I used to love Captain and Tennille. As an elementary aged girl I would play this RECORD over and over. I think that by this time I was the only kiddo home so my older siblings may have missed that phase of music. This song touted the power of love to make all things work. I would hold my air microphone and sing along with hand motions,
“Love, love will keep us together<br />Think of me babe whenever<br />Some sweet talking girl comes along singing her song<br />Don’t mess around,<br />You gotta be strong<br />Just Stop [stop], ’cause I really love You<br />Stop [stop], I’ll be thinking of you<br />Look in my heart and let love keep us together”<br /><br />
I had no clue until much later what she was singing about. It just fed my childhood ideas that if you just love somebody then everything will be okay. I still believe there is truth to that statement. Everybody does want to be loved. They want to be accepted for who they are. It’s just that it takes more than us just loving a person to have that person be whole. The recipient of that love needs to accept it.
I was reading the other day in 1 Corinthians about love, but it wasn’t in chapter 13 like usual. It is found earlier in chapter 8. It says this, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But he who loves God is known by God.”
This is something that stands out to me because of how much the circles I run in value knowledge, and in so many ways education is the key to a better life. I pray for my children to have wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. It helps us accept the grace and love that God gave us in Jesus, and it is really important in helping us make good choices. However, I truly believe that people can educate themselves out of faith. And in doing so they miss out on a deep and abiding relationship with God.
Pastor Ben brought this up as he was sharing about his message for this coming Sunday. He is preaching from Paul’s comments to the Romans about <a href=”http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%206;&version=31;”target=_blank>sin and grace.</a> It will piggy back on his message last week about how some people struggle with the simplicity of the Gospel. The concept of grace is too easy for people. People feel like they need to suffer more for their actions instead of just accepting the free grace given to us in Jesus’ death on the cross.
That is difficult for me to do: release the guilt of my actions so that I can experience what God has intended for me to the fullest. I’ve learned over the past few years that my holding on to feelings of guilt doesn’t make me any more sorry for what I’ve done. I feel as though by holding on to my mistakes I’m actually allowing the enemy to continue to try and destroy me. By letting go of my mistakes, by turning my back on my mistakes, by repenting and turning from them I have completely destroyed the enemy’s attempt to derail me. I have truly accepted the love God has for me.
I am learning through experience and through the wisdom, knowledge and understanding given to me by the Holy Spirit that I am loved by God no matter what. This enables me to come out from my mistakes without holding on to the guilt. I’m not perfect. I still make mistakes, and still need to be reminded that it is through God’s grace that I am saved. Nothing else will save me.
Knowledge without love is a dangerous thing. There is no grace in it. There is no ability to forgive. There is no ability to build people up. This is where legalism makes it’s bed. We as believers must, must, must put aside legalism so that LOVE MAY ABOUND.
My heart hurts for those who cannot come to Jesus because they “know” too much. My heart hurts for people who cannot come to Jesus in a personal way because they cannot accept the simplicity of God’s grace. My heart hurts for those who’ve been abused by Christians who adhere to a legalistic form of Christianity.
I am so sorry that Jesus’ message of grace and redemption was tossed aside for the sake of someones need to control how God’s love is shared. I am sorry that some people feel it is okay to abuse the name of Jesus to mask their fear, their hate, their stupidity. I am sorry that man gets in the way of people personally knowing God.
I know you’ve read this from me before, and I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face. I believe that if we truly love people the way God wants us to then our world would be transformed. But then that sounds too easy, huh?
Solacegirl 