November 7 Esight, 2010

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”—Jesus (John 10.10)Hello to all of you. I pray this finds each of you well. This week, rather than sending out a devotional as normal, I am writing this to you today, to ask you to pray for a special series I am beginning tonight in Honolulu. This series is for the public and I will be covering new material I have been compiling over the last twelve months. In the past, the traditional method of doing meetings, as many of you know, is to first establish the validity of the scriptures and then we launch into our various and sundry doctrinal presentations. This series, beginning tonight, will be quite different.

Tonight, we will first begin with establishing instead, the historical reality of Jesus Christ. In other words, the historical person Jesus made divine claims, healed the sick, and died on a cross. And then, as difficult as this is for many in today’s post modern world to believe, he rose from the dead. Tonight we will be establishing from history, logic and the scriptures the reasons for reflective, intelligent, rational, reasonable and somewhat critical people to believe this is exactly what it is purported to be—TRUE. If Jesus really is who he claimed to be then there are two very special truths that become inescapable:

1) The God of the universe, as revealed by Jesus Christ, is the most beautiful being that ever existed or ever will.

2) You could not possibly be more loved than you are right now by Him.

This does not mean we have to accept the things we have suffered in this life as somehow orchestrated by this God. These things were wrong and should have never happened to us. And it doesn’t mean we have to blindly embrace a “religion”, especially one like Christianity which holds the record for being the most violent on the stage of human history. All it means, is that there is a God, He came to this planet, and He came to show YOU one thing and one thing only: He loves you! And although there are many questions still to be answered, His love, when seen as it truly is, is really what each human heart has been searching for.

From this foundation, which we will lay tonight, we will spring-board into the remaining presentations on God’s character of love, revealing from the scriptures how surrendering to His selfless love for us, ushers each of us into life and life more abundantly. In other words, Life Unlimited!

Thank you sincerely for each of your prayers. This series will end the 16th this month and I would deeply value your covering of it in prayer during this time.

I wish you God’s best this week.

Thank you.

October 1 Esight, 2010

But Jesus was saying, ” Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. (Luke 23.34)Have you every truly stopped and thought about that prayer?

You see, what strikes me as startling is that Jesus was asking God to forgive these specific individuals who were yet in a state of unrepentance. This flies in the face of much of what is taught today in modern Christianity about the nature of God’s forgiveness. Too many times it is taught that God only forgives those who repent. And this is used to justify ourselves in withholding forgiveness toward others till they repent. (If they don’t say they’re sorry, we don’t have to forgive them, and this I believe is truly disastrous.) But my question is this? Can we really believe that Jesus is the express image of God, that Jesus is expressing the heart of God in this prayer He prays while suspended on the Cross? Is God really this beautiful? Is there a sense in which God really has forgiven all? And can we live in that forgiveness and extend that same forgiveness toward others.

I have found in my own experience that we are truly very skilled in setting parameters around how “good” God truly is. And it takes courage to believe that God is as good and beautiful as He reveals Himself to be, especially on the cross. (I would like to encourage all to go back and listen to the presentation we have on our website entitled Charizomai, where this concept of forgiveness is covered in more detail,)

There is an aspect of Forgiveness in the New Testament where forgiveness is simply the releasing of someone who owes you a debt. It doesn’t matter whether the person wants to be released or not. It doesn’t matter if they have repented or not. It doesn’t matter whether that person is willing or refuses to reconciled or not, there is an aspect of God’s forgiveness that is unilateral, unconditional and universal. And although there are aspects of God’s forgiveness that intrinsically require our involvement (i.e. our faith, repentance, and confession), there are other aspects that do not. They are universal! They have already transpired in God’s heart for everyone, repentant or not!

Jesus over and over in His ministry revealed that God’s attitude toward all is forgiveness. Many times people weren’t even asking for their sins to be forgiven, Jesus simply volunteered it saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” Not as a carrot, to motivate a response, but simply as an already occurred fact to which Jesus was simply communicating the news.

On the cross Jesus is not praying for God to forgive them if they repent, He is simply saying Father forgive these unrepentant ones. We find this same kind of prayer in the death of Steven when he too was being murdered. Jesus and Steven both were simply saying, “Father, let this go, release them of this. Even though they have not repented, God please don’t hold this against them, let this go.” This is the type of forgiveness that flows from Calvary and I believe it’s truly beautiful. But do we realize what this means?

In Jesus’ name and on the authority of the Cross, dear reader, It doesn’t matter who you are and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, God is not holding your sin against you. The Father Forgives you. (see 2 Corinthians 5:19) The abortions you’ve had. The Father forgives you. Maybe it’s a relationship you destroyed or a person you harmed, the Father forgives you. Maybe it’s a wasted life with drugs or substance abuse, the Father forgives you. Maybe it’s sexual promiscuity, the Father forgives you. Maybe it’s a marriage you walked away from and family you destroyed, right now, the Father releases you from that, He doesn’t hold that against you. The murder you committed, maybe a child you killed while driving drunk, you may owe a debt to society, but from your heavenly Father, He releases you. Every lie you’ve ever told, every piece of gossip or slander you have spread, every pronouncement of self righteous judgment you’ve pronounced on others, you’re released. He’s not holding that against you. Receive that. Walk in it. It’s time to be done carrying that baggage around all your life. Every sin of every person throughout history, on the authority of Calvary, we can say to all, “You are released!”

Yes, your sin may be very, very bad. But will you trust that God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s forgiveness is greater than your sin? That where sin abounds His grace much more abounds! Will you receive that grace today?

Look to the cross and hear me, The Father Forgives you. You are released. This is not going to be held against you. There may be all these “buts” going off in your head right now, but will you hear the voice of the Lord saying right now, “Trust me, just trust me, you’re released.” If you are not reconciled into salvation with God, it’s is no longer because of your sin. That issue has been dealt with by God on Calvary. If any are lost at last, it will only because they refused to be reconciled.

Receive His forgiveness. Live in the year of Jubilee! All charges are dropped. All debts cancelled. All rights of restitution relinquished. The creditor [God] has born the loss, and debtors [us] can now go free. THIS is what Calvary is all about! THIS is the gospel!

And in light of how God has released you in this way, will you too extend this same kind of letting go to others. Will you release all others of all debt? I pray you will. This is what it means to imitate God. (More on that next week.)

I wish you God’s best this week. Walk in God’s forgiveness. And go enlarge the kingdom!

September 20 Esight, 2010

But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Romans 5.15(Part 3 of 3)

Let’s finish up this week with a final look at Christianity’s history regarding the concept of Grace.

First, too often religion has been used to control or manipulate the masses. We have used hope of reward (heaven) or fear of punishment (a skewed view of hell) to motivate and even manipulate the behavior of the adherents of the faith. This should not ever be done.

During the Dark Ages, the church, under the above pretense, painted a picture of God’s grace that made it very expensive. Through performing religious duties or disciplines, even sometimes paying money, a person could secure God’s grace. But these “commodities” were never easy. Religion was difficult. And God’s grace was costly, expensive, something that must be earned.

Then came the Reformation. I want to say from the beginning that I believe the Reformers were moving in the right direction, but they did not go far enough in their reasoning. First, let’s see what they taught. God’s grace, to them, was not something difficult to procure. All a person had to do was believe, repent, or confess being a sinner in need.

Please note that although this sounds very familiar, because the practice is rampant in modern Christianity, whether something is true or not has never been decided by how many are preaching it. The question is, “Is it biblical?”

You see, this view did make God’s grace less expensive. Yet, inadvertently, it only served to make God’s grace “cheaper” as the coined phrase “cheap grace” indicates. The problem is that even though those espousing this view use correct lingo like “faith,” “confession,” and “repentance,” they still make God’s grace dependent on “something” we do before we can receive it.

The Bible teaches that God’s grace is neither expensive nor cheap. It’s FREE! It is not simply bestowed on those who do something first, whether that act be difficult or easy. God’s grace is right now being bestowed on ALL people, regardless of whether they have believed or not.

Remember our two verb orders.

Love Give Believe

Love Believe Give

God is right now giving to all regardless of whether they have believed with the hope that they will!

Moreover, the law stated that while offenses might abound, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. (Romans 5.20)

Another verse tells us: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. (Titus 2.11)

God is right now giving to you, simply because He loves you. He is giving to all right now, simply because He loves all. His giving is based on His love! It is not based on whether the object of that grace has believed yet or not.

Does this mean that all will be saved? No, not by any means. However, the judgment will reveal that full and free salvation was given to every person and that if any are lost, this would not occur because they did not do enough to procure God’s grace but because they threw away the grace and the salvation that had been given to all.

I wish you God’s best this week.

September 10 Esight, 2010

He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us.—Ephesians 5:2, The Message(Part 2 of 3)

Okay, before we finish up on the different types of Grace, let’s pick up where we left off last week and look at those ten lepers first.

To refresh your memory, we were looking at the order of verbs in John 3:16.

Love Give Believe

Remember that, with the verbs in this order, a person’s giving is based solely on his or her love. However, one’s belief—or, rather, one’s response—is a completely different subject. Although it does play an important role, it is not a factor in whether or not a person loves you and gives to you.

Let’s look at a quick story.

“While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?’ And He said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.’”

—Luke 17:11-19

Only one man came back and said “thank you”; only one responded. But please note: did Jesus take back His healing of the other nine who didn’t believe? No, He had given to them because He loved them, regardless of whether they loved Him back.

We glimpse a similar kind of love in the story of the woman at the well, which we looked at a few weeks ago. Jesus was seeking to give this woman the “living” water of His love. Although some people have unjustly used this story to prove that we have a right to point out others’ sins, I’d like you to consider it more honestly. Why did Jesus bring up the fact that this woman had been repeatedly married and divorced? Look at it carefully. What was Jesus really revealing? I believe with all my heart that He was saying to her, “Listen, I know everything there is to know about you, and my offer is still on the table.”

He gives simply because He loves!

He loves you, dear reader. Do you believe this? He knows everything there is to know about you. His love is not blind. On the contrary; it is well informed. Even with knowing all there is to know about you, He is saying to you today, “Yes, I know about that, but my offer is still on the table. Take my hand, and let me give you all of Me.”

“He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us.”—Ephesians 5:2, The Message

“As our Mediator, Christ works incessantly. Whether men receive or reject Him, He works earnestly for them. He grants them life and light, striving by His Spirit to win them from Satan’s service.”—The Review and Herald, March 12, 1901

Something to think about.

I wish you God’s best this next week.

September 3 Esight, 2010

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son (1John 5.11).(Part 1 of 3)

I am convinced that the judgment will reveal that salvation full and free was given to every man, woman, and child. If any people are lost at last, it won’t be because they didn’t do enough to convince God to save them, but rather that they threw away the salvation God had so fully placed in their laps.

It’s a question of verb order. But it’s more than just grammar. Upon this subtle difference depends everything.

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3.16, emphasis supplied).

God loves, and therefore He gives. His gifts always precede our belief in them. Yes, our belief is, in effect, a “receiving” of those gifts; from God’s perspective, His grace has been given to all.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men (Titus 2.11).

Yes, but although He is the Savior especially of those who believe, this does not change the fact that He is also the Savior of all men, believers or not, as well (see 1 Timothy 4:10).

What does all this mean in regards to our picture of God?

Much!

God loves, and therefore He gives. His giving isn’t dependent on our acceptance. His giving is based on His love for us. It is universal in its scope. And yes, it’s with the hope that we will believe, but God’s grace must needs precede our belief in order that grace be not cheap but free (more on the comparison of expensive, cheap and free grace next week).

But God’s grace is right now being poured out on all “as real as the air we breathe.”

I want you to write two verb orders down on a piece of paper this week.

1) Love Give Believe

2) Love Believe Give

Look at both of those orders carefully and ask yourself the following questions:

What type of person is each of these orders describing? Write down one adjective at a time. What type of person loves you and therefore just simply gives to you based on that love? And what type of person, by contrast, loves you, but requires you to do something first before they will give to you? There is a comparison to be made between reservation and extravagance; calculation and generosity; someone conservative in the expression of love, and another liberal. One efficient, the other wasteful.

We’ll pick up here with your list next week and a story about Jesus and two leapers.

I wish you God’s best this week. Happy pondering.

August 27 Esight, 2010

I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them . . . Hosea 14.4-7Recently, I received an email thanking me for the affect the presentations online had made on the their picture of our heavenly Father. The writer went on to share information about a series of meetings he was trying to put together and asked for feedback about the advertising. (Honestly, I think I’m going to steal some of it.) I’ll share the phrase that jumped out at me.

“We are a group of Christians apologizing for how the church has misrepresented Jesus. We’re sorry.”

I wonder how much respect we would gain in the world if Christian leaders, no matter how much good their religion has brought to the world, would stand up and apologize for the times when they have misrepresented God and, honestly, messed things up.

I remember that when I was little my mother made a huge mistake one day and quickly sat me down and said she was wrong and she was sorry. I remember my level of respect for her dramatically soared that day. I remember a time my oldest daughter was very young, and I lost my cool with her and spoke to her in an exasperated tone. I quickly dropped to my knees in front of her, took her face in my hands (wiping away the little tears that were just forming) and told her I was sorry. She’s much older now but recently shared how much it had affected her that I immediately recognized my error and owned it, simply saying I was sorry.

Too many times, when it comes to religion, we live in denial, afraid to admit where we have messed up for fear that others may lose confidence in us. (I have often wondered what would happen if my own church would simply stop rewriting its history and simply admit where we have erred, apologize, and move forward.) Only God and the angels are infallible. We here are earth are not. We will make mistakes, and when we do, it’s not the mistake that will cause others to lose respect for us. Our ability to confess a mistake and apologize for our living in denial will determine how effective we continue to be in this world. I think a lot could be accomplished if Christians around the globe would simply say, “I’m sorry.”

I’ll close this week with the following verse. Pay close attention to it and see if you spot what I see here.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Ezekiel 36.22-27

It may help our cause greatly to simply say, “We’re Sorry.”

Something to ponder.

I wish you God’s best this week.

August 17 Esight, 2010

“You who are far away, hear what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might. Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with the everlasting burnings?”—Isaiah 33.13-14If any of you have listened to the presentation entitled Love’s Eternal Flame from Life Unlimited, what I am about to share this week will make perfect sense with just a little thought.

Over and over in the scriptures, God likens His love for us to an eternally burning, everlasting, unquenchable fire! (Misunderstanding of these passages has led many people to believe in an eternally burning hell, an idea that I neither subscribe to nor believe that the scriptures really teach.) Three words are found throughout the scriptures: eternal, everlasting, and unquenchable. Stop for just one moment this week and ponder what it means to experience this type of love.

Solomon wrote, “… Love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; Its flashes are flashes of fire, The very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it …” (Song of Solomon 8.6,7).

God’s love for us in not only unquenchable, it is everlasting:

The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jeremiah 31.3).

This is the quality of love each of us truly desires: a love that is all-knowing, yet eternal and unchanging. We yearn for a love that knows us intimately to the smallest detail, knows everything about us, and yet loves us nonetheless. This quality of love changes us. It changes our lives. It changes those around us and, ultimately, it will change the world and usher in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of this quality of love.

Let’s finish the verse we began with, shall we?

“Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; He will dwell on the heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure” (Isaiah 33:14-16).

Who will dwell for eternity in the presence and embrace this perfect love, while others around him or her are consumed? He who walks “righteously”, or in other words, those who allow that love to be divinely reproduced in their lives.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous … you are to be perfect [love perfectly], as your heavenly Father is perfect [loves perfectly] (Matthew 5:43-48, brackets added).

In the light of His unquenchable love for you, you too, go out and love someone this week!

I wish you God’s best.

July 25 Esight, 2010

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. John 1:6-8This week I’d like to draw your attention to a curious Greek word used in the above verse. It’s translated into the English as “witness” and “testify.” The Greek root here is marturia, the Greek word from which we get our English word martyr. Now one of the principle definitions of a martyr is somebody who makes sacrifices or suffers greatly in order to advance a cause or principle.

At first, probably like you, I found myself scratching my head a bit. But with a little bit of thought it becomes perfectly clear. The great truth that our God has ever sought to explain and demonstrate, throughout history and the scriptures, is the principle of Love. Yet love always shines the brightest when it is tried. It’s seen in its fullness when it is tested. The greatest evidence of this reality is the Cross itself. It was part of Christ’s mission to suffer as much hatred and violence from human hands as His human nature could endure. And though, yes, many in history have suffered more physically than what Jesus suffered on the cross, the physical sufferings of God were not to appease some divinely held anger toward sinners! Rather, the physical sufferings of God, administered by our human hands, were for the purpose of revealing, testifying to us that God, having loved us, would ever love us to the end. Nothing, either demonic or human, could break His will and cause Him to let us go (Romans 8:35-39). Faced with abandoning us or all hope for Himself (Psalms 88:1-8), He would choose, with complete and utter self abandonment, to hold onto us and place us back on vantage ground. And “by His stripes, we are healed”! Notice, Isaiah’s emphasis is that Calvary would change us! God was not brought nearer to us. But rather, having us already in His heart, we would be drawn nearer to Him. Calvary was that God would dwell in our hearts, as we, from all eternity, had been in His.

Never had God’s love been seen as it was revealed at the cross. Selfless Love shines brightest when it’s tested and tried. And this is the reason, I believe, that we are all called to “martyrdom.” At some degree or another, we all are called to sacrifice to become a conduit of the self sacrificing, self abandoning, selfless love of Heaven. God is calling us, just as John was also called, to be not simply a recipient of Heaven’s kind of love, but also to be a channel through which that love can flow to this world in a tangible and measurable way. Not that any of us likes the idea of suffering anything! But love, without teeth, is simply romantic nonsense. Love, when it costs something and yet still loves, is a love with dimension—a love worthy of our heart and worthy of a life dedicated to the propagation of it’s principles, even if it should cost us to do so as well. There is something, or rather Someone, out there greater to live for than ourselves, isn’t there?

Something to ponder.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

I wish you God’s best this week.

July 13 Esight, 2010

In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).Adoption!

Almost 20 years ago, I discovered a small discipline that has proven itself extremely valuable to me over the years when I look at a specific passage. When I begin to study a certain book of the Bible, I endeavor to sit down and read it straight through, beginning to end, at least ten times, before I start tearing into it, simply to get the overall emphasis and focus of the authors themselves. I will admit this is a lot easier with books like Ephesians, and much harder with books like Isaiah, but it has been invaluable at helping me personally see not just a tree, but the whole forest too, simultaneously.

If one was to read through the majority of Paul’s letters in one sitting, you would immediately begin to see this word—adoption. Paul does not apply this word to Jewish believers, only to gentiles. In Paul’s cultural context, adoption meant something quite different than it does for us in our culture. In Paul’s day and age, adoption was a process whereby a slave became a member of the family. This was done for many reasons. One possibility could be that a couple were getting up in years and did not have children to watch after them in their old age. Thus, they would select one of the household slaves they were fond of to adopt. Adoption was usually a win/win situation. It did not come without added responsibility, but it also usually came with the rewards and privileges of being “family,” which included, but was not limited to, an inheritance.

Sociologically, adoption was not always as altruistic as it can be today. Slaves were willing to enter into this relationship out of fondness for their owners but, more importantly, for the gift of their freedom and the inheritance that would follow. The slave owner sought to adopt to ensure some perfunctory family responsibility would be taken care of, that otherwise lacked someone to oversee it. Sometimes it was a family business that needed to be looked after, or as mentioned, care of the slave owners themselves when they became older; it may also have been simply a way of carrying on a family name.

We need to qualify for one minute, though, Paul’s use of the adoption model in Ephesians. He is very careful to state God’s motives in adopting us. God was not self-seeking. His motives were altruistic. God adopted us, simply and unequivocally, only because of His great love for us. But, Paul was quick to add, that did not excuse us, as gentiles adopted into the family of God, from the added responsibilities of carrying on the family name and carrying out the business of the family into which we have been adopted. And what is the family business, what is the family name, we are being asked to carry on?

In one word, it is simple: Love.

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He did not love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” (Ephesians 5:1, 2, The Message).

“Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts” (White, The Desire of Ages, p. 641).

Something worth pondering, for sure.

I wish you God’s best this week.

May 31 Esight, 2010

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this: that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).”It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel men to receive Him. It is Satan, as well as men actuated by his spirit, who seeks to compel the conscience. Under a pretense of zeal for righteousness, men who are confederate with evil angels bring suffering upon their fellow men, in order to convert them to their ideas of religion; but Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win through the revealing of His love. He can admit no rival in the soul, nor accept of partial service; but He desires only voluntary service, the willing surrender of the heart under the constraint of love.” (The Desire of Ages, p. 487, emphasis added).

He desires only voluntary service.

Stop and meditate on that for a minute and let it really sink in. I know that in the beginning of many or our journeys, God sought simply to save us from self-destructive behaviors by any means necessary. But after that—I am fully convinced—God would have us grow into something quite entirely different in nature.

Follow Hosea’s prophecy closely:

“At that time,” declares the Lord, “you will call me, ‘My husband’; you will never again call me, ‘My master’” (Hosea 2:16).

There is a stark contrast between the relationship between a slave and his master and the relationship that exists between spouses. (Or at least there should be.) But it truly gives us something here to reflect on:

We place so much emphasis on obedience that sometimes we forget that, if obedience were all God wanted, all would be easy! Flood the world, send fire down from Heaven, threaten with plagues—or, even better, with eternal destruction! The obedience of many—not all, but many—would be guaranteed! But we have misunderstood all of these signs. God wants more than our obedience. He desires our love.

As much as I respect other religions, no other God in any other religion wants our love. They want our obedience and our service, but no other God wants love. And thus, how we go about sharing Him with this world must be dramatically different. As a church, we are part of something much different than we have realized. We have been chosen as ambassadors of reconciliation to win the hearts of humanity back for God through the revelation of our unique understanding of His love for this world.

Non-compulsory, voluntary service and love: To choose Him in an environment where we are truly free to choose anything else. Then—and only then—will there be assurance that rebellion will never break out in the universe again.

“Take from among you a contribution to the Lord; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the Lord’s contribution” (Exodus 35:5, emphasis added).

I wish you God’s best this week.