Day 34: The bridegroom's friend...

Next week is Holy Week - the week leading up to Easter.  We are going to spend time every day thinking about the events of the week that changed the world forever.  Today, we are going to remember the part that John the Baptist had to play, as an example for us to follow...

John the Baptist came to Israel, fulfilling the words of one of the ancient prophets - Isaiah 40:3: He is a voice shouting in the wilderness: 'Prepare a pathway for the Lord's coming! Make a straight road for him!' John himself confusesd people, as we find in John 1:19-23. People wanted to know if he was the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet. People found God through him, and repented, and sought to change their lives. And when Jesus started his ministry, people started to follow Jesus instead, as John's disciples noticed: Teacher, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you said was the Messiah, is also baptising people. And everybody is going over there instead of coming here to us. (John 3:26)

But John knew who he was in God - who he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do - and he was secure in his Lord. Taking John as our example today, let us read and dwell upon his response to his confused followers, found in John 3:27-36:

God in heaven appoints each person's work. You yourselves know how plainly I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am here to prepare the way for him - that is all. The bride will go where the bridegroom is. A bridegroom's friend rejoices with him. I am the bridegroom's friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. I am of the earth, and my understanding is limited to the things of earth, but he has come from heaven. He tells what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Those who believe him discover that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God's words, for God's Spirit is upon him without measure or limit. The Father loves his Son, and he has given him authority over everything. And all who believe in God's Son have eternal life. Those who don't obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them.

There is so much that we can take from this passage to help us as we seek to love one another. We can use it as a basis of our prayers today - however you feel most led. Here are some starting ideas...
- Thank God in heaven that He has appointed your work today...
- Ask God to help you as you seek to prepare the way for Jesus in the lives of those you love...
- Offer your life to the Lord that he would must become greater as you become less...
- Thank God that our loved ones believe in Jesus they will discover that God is true...
- Ask God for His Spirit to fill you without measure or limit...
- Rejoice that God gave the Son authority over everything - and Jesus passed this authority on to us...
- Intercede for your loved ones who don't know God, and ask for His grace and mercy to be upon them so that they may experience eternal life...

Day 33: Show joy, shine bright, dream big...

As Love 40 days starts drawing to a close, can you think back over the journey you have taken so far?  Has God taken you to places you never thought you would go?

Philippians 4:13 says: I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.  This does not say, I can do some things, ot the things I like, or the things I know I am good at - it says everything!

In the last week of Love 40 days it could be time to let God take you that bit further...

Where can you make a loving difference today?  It will look different for each one of us.  It might be a little display of love, it might be a big one...

It could be that the thought of connecting with a stranger terrifies you - maybe God is encouraging you to smile at someone you don't know or start a conversation with someone who isn't a friend yet - commuters, shop assistants, other parents in the park...

It could be that you have acquaintances who don't know that you know Jesus - maybe an opportunity to offer to pray for a situation might come up today and you can be on the lookout...

It could be that God has placed a dream of love in your heart, a passion for his children in this broken world and an idea of how you could help him bring hope - a big dream that can only work if God turns up - maybe you could share this with someone today so that you can be held accountable for praying it into reality...

Jesus will give you strength for everything - all the challenges, conversations, changes...

What is God placing on your heart?  Show joy, shine bright, dream big...

Day 32: Journey to love...

We all know that we are on a journey - that someday God has promised to complete the work He started in us - but that we are not there yet.  Helppfully for us, we have an outline of some of the stages of the journey in the Bible - found in 2 Peter 1:5-8:

Make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-contral with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You can find other ways of looking at this in other versions of the Bible.  There's a lot to think about in this list and we aren't going to get it all straight away. But God will help us build little on little and grow more and more. Even during Love 40 days, you will have grown in this way. Be encouraged to begin this week continuing to grow - and ask God for each of these qualities as you seek to have His love for everyone today.



Day 31: Recap...

To help us remember what it is that we are doing here with Love 40 days, here is a quote from C.S. Lewis from The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses:

If you asked 20 good [persons] today what they thought the highest of the virtues, 19 of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old [they] would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has a lot to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

We are drawing towards the end of Lent now - on the final stretch - and hopefully the opportunity to practice loving one another has helped us draw closer to God in a new way. Lent is traditionally the remembrance of Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness, fasting, praying and withstanding temptation. It is all about sacrifice. Love 40 days will have been a sacrifice for you in some way - the sacrifice of freedom, of putting yourself first, of giving time to pray and read this blog! But you are also seeking to put something of Jesus in where you are seeking to put something of yourself out...

We have spent a great deal of time over the past weeks thinking about what Lewis terms the Christian virtue of Love - try to spend time today praying about whatever it is that God is speaking to you about from Lewis's challenge.  If you spent time thinking about the virtues of 1 Corinthians 13 at the beginning of this challenge, maybe revisit some of the words today to remind you of the calling that God has given you...

30 days done...

We are now into the school Easter break - only 10 days of Lent left and your box is probably starting to look a little empty.  Hopefully you have learnt something about God, yourself or love during the past month and are getting ready to celebrate the greatest love of all in a week and a half's time.

Can you take a few minutes today to share the love with others on the Love 40 days journey by posting an encouraging verse or story from your experience of the past few weeks.  It is always good to know we are in this together!  Even if it is a note to say you're still going!

Day 30: Fishing in unexpected places...

Take a moment and put yourself in the shoes of the person whose name is written on your slip of paper today.  They are going about their daily lives as usual, not knowing that God is using you to send some love their way today.  They don't know that God has a plan for them.  They don't know that God put their name in your head while you were writing your name slips.  They have no idea that their journey might move a step closer to God today...

Throughout the New Testament we find stories of people who thought that they were going about their business, or thought they were encountering God on their own terms, but God had plans to blow their minds.

Think about Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-11. We read that he wanted to get a look at Jesus. He thought that he was just following his own curiosity and checking out the local celebrity of the hour. Little did he know that Jesus would stop at his treetop viewing post, invite himself for dinner, and change Zacchaeus' life, relationships and work ethic forever.

Think about the beggar at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3:1-11. He thought at best he might get a coin from Peter and John, and would have seen a financial donation as a win. He wasn't thinking that these men would call upon the name of Jesus to bring healing to his legs, meaning that he would be able to live life in a way that he had never experienced or imagined would be possible.

The person on your name slip is not expecting an encounter with God today. But God is wanting an encounter with them. And that is where you come in.

Are you expecting to be part of the unexpected? Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with love, anticipation and faith today. Keep your eyes and ears open and be ready to be guided by His promptings. And don't be afraid to ask God for big, unexpected things...



Day 29: Extreme fishing...

When the disciples really got down to fishing, they really got down to fishing.  And we are called to do the same.

When we read the book of Acts, we find that this group of men, transformed by the love of Jesus, went out and transformed the world by loving like he did.  In Acts 2 we see the disciples filled with the Spirit preaching the love of Jesus to people in the streets of Jerusalem, seeing thousands come to salvation.  In Acts 3 we see Peter love the crippled man outside the Beautiful Gate by praying for him in the street rather than offering him a short-term fix of a coin or two.  In Acts 4 we see the believers coming together as a community, sharing possessions and finances with neighbours and friends in true generosity.

The disciples were extreme fishermen.  They took the words of Jesus and lived them.  They didn't take any half measures.  They heard the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and put them into practice.  Extreme generosity, extreme faith, extreme forgiveness, extreme service - extreme love.

And the results are still evident today.  We are followers of Jesus because these original followers of Jesus loved with extreme love and did some extreme fishing.

How can you do some extreme fishing today?  If you can take some time, read some of the book of Acts today.  Be challenged by the response of the disciples and apostles and ask God to show you what extreme love looks like for you today!