THE ASTOUNDING TRUTH ABOUT LOVE

God is love. He made us in His own image.

We are the objects of His undying affection.

Literally.

He would rather die than live without us and He proved that for us a very long time ago.

We were made by love to be loved.

When we receive love, we are receiving God, who is love.

To be loved is why we were created. When we are loved we are fulfilling our purpose.

This is why it is so tragic that many of us struggle with love.

We doubt that God loves us.

We deflect God’s love because we are convinced we’re not worthy of it.

We dismiss the love of others for the same reason.

Yet love is why we are here.

Without love, we are nothing.

Without the love of Christ, we can’t love others.

Without God’s love we can’t see Him or hear Him as He intended.

God is love. If we resist love, we resist God.

Here is the truth:

Love made us.

Love sets us free.

Love removes all fear.

Love reunites us with God (who is love).

Love restores our identity (as people who were made to be loved).

Love allows us to see others as they are (people who are made by love to be loved).

Love endures all things.

Love overcomes.

Love transforms us.

Love never dies.

The part of us that is loved is the part of us that is eternally intertwined with God (who is love).

Do you know who made you?

Love made you.

Do you know why?

So that you could be loved.

Do you know who you are?

You are loved.

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"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-21)

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FURTHER READING

*Worm-Free Christianity

*Erasing Shame

*Shameless

*Everything We Need

You May Hate Yourself, But God Is Crazy In Love With You

You make His heart sing.
He can't stop thinking about you.
He throws back His head and He sings over you.

The voices of the angels ring in His ears night and day, but what He yearns for most desperately is to hear your voice calling out His name.

You think you're worthless, but He thinks you're worth dying for.

The value He has placed on you is greater than you can imagine.

He literally gave His life to be with you.

When He saw how much it would cost to make you His own He didn't blink an eye, He paid the ultimate price and now you are His.

Now nothing can ever separate you from His love.

He created Eternity so you could get to know Him better.



When God looks at you, He sees His beloved. He sees His child. He sees a face He cannot wait to kiss, and a hand He cannot wait to hold. 




His fondest desire is to be with you forever.

He has plans for you. Good plans. Fantastic dreams designed to fill your heart with joy and your eyes with wonder.

So, you might hate yourself, but God is crazy in love with you.

Let that love change your heart. Let His love transform you from within. 

Trust in Him. He wants nothing but the best for you.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit." - 1 Cor. 2:9-10

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Controversial Love?

Muslims are beautiful people and dearly loved of God.

Homosexuals are beautiful people and dearly loved of God.

Everyone is a beautiful person, and dearly loved of God.

This is the Gospel. Apparently it is still a very controversial idea - even among those who call themselves "Christian" today.

I posted these statements online over the weekend on Twitter and Facebook. The response was a tidal wave of both agreement and also overwhelming disagreement.

Why is it do hard for Christians to accept the idea that God loves everyone? Isn't that foundational to the Gospel? If God did not love everyone He would not have sent His son. Jesus is proof: Everyone is beautiful and dearly loved of God.

One person asked "What about child rapists and sex traffickers. Are they beautiful people, too?"

A better question might be, "Is there anything about anyone that ISN'T always beautiful?" and the answer would be, "Yes, we all have something about us that isn't beautiful." 

But God still loves us and still finds us beautiful in that we are made in His image.

If you have a child and you look into the face of your child, you love them, even if they have done something horrible.

They will always be beautiful to you and you will always dearly love them.

We are made in His image. How can you not love your own son or daughter? They look like you, and  even when they do bad things your love for them never changes. 

We are all beautiful and dearly loved of God. Not just when we repent. He loves us while we are still sinners. 

He loves us even when we deny that His love is for those outside our circle. He loves us even when we say that only people like us are beautiful.

God sees what we are like inside, and He loves us still. He loves us so much that He would rather die than live without us.

This is the Gospel, my friends. It is controversial. But it's the Gospel of Jesus all the same.

So, if you can't say to a Muslim, "You are a beautiful person and dearly loved of God" then you can't possibly share the Gospel with a Muslim person.

If you can't say to a Homosexual person, "You are beautiful person and dearly loved of God", then you don't have any hope of loving them yourself or of showing them the love of God.

If you don't believe that every person is beautiful, because they are made in His image, then you don't know the Father's heart.

If you don't believe that every person is loved of God, then you don't know God because God is love.

Jesus is proof that everyone is beautiful and loved of God because "God so loved the world that He sent His only son.."

If we can't accept that God loves people who are not like us, then we don't know the fullness of His wonderful love.

This is nothing new. When Jesus proclaimed the "year of the Lord's favor" to the Jews in his hometown, they rejoiced. But when he suggested that this favor was intended to fall on the Gentiles and the Pagans around them, they turned on him and tried to kill him.

Let's not repeat that mistake, my brothers and sisters.

God's love is for everyone. Every person is made in His image and every person is dearly loved of God.

Receive it. Believe it. Embody it.

The world is dying for us to take this Gospel seriously.

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LOVE UNCONDITIONAL

It was one of those days which can only be described as a “perfect storm” of positive reinforcement.

One after another I received a continuous string of email messages from a variety of people who wanted to thank me for my writing, or to encourage me in my ministry, or to affirm something that I had done or said.

It was glorious.

As someone whose love language involves “Words of Affirmation”, it was like a tsunami of love coming to me in a series of warm, soothing waves.

Driving home that evening, I was glowing from the inside out. That’s when I started realizing how great it is to be loved.

Not only is it great to receive love from total strangers who appreciate my writing, it’s even more amazing to realize that I am even more loved by the Creator of this Universe, every single second of every single day.

“Thank you for loving me, “ I said. “Thank you God for your incredible, unending, unmerited love for me.”

That’s when I started to hear from the Holy Spirit. He questioned my mention of the “unmerited” aspect of His love for me.

What I began to experience next was both an endless wave of His Divine love for me, and a quiet whisper that I should never allow anything to distract me from an awareness of His incredible love for me. Not even the idea that I don’t deserve it.

What followed was sort of a little movie in my inner thoughts. I began to review the various verses in the Bible about God’s fantastic and extravagant love for His people.

I remembered the verse that says God sings over me and quiets me with His love.

I remembered the verse where God says that His thoughts about me are more numerous than all the grains of sand on the planet.

I remembered the verse where God says that He loved the entire world so much that He was willing to step down from Glory, become one of us, humble Himself like a servant, and lay down and die – all because He would rather die than live without us.

I remembered the verse where God’s love is described as transcending knowledge, and that if we could just grasp how wide, and high, and long, and deep His love for us really is that we could be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

And guess what I realized next? I realized that none of those verses about God’s phenomenal love for me ever – not even once – cautioned me to remember that I was a worthless scum who didn’t deserve that kind of love.

Not once.

Let that sink in for a moment.

God loves you. He wants you to know it. He wants you to bask in it. He wants you to enjoy it.  He wants you to trust in that love. He wants you to experience it. He wants you to meditate on it. He wants you to take a deep dive into the depths of His love and to let it saturate your being, infiltrate your soul, permeate your heart and transform your identity from the inside out.

Let go of the idea that you don’t deserve it. Let it disappear in your rearview mirror.

Concentrate on His ridonkulus, splendiferous, ginormous love for you.

And then, get ready for the best part of all which comes when your tiny soul can no longer contain the vast ocean of His love and it all comes gushing out of you like a massive tidal wave of unbelievably unlimited agape.

Yes, His love for you is better than you can imagine. It’s over the top, beyond the moon, as vast as the heavens, and totally, gloriously, fantastically eternal and overwhelming. But it’s not about you. It’s about Him, the God who is love incarnate, getting into you and everyone around you.

We are empty, dry sponges that are desperate for one thing – the unending love of our Maker.

Once you realize this you start to see how “caring for the poor” isn’t the point. But loving people who happen to have less than you is.

You realize that “turning the other cheek” isn’t the point. But loving the person in front of you who has hate in his eyes is.

You realize that “social justice” isn’t the point. But loving the community around you enough to get involved in their suffering is.

You realize that “non-violence” isn’t the point. But loving everyone – even your enemies who want to kill you – is.

Being loved is awesome. There’s nothing like it in the world. Once you know how completely you are loved by God, the next step is to make sure everyone else around you knows how much they are loved, too.

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AMAZING LOVE

A Force More Powerful

When I was nine years old my Father handed me something dangerous. “It’s uranium,” he said. “Just touching it will transform you, and if you know how to use it properly, it has the power to create an explosion so powerful it could be seen from space.”

This is a metaphor.

My Father in this scenario is my Heavenly Father. The uranium he gave me is “Agape” and it not only has the power to transform us due to prolonged contact, but it can also create an explosion of change that has the potential to transform every human life on this planet – if we know how to use it properly.

I’ve been captivated lately by this image of the Love of Christ as an awesome, unlimited power that has been handed down to us by the Creator of the Universe.

Much like handing a toddler a nuclear warhead capable of transforming the landscape in the blink of an eye, Jesus has entrusted every one of us with the greatest force in the universe ever imagined: Agape Love. A love which has the power - not to destroy a city - but to transform and renew all humanity from within.

If you have experienced the inexpressible power of this love, you know what I’m talking about. It disarms you. It changes you from within. It fills your heart with unspeakable joy, and impossible hope, and complete faith that the impossible is not only possible but extremely likely.

You and I – as disciples of Jesus – have been handed the most astounding force of change ever devised. We have been changed by it ourselves, and the more we are exposed to it, the more we are changed daily into new creatures with new minds, and new hearts.

This same force within us has the power to change the world. In fact, it is intended to do so. It was designed by the One who spoke the Universe into existence to do just that.

This love of Christ has the power to transform the hearts and renew the minds and restore the souls of every person we come into contact with today. No matter who they are: Atheists, Rapists, Murderers, Drug Addicts, Prostitutes, LGBTs, Muslims, Baptists, Democrats, Republicans, Nazis, ISIS, Terrorists, Lawyers, Professors, and on, and on.

Truthfully, there is no one who is immune to the power of this love. Some may resist it. They may deny it. They may run from it in fear. But the power of the love of Christ to soften the heart and renew the mind, and transform the soul, is irresistible.

We are living proof. The more we are exposed to this love, the more we are changed. The more we are changed, the more others around us experience that love, and the cycle continues.

If you wield a force as powerful as Agape Love, I have to ask what you would want with a gun, or a knife? Jesus has entrusted us with a weapon that is mighty beyond belief. It has the power to demolish strongholds and turn murderers into ministers, abusers into healers, terrorists into ambassadors of peace – even persecutors into Apostles of Christ.

That same Apostle told us that the love of Christ was powerful beyond our imaginations. He prayed that we would have the “power to grasp how high, and wide, and long, and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge  - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:18-19)

So, take hold of that volatile, dangerous power today. Immerse yourself in it. Let it permeate your being.

Let it transform you into a living beacon of His audacious, awesome, astounding love.

Detonate this power indiscriminately wherever you go. Let it flow through your mouth, your hands, your heart, your mind. Let it spill over the lonely, the broken, the outcast, and the hopeless around you.

Let this love change you, and then let it transform the world around you.

"Love’em all. Let God sort’em out."

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FURTHER READING:
"Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well." (1 Thess. 2:8)

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor. 5:17)

"He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Rev. 21:5)

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13)

In The Name Of Love

Earlier this week I posted a series of quotes from First and Second Century Christians about how following Jesus means turning away from violence and embracing the transformational love of Jesus. At the end of that series I said, “Early Christians would never dream of using violence, but for Christians today it’s our first response. What happened?”

You’d think that this would have inspired people to reflect along with me why the Christian church once embraced the commands of Jesus to love our enemies, but you’d be wrong. Instead what followed was a very long debate with Christians who rejected this idea of enemy love – even though it was an idea from the mouth of Jesus – and for the next few days I was asked to explain why it would be expected to obey Jesus if there was an invader in my home, or why this Jesus stuff didn’t stop Hitler, or why God seems to use violence (and therefore it should be ok for us too), and why this idea of enemy love shouldn’t be taken seriously unless I am personally willing to relocate my family to Gaza or Iraq.

No, I’m not making this stuff up.

So, once again, let me ask: What happened to the Christian faith? How did we go from unwavering obedience to the commands of Jesus to love our enemies, bless them who curse us, do good to those who persecute us, and giving food and water to our enemy if they are hungry or thirsty, to calling down fire from heaven on anyone who might dare to threaten us?

Two things happened: First, the Christian church slowly became convinced that being a Christian was more about agreement with a set of doctrines and less about actually practicing the commands of Jesus. Secondly, the Christian church – at roughly the same time – became entangled with the Empire or nation of origin. This meant that being a Christian also became entangled with being a patriot for whichever nation one was born into. Therefore the goals of the State became the goals of the Christian, and the Church began to work hand-in-hand with politicians to justify going to war with those who oppose our national interests.

I’m torn between wanting to help Christians today understand the “How we got here” part of the narrative and wanting to help them simply “Follow Jesus” apart from any Nationalistic tendencies or allegiances.

On the one hand, it’s really all about simply following Jesus in your daily life. If you take that part seriously, and if you are deeply committed to obeying Jesus today – right now – in your actual life – then you won’t need to necessarily understand how the rest of the Church got so screwed sideways. You’ll simply wrestle with Jesus’ commands to forgive others, love those who are not easy to love, serve the people around you, and yes, even turn the other cheek.

On the other hand, it’s very easy to fool yourself into thinking that you already are following Jesus if you don’t recognize the difference between what everyone else around you seems to be doing – i.e. loving those who love you back and hating those who aren’t like you – and taking a stand against that mediocrity to live a radical life of extravagant love.

Essentially, I believe what’s missing today in this entire equation is simply this: “Love”.

We are not filled with the love of Christ, therefore we cannot share the love of Christ with others.

Yes, we need to understand the importance of discipleship to Christ. That’s the mechanism that helps us to understand our mission.

Yes, we need to understand that Christianity was once something so uncomfortably loving that what passes for Christianity today would be largely unrecognizable to those early Christians.

But the bottom line is really just that we need to know what love is. We need to remember that it was the transformational love of Jesus we experienced in the beginning that opened our eyes to the Kingdom in the first place. We need to return to Jesus on our knees and ask Him to fill us anew with that same audacious love. Not just because we need to give it away to others (because we do), but first and foremost because we need His love. I need it. You need it. We all need to be transformed – once again – by His awesome love. We need to be captivated by it again. We need to have our breath taken from us again as our heart’s overflow with the love that transcends knowledge.

What if the Christian church in America were awestruck once more by the eternal supernova of unstoppable love that flows unceasing from the heart of Jesus into each and every one of us?

What if that same tsunami of love were to fill us up, and spill out all over our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends?

What if we could love the way Jesus loves? What if we could serve the way Jesus serves? What if we could forgive the way Jesus forgives?

I think that’s the point. I think Jesus is looking for a people He can pour Himself into, by His Spirit. He wants someone who will be His hands, His feet, His voice, His heart, to a world that is desperate for love incarnate and grace unspeakable.

Will we be that person? Are we interested in taking that first step into the endless deep of His love?

I hope so. It’s the only hope this world – or you and I – really have left.

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“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:14-19)

MY SECRET IDENTITY

I’ve come to realize that I have an ongoing conflict within myself. Part of me wrestles with pride and self-love while another part of me wallows in self-loathing. So, my pendulum swings between these two extremes. Either I feel an inflated sense of self, or I beat myself up for not being a better person.

If I’m prideful then I hate myself for being so full of myself. If I feel sorry for myself then I hate the fact that I have given in to these feelings of self-doubt.

Then the cycle repeats.

Self-love or self-doubt. Bravado or pity. Pride or condemnation. Those are my choices. I either compensate for my feelings of inadequacy by telling myself I’m better than I really am, or I beat myself up for being too self-absorbed. Where do I find the balance? How do I change this inner struggle? How do I rewrite the script that continually plays in my head over and over again?

I recently began reading a book about self-image. Specifically, about how our identity is wrapped up in Christ. Not all of it was great. In fact, a lot of it really didn’t click at all for me. But what God did show me was significant and important.

Identity has always been a fascination of mine. It’s why I love the books I love. It’s why I love the movies I love. If I listed them for you now you’d see what I mean. The point is that the question I’ve been asking all this time is, “Who am I?” and deep down, deeper than I’ve known until now, the other question I’ve been asking is, “Who is God?”

Frankly, answering the question, “Who is God?” is easier for me to answer than “Who am I?”, as crazy as that sounds. I’ve never doubted God. Not in the sense that I’ve doubted His existence. Truthfully. I can remember being a little boy and talking to God, thinking about Him, reasoning out how He could have created everything without needing to be created Himself, praying to Him for help, promising Him that I would be a preacher if He would put my parents back together again. All of these things took place years before I formally went forward and surrendered my life to Him. I have always felt Him near me. So finding out who God was and is has never been that much of a struggle for me.

But finding out who I am? That’s another story. In fact, I think it’s difficult for most of us. We can tell people our name, and our address, and where we’re from, and what our hobbies are, and who we love, but none of us can accurately answer the question, “Who are you?” Because my name, and my address, and my hobbies, and my job, and my associations do not define me. They are all things that exist outside of me, they are not me.

What I learned from reading this book was this very simple truth: “To know myself I have to know God, and to know God I have to know myself.” In other words, my identity is revealed in Christ when Christ is revealed in me. Jesus put it this way:

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:24-26)

Denying myself is part of finding myself revealed in Christ. It’s more than simply saying “no” to my sinful desires. It’s also about giving up on defining myself. In other words, I am not who I pretend to be. I am not who you think I am. I am not who others tell me I am. I am only who Jesus reveals me to be.

So, letting go of my ideas about who I should be and embracing the person that God made me to be allows the veil to be removed from my eyes. Losing my life allows me to find my true self hidden in Christ, where I have been all along.

At the same time, I have to fully embrace the person that God has made me to be. For a long time now I’ve been hiding from my true self.  I have a teaching gift yet I often sit quietly in the background and let others talk. Yet, God made me to be a teacher. That’s part of my identity. To deny that is to deny my true self.

All of this takes me back to when I was five years old, laying on my bunk bed in the dark, whispering to God from my heart of simplicity. The more I shared my heart with God, the more God revealed His heart to me. It takes me back to sitting in my closet and pouring out my soul to God as a teenager. This is a relationship. The more I know God, the more He allows me to know my true self.

Over time I think I’ve forgotten how to let God love me like that. I’ve become so used to pretending to be the person I think I’m supposed to be that I’ve been hiding my true self from Him. I’ve been rolling over in the darkness when He calls my name. I’ve been going through the motions instead of coming before Him just as I am; simply trusting that He will love me because of who He is.

The beautiful truth is, He just wants me to know Him. He really wants to show me who I am, too. The more I open my heart to Him, the more I know Him, and the more He reveals myself to me.

One of my favorite promises in scripture is found in Revelation 2:17 where Jesus promises that one day He will give each of us a white stone, and on that stone is written a new name. It is a unique name that Jesus has already picked out for each of us individually. He tells us that no one will know that name except the two of us. It’s a special secret name that reveals our true identity through His eyes.

I can’t wait for Jesus to drop that white stone into my open hand. I can’t wait to turn it over and to read that secret name etched there by His own hand.

I am only who I am when He whispers that name to me.

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UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH #5 - God Really Does Love The Filthiest Sinner

For some reason there are Christians who find it difficult, even impossible, to accept the idea that God really does love terrorists and rapists and murderers. Even though they all quote scriptures like "For God so loved the world..." and "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" and many other verses, the idea of actually believing that God loves those evil people is too much to bear.

When we say that God's love is unconditional, that's exactly what it means. He loves us because He is love, not because of anything we have done to deserve that love. God's love for us is not based on our goodness, in fact it's in spite of our lack of goodness. His love is unmerited. His grace is lavished upon the filthy. That's what makes it "Amazing Grace". Because if we were basically good people then His grace would only be "Nice" it wouldn't be "Amazing."

The truth is that if God can't love Osama Bin Laden, or Hitler, or the Umpire who blew that call in the World Series, then He can't love you and me. We're all sinners. We all deserve punishment. We all sent Jesus to that cross. And what did Jesus say to those who nailed him there? He forgave them. He forgave us all.

Granted, not everyone has received that love and mercy. But if those of us who have received His mercy and amazing grace do not extend it to those who have yet to taste of it, then how else will they ever see it? If those of us who have been forgiven don't love those who don't deserve it, then how will they ever know His unconditional love?

See, it's not just that God loves those filthy sinners, it's that you and I are also commanded to love them too.

"If you love those who love you," Jesus said, "What credit is that to you? Don't the pagans do that?"

We are called to love our enemies, and to pray for those who do evil, and to show mercy and grace and compassion to those who don't deserve it, because we don't deserve it either.

Jesus shared a parable about this once. He told a story about a man who was forgiven a massive debt and then went out and demanded payment from another person for a very small amount. When the Master who had forgiven the large debt heard this, he called the man back into court and said, "I showed you great mercy, and yet you were unwilling to forgive someone even a small debt? Because of this I will throw you into prison and you will not get out again until you have payed me back every penny you owe." (See Matt. 18:21-25)

See, if we really believe that we are sinners saved by grace, then we need to love and forgive others in the same way. Not just those who insult and injure us, but also those who harm others.

Just listen to what the worst sinner of all has said about this:

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” – Paul the Apostle, (1 Tim. 1:14-16)

So, God really does love the filthiest of all sinners. We need to learn to accept this unbelievable truth, because if we can't accept that, then we're lying to ourselves about our own condition. We believe that we are better than everyone else if we can't accept that the worst of all sinners is the one who looks back at us in the mirror each morning. Either God's love is unconditional or it's not. What do you really believe?

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"One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as "those evil people" or "those poor people who need our help." Nor must we search for signs of "loveworthiness." Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.” – Philip Yancy; “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”

 

 

CAN GOD "DVU" THE WORLD?

Translator Lee Bramlett was confident that God had left His mark on the Hdi culture somewhere, but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of God in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people? What clue had He planted to let the Hdi know who He is and how He wants to relate to them?

Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for love. Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in i, a, and u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find i and a. Why no u?

Lee asked the Hdi translation committee, which included the most influential leaders in the community, “Could you ‘dvi’ your wife?”

“Yes,” they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.

“Could you ‘dva’ your wife?” Lee asked.

“Yes,” they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.

“Could you ‘dvu’ your wife?” Lee asked. Everyone laughed.

“Of course not!” they said. “If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.”

Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, “Could God ‘dvu’ people?”

There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded.

“Do you know what this would mean?” they asked. “This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.”

One simple vowel, and the meaning was changed from “I love you based on what you do and who you are,” to “I love you based on who I am. I love you because of Me and not because of you.”

God had encoded the story of His unconditional love right into their language. For centuries, the little word was there—unused but available, grammatically correct and quite understandable. When the word was finally spoken, it called into question their entire belief system. If God was like that, and not a mean and scary spirit, did they need the spirits of the ancestors to intercede for them? Did they need sorcery to relate to the spirits? Many decided the answer was no, and the number of Christ-followers quickly grew from a few hundred to several thousand.

The New Testament in Hdi is ready to be printed now, and twenty-nine thousand speakers will soon be able to feel the impact of passages like Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, ‘dvu’ your wives, just as Christ ‘dvu’-d the church.…” I invite you to pray for them as they absorb and seek to model the amazing, unconditional love they have received.

As God’s Word is translated around the world, people are gaining access to this great love story about how God ‘dvu’-d us enough to sacrifice his unique Son for us, so that our relationship with Him can be ordered and oriented correctly. The cross changes everything! Someday, the last word of the last bit of Scripture for the last community will be done, and everyone will be able to understand the story of God’s unconditional love.

Article by Bob Creson.
Reprinted from Wycliffe inFocus

*READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE>