And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:5
One of the most remarkable things about becoming a child of God is the fact that the Holy Spirit comes to, literally, live inside of us. Just like a person can be possessed by a demon (an evil spirit), we are possessed by the Holy Spirit. Both are spirits, but one is evil and One is good. One is forceful, One is gentle. One is hatred, One is love. One is limited, One is limitless. We have the limitless love One on the inside of us! Thank God!
Having the Holy Spirit on the inside of us is the most amazing thing in the world. He enables us to live a supernatural life that separates us from ‘mere men.’ Many christians, unfortunately, do not walk in this supernatural life. And of the christians that do, it seems that most do not walk consistently in it. I have found myself to be among those christians. My aim is to always be in tune with the One on the inside of me. I have found that this supernatural life is wonderful, but that, just like anything good and worthwhile, it takes discipline – of which our generation is sorely lacking.
Part of this supernatural living is the ability to love the way God does. Anyone can love those that are lovely, and those that love them. But God has the uncanny ability to love the unlovable. He loves the dirty and the downcast. He loves the lowest of the low. He loves with a love that supercedes everything that you have ever done wrong. Your actions, or lack thereof, does not affect His affections. You are His creation, and because of that, and nothing else, you are valuable to Him. And when you have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you, you also have the ability to love all of those that God values, even those that are despised by this world.
Recently, a man has been frequenting Java Jax (the coffee shop I own) who would fall into the category of those that are despised of the world. In fact, I was close to despising him, as well. He made my life a little more miserable every time he walked into the store. Besides being sore to look at, he would come and buy a small soda and sit on the couch for hours, getting multiple free refills (of which I made no money). He looked as if he didn’t shower very often. Sometimes he would bring in food from other places rather than buying food from me. But, by far the worst thing was that he would go to the bathroom every single time he came and would ALWAYS pee all over the toilet and the floor. I know this for a fact because I would go in before and after him to make sure that it was him. This made me so mad, because we had to clean it up. I even put a sign above the toilet asking customers to clean up after themselves, to no avail. We starting to get really tired of this guy coming to Java Jax. My employees got the idea to put ‘out of order’ signs on the bathrooms every time he came in. I thought it a good idea at first, but how were we to explain our bathrooms always being out of order when he was here? So we put one just on the men’s room – he used the ladies room…ahh! I finally determined that I was going to be a man and just go kick him out and ask him to never come back…
But that’s when the love of God inside of me got my attention. My heart began to convict me. I thought about how much of a mess my life had been before God and how He had always cleaned up after me. I thought of how many times I have figuratively peed all over God’s bathroom floor…
So, I started to pray for him. I determined that I was going to go and talk with him. The tent revival I was to preach at was coming up, so I took a flyer and went over to him. I introduced myself and invited him to come to the tent revival. He told me that he was from out of town and would come to Live Oak to visit his grandchildren. The conversation soon went to God and I shared my faith with him. I found that he was a secular Jew. I told him about how far we have fallen from God’s standard and how God would judge us in the last day, but that He loved us and sent Jesus for us. He listened, and although he didn’t readily agree with me, I know that I planted the seed of God’s word in his heart. God’s love in me caused me to love and minister to the unlovable – who happend to be a physical decendant of one of God’s most loved men, the father of our faith, Abraham. I’m sure Abraham was happy that I shared the gospel to one of his great, great, etc, grandchildren.
If we would let the love of God rule in our hearts we would find the we have the ability to love those that the world despises. That love would ‘compel us’ to share the gospel and minister to needs whereever we go.
This love should be our motivation for everything. We should spend time thinking about the danger that this world teeters on. We should also think about about how much God loves them and wants to save them. Paul said, “knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” He also said, “The love of Christ compells us.” Christ’s love compelled Paul to go preach to those in danger. He knew that heaven rejoiced over nothing in this world, except when a soul is brought out of darkness. All of heaven watches from the grandstands above to see the works of men. And just as a staduim erupts when their team scores a touchdown, so heaven erupts everytime a soul passes from death to life. Why? Becuase all of heaven knows God’s heart. All of heaven knows how grieved He is when His creation rebels and perishes. All of heaven also knows of God’s desire for all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Let’s cause celebration in heaven. May we let the love of Christ that is in us, compel us.
P.S. I am quite confident that, since this guy is from another town, he would not see this blog post. Otherwise I would have not written it.
Hal Chaffee 