Love: An Exclusive, Permanent Commitment?

Love:  An Exclusive, Permanent Commitment?

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Matthew 19:5-6 Have you not read, Jesus replied, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

When people say, Why don t we live together, and why do we need to be married?  I love you, so why do I need a piece of paper to show you that love?   If you define love as a feeling; that is right, but that is not what the Bible ever means when it means love. Biblically, if somebody says, I love you, but I do not want to marry you; what they mean is, I do not love you that much.  There is no way around that. 

 

A person who says, I love you, and I want to marry you, loves you more than the person who says, I love you, but I do not want to marry you.  Why?  Because love by definition biblically is an exclusive and permanent commitment.  That is what you most want, and you know that.  When somebody says, I do not need a piece of paper to show that I love you-yes you do!  If you love a person the way the Bible says that two people are supposed to love one another in order to share their lives together, it means that you have no problem making a legal, permanent and exclusive commitment to them.

 

At some point love is simply a decision to serve somebody and be committed to that person regardless of your feelings and regardless to how that person acts.  Your feelings can take you to the door.  The person attracts you, there are a lot of things that you like about them, you have fun together, but at a certain point you simply make a decision that you are going to love this person because your feelings will always come and go.  A lot of people do not get married because they are sure that if this is the one, My feelings will never ebb, and I will never have any problem.  I will always feel like giving myself to them, and I will never look at that person and feel, Ugh!

 

You will wait until Hell freezes over if you wait for that. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Jesus Risen From the Dead

Jesus Risen From the Dead

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is from Cliffe Knechtle, and the Scripture is  Matthew 20:17-19  Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.  They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.  On the third day he will be raised to life!

 

1 Corinthians 15:3-6 says that over a period of forty days Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people.  Many of these eyewitnesses died for what they had seen-the dead Christ risen to life.  They stood before Roman soldiers who said, The decision is simple. Say, Caesar is lord and live, or say, Jesus is Lord and die!

 

The early Christians said, We have seen Jesus risen from the dead.  Jesus is Lord!  They died, not for a belief, a religion, or a political persuasion, but for a person they had seen come back from the dead.

 

If the early Christians had made up the resurrection story, they never would have died in such large numbers.  Someone would have revealed the fabrication under penalty of death.  You cannot get a large group of people to die for a known lie.  History reveals that Peter, Andrew, Philip, Simon the Zealot, James the son of Alphaeus, and Bartholomew were crucified.  Matthew and James the brother of John were put to death by the sword.  Thaddaeus was shot through with arrows.  James the brother of Jesus was stoned.  Paul was beheaded.  Why?  Because they had seen Jesus risen from the dead.  They were willing to die for what they had seen.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Why Die for a Lie?

Why Die for a Lie?

 

The following is an excerpt from Chuck Colson, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:14,19  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith and we are to be pitied more than all men.

 

It was the Watergate cover-up that left me convinced that the biblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ are historically reliable.

 

In my Watergate experience I saw the inability of men-even powerful, highly motivated professionals-to hold together a conspiracy based on a lie.  It was less than three weeks from the time that Mr. Nixon knew all the facts to the time that John Dean went to the prosecutors.  Once that happened Mr. Nixon s presidency was doomed.  The actual cover-up lasted less than a month.

 

On the other hand, Christ s powerless followers maintained to their grim deaths by execution that they had in fact seen Jesus Christ raised from the dead.  There was no conspiracy, no Passover plot.  Men and women do not give up their comfort-and certainly not their lives-for what they know to be a lie.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Seek First His Kingdom

Seek First His Kingdom

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller of New York City, and the Scripture verse is Matthew 16:16  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Adversity and blessings can show you the idols of your heart.  Cynthia Hymal used to write for the Village Voice, and she lived in New York City for many years and got to know a lot of people when they were struggling artists, actors and actresses.  Afterwards some of these people would hit it big and become celebrities, so she knew a lot of people before and after.  Here is what she says about celebrities.

 

 I pity celebrities, I really do.  Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Barbara Striestand were once perfectly pleasant human beings, but now their wrath is awful.  I think when God wants to play a really rotten little joke on you, He grants you your deepest wish and giggles merrily when you want to kill yourself.  You see, Sly, Bruce and Barbara wanted fame.  They worked, they pushed, and the morning after each of them became famous, they wanted to take an overdose because that giant thing that they were striving for, that famed thing that was going to make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness had happened, and they were still them.  The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable.

 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness . . . (Matthew 6:33)

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining