Conditional Lovers Capable of Unconditional Loving

So many people view their relationships as conditional ones..

Maybe that's why they sometimes don't work very well.

Now I know that we can't hold people to a unrealistic standard of unconditional love by their own power, but I think we do need to learn to live in the tension between believing the best in someone and knowing the evil humans are capable of. We don't deny fallen man, but we must believe that we all have an inherent good and are all possible of divine transformation.

When we don't believe that people have the possibility of good, we set them up for failure; in doing so we also set ourselves up for failure. By not believing the best in people we don't give them our best. We set ourselves up for failure because when we don't see the potential for good in someone we forget Who's image they're created in. We judge based on their fallenness, not the perfectly capable transforming grace of God.

When it comes to man's potential of greater living, there is something different inside the redeemed. All people are capable of good despite the fact that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and this because we are all created in the image of the Creator. All He is is good, so everyone is capable of good. The difference for the redeemed is that our weakness, which is conditional loving, is able to be infused with the unconditional love of Christ. So we as followers of Christ are capable of a higher and deeper and greater love than those without Jesus. Like I said before, no one is capable of loving unconditionally on their own, but we as the redeemed aren't alone. And as we recognize our imperfect love and admit our need for something greater, we give Christ the space to fill us with His love to transform the world around us.

We are conditional in our relationships because we are not perfect, but we are also called to strive with every ounce of our being to be unconditional in our loving.

So despite knowing we are weak on our own..

May we not hold back the unconditional love that we are capable of with the help of Christ in us.

May we go out of our way this week to put others above ourselves.

May we look to Him for strength and for Him to pour into us His perfect love.

May we outdo each other in showing honor.

"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." - Romans 12:9-10

On Mission

I'm on mission in Chicago this week w/ 16 others!

For more details follow what's goin on here:

http://www.chicag09.blogspot.com/

Better Communication For Heart Transformation

Jesus loves you!!

Ever been told this?

Ever heard someone say it to someone else?

I've heard it shouted by street preachers to people on the street in many different cities. I've heard it at a lot of different outreach events that church's put on. I've read the signs on the side of the road on my way to Ohio and back.

I think it's incredibly true that Jesus loves you and me. It's probably the truest thing about us; but I got to thinking about it a few weeks ago and I think I realized something..

Here are my thoughts:

People's view of what love is often directly relates to how they have experienced it.

And so our job as Christians is yes, to share that Jesus loves, but even more specifically, to get across the life changing difference between fallen love and divine love. We have to convey to the world what separates the two.

We must correctly communicate what real love is, otherwise our efforts of portraying the unending, life changing love of Christ, face the threat of falling on deaf ears. Our words have no weight unless we use truth to infuse and alter the worlds distorted view of love.

How can we expect the world to understand a love they've never seen? We must recognize that this world has their own view of what love is and that it's often in opposition to that of Christ's. People usually view love in the way it is shown by the significant people in their life.

And so if that important person in one's life has not shown them an accurate love, then that's often how they are going to view the way the rest of the world will treat them. When key figures in peoples lives inaccurately depict love, then that's usually what people think love actually is. And so when we tell the world that Jesus loves them, I would tend to assume that their response would be something like "yeah well I have had plenty of people that I thought that loved me screw me over too many times, so why would I get excited when you tell me that Jesus loves me? How can I give myself over to love when all love has done is broken my heart time and time again?"

Or something along those lines, you name it.

"If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need by shows no compassion; how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each either; let us show the truth by our actions." - 1st John 3:17-18

We must communicate true love, the love that was broken and poured out so that we could have life to the full. We must do so with our words, but often even more importantly, with our actions.

The most effective way of communicating something is often done so when it's lived out. So the even greater challenge of depicting the love of Christ is then to show the world by our lives, not just our words, what it actually looks like to love like Christ. And following that then, we will get to see the miracle that takes place inside someone when they understand just a glimpse of the intensity of the love that Christ loves us with.

His love wrecks worlds, it completely alters the course of one's life forever.

So what is love? How does the worlds love differ from Christ's?

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." - 1st Corinthians 13:4-8

"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him." - Romans 5:6-8 (MSG)

Real love is what really changes the world.

Let's be better at sharing exactly what that is.

Jump Around

GSM Staff - Jumping Around from Jeffrey Myers on Vimeo.

Camp counselors we need you!

Altering Views: A Conversation With A Friend

Below is a texting conversation I had a few weeks ago with a dear friend. They said it was ok to tell you about it and I thought it was pretty cool so I wanna share it with you.

I know I might not have had the best answers on the spot, but to see that hope is found when someone's view is altered is an absolute beautiful thing. It's amazing to see someone's life change after more truth is understood. 

It excites me deeply.

Here we go:

Friend: Hey you busy?

Seth: I'm at the airport why?

Friend: Oh snap. Where you goin? I have a question.

Seth: I'm picking someone up, whats up?

Friend: So I'm still struggling with my whole church and God thing.

And so, if you screw up, does God work with like: the more you screw up the worse off things get? and the better you are, the better things are gonna be? Like is there some weird form of punishment for screwing up?

Seth: No, thats called karma. God is faithful despite our unfaithfulness. His love for us is not based on reciprocity. Our mistakes are never bigger than His grace. As long as your heart continually seeking Him through your mistakes, He will still let you find Him.

Friend: What if your heart is on and off and confused?

Seth: Read 1st John 3:19-21..let me know what you think of the verse with what your question to me was.

("By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God")

Friend: sorry, I think I'm confused..

Seth: with what?

Friend: God laid down His life for us knowing everything and our hearts and He's greater than our hearts and He's greater than our hearts and He still loves us..Is that what I'm supposed to get?

Seth: Yes

Friend: So He laid down His life which means He loves us knowing we would screw up and be confused and have on and off hearts and not know what we want?

Seth: Yes! And He loves us FULLY despite all those things. He is God, He knows and understands better than us what we are gonna struggle with.

Friend: And how do you just accept this? And know it's true? I realize that may be a dumb question.

Seth: Its not a dumb question. I look at creation and know there is a higher power, I know what i feel in my heart and everything else ive experienced after giving up and admitting my weakness to Him for Him to fill me with His strength. I figure that the One who created me knows how i'm supposed to live in order to best operate. I attribute it all to God, and after reading the book, I know the Bible is God's love letter to this world. And so that verse even means that He's got my back whether I believe or feel that He is even real or not.

Friend: I dont understand love like that. (this line got me..to me this meant that I was communicating the inconceivable love of God in some form of the right way!)

Seth: You never will, your not fully supposed to. But isnt it truly amazing!

Friend: Yeah it is. I'm just confused and everything seems to be a mess.

Seth: Seek to know more and more the amazingness of that love and let yourself be swallowed up in it. Everything else will fail in comparison..

Friend: I dont get it

Seth: I think your relationship with God has everything to do with how you view Him, how you view His nature. Let this new view shape how you talk to Him. How you live.

Friend: And you do this how? Cuz if youre looking for honesty, my relationship with God has gone to complete crap in the past few months.

Seth: Gods faithfulness to you is not based on whether or not youre faithful. He loves you fully now. He always has and always will. Does that not excite you?

Friend: Yeah it does. Its just that every love in my life has been based on an "if" and has been unstable so I dont know.

Seth: Well this love will change your life for forever, but only if you let it. My friend, I beg you to let it. He's the one who created love, He is love, in its truest form..and He is unfailing.

Friend: It's not like i dont want to. I just dont know how.

Seth: Let this little understanding of love like youve never seen fuel you to base your life around it. Let it make you want to love Him back. And when your doing that He will guide you and lead you.

Friend: yeah that makes sense. Thanks seth. Sorry my question turned into crazy ha ha

Seth: your good friend. I'm so glad you can be open with me. I hope that I have been of some help. Know your loved and cared for beyond what you can imagine. And know I'm praying for you

Friend: thanks pal, I miss you.

Seth: Thank you friend. Your awesome.

Friend: actually you are.

Father have mercy on me, grant me grace, and lead me in Your truth as I continue to converse in the future with this friend and others. 

For Your glory.

Friend You are loved..

From the Show

So a couple of days ago I got to open up for the band "Everyday Sunday".

Two of my good friends Riley Robbins and Brendan Sweeney joined me in the goodness of the 4 songs we got to play. 

Let me tell you that many distractions hit us that day! None of us had ever all played together until that day, and we also learned one of the songs the night before. We got there late and barely had time to sound check. And along with some other miscommunication and some other stuff that came up, there were a few times that we seriously thought we weren't even gonna get to play, ha ha. But we pulled it off and it was so much fun!

Here are some joyous pictures.