Eric's Monday Sermon; Love of Life

There was a man and he was dying of cancer. He was a goner for sure.But a strange thing happened to him when this truth was revealed to him.He was overcome with love. Not someone else's but his own.We could easily understand that he was "covered in the Love of Jesus Christ" as he was a Christian man. And we could easily understand that he was covered in the love of family and friends. And of course all that is ultimately true. But that is not what overwhelmed him. His own love of life and others and nature and God is what overwhelmed and took over this man's life. It felt like a warm blanket yet it emanated from the inside out.

It gives us pause to think of such an occurrence. Most of us get an idea like "being loved" and how powerful that can be. It is almost too easy to understand that my mom loves me and that makes me feel good and safe and sound. And this brings us to God. After all this is a sermon and it just seems right that we talk about God. Today let us talk about something real personal about God. Something so personal that nobody has a right to talk about it to you or even with you. Something as personal as your own personal God. I am going to tell you about your personal God. I am going to tell you what to believe about your own personal God. Yes I am going to be so pushy, rude and obnoxious as to tell you what to believe.Go no further in life looking for answers. Question no more. I will speak with ultimate authority and finality. I am going to tell you how to feel and what to feel.

Hang on and listen to this loving song. Let the pictures redirect you to your happy place and be open for a revelation.

Well there you have it. Your God loves you. If you have any other notion of your God then get rid of it today. If you feel for one second that you are not good enough for your God. Get a new one. If somewhere along the line your lines got crossed up and you came to feel that your God is spiteful and vengeful and mean and not loving absolutely show him the door and let him in no more. You must need, want and deserve unconditional love from your God.

There is a cute notion that floats around in Christian circles and it goes something like this. You cannot earn the Grace and Love of God. It is freely given. What a great concept. But it is ultimately wrong throughout all the scriptures. Sorry to break up a happy freebie love fest among preachers and their flock. Here is the catch. You have got to love God first. I know that will raise eyebrows and force others to turn away from my blasphemy. So be it.

You see there is just something about how we are made. You have got to know love in order to receive it. Can you imagine if we gave a man who had never even seen a fishing pole or tasted fish a beautiful fishing lure? Oh he might even marvel at how shiny it is or the craftsmanship that went into it. But there is no way he can understand the functionality and attributes of the lure until he understands the concept of fishing.

With that in mind we then can look back at my statement of Loving God First and get the loving part. You somehow have to know what love is before you can fully accept and assimilate it. Perhaps we just feel what love is, we are good with that. But what of this God thing? Why must it be a love of God that we know? (times like this I wish I was a theological genius so I could make this sound all smart) Well get ready to have your socks knocked off because this is a real doosey. God is love.

Some Biblical stuff is complicated. Some is real easy. Makes me think that the easy stuff is the most important, but that is just me. So here it is: 1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. And don't worry, this is not taken out of context. Actually the stuff around it gets even heavier about love.

There is a little ditty that I made up for my kids. Kind of silly. Do you remember that old saying "beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot"? Well that always gets a giggle from a child. So we adapted it. "Love, love the magical thing, the more you give the more you bring". I told you it was silly. It kind of gets the point across while making you smile and if you share it with someone you are already spreading the love baby.

Pause Pause Pause

Sorry I was listening to the Love is Blue song and remembering how my mom passed it along to me because she really loved it and how I have passed it on to others because I really love it. I have no clue if it is a "good" song. Heck it might even be a "great song" or a dud. But it was passed along in love and sharing of love. So I suppose it could be fingernails on a blackboard and I would still love it. I think that gets the point across.

Oh for sure that guy underwent a outrageously rigorous regimen of chemotherapy. Like they say if the cancer don't kill you the chemo will. Or at least they used to say that, I hear the treatment options are much better now although probably not for someone with stage four and a 3% chance of making it.

We know what became of him. He is doing just fine these 20 years later. 20 years of remission or cure as you may choose. So we look back and ask ourselves; "did the love cure him or did medicine cure him"? Did God intervene? And because I am intimately familiar with the fella I can answer. Yes. Yes to it all. Because love entered him all things were possible.

What would it be like if I were a god? Well first thing and last thing I would do is love people. Give my love into others. And thereby make all things possible. How great would that be?!

Hey wait a second -- I can do that. I can be Godlike. Wow! So can you. I got an idea, just for today let us go be gods. You and me together. Let's go spread the love and change lives.