What's Love Got to Do with It?

Like many others, I was horrified a couple weeks ago to hear about another synagogue shooting in the US. Anti-Semitism is an age-old evil, but it particularly stuns when you see it so flagrantly acted out. This time the heinous act was perpetrated on the last day of Passover, a celebration of freedom. I will never understand this kind of hate.

What really stuck in my heart about this one is the fact that the alleged gunman is a 19-year-old who considers himself an evangelical Christian. In his manifesto, he wrote, "I did not choose to be a Christian. The Father chose me. The son saved me. And the Spirit keeps me." This sends chills up my spine. How could he believe that and then pick up a gun to murder innocent people? Well, it's not the first time self-described Christians have committed great acts of evil. Sadly, it probably won't be the last. But how did this young man and so many others throughout history get so far off course? How did their hearts become bent toward darkness?

An article in the May 2 issue of RELEVANT Magazine hit me like a lightning bolt. Here's the headline: Alleged Synagogue Shooter Proclaims Christianity, Evangelical Pastors struggle to Understand. It talks about the gunman's "well-educated background in the Presbyterian church" and how anti-Semitism has "no place within our system of doctrine."

Friends, we can sit around and debate ad nauseam the cause of this man's hatred. We can complicate the issue as much as we like, but to me it's simple. What was missing from this man's theological instruction was the substance of love. And I don't just mean knowing Bible verses about love. Head knowledge is not the same as heart understanding. Love is a substance that must be received by the heart.

Teaching and instruction are useful, but they become hollow when they are not connected to genuine love. Without love, any sort of spiritual teaching, no matter how logical or wise, becomes nothing more than a clanging gong. There's a good reason why the Apostle Paul warns us about this in 1 Corinthians 13.

My heart aches for the gunman's family. I can't imagine the pain his parents are experiencing, and it is simply wrong for anyone to cast judgment in that direction. But as a Christian, I feel compelled to say that the Church bears some responsibility.

We have failed to impart love to our young people. We have failed to impart love to those who feel marginalized. We have failed to impart love. Period.

When the Body of Christ is rent by theological discord and passionate disagreement, we often retrench into our doctrine. We assume that anything that goes wrong is related to a lack of good Biblical preaching and teaching. Sure, doctrine matters. But this is rarely the core issue. We need to be cultivating an environment in our churches where love is given and received. The Body of Christ must be a place where hearts are healed and restored. If hate is growing and thriving in our midst, something is desperately broken. We need to look at ourselves and ask these essential questions:  How can we/I love better? What is missing from my own heart?

So where can we find love in this tragic event? Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends (John 15:13). On April 27 at Chabad of Poway Synagogue, Lori Gilbert Kaye did just that. She threw herself in front of a bullet to save her rabbi. She gave her life without hesitation. In that selfless act she became love. May we learn from her example.

Home Is Where His Heart Is

Have you ever been away from home and woken up in the middle of the night with no idea where you are? This happens to me more often than I like to admit. We travel a lot for ministry, so I stay in a  multitude of unfamiliar beds. By the time Memorial Day rolls around, I will have spent nearly three months of 2019 traveling throughout five foreign countries. Sometimes it feels like I don't know where I actually live.

This week, my husband and I arrived in Taupo, New Zealand where we will spend a month diving deeper into God's love with a group of Christians from across the world. Our home for the month is the most adorable tiny house. It's actually a former cricket pavilion that has been renovated to serve as a B&B. I was delighted to move into our little cottage, but it got me thinking about the meaning of home. 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines home as "the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household." I've lived in a lot of places. When people ask me where home is, I often hesitate. I grew up in Illinois, so in some way that will always be home. Since getting married at 23, I have lived in three additional states and spent three years in the UK. And especially now, as our ministry takes us to far-flung destinations, I feel like I'm rarely home. But as I ponder the definition of home, another perspective begins to take shape. I am a part of God's family. He is my Father, and I am his daughter. So my permanent home must be where he is. But what does that really mean? It's not like I spend my days chilling out on a celestial sofa.

Jesus talks to us about the meaning of home. In John 14, he tells his disciples:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

I used to think that passage was simply talking about heaven, but the more I've come to know God as my Father, the more I understand Jesus' words. You see, Jesus is the way to the Father. He longs for us to be home. When we choose to follow Jesus, he makes his home in our hearts and inclines us toward our Father through his love (Ephesians 3:17). Because he and the Father are one, both Jesus and the Father make their home with us (John 14:23).

But it doesn't stop there. He enters our hearts, but we also enter his. It is a mystical union in which we are completely transformed and made whole. It is from this place that we grow and bear fruit. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Father's love opens the door for us to come home -- to be completely at rest and secure in our relationship with him, to know who we are! It is in his heart that we encounter fellowship like none other. It is here that we join a joyous dance with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are never alone. Never forgotten. Never unheard or unseen. In short, we are known, and we are loved. Our true home is in the heart of our Father, and his arms are always open wide to welcome us back when we stray.

Where is your home? Do you ever feel like you're not sure where you belong? Have you longed to encounter a love that never abandons, never condemns, never shames? Are you tired and weary, hanging on by a thread? Jesus has prepared a place for you, and your Father is waiting for you to come home. His love never fails.