What is Love? Part 1: Love is Patient and Kind

Love is important, right?  I think that’s one of the very very few things that most people can all agree on.  Everyone wants (or maybe needs is a better word there) to feel loved.  Everyone loves something or someone.  We make important decisions based on love, and we wouldn’t want to live in a world void of love.  But what is love?  What is this driving force, this idea, this instinct that we all know and recognize as love?  And why is it so important?

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I’m going to look at this through a wonderful lens that I like to call the Word of God, also commonly known as the Bible.  We know that love is important from a Biblical perspective for many reasons.  I could list them all, but I think that I  can sum them up pretty well by citing Yeshua’s (Jesus’) answer to the Pharisees when they were testing Him and asked what the greatest commandment in the Torah was.  “And he said to him ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor and yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets,’” (Matthew 22:37-40).  Yeshua himself said that the entire Law, or Torah, and every God-given word uttered from the prophets depends on love, so obviously, love is pretty important from a Biblical perspective.  But why?

In 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul says that we are essentially useless and that we’re doing whatever it is that we are doing in vain if we are without love.  He says “If I give away all I have, if I give up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing,” (1 Cor. 13:3).  We can do all the “nice” and “good” things that we want.  We can help those around us, we can sacrifice ourselves for our cause, and we can do any number of things, but if we are not doing them out of love, then there is ultimately no point.

If we look back at the previous verse, we learn that this concept does not only apply to what we do, but also to what we know.  He says “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing,” (1 Cor. 13:2).  We can have all the Bible knowledge in the world, go through seminary, have read the Bible however many times, have all the street smarts in the world, and literally know more than any other human being on the planet about life, God, and all things in between, but if we do not have love, we are nothing.  Nothing.  And just because you believe in God doesn’t mean anything either, because Paul said that even if you have enough faith to remove mountains and are without love, you’re still nothing. 

But why?  Why is love so important?  Just one little word, and if we don’t have it, then what’s the point?  Well, unfortunately, in the English language, we only have one word for “love,” and that’s kind of ruining it for us.  Because we love peanut butter, and vacations, and our moms and dads, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, tacos, art, water, scenic views, animals, good books, and God.  We bring God down to the same level as peanut butter.  Great.

I want you to take a look with me for a minute at the Biblical definition of love.  We can find this in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.  You know, the part they always read at weddings.  I had read this many times before and definitely gained some perspective on what love was, but I still felt like something was missing, as I often do when I look at the Bible in only English, seeing as how it was written in Hebrew and/or Greek.  So I pulled out my interlinear Bible and my Strong’s Concordance, along with several versions of the Bible in English, and I had myself a good old-fashioned word study, and what I discovered greatly enhanced what I know to be “love.”  Allow me to break it down for you a bit.  In this blog post, we’re only going to look at the very first few words in this passage.

“Love is patient and kind…” (1Cor. 13:4).

Other versions say that love is “long suffering” instead of patient.  The word used in Greek, makrothumeo, means to be long-spirited or patiently endure.  This made me think about the Israelites in the wilderness and their constant complaining and how God had to be quite long-spirited with them to eventually lead them to the Promised Land.  It also made me think of myself and how I know that I make the same mistakes time and time again, but God still loves me.  Because He is patient.  But what I really liked from this part was the word for “kind.”  The Greek word, chresteunomai, means to show oneself useful or act benevolently.  Many people see this word and think about being “kind” or “nice” to someone, like being polite or maybe even just tolerating them.  In reality, it means to be useful and help them, not for your own gain, but for theirs.  So if you find yourself being “nice” and dismissively “tolerant” to someone, you are not loving them.  The question you need to ask yourself is, is what you are doing useful?  Or is it useless?

Now I think you have to be careful when applying this specific principal to your interactions with others, especially in today’s world where we all have differing viewpoints on big issues and we all think we’re right.  Many people think that they are being useful, helpful, and kind to someone that they find to be in the wrong, but often that is just not the case.  There are basically two fields of thought among believers as to how we approach someone with a different opinion than ours on what we consider to be a “big issue,” such as gay marriage, the confederate flag, keeping Torah, etc. etc. etc. (yeah, I went there!). 

The first one is where they kind of just “live and let live,” for lack of a better term.  A believer knows that someone believes differently than them, but they’re not going to talk about it.  They think that they will not be able to convince the other person of the error of their ways, so why bother?  Let’s just keep the peace and be friends.  If it ever comes up, then I’ll let them know where I stand…unless it’s not a convenient time…and if I can think of a good way to say it…but pretty much I just want to make sure we’re still friends because I think I can be a good influence in their life.  Right?

The second one is where they will absolutely let everyone know what they believe and why everyone else is wrong if they don’t agree.  And they will make sure they touch all bases and cover every subject.  Look, I just want you to know!  Because I care about you!  So just listen to me, read your Bible, and WHY DON’T YOU AGREE WITH ME YET?!  You are living in SIN, my friend!

Now I’m not saying that all believers fall into one of those two categories, but many of them do.  In my opinion, neither of them are very good examples of “love is patient and kind.”  While it is necessary to maintain friendships and not make people uncomfortable all the time, it is also important that your friends know who you are and what you stand for.  You may be the only representation of God that a lot of people ever see, so be a good representation.  If you just sit back and pretend like your differing viewpoints are not at all important, you are not being kind.  You are being selfish.  You are watching your friends go down in flames while keeping any knowledge that you have of God to yourself.  That is not making yourself useful or acting benevolently.  It is not kind, and it is not love.

At the same time, if you are constantly nagging people and pushing your beliefs on them, that is not love either.  We need to “speak the truth in love,” (Ephesians 4:15).  Mostly, we need to make sure people know where we stand (without being obnoxious!) and love them regardless of whether or not we agree with them.  Remember, love is patient.  And you are not always going to be using words to get your point across.  People are supposed to be able to know us by our fruit.  If they can’t see Who we serve in the way we conduct ourselves in everyday life, then we are doing it wrong.  There are definitely times to take a stand, and I think we all pretty much know them when we see them, but those times will mean nothing to those around us if we have not created a foundation of love with them.

If we do not have love, we are nothing.

6 Reasons Every Believer in Jesus Should Celebrate Passover

Passover is a beautiful holiday that, like all of the Biblical holidays, I feel gets overlooked by many of today's believers.  So I have come up with 6 reasons why I think every believer in Jesus should celebrate Passover.

1) It's Biblical
There are 7 holidays that God specifically tells us to celebrate (check out Leviticus 23) in the Bible, and Passover is the first one.  No matter where you stand on the whole Torah/Old Testament/Covenant to-keep-or-not-to-keep controversy, it is still clear that these holy days belong to no one but God Himself.  He created them as yearly reminders of who He is, what He's done, and what He will do.  Celebrating these holidays that God custom made for us can draw us close to Him and show us aspects of His character that we may otherwise overlook.

2) It's Mindblowing
Every year as my family celebrates Passover, it seems like I have some new revelation or realization that just blows me away.  In our home, we do a semi-traditional Passover Seder (order of the service/dinner) that uses many Biblically based traditions that the Jewish people have been using for centuries.  Every year I am just floored by how much I see Jesus in these Jewish traditions!  And every year I discover a little more of the deep intricacy of the whole Passover story and how God designed it so that Jesus would fit the bill perfectly when the time came for Him to be our Passover sacrifice.  It's something that you think you already know until you really start learning about it.

3) The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Many people think that Passover and Unleavened Bread are one and the same, but this is not true.  If you've heard anyone say anything about "Passover week," then they were mistaken because Passover isn't even really a full day.  The Passover occurs "between the evenings" (between sundown and complete darkness) on the 14th day of Aviv (the first month on the Hebrew calendar).  Unleavened bread is actually a separate holiday that starts on the next day, although we do start eating unleavened bread at Passover.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread ties right into Passover, especially for believers in Jesus.  Right after we celebrate not only God bringing His people out of bondage in Egypt, but also Him later bringing His people out of the bondage of sin through Jesus' sacrifice, we then celebrate 7 days of abstaining from leaven and cleansing our bodies and homes of it, symbolically cleansing our lives of sin.  Not only are we reminded that, because of Jesus, we can do this cleansing, we are also reminded that we have to do our part in turning from our sins in order to receive complete cleansing from them.

4) First Fruits
Passover is when we celebrate the death and sacrifice of Jesus, and First Fruits (a holiday that happens during the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the first fruits of the barley would be presented/given to God at the Tabernacle/Temple, and also when we start counting the omer -- 50 days until Shavuot/Pentecost) is when we celebrate Him rising from the dead, therefore becoming the first fruits of the resurrected.  First Fruits is celebrated on the day after the Sabbath (7th day of the week; a day of rest) after Unleavened Bread starts, so it's not always on the same day of the month, although it is always on the same day of the week every year.  In the year that Jesus was crucified on Passover, First Fruits fell on the 17th day of Aviv, which just happened to be the day that Jesus rose from the dead!  Coincidence?  I think not.

Most Christians celebrate this without realizing on Easter or Resurrection Sunday. Jesus' death is kind of celebrated on Good Friday, and sometimes Passover is celebrated or looked at on Maundy Thursday, which is great. I think everyone should celebrate all of it! If you celebrate Passover before First Fruits/Easter/Resurrection Sunday, then the latter holds so much more significance and is so much more sacred.

5) God Told Us To
We are told several times throughout the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible, also known as the Pentateuch and/or God's instructions for how we should live our lives) that we are to celebrate Passover from generation to generation forever.  And that was back when it was only to commemorate Him leading His people out of Egypt.  How much more should we keep it now that we are also celebrating His Son dying a horrible and undeserved death to free us from the bondage of sin?

6) Coconut Macaroons 
Okay, homemade coconut macaroons have got to be one of my favorite things to eat (and I make pretty good ones, if I do say so myself), but it's not just the macaroons that make Passover great, it's more the principle of them (and if you're allergic to coconut, I'm deeply sorry for your loss).  In case you're wondering, coconut macaroons are somewhat of a Passover tradition, since they're unleavened cookies, and we don't eat leavened things on Passover.  It's kind of hard to do desserts on Passover since most desserts have some sort of leaven in them, so coconut macaroons are quite popular (probably because they're so yummy!).  Anyway, back to the point.  Every Passover is so special and unique, such an enriching and powerful experience, that, like the macaroons, I long for it and look forward to it every year.  It's hard for me to imagine why anyone would not want to celebrate it, because I always get so much out of it.  It's definitely a time to draw near to our Creator and Savior, and in my opinion, it's something that everyone who believes in Jesus should do.

If you want to try celebrating is for yourself or with your family, I can point you to two Jesus centered haggadahs (orders of service to walk you through it) put together by friends of mine.

Our Passover Lamb: A Christian Haggadah is available on Amazon Prime for only $3.99, and
Broken for You is available for free download as an ebook, and is also available on Amazon Prime for $6.50 for a hard copy.

All My Strength

In Deuteronomy 6:4-6, also known as the Jewish prayer the "shema" (roughly translated as "hear and obey"), God commands us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength.  Recently, I was thinking about this concept, and something relatively simple dawned on me that I had apparently been missing, and I'd like to share it with you.

If we are loving God with literally every ounce of our strength, then we have none left to use.  This is the ultimate submission.  Only when we love God with every single ounce of our own strength do we allow His to take over our lives.  We're using all our energy loving Him, so we know that He is the One doing everything in our lives.  This is how we can give all credit to Him and follow Him so completely; He's the One behind the wheel.  Since we're using all our strength loving Him, He uses His to help us live our lives how He intended and use out talents in a way that glorifies Him.

It's Him, not us.

Coming into  a fuller understanding of this simple, yet remarkable truth gave me more courage in my love for God.  That may sound a bit weird, but it was because I realized that it's through my love for Him and His for me that His Will is done in my life, and knowing that really makes all the difference.

How Lovely

There is a Jewish prayer called “Ma Tovu” in Hebrew, which in English means “how good” or “how lovely.”  This is commonly a prayer of reverence, expressing thankfulness for the opportunity to worship God, usually together or as one people.  This prayer is made up of different passages of Scripture from Numbers and the Psalms, and is a beautiful prayer.

The part of this prayer that I would like to draw attention to comes from Psalm 26:8; “O Lord, I love the habitation of your house, and the place where your glory dwells,” (ESV).  This is, of course, referring to the Temple, God’s “house” so to speak, where His glory was dwelling in order that He might be among His people, Israel.  I read this part over a few times and it left me thinking “Hey, isn’t that us?”  As believers in Jesus as our Messiah, don’t we believe that God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us?  Our bodies are now the Temple, right?  And as believers in Messiah Jesus, we are part of Israel.  We are His people, so He dwells with and in us!  So in saying this prayer, we are expressing our love for ourselves and God in us.

To me, and I’m sure to many others out there, this is sometimes a tricky subject.  I don’t always feel like I love myself, and I’m always finding new flaws that make me less than perfect and, in my eyes, unlovable.  But apparently, since I say this prayer, I do love myself, because God is in me, and I love God more than anything.  I just have to stop thinking of myself by everyone else’s standards and remember that I am a vessel, and God dwells within me. 

I’ve been to Jerusalem, I’ve been to the Western Wall which is all that remains of the Temple courts, and I loved it.  In fact, I got really emotional thinking about how I was touching a wall that used to be a wall around the place where God was.  His House, where He lived.  But you know what?  God doesn’t live there anymore.  He lives in me, and He lives in you if you let Him.  So how much more should I love myself?  A lot more than I do, that’s for sure.  But God loves me; if He didn’t, He wouldn’t be living in me!  And that’s a pretty good start!

Chanukah for Life

This year, Chanukah has meant a lot more to me than it has in past years.  Don't get me wrong, I knew what it was all about, and that it was about more than just oil.  I've always known that it is about miracles dedication to God, but for some reason, it really hit me this year more than it has in years past.

This year, I did not focus on the legend.  It was not about a would-be miracle where oil lasted way longer than it should've, and it wasn't even really about the Maccabees.  I know, the way the holiday started was because the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, took back the Temple, and rededicated it to God, and yes, that is a very big miracle.  Especially when you consider the size of their army vs. how many Greeks they were up against.  But I think the biggest miracle of the story of Hanukkah lies in the mountains, where a family was brought up to fear God and be more willing to die than to forsake Him.  That's right, Judah Maccabee and his brother were brought up by a loving father in just this way, in secrecy, despite the threat of death held over their heads by the Greeks.  The Maccabees proved that it takes only one small light to vanquish any amount of darkness, regardless of the amount and how long it has ruled.

This is what Chanukah means to me this year.  It means just that; Chanukah.  Dedication.

Each night we light our candles, and each night the glow grows stronger.  And we bless our God for commanding us to light the light of Chanukah -- dedication.  But are we truly lighting that light?  Every night we tend to our flames, watching them light up the darkness, not just in our own homes, but out our windows into the streets, and all over the world (via Facebook and other social media sites where we undoubtedly post pictures).  This should be an 8 day representation of how we light the light of dedication in our own hearts and among our own families.  Do we take the time each day to dedicate ourselves to our Maker, our King, our Master?  Do we fan the flames and make sure they're shining bright, vanquishing the darkness in our own lives and and shining our our windows into the lives of others?

The eyes are the lamps of the body.  Are yours shining bright and warm, or have you let them get dark and cold?

Chanukah is the Feast of Dedication, but it should not be confined to just 8 days of the year.  Dedication is a daily battle.  Are we willing to fight that battle?  It is so important to bring Light into this Darkness in which we live.  And even if we feel alone, which many of us so often do, we have to remember that we are not.  The most important thing is that God is with us (so who can be against us, right?) and He has us right where He wants us.  Each one of our lights, no matter how small, is so important, and causes darkness to flee.  We Children of the Light may feel alone where we are right now, but rest assured that there are others out there, and they are shining their lights, too.  In fact, there are lights shining all over the world, banishing darkness from all corners.  Slowly but surely, we are lighting up the night, which is good because we were born to flush out darkness.  Not just on Chanukah with our menorahs, but all year round with the way we live our lives.

We are fighting the battle of Light vs. Darkness, Life vs. Death, just like the Maccabees.  Will you join us?  Will you kindle and sustain the light of dedication in your life?  I hope that you do.  Because if not us, then who?

Oops, I Did it Again!

Right now, we are in the month of Elul (that is, if you go by the Hebrew calendar instead of the more mainstream Gregorian).  You may be asking yourself, what does this mean to me?  Well, maybe nothing, but there's so much it could (or maybe I should say should) mean.

The name for the month "Elul" originates from the Akkadian word that means "harvest," which is appropriate because this month (which is usually around late August-September on the Gregorian calendar) is usually around harvest time.  The word elul, though, is also similar to the root of the verb "search" in Aramaic.

This is interesting, and very appropriate because the month of Elul is known throughout Judaism and others who observe the Torah as a month of searching one's heart and draw near to God in preparation for the coming Judgement Day (Yom Teruah) and Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), also known as the Fall Feasts.

To me, this means a lot more than it may mean to many other people.  Today in mainstream Christianity, we are always told to "repent" which, in case we don't know, is to admit that we are sinners and Jesus will forgive us and we can continue on our merry way.  Well, at least that's what I  get from most of what I'm hearing these days.  But in reality there is so much more to repentance that that.

Most dictionaries will define the act of repentance as "to regret or feel remorse for what you have done," and maybe that's one of our English language's many faults, because if what we have to do is just feel like we're sorry, then what's the point??  Honestly, that isn't helping anyone do anything.

Well, since the repentance and asking for forgiveness of our sins is a Biblical concept, and the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, let me show you this idea from a Hebrew perspective.  The word in Hebrew used to describe repentance is "teshuvah," which literally means "return."  Teshuvah is the fact that we can turn back to God and let Him heal us in our brokenness.  Teshuvah is admitting that we were wrong, apologizing and begging forgiveness that we do not deserve, and turning our backs completely on the sin so that we can return to God and walk in His ways instead of our own.

What is the use of confessing our sins if we're only going to do them again?  I once read that you can never make the same mistake twice, because once you have made it once, to do it again is no longer a mistake, but a choice.

Now, I ask you, is that the point of confessing our sins to God; so that we can just have a clean slate to scribble all over again, knowing that He will just wipe it again later if we ask Him to?  That's ridiculous.

Psalm 51 is often called the "Perek Teshuvah," or, The Great Chapter of Repentance.  In this chapter, we see what it means to repent, and what our followup should be; we see what we should really be doing, not only during the month of Elul, but all year round.


Psalm 51 ESV

"Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
 Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
 Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
 O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    build up the walls of Jerusalem;
 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar."

The Restlessness of War

For the past few weeks I have been feeling a little restless in my faith.  I'm not talking about a bad kind of restless, like when-is-this-going-to-be-over kind of restless.  No, what I'm talking about is more along the lines of how-can-you-just-be-sitting-there kind of restless.

At first I thought I was a little odd to feel so restless, because the majority of believers I see around me seem very calm and collected and not too concerned about much in the way of spiritual warfare.  But then I got to thinking that maybe I'm not strange because there is, in fact, a battle raging around me all the time!

Why are more people not restless over this??  True, our battle is not with flesh and blood.  It is much more real than that.  Ephesians 6:12 tells us that we are battling with "rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness" and we are fighting against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm."  To me, the fact that we can't see our enemies is all the more reason to feel restless over it.  And what I don't think a lot of people understand is that this battle is raging literally all the time, and we are  a part of it whether we want to be or not.  We can either fight, or we can give in and let the enemy have the victory.

This is why I cringe to see believers who just want to blend in with the society around them...a society that is to profane and vulgar!  We are supposed to be set-apart!  That means that when people so much as see us, they should know who we are.  When they hear us speak they should know without a doubt who we serve and what we're all about.  They should be struck down by the purity, the modesty of both outer and inner appearance, and the very way that we conduct ourselves.  This should hit them so hard that it is beyond evident to them that no one but the God of the Universe, the Almighty who was and is and still will be, could possibly be responsible for how we are.  How are we supposed to fight in this battle if we're having such an identity crisis?

There is a line in the sand.  I know, cliche, but level with me here.  Which side are you on?  Are you on the side where people try to fit in?  The side where people are bowing to the traditions of man, whether or not they realize it?  Or are you on God's side; the side where the only standard is His Word?  

Do people know who you are, or do you hide it?  Don't be ashamed of your Creator, because He is bigger than everything else in your life put together.  If not for Him, you wouldn't even be here.  As the world goes more and more downhill, it is the time for us to stand up.  We need to get ourselves together, get down on our knees before our Maker, and stand in the face of the Enemy.

It's time for us to stand up and determine who will win.