Where is your treasure?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34

Where is your treasure? Or in other words, where is your money? What do you spend it on? And in a society where time is also valuable, what do you spend your time on?

Because that will say a lot about where your heart is. Where your priorities are, what your focus is.

In a society where a lot of our time is spent earning money, and that money is then spent on ourselves, I'm not sure that says anything good about our hearts.

Plenty of people will right about now be saying, 'But I earn money to support my family - that's where my heart is.' True, and that's not wrong but I would like to challenge a lot if people to think about the lifestyle they are paying for and whether that is really what their family needs?

My instinct is to tread carefully here, to not upset anyone or make anyone feel bad about earning money or having nice things.

But then another part of me - an increasingly stronger part - starts to feel sick at the disgusting excess in our culture. The selfish state of our lives and hearts. The hypocritical political correctness that prevents us from talking about money while so many suffer.

We are storing up treasures for ourselves here on earth, like that is going to get us somewhere.

'Planning for the future' is not even an excuse. Because most of us are doing it out of fear, the opposite of trusting God - I need my money. I need to take care of me, or who else will?

We spend our time and money on ourselves, on gluttonous businesses without regard for those trampled on to supply them, on building up our wealthy, secure indulgent lives...

We have no time left over for real community. For giving generously to others. For lavishing love. For nurturing relationships.

Where are we storing up our treasure? Is your heart focused on yourself or the kingdom of God?

Don't be afraid. Don't conform to what is expected in our self-centred society. Don't justify or make excuses. Examine yourself. Make room in your heart and life for the ways of God, no matter the sacrifice of time, money or desires for yourself and see the heavenly results. You might just have a change of heart....




Don’t reduce your life to the pursuit of food and drink; don’t let your mind be filled with anxiety. People of the world who don’t know God pursue these things, but you have a Father caring for you, a Father who knows all your needs.
Since you don’t need to worry—about security and safety, about food and clothing— then pursue God’s kingdom first and foremost, and these other things will come to you as well.
My little flock, don’t be afraid. God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom.
That means you can sell your possessions and give generously to the poor. You can have a different kind of savings plan:one that never depreciates, one that never defaults, one that can’t be plundered by crooks or destroyed by natural calamities.

Your treasure will be stored in the heavens, and since your treasure is there, your heart will be lodged there as well.

I’m not just talking theory. There is urgency in all this.

Luke 12:29-36

Faith Muscle Rehabilitation

If anyone has been bed ridden or sedentary after a long illness or bad injury, often they will need some sort of physiotherapy to rehabilitate their muscles. After not being used, muscles atrophy and it can be difficult to make them function normally and with any degree of strength again. I noticed it when I was pregnant and had a long bout of morning sickness that left me bed ridden for a couple of months. Afterwards I found it difficult to do even simple things because my legs were so weak, let alone more strenuous exercise. I didn't do much in particular to strengthen my muscles again due to a combination of laziness and preoccupation with a new baby, but I probably should have. It's taken the better part of a year to feel back to normal, whereas with proper exercises and training it may have only taken a couple of months.

Our faith & love muscles have atrophied. I feel like I'm harping on about the negatives of the western world, but I think out insulated lives have a lot to answer for when it comes to our faith, or lack of it.

I'm not discounting anyone's suffering - there's a lot of very real pain no matter where you are in the world. I just mean that there's a lot we can turn to and rely on before we consider God as our best and only option. It's very easy and all too tempting to become self centred, for life to become all about us and how people treat us, and what others do for us.

We don't have all that much opportunity to exercise our faith and love. Not in real, deep, til-it-hurts kinds of ways. Our faith and love are languishing and need some rehabilitation. We need to start actively seeking ways to use them, and it needs to go beyond the day to day.

Sure, buy someone some flowers. That's nice. But it will be a long slow road to powerful love if that's the extent of our exercise.

If we want real change, real heart revival, real and powerful faith, we need a bit of hardcore physiotherapy. Something that extends us, challenges us, maybe even hurts a little.

Jesus didn't go around giving people flowers and writing get well cards. He healed them.

'They'll know we are Christians by our love' doesn't mean 'by how nice we are'. The love of God goes hand in hand with power.

We need to exercise the love of God in us - we are not meant to be so weak and feeble when it comes to faith and love. And we can't do it alone either. The body is meant to work together. The hand can't move without the arm. What use is a strong foot without a strong leg?

Time for some serious love rehab.

No box is big enough

A thought occurred to me last night, as I lay in bed talking to God. I felt that God was close to me, that I could talk to him one on one, with his full attention. Then I imagined everyone else in the world. The billions of people who could also be talking to God at the same time, with this same full attention.

Just think about that for a moment. A being who can be everywhere at once, and not be diminished at all. Who can talk to you intimately like a loving Father while also doing this for billions of others, but never being diminished or distracted or too busy.

It's hard to wrap your mind around. If we are talking to one person while trying to listen to another conversation, we can barely take in any of it.

And while there is so much in that about God as Father and how loving he is, and how we can have such an intimate relationship with him...none of that is unimportant or trivial. But the thing that occurred to me last night was, how can I possible ever think I've got God figured out?

We can know more and more of Him, but we are barely scratching the surface.

Yet we continue to try and fit God into a neat box so we can manage Him. And if he does something that makes Him not fit into that box any more, we just recalculate and decide that we just need a bigger box.

But no box will ever be big enough. He is outside of the time and space, beyond anything our earthly minds can comprehend.

If I can't even understand how it's possible that He is even talking to me, then how can I suppose I know and can fit into neat boxes who he is and what he will do?

And yet, by His spirit to ours, He gives us glimpses of things greater than natural life. He does make it possible for us to know Him. Bit by bit, the more we spend time with Him, the more He can reveal His glory, the more we have life by the spirit, and the natural things no longer bind us. We begin to live and know more than is naturally possible, by His spirit.

If we are only willing to accept and know God as much as we can understand Him or define Him, we are missing out on so, so, so much.

How small is our God if we allow Him to be only what we can comprehend? If we allow Him to act in only ways we could have thought of for ourselves?

Don't just look for a bigger box to contain Him, trust that if you stop trying to work Him out, He will supernaturally make himself known to you.

You might think it will be scary or confusing if you let go of the box and allow Him to live in you - in us, His house, His church - in whatever way He wants. But in God you will find so much love and so much grace - you will find so much divine peace that it completely passes all understanding!

For the big and the small

My daughter just had her 4 month old vaccinations. Never mind that she is already 5 months, and we were a month late. This post is not really about me being a slack parent...

On the morning of the day we had to take her in to get the needles, I said to my husband, "I wish I could have them for her."

You see, watching my happy little daughter's face register shock and hurt and break into tears as two nurses jab her in the legs is heart breaking. Because of her pain, and because she doesn't understand what is happening. So I wish I could take it for her, and she still receive the health protecting benefits.

And that made me think about what Jesus took for us. He took a whole lot more than a little physical pain for us, so that we didn't have to feel it, experience the pain and consequences or be separated from God. And we received the benefit.

But even though in our heads we know that is true, most often when we talk about Jesus taking all of our sins, but we focus on the obvious. (And we have a hard enough time accepting that)

Sometimes when feel like we've got what Jesus did we accept that counts for the big stuff - the 'big, ugly sins'... the ones that practically stand up and shout "I'm a SIN!" You know, murder. And maybe he was talking about lying, and cheating, and swearing at people...those obvious things.

But something stops us really accepting that Jesus actually took everything. Everything. The big, the little, the obvious, the subtle. He cares about the big and the little of our lives.

He died for every mean thought. Every careless word. Every selfish action. Every rebellious moment. Every impatient foot tap. Every tear-filled argument.

He cares about every moment that you don't feel peace. Every moment you lack joy. Every moment someone is unkind. Every moment you feel a twinge of anxiety.

It's not just the big.

We sometimes think that God cares about the big stuff that He knows we can't do on our own. But we feel like the little stuff, well shouldn't we be able to manage that ourselves? Why would God spend time on our little things - we just have to get on with it.

And so we struggle on with things that we think are too little for anyone to care about, and feel bad when we still struggle...when things end up being harder than we think they should be... we things hurt and we just try to get over it...we feel like we shouldn't struggle with it, so we pretend we don't.

My daughter's vaccination is a small thing. It is over in 10 seconds, and with a bit of comforting she is soon fine. If I - a slack, imperfect human parent - can feel so much compassion over a relatively tiny thing, if my heart breaks at her few moments of confusion and pain, then how much more will the perfect God who IS love, feel love and compassion over our 'tiny' things. Our 'little' struggles. Our confusion and hurt. Our moments of disappointment. Our minute of sadness.

I can't take my daughter's vaccination for her, because then I would be getting the immunity and she would still be unprotected.

But the thing is,  God can take it for us, and we still receive the benefit. Jesus bore every burden and all our suffering, and we received the peace.

So don't just wait to cry out to Him once the weight of your life has become unbearable. Every moment of your life, reach out for the love He has lavished on us. Take hold of His peace and joy.

Think of the love of a mother for her baby. Then multiply that by infinity and I don't think you've even come close to how much God loves you.

God cares about every. single. moment of your life. He bore every. single. burden for you - and you get the supernatural, life preserving benefit.

God Doesn't Play Limbo

He'd dominate celebrity heads, and may or may not play monopoly, but God doesn't play limbo.

Seeing how low we can set the bar and still get away with it purely the domain of us humans.

How little housework can I do and get away with it.

What's the least amount of time I have to spend on others, and still be seen as a good person.

What's the least amount of work I can do, and still get paid / pass this course / be liked...

When I was in Uni I remember going over the English assignments and exams I had for the year, and calculating exactly how few books I would have to read off the syllabus and the minimum marks on each I would need to still pass the course.

I'm not saying everyone does this with everything, but I think most people do it at some point, with something. And even if we conquer this habit, we frequently transfer this human mindset on to our perception of God.

Sure God wants to heal us, but he's going to get away with as little healing as possible... so I won't ask for or expect too much. Just make me a feel a little bit better for today, ok?

Sure God loves us, but He's going to see how little He can get away with showing it, and still have us appreciate Him. So I'll try and be good, and hope I get a bit of that love.

Sure God cares about us, but probably can't be bothered doing too much for me, so I'll only bother him with the big stuff that I can't handle myself.

Sure God can do miracles, but he'll just see how little he can get away with and still impress us, so maybe if you just... help me find my lost keys? That'll do. 

It kind of seems ridiculous when you lay it out, that we expect so little from God, the One who spoke the expansiveness and diversity of the universe into being, who created us with His own hands, who breathed life into us, who sent His son to die for us and save us, sinners,  from death.

Why would he love us so lavishly, to then just sit back and leave us to our own devices, only helping us out if we ask really nicely?

That's the sort of thing we do, in our weakness - give a good effort and then hope that will tide us over with people for a while. 

But God doesnt get tired or jaded like us. He's not selfish or bitter. Hes not about half hearted or the bare minimum.

No. God has lavished His love on us

The greek word is Perisseuo - "exceeding the requirements, of overflowing or overdoing. It means to exceed a fixed number of measure, to be left over and above a certain number or measure. It means to have or to be more than enough, to be extremely rich or abundant. To exceed or remain over (as used in loaves left over after feeding the 5000 [Mt 14:20]! When Jesus supplies there is more than enough so that some is even left over! How quick we are to forget this basic principle!) The idea is to overflow like a river out of its banks!"

He's not trying to see how little He can do for us and get us to still love Him. No, he wants to give lavishly, more than we can imagine, far more than we deserve. He's challenging us every day, not to see how much we will do without, but how much more we will have the faith to ask for.

We mostly have no idea of the love, blessings, power and grace God wants to give you, so we don't really know how to ask for it.

If this is you, if you have been putting human limits on our all powerful God, setting the bar low on your spiritual life, its time to expect more.

Seek more of God, ask God to raise the bar.

I think if we all learn to let go of our self imposed limits on who God is and what He wants to do, we will be overwhelmed by how lavish He will be!!

I want people to look at me and say "God is real!"

The prophets of Baal put on an impressive display. But in the end, nothing happened. (1 Kings 18)

Elijah did the opposite, and God showed up. The people didnt look at Elijah and say, "Wow, what a powerful guy", they said "Your Lord really is God!"

I want people to look at me and say "God is real!"

Not, "Your religion seems to make you happy" or "that's nice that you have God to help you out", but "God is real!"

I want there to be no other explanation for my life.

I'm a long way from that being the case right now, but I want it to be, no matter what that means, no matter what it costs.

I'm might be afraid and shy and tired and lacking any real knowledge of how to go about this, but I want this. For me. For you. For the Church.

I want people to look at us and say "God is real! How can I know Him too?"

Don't you?

My heart breaks

I'm not even sure how I went down this path... I think I happened to see in my blog stats that I had an inordinate number of hits from Romania one day. I don't know why.

And then that reminded me of when I was a child, I wanted to grow up and go and work in Romanian orphanages. I'd forgotten about that. I couldn't even remember why my child-self even specified Romania?

So I googled it. And discovered that the plight of orphans in Romania was big news at the beginning of the 90s, when I was a child, so that must have been why I heard about it. I never knew that until now.

And then I read more. And maybe I shouldn't have, but I read more. And I looked a pictures.

And after reading about an orphan who is now in his twenties, but never recovered developmentally after being mostly alone in a cot for the first year of his life.... I wept.

I'm still crying now. At some points I can barely see the screen through my tears.

I just thought of my own daughter, how joyfully she smiles back at me, her little hands reaching and touching, her little face in concentration as she learns and develops every day, as she looks into my face as I talk to her and sing to her.

And I think of how I get sad if she has to cry for one minute, and how I worry about if she's getting everything she needs, if I'm giving her everything I possibly can.

The thought of children not having this, not even having one person to hold them and smile at them and touch them. I can hardly bear the thought of it.

There are still children in institutions around the world today. This is still happening. Tiny babies with no-one to love them and hold them.

And at the same time as it makes me cry out inside, "We have to do something!", it paralyses me.

What do we do about it? How can we do something?

I just want to go to them and love them and hold them.

And if I, a flawed human, can feel this much grief and love for them, I can only imagine how God feels towards them.

All this makes it painfully obvious to me that I am lacking any sort of practical knowledge of how to make a difference in the world. A difference that really counts.

Before this I thought of myself as compassionate and charitably-minded. But what am I really doing? This goes deeper than just giving a bit of money, or going on a volunteer-holiday. I don't even know how to help people in my own city, let alone the world. I call myself a follower of Jesus, and yet I walk past the charities outside supermarkets looking the other way, hoping they won't stop me.

If we really got the reality of what the world is like beyond our comfortable doorsteps, of how so many people actually live, how could we continue to spend everything on ourselves and live just for ourselves without feeling sick to our stomachs at the injustice?!

We don't get it, obviously. Our senses have been dulled by the overdose of comfortable living. We think hunger is when we skipped breakfast and had to wait for our lunch. We think poor is not being able to have a Playstation AND an Xbox. We think lonely is when only 1 person likes our Facebook status.

I don't blame you. I don't blame you even if you read this blog post and it stirs nothing, if you feel nothing. Apathy is the devil's favourite game, and he's perfected it. We've all been shrouded in the fog of indifference, and believed that it is normal life; that the sum of the gospel is that Jesus died to make us comfortable. I don't blame you - but be challenged.

Think about how much you care for your own family, your own children. We should be loving everyone that much, and more.

We need new hearts. Bigger hearts. We need God's heart in place of ours.

I don't know what to do with this heart break right now, other than to pray. To pray that God wakes us up and sends us out with His love and His heart and His Spirit. And to pray and trust that God comforts his hurting children until we get there.



***

Jesus: You’d better be on your guard against any type of greed, for a person’s life is not about having a lot of possessions.

A wealthy man owned some land that produced a huge harvest. He often thought to himself, “I have a problem here. I don’t have anywhere to store all my crops. What should I do? I know! I’ll tear down my small barns and build even bigger ones, and then I’ll have plenty of storage space for my grain and all my other goods. Then I’ll be able to say to myself, ‘I have it made! I can relax and take it easy for years! So I’ll just sit back, eat, drink, and have a good time!’”

Then God interrupted the man’s conversation with himself. “Excuse Me, Mr. Brilliant, but your time has come. Tonight you will die. Now who will enjoy everything you’ve earned and saved?”

This is how it will be for people who accumulate huge assets for themselves but have no assets in relation to God.

Think about those crows flying over there: do they plant and harvest crops? Do they own silos or barns?.....Remember that you are more precious to God than birds!

....If God takes such good care of such transient things, how much more you can depend on God to care for you, weak in faith as you are. Don’t reduce your life to the pursuit of food and drink; don’t let your mind be filled with anxiety....

Since you don’t need to worry—about security and safety, about food and clothing—then pursue God’s kingdom first and foremost, and these other things will come to you as well.

My little flock, don’t be afraid. God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom.

That means you can sell your possessions and give generously to the poor. You can have a different kind of savings plan: one that never depreciates, one that never defaults, one that can’t be plundered by crooks or destroyed by natural calamities. Your treasure will be stored in the heavens, and since your treasure is there, your heart will be lodged there as well.

I’m not just talking theory. There is urgency in all this.

Luke 12
(The Voice)

Don't fool yourself; You're not fooling God

You may have everyone else convinced, by your presence at church on Sunday, even by your closed eyes and raised hands.

But God's not fooled.

We know that God looks not at outward appearances, but at our heart, but somehow we still think if we fake it well enough, if we put up a convincing enough facade, that even God will be fooled into believing that we are 'good Christians'.

But God's not fooled.

No matter how Christian your life looks on the outside, if your heart isn't changed, you are missing out.

And that's the point - God is not scouring the earth for 'fakers' reading to take them down. He is searching, like a shepherd for his lost sheep, to bring you home. He knows that you are missing out on the real fulness, peace and joy to be found by knowing Him. You're missing it because you're too busy pretending you already have it.

Christian is not a synonym for perfect. If anything, it's a synonym for broken and in need of saviour.

Don't hide behind a facade of how you think a Christian is supposed to look, or behind a fear of really letting your guard down in case your life has to change.

If you are attending Church on Sunday to make you feel better about keeping your life exactly as it is the rest of the week, let me assure you - you are missing out! And God isn't fooled by it. He knows where your heart is. 

And he wants it - your heart. All of it. Not just the bit labelled 'Sunday morning'.

Your life will change, but it will be far better than anything you can imagine.

I promise you.

Don't coast through your life until you can 'get to heaven' The Kingdom of God is here now!

Don't be afraid of it. Perfect love casts out fear, and God is that perfect love.

Love with action

I remember watching a man on TV speak about the organisation he founded, a non-profit organisation, caring for thousands of orphaned children around the world. I don't remember the name of the man or the name of the organisation, but what he said stuck with me.

He spoke about a child who died in one of the homes they supported. The organisation provided extra money to the orphanage to cover the funeral expenses and more. And yet four days later the child lay, dead, on a table. No one buried him.

It wasn't their responsibility, they said.

Sometimes it's not a lack of money that's the problem. It's the attitudes. No one buried the child because a dead child wasn't important to them.

The way to change the world doesn't lie simply in the redistribution of wealth. It starts with us; it starts with our hearts.

That's why it's so heart breaking when people have the attitude that one person can't make a difference, so why bother trying. Because it's not the money they don't donate that's the problem, it's that pervasive apathy.

Change the attitudes, and the money follows. Change our viewpoint, and the redistribution of wealth and resources will naturally follow.

What's your viewpoint? What's your attitude? It starts at home - how you treat the people around you, how you view the sick, the weak, the struggling, the lost. If you live all year thinking only of your own happiness and comfort and then send off a cheque to some far away place and think you've done your 'bit' - think again.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18


Make Lent about more than giving up chocolate. Make Easter about more than eating chocolate. Make your life about more than your own happiness.


Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:1-4


If the love of God means anything to you, what are you going to do about it?

Feeling the love...

Valentine's Day came and went with hardly a glance for me...

Because I'm married and my husband loves me every day, because I don't want chocolate anyway, because of my No Shopping Project so I have hardly been in the shops lately, because I can fast forward TV ads on my DVR -  whatever it was, Valentines Day has not been a confronting issue. It barely even registered.

But I remember a time when the day just reminded me of that sinking feeling, that terrible lie, that maybe no one notices me, and no one ever will.

The central issue that never drops off my radar? Love. And I think that's the central issue for everyone, whether Valentine's Day was celebrated with someone, whether it dragged by in loneliness or whether you didn't even think of it - everyone thinks about love, desires it, longs for it, feels it...

So I had a look back over my posts that are on that theme, and you can too, if you feel the need! Because mostly we need reminding, not just that other human beings notice us, but that God loves us utterly and completely, no matter what.

http://www.jessiecostin.com/search/label/Love

More than a Humanitarian

Jesus was moved with compassion for people, and then he did something about it. That is an admirable thing to emulate, to be moved with compassion, to care deeply about the suffering of others and do what is in our power to alleviate it.

What was within Jesus' power was quite significant; it was more than natural power, it was more than running a food drive and handing out blankets; it was supernatural. He healed people, he drove out demons, he raised people to life.

But if it ends at that, that just makes Jesus a humanitarian. A supernaturally gifted humanitarian, but just that.

He was more than that, though. The miracles he performed weren't just to relieve physical suffering. What is the relief of physical pain if the person is still in the dark?

Jesus was all about saving people's lives - but life in the sense of the living word, living waters, the abundant life found when we enter the kingdom of God. The life that is available to experience here and now.

He raised people physically to life, but his whole ministry was pointing people to how to be raised spiritually to life.

As Christians we should of course be in many senses, humanitarians; we should have compassion for people, be moved to help them and care for them. But we should be remembering the ultimate gift we can give people is not physical. Alleviating poverty, or even seeing miraculous works, is not our end goal.

We are not interested in merely an outward imitation of Jesus, but to show how are lives and hearts are truly changed by his love.

Refiner's fire

   I will refine them like silver
   and test them like gold.
(Zechariah 13:9)

Being made pure and refined by God is a beautiful thing. Think of the beauty and value of pure gold and pure silver. Something pure is free from imperfections and blemishes and things to dilute or marr it.

But think of how gold is purified. It may be melted in fire many times over before it is completely free of impurities.

Now, fire. That doesn't seem so pretty. So the actually becoming pure - not so easy. It will mean testing. It will mean the heat will be on. It will mean that a lot of impurities may come to the surface to be removed.

But that's the important part - they will be removed, burned away. And what is left is pure. What is left is you, as God created you to be, without all the junk.

The fire does not destroy you. It does not burn indescriminantly. It only burns away what is not meant to be there. The process of refining is worth the end result.

Every day love

I wrote the other day about love as an order, a command. For Christians it's not an option - we must love others, even our enemies. Because Christ first loved us.

But what does that look like. Knowing we should love, and actually loving are two different things.

Well, it's actually more simple than you think. In the words of old school DC Talk, luv is a verb.

You act it out.

Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.

We often think of that verse in terms of dying for a friend. We say it - would you be willing to die for another person out of love? Like Jesus did.

But Jesus didn't only die for us, he also lived for us. And he lives for us.

Dying for someone out of love is almost a piece of cake compared to actually living for others out of love. Dying you only have to do once. Living is every single day.

What can you do right now to show love? Act it out. Even if you don't feel it, yet.


Peace and joy. (Romans 5:1-11)

Jessie.


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Love - it's an order.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Do you get that?

It is that Romans 5 passage that is what my whole blog hangs on - hence (Romans) five: one - eleven. While we were still sinners... That's what Gods love is like. Completely undeserved, and yet completely unconditional. Would you die to save someone else? Perhaps if it was your closest friend or loved one. What about an enemy? Someone who would never do the same for you? Someone who would be happy that you were dead...

When I asked this of some students, one said, "Will me dying definitely save them, or is there still a chance that I would have died for nothing anyway?"

Good question. Did Jesus die on a guarantee? No - we were still sinners. And we have a choice. That means Jesus died for people who may never even choose to be saved because of it.

That's God love. Risky, bold, extreme, self sacrificing. And if we say we are followers and imitators of Christ, then it's required of us too.

Matthew 22
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love God. Love others. Everything else hangs on this.

And loving your neighbour as yourself? That means seeing others as equal to yourself, in the full understanding of your own sinner status - meaning you are no more or less deserving than anyone else. We are all equally as undeserving.

Matthew 5:43-47
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

It's easy to love those people who love you back. Those people who are nice to you and think you're an awesome person. But anyone can do that.

What about those who don't really care about you. Or those people who despise you? Or actively hate you? Do you love those people too?

Thanks for loving me God, but that's hard. I'll try, I guess, but I can't promise anything...

John 15:9-17
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

So, you want to remain in God's love? Obey His command. What is that?

This is my command: Love each other.

See that little word - command. Yes, I know you physically see it. But do you really get it?

If you were in a group of soldiers in the middle of a war, and a command came through - what would happen if instead of obeying immediately everyone stopped to question it. 'are you sure', 'ok, but that sounds difficult', 'can't we do it later?' Bang, bang, bang. Everyone's dead because they were standing around thinking.

That's what a command is. It's not a suggestion or a 'pretty please, if you get around to it'.

Love each other. It's an order.

John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Love is a big deal. And it's unusual. Real, true love - not simply the warm fuzzy feeling we have towards those who are easy to feel good feelings for. But the intense, consuming love that has no conditions or boundaries.

People will know we are Christians by this kind of love, if we can do it, because that kind of love is what the world is desperately looking for. They'll know it and want it when they see it; the question is, will they see it?

Because I think a lot of us as Christians are walking around desperately still searching for that kind of love ourselves. How can we show it if we don't have it?

We love because He first loved us. First you have to understand and be filled with God's love for you.

Seek Him.




Peace and joy - and all consuming love. (Romans 5:1-11)

Jessie.


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Read more posts at http://www.jessiecostin.com

New 'wear it' Wednesday

This is a whole different kind if Wear It Wednesday, taken from the kind of wear it when something you've done that is wrong or embarrassing is put on display and you have to "wear it".

Appropriately, the urban dictionary informs me, the term also has a meaning to do with drinking - being drunk or hungover.

Appropriate because I used to drink. I used to bringe drink, which is a big part of the reason why I don't drink alcohol at all anymore.

The first reason is because I don't actually like the taste. But that obviously isn't a big enough reason in itself, because I still used to do it.

From year 11 until early in my fourth year of uni, I used to binge drink. In high school it was once every weekend that I could get away with it. By the end, while I was studying in England and traveling in Europe it was as many nights a week as I could get away with.

I was a mess. Frequently I would drink until I was sick, or at least until I made a complete fool of myself. I felt desperate. I thought I wanted to feel something, to feel belonging, to make everything easy and fun - but in reality I wanted to feel nothing. I wanted to feel nothing because that's all I truly believed there was - nothing really worth having. Or nothing real that I was worthy of having.

And so I drank until oblivion would let me forget for a while that I was desperate.

Even though my time living in England has some of the best memories of my life, it was also my lowest point.

It shows you the amazing capability we have as humans to cope and function in a sort of half life, and fool ourselves that it is full.

The saddest thing is that nobody noticed my despair. Nobody did anything about my drinking,, other than to make sure I got home safely. Nobody did anything, because it was normal. I was just another drunk girl who needed to be put in a taxi home. My friends may have found it annoying those times they had to look after me, but that was it. It was normal.

Imagine if I came to church so drunk I couldn't walk straight. I'm pretty sure there'd be a reaction. Depending on the church and the people, it might be a judgmental, unloving reaction - or it might not - but either way there would be a reaction.

And shouldn't there be? Shouldn't it make you think "What is happening in this persons life, their heart, their soul, that they have ended up this way? They need to know the love and freedom that is available! Dont let them miss out and struggle on a minute longer! Love them!"

The thing is, those people don't come into our churches. I didn't. At my worst point I hadn't been to church for years, and even though I was starting to admit to myself I still did believe in God, I wouldn't have set foot in a church. I couldn't. I felt too ashamed. I felt like I would be judged and rejected for my failures.

Maybe I wouldn't have been - there are many welcoming loving churches out there. But there are manny desperate people out there who feel the church is the last place they will find love and acceptance.

So for the first time - because normally I avoid telling people (Christians) the truth about those years of my life - I'm wearing it.

The urban dictionary says wearing it is about being humiliated. Fortunately for me, I know longer feel shame about it. Fortunately for all of us, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Because Jesus already 'wore it'. Everything. All our sins. Every. Single. One.

There is no fear or shame, but love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.

And a desperate world out there who needs what we've got.

God doesnt care about the rules.

Really think about it... Why does God care about sin? Is it because it is just another thing we are screwing up?

I think sometimes we think that's what it's all about. God doesn't want us to sin because he wants us to be good little children who obey the rules.

True, God is perfect and holy - to be God he has to be totally removed from sin. But if you think about it, thats exactly why he doesn't want us to sin - because then we remove ourselves from him.

He's not angry at us because we broke his rules - he is heart broken, and emploring us to come back, to stop turning away. Because he knows how much we are hurting ourselves.

And that's why I think God doesn't care about rules. What he is interested in, rather than us doing all the right things, is us knowing Him. He knows the love and forgiveness he is pouring out on us constantly and he knows that we miss out on that when we sin. Not because God withholds is love like a vindictive teacher who wants to punish a frustrating student.

But because he longs to give love and we are refusing to receive it.

If we realised that everything God has told us about how to live life, the right and wrong things to do, is all there to point us to the way to live in a close relationship with Him - if we looked at it like that, rather than thinking of it as a whole bunch of rules and expectations God burdened us with - we'd be so much better off. The greatest commandment is love God. If you need a rule to live by, aim for that one.

If we could do this, others would start seeing the love that Christianity is meant to be all about.

We wouldn't rank sins anymore, we wouldn't put ourselves above others. We'd be humble and see that whether our sins are telling a 'little white lie' or murdering - it's all a choice to turn away from God. It's all causing us to miss out on the big, crazy, consuming love of God.

That's why God doesn't care about rules like we think he does. He cares about love. A love that consumes and changes us from the inside out. It is all a gift. The biggest, most radical, amazing gift you've ever be offered.

Receive it!

Homosexuality, family & scapegoats?

I don't think homosexuality is the way God intended it. For families.

But also, I don't think an abusive man who torments his wife and children is the way God intended it.

Neither is a selfish and damaged woman who can't fully love her children because she doesn't love herself.

Neither is a weak man who won't step up and take responsibility for his family.

They'll know we are Christians by our ________?

They'll know we are Christians by  our ________?

By our congregation size?

By our happiness?

By our prosperity?

By our fun youth group games?

By our professional standard of lights and smoke machines at church?

By our blog posts?

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Oh, by our love. Really? That's it?

We complicate Christianity a lot more than we should. We add a lot to the Bible in our minds and views and then end up reading it like it was there all along. I think because the enormity and of God is difficult to comprehend, so we like to give Him more boundaries and restrictions ang guidelines.

So then we underestimate it because we've tried to package it and present it so neatly. 

Like love. Seems so basic. And yet it's actually the most important and the most challenging thing of all.

I think that's why God likes to remind us of it so often.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing

 the greatest of these is love

over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind

Love your neighbour as yourself.

love your enemies

Above all, love each other deeply,

let us love one another, for love comes from God.

We love because he first loved us

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

God is love.

Verses:

(John 13:34-35

1 Corinthians 13: 2 &13

Colossians 3:14

Matthew 22: 37 & 39

Luke 6:35

1 Peter 4:8

1 John 4:7 & 19

Romans 5:8

1 John4: 8)

It's simple. But He never said it was easy. 

Chosen, Called by Name

I have a memory of childhood. It's strong and indelible, but at the same time fuzzy at the edges and dream-like as some childhood memories are, floating unmoored to context and circumstance. I can't even remember how old I was, or what I was doing there.

I remember being a big, dark room. It was full of other kids and we were watching a live show about outer space. Like all shows for kids, they called for crowd involvement. Lollies were handed out for answering questions and a few volunteers were called to go up on stage. They got to act in front of a blue screen that made it look like they were flying in the milky way on the video screen.

I wanted to answer a question and get a lolly. No-one picked me. I wanted to volunteer and get to go on the special video. No-one picked me.

It's my earliest memory of that feeling, "Why will no-one choose me? Why don't I ever get picked?"

Without Excuse

I'm always hesitant to write about things that may be opinionated or controversial because I am very aware of my lack of authority or qualifications to talk about theology. The questions I have and topics I don't understand far, far outweigh the minuscule list of things I am sure of.

But I have read a few things lately about the topic of the 'final judgement'. I have not read it yet, but there has been a lot of talk about Rob Bell's book Love Wins and I read a blog by Rachel Held Evans and she discusses similar sorts of things.

There are many things that people question and struggle with, such as what about children who are too young to make a decision? What about people in remote places who have never had the chance to hear the gospel?