Live Out Love

For this assignment I chose some scripture from 1 John 3 and 4. I learned a lot about love and being intentional on showing your love.  

1 John 3:16—“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

1 John 3:18—“…let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

I truly do love and care about people, but I don’t always show it. I’m really bad about not being intentional and I’ve come to discover that it’s because I love myself more than I love others. Yes I do care for others, just not enough as I should because I tend to put my needs first. And I definitely do not live like I love my brother and sisters enough to lay down my life for them. This approach changed my understanding of this passage because I’ve always read love others, love your brother, love your enemies, but I’ve never read it like this. The only difficulty I faced was the hardcore conviction I received from these verses. I think the benefit I got from this approach was what I learned, and what I’m still learning. This is definitely something I’m going to have to chew on for a while and mindfully apply it to my life every day this next week, month, or however long it takes me to get into the routine of being intentional.

Works Overflowing from Faith

Jones understands conversion as a gift from God. It’s something that we can never gain by works, but something we must accept by faith. He says that works, or disciplines, are important but that they are not the center of your salvation, they actually derive from your salvation. “Discipline is the fruit of conversion—not the root.” Unlike Jones’ thinking, most people seem to think that the harder they work, the more they love, and the more they try to live like Christ, the stronger of a Christian they are.

Jones’ way of thinking is more bionically based. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can get to the Father, but by me.” Faith in Christ is the only way to gain salvation. On the other hand “faith without works is dead”. Therefore if we are not doing works, if we are not practicing the disciplines, what we once believed in no longer stands because our faith would be dead. There is a balance you have to find between having faith and having works and letting your faith be the reason for your works.

Continuous Worship in the Midst of Living

I absolutely loved these excerpts from Thomas Kelly. He explains a genuine internal spirituality very well. He hits on the fact that we should have our minds constantly focused on God and we should continuously be in prayer throughout the day, but we should also be engaging in our normal day to day routine. Like we should be interactive and doing everything, but in our minds and hearts be dwelling with the Lord. “Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship”. Kelly also focuses on how this is a practice that we have to get used to. “A practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary”. He goes on to talk about how it’s hard at first to get used to this mindset and that we will mess up, but we just have to continue going back to God. We need to ask for forgiveness and then try again.

The Influence of Faith

According to William Law, our faith should have influence in every area of our lives. Whether it’s the conversations we have, the way we spend our time, in our behavior, how we use the talents we have, and what we do with our money, etc., all of it should be in devotion to God.

My faith probably has most influence in my life through the way I treat my family. Of course I’m not perfect and sometimes I do things that aren’t Christ-like, but for the most part I strive to shine my light to them so they can see God’s love through me. I yearn so much for them to know the Lord like I do so I try to constantly keep myself in check and my mind on God when I am around them.