The Relationship Principles Of Jesus day one
I frankly feel this is another huge marketing scheme by Saddleback... old message (in fact ancient message since Biblical times), a tried format of 40 days, a marketing ploy of dispersing to churches worldwide to study the book in small groups, complete with video, study guides which will be greatly supplemented if you buy Tom Holladay's book on which this whole thing is based on. All this was done in the Purpose Driven Life Campaign many years ago based on a book written by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church.
Tom Holladay's writing sounds a lot like Rick Warren's. It's a little... churchy. Pastor-talk. I've my own favorite Christian authors and those mentioned above are not in my list. Tom and Rick are associate pastors of Saddleback so it's not as if Tom wrote a book independently and from another part of the country and Rick read it, caught on its promise, and contacted Tom to convince him to turn the book into a PDL take 2 campaign. (PDL has seen decrease in sales in the recent years.)
Having said all my critique, I will never deny how God used Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Life book and campaign to transform many, many lives. I never finished reading it, though. At least not in the one chapter a day format. Not that it's a terrible bore... the topics are really relevant! But it's the writing I don't like. (If you're curious who my favorite Christian writers are, just nudge me and I'll spill.) But reading through PDL I thought, bleah, I'd rather go straight to the source and read the Bible instead of this rehash.
So here I am in 2011, and tonight I'm supposed to facilitate a small group on ta-dah! The Relationship Principles of Jesus. I read the first chapter today and my thoughts are... You Can't Do That!
No, Tom, you can't! You can't tell me to "place the highest value on relationships" just with that short chapter. I need something more than that. I need... convincing, motivation, drive. I need something that speaks to my humanity. I can't be a robot that does what it's told.
Tom uses Mark 12 as his basis. While I have no questions that to love God and others is the greatest commandments, that wouldn't be enough for me to obey 100%. I am, after all, human. Praise God He knows this!
God doesn't just say "Love me!" God actually gives us reason and power (energy, spirit, drive--you get the picture) to do that. The Bible says we love because He first loved us. First John 4:10 says, "This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."
And there it is! That's why I can love God and love others. Because God loved me first, even before I was born. Tom might have forgotten to mention this, but Peter Tan-Chi didn't, when he spoke about this topic last Sunday at CCF. Neither did my small group leader forget. Kuya Mon, after going through the video and discussion questions with us immediately went into the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news of God's love for us. Because of the Gospel, I am enabled to place the highest value on relationships.
Let me talk a bit about God's love. God is the most wonderful, magnificent friend a person can ever have... and He wants me—despicable me—more than I can ever want Him. I don't understand it! He wants to have a relationship with me so much He suffered and died just to make it possible. "Yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9).
I do know that the father ran to his son (Luke 15:20), not the other way around.
The way I used to do it is base my lovability on how I feel and how I perform. If I do good, I feel good, and I feel loved by God, naturally. But when I foul things up, which I do often being human, when I trip and fall, I feel rotten, unlovable. Then I become convinced God hates me.
But God's love is unconditional. Nothing I can do can make Him love me more. Nothing I have done can make Him love me less. My lovability is not based on who I am or my person. It is based on who God is. God is love. God loves me. That's how it is from the beginning. And I can't change that. It's truth long before I was born.
What's more, Jesus took the fall for my sins. Then, He embraces me and kisses me in His love. Everything was done so I can come.
Consider this. I have sinned against God. I don't deserve to have a relationship with Him. But He made a way. He paid the price. He did it all.
And now I come. I come to Him. I come and I want to say, "I want to love You back. And I want to tell others about your love. And I want to love others like You do."
Listen to the lyrics of this song by Hillsong.
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