nothing but love God with our entirety, and to love others as Christ has loved us.
Plain and simple. And as simple as it is, the struggle can still be real because, we are like sheep. We want our own way.
And so I understand the taboo-ness of the nature in sharing the "good news," or the Gospel. I totally get it. But just know, that I don't have it all together. I'm in no way perfect or better than anyone. I just want to want Jesus Christ more than anything in the world. When my own ways don't cloud my bitter judgement for my life, Jesus is always better.
And like Jesus, I take your brokenness aside. I want to see you and love you just as you are, because that's what Jesus does. And he loves you and looks at you wholly different than I do. But I try, anyway. And I hope you can understand that.
