How’s your love walk…

“…whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5 (ESV)

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails…”  1 Corinthians 13:7-8 (ESV)

In John 15 there are several things Paul said we should be abiding in and one of those was love.  I John 4:8 tell us that “God is love.”  So if we are abiding in Him we should be bearing fruit – the fruit of love.  This is not the kind of love that we see even on the world’s best day.  It’s a love on a much higher level.  God is our standard for love.  This love is so hard that we cannot do it without God’s help.  If we don’t abide in Him, we cannot love.  If we don’t love, we are not abiding in Him.

We have all been abandoned by what we thought were once loving relationships.  This is why love was meant to be first received from God and then given away.  If we look for the love of people to satisfy us before finding our security in God’s love first, we will be left wanting and hurting or become unstable and abusive in our relationships.

How should we love? 

Love bears all things.  The Greek translation for “bear” means to roof over or cover in silence, to endure patiently.  Bearing doesn’t mean you can maul people to death or act like a bear. It also doesn’t mean developing a callous heart but rather a covering of grace.  No matter what comes against you love still remains.  It covers over any situation with love and does so with no expectation for self without saying anything or justifying yourself. 

Love believes all things.  This does not mean that we believe everything we hear about people or situations.  But, it means believing the best about people and situations.  Our love is not dependant on what we know about people, but rather on God himself.  Because He is love, we believe all things about Him and therefore respond in love to all things.  If we truly know God we have no choice but to always respond in love to people.  See what I mean by this being impossible without Him.  It’s a higher love.

Love hopes all things.  Hope here means to expect and trust with confidence and pleasure.  This is not an expectation from people but from God as it relates to people and things.  It means we love with an expectation and trust in God that all things are going to be according to His will and purpose.  The hope is in Him so we are free to give all our love to people even when they are not doing what we think they ought to do.  Dependency on Jesus frees us to fully love.

Love endures all things.  This means love is behind and under all things.  It suffers all things.  God’s love can handle anything.  It has no limits.

Love never fails.  Every where our love fails, it was not God’s love.  We fail to love when we are not abiding in Him.  We fail to love when we seek something for ourselves in others.

“God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”  John Piper

If we are satisfied in God, if He is all I need in every situation then He will be glorified in and through me and my life.  If I seek satisfaction in any other thing than Him alone, then I will glorify myself. 

So, How’s your love walk?

To love, someone must die…

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13  (ESV)

There is a high price for love.  You can have it for free but it will cost everything.  You cannot love without paying the full price.

God will allow us to choose to live our lives on a lower level than He has called us, but there is a price to pay.  If we do so we will never really and fully know Him nor experience the fullness of the life promised to us in Him.  There is a higher and GREATER love.  Love of this magnitude can only be received, experienced and given away through death. 

There is no greater love than when we die to self, lay ourselves down for someone else.  God wants us to walk in a greater love.  Greater love is received when someone else had to die in order for us to receive it.  Jesus laid down His life to break the barrier that would keep us from receiving the Father’s love.  It was the ultimate expression of love. 

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8  (NASB)

Jesus broke the barrier of our sin with the laying down of His life.  It doesn’t get any greater than that.

In order for us to have Greater Love, we must die, laying ourselves down for people.  We must die to being right about people or things or we will defend our rights and find an excuse to not love.  We must put away personal justice or we will punish people and seek to justify ourselves in the eyes of others, when Jesus said He was just and the justifier of all.  We must overlook faults or we will keep records of wrong suffered and not love.  Ouch.  Ouch.  If we die to self, we can release GREATER LOVE.  If we don’t, we will love self and then others when convenient.

Are you dying to give GREATER LOVE?

Wait

In my dad’s previous post he made reference to Joseph Sasser’s song “Wait”.  I thought I would post the lyrics for you!

If I could just wait, in the presence of the Lord

If could be still and know that You are God

If I could just hold back my tongue and listen to your voice

If I could just wait in the presence of the Lord

Wait on the Lord, wait and be still

Until you’re secure and His hands you can feel

Wait at His feet and gaze into His eyes

Until love swallows fear and His heart becomes mine

Wait, Wait on the Lord

Wait, Wait on the Lord

You will mount up with wings as eagles

You will be renewed with strength

You will run and not grow weary

You will walk and not faint

for those who wait . . .

John’s on Wed Nite

Being home this evening allows Jo and myself to go over to John’s for his small group meeting, and, quite frankly, I’m stoked about it.  Mom is recovering from her surgery and is planning to go with us tonight.  It is not often that I get to have mom and BJ  with me on an evening.  I have been living in Proverbs lately and am being challenged with “trusting God with my whole heart.”  I’d like to think that I always do that, but when I look around our country these days I find fear trying to creep in–but, then I meditate on His Love and things change.  I am reminded of a line from Joseph Sasser’s song, “Wait,” which says “if I could just sit at His feet and gaze into His eyes until love swallows fear and His Heart becomes mine.”  The power of  His love is an amazing thing!

What A Day

We began a weekend of prayer at Liberty on Friday evening and had prayer 24 hours through Sunday morning until the morning service started at 10:30.  It is absolutely awesome the difference in the atmosphere of the morning service when prayer has fervently been sewn into the house.  What a sweet spirit!  I remember saying to the congregation that it is really dumb to have to have a “prayer” weekend.  Now don’t go get  excited on me!  Having a prayer weekend to draw folks together to seek God and hear His voice is a good–incredibly wonderful and productive thing, but what about praying without ceasing.  What about developing our prayer lives so that each day, moment by moment we are talking to our Daddy. I  believe that the fundamental truth is that Oswald Chambers is right when he says that “prayer doesn’t prepare us for the greater work–prayer is the greater work.”  What we experienced this morning in a corporate setting we can experience day by day and moment by moment if we will be a people of prayer.

Thank you

Betty Jo and I knew when we decided to follow Doctor’s orders and pull off the road for about 5 months that there were some financial needs that were going to have to be met  and the Lord, as always, has provided in a great way.  In our ministry for 30 years we have felt that if we shared our need with the Body of Christ that the Lord would use folks who loved us to help in time of need, and that has always been the case.  So BJ and I wanted to  simply say thank you to all of you who have given and have prayed for us  during this time.  We still have Oct-Dec to go  but we have been encouraged and blessed by your response and just wanted to say thank you!  As always this is the  day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it!

His Work

There is a quote from Oswald Chambers that reminds me everyday of how little I can do for me and how much He has done for me–and is stll doing in me. “Christian doctrines are the explanation of how Jesus Christ makes us saints, but all the doctrine under heaven will never make a saint. The only thing that will make a saint is the Holy Ghost working in us what Jesus Christ did in the Atonement. Jesus Christ demands absolute devotion to Himself personally, then the application of His principles to our lives.” We are never selfmade people! We cooperate with the process, but it is His finished work at Calvary that makes us! It is God in us working out His (our) salvation according to His good pleasure. I take great comfort in knowing I am His handiwork–His workmanship. My potential is not found in me, but it is found in Him. This makes each day an amazing adventure. Enjoy your day. He has made it for you and you for it–have an amazing adventure! Ain’t it good to know that our Father has higher expectations of and for us than we have for ourselves and He is able to get us there!

Site Updates…

Blessings to all of you who frequently follow and support John W. Hobbs and Maranatha Ministries.  Over the next month we will be updating John’s website to better serve you with resources, teaching, personal and ministry updates, as well as scheduled events in your area.  Your support and input is an invaluable resource to us.  Please take the time to leave a comment when you visit.  Let us know what you would like to see that would be helpful or of interest to you.

John’s two sons also work closely with Maranatha Ministries and both contribute to his blog.  One new feature you will find is an Author’s section in the sidebar which will allow you to find blog posts by Author as well as being a means to know who is writing each article.  Hopefully this will give you a consistent stream of information about Maranatha as well as devotional content.

Again, we thank you for your prayers for John and Betty Jo as they continue to give their lives to serve you for the sake of Christ and His Gospel.  These are the most exciting days for the Church. 

“‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.”  Haggai 2:9

Taking a break

This week is going to be a great time for Betty Jo and myself.  It has been a long time since we’ve had some time together to simply relax.  We’re going to get a way to the mountains this week before I get back to my normal schedule.  The summer and fall are going to be really busy on the road and at Liberty so this week is going to be awesome.  I had the chance to attend John’s church on Sunday–the first time I have been with him on Sunday in over a year.  Wonderful message and an awesome service.  His ministry at The Dwelling Place is growing again and I am thrilled to see it.  There was a great spirit in the church.  The Lord has His Ways!  Thanks for praying for us and loving us.

Family update

John and Amy and the kids, Jordan, Jonathan, Nathan, are doing fine.  The Dwelling Place Community Church continues to serve and grow in Wilmington and John is finding fresh direction and growth for himself, his family, and the fellowship.  Clyn and Joell and kids, Jacob and Emma are also doing well.  They are located in Summerville, S.C.  They continue to grow as a family and spirtually they are doing wonderfully.  Scott, Lisa and the kids, Victoria, Joseph, Olivia are growing and doing well in Delaware.  Scott is still the worship arts pastor at Eagles Nest Fellowship, and continues to do Higher Place on the road.  Betty Jo and I are still working with caring for two mothers in Wilmington as I serve Liberty Fellowship at Kill Devil Hills and continue to keep up my Maranatha schedule on the road.  These are busy and difficult times for us all–as they are for most folks in our country right now.  As a family we probably have felt more spiritually attacked than at any time in my memory and the financial pressure is heavy.  At the same time I have never felt more blessed and challenged by the Goodness of our Lord Jesus!  It is such a joy and blessing to serve Him.  Thank all of you for praying for and lovingly supporting us!