Love

Well I haven't been posting as often as I'd like, but I have instead switched to a hand-written journal of things I listen to, read, hear, discuss, and think - because I tended to lose the meaning by the time I finally made it to the computer and sat down to write. Hopefully a more real-time log will work out better for me.

I transcribed some things I've been writing down while listening, and one comes from Ravi Zacharias ("Let My People Think" podcast - it's one of my favorites).

He says, "Conviction, ungirded by love, will make the possessor of them obnoxious, and the dogma he possesses repulsive. That is why the cohesive factor in the ministry of the early church resulted in the comment: Behold how they love one another!
Love of God gives coherence to all the truths that we cling to."

He then defines opinion versus conviction, which I thought was an interesting contrast:

opinion - position you hold that voices a preference or degree
conviction - that which is guided by your conscience; you must change conscience in order to change conviction

"The Early church - conviction mixed with love of God, spread from 120 believers to world-wide despite severe persecution."

Now, I know from experience - both from the way I react, and the way others have reacted to me - that Ravi's statements are true. Judgement from man's heart just leads us to react with defense, "Well you're no better than I am!".

However, we are instructed in the New Testament to admonish each other in the Word:

And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
~ 2 Thessalonians 3:14

So we are not to simply keep quiet when we see each other falling away from or disobeying God's Word.

But - only when we have that love for God, and speak out of true conviction (rather than opinion) and true sacrificial love for the other person, can we be effective in strengthening each other... how do we find that balance?

Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
~ 2 Thessalonians 3:15

I've been reading Paul's epistles the past few weeks, and he always greets the churches he is writing. He almost always mentions: that grace is given to them from God, his thankfulness to God for them, and evidences of their faith and what it has done to strengthen them:


Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure
~ 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 (emphasis added)

He points out the good aspects of their growing faith, and only then he beings to instruct them how to further improve... rather than just immediately pointing out the faults, he reminds of God's grace and how it helps us grow.

Lord, help me receive instruction with a desire to improve. Help myself and others bring people closer to you - rather than pushing them away with our own judgement and opinion. Instead, give words that convict them of the need for You, and help us live lives that show joy in You.
If they don't see that we joy in You - we who claim to be saved and washed by the blood Your Son shed at Calvary - lip-service testimony will never convince them how awesome, gracious, wonderful, and Holy You are.

Strengthen us, Turn us, Revive us. Help us live those lives.


Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
~ Psalm 80:19

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
~ Psalm 85:6