"Practically Divine"

Friday, June 8th

“Practically Divine”

Summer Book Club – Week 5

We have had a packed week together. Thank you so much for sticking with me. It’s so much more fun to read and study with you.

I have a new podcast to share with you today. But, first I want to acknowledge again that LOVE is the language of our God.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. Love is the reason Jesus came.

Then, Jesus instructed His followers to love on another, because that would be the way others knew them to be disciples. Their love for each other was to be the sign of Jesus! (John 13)

Paul spoke on love too. In 1 Corinthians 13, he said (very bluntly) that without love as our motivation we are nothing more than obnoxious noise makers.

Love is the language of God through Jesus. Our enemy also has a language. It’s SHAME! He has been so sneaky in introducing shame into our lives that we don’t even notice it anymore.

Do you remember that Adam and Eve walked freely with God in the Garden? They knew His character firsthand. I have no doubt they felt the love and delight God had for them. But, once they’d been deceived by Satan, they hid from The One who created them, loved them, and delighted in being with them. That’s the picture of shame!

Here is what I’d like us to go into the weekend thinking on and considering…. Are we so deceived by the language of our Enemy (shame) that we have grown completely uncomfortable with the reality of God’s love?

Are we more comfortable with speaking about the holiness of God and the Truth of Jesus, because we have no point of reference for the initiating love of both? Remember, I’m not discounting holiness or truth. Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life. I am sure of that. However, true LOVE is Jesus. If we could get out from under the shame that permeates human life, I wonder if we’d have any doubt about our God being LOVE?

I’m not giving you answers today. I am giving us things to consider as we listen to this podcast and wrap up a week. I’m sharing Lisa Harper with you. She is every bit the theologian that Kristi McLelland is. But her delivery is very different. Get ready to laugh, girls! And, also, be ready to see Scripture come to life. This one hit very close to home!