Write this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights' circle, speaks: "I see what you've done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can't stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out. But you walked away from your first love--why? What's going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you've fallen? A Lucifer fall! Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I'm well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.” (Revelation 2:1-5, The Message)
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal, If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2, NIV)
I traveled on the road this past weekend with my home congregation where my senior pastor was the guest speaker at a revival service, and his main admonition to the gathering was about the importance of keeping your relationship with Jesus in first place; in other words, if you’re not in love with Jesus above everything else, nothing else really matters as it should. One of the passages he quoted was the above listed one in Revelation, where Jesus tells this particular church that, although they were excelling in many, many areas, they were woefully deficient in one, but it was the main one: they had left their first love, or, to put it on today’s vernacular, they had fallen out of love with Jesus. This, of course, as you’ve probably already figured out, is a direct message to myself as well as to anyone else who has ears to hear…
Before I address it from Biblical times and places, let me tell on ourselves for a few minutes: we all remember the first time we really fell in love with somebody! Whether we called it a “crush”, “puppy love”, whatever… When we were in the early stages of that love relationship, we couldn’t get enough of talking to the other person, hearing their voice, (or in the case of quite a few, listening to them breathe on the other end of the phone!), seeing them, feeling their touch, even certain scents and smells… Whenever you heard certain songs come on, you would be instantly transported to another intense memory you had with that person, and quite simply, you just couldn’t wait until you and that significant other could be in each other’s presence again and again and again… We’d go out of our way to come up with special, extravagant ways to show the other person just how much we loved them and cared for them, through gifts, surprises, extraordinary acts of kindness toward the other, simply because we loved them deeply! But, you know how it goes, especially those of us who have been blessed to still be with that person we fell so deeply in love with so very long ago, and it has happened to ALL of us: the longer we have been with our spouse or our significant other, the more the tendency is to take that relationship for granted. It’s as if we’ve almost become too comfortable with the other person’s presence, and don’t get me wrong: we absolutely love the person we’re with, and because you’ve been through good times and bad, heartaches, heartbreaks, and struggles, you’ve been through richer and poorer, you’ve been through sickness and health, you’ve certainly been through better and worse, and the fact that you still love each other and that love has indeed grown is a blessing from God Himself. But you have to ask yourself, “When was the last time I went out of my way to show this person I love them? Have I cooked their favorite meal lately? Have I given them something just because? Have I just wanted to talk to them just to hear their voice? When’s the last time I’ve pulled them close just to tell them, ‘I love them’?” Two things: If it’s been a while since you slowed yourself down to ask those questions, it IS time to check yourself… Also, if we feel that way about our significant other, have we really taken the time out to think that that’s how Jesus Himself feels about our relationship with Him?
We see this demonstrated so clearly in the New Testament passage of Jesus visiting Martha and Mary (see Luke 10:38-42). There is NO question that BOTH of these sisters loved Jesus with all their hearts, or else Martha would not have been bending over backwards trying to make sure that everything was absolutely in order to make Jesus as comfortable as she could. (And in Martha’s defense, only deep love will drive a person to absolute irritation at others [Mary] who don’t demonstrate it the same way as they do…) But where Martha made her mistake was recorded by Luke in Chapter 10, verse 40: “But Martha was distracted with all her preparations…” And this, unfortunately, is where many of us miss the mark as well: we’re so busy trying to please Jesus, we fail to stop and look at what He really wants: time with us… This is why He corrects Martha (and tries to correct the church at Ephesus in Revelation, and is trying to correct us as we listen to this,) by showing her what is really important: “…you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really, only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41b-42, emphases mine) In other words, the “good part” is Jesus Himself, and anyone that passionately pursues Jesus will get the benefit of everything Jesus has to offer, but it only comes in its fullness if we continually choose Jesus first.
To bring it back home and close it out, let me paraphrase 1 Corinthians 13 to emphasize: if I had 25 Anniversary Shows of “The Praise Party” and “rocked the house, raised the roof, and lifted up the Praise,” but Jesus wasn’t hanging out here, I’d be nothing. If I could reach all of Yuwie with the Good News of Jesus, and bring many over to Him, but didn’t make it a point to love on Him every day, I’d be nothing. I could be the best husband to Alicia I could be, be the best father to my children, both natural and spiritual, be the best pastor I could be, have all types of shows covering all different genres and truly reaching the world in Jesus’ Name, but if I didn’t have my active relationship with Jesus, it’s all worth nothing. In other words, Jesus must have first place in my life, or nothing else matters.
My personal salvation verses, by the way, are Matthew 7:21-23. As I read them closing out tonight, it was my prayer of salvation then, it is my checking point now, and I pray you never have to hear Jesus say these final words to you: “Not everyone that says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those that do the will of my Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out devils, and in Your name do many wondrous works?’ And I will say to them in that day, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.” If you don’t hear anything else out of “The Praise Party,” hear this tonight: get to know Jesus, and let Him become your first love.
Yours in His grace,
Pastor Ced |
