Love

I came across a great definition of love in a book called, "Family Driven Faith," by Voddie Baucham.

"Love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object." (pg 57)

I love this definition because it flies in the face of the idea that we fall in and out of love, or that we can just choose to love and feel nothing, or that we can feel love and not act. Jesus said that the world would know that we follow Him because of our love. (John 13:35) When you use Voddie's definition for love, here, you realize how radical Jesus' command is and how we have not fulfilled this well in our day. The church tends to get off on so many tangents, but continually misses the point.

Mark Dever addresses this in his book, Twelve Challenges Churches Face, as well.

"As a church, we want to pray to have a culture of humble, self-giving, encouraging love. We want to have leaders who are pronounced in laying aside selfish considerations for the good of others. We want to follow Paul's example in inconveniencing ourselves to make the gospel known to others. We want to go to places we otherwise wouldn't go. We want to learn things we wouldn't learn, and meet people we otherwise might not meet. This is why we do small-group Bible studies with people, and get to know folks at restaurants, and strike up conversations on airplanes, and have talks at Starbucks.

Sunday mornings are not particularly the time to be seeker sensitive. Sundays are the time to gather as a family, a body, though visitors are certainly welcome. But our lives should be seeker sensitive, not wanting to give unnecessary offense, desiring to be winsome in our lives and witness and testimony....Brothers and sisters, arrange your life to share the gospel, and enjoy the freedom that comes to you as you watch others being freed from the penalty of their sins and reconciled to God." (pg 91-92)

As I read this, my prayer is let us BE the Church, not just DO church.

~Jon