No Limits!

Americans don't like limits.

Just think about it. We created the "super-size".  One gallon of carbonated drink per person please!

When all the kids were little, we would stop by a gas station and get two of the ginormous fountain drinks- the biggest size they had. It would usually be just a little bit more expensive than one that you could actually hold with one hand. But we only had to buy two for all of us and we would just pass it around the van.  Ah, I still remember those sweet moments:

     "Hey, you are taking too much!"

     "Mom! He won't share!"

     "It is my turn!"

     "Yuck. You slobbered on the straw!"

No one could grow up a germ-a-phobe in our family! Oh, how I miss those days, back when parenting was easy!

But, back to the point.  We (people in general) don't like limits.

Just think of the all-you-can-eat buffet.  Who really thought that was a good idea? No limits on food? Really? It must have been invented by the makers of Rolaids and Tums.

And most Americans, at least the ones who enjoy dreaming of one day being on the Nascar circuit, speak dreamily of the German Autobahn.  We get a far-away look in our eyes and say in a dreamy voice, "Just think. No speed limits!"  I lived in Germany and got to drive on the Autobahn and, sigh, it was wonderful....

But we all have limits in our lives.

We have speed limits because there are so many cars on our roads and there is no way it would be safe if we didn't limit the legal speed.  I know, I have contributed three young, male, "dreaming of Nascar" drivers to the roads and personally come from a long line of "lead foot syndrome" drivers.

And there are limits to how much we can eat at the all-you-can-eat buffet- like our pants!  Even elastic can only stretch so far.

Isn't there anything without limits?  Maybe the quest for no limits is what leads people to do crazy things, like tie a rubber band around their ankle and jump from a suspension bridge!  But even bungee jumpers have limits- the length of their bungee.

But God has given us something that we can participate in fully WITHOUT ANY LIMITS!

This past Sunday our pastor brought up the passage in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit.  I have always been puzzled at the last phrase of the sentence, because it always seemed to not quite fit.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."  Galatians 5:22,23


I always wondered at that last phrase- of course there is no law against love or patience! What did Paul mean?

But our Pastor made a comment that started an "Ah!!!!" moment for me.

The point is not that there is no law against love, but that there is no legal limit to how much you may love. There is no restriction to how long to have patience. There is no rule to the quantity of kindness. There is no commandment to cut-off the self-control. There is no regulation to contain the joy.

I get to love for as long and as deep and as wide as I have breath for.

There. Are. No. Limits.

Against such things there is no law.

Amazing.

So, I can jump on the Autobahn of Joy and throw open the throttle and let her rip.

Super-size that patience for me, if you please!

An all-you-can-eat buffet serving kindness, goodness, peace, and gentleness?  Bring it on! Even my elastic can't restrict it!

So enjoy your Fruit today- no limits, no restrictions, no controls. Just think what we would look like if the Spirit was producing Fruit in our lives and it was Out Of Control!!!

Oh, that it might be so.

From Water to Wine

Disclaimer: as I have tried to write this post for the past two weeks I have fought more with my husband than any time in the last two months! I could just hear the enemy whispering in my ear, "How can you write about sacrificial love? You can't write about what you don't practice!" So with much fear and trepidation I defy the enemy and offer these humble thoughts that I need more than anyone else does. I don't write from the standpoint of victory- but of faith that God's truth is God's truth, no matter what.

The sun sat just above the trees, …the music had played, …the mother of bride had cried,… and now the minister spoke, “Jesus, Himself went to a wedding, and blessed it with the first miracle, of changing water into wine.”

We have been to many weddings in the past few years. I have often heard this miracle mentioned when the minister speaks to the new couple. But as I sat at this wedding I had a totally new thought and realization of a deeper meaning in the picture this story paints for us.

Scripture is that way- so deep and layered and meaningful. Even a Scripture we have read and heard multiple times has more to teach us. It IS living and active.

The story of Jesus’ first miracle is found in John 2:1-10 and is a familiar story.

Jesus goes to a wedding and the wine runs out so His mother asks Him to fix the problem, because moms want to fix problems- even other peoples’ problems.

When Jesus has the servants fill the water jars with water I wonder what everyone was thinking? This was not the obvious solution to the dilemma. These were not even water jars for holding drinking water. They were special jars for holding water for purification.

The wine that came from the water that was poured into the purification jars was of excellent quality- the steward called it “the good wine”. The word for “good” can also mean choice and exceptional. Not the everyday wine. Not the cheap stuff, but the kind that is reserved for special occasions.

As I watched these two precious souls entrust themselves to each other I was struck that when we come to the marriage altar we bring our love for the other person and our good intentions. But that love is really an offering of water.

It gets poured into each others’ lives, but as all long-timed married couples know, the love you bring to the wedding, while wonderful and warm and lovely, will never be enough to get you through a lifetime of good days and bad days, of gains and losses, of triumphs and tragedies.

For that, your love must be transformed and multiplied. It must become the kind that is more about giving than getting.

It must become the kind that can bear all things.

That can believe all things.

That can hope all things.

That can endure all things.

But now we are no longer talking about a natural kind of love. Now we are talking about a supernatural kind of love. We are talking about a purified love.

What our love needs is a purification jar and Jesus.

In a recent ministry letter, a teacher I deeply admire, Dwight Pryor (www.jcstudies.com), wrote this about marriage:

Far more important than falling in love is the biblical mandate of growing in love, one toward the other. Only then can the highest goal of marriage be achieved: not satisfying personal desires, but sanctifying the name of God. If all this sounds more sacrificial than sensational, it should. Authentic love is never self-serving.”

Most of the “love” that we see in the movies coming from Hollywood is about what you get, not what you give. About if you are satisfied, not if you serve another. About finding “the one”, not about being “the one”. About finding a “soul mate”, instead of bringing to your marriage a soul satisfied and completed by Jesus.

So how do we move from self-serving love to authentic love?

Jesus speaks to us how we are to love one another:

Luke 6:32, 35: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them...But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back.”

John 13:34: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

I John 4:19: We love, because He first loved us.

In other words, we need to have a love that moves from water to wine.

The water kind of love continually needs to be drank over and over because it does not satisfy for long- so it continues to look for ways to be fulfilled. Instead, what the water kind of love needs is to be poured in the purification jars and be miraculously transformed by the Lord who not only is the only One who can work the miracle, but also the One who showed us what sacrificial, authentic love is all about.

So the next time you feel your “cheap wine” love running out,

and when all you have to bring to replenish the wine with is water,

then give it to Jesus and let Him transform it into love of exceptional quality…into authentic love…into the “good stuff”.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us

I John 4:9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. 4:10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 4:11 Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

My love does not reflect my Father's love when:

• it looks for what it gets instead of what it can give
• it is affected by circumstance
• it is limited by irritants
• it doesn't cover over sins
• it keeps account of wrongs
• it selfishly tries to get its way
• it requires emotions to work
• it desires revenge
• it looks at me before others
• it tires out
• it runs out of hope
• it looks at the surface of things
• it assumes
• it grabs
• it gives up
• it stops trying
• it hides
• it waits for a return
• it says, "No more!"

His love has no limit

His grace has no measure

His power no boundary known unto man

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

-Annie J Flint