Love Always Protects

My back yard

στέγω,v \{steg'-o}
1) deck, thatch, to cover 1a) to protect or keep by covering, to preserve 2) to cover over with silence 2a) to keep secret 2b) to hide, conceal 2b1) of the errors and faults of others 3) by covering to keep off something which threatens, to bear up against, hold out against, and so endure, bear, forbear

Love always protects. (1 Corinthians 13:7)

In my late teens, whenever I had a date with a girl, I would be thinking, "Will she have sex with me?" One time I was with this girl in the back seat of a car and started putting physical moves on her. She pushed my hand away. She wanted none of that. I didn't understand, and tried to convince her otherwise. That was the last time she went out with me. 

Good for her! She set a boundary. 

Feeling disrespected, she wanted nothing more to do with me. I was so self-centered that the concepts of honor and respect were not part of my DNA. I did not know love, or how to love and be loved. I did not understand that love always protects.

The Greek verb stego means, "to bear." This does not mean love "bears up under things," but that "love bears all things up." "Love carries everything." (Lewis Smedes, Love Within Limits, 94) Lewis Smedes writes:

"Love hates a scandal... [L]ove drives us away from scandal for deeper reasons than propriety and good taste. Scandal hurts people; and love hates everything that hurts people. This is why a loving person is turned off by gossip and rumor - out of concern for the people being whispered about." (Ib., 95)

Love carries our sorrows. Love never causes more sorrow. "Sorrow is a suffering of the mind, the hurt of knowing that something is wrong." (Ib., 97) Love is a cure for, not a cause of, emotional pain. The girl who refused my sexual advances refused to be victimized by my disrespect of her.

To respect is to protect.

Love always cares for the other, with no expectation of anything in return.

Love is Kind

 

There may be no better book to read on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 than Lewis Smedes' Love Within Limits: A Realist's View of 1 Corinthians 13.

Chapter 2 is - "Love is Kind."

Nietzsche, in one of his
gentler moments.

"Kindness," writes Smedes, "is the will to save; it is God's awesome power channeled into gentle healing. Kindness is love acting on persons." (11)

Love is power.

One quality of love is kindness.

Therefore, kindness is power.

The German atheist philosopher Nietzsche did not take kindly to this. Nietzsche hated Christianity (and especially Paul) for promoting kindness, which he saw as weakness and door-mat-ness. But "kindness," says Smedes, "is enormous strength - more than most of us have, except now and then." (Ib.)

"Kindness is the power that moves us to support and heal someone who offers nothing in return. Kindness is the power to move a self-centered ego toward the weak, the ugly, the hurt, and to move that ego to invest itself in personal care with no expectation of reward." (Ib.)

Only a free person can love this way. When I ask God to "set me free" I am thinking of this kind of thing; viz., freedom to love; freedom to be kind.

To Love Is Not to Agree

                                                      (Custer airport, across from our home.)

To disagree is not to hate.

Flipping this around, to love is not to agree.

Negate these two statements and we have something sounding like Orwell's "Ministry of Love."

DISAGREEMENT IS HATRED

LOVING IS AGREEMENT

Resist these untruths. You will then be swimming against the flow. If loving was equivalent to agreement, then no one would love anyone.

As clear as this is, few live these things out. And that is at the heart of political tribes (see esp. Amy Chua) and identity politics (see esp. Jonathan Haidt). 

This is soft totalitarianism (see Rod Dreher), akin to Orwell's "Ministry of Truth" in 1984. Which simply declared, expecting no resistance:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

LOVE DOES NOT AFFIRM SIN

I'm re-posting this for some of my friends.

Prayer Summit - April 5

 

Saturday, April 5

ABC-MI Prayer Summit

Come join us for a day of powerful prayer, worship, and fellowship at our First Annual Prayer Summit!

By American Baptist Churches of Michigan

Date and time

Saturday, April 5 · 10am - 12pm EDT

Location

West Highland Baptist Church

1116 South Hickory Ridge Road Milford, MI 48380

About this event

• Event lasts 2 hours

Welcome to the ABC-MI Prayer Summit! Join us at West Highland Baptist Church for a day filled with prayer, worship, and community. The people of ABC-MI churches will gather for the purpose of praying for the movement of God among & through us.

LUNCH PROVIDED

Psalm for an Aborted Child

 

You saw me before I was aborted.

Every day of my brief life was recorded in your book.

Every fleeting moment was laid out before my horrific ending. 

Psalm 139:16

Translation mine.

The Love of Jesus Is Different

(Melting ice on my front porch)

I am praying for a love like Jesus.

To love as Jesus loves.

Like this.

Our culture has trained you to hate. You have been taught this: 

"Do unto others, as they do unto you."

You are to be different than this.

If someone loves you, you are to love them. 

If someone hates you, you are to love them. 

If someone slanders you, you are to bless them.

If someone hurts you, you are to pray for them.

You must understand them.

Then you will do wonderful things for people who hate you.

That's different. That's from another world.

This will show who you really are, and who you belong to.

You get no extra credit for loving someone you find lovable.

Anyone can do that. Everyone does that.

Even Isis does that.

You are different from that.

You are a new creation, with new power.

God's DNA determines you.

You are to be like Him.

You are to love as He does. 

And one day, you shall be like Him.

Therefore, love and be as He is, now.

Matthew 5:43-48

"Whenever, contrary to the world’s vindictiveness, 

we love our enemy, 

we exhibit something of the perfect love of God...,

Whenever we opt for and not against one another, 

we make God’s unconditional love visible; 

we are diminishing violence 

and giving birth to a new community."

Henri Nouwen, You Are the Beloved (p. 49)

***

Love Is What God Is 

Love Is What God Is

(Downy woodpecker in my backyard)

God is love. Love forms the very being of God.

"Love" is an essential attribute of God. Just as a triangle cannot not be three-sided, God cannot not-love.

Christian Trinitarian Theism best expresses this idea that God is love. In  this way.

1. God is a three-personed being. God is, essentially, a being-in-relationship.
2. God as Father-Son-Spirit makes conceptual sense of the idea that God is love. This is because "love" is relational. "Love" requires an "other," an object to-be-loved.
3. So, in the very being of God there is a unity of otherness. Which allows for love.

God's essence is love. Just as an apple has appleness, God cannot not-love you. 

God does not love you because there is some command external to his being he must follow. God is love, therefore all God's thoughts and actions are loving.

God's love for you is genuine, 100% pure-squeezed love.

This means that when God thinks of you, he has a good feeling. God likes you. You are God's child, his son, or his daughter.

God made you, and what he has made God calls "very good."

You are deeply loved by God. Nothing can change this because God is love.

Now Reading...

 

I've settled down in our home office today, and am beginning to read two books.

The first is The Arc of Truth: The Thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr. By King scholar Lewis Baldwin. Reading a book like this adds to my ongoing African American religious studies, and my teaching as an Adjunct Professor at Payne Theological Seminary.

The second is Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? Examining 10 Claims About Scripture and Sexuality. By Rebecca McLaughlin. Christianity Today gives this one of the best books of 2024. 

"Critically evaluating ten arguments for affirming same-sex sexual relationships on biblical grounds, McLaughlin combines cogent, accessible, and convincing exegesis with testimonies from those (like her) who experience same-sex attraction but believe that faithfulness to Christ precludes acting on it. Beyond defending relevant biblical prohibitions, she sketches a positive vision of life and opportunity within the church, grounded in an ethic of friendship love encompassing all believers. With its marriage of compassion and intellectual rigor, this book equips us to respond thoughtfully to the cultural confusions of our age." —Greg Welty, professor of philosophy at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

***

For more, see my working bibliography. 

Understanding and Responding to Sexuality Issues: A Brief Bibliography

Those Who Have Been Forgiven Much, Worship Much

 

(Worship at Redeemer)

This morning I read the story of the prostitute who anointed and kissed the feet of Jesus. It happened at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. It made me think of the worship at Redeemer. 

As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, 

she began to wet his feet with her tears. 

Then she wiped them with her hair, 

kissed them and poured perfume on them.

This troubles Simon. He chastises Jesus for allowing her to do this. Jesus responds, saying, "Simon, I have something to tell you."

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. 

One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 

Neither of them had the money to pay him back, 

so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

On Sunday mornings I look at our people, my friends, my sisters and brothers. Some are crying. Hands and hearts are open. Some are smiling and rejoicing. How beautiful this is! 

Why these responses? Because whoever has been forgiven much, worships much. But whoever has been forgiven little, worships little. True worship is in direct proportion to one's experience of forgiveness. Were Simon the Pharisee at Redeemer, he would be troubled by what he sees.

During worship I often think of how much I know I have been forgiven of. I also think of the unknown I have been forgiven of. To forgive is to have a debt cancelled. I don't have to pay any more. To forgive is to bring back into relationship. By the blood of Jesus, I find forgiveness. Atonement. Release. Forgiven, I am a captive set free. This moves me to tell God how much I love him, to say how thankful I am, and to worship him.

To worship.

προσκυνέω,v  \{pros-koo-neh'-o}
1) to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence  2) among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and  touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound  reverence  3) in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make  obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication  3a) used of homage shown to men and beings of superior rank  3a1) to the Jewish high priests  3a2) to God  3a3) to Christ  3a4) to heavenly beings  3a5) to demons

To kiss.

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

To realize this is the beginning of worship.

Resources on Healing

                                                 (The River Raisin, in our backyard)

(This coming Sunday at Redeemer - Clay Harrington, one of the pastors at the Cincinnati Vineyard Church, will preach on healing.)

At Redeemer we pray for people to be healed. 

Here are some resources I draw on about healing.

BOOKS

John Wimber, Power Healing

Francis MacNutt, Healing

MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening

Charles Kraft, Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural

Kraft, I Give You Authority

Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing

Kraft, Confronting Powerless Christianity

David Seamands, Healing for Damaged Emotions

Randy Clark, Authority to Heal

Candy Gunther Brown, Testing Prayer

Candy Brown, Global Pentecostal and Healing Prayer

Craig Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

Craig Keener, Miracles Today

Michael Brown, Authentic Fire

Lee Strobel, The Case for Miracles

J. P. Moreland, A Simply Guide to Experience Miracles

Eric Metaxas, Miracles

SOME BLOG POSTS

N.T. Wright on Jesus, Healing, and Miracles: Getting Skeptical about Skepticism

The Healing Waters of Redemptive Prayer

Prayer & Divine Healing

I Am a Continuationist (Not a Calvinist Cessationist)

Why Doesn't God Heal Everybody? Some Thoughts.

Where Prayer Focuses Power Falls

Praying for the Sick Is One Sign of a Normal Church

Craig Evans on Jesus' Miracles

Healing For Damaged Relationships

Suggested Books on Healing and Prayer

Healing Fear, Worry, & Anxiety Part 1 (Sermon)

Dr. John Piippo - "Prayer and Healing" 04/18/15

Understanding Comes First

 

(Monroe County)

To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.

Proverbs 18:13

I wrote a letter to a young person whose marriage was struggling. There's a lot of fighting and yelling in this marriage. One of them keeps repeating past failures to the other,. The  other called me and asked, "Why do they have to keep reminding me of mistakes I've made in the past!"

Here's the note I sent to them. 

Dear _________:

Understand ______. 

Understanding always comes before evaluation. 

Linda and I spend little time evaluating each other,

and tons of time understanding one another.

To understand is to love; 

to be understood is to be loved and to feel loved.

Understand why ______ feels a need to repeat things to you. It's probably because they feel you are not listening, 
or because they cannot trust you. 

You do not need to defend yourself.

Work to understand why they feel the need to repeat things to you, 

and they will begin to feel understood, 

which is to feel loved.

Communicate with me as needed, and we'll talk on the phone again.

Blessings,

PJ

Making judgments without understanding is the cause of many relationship breakdowns. To judge without understanding is foolish. Here's the order of relational priority:

1. Understand.
2. Evaluate. (If at all.)

In knowledge and relationships, understanding comes first. And, while understanding another person takes time, it is time well spent.

(After sending that note I went looking for a book in my library - To Understand Each Other, by Paul Tournier. This is one of the books that shaped Linda and I in how we approach relationships and marriage. We used to give newly married couples a copy of it. For those who value depth and wisdom, Tournier's works are must reading.)

***

One of my books is Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

African-American Spirituality: A Select Bibliography

(One of my Spiritual Formation classes at Payne Theological Seminary)

What a blessing it is for me to be an Adjunct Faculty member at Payne Theological Seminary! 

My class is Spiritual Formation. I've been teaching this class for many years at a number of theological seminaries, seminars, workshops, both in the U.S. and in places around the world. Through the years it has been my privilege to instruct many pastoral leaders from Africa, and many African-American pastoral leaders.

My Payne teaching began (around 2007, I think) when Dr. Leah Fitchue, Payne's president, asked me to teach part of a weeklong class on Transformational Leasdership. Parts one and two were taught by James Cone and Deotis Roberts. I did part three, and led the Payne students in an entire-day experience on spiritual transformation.

Here are books that line my bookshelf, and populate my Kindle, on African and African-American spirituality. 

Michelle Alexander

• The New Jim Crow: Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Must reading for anyone desiring to understand racism in America.)

James Baldwin

• Notes of a Native Son

Lewis Baldwin 

• Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King Jr. (This is the book to read about King's praying life, a life entirely ignored by the secular media.)
• Revives My Soul Again: The Spirituality of Martin Luther King Jr. (This is the book to read on King's spiritual life, a life entirely ignored by the secular media.)
• The Arc of Truth: The Thinking of Martin Luther King
• "Thou, Dear God": Prayers that Open Hearts and Spirits

Michael Battle

• The Quest for Liberation and Reconciliation: Essays in Honor of J. Deotis Roberts 

Taylor Branch

• America in the King Years

Flora Wilson Bridges

• Resurrection Song: African-American Spirituality

Lewis Brogdon

• Hope on the Brink: Understanding the Emergence of Nihilism in Black America

Clayborne Carson

• The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr

James Cone (It was my privilege to be one of three teachers at a Transformation Leadership week-long conference. Dr Cone taught, Deotis Roberts taught, and I was given Friday morning and afternoon to wrap the week up. [Thank you Dr Leah Fitchue!])

• God of the Oppressed
• A Black Theology of Liberation
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree 

Melva Wilson Costen

• African American Christian Worship

Frederick Douglass

• Slave Narratives Collection

W.E.B. Dubois

• The Souls of Black Folk

Stephen Ellis and Gerrie Ter Haar

• World of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa

Cain Hope Felder

• Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation 

Walter Fluker

• They Looked for a City: A Comparative Analysis of the Ideal of Community in the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Obery Hendricks (Hendricks is former President of Payne Theological Seminary and currently Prof. of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary)

• The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted

Johnny Bernard Hill

• Prophetic Rage: A Postcolonial Theology of Liberation

Diana Hayes

• Forged in the Fiery Furnace: African American Spirituality

Dwight Hopkins

• Introducing Black Theology of Liberation
• Heart and Head: Black Theology Past, Present and Future

Rufus Matthew Jones, Kerry Walters (Note: the Quaker-mystical theology of Rufus Jones deeply influenced the spirituality of Howard Thurman)

• Rufus Jones: Essential Writings

Robert W. Kellemen, Karole A. Edwards

• Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

Eric Lincoln

• The Black Church in the African American Experience

Malcolm X

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X

John Mbiti

• African Religions & Philosophy
• Introduction to African Religion

Esau McCauley

• Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
• How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

Latasha Morrison

• Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation

Peter Paris

• The Spirituality of African Peoples
• Religion and Poverty: Pan-African Perspectives

James W. Perkinson

• White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity

Anthony Pinn

• Varieties of African American Religious Experience

Samuel Proctor

• My Moral Odyssey (Dr. Charles Brown of Payne Seminary recommended this to me.)

Albert Raboteau

• Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South

Luther E. Smith

• Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet

Katrina Dyonne Thompson

• Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery

Howard Thurman (Thurman, in my mind, is the leading African-American figure in contemporary spirituality, not only writing so profoundly in this area but living out a contemplative and active life of Jesus-following)

• Jesus and the Disinherited
• Howard Thurman: Essential Writings
• Meditations of the Heart
• For the Inward Journey
• With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman

Ngugi Wa Thiongo

• Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature

Nat Turner

• The Confessions of Nat Turner

Cornel West, Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

• African American Religious Thought: An Anthology

Gayraud Wilmore

• Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans 

Vincent Wimbush

• Bible and African Americans

THANK YOU, again, Dr Leah Fitchue, for the privilege of teaching under your leadership in the D. Min. Program at Palmer Theological Seminary, and the M. Div. Program at Payne Theological Seminary.