MORE ON RELATIONAL IDOLATRY:1 CORINTHIANS 13; THIS IS WHAT LOVE SHOULD LOOK LIKE

i just got thru looking at a video on youtube. it basically showed a gorgeous singer trashing some guys truck, because she caught him cheating on her. the whole precipace of this scenario was that this somehow is going to deter him from cheating in the future. this really REALLY scares me. even though it is true that ultimately we are responsible for our choices, young people who see this crap are very impressionable. whether icons in our culture either are unaware of the ramifications of what they peddle to our young people or they just dont care, the end results are still the same. they are sending a message that to take unacceptable behavior and wrap in in a pretty package makes it somehow not only ok, but even cool.

i remember yossarian, from the book by joseph heller CATCH 22, which gave birth to the "anti-hero" once again, it not only accepts the unacceptable, but even glamorizes it. the whole concept of it is embracing and condoning the unacceptable aspect of our fallen natures, and that trying or wanting to do the right thing actually makes you a pariah. and we see more and more where this is becoming true. what is really frightening is all too often unacceptable behavior is done in the name of what we call love.

one of the things i got very caught up in, in my unsaved state was relational idolatry. that is, making other people, rather than God the center of my universe. it is very true that all our emotions, including anger, are a reflection of the fact that God made us in His image. anger is one of the emotions God has given us that He himself posesses. but there is a huge difference between GODLY anger and WORLDLY anger. the latter is largely a secondary emotion. the real root of carnal anger is FEAR. fear of not being in control. this type of anger was almost always the byproduct of every failed relationship id ever had in the past. and i always did it in the name of love. popular culture calls it "crazy love." spreading lies about someone who had rejected me, trashing his or her property, attacking them or the other parties involved was all because "I LOVED THEM."

THIS IS WHAT LOVE SHOULD LOOK LIKE. 1 CORINTHIANS 13:5 "LOVE IS NOT EASILY PROVOKED. IT NEITHER THINKS OR DOES EVIL" this is a drastically different picture from what seems rampant in the videos and all too often private lives of so many of our popular icons. whats so sad is that so many young people seek to emulate what its being presented to them as cool or hip because like i said its presented to them in a pretty package. but the message in this verse is clear. anyone who for any reason seeks to harm you DOES NOT LOVE YOU.

what the WORD calls things is often very different than what the WORLD calls them. for example "crazy love" is just another word for UNCONTROLLED OR UNBRIDLED ANGER.
in other words, IT IS A SIN. is being unfaithful a sin? yes it is. but so is out of control rage. i see now with so many of the things i did it was because i wasnt trusting in God to provide me with something better than the things i was so desperately trying to hang onto. today i understand if people are meant to be in my life i dont have to try to force them to love me. it has at times been a struggle to allow God to pry out of my clutches things in my life that just arent meant to be there, but today i know its because He always has something much much better in store

DIFFERENT PARTS: ONE BODY

pastor gary spoke this past sunday on the importance of losing your identity in Christ. one good thing about falling down, then getting back up again is that you learn what happened to cause you to fall down to start with. for starters, one thing i see now that always comes out of taking the time to dig into the Word on a regular basis on your own is that you dont just grab onto a particular catch phrase in a particular teaching and develop some wacky, off-balance doctrine out of it. in the past, for some reason, when i got saved, i somehow thought that it meant dressing funny, giving up the educational field..... (which happened to be criminology) because that HAD to mean i was called to go to Bible-college (never minding that i didnt have a clue if that was actually what God had called me to do.....becoming like some of the well-meaning people around me who constantly were spouting things like "name it and claim it", "dont say that. thats a bad confession" and couldnt even talk normally. and what happened was that i was miserable. i was like a square peg that was determined i was going to make myself fit in a round hole. im not saying that there was or is anything wrong with some of the things i was trying to do, but it wasnt what GOD had called me to do. i wound up eventually falling because it wasnt ME.

i liked the analogy that pastor gary used about all the individual grapes becoming crushed grapes. today, having a much better WORKING understanding of what he meant by all the crushed grapes losing their identity of the juice, hes NOT talking about what i USED to think he meant when he was talking about loss of individuality. hes not talking about becoming some quasi-nazi group of people who all look alike, dress alike, and who constantly talk in a constant monotone of cultlike religious psychobabble. what hes talking about is the laying aside of our own personal AGENDAS. its getting out of the MEMEMEMEMEME mindset that is so integral
in our flesh natures. he was talking about how the crushed grapes become juice and are no longer individual grapes but are a combined whole, able to be poured into any container God chooses to put us in. OKAYYYYYYY!!! now here is where proper division of His Word comes in here. how does that jive with the passage of Scripture talking about how the Body of Christ is made of up INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS? doesnt that make us individuals?????? yes and no. hpw does, then,what pastor gary said about the grapes becoming juice mesh with the passage about the body being made up of different members?

well, at work, they used to have a sign, (which i think was largely for the benefit of employees who were more childish about some people "they just couldnt STAND to work with, than some of the residents who always squabbled about certain tablemates they didnt like) "ITS ABOUT THE REIDENTS! KINDLY LEAVE YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR." yes mama the body is made up of individual members, but they all work together. you dont see the arm saying i dont need the hand or vica versa, and, on the other hand you dont see the hand wanting to be the arm. each member has its own unique function, but it always functions as a whole. you cant very well whack off a hand and expect it to be able to pick up a sandwich, now couldnt you?
DIFFERENT UNITS ONE BODY. and, you dont see a body of nothing but hands, or eyes, or feet. get the picture?? go to the emergency room of any major hospital and youll see a motley crew of people who probably wouldnt sit next to each other on the bus. but when those patients come rolling in, they function as ONE UNIT.

EZEKIEL 36 :8 "SHOOT FORTH YOUR BRANCHES AND YIELD YOUR FRUIT TO MY PEOPLE" i dont see anything in this verse here about dwelling on ones own self-involvement. when one doesnt have a vision of anything beyond his or herself, her individual survival is actually in jeopardy. the body relies of each of its individual members as a whole for its own survival. the message to a backslidden Israel is the same as the one given to any self-involved, self-pitying believer today. WHY DONT YOU THINK LESS OF YOURSELF AND MORE ABOUT CARRYING THE MESSAGE?