Posts Tagged With: Jesus

Baring My Soul

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Daniel

This is from the vault. One of the oldest blogs I ever posted. There is still so much truth in it and the issues that I discuss here still come up for me all the time.

Baring My Soul

Feb 4th 2006I want to talk about the power of Gods promises. But first, I must premise with the following disclaimer: I find it difficult and intimidating to write or share anything spiritual with anyone. I feel this way mostly because I have suffered in the past (and still recovering) from a very serious condition known as hypocrititus.

For those of you who are in the same boat, I feel for you. I know how hard it is trying to keep up a facade of being a Christian and feeling your life slip away as you become an empty shell of the person you hoped to be.I came to the realization and the relief, that it is not my job to make God look good. He looks good all on his own. After all he is, “beautiful beyond description, to marvelous for words, too wonderful comprehension, like nothing ever seen or heard.”

A note to those also afflicted with hypocrititus:

I recently watched, which I cannot in good conscience endorse, and probably shouldn’t have watched due to the pervasive foul language, a movie called “Phone Booth”. I was very moved and inspired by the ending which I will now ruin for you by telling you. A man is provoked, by the threat of death by a sniper, to bare his soul to the world. He confesses all and it truly was beautiful…

He says, “I’m a fake… I lie to my friends, I lie to everyone… I haven’t done a thing for anyone when it hasn’t benefited me…

He breaks down in tears and tells his wife, I come here every day to call another woman from this phone booth and I wanted to sleep with her. All I have is weakness and I am sorry. I love you.”

So often we live our lives grasping for some shred of dignity, when in reality, none of us have earned any. So we lie.

When the truth finally does come out, we find ourselves accepted and loved and standing in grace instead of judgement… and it is beautiful.

You may find this surprising but the bible supports this idea of public confession:

The bible tells us to, confess our sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed (James 4:16).

The apostle John writes to us these encouraging words with a promise, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

And finally, Paul writes to us telling us that he boasts of his weaknesses so that Christ’s power may be evident in him. (Making it obvious that is Christ alone who is the source of all that is holy, righteous and good.)

So here I am following suit:

I have nothing but weakness in me. I have nothing to offer anyone. I am a self centered proud hypocrite. I am by no means a spiritual giant. I am often prayerless, faithless, and loveless. I am a fake. A phony. I often love other things more than God. He hasn’t been the center of my life… I have been. He hasn’t been the love of my life… I have been. My motives have been acceptance and approval by others, recognition, fame, and even money. “But I want to start over now, hear me God I calling out for mercy, your sweet forgetfulness…” (sorry, I broke into some lyrics to a song)

We are all human beings. God is the only God of the human race. Jesus is the only Savior of the human race. And though we are frail and weak, we are offered hope by the promise of God in the gift of the Holy Spirit whom God sends to live in us as we place our faith in Jesus. And it is by the Holy Spirit working in us that we reflect His glory. And what is his glory? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The fruit of the Holy Spirit, not the fruit of you or I. This is the Holy Spirit of Jesus living in us, living out his life in us, reflecting the image of God in us!

I want to share one final promise of God that I have found to be a lifeline when I was feeling helpless and hopeless:

Ask (*and keep on asking) and it will be given to you; seek (and keep on seeking) and you will find; knock (and keep on knocking) and the door will be opened to you If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11 – *Persistence is implied here see Amplified Bible)

God will freely give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Luke eleven begins with a parable about persistence, and the Greek word for ask implies a continual act. I have been praying this each morning as I wake up and have noticed my life begin to change, but until death I will never stop asking (so help me God) because I know how desperately I need Gods best gift in me every moment of every day. And praise God we ALL (yes you too) have a Father in heaven who loves us and longs to bless us with the best!

Thank you so much for listening I pray that all who read this will be blessed and respond with faith in Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and that Jesus will live his life of love through you for all your days until his return when he sets up His kingdom on earth. And on that day may you stand blameless in His Presence.

in Christ,

Daniel Lovett

Categories: Exposing Self-Righteous Religion, Redemption | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Does God Hold a Grudge?

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Daniel

What if God held grudges? Most of us, I think, thinks that he does. For those who confess their sin and repent, the bible says differently, but still we often fail to believe that God forgives so freely. At least I do.

Joseph’s brothers were jealous of his favored relationship with their father Jacob. Offended by his dreams of grandeur and air of superiority which he freely and foolishly shared with his family, they plotted their revenge. Murder was discussed but in the end, they sold Joseph into slavery to Egypt.

After years of testing and character development Joseph went on to become second only to Pharaoh in Egypt and was instrumental in providing the wisdom and guidance the world needed during a seven-year long severe famine.

Through a series of events which you can read about near the end of Genesis, Joseph was reunited with his father Jacob and his brothers in Egypt. He became their benefactor, protector, and savior.

Years passed and so did Jacob. Now, with their father gone, Joseph’s brothers thought for sure that Joseph would exact his revenge for how they had treated him and so they lied to Joseph. Here is the story from Genesis 50:15-21

But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.  So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.

But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?  You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.  No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.

I think that in many ways we are like those brothers of Joseph. We know we have done God wrong. And we wonder, will God remember and punish me for my sins? Will God make me pay for what I’ve done?

Many of us, including myself, are often like Mel Gibson’s character Benjamin Martin in the Patriot when he says, “I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost is more than I can bear.”

We are just waiting for the hammer to fall. But, when we think like this, we forget the cross. We forget that the hammer already fell long ago and drove nails into the holy perfect loving Son of God.

This is why God no longer holds our sins against us. They were already held against his dear Son, our savior Jesus.

So, we don’t need to live in constant suspense thinking, ‘When will I be punished?’ But instead we can do as Paul recommends in Romans 5:12:

“So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (NLT)

I read this the other day and underlined it. Do you ever read something in Scripture and wish you could just grab the words off the page and put it in your heart and live it? That was my experience as I read this. I wanted to download it to my brain like the Matrix, and start being a good friend to God.

But in the meantime, while I may be a ways off from being a good friend to God, it’s important just to know that God isn’t holding a grudge, that once confessed, my sins aren’t going to come back upon me, that his forgiveness is real and can be trusted.

Here are a few thoughts from Scripture to encourage you:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:9)

“God is love” and love “keeps no record of being wronged”. (1 John 4:16 & 1 Corinthians 13:5)

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Categories: Love of God | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Love of God

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Daniel

I’d like to share a few thoughts with you about the love of God. There is a Scripture that simply says, “God is love” (1 John 4). Love is at the core of who God is. His very nature is love. God’s word also tells us that God, “is not far from any one of us, for in him we live and move and exist…” (Acts 17:27-28)

A very significant and powerful world view paradigm shift takes place as we let the truth of these two Scriptures sink in. I mean, this is a radical, life changing truth!

Think about it. If God is love, and in him we live and move and exist, then we are in this very moment immersed in love. We are surrounded on every side by love, by God. God permeates everything… everywhere… everything, that is, except what exactly? Are there any exceptions? Perhaps the space in our own person?

God is the creator. The entire universe, seemingly infinite in size, cannot contain God. God’s word tells us that nothing exists in all the universe apart from him and his willing it to exist, for he created all things.

“All things are made by him and for him” (Colossians 1).

Heart cloud crossYou and I are made by God, for God; we were made by love, for love. Isn’t that amazing to think we were created by a loving being just to be loved?

This is only thing that ultimately offers us any meaning and purpose in this life. Only In the love of God.

I have often asked:

  • Just how close does God want to get?
  • How intimate a relationship – friendship does he desire?
  • Just how loved are we?

How would you like to be loved the way you always dreamed of being loved? How would you like to be cherished, valued and adored just for being you? The reason we want to be loved and treasured like this is because we were made to be loved and treasured like this – by God.

if-grace-is-an-ocean-we-re-all-sinking_design_thumbRemember this, We are made by a God who’s very core and essence is love, who is the source of all love. And we were made to be  loved. We live and move and exist in love. You are deeply loved by God and that changes everything. As a song lyric says, “If grace was an ocean, then we’re all sinking”.

God is love… but sadly, we are not. Though we are made in his image, Humanity is bankrupt when it comes to love.

This is why God gave us his law of love, to show us that we don’t know how to love others, we don’t know how to love God, and we don’t even know how to love ourselves. Why else do we treat each other like shit? Why else do we ignore God and his loving commands and words to us? Why else do we pursue self destruction with smoking, drinking, or porn? And why do we give the best parts of ourselves and our best years to money, sex, and entertainment, etc…?

But, though we are bankrupt when it comes to love, God holds out hope and salvation to us. He provides redemption through the rescuer and savior of the entire human race, Jesus (whose name literally means, “I AM your salvation” or “I AM your savior”).  He is our hero – the protagonist – in this often painful human drama

No longer is it about us and our “love bankrupt” lives. No longer is it about us trying hard enough to please God, to earn his acceptance, to somehow win the Almighty’s favor. No, now it all about our hero Jesus and what he has accomplished on our behalf.

The focus now becomes Jesus and the perfect holy life of love he lived and the cross where he suffered more than we will ever know for all of our bad living, all our unlove, and ungrace.

It’s now about the cross where he achieved the tremendous victory over sin accomplishing through his sacrifice more than we will ever know.

It’s now about how he rose from death and conquered the power of death. He overcame all that separates us from God.

And it’s now about how all these things, his holy life of love, his death on the cross, his resurrection come to have their significance in our lives as we place our trust in him.

Jesus now, with all his heart, offers everything to you. He gives you his victory over sin. He gives you his perfect love to live in your heart by his very own presence through the Holy Spirit. He now offers you paradise forever, that you might eternally be discovering the glories of his infinite love.

So what’s required of us to get in on all of this? Simple trust. We believe. We believe what God says and we receive him by faith. We believe that he really is that good, and that we can trust him for everything.

It means having the courage, and I know, sometimes it takes an enormous amount of courage to accept your acceptance when you feel so unworthy. Maybe you even think that God is better off without you. God’s heart breaks for you to know that you are already accepted by him.

Your acceptance is not on the basis of your own merit, but solely on the basis of Jesus merit. It’s based on his cross, on his blood which he gladly shed for you – all for just the chance, just the chance, to know you, and to love you.

So here is what I’m going to ask that you would do in response to all of this. Would you pray with me?

“Jesus, you are famous for your mercy, grace and love. In you alone is the perfection of grace and truth. Your word tells us that you are God, the savior of the world. I believe. Save me. Rescue me.

May I come to experience your love, to fully grasp that you love me. I want to know that love that prompted you to die for me, for my sin. And to experience you as the one who created me for love. Thank you for loving me and accepting me. Thank you God that I don’t have to earn your love but that I get to just embrace and receive it.

Please clear my head of all the false notions of who you are that keep me from knowing you as you really are. Reveal your mercy and love to me Jesus . Reveal yourself to me.”

Categories: Love of God, Redemption | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

Listening to God

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Daniel

Before leading worship last Sunday, God put this on my heart to share:

There is allot that is competing for our hearts and many voices competing for our attention… God’s “still & small voice” among them. His voice is perhaps the quietest voice of all. He is jealous for us, Scriptures say, but he will not force anything on us. He will not manipulate and cajole you into his perfect pleasing (not to mention fun) will for you. Because that’s not what love does. Love is not coercive.

He has something precious to share with you today. He won’t hold all the yesterdays (when we ignored him) against us. Because that’s not what love does. Love holds no record of wrongs. (1 Cor. 15)

listen and prayHe is speaking and it’s up to us to listen. In fact, on one of the very few occasions that the Father has spoken from heaven to people on earth, he had this to say concerning Jesus, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

I was praying this morning that I would hear all that Jesus had to say to me this day. To enlarge my heart to receive it. To give me the courage to follow and obey. I would pray the same for you.

Categories: Listening to God | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why you never again need to be afraid

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Daniel

by Daniel Lovett on Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:39am

Love. This is what God is. That’s what the word of God tells us. “God is love”. The same letter John wrote that tells us God is love also tells us that perfect love casts out all fear. Because fear has to do with punishment.

Why you never have to be afraid again… ever.

Remember Jesus, sweating blood in the garden? Remember that opening scene of thePassion of the Christ? Jesus is trembling with dreadful anticipation. What has gotten him so worked up? Then the devil comes along and whispers, “No one can bear the weight of sin. No one. Not ever.”

Resolute, Jesus faces head on what the coming hours hold. He knows exactly what’s coming. Luke records that Jesus was briefed on all of this by two of his closest and oldest of friends, Moses and Elijah… on a mountain. On this mountain he enters the awesome glory of his Father and experiences a transfiguration. His clothes shone pure white. Whiter than snow. And here, his friends tell him of the suffering he will face.

They told of how he would suffer for love. For redemption. For the rescue of his beloved. You and I. And resolute he faced it. He overcame!

And this, this is why you never need to be afraid.  Ever.

When we fear, it simply just shows that we have not been made complete by his love… yet.

When we fear, we forget that yes, the suffering and the cross Jesus bore did in fact accomplish something.

You were forgiven that day. Yes. ALL your sins erased. The sin debt you owed, cancelled. You are now “face to face” with God. A restored child. Loved for exactly who you are. For who he made you. Loved so unconditionally, with such ‘reckless’ abandon, that knowing this love cannot help but heal your every hurt, bring hope to all that is hopeless, bring comfort, redemption, and yes, even joy.

Accept it. Believe it. This is the true message of Christmas. Jesus came for you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you! So say ‘so long’ to fear and live… believing in his perfect love that casts out all fear.

Categories: Passion of the Christ | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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