Remembering a Friend

I was going through one of my notebooks today. I use notebooks as an organizational tool. My notebooks contain valuable pieces of information I come across. I have quite a few notebooks on different subjects.

One of my notebooks is labeled "LOVE." It's my favorite notebook. This is the one I pulled off the shelf today. As I was going through it, I stopped on a page I hadn't seen in a while. The page was a print out of John 14 from BibleGateway.com. At the top of the page I had written in bold:

Lisa Stack passed away after hearing her husband read John 14:1 to her

Lisa Stack was a friend I had met at the office. I didn't know Lisa very well, but she was always very friendly around the office. She and I enjoyed talking about the cartoon 'Sponge Bob Square Pants.' Lisa had fondness in her heart for Squidward. I got a kick out of Plankton. Lisa also loved music. She was in the media business and she had lots of contacts at radio stations around the country. As a musician and owner of a record company, our conversations would usually gravitate toward music, radio and the state of the music business.

One day, I noticed Lisa was missing from her office. I asked Lisa's boss, a great guy named Pete, where Lisa was. Pete said Lisa was undergoing treatments for skin cancer at Yale University hospital. He told me Lisa was diagnosed with Melanoma, a serious type of cancer that has the highest death rate and is responsible for 75 percent of all deaths from skin cancer.

My heart sank when Pete told me this news.

I knew through our conversations that Lisa had a beautiful boy and loving husband at home. She was young - in her 30s. I couldn't seem to reconcile in my mind a talented young woman and terminal skin cancer. It didn't make any sense to me. But the reality was, it was true.

Lisa was in bad shape. She knew it. Despite all the treatments she received (some of which were extremely painful operations), she was not getting better. She was willing to explore new treatments for her skin cancer. Doctors seemed to be her only hope.

One day while Lisa was out receiving treatments, I approached her boss Pete about participating in a healing session at a local church. The Pastor at this church had himself been miraculously healed from a stroke. There was something very special about his healing sessions. They were beautiful experiences (incidentally, Christine and I wrote the song "In My Heart" after attending one of the healing sessions).

Pete liked the idea of the healing session. He said he would talk to Lisa and her husband about it and get back to me. Lisa had never embraced Christ in her heart, but I had a feeling she would be willing to reach out to Him now. As the son of a wonderful physician, I knew in my surrendered heart that Jesus was her only true hope.

Not long after we talked, Pete contacted me and told me Lisa would love to participate in a healing session. We made arrangements to have a group of people attend it. Lisa's family would be there as would most of her colleagues from work.

The healing session was special. The presence of the Holy Spirit was powerful - so powerful that Lisa got knocked to the floor. Lying on the floor with the Pastor praying over her, she seemed so peaceful.

When the Pastor and several of her friends lifted her up from the floor, she told us in no uncertain terms that she had been healed by God. Her spirit was now connected with His. Tears were flowing everywhere in that church. Lisa had received Christ.

A few weeks after the healing session, Lisa was told by her doctors she didn't have much longer to live. The cancer was spreading rapidly throughout her body. Lisa took the news incredibly well. Her flesh was deteriorating but her spirit was never more alive.

I got the news that Lisa had passed away at home. She died in peace. Her husband told me that she died after hearing him read John 14:1 to her.

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."

And with those words, Lisa was gone. Lisa went home. As Jesus says in John 14:2:

"In My Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you."

As I looked at my notebook today, the tears began to flow. My friend Lisa Stack left our world and ascended into His kingdom. She had moved on to a better place - a more peaceful place. Cancer had taken her flesh, but her heart and spirit were with Jesus. Lisa trusted God with her heart. She also believed in Jesus.

May you trust God with your heart and may you also believe in Jesus.

Agape,

Steve

Only From The Heart

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Romans 13:8-9)

This is one of the most powerful Scriptures in the Bible. Here is the Apostle Paul - a former religious Pharisee and 'keeper of the law' - telling the Romans that all the commandments can be summed up in one rule: LOVE. There is no need to memorize all the commands. If you have His love in your heart, you will automatically do the right thing.

Love comes from God. God is love (1 John 4:8). If our hearts are aligned with God's heart, we possess a heart full of His eternal, everlasting love. There is nothing more beautiful than a human heart full of God's love. A heart of this kind always does the right thing. Always! That is what Paul told the Romans: Love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

Here's a question I've been thinking about a lot recently:

Can we command people to love their neighbors and their enemies?

I was reading a fascinating book titled "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankel. Frankel was a holocaust survivor. He was also a trained psychiatrist. Toward the end of the book, Dr. Frankel makes the case for what he calls 'tragic optimism.' He describes tragic optimism as an optimism in the face of tragedy and in view of the human potential which at its best always allows for: (1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment; (2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and (3) deriving from life's transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action.

Frankel goes on to say:

"It must be kept in mind, however, that optimism is not anything to be commanded or ordered. One cannot even force oneself to be optimistic indiscriminately, against all odds, against all hope. And what is true for hope is also true for the other two components of the triad inasmuch as faith and love cannot be commanded or ordered either." (p. 162)

This is the line that struck me hard: "Inasmuch as faith and love cannot be commanded or ordered either." Dr. Frankel answered the question I had been thinking deeply about in the negative. He says we cannot command or order somebody to have faith or to love.

Let's explore this issue further, because I believe it goes right to the heart of what Christianity should be all about.

The Apostle Paul told the Galatians: 'the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.' (Galatians 5:6) The Galatians wanted to follow the Judaic law and Christ at the same time. Paul was stern with the Galatians. He said that you couldn't do both. Faith through love is the only thing that counts when following Christ.

Which brings me back to Frankel. Dr. Frankel believed that faith and love, like optimism, could not be commanded. And yet, Paul told the Romans that love is the fulfillment of all commandments.

So what do we make of this? I believe that Dr. Frankel is both right and wrong. You can indeed command somebody to have faith or love. In this sense Frankel is wrong. However, commanding somebody to have faith or love doesn't mean they will obey the command. In fact, unless their heart is properly and perfectly aligned with God's heart, you can bet your bottom dollar they will fall short of always obeying these commands. In this sense, Dr. Frankel is correct.

Why was Jesus so powerful when he walked in the flesh on this planet? He was powerful precisely because He and God's hearts were (and are) one. You can't disentangle Jesus' heart from God's heart. They are perfectly entangled - always and forever. There is nothing more beautiful than a human heart that is perfectly entangled with God's heart. This is what Jesus meant when He told His disciples:

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

Pure hearts are blessed hearts. They are hearts blessed with God's love. And these loving hearts see God (As the Apostle John told us, God is love). Do you see the beauty in what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:8?

Our human hearts have difficulty loving enemies and neighbors. Many people are not raised on love. Their parents and families fall short of love - all too often, far short of love. As people go from childhood to adulthood, their hearts become filled with darkness (e.g., shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, anger). As adults, they find a mate, get married, have children and start families. But they do so with hearts filled with darkness. A vicious cycle begins. Darkness breeds more darkness. The pure, loving heart of a child is nowhere to be found. It vanishes without a trace.

How do we know this to be true? Well, let's look at the world today and take a look at history. I would venture to say that many people on this planet hate their enemies and don't like their neighbors. Now, I'm not saying all people hate their enemies and their neighbors. But from the best I can tell, hatred is rampant on our planet today.

History shows that the only time people are at not at war with other people is when they are too ill to fight. It turns out peace has existed only about 3% of the time in recorded human history. In other words, people are at war with each other 97% of the time. War is the normal state of affair in the world, not peace.

Jesus knew that loving hearts are not prone fight other loving hearts. If we loved our brothers and sisters as ourselves, as He commanded us to, much of the fighting in the world would cease (ahhhhh.....). Hearts filled with love are gentle and kind. They are not easily angered. They are patient. They are not jealous and they do not envy. They rejoice in the truth. They suffer long. These hearts bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). With a heart full of His love, there will be little if any fear (ahhhhh....). His perfect love casts out all fear. (1 John 4:18)

The truth is, God's heart has no problem loving our enemies and our neighbors nor does he have any problem loving us (Do you feel loved right now? You should! God loves you!). He, in fact, adores our enemies and neighbors, and he adores us.

How does God do it? That is a mystery to me. But when I think about this mystery, I always come out with a greater appreciation for how awesome God's love is. There is nothing more powerful in the universe than God's love. It can transform any darkness that exists into light.

Now, you may ask, how can we have a heart like God? Jesus showed us they way. We can transform our hearts by surrendering all the darkness in them - that is, the shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, anger - to Him and going to the Cross. It is at the Cross that He transforms the darkness in our hearts to light. This is a daily process. It is very difficult and painful (there are no padded crosses!) Each day, a little more darkness dies which allows more of His light to shine through our hearts. Over time, when His light begins to shine, we become 'the light of the world.' (Matthew 5:14) Like the house on the hill, we cannot be hidden.

A heart of Christ is a loving heart - a heart filled with Spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). A heart of Christ will automatically do the correct thing. It will fulfill the law, as Paul told the Romans. He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

T. Austin Sparks defined Christianity as 'Christ in our hearts.' How simple. And yet, we've managed to make a tragic mess of the simplicity of Christ. Some three hundred years after Christ ascended into heaven, man went and created a religion about Jesus that today has largely become devoid of love. A religion that lacks the very essence of what Christianity should be all about - Christ in our hearts. How tragic!

I believe this is one of the biggest problems in the world today. In fact, I will make a prediction: Until Christians understand that Christianity is truly all about having an intimate, personal relationship with Christ based on faith expressing itself through love, there will be much darkness and very little light on our beautiful planet. As the former religious Pharisee, Paul, knew oh so well, it is only from the heart that we can obey any of His commands. Any other way will fall short of the mark. You can count on it.

May your heart be overflowing with His love, always.

Agape,

Steve

Where's the Fruit?

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
(John 4:24)

Having been blessed with the Spirit over five years ago, I frequently hear people refer to me as "A Religious Christian." I laugh now when I hear somebody describe me in this manner. As one of my scientifically-trained friends might say, that description of me 'isn't even wrong' (my learned friend would be referring to the legendary physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who described scientific theories that were grossly incomplete as being 'not even wrong').

Now, I know plenty of people that could be described as 'Religious Christians.' I prefer to think of myself as "A spiritual man who follows Christ." I believe there is a profound difference between a religious person and somebody who is spiritual.

How can we tell the difference between a religious person and a spiritual person? Well, there are many ways, but there is one sure way: Examine the heart and look for the Spiritual fruit. How much fruit do you see in the heart? Religious people have very little Spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). They know the commandments and the laws, just like the Pharisees did over two thousand years ago. Some of them can quote Scripture a mile a minute and make your head spin. They will dazzle you with their knowledge of the Bible. Some religious people can pray powerful prayers.

However, when you look under the hood so to speak and examine a heart, you see a religious heart lacks the very thing that Jesus said would differentiate his disciples from everybody else - the presence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That is, the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)

As Paul told the Galatians, a group of people who insisted on following Christ and Judaic law: 'against such things [the fruit of the Spirit] there is no law.' (Galatians 5:23)

Religious people don't have much Spiritual fruit in their hearts. If fact, when you examine their hearts closely, what you are more likely to see are things like shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, anger and pride. These are the kinds of things that fill people's hearts with darkness and eclipse the Lord's light.

The Pharisees' hearts were overflowing with pride, fear and anger. Jesus took issue with them. He exposed their dark hearts. I encourage you to read what Jesus said to them in Matthew Chapter 23. One of my favorite lines from Matthew 23 is:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. (Matthew 23:25-26).

The inside of the cup that Jesus is referring to is a metaphor for our hearts. Our hearts are the inside of the cup. The Pharisees looked clean on the outside, but their hearts were filthy. They were filled with darkness. Jesus told them to purify their hearts first, and by doing this, they would be clean on the outside.

Religion is about how things appear on the outside. Religious people look holy and clean when they go to church, but their hearts are dark. A spiritual person may not look holy and they may not even go to church, but when you examine their hearts, you see abundant Spiritual fruit. That's a sure sign Christ is inside. They are the Church. "Christ inside our hearts" - that's how T. Austin Sparks defined Christianity. That's what it is all about!

Recall that it was the high priest who spat in Jesus' face and ordered him to be put to death (Matthew 26:65-67). A heart filled with love and other Spiritual fruit doesn't spit in somebody's face. Self-control and kindness are fruit of the Spirit.

Author John Eldredge made a great observation in his terrific book "Waking the Dead." Eldredge said: "Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are impostors."

Impostors! 'Religious Christians' are impostors of Christ. That's precisely what my heart tells me. 'Religious Christians' know things about Jesus - perhaps even a great many things - but they don't know Him. He is not in their hearts. They have little or no Spiritual fruit.

Now perhaps you can see why I laugh when somebody calls me a 'Religious Christian.' That's the last thing I would ever want to be!

May Christ and His love reign supreme in your heart always and everywhere.

Agape,

Steve

Faith, Belief and Love

I've been having some intense discussions with Christine over the past several weeks. We have been talking about the importance of belief and faith. Christine is very spiritual. She has been working extremely hard over the past several years. I greatly admire the work she has done on the Cross. When we recorded "Soul Fire" back in 2005, Christine was a "cracked and broken vessel ready to hear." This is how she described herself in the song "A Time To Heal."

Fast forward to today and Christine is talking about leaping and having the net appear, as she did on her song "The Call" from our new record. Leaping into the unknown into something we can't see requires faith - a great deal of faith! Belief is important because when you leap and you seek Him above all else, you have to believe that His heart and His love will lift you high up spiritually into the heavenly places.

Jesus says: 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.' (John 20:29)

Jesus also says: 'God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.' (John 4:24)

Christine is a loving spirit and she is blessed. She is blessed more than she realizes.

I happened to be reading Hebrews this morning. Hebrews 11 is all about faith and belief. The writer of Hebrews (let's just say it's Paul even though we aren't sure) said:

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

And,

It is impossible to please Him without faith. (Hebrews 11:6)

There it is! Paul is echoing Jesus - believing without seeing. That's the Holy Spirit at work.

Last week, Christine emailed me a beautiful prayer from Ephesians. I've been meditating a lot recently on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. It is deep Scripture - incredibly spiritual. The Spirit was obviously moving greatly in Paul when he wrote this letter.

I had read the prayer Christine sent me several times before, but when I read it again, something hit me hard. I saw the enormous power in Paul's prayer. Let's examine the prayer:

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

'That Christ may dwell in our heart through faith.'

Yes. Christ... in our hearts... through faith. That's Christianity in a nutshell. Christ in our hearts through faith.

Christianity has become a religion about Jesus. How tragic and sad. In truth, Christianity should be all about having a close, intimate relationship with Jesus. There is nothing more intimate than having Christ in our hearts. It is Him living in us. It is no longer I, but Christ. A heart full of Jesus is a heart full of love. His everlasting and never-failing love energizes our spirits - powerfully and absolutely.

'that you may be rooted and grounded in love.'

Rooted in love. Grounded in love. Why? Because 'God is love.' (1 John 4:8). When we are rooted and grounded in love, we become one with God. Our hearts beat with His. We are transformed into true love. How precious and beautiful! Note that there is nothing religious about being rooted and grounded in love. It's a spiritual thing. When we walk in love, we become spiritual fruits, not religious nuts.

'(that you) may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;'

That we comprehend His love - the width and length and depth and height. The scope of His love is not bounded by space and time. Like the Cross, it extends out in all directions, north, south east and west.

How do we comprehend His love? With our minds? No, says Paul. We comprehend His love with our hearts. That is where He dwells - in our hearts. Our minds cannot comprehend His love. Paul tells us His love surpasses knowledge. It's beyond the reach of our minds. This explains why many otherwise brilliant (and relatively high IQ) scientists have difficulty grasping Jesus. They are trying to understand the Lord with their minds instead of their hearts. You can't do it. As the brilliant French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal noted in his book, Pensees, "It is the heart which perceives God and not reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by reason. The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."

Until people open up the eyes of their hearts, they will have difficulty seeing God and comprehending His powerful, life-generating love.

'that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.'

Filled with the fullness of God. His Spiritual fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). By letting Christ shine through our hearts, we become one with God and His heart - a heart full of perfect love.

And, with respect to God's love we know there is no fear. For God tells us:

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18)

No fear in love. Think deeply about this Scripture. So many people live in fear today and consequently, don't walk in love. Fear equals insecurity. We tremble with fear. Fear paralyzes us. If people only had faith and believed in God's love they would fear not. His love casts out all fear. This is truly remarkable!

Which brings me back to my discussions with Christine. Faith and belief are essential if we are to grow spiritually and walk in love. Without them, it is impossible to live a life of love (Ephesians 5:1-2). As Pascal wrote, "It is faith in our hearts that makes us say not 'I know' but 'I believe.' God used the former religious Pharisee, Paul, to deliver the important message about faith, belief and love. As Paul told the Galatians: "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Galatians 5:6)

May you have great faith and believe in His perfect love.

Agape,
Steve

I Am Love

Here's a little love story for you today. It's a true story. It's also a mystery. It's a story that not many people have heard because I haven't shared it with many people. I share it with you today with the hope that you find it encouraging.

On December 7, 2002 at 3:45 a.m, on a cold and crisp early winter morning in Fairfield, Connecticut, I was awoken by a strange force. Not really knowing what was going on, I got out of bed and walked downstairs. As I sat quietly on the couch wiping the sleep from my eyes, I felt a glow. Heat wrapped around me. It was a strange sensation - something I had never felt before.

Sitting on the couch, I began looking at some pages I had printed out from the Internet the evening before. Interestingly, the papers I had printed contained Scripture from the Bible. Before I went to bed, I had done a Google search on the word "Love" and 1 Corinthians 13 came up. I didn't own a Bible at the time so I printed out the Scripture.

My lifelong dream was to find true love. My quest to find true love intensified after my 69 year old dad - one of the most loving people I knew - passed away on June 30, 2001 from a three month battle with cancer. In what seemed like a blink of any eye, he was gone. A whole serious of incredibly painful and devastating events unfolded after his death. Light turned to darkness. Despite my best attempts, I couldn't escape the darkness. It was everywhere. I was drowning in the darkness. In desperation, I began crying out for true love.

In the months following my dad's funeral, I would sit quietly on the train, in my office, alone at home, crying out for love. I sent out emails to friends with hidden messages: "Can you please tell me what true love is?" I was indiscriminately crying out for love. I sat in my office and watched the September 11 terrorist attacks. Watching those huge twin towers crumble like sand castles on the beach was surreal. The darker my life got, the more intensely I pursued my dream. Little did I know on the morning of December 7, 2002 that my quest to find true love was about to end.

Sitting pensively in the early morning winter light with this strange, luminous glow surrounding me, I began reading 1 Corinthians 13. I read each line slowly. 'Love is patient. Love is kind...' As I continued reading, tears began to trickle down my cheeks. The more I kept reading, the heavier the tears flowed. After a few minutes, I was sobbing like a baby. I couldn't control my tears. I tried to stop crying. For a moment, I caught my breath and I heard a gentle voice say:

"I Am Love"

Who was that? What was that? Who is love? I was dazed. Somebody was speaking to me in a voice I had never heard before. It was so gentle.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

I read it again.

But the greatest of these is love.

I was stunned. In an instant, I understood a profound truth. I was in pursuit of God and I didn't even realize it. God was speaking directly to my battered and broken heart.

Now the mystery of my story is that I wasn't searching for God. I wasn't "on a mission for God." I didn't have a religious bone in my body (still don't!). I didn't ask to receive the Holy Spirit. I wasn't searching for Jesus Christ. I didn't request a private meeting with God at 3:45 a.m.

The truth is the only thing I asked for was for somebody - anybody! - to reveal true love to me. My desperation was the result of being beaten up and battered over a series of events related to my dad's death. My heart had been completely crushed. The people I had trusted with my heart put a dagger in it and threw it away in a trash can. I was broken - completely broken.

He came to me. He revealed Himself to me. After months searching desperately for true love, the Lord spoke to me through 1 Corinthians 13 in the early morning hours and said:

I Am Love.

My search for true love was over. I had found true love. God is love. God spoke directly to my heart.

Lest you think I have completely lost my mind and made this story up, I have proof of my encounter with the Holy Spirit. What's the proof, you ask? The proof is a song He gave me - an incredibly beautiful song. Christine and I recorded the song He gave me on the first Sweetbird record, Free Spirit Reflection. It's titled, simply and appropriately, "I Am Love."

People who know me realize that I could never write such a beautiful song. The truth is, I didn't write the song. He did. I merely received it. There may be people that get up very early in the morning to write music, but I'm not one of them. I'm typically sound asleep at that time of day.

After we recorded the song our producer Paul Avgerinos, a five-time Grammy nominated artist pulled us into the control room and said with a look on his face that I will never forget: "That's a Smash Hit record!!!" Christine and I had no idea what Paul was talking about. "A Smash Hit Record?" "Really?" It was the first time Christine and I had recorded with Paul so we really didn't know what to say other than, "Thank you for the wonderful complement. The song was a gift from Jesus!" (Note: Christine and I are planning to re-record the song using a slightly expanded arrangement on the next Sweetbird record. Incidentally, for those readers who are interested in the genesis of songs, the title track on "Shine" is about the experience I had on December 7, 2002; interestingly, the music for the song 'Shine' is in the same guitar tuning and key as "I Am Love." You see, it all fits together nicely when He does it!)

It's been almost five years since I received the Holy Spirit. Over the period, I've been in the intense process of being reduced to love. My life has been turned inside out. Formerly a man of body and soul and full of himself, I am becoming a spiritual man. To be sure, there is still a good deal of the old Steve Waite that needs to go to the Cross and die. I trust that God will give me the strength to do what must be done. I believe that over time my walk down the narrow path will reveal more and more of His Spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). The more of Him, the less of me. He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). My heart beats with His heart.

This is my testimony. This is the story of how I was regenerated. I am a new creation. I'm still learning how to walk in love. It's very difficult. It's hard work. I go to the Cross daily. Sometimes the pain is intense. God is very demanding, but He is kind, gentle and patient. Walking in love goes against my DNA. Fortunately, I was raised by loving parents so I understand the beauty of love.

Like many people, I used to do everything myself. Equipped with the Holy Spirit, now I allow the Lord to work through me. My heart is aligned with His heart. The process of being reduced to love requires great patience because God's timescale is vastly different from ours. I know that He will do the right thing in His time. And when He does, it will be blessed.

May God give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Agape,
Steve

Love a Little More

Of all the things that are required of us in this life, which is the most important? What is the real point of our existence?

I suspect if you asked these two questions to one hundred different people from all walks of life, you would probably get dozens of different answers. What is important to some people isn't important to others and vice versa.

One day, the religious leaders in Israel - the Pharisees - confronted Jesus with these questions point blank. And here's what Jesus said:

"First, love God with all your heart, and secondly, love others as you would love yourself."

Do this, Jesus said, and you will find the purpose of your life. Everything else will fall into place.

You see, a life filled with love is a life most like the one God lives, which is life as it was meant to be. Paul told the Ephesians:

Be imitators of God, and live a life of love.
(5:1-2)

Jesus mentioned loving God with all our heart. What's central about the heart?

The heart is what connects us with God. Our hearts and spirit are inextricably intertwined.

"You will find me," God says, "when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

To hear God's voice, you must listen with your heart. To love Him, you must love with all your heart. You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life he meant you to live, unless you live from the heart.

God is love. (1 John 4:8). A heart full of love is a heart connected with God.

Jesus said our hearts contain our treasure. (Matthew 6:21)

Of all the things required in life, the most important is to love. And the real point of our existence is to love.

Paul told the Corinthians that these three things remain: Faith, Hope, and Love. The greatest of these three, said Paul, is love.

Many people mistakenly think love is an emotion. To categorize love as an emotion is to demote its importance in the universe and render it part of the soul (the soul contains our minds, wills and emotions). The kind of love Jesus was talking about is a spiritual thing. It comes directly from the heart of God. When our spirits are aligned with God, our hearts are full of love. Our hearts become ALIVE!

We don't fall in love. We RISE in love.

The natural order of things from God's perspective is: Spirit, Soul, Body.

The true life of a follower of Christ is a spiritual life. God is Spirit. God is Love. If our spirits are aligned with God's hearts, our souls and bodies will follow. That's why Paul told the Romans:

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

You can get a glimpse of how powerful God's loving spirit is by doing a little exercise with Paul's description of it from 1 Corinthians 13. After you read each line, substitute your name for the word "Love" and ask the question - "Am I this?" (e.g., Jane is patient? Yes or No, Jane is kind? Yes or No, etc.)

Love is patient
Love is kind
Love does not envy
Love does not boast
Love is not proud
Love is not rude
Love is not self-seeking
Love is not easily angered
Love keeps no records of wrongs
Love does not delight in evil
Love rejoices with the truth
Love always protect
Love always trusts
Love always hopes
Love always perseveres
Love never fails

There are 16 questions in this little exercise. How many did you answer "Yes, I am this?" My guess is not that many. The world is full of people that lack many of the essential elements of what real love is. Many of us are not kind, we are not patient, we boast, we envy, we are proud, we are rude, we are self-seeking, we are easily angered and on and on.

In other words, many of us are not spiritual. We are natural. We are carnal. Our souls and bodies take preeminence over spirits which is a recipe for darkness in our hearts. Over time, the darkness in our hearts prevents His light from shining through. Our souls and bodies eclipse His spirit.

Many people have no clue that patience and love are a 'fruit of the Spirit.' (Galatians 5:22-23). Patience and love are spiritual things. God is patient. He waits and waits and waits for us to stop doing silly and stupid things with our lives. God is love.

Now, if we go back to our little exercise and substitute Jesus' name for the word "Love," guess what? We find that Jesus is all of those things (and more!). He's a perfect 16 out of 16.

When the religious leaders asked Jesus over 2000 years ago what the real purpose of life was and He answered "love," His heart was perfectly aligned with His Father's heart. Nothing could come in between Jesus and God. NOTHING! Jesus was (and is) the fulfillment of the law!

Jesus told us what the real purpose of life is over 2000 years ago. And since then, what have most people been doing? Ironically and sadly, precisely the opposite!

The fascinating thing is that Jesus knew this would happen. Jesus knew the future (He actually is the future, but that's another blog post for another day). He told His disciples:

Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (Matthew 24:11-12)

Most people's love will grow cold! Go back up to the description of love and then take a look around your city, town or neighborhood and ask yourself how much love you see today. Is it hot or cold?

How many people do you know today that are loving God with all their heart. How many people do you know are loving their neighbors and their enemies? Jesus told His disciples that they would know they were His by loving one another.

This is my commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

If we could take the world's "Love Temperature" right now, do you know what we would see? We would see a HUGE COOLING TREND. In fact, we would probably see that we are living in the "Ice Age" of love. Now political folks and many other people around the world are gripped in fear and terrified about climate change. Meanwhile, God is watching the "love temperature" in our hearts plummet on Earth. I have no doubt at all that from God's perspective, global cooling with respect to the love in our hearts is a far bigger concern than climate change.

Oh, if we could only find our way back home - back to the real purpose of life. If we could only find a way to love a little more.

Instead, we find ourselves captive of fear and worry. The dark spiritual forces are prevailing, just as Jesus told us they would over 2000 years ago. The forces of darkness have many people focused on climate change when God wants us to heat up our hearts with His love.

The truth is that if all of our hearts were aligned with God, we wouldn't have to fear or worry about anything, including climate change.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears in not perfected in love. (1 John 4:18)

There is no fear in love! God's love casts out all fear. Fear not! Be perfected in love.

The media loves fear. They try to scare us to death every single day. They prey on one of the most primitive parts of our brains - our limbic systems - to get us to watch their silly 'news' programs and read their poorly written papers and pay attention to other nonsense they call 'entertainment.' Why do so many people pay attention to the constant barrage of fear and worry coming out of their TVs? Where is the love in the media?

The sad truth is there is very little love in the media today. Love doesn't sell, so why should there be? What sells is darkness. As one of my media friends used to say, "If it bleeds, it leads." Instead of loving - instead of fulfilling our real purpose in life as God intended - we sit in front of our TVs and have our hearts pumped full with fear. The more we fear, the more we worry. We become caught in a vicious circle.

Is it any wonder people's love is growing cold?

St. John of the Cross said that in the twilight of our lives, we will be judge on how we loved.

When that day comes and you move on from this planet, and you go to meet the Lord face to face, how much love will He see in your heart?

Jesus knew the real purpose of life. He is Life! It's tragic that His wisdom has gone over most people's heads. Religion has trumped Spirit here on this little blue ball we call Earth. Religion kills, but His loving Spirit gives life.

May you find the strength today to turn off your TV and put your newspaper down and instead go help out a neighbor or a loved-one or go visit one of your enemies and tell them that you forgive them for what they have done to you in the past and tell them with that from this day forward, you will love them through the love God puts in your heart. And may you find the strength to take any religious spirit trapped in your heart to the Cross and have Him crucify it. That religious spirit must die in order for His love to shine through you.

Agape,
steve

postscript: I just finished composing a song for the next Sweetbird record with the same title as this post. It's the theme song of my heart and my regenerated life, and I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me the words and the music to express His real purpose. stay tuned...

Deep Survival

I've been re-reading a book by Laurence Gonzales titled "Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why?" It's a fascinating read, filled with lots of great and amazing stories. As I was reading, I came across this passage:

"The maddening thing for someone with a Western scientific turn of mind is that it's not what in your pack that separates the quick from the dead. It's not even what's in your mind. Corny as it sounds, it's what's in your heart."

Leave it to a scientist to to preface a comment "it's what's in your heart" with "corny as it sounds."

How little faith otherwise intelligent people have. It never ceases to amaze me.

If Mr. Gonzales had great faith, he would realize that the heart is central to life itself. There is nothing corny about the heart. The heart is central to living a life of love. As Proverbs 23:7 says:

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

God wants our hearts to be aligned with His heart. Christianity has become a heartless religion devoid of love, but followers of Jesus know that when their hearts are aligned with His heart, anything is possible - including overcoming the enemy that stalks us on the battlefield.

When it comes to deep survival, it's what's in your heart that matters.

You got that right, Mr. Gonzales!

May our hearts be aligned with His heart.

Agape,
steve

Squandering God's Gifts

I came across this article from the Wall Street Journal written by musician Ted Nugent (see article below). While I don't listen to Ted's music or necessarily share the same political, social and economic views, I do share his concerns about musicians squandering their God given talents by allowing the soul and body to drown out any light from His spirit.

For all my fellow musicians out there, may you learn to let His light shine brightly in your hearts.

Agape,
steve

The Summer of Drugs

Forty years ago, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in and drop out."

BY TED NUGENT
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT (Wall Street Journal)

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. Honest and intelligent people will remember it for what it really was: the Summer of Drugs.

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.

The Summer of Drugs climaxed with the Monterey Pop Festival which included some truly virtuoso musical talents such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both of whom would be dead a couple of years later due to drug abuse. Other musical geniuses such as Jim Morrison and Mama Cass would also be dead due to drugs within a few short years. The bodies of chemical-infested, brain-dead liberal deniers continue to stack up like cordwood.

As a diehard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who squandered God's gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hipness. I often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not gagged to death on their own vomit. Their choice of dope over quality of life, musical talent and meaningful relationships with loved ones can only be categorized as despicably selfish.

I literally had to step over stoned, drooling fans, band mates, concert promoters and staff to pursue my musical American Dream throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I flushed more dope and cocaine down backstage toilets than I care to remember. In utter frustration I was even forced to punch my way through violent dopers on occasion. So much for peace and love. The DEA should make me an honorary officer.

I was forced to fire band members and business associates due to mindless, dangerous, illegal drug use. Clean and sober for 59 years, I am still rocking my brains out and approaching my 6,000th concert. Clean and sober is the real party.

Young people make mistakes. I've made my share, but none that involved placing my life or the lives of others at risk because of dope. I saw first-hand too many destroyed lives and wrecked families to ever want to drool and vomit on myself and call that a good time. I put my heart and soul into creating the best music I possibly could and I went hunting instead. My dream continues with ferocity, thank you.

The 1960s, a generation that wanted to hold hands, give peace a chance, smoke dope and change the world, changed it all right: for the worse. America is still suffering the horrible consequences of hippies who thought utopia could be found in joints and intentional disconnect.

A quick study of social statistics before and after the 1960s is quite telling. The rising rates of divorce, high school drop outs, drug use, abortion, sexual diseases and crime, not to mention the exponential expansion of government and taxes, is dramatic. The "if it feels good, do it" lifestyle born of the 1960s has proved to be destructive and deadly.

So now, 40 years later, there are actually people who want to celebrate the anniversary of the Summer of Drugs. Hippies are once again descending on ultra-liberal San Francisco--a city that once wanted to give shopping carts to the homeless--to celebrate and try to remember their dopey days of youth when so many of their musical heroes and friends long ago assumed room temperature by "partying" themselves to death. Nice.

While I salute and commend the political and cultural activism of the 1960s that fueled the civil rights movement, other than that, the decade is barren of any positive cultural or social impact. Honest people will remember 1967 for what is truly was.

There is a saying that if you can remember the 1960s, you were not there. I was there and remember the decade in vivid, ugly detail. I remember its toxic underbelly excess because I was caught in the vortex of the music revolution that was sweeping the country, and because my radar was fine-tuned thanks to a clean and sober lifestyle.

Death due to drugs and the social carnage heaped upon America by hippies is nothing to celebrate. That is a fool's game, but it is quite apparent some burned-out hippies never learn.

Mr. Nugent is a rock star releasing his 35th album, "Love Grenade," this summer.

Heart Over Mind

I was reading an article on Einstein and came across this little known factoid:

"In a 1938 poll of the incoming Princeton class, Einstein placed second in the "greatest living person" category. Hitler was first."

Source: SEED (May/June 2007)

Hitler was number 1 in the "Greatest Living Person' contest in 1938 at Princeton University, one of the most prestigious schools in America. Do you find this hard to believe today? I was a bit stunned when I read it.

And then I remembered what Jesus told us:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.
- Matthew 6:21

It's not about our minds or how high our IQs are. It's all about our hearts and how much of His love we allow to shine through them.

May your heart be increasingly filled with His Perfect Love.

Agape,
steve

The Religious Spirit

I was re-reading one of my favorite books by John Eldredge and came across this statement:

"Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are impostors."

- John Eldredge
from his book 'Waking the Dead'

It is hard to say it any better than this. God bless you, John!

May your life be empty of any religious spirit and may His loving spirit reign forever supreme in your heart.

Agape,
steve

Eclipsed

Christine and I have been helping a beautiful woman we met several weeks ago get her spiritual life on track. This woman has an incredible spirit, but darkness in her heart has eclipsed His light. She has been listening to the "Shine" CD frequently, and Christine used one of the songs from the record to illuminate how His pure heart can be eclipsed by darkness in our hearts.

Here is what Christine said:

With regards to a pure heart, I can only speak from my own experience. In the song, 'Eclipsed,' I say, "You say I must believe that I have already received." I believe that I have already received the pure heart that Jesus died to give me. I believe that all He is lives inside of me. I also believe there are parts of me standing in the way of the full expression of His heart within me. He allows me to see the darkness (what I refer to as "roadblocks") in my heart, as He knows I can handle them, and I invite Him to deal with me in these certain areas. Little by little, He heals the wounds in my heart. With each miraculous healing, turmoil is replaced with peace. As I accept the truths He reveals to me, shackles fall.

You know what? This process is like an eclipse. The sun (Son) is there in all it's (His) fullness. However, the earth's shadow is darkening it's radiance. The only thing we can do is to allow Him to work within us. It is up to us to allow the Lord to deal with the shadow so that He may shine completely in our hearts. He is there, 100%. There is no doubt about it. We just have to surrender each hurt to Him through the Cross so that He can heal that part of our heart. This is our responsibility in the relationship we have with Him. As we do, the shadow moves off and His light grows brighter.

******************
We believe the songs on "Shine" can be used to touch hearts, heal, and transform darkness into light. We are truly blessed to be able to help followers of Christ shine. After all, it is His music, not ours.

Agape,

steve

Barna's 'Revolution'

I've been thinking a lot about George Barna's book "Revolution." It's an important book with a very important message.

For those not familar with "Revolution," Barna describes a spiritual revolution that is reshaping Christianity and personal faith. Barna notes that over 20 million people are confidently returning to a first-century lifestyle based on faith, goodness, love, generosity, kindness, simplicity, and other Christ-based values.

These 'revolutionaries,' as Barna calls them, have no use for churches that play religious games, whether those games are worship services that drone on without the presence of God or ministry programs that bear no spiritual fruit. Revolutionaries are embarrassed by language that promises Christian love and holiness but turns out to be all sizzle and no substance.

Revolutionaries, according to Barna, are seeking a faith experience that is more robust and awe inspiring, a spiritual journey that prioritizes transformation at every turn, something worthy of the Creator whom their faith reflects. They are seeking the spark provided by a commitment to a true revolution in thinking, behavior, and experience, where settling for what is merely good and above average is defeat. Revolutionaries zealously pursue an intimate relationship with God, which Jesus promised we could have through Him.

In his book, Barna notes that just as the prophets of old were unwelcome in their own hometown, so are Revolutionaries looked at askance by even their closest friends and family members. The skepticism of those who lead conventional spiritual lives is a palpable reminder that growth always comes with a price tag.

Be forewarned, says Barna. Just as Jesus Christ, the ultimate lover of humanity, was scorned, misunderstood, persecuted, and eventually murdered for His extreme love, goodness, compassion, humility, wisdom, and grace, so are Revolutionaries abused by a culture that is itself in a crisis. The mere presence of Revolutionaries makes the typical American citizen -- yes, even the typical churchgoer -- uncomfortable. It is not uncommon, says Barna, for Revolutionaries to meet with rejection -- verbal, intellectual, relational, or experiential -- simply because of their determination to honor the God they love.

The phenomenon Barna describes in his book dovetails with the direction of Sweetbird's music. The inspiration for the music on 'Shine' is God's love. All of the songs were written during an intense period when Christine and I were being reduced to love (a process that is intensifying in both our lives today). 'Shine' is all about transforming darkness in hearts to light and Life. Believe in Him and His amazing love and shine.

If you or somebody else you know has become a Revolutionary or is burned out on church and is looking for light in the darkness, please let me know. Christine and I would be happy to send you a copy of Sweetbird's new CD 'Shine.'

Stay tuned for more on the Revolution. It has only just begun...

Agape,
steve

Reflections on 'The Missing Ingredient'

I have a confession to make today: I am not a typical Christian. That is, the kind of person you would find sitting in a church pew every Sunday morning. In fact, I don't refer to myself as a Christian because I believe the word has lost all meaning.

Labels have never impressed me much. People can call themselves anything they want and promote themselves as such. I see it everyday. I've come to the realization that almost all the Christians I know or come in contact with are not really Christians at all. They are more like Galatians - - that is, people that know about Jesus but still cling to the Law.

Since the resurrection of Christ, it appears to me that man has done his best to undo what God tried to do with His crucified Son. God sent His Son into the world to remove religion and its laws and replace them with His love. Jesus showed us how to love. He sacrified His life is us. The former religious Pharisee Paul told us this love was the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10).

Christianity should be all about loving our neighbors and our enemies through Jesus Christ. It should be about transplanting His heart into our hearts, and in the process, transforming darkness into Light and Life.

It is His love in our hearts -- not any laws -- that make us Shine.

Somewhere along the way, as men were building their churches and ministries, and having meetings and conferences, love got lost in the shuffle. Apparently, people decided that love wasn't enough for them. They needed things - - more things than you could ever imagine. 'To heck with love,' they said, 'give us more religion - - more laws, commands, rules and regulations. We need more denominations!'

Not along ago, as I was praying for revelation on this issue, I came across an article by Chip Brogden titled 'The Missing Ingredient' (reprinted below). I cried when I read Chip's essay. I cried because it confirmed what I already knew in my heart. Christianity today is missing the most important ingredient: LOVE.

That's right. The most important ingredient of all -- the GREATEST -- is missing from Christianity today.

Let's ask a simple question: With all these things that man has done and is doing today for Jesus in His name but without love, what have they accomplished and what are they accomplishing?

Well, in a word -- nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

For as Paul told the Corinthians:

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)

God's love gives meaning to everything we do. Without it, we are nothing. If love is missing, there is no purpose to anything man does. And according to Chip, that's exactly what we have today in Christianity - - a movement devoid of love.

I believe in my heart that the Holy Spirit is the only force in the universe that can illuminate the true nature of God's love. Without the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 13 is just just a collection of beautiful words on a page. They look good and sound good when you read them, but they do not touch your heart. I often think of the The Holy Spirit as the combination that unlocks the safe to God's own heart.

You might ask: How will I know His love when I see it? Well, God uses a variety of ways to show us love, but I can tell you this: When you see true love, when the eyes of your heart are opened and you really see His love, you will be reduced to tears. You will cry, probably violently. The tears will flow uncontrollably down your face like the tears of a child.

Why the tears? What do our tears represent when we see true love? Well, the tears you cry are symbolic of indescribable joy and tears of everlasting peace. Seeing God's love is the most beautiful thing you will ever see in your life.

As he was completing his description of God's love, Paul told the Corinthians:

Love is the greatest. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

When you see the heart of God, you are reduced tears. I have come to believe that seeing God's love brings out the heart of a child in us. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says:

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12)

Paul is telling the Corinthians that we all lose something as we grow older. The heart of a child begins to die as we become adults. We grow increasingly more independent of God and His love and do more and more things ourselves. After all, why rely on God when we can do things in our own strength and far more quickly than God can? Many people don't have the patience to wait for God. They have to do something. They need more things and fast!

Sadly, and far too often, the things people do impatiently and independently of God and His love come back to haunt and hurt them. Seeing God's love brings us back home. We see again like a child sees.

Paul's attempt to describe the Heart of God in 1 Corinthians is wonderful, but even that beautiful passage fails to fully describe God's heart. But even if we don't fully comprehend God's heart, we can be sure of this one thing: God's heart is a heart that never fails. Why?

As Paul told the Corinthians:

Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8)

If Christianity has become largely devoid of love, as Chip says in his essay below, then I am most certainly not, nor will I ever be, a "Christian." For I pray every day to be reduced to nothing but His love. For I know in my heart that I can have all things and can know all things, but if I have not His love in my heart, I am nothing.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

I pray that reading Chip's essay causes you to open the eyes of your heart to see God's love and Its glorious beauty.

Agape,
steve


The Missing Ingredient
by Chip Brogden

“And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved” (II Corinthians 12:15).

Besides prayer, no other subject has been talked about more and practiced less than the subject of loving one another. We all know we are supposed to love one another. We have heard it preached a thousand times. But there is a difference between knowing the Path and walking the Path.

I want to speak specifically to the issue of love as it relates to “ministry”. That word “ministry” is a loaded word now, and we really need to question someone when they use that word so we can find out what they really mean. I think most people will agree that what passes for “ministry” these days is something very far removed from the ministry practiced in the New Testament. And I am not referring to some kind of method or technique that they practiced. The “missing ingredient” is not something so superficial as meeting in homes versus meeting in buildings. How far we have fallen to think that the secret of New Testament life is found in some way of conducting a meeting.

Leadership exists in the Bible, and leadership exists in the Church. There is no getting around that. Jesus showed us, both in word and in deed, that His idea of leadership is based on service to God and to others. The question we need to ask is what constitutes godly, Spirit-led, Christ-centered, servant leadership? What makes someone a spiritual father? What really qualifies someone as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher?

You might say the calling of God is what qualifies someone. Perhaps, but many are called and few are chosen. Many are called but they fail to respond to the call. You need more than a calling.

You might say the gift of God is what qualifies someone. Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters. Gifts no longer register much with me anymore. Gifted brothers and sisters are really a dime a dozen. I am just speaking frankly. Often I will meet people and come away thinking how gifted they are, but they leave me hollow inside. They have a lot of potential but I would not trust them to watch my dog much less watch over people’s souls. Many of them claim to be in some kind of pastoral or prophetic or apostolic ministry. But that in and of itself does not qualify a person. I have seen gifted brothers and sisters with absolutely no wisdom, no maturity, and no spiritual discernment make a real mess of people’s lives.

You might say revelation from God is what qualifies someone. I absolutely believe that revelation is a necessity for teaching others because you cannot point the way to a place you have never been. But revelation by itself does not qualify a person.

There came a time in my life when I realized I was called, and I was gifted, and God had given me great revelation, but I still lacked something. Now when I was younger I believed that having a calling from God and being gifted by God was all you needed. Then I began to learn some things by revelation and thought that was God’s seal of approval upon me.

Even so, I could not get away from the fact that there were then, and there are now, lots of people in the world besides me who are called by God, have spiritual gifts, and enjoy an abundance of revelation. But God cannot trust them in any kind of a servant leadership capacity. They may have a title or a ministry but they are unqualified because they do not have the missing ingredient. I noticed they lacked something, and worse, I lacked the same thing. Eventually I discovered what everyone, including myself, is lacking.

What is the missing ingredient? The missing ingredient is LOVE.

Let me share something to illustrate what I mean. A pastor told me something that happened many years ago between him and his associate pastor. They worked together in the church but fortunately they were also good friends. He said his associate came to him one day with tears in his eyes and told him, “You’re the best preacher and teacher of the Word I have ever heard in my life. But you just don’t love people.” When the pastor shared this story with me he had tears in his eyes, too. It was a powerful reminder to him, and an important lesson to us. We can be called and gifted and full of revelation and still fall short because we are not walking in love with people.

Now we could go to many examples of love demonstrated and love commanded in the New Testament. You know them as well as I do. But when I turn to this little obscure passage in II Corinthians 12 I find something mostly overlooked. Paul writes, “I will VERY GLADLY spend and be spent for you; though the more ABUNDANTLY I love you, the less I am loved.” Now that is what qualifies a person. That is the missing ingredient.

Paul wrote this to the Corinthians. You know Paul had more trouble with the Corinthian church than all the others combined. Most people would have quit, but not Paul. Paul has the heart of a father. That is a real apostle. That is a real pastor. We know he was called, we know he was gifted, and we certainly know he had a depth of revelation. We could understand if he felt like he was wasting his time with Corinth and wanted to turn his attention elsewhere.

You see, that kind of thinking has the flesh all over it. I read something many years ago that I accepted at first as wisdom, but have since changed by mind. A man wrote, “Go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated.” At the time I was feeling very unappreciated so I thought this was sound advice. But God has been gracious to me, and He has helped me to see that this attitude is the whole problem with “ministry” today. We love people who love us, and we serve people who serve us, and we thank people who thank us, and if you scratch my back then I’ll scratch your back. What kind of Christianity is this? What if Paul only went where he was celebrated and avoided places where he was just tolerated? What a foolish statement, but this is the prevailing attitude among “ministers” today.

Paul gave us an example to follow. Don’t just look at his calling and his gifting and his revelation. Look at his heart of love. He gave all – not just for the Lord, but for the Lord’s people. And they were a most carnal, unappreciative bunch of people. Even so, the heart of a father is demonstrated. That is the reason he had authority. I tell you his authority was not in his title, his position, or his status as having founded the church. His authority was not in his calling, gift, or revelation. His authority was in the abundant love he showed.

Make no mistake: I am not there yet. I still struggle with how to be a good brother, much less a spiritual father with abundant love for everyone. I obviously have a long way to go, but now I see the missing ingredient and I am following after love. How about you?

You know, the days of a person just “showing up” to exercise their gift and do their little ministry event are just about over. I have been guilty of that, I think we all have either done it or seen others do it. Is that what Jesus has called us to do? Is that being an example? Hold some meetings, have some talks, shake hands and go home? It doesn’t mean a thing if we are not loving one another. It is all tinkling brass and clanging cymbals.

Paul saw himself as a father caring for the needs of his children. He entered right into the heart of God, because that is exactly the way God sees it. That is why Paul was able to love them more even as they loved him less. There is a vacuum of that kind of leadership in the Body of Christ today. We have people who cannot even be good brothers and sisters and yet they aspire to be spiritual fathers and leaders, apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers. Instead of serving people WITH their gift they expect people to serve them BECAUSE of their gift. It is seen in things so seemingly insignificant as the pastor’s reserved parking space right by the front door.

In recent months I have prayed, “God, take away my calling, take away my gifts, take away my revelation, but give me a heart of love.” Really friends, we have plenty of gifted brothers and sisters. But where are the Pauls and the Peters and the Johns of our generation? Where are the spiritual fathers, the leaders, the elders, the ones giving a godly example to those who follow after? An example is most definitely being given, but all too often it is an example of what NOT to do.

Where are the ones who will very gladly spend and be spent in the service of God and of others – who will love abundantly even when they are not loved in return? One father is worth more than ten thousand teachers.

All you who are called and gifted, hear me. Love is the missing ingredient. Follow after love and the calling, the gifting, and the revelation will find its deepest and fullest expression.

© 1997-2007 Chip Brogden and TheSchoolOfChrist.Org.