Foundation - Order, Safety, Law, and LOVE
Description
Do you know who you are as a human on this planet? What is your purpose? God tells us in Genesis that people are the dominant species on the planet.
“God blessed them and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28, NIV). We are the dominant species ( we are to rule ) and as rulers we are to keep things in order (to subdue it. bring it under control). God controls the universe so He gives us the Earth to see how well we do as God, since we did not want to obey Him. The answer is we are not doing well, but he still wants us to try because in doing so we are becoming more like Him and can appreciate all He does for us. People care for the cows, grass, and dirt, they do not take care of us. We have then the responsibility to put things in order. But to put things in order we have to feel safe. So God gave us law (10 commandments) to help us to be safe with each other. Every human action is regulated by these two things: Order and Safety. What keeps us in order is the law. But laws must be enforced. So every area of life have people who have been given responsibility to enforce laws that keep everyone safe. But not all people are compliant to the law. Some wish for no law - Anarchy. This does not keep anyone safe. The next level is Picking and Choosing which laws we want to obey and which ones we don't want to obey. This does not keep us safe either. So we need a higher standard: Society's Standards (The Law), that represents the minimum amount of respect that we must give to each other so that we can feel safe. What do we do as humans? We see how far beneath this standard we can get and not get caught. Then the enforcers of the law have to stop us from sinking to Anarchy by giving us fines, jail, or disciplining us in some way. If there is a minimum amount of respect that we can give to others so they can be safe, there must be a maximum or higher standard we can aspire to. Jesus gave us this standard. Its called Love. When we seek to love others and show them the highest amount of respect that we can we will not have to worry about falling to anarchy or getting into trouble with the enforcers of the public safety. We will instead be able to put our lives in order.
THE BALLOON ILLUSTRATION - JUDE 21
Description
In a world where we are bombarded with so many pressures, decisions, threats on our safety, and seemingly impossible obstacles to overcome, it seems easy to get overwhelmed. God knew this when He made us and made a way for us to see things, and enjoy life, from His perspective.
Jude 21 is a little verse in the Bible’s smallest book but it has great things to say about how we are to engage life.
Keep yourselves in God’s love while you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
As I was meditating on this verse, my eyes fell upon the image of a hot air balloon. Suddenly the meaning of this verse came alive.
____your name here____________, I have a balloon for you. It is the balloon of my love. Get in it and then keep yourself there. Never get out.
So to do this, you and I need to believe that God’s love exists and that He has a balloon for you. His love is for you. So you can then go get in it, and keep yourself there, in His love.
What makes the balloon go up in the air? The flame. In this case the flame is our faith in God’s love. When you have great faith in the love of God for you, the balloon goes up. When you doubt his love the balloon goes down. What changes is our perception of our problems.
To us our problems often look like mountains. Without God’s love, we are relegated to climbing up the mountains by our own efforts, sometimes with terrible effects. The mountains may be terrifying in their vastness and height (such as climbing Mount Everest over and over again).
But in the balloon, we rise above the mountains and see them from a totally different perspective. From the ground they look humongous. From up high in the balloon, small in comparison.
What are we to do in the balloon? The answer is in the verse:
Keep yourselves in God’s love while you wait.
We don’t like to do this. We believe that we need to work it out. We need to come up with all the answers. We need to strive, worry, fret, and dwell upon things til we come up with all the answers. This is not was is commanded here. Wait.
What are we waiting for? God to act. He is the shepherd not us. He will fight the lions not us the sheep. Never were we told to do so. Wait until you have been empowered, wait until you have been spoken to. Wait. He goes before us to address the problems. In this verse it says we are waiting for His mercy. So how are we going to get through life? Only by His mercy, in His love.
The next part of the verse is crucial as it says something we need to hear. We don’t need to strive, run, work hard, or attack. We need to relax, for we are being brought. The mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ will bring you… Like in a limousine, you are being brought to your destination. Much like the sheep are being brought to green pastures by the Shepherd. So while you watch the mountains pass by you below, you are in God’s love, being brought to your destination, Eternal life. Where is the anxiety now?