During Outreach Phase of DTS we
went to 3 places. In each place God
taught me a new lesson. When I look back
however I see how all 3 lessons relate in someway.
This is the third lesson I learned,
during the third part of outreach in Nepal.
The first was on the importance of abiding in Jesus so I can produce
fruit that is good (John 15:1-17). The
second lesson was about how I abide, through devotion. This third one will talk about the fruit that
should come from abiding in Christ, which for me is PERFECT LOVE!
As we were flying to Nepal and I
was praying to God about an specific thing He had for me in Nepal I got the
word “EVERYONE.” I asked God what that
meant and He spoke to my heart, “I want you to love EVERYONE on this trip,
regardless of how they treat you or what they are like.” “I want you to love
every person I put before you, no matter who they are.” I’d like to say I did love everyone like He
asked. While sometimes I did,
unfortunately sometimes I messed up.
Still, I learned something from every situation and this is what I will
share in this blog.
WHAT
IS LOVE?
Love is pretty important. The world love is mentioned over 538 times in
the bible. In 1 Corinthians 13 it says
that, “love is the greatest.” The first
fruit mentioned in the Fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). Jesus taught us to “love” our enemies. The greatest commandment is about “loving”
God and the second is about “loving” others.
In 1 John 4:7-21, it talks about
how “love comes from God.” “God is love.” “God shows us love through His Son.” “That
we need to love others because God loved us.” In verse 12 it shows that all
people can see God on this earth when they witness true acts of humble,
authentic, love.
So how can I access this “perfect
love?” Well, the way I understand it is
by abiding in Christ. When I do this I
gain access through the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ (vs 13-17).
As I taught this lesson I used the
example of me giving my iPhone to someone as a gift. Not many Nepali people have smartphones,
especially in the rural villages so this analogy worked great. I asked the student to turn it on but she
didn’t know how. Then I asked her if she
would like to learn how to use it? She
said yes and I asked her ways she could learn. Examples given by the students
were to contact the creator of the phone, go to the store and ask a
representative to help, ask me or another person or friend who already had
experience using one, or read the instruction manual. Then I said “The more you use your smart
phone the better you will get at knowing how to handle it.”
Learning how to use perfect love is
the same as learning how to use a new smartphone for the first time. We don’t know how to love perfectly until we ask
the Creator of perfect love, God, to show us.
We can also go to church and learn from pastors and elders. We can ask our veteran Christian friends to
help us understand and pray for us.
Lastly we can learn by reading the bible. The more we love others, even our enemies,
the easier it will get to truly love others with humble, authentic love.
WHAT
I LEARNED ABOUT LOVE AND CONFLICT
· *When I only point out the flaws in people it only
makes their flaws greater in my eyes and sets people up for failure.
· *When I only point out the flaws by being
critical of others, it prevents love from happening because fear, anger, and
hate fill the heart of the one being criticized.
· *Perfect love is loving someone regardless of
their flaws and patiently helping them get on track.
· *Perfect love gently rebukes the flaws and boldly
proclaims the strengths.
· *Perfect love is gracious remembering all life
has value. It treats all life that with
value, even if the wrongdoer doesn’t repent.
It remembers I too am a sinner in need of saving grace.
· *Perfect love restores.
· *Perfect love pleases God and gives me
confidence.
· *Perfect love is not prideful.
· *Asking for help doesn’t make a person weak. It actually makes them better because it
humbles them and gives them the chance to be blessed and learn from
others. By doing this that person asking
for help grows in wisdom and humility.
They can learn to do things the right way; the first time.
CONCLUSION
Things in
this world are constantly going to let me down or break my heart. Some of those things will be things that
break God’s heart like injustice, abuse, or lostness. Other things will be things that try and
distract me from God, like a break-up, a broken friendship, consequences from
bad choices I make, or abandonment and rejection from friends and family. I can’t fix my heart. I can try to super glue the pieces back
together but it will never be whole again.
When I abide in Christ, and trust Him, then He will give me a new heart
with the capacity to love and trust again.
Love is perfected
the more I show genuine love to others. Love
is perfected the deeper I abide in Christ and the more I am devoted to Christ because
love abides in God. When I tap into
God’s love by spending time with Him, the love I give is made perfect because
God is perfect. God created love and He
should always be the example I look to when giving love. He should always be the refuel station I go
to when my love tank is running dry.
*********To read about the DTS outreach in Nepal click here.
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