So I listened to something earlier from Francis Chan, a pastor out in California. He talked about what it means to love the Lord and to just be in love with Jesus. Wanting to spend time with Him, wanting to please Him. He references a quote in a book, God is the Gospel, where the author John Piper poses this question;
“…The critical question for our generation and every generation is this. If you could have heaven with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth and all the food you ever liked and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there? “
This hit me hard and got me to ponder, somewhat tying together different things going through my head. Do I LOVE Jesus, in love with Him where if He isn’t there, then its really not heaven. Where it’s not just about the things that He offers, in comparison to marrying a person for their money, but that when I look back through time on that day, I see Jesus as a man looking me dead on, through the scourging, the rejection, pierced hands and feet, even the ultimate feeling of hell, Him being separated from the Father (“My God, my God why have you forsaken me” Matt 27:46) through this all, He is saying …I WANT to do this for YOU!!
“You may loose everything, but am I worth it to you? “
In a way, this is Jesus asking, speaking even to the little things or the not so obvious in our lives. Not just about packing up and willing to leave your life, family and friends for 11 months, it’s also the habits, the addictions that vary wide and far, those little crutches that provide us the false pleasures that we just can’t seem to pull ourselves away from time and time again. He is asking, …am I worth all of that, to you?
So ok, I can see this spinning out into different areas, which would be great, but before this gets too large of a blog, let me compact this into 2 things, by starting out wanting Him to be my heaven, and really it is only heaven because He is there. I look within, and I don’t think I can say Im quite there. I am in love with Him, and yes, I love Him, but my love needs to grow, and so my intimacy with Him also very much needs to grow. So yea, in a way, I am with Him for His ‘money’ still and although He is super cool with that and still loves and accepts me anyway, I know it is so much better when I love Him for whom He is…………………as well as for His money! 🙂
You see the other part is when I am IN LOVE (exaggerated) with Him, not just ‘in love’, I want to please Him, and I seem to be able to regain control, however slow, of those areas I know to be weaknesses that sometimes just seem to have me as though stuck in a rut. And please don’t get me wrong; its not so much through my will or strength but out of a more purposed choice to want freedom, walking in His strength, because He desires that for me. You see I am able to abandon those habits/crutches that hold me back from deeper intimacy with Him.
So today I say …You Father are my Heaven, and Yes, You are worth it.
