This week I’ve been sharing a message about AN ALMOST LOVE. If you haven’t had a chance yet to tune into a special edition podcast this week, please take some time to go download and/or listen to it. It’s a powerful story about an almost love set back in 1944 at the height of World War 2.  You can visit our podbean site at http://www.godsgotthis.podbean.com

Okay, you know how it is. If you are a follower of Christ perhaps.  The kids are sick … so church is missed. You have to leave earlier the next morning … leaving no time for quiet prayer. Bodies need exercise so reading the Bible gets pushed aside. Of course, we have to eat so meals must be prepared … so worship becomes secondary. Reports and projects have to be finished (and you just found out!!) … you get the idea. Obviously, the list goes on and on of what can keep us from the closeness of God.

I felt this week that as hard as it is for some to actually commit to Christ, that is really the easy part, it’s the living for and with him part that is hard.  Life can get in the way. We have our issues in life, then we find something happens, we find someone who looks much better than anything we’ve ever seen, we find a love in Jesus Christ that looks so beautiful and we have to move in his direction.

Then… For some of us, something happens. Little by little, a piece at a time, STUFF gets in the way and then soon enough the same stuff is really what you spend all of your time with and on and the beautiful love, the peace, the freedom you found in Christ….Get’s buried under a heap load of your life.

You may go months some even years and not even think about it again. Oh, there are a few reminders, Easter and Christmas come along and you remember, you celebrate, you feel guilty as well and you think “Man, I need to get back in church”. Well, yes you do, however, the first step is in recognizing that the one you love the most, the one who gave all for you, is waiting for you.

You see, being a good person and being a good busy person with good intentions is not what it takes to honor the sacrifice that a man named Jesus Christ paid for you, before the cross, at the cross and after.  He was mocked, beat, tortured and murdered by bloodily being nailed to a cross in such a way that the nails pierced through both feet at the top and out the heal area and then each through his wrists. He paid a price knowing you would be born, born into a world that was all screwed up and lived it right and by example to show you how to do it and do it even better. But then, we have too much laundry? The house needs to be cleaned? The kids have sports or dance? The meeting at work? School? You get it and… Really? What that is is AN ALMOST LOVE.

Yes, this is a tough one today. It was tough for him too. I know that there are many times in my life that I do the same thing. There is a scripture that exposes that and what it is like for the one we love and it says:

and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Hebrews 6:6 ESV

 

So when we know him or knew him, in all actuality, walk away from him, even secretly, by that I mean saying the right things at times to give the illusion that all is good, when really what has happened is, you have a hammer in one hand and a spike in the other. Then turn and begin the process of sticking them to his skin, lining it up and then hammer away. Bursting through his skin and then pounding into the wood behind. Yes, it’s graphic, gross and sounds horrible. IT IS!!!!

Another ALMOST LOVE is basically the same as above, perhaps you have thought about it, thought about him, but you and your stuff are too much to think about and how he could possibly fit, want you and that it probably wouldn’t work. Yes, it can.

The other ALMOST LOVE is like our love story I wrote this week. We come to a place, find something beautiful there and see there is someone you think you have fallen for. Someone you could spend the rest of your life with, but somehow, things happen or get in the way through choices and actions we choose and the chance slips away through the night.

Here’s the reality, ALMOST LOVE is NOT LOVE. Love is a commitment, a life, and a passion. Love is doing the hard things. Love is established boundaries and respecting and following them.

Love is chasing after the girl when you know something is there instead of letting her slip away. 

(listen to the podcast, you’ll get it) 🙂

I don’t mean to sound like the mean teacher slamming the ruler on the desk, however, it the pop of that ruler hitting the desk is enough to snap you out of it, shake your head and realize it’s time to wake up and do the work, then I’m happy for that.

You mean and meant enough that he was willing to do what he did FOR YOU. To see in Hebrews 6:6 of how we can crucify him afresh, which obviously means to crucify him over and over and over again by the countless amounts of people who fall into what the scripture is revealing.

The revealed hope is, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE YOU. Run after your love! Don’t let it slip away! This is the best thing that has or will ever happen in your entire life! Do what it takes and if you need help in the process, reach out!! Reach out to us here at #GodsGotThis or reach out to a follower of Christ, reach out to your church, to a new church.. Something!

My hope is that you say yes to him and experience the abundant life he promised and died for.

Again, feel free to reach out at: community@godsgotthis.love or visit our website for resources and connection as well. Whatever you do, whatever you face, circumstance or situation, never forget:

#GODSGOTTHIS