Love is Compelling

Love compels us to do crazy things. Today is Valentine's Day. It's amazing to consider the lengths we will go to in order to make our special someone grasp our love for them. On average, a man will spend $170 on items such as flowers, chocolates, jewelry, balloons and cards. It is estimated that over 150 million cards will be purchased and given for Valentine's Day. That is incredible!

It's confession time: I am a hopeless romantic. I have given my fair share of flowers, gifts and cards over the years. One year, I got this idea to create a large card for Joanna. I decided I wouldn't go to Hallmark, but that I would make her a card. I'm not much of an artist, so this card wasn't going to look beautiful. However, I was fairly good at putting my thoughts into writing. Another strike I had against me was that my writing is very close to being non-legible. With all of that considered, I proceeded to cut words out of magazines to form the message that I wanted to communicate with my Valentine. Now, I can't say this was an original idea as I had seen these done before by others, but I had never created one myself. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It would have been easier if all I wanted to put on the poster was a giant I LOVE YOU, but no, I had at least 150 words that I wanted to communicate. This took a long time!

Now, I know what you're thinking... "Why would you do that?" Here's the short answer: Love compels us to do crazy things. It's the same answer a girl would give who presses the rose pedals, from her boyfriend's gift of flowers, in a book, only to let them attract ants and other critters. Or the boy and girl who talk on the phone or text for hours in the evening before bed. Love compels us to do crazy things.

John 14:15 says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." In other words, it is love that compels us to follow Jesus. If we are serious about our relationship with Jesus, and we truly love Jesus, then we will be tenacious about knowing Him and doing what He wants us to do.I have talked to a lot of people over years as a pastor, particularly youth, who tell me, "Wow, Pastor Fred, it seems the Bible and a relationship with God is all about rules." They say, "The Bible is too strict." I say, "Yea, but do you love Him?" If you have a lot of head-knowledge about God and you don't have a relationship with Him, then yes, the Bible is a bunch of rules to be followed. But if you have a relationship with God, all of the principles and commands are there for a reason. The reason of these commands are to lead us into a life of holiness and as it says in Joshua 1, "then you will be prosperous and successful." 

If we sincerely love Jesus as He desires, which is with our heart, soul, mind and strength, then we will be willing to do whatever it takes to show Him that we love Him. Every time we do something that is in direct obedience to the Word of God, we are telling Jesus that we love Him. Our obedience is all the proof He needs of our affection, allegiance and adoration. Our obedience is in direct correlation of how we feel about Jesus. The person who is deeply in love with Jesus is also the one who will go to great lengths to obey all of God's commands throughout Scripture. Why? Because love is what compels us.

Power Outage

Super Bowl 47 was filled with drama. Of course, the Super Bowl is much more than the two teams playing for the NFL Championship.  It has become a national holiday.  The game was exciting, most of the commercials were entertaining and Beyonce proved her critics wrong after her lip sync debacle at the inauguration.  However, what overshadowed the Super Bowl was the power outage that came minutes into the third quarter.  Jacoby Jones had just run back at 109 yard kick-off return for a touchdown putting the Ravens up on the 49ers by a score of 28-6.  The lights went off and the New Orleans Superdome was completely dark.

How could this happen?  The whole world was watching this unfold.  Did someone forget to pay the power bill?  Someone suggested the 49ers were trying to disturb the momentum of the Ravens.  The city of New Orleans power company must have been frantically working to get the electricity turned back on.  As players kept loose on the sidelines, the lights gradually returned.  Thirty four minutes later, they continued the game.

As I reflect on this power outage, I'm reminded of Acts 1:8.  This Scripture says, "You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses."  I know of many "Christians" who are dealing with a power outage.  God calls us to live unashamedly as witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are called to be His witness.  The source of the power behind our witness is the Holy Spirit.  The person who is bold and confident in sharing their faith is one who is completely surrendered to the Holy Spirit.  If we're not full of the Holy Spirit, then we will have a power outage.

I'm sure that many people feel as if the city of New Orleans took a black eye because of the power outage.  What a bummer to have the whole world watching your city host the Super Bowl and then to have the power go out.  Far greater than that, is the embarrassment we are as we fail to be the witnesses God calls us to be.  For those of us who have called upon the name of Jesus Christ to be saved, we have the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit lives in us.  We also are able to pray again and again for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit as we become empowered.  It is not a matter of mustering up the courage to share our faith, it is about being empowered by the Holy Spirit and allowing the life of Jesus to speak through you to a world that is lost.