The Bullet of Love: Thoughts from Martin De Haan, Part 2
“I read the Apostle Paul as having been on both sides of life’s fence. He knew what it was to die. He knew what it was to be a victim driven to the edge of despair. Bet he also knew what it meant to be in love … in a deep and rich sense.
For Paul, it was love that made the difference. His enthusiasm for life was not merely to breathe good air, taste good meals, and watch great sunrises as if each might be his last. He knew that when he died his senses would come alive in a place far better than this. What drove Paul was what caused him to say, ‘For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain … nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith’ (Philippians 1:21, 24, 25).
Father, forgive us for wanting to live for any reason other than to love You and to live for the joy of helping those who still need our help.”
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Bullet of Love: Thoughts from Martin De Haan, Part 1
Authentic love … God’s kind of love … is the only great reality of human existence. Martin De Haan hit a new note for me on the difference love makes in living. I had to pass it on!
“Life, some love it. Some hate it. Others sag along like a half-filled radial with a slow leak. How can some take a deep breath and seem to smell orange, apple or gardenia blossoms, while others sigh heavily almost as if to expel the stale weight of that same breath?
Some say it’s all in the circumstances. Others say love makes the difference. There might be something to the latter. Watch someone in love. Whether 14 or 74, whether wise man of fool, someone in love is different. His eyes are alive. He is energized. Each new day is an opportunity rather than a burden.”
Authentic love … God’s kind of love … is the only great reality of human existence. Martin De Haan hit a new note for me on the difference love makes in living. I had to pass it on!
“Life, some love it. Some hate it. Others sag along like a half-filled radial with a slow leak. How can some take a deep breath and seem to smell orange, apple or gardenia blossoms, while others sigh heavily almost as if to expel the stale weight of that same breath?
Some say it’s all in the circumstances. Others say love makes the difference. There might be something to the latter. Watch someone in love. Whether 14 or 74, whether wise man of fool, someone in love is different. His eyes are alive. He is energized. Each new day is an opportunity rather than a burden.”
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Bullet of Leadership: Seek Greatness
The man who lives immersed only in his own interests, pleasures and sorrows is empty. As Cowper so well put it, “The miserable are nearly always selfish.”
Among the many things which are worse than a shortened life is the person who has become reconciled, adjusted, adapted, programmed and satisfied with failure. We must determine that the complacency and foolishness of others will not diminish our own personal passion for greatness.
A thousand deaths would be sweeter than perennial, perpetual defeat, or its close counterpart, mediocrity. God grant that each of us in these days of darkness will resolve to make them … in our homes, our church, our work, our community … our finest hour! There is no alternative it greatness!
Pictured above: President George Walker Bush visits Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day and lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. White House photo by Tina Hager. (May 2003)
The man who lives immersed only in his own interests, pleasures and sorrows is empty. As Cowper so well put it, “The miserable are nearly always selfish.”
Among the many things which are worse than a shortened life is the person who has become reconciled, adjusted, adapted, programmed and satisfied with failure. We must determine that the complacency and foolishness of others will not diminish our own personal passion for greatness.
A thousand deaths would be sweeter than perennial, perpetual defeat, or its close counterpart, mediocrity. God grant that each of us in these days of darkness will resolve to make them … in our homes, our church, our work, our community … our finest hour! There is no alternative it greatness!
Pictured above: President George Walker Bush visits Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day and lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. White House photo by Tina Hager. (May 2003)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Bullet of Leadership: True Greatness
Never before has there been such “a time for greatness” as now. Man’s problems, opportunities and challenges are multiplying at an alarming pace. There must be a passion in the heart of each of us to be great in every area of our life’s responsibility. Horace Mann’s advice is for all of us who seek the best: “If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”
Jesus Christ showed us the way to greatness as no other person who ever lived. He served! He lived His commandment, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Luke 22:24-27). Make no mistake, Jesus wasn’t a door mat to everyone’s selfish whims but served the best interest of all as guided by pure love. His service was controlled by God’s wisdom of what was best for man and not by man’s ideas of what he “felt” he needed.
Never before has there been such “a time for greatness” as now. Man’s problems, opportunities and challenges are multiplying at an alarming pace. There must be a passion in the heart of each of us to be great in every area of our life’s responsibility. Horace Mann’s advice is for all of us who seek the best: “If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”
Jesus Christ showed us the way to greatness as no other person who ever lived. He served! He lived His commandment, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Luke 22:24-27). Make no mistake, Jesus wasn’t a door mat to everyone’s selfish whims but served the best interest of all as guided by pure love. His service was controlled by God’s wisdom of what was best for man and not by man’s ideas of what he “felt” he needed.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Bullet of Leadership: Greatness
As Prime Minister, the great Englishman Winston Churchill turned England’s darkest days of World War II into their “finest hour.” His great speeches are as lightning bolts against the dark backdrop of tragic world events. I find myself yearning for such a man to lead our nation.
In fact, however, is such a man on the horizon? I am hard pressed to offer up the name of one present-day American whose life towers as granite in the comparative quicksand of national leadership. Many of us are realizing afresh the unheeded warnings that there is a crisis of leadership not only in America, but in all nations.
Regardless of the politics of the following men, they bore the stamp of greatness in the history of our nation … Washington, Henry, Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, MacArthur and so many more. Oh, that “their breed” would return!
As Prime Minister, the great Englishman Winston Churchill turned England’s darkest days of World War II into their “finest hour.” His great speeches are as lightning bolts against the dark backdrop of tragic world events. I find myself yearning for such a man to lead our nation.
In fact, however, is such a man on the horizon? I am hard pressed to offer up the name of one present-day American whose life towers as granite in the comparative quicksand of national leadership. Many of us are realizing afresh the unheeded warnings that there is a crisis of leadership not only in America, but in all nations.
Regardless of the politics of the following men, they bore the stamp of greatness in the history of our nation … Washington, Henry, Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, MacArthur and so many more. Oh, that “their breed” would return!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Bullet of Love: Real Love Wins
If the clams of Christians are going to make any impact on the world we are going to have to “whip” the opposition by demonstrating real love. Sooner or later people finally catch on to the fact that cheap love is a phony and delivers nothing but ashes and dust.
The primary point in marriage is to teach real love. God says to the husband or the wife, “You’ll never begin to know My joy and power until you start loving like I do. The way to be like Me is to start loving at least one person more than yourself. If you can’t love the person who has given you all he or she possesses … years, hopes, body, mind, destiny, hurts, etc. … then you will never really be able to love anyone.”
“Having love His own … He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). The person who doesn’t really love doesn’t really live. A shame so many miss it!
If the clams of Christians are going to make any impact on the world we are going to have to “whip” the opposition by demonstrating real love. Sooner or later people finally catch on to the fact that cheap love is a phony and delivers nothing but ashes and dust.
The primary point in marriage is to teach real love. God says to the husband or the wife, “You’ll never begin to know My joy and power until you start loving like I do. The way to be like Me is to start loving at least one person more than yourself. If you can’t love the person who has given you all he or she possesses … years, hopes, body, mind, destiny, hurts, etc. … then you will never really be able to love anyone.”
“Having love His own … He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). The person who doesn’t really love doesn’t really live. A shame so many miss it!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The Bullet of Love: Pseudo Love’s Limits
The greatest example planet earth ever had of real love is the life and cross of Jesus Christ. Just as His real love won’t ever let go of those who trust Him as Savior (even when they blow it), so it is with all those who really love. Real love sticks! If you think it’s tough being stuck with your husband or your wife just think how God must feel being stuck with you!
All the pseudo loves of this deceitful age insist that others must change or the pseudo love will quit loving. Pseudo love is only interested in loving those who live up to its own expectations. Or should I say down to its expectations? The pseudo lover lives by the philosophy that he only loves what is easy and enjoyable! If a person becomes too unlovable, the pseudo lover just decides he will quit loving and finds someone else his love is capable of loving. It’s easy to see why love like this is so powerless and void of all that is great and noble!
The real lover loves because of what is within himself rather than for what is within the person loved. That’s the way God loves us! It’s in Him to love, regardless of how lovable or unlovable we might be! That’s the only kind of love that will turn lives, churches, families, or the world around.
The greatest example planet earth ever had of real love is the life and cross of Jesus Christ. Just as His real love won’t ever let go of those who trust Him as Savior (even when they blow it), so it is with all those who really love. Real love sticks! If you think it’s tough being stuck with your husband or your wife just think how God must feel being stuck with you!
All the pseudo loves of this deceitful age insist that others must change or the pseudo love will quit loving. Pseudo love is only interested in loving those who live up to its own expectations. Or should I say down to its expectations? The pseudo lover lives by the philosophy that he only loves what is easy and enjoyable! If a person becomes too unlovable, the pseudo lover just decides he will quit loving and finds someone else his love is capable of loving. It’s easy to see why love like this is so powerless and void of all that is great and noble!
The real lover loves because of what is within himself rather than for what is within the person loved. That’s the way God loves us! It’s in Him to love, regardless of how lovable or unlovable we might be! That’s the only kind of love that will turn lives, churches, families, or the world around.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The Bullet of Love: Pseudo Love Doesn’t Fulfill
Love accepts people as they are! That is, the love that is real and authentic. There are a lot of imitation type “loves” going around these days and Christians are falling for these pseudos right and left. The world makes so much pretense talking about love, singing about love, holding love up as the only hope and promising to love one another, yet it never seems to work.
No wonder one of the leading rock stars at the tip of the charts sings the question … “Why don’t people stay together anymore?” Mad passionate love scenes promise love that will last forever but it ends up in the divorce courts in twenty months. So much for the love of the uninitiated!
Love accepts people as they are! That is, the love that is real and authentic. There are a lot of imitation type “loves” going around these days and Christians are falling for these pseudos right and left. The world makes so much pretense talking about love, singing about love, holding love up as the only hope and promising to love one another, yet it never seems to work.
No wonder one of the leading rock stars at the tip of the charts sings the question … “Why don’t people stay together anymore?” Mad passionate love scenes promise love that will last forever but it ends up in the divorce courts in twenty months. So much for the love of the uninitiated!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
The Bullet of Loving Jesus: The True Substance
When I did graduate work in philosophy my professor assigned me a topic for a term paper which blew my mind. Ready? “The background for and implications of Hierarchical Context verses Dramatic Redemptive for Biblical Symbolism.” How could I write on something when I didn’t even understand the title?!
Slowly, it emerged that I was to do a study on the best symbol for Christianity on earth. I was to seek the sources for the “dramatic presence of Christ” and to eliminate the “hierarchies of man produced organized religion.”
Where can one find authentic Christianity … the true message of Jesus … on earth today? Bonhoeffer called it “religionless Christianity.” How can we discover the gospel of Jesus without it being corrupted by man? Where is the “faith that conquers” which goes beyond denominations, church buildings, theological debates and hypocritical lives?
Guess what I came up with? The Cross? No! The Bible? No! Orthodox Creeds? No! The Church? No! The only ultimate symbol of Christianity is the “new creation,” the “new man” (Gal. 6:15). The person who loves is the only true symbol of the gospel of Christ. “The fruit of the Spirit is love…” (Gal. 5:22). Anything less misses the meaning of our Master’s Resurrection!
When I did graduate work in philosophy my professor assigned me a topic for a term paper which blew my mind. Ready? “The background for and implications of Hierarchical Context verses Dramatic Redemptive for Biblical Symbolism.” How could I write on something when I didn’t even understand the title?!
Slowly, it emerged that I was to do a study on the best symbol for Christianity on earth. I was to seek the sources for the “dramatic presence of Christ” and to eliminate the “hierarchies of man produced organized religion.”
Where can one find authentic Christianity … the true message of Jesus … on earth today? Bonhoeffer called it “religionless Christianity.” How can we discover the gospel of Jesus without it being corrupted by man? Where is the “faith that conquers” which goes beyond denominations, church buildings, theological debates and hypocritical lives?
Guess what I came up with? The Cross? No! The Bible? No! Orthodox Creeds? No! The Church? No! The only ultimate symbol of Christianity is the “new creation,” the “new man” (Gal. 6:15). The person who loves is the only true symbol of the gospel of Christ. “The fruit of the Spirit is love…” (Gal. 5:22). Anything less misses the meaning of our Master’s Resurrection!
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