1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

A rekindled love is a pure love and a deep love.

There is nothing superficial about it.

It reflects the understanding that love comes from God and is a quality, an action, and a result.

It’s an intrinsic quality in that it resides within the Christian heart, just as the Word of God which gave it life. No Word of God, no real ability to truly love.

But it’s an action too in that it requires purifying ourselves.  How do we do that?  By obeying the truth. We must clean out the gunk of our lives and the sins of our hearts so that what’s present there by the Holy Spirit will be able to shine through.

What is this gunk, this sludge of the heart that slows the flow of deep love?

Here are some thoughts from the Apostle Paul. Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

We’re in the midst of Lent, casting off and cleaning out the things which grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Because when we do, our lives will demonstrate a pure love, deep love.

So it’s not just a quality of God formed in us by His Word,  or an action of partnership between the Christian and the Spirit of God, but pure love is also a result. Clean out the sediment of sin and what do you get?  Lives that look like pure love, deep love.

What about you? Does your life hold onto those things the Apostle Paul tells us to get rid of, or does it reflect the purity of obedience and look like the love of Christ?

Give it Up for Lent: Any sludge of the heart you’ve been reluctant to shed.

Questions for 1 Peter 1:22-23 and Ephesians 4:25-32:

1. What actions can one take to have the pure love, deep love that God asks us to demonstrate?
2. In both passages, there is an action of cleansing and a result of gain for the Christian and his neighbor. Identify both the actions and the results.
3. Many people give up things for Lent like Facebook or chocolate or things of that nature. Yes, even good things can separate us from Christ if they have an unhealthy hold on our hearts.  How might one know if a good thing has an unhealthy hold on us?  And if it has an unhealthy hold, should we resume it after Easter?
4. If it’s of great concern to God for us to give something up, what does it say about us if we take it back up after Easter?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 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.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Don’t you find it curious how the Law from the Old Testament is all about love?

Love of God.

Love for neighbors who have been made in the Image of God.

And that Jesus perfectly fulfilled that Law by loving perfectly?

Think for a moment about debt. It’s what happens when you owe someone something or they owe you something that must be repaid. The continuing debt is one that can never be repaid.

Now read the passage about love that occurs in the prior chapter of Romans and think of it in terms of the ongoing debt to love one another.

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Give it up for Lent: Love with limits

Questions for Romans 12:9-21 and 13:8-10

1. In what ways can our debt never be repaid? Why can it never be repaid?
2. What does it say about us when we expect or even hope to repay it?
3. Why is it good that we never be in the free and clear on repaying our debt of love? Consider the concepts of earning and grace.
4. We’re focusing in this series on rekindling…and in today’s case, rekindling our love. How does Romans 12:9-21 show us ways to rekindle our love? Identify ways listed there.
5. When I resigned from my preaching post in Wisconsin to do the sewer work in my hometown, God gave me Romans 13: 10 “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” as my motivating framework. In dealing with civic affairs, how does Romans 13:10 ensure that the spirit of the law is fulfilled instead of just satisfying checkboxes for legal sidestepping?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

In John 13:34, Jesus gives us the Love Standard: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Nothing irks a perfectionist quite the way that a high standard with a great probability of failure does.  If a gold standard is like the best of its class, Jesus’ love standard stands alone as the only one in its class. No other love really compares as fulfilling that command.

Jesus states “My command is this.”  I’m feeling like “Ok. I’ve got this covered. Obedience is my thing. I can do it.”

Love. No problem. I’ve got that in my wheel house.

Love each other. Wait a minute. This is getting harder. It assumes the other person doesn’t annoy me. It’s kinda hard to love someone you can barely sit with for 10 minutes without exhausting your patience quota.

Love each other as I have loved you. Really, Jesus? Isn’t that expecting a bit much?  Raising the bar a little too high?

• Do you mean that it doesn’t matter whether the other person is lovable or not?
• Do you mean that I need to do it anyway?
• And I need to love them fully like you loved all these unlovables here on earth?
• Even our enemies?

Interestingly, loving like Jesus loved isn’t a sentimental thing, but deeply rooted in what it means to love our Father at all.

For those Christians who wish only their friends well, or who stand up to lead worship, to preach, or to teach Bible studies all the while harboring resentment toward others (whether friends or enemies), Jesus would admonish us to first rekindle our love to His Love Standard.

Give it up for Lent: the world’s lower standard of love.

Jesus’ Love Standard is (not surprisingly) derived from the Old Testament:

1. In Leviticus 19:1-37, God spells out what it means to live as one who is set apart for God…as one who is morally upright. And what it means to love your neighbor as yourself with that higher standard.  If you have time, read that entire passage with God’s love standard in mind. Ask yourself how each applies to loving like Jesus loved.
2. Especially verses Leviticus 19:17 “‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. 18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”  How is rebuking a neighbor involved in God’s higher Love Standard?
3. Accusing a brother or sister of hate isn’t the same as a loving rebuke against sin. Why?
4. He sums it up with verse 37 “‘Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the LORD.'” In fact, “I am the Lord” appears frequently in Leviticus 19. How did Jesus take the words of the Law and demonstrate that they have life?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

Most of us could probably use some help in the sacrificial love category.

Maybe we’re pretty good at other forms of love.  Consider how easy it might be to love those who love you, assuming you want them to love you. Or how easy it is to love those who do good things to you and for you, kind of like your very own fairy godmother. Those who make your life better or who enrich your days in one way or another, acting as a personal benefactor.

Such a love is more of a response than an initiation.

It’s an “I love you because…” and a fill-in-the-blank that’s easy to identify.

Sacrificial love is different. It’s not I love you because…., but I love you period.

Yes, it’s because Jesus loves you and me and He commands it.

But it’s also a love completely without conditions.

Rekindling one’s love for others hinges upon this idea: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.

A rekindled love is a sacrificial love. One that loves others whether they deserve it or not. One that loves even really unlovable people because Christ loved first. Oh Lord, rekindle my love to be like Yours!

How is that possible?  Loving unlovable people requires understanding two important things: First, unlovable is what all of us are in God’s book on account of our behavior, but importantly, there’s second thing.  Underneath all that behavioral and thought sin and gunk that God finds so detestable is a very lovable image of God in which each of us are made.  If we appreciate His Image and acknowledge His love, we will find loving others easier.  And something definitely worth sacrificing ourselves for.

Give it up for Lent: Judging others as not worth loving.

Questions regarding John 15:12-14.

1. Does Jesus suggest, hint, intimate, or command that we love? What about a command makes it imperative?
2. In the Gospel of John, Jesus had not gone to the Cross yet. How did today’s passage prepare the disciples to interpret His actions as a perfect standard of sacrificial love attained?
3. When we act selflessly to help others and to love them sacrificially, how does this move the embers together in community and rekindle love?
4. In John 15: 12-14, what are the human interactions involved?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays which are designed as a Sabbath to give us rest, time to reflect, and the opportunity to be refreshed as we worship our loving God.

Job 38:18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. 19 “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? 20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? 21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years! 22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, 23 which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? 24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? 25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, 26 to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, 27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? 28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? 29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens 30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

Tomorrow we resume ReKindle, the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day in the US.  Retailers hope to sell jewelry, flowers, chocolates, and enormous teddy bears destined for tomorrow’s closet.  And they will sell because on Valentine’s Day all of these are supposed to show love in a big way.

But frankly, that’s not the kind of love God talks about. Nor the kind that brings true joy.

Even if diamonds, roses, and chocolate-covered cherries might–for a moment–make someone feel loved and happy, it isn’t the kind of complete and eternal joy that God talks about.

John15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

The love God talks about is key to having a rekindled and complete joy:

The joy of Christ. Joy made complete.

What does mean? What does that even look like?

Jesus’ joy came from His sure knowledge of the Father’s love. His joy came from loving others the way God loved Him. His joy came from obedience to the Father. Obedience that was the result and continuance of remaining in God’s love.

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Not as an ultimatum, but as a demonstration of fact. There is an inseparable bond between love, obedience, and joy. Do you want a rekindled joy? Love God and obey Him. Your life’s circumstances may still not be happy per se, but your heart will know the joy of Christ in you and your joy will be complete.

Give it up for Lent: Thinking that you can have joy without loving God or obeying Him.

Questions for rekindling based on John 15:9-11

1. How is rekindling of joy a deep matter of the heart? (vv.9-10)
2. What does this say about all the superficial things we pursue in order to feel happy?
3. What is really needed?
4. Read verse 11. Jesus speaks of “my joy” and “your joy” with His joy in us. He doesn’t say “our joy” may be complete, lumping us in with Him. Why might that be?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

Is there a difference between living a life that is joy-full versus one that is a life accessorized by joy? Which one do you want: joyful or joy-full? 

Q:  What makes joy complete, joy-full as it were? 

A:  Fellowship.

Philippians 2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

We must be connected to Christ and connected to one another to have complete joy. Oddly though, sometimes other people can be the very ones who keep us from experiencing a joy-full life. I don’t know about you but I always hated team projects in school. It was inevitably a recipe for frustration in the making. I could resonate with the Peanuts comic character Linus who said, “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.”

Group projects always seemed to bring out the worst in people. What characteristics do we hate about group projects?  Ah, they are Legion.

So what do we have in the Church? One big group project. Ugh. But the Apostle Paul makes it clear that we experience the most joy-full life by genuine fellowship.

Give it up for Lent: Hatred of “group projects” in the Church.

Questions from Philippians 2:1-4 which outlines ways to rekindle your joy:

1. How does being united with Christ (abiding with and in Him) translate over to being full of joy?
2. Paul’s complete joy came from seeing Jesus’ disciples behaving as Jesus would have them behave. What activities characterize that being “like-minded”?  How does that behavior look different than in other group projects you might have experienced?
3. What is the repeated theme of behavior for Christians to demonstrate? What must be rekindled in order to live like that? What is the relationship between you and others?
4. What is one thing you can do today to put others first in your life?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

Isolation can steal our joy. Many Americans know what it’s like to be lonely, to feel isolated, unwanted, unappreciated, and unloved. The ember to be rekindled—even if not smothered by sin or wrong priorities—can still go out if it is isolated. Take a burning ember and push it to a far corner of a fireplace by itself and it will go out. It needs the warmth of fellowship. It needs the fresh wind of the Spirit.

Jesus Christ will warm our fellowship and breathe life and fire into our souls. He makes us fruitful and gives us joy rekindled. But only if we abide in fellowship with Him.

Jesus said, John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Give it up for Lent: Loner-style individualism that rejects fellowship with Christ.

Questions for John 15:1-8.

1. We’ve all seen a stick attached to a tree where the stick is dead even though the tree is full of life. There has formed an “abscission layer” which is kind of like a wall between the living tissue and that which is dead. What does our passage say happens with that dead branch (verses 2 and 6)?
2. Maybe you’ve also seen when a plant (maybe a tomato for example) has growth that’s out of control or where it’s mostly leaves when you want more flowers and more fruit. What does our passage say happens to that? (v.2)
3. How does going our own way, doing our own thing, act like forming an abscission layer between us and the vine? (vv. 4-6) What is the outcome of that?
4. What kind of activities can help us to remain, abide, or make our home with Christ?
5. What is the outcome of such abiding? How does God’s glory translate over to our joy?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.

Few things in this old world can steal your joy like…uh… this old world.  It seems like a world of joy stealers, but is it really?  Is your joy dependent upon circumstances?

Of course, there are fears and terror. Apathy and anxiety. Pride and prejudice. Job losses. Bad economies at home and around the globe. Look over the horizon of your world and there’s a whole army of circumstances that–when turned inward–can become joy stealers. In my own life, I say, “Enough!”

How can we rekindle our joy?

By looking upward to find it, not horizontally. 

Today is Ash Wednesday. It’s a day when traditionally, we look square-in-the-eye those worldly priorities and our own materialism and see a need to repent. Find those joy stealers and “first world problems” that hold our minds captive. Identify whatever pulls our hearts away from Christ. And then make a conscious decision to stop letting them steal our joy.

You know what? In letting go of all that smothers our joy, we can find it rekindled.

An ember that is smothered by ash loses its ability to burn. A Christian smothered by sin and bad priorities loses the ability to have joy in the Lord.  Rekindle it. Or as the Apostle Paul writes: Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable– if anything is excellent or praiseworthy– think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me– put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Give it up for Lent: Anything that smothers your joy in the Lord

Questions for Philippians 4:4-9

1. How often are we supposed to rejoice in the Lord? (v. 4)
2. To have joy in place of anxiety, what are we supposed to do? (v. 5-6) What joy stealer is mentioned in verse 6? How does it steal our joy?
3. What happens when we present our requests to God? (v. 7). Why is it necessary to have our hearts and minds guarded? What assaults our minds every day?
4. How does our thought life (and ability to imitate what is good) become a key to peace and a rekindled joy?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

To receive these devotionals to your email inbox throughout Lent, please fill in your email address in the space provided on my Home Page in the sidebar (right) and respond to the verification email.  If you already receive devotionals and articles, no need to do anything else.  You’ll get them automatically.  Thank you!  Or log onto the SeminaryGal Facebook page and see them reprinted there.

Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.