| Recently,
when I woke up early, the Lord spoke to me and said "I love you with an
unconditional love, but liking you is another matter."
One of the great truths of the Bible is that God loves us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." (Jn. 3:16). We are told that ". . .God is Love" (1 Jn.4:8). Even little children sing the song "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Yet is knowing that God loves me enough? We hear of abused women that live with their husbands or date boyfriends, not because these men are likable, but because they just love them regardless. They don't love these men because they are lovable, in fact most of them are anything but lovable, and they are certainly not likable, it would be better for these poor women not to be anywhere around these deadbeats. We know that God loves us, not because we are lovable, but because He is love. But does God like us? For example I love myself, I show it in so many ways every day. I take care of myself. I feed, clothe, pamper and comfort myself. When I get up in the morning I wash, eat, dress; all these little acts of self love. My instinct is to put myself first. I remember a number of years ago visiting the Toronto Christian Fellowship. We were waiting outside for the doors to open for the renewal meetings. There was quite a crowd and when the doors opened it was like a stampede to get to the front seats, every man for himself. I remember thinking "Where is the Holy Spirit in all this?" |
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| Friends | I know I love myself, but often I don't
like myself. As someone said, "I love me in me, but I don't love me in
you. So many inconsistent selfish little acts do not contribute to making
me a very nice person. There are people that I love, but don't particularly
like. People that we like, we tend to hang out with, they become our friends.
There are some Christians I don't like enough to spend time with. Most
Christian people love their family, but they don't always like them. Brothers
and sisters often fight and don't get along. Parents are used to seeing
sibling rivalry. Many youngsters get along better with their friends than
they do with their own brothers and sisters. As it's been said, "You can
choose your friends, but you can't choose your family."
I am beginning to realize that it isn't enough just to know that God loves me, but I need to know that He also likes me. So many of us don't seem to have much of a relationship with God. We know that God loves us and yet we often don't feel His presence and friendship. Could it be that, although He still loves us, He doesn't find us that likable, so He doesn't feel inclined to hang out with us too much? Abraham was called . . ."The friend of God" (Jas. 2:23). Friends spend time or hang out together. They share secrets and know what the other thinks. "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things I have heard from My Father I have made known to you" (Jn. 15:14-15?" |
| Best Friends | Vann Lane the children's pastor from Brownsville
Assembly, often says the following when ministering to the children. "Hey!
Mary, can I be your best friend?" "I Guess" or "Sure" she replies. Then
he says, "How can I be your best friend, if you don't know much about me?
Do you know where I live, my telephone number, what I like to eat? etc.?"
When she replies, "No", He says, "Then how can we be best friends? If we
don't know Jesus, His likes and dislikes, how He thinks and how He would
act in certain situations, how can He be our best friend?" The point is
made. When I preach to kids, I often do a scenario about a boy who moved
out of town for a couple of years and then moves back and phones his old
friend. Because the other kid has not communicated with his friend for two
years and doesn't know he is back in town, he does not recognize the voice
on the phone, until his friend tells him his name. But after communicating
a few times he soon recognizes his friend's voice. Have we been out of communication
with our Lord and no longer recognize His voice? "My sheep hear My voice.
. ." (Jn.10:27). We have causal friends and close friends. The Lord desires
to be a close, or our best friend. He wants to cultivate with us a meaningful
relationship.
Most genuine people that are looking to make friends, be it for marriage or lasting friendships, are looking for meaningful relationships. Only shallow, insincere, selfishly ambitious people are looking to take advantage of relationships. Searching to find what they can get out of it, and then when they have achieved their desires they abandon the injured parties. Have you ever noticed that often we can end up really liking someone even though we know that they are a bit of a scoundrel. They may not even be saved, but something about them seems salvageable. We think how great they would be for the Kingdom of God. Yet some "Christians" we can't stand the sight of. I wonder if the Lord likes some people and not others ". . . Jacob I loved, Essau I hated" (Rom 9:13). I know that God loves everybody, but I believe He likes some people more than others and enjoys hanging out with them. ?" |
| Man's Best Friend | It has been said that dogs are a man's best friend.
"Shep" is a very faithful and loving German Shepherd that we have had for
about seven years. Recently he was walking very slow and not playing and
jumping around like he usually does. We thought that he might have a touch
of arthritis, due to the damp weather, so we didn't pay too much attention.
We were also very busy, everybody going in different directions. I returned
from a Pastor's prayer meeting early the other morning and saw him sitting
outside looking forlorn, so I decided that we should take him to the vet.
Then I thought, "It's my daughter's dog, she should be responsible for
him." So I told her to take him to the vet when she returned in the afternoon
from college classes. Unfortunately when she returned, we could not find
him. He had disappeared. It was a Wednesday morning the last time we saw
him. We searched all around and in the woods, but could not find him. I
assumed he was so sick that he took off to die or be alone. It is now the
following Monday and as I am writing this article, someone is calling me,
"Shep is in our back yard lying down." ...... I have now returned to this
article with news. Poor Shep is dead! He must have come out of hiding and
died last night in our back yard. I guess he was a better friend to us
than we were to Him. We neglected Shep in his hour of need.
Do we neglect God? Are we too busy with our lives, our jobs, our families, our ministries, to develop a friendship with our loving Father and His son Jesus? Are we too busy with our own interests that we haven't paid enough attention to His interests? ?" |
| Negative People | I don't know about you, but I don't like being around negative
people. If I get negative and whiny, I don't even like being around myself.
I saw a English T.V. sitcom recently where an elderly man wanted to marry
an elderly women. "I don't know why you would want to live with me?" she
said, "I can't even live with myself." When we get negative and began to
gripe and complain, does God back off and leave us to stew in our own juice
until we come around? When the children of Israel through their unbelief,
griped and complained in the wilderness, God left them to perish and they
never entered into the promised land. Today, I think that the least He will
do is to break fellowship with us, not covenant, but fellowship. The Lord
is looking for friendship with His people. He wants to fellowship with us.
He wants to delight in us. It's more than having our sins forgiven and knowing
that we are saved, it's being friends. It's enjoying one another and looking
after each other's interests.
What can we do for God to like us? 1. Stop abusing Him, by being negative and discontent. 2. Talk to Him and tell Him how wonderful He is. 3. Tell Him how happy you are with the way He has
made you and how
4. When you are going through trials, tell Him that
your situation is
5. Don't try to change your situation, He brought
about your situation to
6. In everything give thanks" (1 Thes.5:18). 7. Agree with God and stop arguing with Him. "Enoch
walked with God"
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