God is Love

#love#godislove#valentines#newmindset#jesus#loveisgod#heartsinger#equality#freedom#mindset

I wonder what the world would be like if everyone who follows some god embraced this truth: God is Love.

The problem I see throughout history is that though people say they follow a god they believe their god only loves those who follow him/her/they.

Jesus was different. He was a disruptor. He still is.

Jesus came and modelled a different interpretation of God. He modelled unconditional, unfiltered, unimaginable love.

Jesus loved those who the established religion of His day deemed sinners, outcasts, unclean, traitors, tax collectors, harlots, enemies, and every other category that eliminated ‘those people’ from God’s acceptance.

Jesus not only hung around such people He touched and healed them!

According to the religious laws of the day anyone who touched such people became unclean and had to go through different rituals in order to be acceptable to God again.

Not Jesus! When He touched the unclean THEY BECAME CLEAN!

That’s the power of unconditional, unfiltered, and unimaginable love.

Confession:

I try to follow Jesus but I don’t want to be labeled and categorized with those who say they follow Jesus yet hate others; people they consider unworthy of God’s love.

These are the ones I struggle to love as God loves. And anyone who hurts little children and animals.

Because I believe God is love I also believe love comes from God. But not just any form of love.

God’s love is:

• Unconditional - I believe God created all people equal and worthy of love, honour and respect. Do you believe this?

• Unfiltered - I believe God sees all people as equal and worthy of love, honour and respect. Do you? Have you, or can you, erase the bigotries you’ve been taught?

• Unimaginable - In Jesus day it was unimaginable for Him to talk to women, gentiles, and the unclean but He did. Even his followers questioned His choices. But He was not deterred. He came to disrupt their mindset on who is loved by God and that all are equal in God’s sight. Can you love those who are so far out of your view of who is acceptable?

This is so simple but extremely hard to do. We have been programmed form little children on who we accept and who is unacceptable. What behaviour is right and what behaviour is wrong. What is clean and what is unclean. Who is worthy and who is not.

So in order to get out from under all that preconditioning we must renew our minds. We must change our hearts. But how can we?

The only way I’ve found is to get a revelation of Jesus and try and emulate His way of seeing and treating people.

If you’ve never read anything about Jesus I suggest the gospel of John in a modern translation: The Message, Passion Translation, New Living Translation, etc

If you consider yourself a Christian I challenge you to read 1 John (the whole letter) 7 days in a row. Then do the same with 2 and 3 John. Then read the Gospel of John. Journal, underline every time ‘love’ is used, pray for a revelation of God’s love for you and for others, especially those you struggle with.

But most importantly actively