No Greater Love: Four Types of Love

Last week we determined that love should not be a fickle or weak emotion, but rather an action and a choice we choose to carry out towards people regardless of our feelings towards them. While I don't want to backtrack or say that we were wrong last week (there is a biblical love that IS an emotion), I do want to take a minute to talk about all the types of love mentioned in the bible and their root context and meaning in the Ancient Greek language...

There are FOUR biblical words for LOVE, each with a different meaning. Agápe, éros, philía, and storgē. In this post, I plan to explain each one and the context in which it should be used...

Éros

An article from Wikipedia explaining the types of love said this about Éros.

"Éros (ἔρως érōs[2]) is "physical" passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. Romantic, pure emotion without the balance of logic. "Love at first sight". The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "intimate love;" however, eros does not have to be sexual in nature. Eros can be interpreted as a love for someone whom you love more than the philia, love of friendship. It can also apply to dating relationships as well as marriage."

I disagree with the last part of this when we study the scriptural context of the éros form of love. Another article from awmi.net backs up that the bible clearly states that éros is reserved for the sexual love between one husband and one wife.

"EROS - sexual passion; arousal, its gratification and fulfillment. This Greek word is not used in the New Testament, probably because its origin came from the mythical god Eros, the god of love. It is inferred in many scriptures and is the only kind of love that God restricts to a one-man, one-woman relationship within the bounds of marriage (Song 1:13, 4:5-6, 7:7-9, 8:10; 1Co 7:25; Eph 5:31; and Heb 13:4)."

This is the kind of love that a Christian should ONLY practice from the wedding night and on with their husband or wife. Sexual desire and passion IS a good thing and a HOLY thing, but should be reserved for the bed of marriage.

Philía

From Wikipedia...
Philía (φιλία philía[3]) is "mental" love. It means affectionate regard or friendship in both ancient and modern Greek. This type of love has give and take. It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. In ancient texts, philos denoted a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.

From awmi.net...
PHILEO - friendly love based on feelings or emotions. We could describe "PHILEO" love as tender affection, delighting to be in the presence of someone, or a warm or good feeling toward someone that may come and go with intensity.

Basically phileo or philía love is simply the emotional aspect of a friendship or relationship. The way that I remember this is simple. The word "feel" is practically in the pronunciation of this Greek word.

Storgē

From Wikipedia...
Storge (στοργή storgē[4]) means "affection" in ancient and modern Greek. It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring. Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in "loving" the tyrant.

Storgē love is simple. It purely means the love shared within a family. This shouldn't really need further explanation.

Agápe

From Wikipedia...
Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē[1]) means love in a "spiritual" sense. In the term s'agapo (Σ'αγαπώ), which means "I love you" in Ancient Greek, it often refers to a general affection or deeper sense of "true unconditional love" rather than the attraction suggested by "eros." This love is selfless; it gives and expects nothing in return. Agape is used in the biblical passage known as the "love chapter," 1 Corinthians 13, and is described there and throughout the New Testament as sacrificial and spiritual love. Whether the love given is returned or not, the person continues to love (even without any self-benefit). Agape is also used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one's children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love feast. It can also be described as the feeling of being content or holding one in high regard. Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God.

From awmi.net...
AGAPE - God's type of love; the highest kind of love. AGAPE is seeking the welfare or betterment of others even if there is not affection felt (paraphrase based on "Happiness Explained" by Bob Rigdon). AGAPE does not have the primary meaning of affection nor of coming from one's feelings.

This type of love is really the MOST IMPORTANT type of love for us to understand. This is the type of love that God, Himself has for us. THIS is the love that HE demands that we show for others...

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. (Ephesians 5:1 NLT)

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8 NLT)

I share these verses with you so you can see that WE are to be imitators of God who, not only loves, but IS love. If we are to imitate Him, then we need to love the way He loves. In all things, we need to love without condition, expect nothing in return, no matter the cost.

Agápe thinks of others first.
Agápe cares for those who lack.
Agápe gives knowing to receive nothing in return.
Agápe innocently takes the death penalty as a substitution for a stranger.

Agápe is eternal, agápe is incorruptible, and agápe is the love that GOD operates in.

Agápe is what WE should operate in.

No Greater Love: What is Love?

Before I get into this new series, I have to commend our students and the 8:37 students on a job well done at the spaghetti dinner they put on Friday night. The SGG Youth Department hosted a spaghetti dinner this past Friday. It was donation based and all proceeds went to the youth groups to fund future events and growth projects. It was a learning experience and it was great to see the students serve.

Now, the new series...

All this month long we are talking on the concept of LOVE. During this Valentine's Holiday season where we see a commercialized version of love, used to make the greeting card companies rich, I want to take the time to teach you what TRUE LOVE really is!

Today in Hollywood we see love defined in several different ways...


The fairy tale...
The love/hate romantic comedy...
The hopeless nerd in relentless pursuit of a cheerleader...
The butterflies in the belly...
The clammy palms and nervousness...

The FEELS!


But, how can we define LOVE?

The definition we find for LOVE at dictionary.com is as follows...

Love
noun
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. sexual passion or desire.

But does Webster's definition match up to God's definition of love?

Decide for yourself...

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT)

What is love? I think Paul summed it up very well. But is the summary all there is to it, or should we search for a deeper understanding on this passage?

I've heard a story this week in my AFCM certification course that inspired the way I look to define things.

There was a man who took a block of wood and carved it into a beautiful statue of an elephant. Every detail was perfectly crafted down to the wrinkles in the elephants skin, the flecks in it's eyes, and the hairs at the end of it's tail. Then one of his friends asked him when he had started sculpting and asked him if he had been formally trained. The man who sculpted the elephant responded that he had NEVER done a sculpture before and had NEVER been trained. Astounded and confused, his friend asked him how on earth he created such a fine sculpture. His response was simple. "I looked at the block of wood and I removed everything from it that didn't look like an elephant."

Sometimes for us to fully figure out what something IS, we also have to figure out what it ISN'T.

So what ISN'T love?

Love isn't proud or boastful. Love isn't rude. Love is not irritable or unforgiving. If we study the Corinthian chapter of love (13), you'll see astounding evidence that love is NOT an emotion, but something that takes action. Pride comes from emotion, irritability is emotion, bitterness (or lack of forgiveness) is caused by hurt feelings and emotions, LOVE is NOT an emotion.

Reviewing the dictionary definition of love, along with Hollywood's example, I find it is entirely flawed. Love is not a noun, but a verb. Love is an action that you choose to carry out, not a fickle emotional feeling that can change in a whim. Hollywood has made "true love" out to be romance and butterflies, flowers and hot dates, attraction and sex. Now in their proper context, none of these things are wrong, but out of the context of marriage they can not only be sinful, but can be physically and mentally damaging. Making the concept of love into an emotional thing isn't just unbiblical, but it cheapens love in the eyes of the public and allows it to be viewed as disposable and exchangeable. This is why a harsh majority of marriages end in divorce. Once the "feelings" die off, the couple feels that they have fallen out of love and look elsewhere...

Friends, there is no such thing as falling out of love, only choosing not to be in it anymore.

Love is a choice for anyone to be in. Make no mistake, emotions play a major part in it, but you choose to act in love and you choose to fight for it once the emotions fade.

If this lesson causes even one of you to understand that relations with the opposite sex are sacred and not to be thrown around like the cheap representation that Hollywood feeds us, then I have done my job. In the coming weeks I will attempt to teach you how this view of love applies to more than just a relationship with a spouse, but should also be applied to everyone you encounter. Think on this throughout the week and try to make a conscious effort to show love to others, even when your emotions don't want to.

All Things New: Signs [How Do We KNOW We've Changed?]

During this month we've studied how TO change and what enables us TO change. We've discussed that Jesus paid our debt on the cross and that we owe Him our lives and sacrifice to fulfill our end of the covenant.

One thing I left out of last week's post is that is up to YOU to find out what Christ's standard for your life is. If you don't know where to start searching, Matthew Chapters 5-7 creates a fantastic overview of His standard.

But HOW are you supposed to know that YOU HAVE changed?

What are the SIGNS!?

Is there anything we can use as an indication that we have really become that new creation?

"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions." (Matthew 7:16-20 NLT)

Jesus explains in the above verse that you will know true Christians by the fruits they produce. So what fruits should a Christian be producing?

But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge]. (Galatians 5:22, 23 AMP)

So let's focus on a these fruits individually...

The bible is clear the LOVE should be the center of the Christian life.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7, 8 NLT)

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT)

The GREATEST of these is LOVE.

This means that our every action should be motivated by LOVE. This will branch out into all the other fruits. For if God is love and Jesus is the vine, all other fruits must be born of love.

When it comes to harvesting crops, you cannot expect to get something different that what you planted. Jesus illustrated that in one of the above passages. A farmer can't plant corn and grow potatoes. A Christian can't plant hate and receive love.

The rest of the fruits should reflect this love. When you share love you will receive joy and continue to share joy with others. NOTHING should be able to take your joy away. You should have something in you that makes other people wonder why you are always happy, even when things seem bad. Joy!

The Christian life should be FULL of peace. Even in the midst of trials you should have no fear of the outcome because of your faith that God will have your back. God IS love and as John writes, "perfect love expels all fear." Although I'm aware that his context was of fear or punishment I believe that this relates to understanding our peace in Christ as well.

Patience. John 16:33 guarantees that we will have struggles and Romans 8:17 states that if we are to share in Christ's glory we must also share in His sufferings. It is clear that we will have trouble and making it through this world will require patience. We have to be understanding with others as God is understanding with us as Christ tells us in Matthew 7:2, "For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged." Being patient with others is a quality of love and a fruit of His Spirit.

This quality extends to kindness which Christ teaches us simply by the golden rule. "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31 NIV)

Goodness or benevolence is simply an extension of kindness in acting to care for others who can't care for themselves. This is the only acceptable form of "religion" in God's eyes. "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." (James 1:27 NLT)

Faithfulness -- Faithfulness is in a sense another term for obedience. As I have explained before, we don't obey God out of fear of punishment or to avoid hell, but we obey Him because we have FAITH that His word and rule is for our best interest and we believe that His ways are better than our own. If you obey His laws out of faith, you are bearing this fruit.

Gentleness, meekness, and humility is simply the opposite of being proud or boastful. It's okay to acknowledge the gifts God has given you as long as you don't seek the praise for yourself. In all things seek the glory of God.

Lastly, self-control. Following Christ means practicing restraint from the sins that used to control you. If you say you belong to Christ, but keep turning back to the sins that separated you from God in the first place, your fruit isn't matching the Vine.

If we back up a few verses in Galatians, we can also see the type of fruit that comes from the flesh. These are the things that should not be seen in the life of a Christian.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 NLT)

It is clear that the Spirit breed LOVE and selflessness into us while our flesh breeds only pride and selfishness. Love is the fruit we strive for. In the coming month we are diving further into the topic of love, so for now let me leave you with a scripture that describes how important love truly is...

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 MSG)

Pray on these things this week and ask God daily to allow you to bear the fruits of the spirit. God bless you until next week...

All Things New: How Can We Change? [Part Two: Our Process]

Last week I talked with you about how Christ paid our debt with His sacrifice, but what is our process in this? What is our part in making all things new?

Christ was our substitution, so what does that mean for us?

If He paid it ALL, do we have to sacrifice anything of ourselves?

We know what Christ accomplished on the cross, but is there anything WE need to accomplish?...



Yes!

To illustrate this point, I will quote an early post from this blog that I wrote over two years ago...

Throughout scripture there seems to be several verses that imply the fact that we can receive salvation by merely believing, or having faith in God. This ideology has brought forth newly popularized claims about heaven, hell, and even life on earth. The claim gaining the most popularity amongst my generation is the claim of Universal Reconciliation, or in simpler terms, the theory that EVERYONE will get into heaven.

Is this true?

Universalists claim that in scripture there are over six-hundred verses that support their claim. Let's take a look at a few, starting with justification by faith.

First, what is justification by faith? To be justified with something or someone means to be made right with said object. So if you kill someone out of self defense you are legally justified by the fact that they were trying to harm you. Justification by faith simply means we are made right with God by believing in Jesus' death and resurrection being the only means of our salvation. The Apostle Paul speaks of this justification in many of his writings, but especially in Romans.

If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. For the Scriptures tell us, "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith."
When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. (Romans 4:2-5 NLT)

So we shouldn't work for, toward, or on our salvation? We just have to believe? Hmmm...

Now, notice how James speaks of the same man that the Apostle Paul spoke of in the above verses and even quotes the same ancient scriptures.

You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. (James 2:19-24 NLT)

I do believe that we are justified by our faith and doing good works can't earn us grace, but I also believe that we cannot be justified by something that is dead.

Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. (James 2:26 NLT)

The point that this makes is that our works are OUR portion of the blood covenant we join into with God. As we discussed before, to enter a blood covenant there must be bloodshed on both sides. In the Old Covenant, God's blood was represented by the sinless blood of a slain animal while man's blood was shed at circumcision. So what is our process in this? What is it that we have to do to fulfill our sacrificial end of the NEW blood covenant with God?

Our faith and our works are a large part of it. I'll step back to the post on justification by faith and quote my old friend, Joe Lanza. "He said your faith has made you well, go and sin no more. How much more clear could He have been? First your faith (in Christ) will make you well. Repentance is a part of that, we can't 'just believe' and think everything is ok. Because, then He said go and sin no more. That is were we need to continue to try and live right and repent. If I get saved and right away go back to my own ways I have not done what He asked."

It all boils down to obedience.

If you really trust someone, you will do what they ask of you. Your actions will prove your faith in them. If you fail to act on your faith, then you prove that you don't actually have any. THIS is why faith without works is dead.

We also have to learn that Christ's crucifixion actually mirrors OUR process in an amazing way. In Luke He states...

“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? (Luke 9:22-25 NIV excerpt)

The best I've ever heard this used as an analogy was in a brief message by Mattie Montgomery titled "The Death Process."

Basically, the crucifixion acts not only as our penal substitution, but as a guide to the death process we must put ourselves through SPIRITUALLY if we desire to enter into the covenant with God.

That is our bloodshed...

That is OUR PROCESS.

All Things New: How Can we Change? [Part One: Christ's Substitution]

It's safe to say that one of the first parts of making ALL THINGS NEW is simply asking God and those who He has placed as authorities in your life where to start or how it works. So in this lesson I aimed to answer one part of those questions, starting with a game.

While talking with one of our leaders and trying to figure out a game with an adequate message, we developed Musical Chairs with a "Twistery" (mystery+twist=twistery, cheesy... we know).

This version of the classic game has a hidden catch to convey penal substitution. If the game goes as usual, then all the students lose, but if at any time one student offers their seat to another student and takes the penalty (being out) for them, the game is over and EVERYONE wins.

..but more on that later.

What do you think enables us to change? Don't just skip ahead and read the answer. Take a few minutes and really think about this. What is it that enables us to become that new creation?




...




He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:15-21 NLT)

Let me ask you that again. What enables us to change?

The answer is one thing and one thing alone. The answer is the CROSS.

Now take some time and think about what happened on the cross. What is the first thing you think of when I ask you, "What happened on the cross?"

To help you understand I'll refer back to the game of Musical Chairs. As the students who came walked around a circle of chairs, the music played and they waited for it to stop so they could frantically pounce after the chairs in attempt to avoid the penalty of being separated from the group. What they didn't know at the time was that the object of the game wasn't to be the last one standing and there was no way to earn victory by fighting against the other students. The only way that everyone eventually won was when a student figured out that they had to make the sacrifice for the good of the entire class. That one student took the punishment for someone who could not find their place. That one student left their seat and instead accepted a loss. That one student became the outcast, even though they had not made an error. That one student helped me create the perfect analogy for what Christ did for us on the cross. JESUS took the place of ALL of us who had no chance to overcome death on our own. JESUS left HIS SEAT at the right hand of God and traded it for earthly pain and suffering. JESUS paid our debt and was outcasted even though He had done NO WRONG. His death was a substitute for our punishment. He took the death that WE deserved. And just as the one student's sacrifice covered the entire group and allowed EVERYONE to win, Christ's sacrifice allows everyone on this earth an opportunity to win the race and live eternally with Christ in heaven.

Now even though Christ's death paid our penalty, His LIFE and PERFECTION is what saves us, but we'll touch on that in a minute.

Another hard-hitting question that a lot of teens (and honestly, adults) ask is, "Is God sending his son to a torturous death by the hands of men really a story of LOVE?"

I figured, rather than allowing you to be caught off guard with this question from kids at school or people you work with, I have to equip you to answer it by asking you, myself.

Is this a story of LOVE? Take another few minutes and try to answer that for yourself. Think about how you would answer that friend or co-worker who asked you that question...




...





This is MY answer -- the BIBLE's answer. God is love, but He is also justice. He is all knowing and we as humans cannot dare to deny that only He could judge the true penalty for the consequence of sin. Whether we LIKE it or not, that consequence is death. But His mercy towards us, who had betrayed Him and His laws, shows us that this IS a story of love!

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. (Romans 5:8-10 NLT)

we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

Like I said above, it was His perfection in life that saves us; the fact that he was a spotless man without sin or blemish to his record. The only sacrifice that God ever deemed worthy under the Old Covenant was the sacrifice of an animal without spot or blemish. And we already covered in a previous post that the cross entered us into a New Blood Covenant with God.

So the next step in this process is to find out what WE have to do to make this change happen. What covenant terms do WE have to uphold?

More on that next week...

All Things New: the Change [Vision Week]

A little late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

With the new year and countless resolutions at hand, we will be taking this month to study a four-part re\\VAMP SERIES titled, "All Things New." My prayer is that every time someone mentions the new year or a resolution of any sort, you will be reminded of the lessons you are (or your teenager is) learning!

I want to take this time to let you know that in this new year we will be bringing forth a new (or rather a revived) vision for re\\VAMP along with a Wednesday service that we have already launched on 1/8/14.

During this launch week I restated the original concept as to how this ministry will function and the three pillars of ministry we at re\\VAMP encompass...

• The Three Pillars of re\\VAMP
[re\\VIVE, re\\VEAL, and re\\VOLVE]

re\\VIVE WORSHIP: (Psalm 150:3-6) We're called to revival! We're called to be the generation who dances with joy for God and it's hard to dance without good music. So we've dedicated a team who can provide the music and mentor young musicians to make a joyful noise for God.

This is our worship team, led by Clinton Davies. Our vision for music ministry is not just to make music, but to utilize it as a tool to worship and grow students up into mighty worshipers and future worship leaders. Their generation needs it! If you are a high school student (or know a high schooler) who is interested in music, ask one of our leaders for an application for the team.

re\\VEAL WORD AND DRAMA: (1 Corinthians 2:10) God has revealed Himself to us by His Spirit, so that we can use our gifts of spoken word, drama, technology, and analogy to reveal Him to others. That is what this ministry is about.

Currently, my wife and I run this segment of the ministry and it is limited to games (used as analogies, of course) and teaching of the Word. If you want to get involved or know anyone who could run a drama team, please direct the interest to me.

re\\VOLVE LEADERSHIP & DISCIPLESHIP: (Hebrews 13:17) This is our leadership team and it comes by three steps. Christ e\\VOLVES your life, your heart, and saves you. Then you get in\\VOLVED in the Kingdom and fellowship with others who love God and start discovering who God is. When you're in\\VOVLED, you will learn what it means to re\\VOLVE around Christ.

e\\VOLVE, in\\VOLVE... re\\VOLVE.

These three pillars are the basis of how we feel God is leading us to run this ministry. But what is the goal and why the name re\\VAMP?

Well, the goal and the name go right along with this month's topic...

ALL THINGS NEW.

As I've stated in a previous post, to re\\VAMP simply means to CHANGE and that is reflected by our mission verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT)

But HOW can we achieve this change?

I'll answer that question in the upcoming weeks' studies. Stay tuned.

Resolutions

On Saturday, 12/28/2013, we discussed the topic of New Years' Resolutions at re\\VAMP. I asked the students what some of their resolutions were and got some typical replies...

• Get Better Grades
• Lose Some Weight
• Eat Healthier
• Have a Better Attitude

...then one of my students said something profound.

"I just want to continue making the progress I'm making right now."

This had me asking a new question. Is the concept of a New Years' Resolution even remotely biblical?

To answer that, I think of the scripture in James that ACTUALLY states that procrastination is a SIN.

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. (James 4:13-17 NLT)

"It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it."

The bottom line is that this is a simple lesson to learn. If you feel something in your life needs to change or if God is pressing you to change an aspect of your life, don't wait for some date to change it. Don't procrastinate until the new year to make a resolution.

When God asks you to move, don't wait. Act now, because you may never see tomorrow.

I think to make this post any longer would over complicate a simple truth so in closing, resolutions are fine, but don't procrastinate your growth by waiting around on a special date to start.