CHEAP LOVE

God says he is love.
He says perfect love casts out all fear.
He is perfect love.
He says Love never fails....He never fails...
Then He says His love is shed abroad in OUR hearts....

Where? Where can we find this love in this world? In the church?

That should be the most obvious answer since it is His body and He is the head but it seems to be a body with little or no heart and certainly not one of "perfect love" .

This body I see is full of fear and anxiety and worries and disappointments and sickness. It is filled with everything that Jesus was not and certainly operated in opposition to.

It would be easy to go on and on about the shortcomings of the church and of course there is always the reasoning that we are but human (let's totally overlook the supernatural..we are after all also spirit).

That is not what this is about....HOW DO WE LOVE LIKE JESUS LOVED? Of those who slapped Him, spat on Him, ripped out His beard, drove huge spikes into His hands and feet, mocked Him
humiliated Him. .... what does He say?

Father FORGIVE them for they know not what they are doing!!!!!!

That kind of love is supposed to be somewhere inside me but my very first inclination when merely offended is to flare with anger and think of all my justification and so on..you know...you do it also.

If I have been made perfect or mature in His love then Perfect Love (Jesus) should be evident in my life. Instead I see fretful days and worrisome nights. The never ending task of protecting my rights, my property, my well being, my reputation etc. I find little space for letting out the most powerful force in the universe...this love that never fails...

AND sadly I do not really want to love those who are unlovely. In theory while reading my bible I do but not when it comes down to the circumstances at hand. I'd rather hang with those who are easy and fun to be around and love....and probably so would you.

On the internet I've seen so much trashy vicious evil things written from the hearts of some well known leaders who claim to be Christians against others who claim to be. I found absolute void in the volumes of words and hours and effort they have produced...absolute void when it came to perfect love. I felt dirty...contaminated when I closed out their websites....

Lots of reference to theology, doctrine, heresy, blasphemy etc...BUT NOT ONE IOTA OF GENUINE PERFECT LOVE...just a vast void.....

Lots of vicious personal attack and mockery......but a huge void of love.

I cried. I've used my mouth so many times....in such a caustic flood of useless words against my enemies....and even though every word may have been absolutely the truth....it was absolutely anti love.....

None of it needed to have been spoken..not that way..I don't really know how to love well...I do not know how to let that love...God's love that has been shed abroad in my heart to operate in my world. I do know however, that that is His purpose and intent for it.

Most of the love I see in the world and the church has been of poor quality. Starting with the "sloppy agape" ( detest that phrase but it does the job) all the way to callous indifference cheap love is on the forefront. This is not to judge others...for certainly there is more love in action in the church than the world BUT
I know I fall miserably short in my own life.

Isn 't is more productive to lift up the person of Jesus? Isn't it more powerful to let His character and power and love transform others than to spew hatred under the guise of warning, correcting or exposing others? Doesn't this Love that is God COVER a MULTITUDE of....(gasp) SIN?

Then why don't we?

Remember they spread lies about Stephen and then murdered him claiming he was blaspheming God........
it is written in the word of God that if you bear evil in your heart against your brother you are guilty of murder......

It is sometimes easier to stone Stephen than look at the ugliness in the mirror.