Have you ever been in a place of darkness in your life?  Where it feels like you have fallen to the bottom of a well?  You look up and see the sliver of light, but It seems so far away.  It seems impossible to reach as the walls are pressing in and the the darkness surrounds you.  You want desperately to climb out of it, but don’t know how.

I have been there.  I have been in that well.

One choice lead to another. That lead to another. And another. And before I knew it, I was in the darkest hour of my life.

It was in this hour of darkness that God reached down to me.

This is the God I worship and love.  A God that reaches into the pit and with all of His love and all of His mercy, shows a way out.

God is love.

When I first came out of this period of darkness, I found comfort when I read about how He ministered to the people that the religious people of the time deemed unworthy of love.  He came to the earth in the form of man and showed love to those who were deemed unlovable. He cared for the broken and the hurting.

When I think of those “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets, that is what I think of. That is what Jesus did.  He loved the broken people.

And if He loved them, then He had to love me.  Right?

But some people did not like the way that Jesus loved others.  The people He chose to interact with offended some.  The Pharisees and the Saducees, the religious leaders of the time, could not see who Jesus was because they were blinded by their laws and their rules.

The notion of who they believed Jesus would be blinded them to who He really was.

God is love.

They believed He was supposed to be a great King who would ride in all of His glory striking down those who went against Him.

But instead, He was born in a manger.  He was not of wealth, or great social status.  He was the son of a carpenter.

He was the son of a carpenter who befriended the lowest of the low.  He hung out with women – and not just any women.  Adulteresses and prostitutes.

He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well.  A woman that nobody would be seen with.

He called twelve men to follow Him intimately, as His disciples.  Fisherman.  Tax collectors.  Someone He knew would betray Him with a betrayal that would lead to His death.  These are the men He broke bread with. These are the men whose feet He washed.  These people were not important people in their community. They were not the religious leaders in the church.

He healed people with leprosy, bleeding disorders and other ailments.

He loved all people.  Not just in word, but in action.

God is love.

John 8:3-11 states:

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.  Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”  This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.  And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

This is Jesus.  This is God who came to earth. Fully man. Fully God.  This is the God who pulled me out of the well.

God is love.

As Christians, we are called to show the love of Christ to those around us.  As I mentioned before, remember those “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets that were popular in the 90s?  I realize I am completely dating myself, but let’s think about that.

What would Jesus do?

Looks to me like He would love the people that the religious leaders of the time deem unworthy. Looks to me like He would minister to the hurting. Looks to me like He would enter into deep relationships with people and point them to the One who loves them most of all.

I wonder what people see when they see Christians today? Do they see Jesus in us? Do we minister to people in their pain and suffering and point them to a God who loves them?

We are to love. God makes that perfectly clear. That is the greatest commandment He gives us. Above all else.  Love.

When I was in my darkest hour, it was not shame and condemnation that brought me to my knees. It was love. God’s love.

God is love.

When I picture Jesus here today, I picture him with homosexuals and the women at abortion clinics. I don’t picture Him with picket signs. I picture Him with His arms around people. I picture Him loving them – just as He loves us all.

I picture Him saying, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

I wonder what twelve people Jesus would call by His side today? I bet it would not be who we expect.

I want to love like Jesus loved. As a Christian, I want people to see Christ in me. I want to stand up for what matters. Justice. Mercy. Love.

I don’t want to live a life of judgment. And that includes me not judging other Christians as well. We all have our junk that we need to work through. Every single one of us. I mess up daily. There is a lot in my life that needs worked out in my faith, with fear and trembling.

But as I work these things out, I know God is with me. I know He loves me. I know He is patient with me.

God is love.

What would Jesus do? I don’t think He would get hung up on the color of coffee cups. I don’t think He would speak hateful words against groups of people.

I think, like the Saducees and Pharisees, it’s so easy to be blinded by our rules and laws. But we need to be careful that we don’t become too much like the Saducees and Pharisees. They were so blinded by their laws that they could not see God in the flesh before them. They hung Him on a tree to die.

Don’t get me wrong. God does have commandments. God does call us to obedience. There are consequences for stepping out of His will. This is all true. God is just.

But, I don’t see the Bible as just a book of rules to follow. It is so much more than that. I see the Bible as a love story. He is calling His people back to Him. He came here and He died, a horrific death, on a cross, for us. He showed us how He calls us to love. As Christ loved.

God is love.

He saved my life. He pulled me out of the well. And now, He has called me to love others as He has loved me. And that is why I love Jesus and homosexuals and women at abortion clinics – and that is why I am not going to waste my time worrying about the color of a coffee cup.  There is so much more in this broken world for me to be concerned with than that.

 

Scripture to meditate on: 

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:16

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8

1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.