What the world needs now is love. I think I could turn that into a song. Wait… it’s already been done? What?!? Oh man… another great idea already taken by someone else. In fact, this was a hit song written by Hal David, and recorded by in 1965. Here are the lyrics…
(Chorus) What the world needs now is love, sweet love It's the only thing that there's just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No not just for some but for everyone Lord we don't need another mountain There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb There are oceans and rivers enough to cross Enough to last until the end of time Chorus Lord, we don't need another meadow There are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine Oh listen Lord, if You want to know Chorus In the book “Chicken Soup For The Soul”, David talked about how the lyrics to this song came about… “One day, I thought of the first two lines of this song: 'What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of.' Before I got to Manhattan I had the rest of the chorus set the way it is today. Then I needed the verse section. When I began to write the first verse, everything I thought about just seemed off: We don't need a plane to fly faster, we don't need a submarine to go deeper. I tried and tried, showed it to Burt, then put it away and went on to something else. In a month or two or three, I tried again. It was always the same thing. I needed something to compare it to and everything I thought about had nothing to do with the person I was talking to – God. It took more time to write these lyrics than any other. I realized that I needed to write the antithesis – what we didn't need. One day on the ride to New York, it came to me. 'Lord, we don't need another mountain, There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb, There are oceans and rivers enough to cross, Enough to last till the end of time.' I knew that was it. I wrote about all of the things that had to do with nature and what God gives us.” So how cool is that? A song written 2 years before the ‘Summer Of Love’ was a prayer to God to give us more love. I like it. Unfortunately we know that much of the ‘love’ birthed in the 1960s was not of God. It was often more lust than love. But Hal David tapped into something very spiritual. God is creative, and has given us some spectacular things. We as humans are given the ability to love. But we don’t have an inexhaustible reserve within us. We must get love from somewhere else. And God is the source of love. Interestingly enough, Jesus before leaving His disciples touched on this very topic. Here is what He told them in a very intimate conversation… “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father. You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. This is what I command you: Love one another.” (John 15:9-17) Jesus says that there is a correlation between obedience and love. He modeled that in His relationship with the Father. Too many people want the love of God, but they don’t want to obey God. Within this conversation He also says one of the great quotes of all time, “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus then calls them His friends… if they do what He has commanded. His greatest command is love. Love God, and love others. Today we get to live out the greatest command of God. Love people today. They need it. The whole world needs it. There’s just not enough of it. Don’t just love some people… love everyone. God is loving this world, and He is doing it through His friends. Enjoy. There's more where that came from. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. Reading the Bible is not a priority for most people… so most people don’t do it. Studies show that less than 10% of Americans read the Bible every day. And even in the Church, only about 19% of people who say that spiritual growth is important to them read the Bible every day. This would explain a lot. Now, it doesn’t mean that people never read the Bible. But it does mean that most women who go to church put on make-up more consistently than they read the written truth of God. It means that men are more likely to check out SportsCenter than they are to read the eternal truth of God. These statistics make the prophecy in the book of Amos very real. “Hear this! The days are coming - this is the declaration of the Lord God - when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11) I think it is interesting that as we become less concerned with personal Bible reading, the less truth we hear from the pulpits of America. It makes sense. If the people coming to church aren’t engaged in the Bible on a daily basis, they aren’t familiar with the demands of a holy God. If the preacher preaches the truth of God, it will not resonate with the people, and they likely will not keep coming back. So I begin to wonder which came first… the lack of Bible reading among the people, or the lack of Bible preaching among the preachers. It isn’t that the word of God is not readily available. In America it comes in every color, size, and reading level. It comes with notes for hunters, soldiers, teenage girls, moms, and many other specific types of interests. It is published in magazine form. It is in audio form. It is on our cell phones. Basically, you can always choose between playing Candy Crush or reading the Bible, because they are on the same device. But we apparently choose Candy Crush… most of the time. Then we wonder why our world falls apart. We wonder why our marriage fails. We wonder why we keep falling back into that favorite sin. We wonder why we are easily discouraged, depressed, and depleted spiritually. We are in the midst of a famine of the word of God. Not because it isn’t there, but because we aren’t taking it in. We say we want to hear from God, but we don’t do the most basic thing to find out what He is saying. Along the way the Bible has been attacked as untrue, or antiquated. People say that it is the ramblings of authors who just wrote things about life and God from their own perspective. They say it cannot be trusted. And as we go on, more people live their lives without the life-giving wisdom ready to leap off of those pages. Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) So are you going to believe the apostle Paul, or something you read by some blogger on the Huffington Post? The Bible is hard to read, mainly for people who don’t read it. And I will guarantee you that if you don’t read it, it will be impossible to read it. This is a growing problem in a time when many people do not read well, or do not read at all. But with the advancements that have given us the audio version of Scripture on our phones, reading problems are not an excuse for not getting into the Bible. Trust me… not reading the Bible is harder than reading the Bible. I also readily realize that the Bible is a spiritual work, with a spiritual enemy. Satan does not want you to read the Bible. I’d say if we interviewed the Devil and asked him, “What 5 things do you wish people would not do?” reading the Bible would make the list. He knows the power of the word of God. Jesus used it over and over again when He put the smack down on the enemy of our soul. The Bible is not a magical book. But it is a transformational book… and that is better than magic. Reading the Bible will improve your life. It even improves the lives of non-believers who read it. That’s how powerful it is. But the same Spirit of God who inspired men to write it down will also speak to you as you read it. It is His word, and He wants you to get it. The psalmist said, “The entirety of Your word is truth.” (Psalm 119:160) There is no area of life into which the Bible does not speak. And if it only speaks truth, there is something there for you today. I challenge you to read a portion of Scripture every day for a month and see what happens. If you don’t know where to start, simply open it up and start reading. It is better to read without a plan than to have a plan to not read. Or you could read this devotional every day for a month. You know it will always include a section of Scripture. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. I am a fan of the TV show 'Shark Tank'. On this show, people with products pitch their idea to investors who can help them make it to the next level. I am an idea guy, and I like to pitch ideas. So I enjoy the conversations between the inventors and the investors. Tonight I was thinking about the hard-nosed attitude of the investors. One of them in particular, Kevin O’leary, has a very greedy world-view. He believes everything revolves around money. It determines everything. This causes him to come off as very jaded. I’m certain he does well in business, but I feel very sorry for him if this fiscal attitude rules his personal relationships. But in the financial realm, he has laser focus. If it doesn’t make cents… it doesn’t make sense. One aspiring entrepreneur on the show was trying to convince the investors to put $100,000 into his company in exchange for 10% of its equity. He tried to convince them of the value of his product, but he came off as shifty, and generally incompetent. His product came off as a winner. One of the investors offered him $100,000 for 50% of the company. Then Kevin offered these terms: 1 - $100,000 to buy the whole business. 2 - Once the business was his, he would dismiss the dysfunctional creator, and 3 - Pay him 7% of the profit for the rest of his life. The inventor said he needed to call his wife to discuss the offer. While he was gone, Kevin and another ‘shark’ combined to make a team that would buy the company for $150,000 to buy the business, fire him (so he wouldn't be a liability) and give him 7% of the profits for the rest of his life. Kevin told him, "I am not trying to insult you. I am trying to make you rich." Upon returning, he declined their offer, not believing that they would think so little of his 'management skills'. A third investor who was totally unimpressed with the creator, but had confidence in the product if it were in the right hands, added $75,000 to buy him out, bringing the total to $225,000. He flatly denied their offer and walked away for good. It was obvious both by his presentation, and his interaction with those whose help he sought, that he was incapable of taking his business to the next level. It was as if he was throwing his future away because he couldn't be in control of it... driving it into the ground. Obviously, my mind went to the spiritual reality, which is clearly obvious. We may act like we are the best thing for us, but we all know at some level that we need serious help if we are going to become all we can be. We offer God a small portion of ourselves (10%) if He will invest what we can't. God offers the following: 1 - We step aside 2 - He takes charge, and 3 - We receive abundant life now and throughout eternity. But you know how it is. People don't want to think of themselves as their own worst enemy. They want to believe that they are only a couple of good decisions away from making a smashing success out of themselves. But we can't make a success out of ourselves. God knows who we are. He knows what will happen if we hold a 90% stake in ourselves… or a 10% stake, for that matter. Jesus taught His disciples this same thing. He once told them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) We have to give up our life in order to gain life. We have to give up control to gain stability. We have to give up our pursuits in order to gain true purpose. He created us. He know how to get the most out of us and help us achieve the dreams He put inside of us. So the question is, will you take His offer? Have you done such a great job with your life that you don't need help? Have you done such a poor job with the life you were given, that you admit you need someone else to bail you out, but you will only give them a small percentage of yourself? Do you just want God to get you out of a scrape only to have limited input? Are you really that well off? God doesn't partner with us, so to speak. He makes us an offer we shouldn't refuse: 1 - He has paid the necessary price to free us from the bondage that is our old life of sin. 2 - He makes us into a new creation, our old self being gone... fired, if you will. 3 - He promises us and delivers an everlasting reward. Once we accept His offer, we are then able to partner with Him to transform the lives of others who have grand ideas about what they should be, but no way to bring it about themselves. Today, surrender to Christ's investment and management. He wants to get into your business and make you profitable for the kingdom of God. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. Sometimes we can get jealous of those who do wrong and seem to do well. Deep down we know that the success we want comes from being right with God and doing the right things with people. But our natural eyes see a different scene. It seems like the wicked do prosper, and the righteous are the ones struggling in this world. I want to address that perspective today, but I can’t say what I want to say better than another David who has already dealt with this issue. I guarantee you that if you read this, your day will be infinitely better… unless of course, you are one of the wicked. (I highlighted some key thoughts from each section. You can pray about these things.) “Do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken. Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will be forever. They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance. But the wicked will perish; and the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures, they vanish—like smoke they vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives. For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing. Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. The wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand or let him be condemned when he is judged. Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity. But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked will be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.” (Psalm 37) If you were beginning to think that there is little benefit to serving God, I hope this word has been an encouragement to you. Be thankful today that your wealth is not measured in the material realm, but is an eternal inheritance that sustains you both now and later. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. Do you have a keen sense of justice? Do you like to see wrongs made right? That can be a very good trait. We need to care about injustice, and we should do what we can to make sure victims are defended, and not just run over by the greedy and violent. We live in a time when there are many social justice groups working to tip the scales back in favor of those who have been taken advantage of. There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking justice. In fact, in Scripture we find that God places a high value on making sure right prevails and those who do wrong toward others are held accountable. God is upset when the poor are oppressed, the weak are trampled, the widows are neglected, and the orphans are forgotten. There are times when these get Him fired up and He messes some things up in order to make His point. In fact, one of the passages that inspires many Christians to work hard for the down-trodden was written by the prophet Micah. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) God wants us to do what is right, do what is kind, and do these things in a humble spirit before God. You see, Christians aren’t God’s avengers on this planet… we are God’s ambassadors. We should live in a way that exhibits what life is like in the kingdom of Heaven. We are to do the right thing, and we are not supposed to participate in evil. We are vessels of justice… not injustice. But we are not to be people who are seeking our pound of flesh. Revenge is not a spiritual gift. Vengeance is not our calling. This is very tricky. Because we aren’t to be silent as injustice happens, but neither are we to try and get everything back to equal. The Gospel is not about making things even, but making Jesus known through our words and actions. In the end Christ will make everything new. That is restoration. We aren’t here to settle scores, redistribute wealth, or even make sure the wicked pay. That is His job. We are to seek justice… not exact it. We are to speak truth and live right. Look at what the apostle Paul tells the Christians living in an unjust culture in the first century… “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. ‘But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17-21) That is some powerful stuff. Notice that Paul did not deny that injustice exists. He didn’t say that we wouldn’t get the short end of the stick sometimes. He states that we will in fact have enemies. But the Christian is not here to make evil people pay for the wrongs they commit. If you have been unfairly treated, I’m sorry for you. I hate it. But as a Christian, it isn’t your business to make your oppressors pay for their wrong-doing. Maybe your church has been mistreated. Perhaps your ancestors were oppressed. That’s awful. But as a believer and follower of Christ, you have no business holding onto that. What then? Should we just smile and go on, expecting the oppressors to continue hurting others? Yes and no. We should smile and go on. We should as ‘Jesus people’ offer sustenance to those who are evil. It is hard to offer the Gospel to someone you are attacking. But that doesn’t mean the offenders get off with no accountability for their actions. God will ultimately make all evil doers pay. But even now He has another realm of authority called the government. This is His legal/justice arm in the world today. So we as Christians can do good to the unjust and pray that God’s justice wins at the same time. In the end, the government has been given the sword of justice and judgment, and we as the Church have been given the sword of truth. And in that truth we find justice, mercy, and humility. But you can’t walk in humility and revenge at the same time. The apostle James, the brother of Jesus put it this way, “The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20) We live in a victim-oriented culture. Everyone wants their day in court. They want to be repaid for what others have done to them. Lawyers are lined up to ‘get you yours.’ And there is no time limit to our outrage. We want justice for what happened 4 seconds ago, and 400 years ago. Revenge has become its own industry. But it is not our business. It is God’s. And if we ever see holy justice, it will cause us to reach out that much more quickly in mercy, humility, and grace. Today you will have opportunities to look the other way on injustice. Don’t do it. Don’t close your eyes to reality. Speak up. Defend those who cannot defend their own selves. Lay your life down to protect your friends. But don’t open your hand in vengeance to try and right every wrong. Don’t carry out revenge for yourself. Take your lumps of injustice as Jesus took His. You are on a mission to save the world, not to save your own skin. Lay down your life for your enemies. They cannot overcome that. The greatest injustice was an innocent man willingly sacrificing Himself for an evil world. Yet through that came the most precious justice… that He was able to reconcile to Himself those who had been unjustly stolen by the enemy. Pursue that justice today, and let your revenge melt away. Instead of fighting for the recompense you think you deserve, fight for what you don’t deserve… redemption, regeneration, and reconciliation. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. |
AuthorMy name is David, and I want to know God more, and help other people find Him. Archives
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