Is Your Theology Oppressive or Liberating?

Is Your Theology Oppressive or Liberating?                                                         Kelly Durant

Peter 1:1615 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

2. As time goes on usually there is progress and advancements in most things that make you wonder, how did people live before? How was it done in the old days? For example, for transportation for centuries people rode in carts drawn by horses, but then the first car was made. It was complicated and uncomfortable with several gear shifters that had to be pulled to drive it. You also had to get out and crank the front of the motor to start it, and it would not go much faster than 40 mph. Today however, any modern car is luxurious by comparison with air conditioning, automatic windows, sound systems, gps systems etc.

So everything has a progressive science behind it and today I will comment on how the same can be attributed to theology. When the first apostles evangelized Jerusalem and all Judea, as in the Book of Acts, the men preaching had no background study in theology, no diploma from a Christian University, and some could not even read or write very well. Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.  The conclusion here is being with Jesus and having the Holy Spirit does through you and me what mere education cannot! Their obedience brought them power and liberation from the oppressive, hypocritical, condemning religions of their era.

As a matter of fact, for hundreds of years later most followers of Jesus never got to read what you get to read in the Bible today, they only had a few of Paul’s letters copied, and maybe some had the books of Moses, and others had possession of other Jewish writings as discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  So today we are privileged to have the Canon (Bible) prepared as we do now backed by dozens of thousands of intelligent theological material. Also the knowledge of ‘good and evil’ is augmented and anyone can “google” to read books that were prohibited from the Bible. But when you know God’s heart, when you have the Holy Spirit for discernment, you can determine why the ancients chose to ban certain books due to their inconsistencies with the holiness of God found in the scriptures as relayed from the prophets of God.  

3. After Rome was converted to Christianity by Constantine soon after 300 AD, many Christians came together to unite on the basic points of what Christians should agree upon. Many people believed on Jesus without ever reading the Bible (as the reading of the Bible was only permitted by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church) until Martin Luther, the reformer came along 1,200 years later and translated the Bible into German so that any believer could read it. The Church wanted his head for heresy but God raised up people to protect him in hiding. Many translators of the Bible were persecuted or martyred such as the English translators John Wycliffe and William Tyndale. Be thankful you can open the Bible and read it as millions before could not!

So the early Christian believers only had bits and pieces they could learn from through the predominant oppressive church stepping on the water hose preventing the flow of the truth. How many of you ever learned the Nicene Creed growing up? It was the only doctrine many Christians got to learn after it was introduced in the year 325 AD and they revised in 381 AD. The Nicene Creed is still used today and I want to review it as it is still forms a basis of theology for all Christian believers. Compare it to The Salvation Army’s 11 doctrines as we cover this, and you can conclude how for hundreds of years, millions of believers learned a fairly sound theology of faith, but it was just the basics.

  Nicean Creed: I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

                      And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

                   Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

                  And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. (Note, last sentence of 381 AD version omitted for further discussion for a later date).

4. After Martin Luther’s liberating blessing of expanding a full knowledge of Christ through Protestantism, the Bible as a collection of books written by the major and minor prophets with the disciples and Paul’s letters finally were compiled together.  And finally the Holy Scriptures arrived in the hands of any common person who wanted to read them! Christians were liberated by Luther’s more complete theology which included the ‘Sola fide’ declaration (Latin: by faith alone).

The problem was this, the established church for over a millennium maintained that salvation was obtainable only through faith in their church, and through their hierarchy of privileged elect men who placed unreachable demands upon the believers. For example, for salvation, for forgiveness of your sins, for saving a dead relative’s soul out of hell, for a series of sacraments, a monetary amount was required as a means for paying the priesthood to pray to God to convince God of doing the favor. Is it not sad how many people have been deceived by trusting their eternal soul’s fate in the power of others without ever verifying the truth of God for their selves! (See The 95 Thesis) The flawed doctrine emphasis then (still existing today!) is that salvation through Christ, or ‘faith alone’ in Him is not enough, that you need the priesthood’s blessings of their church as well.  How deceptive, right? Sola fide revolutionized Christian theology over 500 years ago! Only Jesus saves!

So Martin helped free captives from many false doctrines with the truth that only Jesus saves (Eph2:8,9) The doctrine of justification by faith alone in Jesus, is an indispensable contribution within our progress of Christian theology. Do you see how we must honor those who risked their lives to fight for the exposure of the truth in God’s Word? Many millions have died defending the truth of the Holy Scriptures being persecuted by violent deceptive ones who claimed that only they had the truth! Governments oppress truth the same way. But the more truth one knows, the more liberation one has from potential oppressors, but then persecution comes to you for possessing the truth! Today, the truth of God is being brutally oppressed!

5. Going forward, soon after this liberation of Luther the pendulum swung back into oppression again with John Calvin. Even though he had many positive things to contribute to Christianity, certain theological views he had were not consistent with an overall compilation of scripture. Here we see an example of how one verse can derail you if not thinking holistically.

His predestination doctrine states that God’s elect were chosen from the beginning, this implies that God created certain people to be predestined for salvation and some others to be predestined for eternal condemnation in hell fire. Say what? Does this not seem absurd that a God of love would create humans with the final end to destroy their souls? In other words, you no longer need ‘to go into all the world and preach the gospel’ because the elect will be saved without your sharing of the gospel.

This contradicts Jesus command of Mark 16:15 to preach to everyone! This false doctrine proves that his interpretation of that issue was not guided by the Holy Spirit, or even common sense for that matter! He was, in my opinion, on a pride trip of knowledge to show he knew more about Bible doctrine than others. He should have heeded the scripture that says in James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.  This is only one example, but in many denominations many erroneous theological interpretations exist.

6. With this doctrine in place we see the need for another liberator, correct? And who do you think God raised up? John Westley. He created Methodism, which were Biblical doctrinal basics on how to progress in knowledge and maturity, being ‘sanctified’ in the faith through holy living. He preached over 40,000 sermons in his life establishing hundreds of churches countering the predestination misconception that some are born sanctified and others are born condemned with the ‘whosoever will’ emphasis in his doctrine. We know ‘whosoever will’ from John 3:16. We know that God will save even the most horrible vile sinner no matter their past sins if they will repent and then begin a new life of Godly or holy living. This is basic Christianity 101 that keeps coming under attack and subverted. Salvation and sanctification are there for anyone but people need to learn about it through you and me in order to get it!

Satan is always infiltrating the Christian Church influencing it to be governed by oppressive leaders, false doctrines, and compromises of cultural subversions so that the effectiveness of the church is nil producing hypocrisy instead. So with a lack of ‘holiness’ in the faith visible in the people in the church, undecided observers may conclude that people in the churches are not authentic but rather self-serving.  Hypocrisy never is a value considered to be worthy of anyone’s dedication yet shockingly enough many ‘religious’ people today are blind to it. And don’t even mention to me about any holiness in other major world religions which I have studied and experienced; their corruption, abuse, and hypocrisy is worse than what you can even imagine within your limited Western mind experience!  

So moving forward from John Westley’s time, there was a fire for a few decades, but after the initial Methodist fire died out, after the first generations about the mid 1800’s a comfortable staleness set. So when there was a ‘laziness’ in the institutionalized Christian church, the Lord raised up William Booth to form a Christian Army to evangelize the world by serving and saving the worst of the worst. God seems to always stoke the cooling coals when they are dim so that the flames of Christian passion reignite to burn again to win souls.

7. William Booth created a new religious movement in 1865 that, in my opinion, has been the most effective church ever in alleviating suffering by providing homeless shelters and rehab centers, and while helping the poor, preaching to them to save their souls in the process.  Our doctrine is not much different from the Methodists holiness, but what is different is the application of it; the main element required is a love in action! A liberating holy love and compassion from your heart and mine for the needy and lost souls of the whole world! This is theology in practice proving ones sanctification in word and in deed!

So, this modern holiness movement teaches that you go through a ‘second work of grace’? Do you know what that means? It is a regeneration process of your soul. I like how it is expressed in Titus 3:5 “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” In other words, at the moment you receive Jesus or soon afterwards, the Holy Spirit starts cleaning your heart over and over to the point that you will lose your desire for the sinful damaging things that you use to enjoy while living for the sinful flesh.

The danger we face today is the resurgence of another unholy oppressive Christianity without a liberating Christ! The church goer often attends a church trying to believe that they will go to heaven just because they belong to that certain more righteous church, or because they give money to gain the acceptance of the leaders. But take into account this was the similar condition of the church throughout the dark ages as covered earlier, and how sad it is when people barely know their Bibles and theology in its current developed state.  Many ‘believers’ often do little to obey Jesus serving as He did to proclaim to everyone the good news of God’s purifying holy love and salvation that comes ‘only’ through Jesus.  

8. Also, notice that the holiness church went through a phase (some are still stuck there) of defining what is holy and acceptable and what is not in the way of behavior, and this led to an extremist application of ‘dos and don’ts’. Certain ‘more holier than thou’ churches even declared that music played by bands in the church must be of Satan as people in the world dance, drink, and get crazy while hearing music. Imagine, this led to certain denominations making a rule of ‘no musical instruments’ permitted in the church!? The less extreme at least did allow only a piano, ha! Today, sacred dance, women preachers, and many things are prohibited by certain major denominations. So why does this happen? Holiness can be liberating, or it can be oppressive depending on whether the leaders are led by the spirit or led by the letter of the law. This narrows down to what theology is practiced.

So the problem is some Christian leaders of certain theologies keep getting doctrinally confused as to how they should enforce Christians to be acceptable or ‘holy’.  A change of heart must come from the inside, not the outside. True ‘Holiness’ will be a love for God and others so strong that it will produce a clean heart that is liberated, joyful, and compassionate.

9. I am glad the Salvation Army from the beginning believed in music bands, dancing with tambourines (which in the 1800’s mostly shunned gypsies played?!), and converting bars into places of worship! It is known some Salvation Army tunes were even copied from pub drinking songs with Christian words added! I am glad there were no strict copywrite laws back then!

So church history reveals much about God’s people, how they can be oppressive and abusive, or liberating and compassionate depending on whose theology they follow. It is as it was in the early church. 1 Corinthians 3:3-4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? It is a shame so many denominations and theologies divide us as Christians, and it is all because some are not up to date in their practice of a more complete and developed theology. It is also because Christians, despite having a vast wealth of historical knowledge available, are unwilling to read about it to learn a higher theological comprehension. 

Holiness in the end, is the love of God manifested in tangible acts! So how are you and I going to transmit that love? By living in a manner that reflects this pure liberating holiness doctrine of love, serving in order to have opportunity to win others with salvation! Have you been guilty of being a self-righteous, condemning, law enforcing controlling hypocrite practicing ungodly antiquated oppressive church doctrines?  Repent, let the Holy Spirit clean your heart right now, and ask God to help you to radically change so you love others into God’s kingdom! The more holy you are, the more Jesus conduct will be seen in you! 

Childlike People Love & Are Loved by God

Childlike People Love & Are Loved by God     Kelly Durant

Eph 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

Matt 18:4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

2. February is the month of love, and we are going to get up and hug each other right now!(pause) And here with Cubans and Latinos we can even give the ‘holy kiss’ on the cheek too! Romans 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss... (I Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, I Tess. 5:26) Four times we are commanded in the New Testament to kiss one another! And it is sad how some cultures don’t practice that greeting. I learned it is taboo for a Korean (along with several other cultures) to touch another when they greet! In essence I feel a bump on the cheek is a humble acceptance granting permission another person to be up close to your vulnerable face: I think it makes one feel loved, and accepted to be in your space, how about you?

How many of you get up in the morning, pray, and say, ‘Good morning’ to Jesus, your family, or dog, and then after that you feel a warmth that God’s love is in your life because he gave you another day to live? It is so hard to describe God’s love and mercy, right? It is more than a feeling. It is a faith and trust that His Holy Spirit is keeping you secure, peaceful, pure and holy, and keeping you energized with love to keep advancing in the fight of life!

Never forget your mission in life: it is to love! The greatest command is to what? Matt 22:37 Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” So, love is what we are commanded to do above all things, but who really does it all the way as God does it?

3. So how can you and I learn about love the way Jesus taught? Imagine Jesus right now with a child in his arms? That is beautiful, right? Now imagine that that child is you! That really would be amazing, right?

Jesus had a child in his arms when he said: 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus created you and all things with God, and He loves you! God loves us best when we let ourselves be like a child and that means to soften up your hardened grown-up nature. What is it that happens to us as adults that we develop all these bad and ugly attitudes to the point no one can hug us and love us like a little child anymore?

What is it about children that we love? They are innocent and sweet. They also are humble and simple and even can be funny. Jesus states that we are to humble ourselves as a child? What does He mean by that? How do you and I become humble as a child when it seems impossible to turn back the hands of time?

A child is humble due to the fact that he or she respects and obeys the parents, who are the authority over him or her. A child just submits and accepts His father’s word and will. A child is a humble because he has faith to believe all that you teach him, and he will believe you instantly, which is faith. A child will be affectionate. Also, a child will also speak the blunt truth, something that most adults are too embarrassed and proud to do.

4. Let’s reflect deeper on Jesus statement. A child is humble because he is meek and un-ambitious to control others. A child usually has no worries about their image, until later society teaches them the hypocritical values of who is pretty and who is ugly, of who is rich and who is poor. A child has no false pride or a desire for power, and especially that was true in the Jewish society in Jesus day, remaining this way in most cultures today.

How are healthy normal children? They are usually playful, laugh, have fun, and they are by nature loving and forgiving.  So what do you need to work on if you’re going to become humble like a child?

It means you must force oneself to be more innocent, loving, and happy. It means you and I will be obedient to God, not proud, but simple to accept the unconditional love of God without question and spread it around to others.

5. Do you recall another statement Jesus made about children? One verse before the one of study today. Matt 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. So being humble and being like a child determines if you will go to heaven or hell! That is very serious!

God is love and is as meek and humble as a child, so the elimination of pride along with innocent belief go hand in hand for salvation!

Try to strive to be humble and childlike in your Christian walk and see what happens. The simple and sweet people seem to easily connect with my wife and I and we all get along well. But the only problem is when we encounter arrogant people. Even some so called Christians can be arrogant. They seem to interpret our meekness as implying we are simpletons or ignorant for being so nice loving the simple people. And sometimes you and I must hide our real nature acting harmless as doves, knowing inside that we are being wise as a snake in order to deal with the vicious poisonous pride of another person who may be challenging you.

 

Many people Regina and I meet have had hard lives, we feel the pain in their stories, and often I just want to hug them and tell them, Jesus is going to heal you with faith; it is going to get better! Compassion and love for another will move you. Real love in your heart begins with Jesus. But do you or I even get that chance? Not often enough! Pride, disbelief, and sin are walls that people build up around their selves to protect their damaged hearts. How sad it is when a person will not allow in an innocent childlike love!

6. Some people can be described as turtles that retract into their hard shell when they meet someone who is getting too loving, personal, and too close! They will not let you love them with a prayer and a hug because their pride gets in the way! They do not want to allow you to see their fears and worries.

Here is the mission you and I have: God wants to love everyone through you and me! We can do our part but the other person must be willing to be humble to receive it! You and I and you must go the extra mile and love all people despite how unloving they may be. We must model love and humility first! Prostitutes, drug addicts, and everyone no matter who need love but often they only get criticism from those who do not love as Jesus enough.

Jesus wants everyone to start life over by being like a child and even being reborn as a baby. He said we must be “Born again”, meaning one must make one’s spirit as clean and blank as a new baby or child! A child learns everything from the beginning; now that is humility! Read John 3:3

7. Jesus command that you and I must go preach the gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15) is humbling and actually very few of His Christian followers ever obey this to the full. I want to confess I felt like a baby or a child when I could not even speak a word of Spanish or Portuguese out on the mission field. I had to pass dozens of moments of embarrassment every day babbling like an idiot just to communicate.

I know what it is like to feel like you are a child, and many of you here do too, having to learn to talk all over again. I was determined to be able to learn to speak so well I could share the Bible with anyone and get them saved and to get them to be a disciple of Jesus Christ our Lord! And later I even had to learn sign language to talk with deaf people! Why don’t you try being deaf sometime and not use your mouth and see if you can get others to understand complex abstract parables. The Lord answered my desire to learn, as is in the promises of His Word. Ps 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Love for what you do will bring success!

People are not always kind when you tell them about Jesus. One thing that came to my mind over and over back then was that I needed to have enough love for the people that I possessed the quality of longsuffering as mentioned in Eph 4:2. “Love suffers long”. Love, I have learned, is not just good vibes and passion of the flesh as our culture often defines it, but rather love is an enduring quality that is willing to suffer in its process of doing good. Love means you are willing to be remade into God’s imagine being like a little child.

8. God can make you humble like a child, if you ask Him to! Have you ever asked Him for that? Everyone has to become as a child in their faith and walk with God or they are useless to love anyone! Children want love and children give love, so it is best you and I get started today before your heart gets hard as a stone! Claim this promise…

Ezekiel 11:19 “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh”. I feel a pain and sadness for people who need love with a cold heart and love should you feel their pain too. Some of you here in the Corps need more love! Is this not a true statement?  

Do you know how it is with pastors and spiritual people that God gives gifts to? You have a spiritual gift, what is it? Often those with the gift of discernment see many things that are inside of others just by looking in their eyes. We want to help but often we do not get the chance to pray and communicate more about it because they avoid us because they perceive we know. The bottom line is you and I must be more loving and sensitive to everyone so we can give love to even the most hurting and undesirable person. 

9. Just a reminder, no one, not me or my wife are supernatural and there are times we miss perceiving you or someone’s needs for attention and love. But consider that Jesus expects you and me to swallow our pride and speak up when we have a need. We must tell God and others. He expects you to pray and talk to him and share with your Christian brothers. Remember how children have few inhibitions to cry out when they need you. 

Ask yourself, am I proud, self-sufficient, and hurting inside and hiding my pain like the turtle in his shell? The greatest mission we all have is to be like Jesus! How was Jesus again? He was pure love, pure communication to heal the pain of those who would let Him. We strive for this pure state of being humble and simple because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

There are suffering people that you and I know who have not yet discovered the joy of releasing it all to God being humble and feeling the arms of Jesus around them being loved as if they were a child!

10. Jesus is expecting you to over and over be like a little child, and in learning lessons of love this month, the love of a parents and children is one of the purest forms of love. When you learn a submissive love, a submission to your Father God only then you will be able to understand and practice a deeper love with others. Love is a bond made by faithfulness and kindness to another. Real love begins at a humble vulnerable point like a child growing up and then it develops into maturity to care for another. Are you striving to be as loving as Jesus? Decide today to be great in the kingdom of God by loving God and others!

The challenge today: to love more! Love is everything! Every person we win to the Lord is like a new born child into His kingdom. In the church when you make friends with a new person, I want you to adopt then as if they were your own child! Everyone should have children in their lives, especially spiritual children that they (you) are discipling for Jesus.  

So the greatest thing God wants from you is lovingkindness (which is pure holiness)loving Him and others. It starts with humbleness. God renews all hearts with love! What does a revived heart look like? It is a vibrant one, loving to all with not prejudgments, full of life and spirit, and overflowing with love for God and all people! Ask God for the heart of a child before it is too late! 

In The World of No Love: Love!!

In The World of No Love: Love!!                                     Kelly Durant

I Cor.13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

2. How many of you recall in your growing years falling down playing basketball, soccer, or having some accident and you got really hurt but no one was compassionate enough to come to your rescue? The others yelled at you, “Hey, get up crybaby and keep going!”, but what do you do when the pain is so sever you actually are paralyzed? We are reminded in many ways we live in an unloving, uncaring world full of indifferent people every day!

After you catch your breath you sit it out for a while and think about how you felt abandoned for a moment, how the game just kept on going without you, of how you really were of no concern to anyone as the game in the midst of the war battle was more important than you or your life and your pain. How do you respond to the “no one cares for me” reality as you experience pain in your life’s events? Humanity exalts ‘the systems’ of their inventions above life, while God loves His living creatures above all and not even a sparrow falls without him knowing! Matt10:29 He even knows how many hairs you have!

The good news is Jesus cares and you can feel the Holy Spirit inside you when you ask for it! The good thing as well is, our bodies usually do heal and they hurt a week or a few months but then get mended. You put ice on the bruised leg, but what can you put on the heart when it gets hurt? Who around you will take time with you to listen to you to love you authentically giving you hope to heal?

3. Many pains and cuts leave a scar and you and I are reminded of the pain until death what happened. But what about the scars on the mind and soul? What do minds and hearts look like with scar tissue? We know. We see the behavior of the wounded everywhere! Now focus on yourself, can you identify your past or present pains, disappointments, and moments of abandonment with no love? Many people are blind to them! When was your wake-up call that you live in a world with no love? The worst pain of all in life is the one of realizing that you are not really being loved by someone you counted on! There is the what was done to you factor, but what are you doing?  How much love do you give anyway? You know how reaping works, to get love, you must sew and give love.

So when was the first time you felt unloved? I bet many of you who are Christian cannot even recall that well because God has healed you of that pain! But I can tell you this by experience, I am sure many of you felt deep hurt after you had loved, sacrificed, and given your max to someone close and then you woke up one day to see that this person(s) did not appreciate and love you back in return. Jesus said, Matthew 10:36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ That is the pain God feels: He gave His Son to die for us and a vast majority of his created humanity are prideful, unthankful, and unresponsive to His great love!

To appreciate love, God made it so that you and I have to experience this unloving world full of no love! God’s love is an oasis in this world’s horrid desert! It was not God’s original plan to have to allow people to learn this painful lesson of being rejected and unloved (as Jesus was), but this is the predicament our past forefathers put us in, and we cannot change the people of the world’s past sinful destructive practices. Only with the love of Jesus can we change our present! What we can change in the world is those around us and our own heart and mind with the Holy Spirit and with Jesus reshaping our thoughts, character, and actions as He heals our pains with love.

4. I just spent a week in Bolivia last week and I was reminded by my sister-in-law something I said when I left back in 1981. I told her after 3 and a half years there I was done with the unreceptive people of Bolivia! But I actually went back to stay another 3 and half more but in La Paz! I was angry and disappointed then that few people would convert to become true Christians instead of being Christians in name only. The only real disciple converts I got from Bolivia was my wife (and kids!)  But there also was my sweet sister-in-law who still brings tears to my eyes when I remember how she tried her best to grow and read the Bible. She did grow spiritually and progressed materially as well but now she tells me she has a broken heart like mine, sad that very few convert to authentically love and serve God. There are a few others in my wife’s family on fire for God though, and I got filled with hope from them! God’s love is alive around the world despite the selfish survival mode people live contributing to this world with ‘no love’.

I identified then, and still do now, to Jesus words, Matthew 11:16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.” As a missionary I used to give out gospel tracks in the markets, I use to play guitar and sing songs to the market venders and to people in the jails, hospitals, and orphanages. I loved the smiles on the children’s faces and that was a special time in my life. But deep inside I was heart-broken and frustrated that little love for God was returned, few chose to serve Him, but only a little repentance took place. What stubbornness!  I have often felt like Jerimiah who preached for many years and no one repented!

Many people I met were content to excuse their sinful life of excessive partying, adulterous affairs, binge drinking, coca use, extreme greed and arrogance, and the continual excuse that they did not need to know God any deeper because they believed in their own way or went to church (which was usually only once a year!) So where was the all so powerful dominating church in correcting the unloving destructive ways of these resistant people? Imagine Bolivia: it is as most of the world. It has high poverty, crime, and families divided and destroyed, and no one seems to care?! Where is the love? Where is the disappearing love in this country too? No love means no respect or values, ‘no love’ means hell on earth!

5. The message I had for Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and have for Hialeah, Florida today is what works, 4: “Love suffers long and is kind,” I can tell you now I have meet too many people who are not kind to their neighbors and their own family members, and this lack of love has created deep scars and pain! It is a global epidemic!

But because I love God, I make myself be kind anyway! I have suffered greatly by the indifference and rudeness of others and only because I love God, pray and read every day, have I been able to remain kind through it all! For one, everyone has to at some point forgive offenses. Jesus taught us to pray that in the Lord’s prayer: to forgive offenses! I can’t say to anyone anymore as I did before serving God, “Hey, You go to hell!” With God’s love I humble myself and control my anger and say, “Hey, how would you like to go to heaven? Do you know Jesus?”

How tragic in life that many people usually do not see their own unkindness and sin: that they are not reaping love and kindness from others in this moment in time because they have not sewn love and kindness in the past. Basically the ignorance of not knowing and loving God and being kind is killing their ability to ever obtain love and have peace!

6. Have you noticed that politicians gain power from the people claiming that the financial divide of rich and poor is over race and the privilege of some (which they will fix of course.. yeah right, they haven’t yet!) These deceptive words are nothing but propaganda to feed the monster of the inner demons of envy and hate. Carnality and anger are opposite the spectrum of love’s values.

Vs.4:”Love envies not”, who is mature enough to not have envy? The anger between the haves and have nots is very real everywhere. Friends and families divide over who makes more money and who does not. Envy is manifested in political choices with the hope of gaining more from the haves. Some gain for a while, some lose due to poor choices, and this is just life. But to live with envy will kill you! Satan uses human weaknesses to achieve more control and destruction!  

Often when kindness, generosity, and love is shown to a person who is contaminated by this unloving world full of greed and envy one finds that they interpret the gift as indebtedness and dumbness on your part. The factor is, what have you done with your life in the way of being wise, prudent, and blessed by God? Some people refuse to accept that another has gained more than them by merit with God! Envious people are continuous complainers that have not learned the value of loving, of even loving your enemies. How sad and bitter are many.

7. “Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;”. This part refers to remaining humble even though you may be a loving, blessed by God person. This unloving world is made up of pride and most of the time people parade their good deeds only for shallow praise from others. Self-praise is arrogance, that ‘I am’ so good.

Love given to a person who does not have a heart like Christ’s can become an ego-centric thing.  Haven’t you always hated it when someone you know met a famous singer or actor and they were treated indifferently and rudely by them when they said, “Hi”? Be careful who you love! Even though many people may love a certain famous singer, politician, or person, this does not mean that they will get love back from them, or that this vain one will give love to anyone!

Also love, 5 “does not behave rudely,” The world is becoming more and more rude, have you noticed? Matt. 24:12 “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold”. It is up to us to keep on showing love despite the increasing lack of love and rudeness everywhere. Fight rudeness with kindness!

8. And finally we have 3 commands, 5,”does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;” Those who love with God’s love should never do anything with self-interest, that is to seek their own gain in something. Love just loves no matter what may come back or what may not come back.

Love ‘is not provoked’ implies that you do not make a big deal out of how offended you are over stupid words or unkind actions. If you have love, you will just let it go, but in some cases you may need to stand up to defend a Godly cause. It basically means you are not a sensitive crybaby making a mountain out a mole hill but have enough maturity to not let your angry emotions take over your actions. There are too many in this world who immediately allow their emotions to govern their actions!  Be controlled by God’s spirit of love instead!

‘Thinking no evil’ implies not seeking revenge on those who have wronged you or not loved you as you expected. We should never desire evil to happen to anyone! To the contrary, however, do not allow yourself to be abused over and over by someone! You must love yourself too, and if someone is harming you so much you are thinking evil like in dreaming of killing them, then you have to repent, give it all to God, and get as far away as possible from that person with ‘no love’!

9. Today I am challenging you to mature in love! When a person gets authentically full of God’s love they will become so loving, so dedicated to others, so kind and forgiving, and so selfless that the only thing they can see their self doing in this life is serving God!

I feel so sorry for so many people I meet in life! I can tell by their words and by their faces that they have never felt the intense amazing love of God deep inside! The fact is few people repent and give up their sins! Each person decides to accept God’s transforming love or not. God’s love in one’s spirit is best described (my opinion) as a person crazy in love or high on drugs! Remember how the town’s people thought God’s people were a bit too happy and crazy as in Acts 2: 15 “For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.” It was the Holy Spirit giving them the power of love to preach the Good News to all the different races and people.

The first disciples filled the ancient cities that had a ‘no love’ religion,  with love. Millions of Salvationist Soldiers and Christians worldwide keep spreading this same overwhelming emotional amazing love throughout the world! You and I have the task of filling the world void of love with love! Love is supernatural and will cause you to live by the I Corinthians 13 values we covered today. Do you feel called to love God more, even to the point to serve Him full time? Love heals scars and pains! Come now and pray!