Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, BELIEVES ALL THINGS, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails... (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NKJV).
We're not in Kansas Anymore
Before I became a Christian, I did not believe all things, but in retrospect, I believed almost anything, however insane or stupid or evil, as long as it fit in with my world view, which was basically, me. Don't get me wrong. I THOUGHT I was rational and sensible, even scientific, in my approach to truth, but what was really happening was my constitutional inability to know the truth was showing, like toilet paper on my face after I cut myself shaving.
The truth of God is spiritually discerned. It is very much like a door opening into a room you guessed was near, but couldn't somehow enter. Or like blinders falling off your eyes, or finally getting a lens prescription that enabled you to see what was really, really going on in the Universe. Before Christ, I was convinced I knew what was behind all the important stuff, and I had more than a little contempt for those rubes of believed something useless like the Bible. Crackpots. Imbeciles. Wishful-thinking idiots.
I have a lot of empathy for people who think like that about me now, and have done for the last 15 years. Empathy, but not sympathy. I UNDERSTAND their attitude and know it be as despicable as mine was back then. I know what motivates it, too, and it isn't pretty. My hope and prayer for those misguided intellects is that God would transform their thinking by doing whatever it takes. For me it took a pronounced, chronic, quiet hopelessness that I attempted to drown or drug or short-circuit in any number of increasingly ineffective ways. Only when I came to the end of my own stubborn, prideful, ridiculous delusions of self-importance could I throw up my trembling hands in surrender to the One who is the source of all truth, goodness, love and justice. That defeat was a cause for eternal celebration, for in losing all that I counted as profit, I lost darkness and despair and gained Christ, "and the power of His resurrection…".
Agape love is NOT gullible. It doesn't just believe ANYTHING, that's what Fallen human beings do so poorly and conveniently, picking and choosing what to believe based on the needs of the moment. Instead, agape love believes wholly, irrevocably, unreservedly all TRUTH. And because agape love comes only through God, the author of truth, immersion in agape love opens the human heart and mind to what is really, really true.
Before Christ, I held all kinds of idiotic or evil things to be true: babies in the womb weren't people; sin is a myth; Hell is for idiots (well, I kind of still believe that but in a completely different way); life is by chance; Heaven doesn't exist; humans rule; I am in control. I KNOW better now. My eyes have been opened to the truth by the Spirit of God and I have been made free by that truth.
I know people who are going through painful trials, unimaginable heart-ache, massively uncertain futures, at least in this life. But because these same people believe the TRUTH, they have hope and peace that goes beyond merely human understanding. And they are able to face these things BELIEVING the truth, and that provides a strength and endurance that is well, supernatural.
One other thing, the believing in focus here is not the kind of grit-your-teeth or click-your-ruby-red-slippers kind of belief. It is NOT belief in the face of evidence to the contrary. In short, it is NOT the wishful-thinking belief that those who do not know, or who reject Christ, ironically live under. It is belief that first and foremost is a gift a God, and secondly, is founded upon the evidence of changed lives, the empty tomb, and the inarguable testimony of a regenerated heart. It is belief that comes when the eyes of faith see the God of love.
Give me that over the world any day.
We're not in Kansas Anymore
Before I became a Christian, I did not believe all things, but in retrospect, I believed almost anything, however insane or stupid or evil, as long as it fit in with my world view, which was basically, me. Don't get me wrong. I THOUGHT I was rational and sensible, even scientific, in my approach to truth, but what was really happening was my constitutional inability to know the truth was showing, like toilet paper on my face after I cut myself shaving.
The truth of God is spiritually discerned. It is very much like a door opening into a room you guessed was near, but couldn't somehow enter. Or like blinders falling off your eyes, or finally getting a lens prescription that enabled you to see what was really, really going on in the Universe. Before Christ, I was convinced I knew what was behind all the important stuff, and I had more than a little contempt for those rubes of believed something useless like the Bible. Crackpots. Imbeciles. Wishful-thinking idiots.
I have a lot of empathy for people who think like that about me now, and have done for the last 15 years. Empathy, but not sympathy. I UNDERSTAND their attitude and know it be as despicable as mine was back then. I know what motivates it, too, and it isn't pretty. My hope and prayer for those misguided intellects is that God would transform their thinking by doing whatever it takes. For me it took a pronounced, chronic, quiet hopelessness that I attempted to drown or drug or short-circuit in any number of increasingly ineffective ways. Only when I came to the end of my own stubborn, prideful, ridiculous delusions of self-importance could I throw up my trembling hands in surrender to the One who is the source of all truth, goodness, love and justice. That defeat was a cause for eternal celebration, for in losing all that I counted as profit, I lost darkness and despair and gained Christ, "and the power of His resurrection…".
Agape love is NOT gullible. It doesn't just believe ANYTHING, that's what Fallen human beings do so poorly and conveniently, picking and choosing what to believe based on the needs of the moment. Instead, agape love believes wholly, irrevocably, unreservedly all TRUTH. And because agape love comes only through God, the author of truth, immersion in agape love opens the human heart and mind to what is really, really true.
Before Christ, I held all kinds of idiotic or evil things to be true: babies in the womb weren't people; sin is a myth; Hell is for idiots (well, I kind of still believe that but in a completely different way); life is by chance; Heaven doesn't exist; humans rule; I am in control. I KNOW better now. My eyes have been opened to the truth by the Spirit of God and I have been made free by that truth.
I know people who are going through painful trials, unimaginable heart-ache, massively uncertain futures, at least in this life. But because these same people believe the TRUTH, they have hope and peace that goes beyond merely human understanding. And they are able to face these things BELIEVING the truth, and that provides a strength and endurance that is well, supernatural.
One other thing, the believing in focus here is not the kind of grit-your-teeth or click-your-ruby-red-slippers kind of belief. It is NOT belief in the face of evidence to the contrary. In short, it is NOT the wishful-thinking belief that those who do not know, or who reject Christ, ironically live under. It is belief that first and foremost is a gift a God, and secondly, is founded upon the evidence of changed lives, the empty tomb, and the inarguable testimony of a regenerated heart. It is belief that comes when the eyes of faith see the God of love.
Give me that over the world any day.
