Let Your Love (and His) Flow

During my formative years, The Bellamy Brothers had a huge hit with a song entitled, Let Your Love Flow. It’s a catchy tune with a great hook, full of sweetness and light and, thus, it performed fairly well. It made it all the way to #1 on the charts. However, not knowing the Bellamy Brothers, I have no way of knowing their motivation behind the song.

Jesus had a very similar outlook on the Christian life when He spoke the words we find in John chapter seven:

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'”

— John 7:38

Notice it says from his innermost being, and not merely, within his innermost being. As Christ-followers, we are not just reservoirs of grace storing it up for our own purposes. We are conduits of the grace of Christ designed to allow the living water to flow through us to others who thirst. Look around. The thirsty are everywhere!

 

So go ahead … open the valve and let the living water flow today!

The Time HAS Come (Part 1)

[What follows is the first of a 3 part series from my heart. It will upset some folks. Others will feel as though I read their mind. I would ask that both camps reserve their comments and final analysis until you have had a chance to read the series in its entirety.]

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.“

–2 Timothy 4:1-5, NASB (emphasis added)

There I was, minding my own business, spending my Thanksgiving morning pretty much like every other Thanksgiving morning in recent memory. My family got up early and I was enjoying the rare occasion of nothing pressing or vying for my time and attention. I took my place in my chair and flipped on NBC for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the traditional Brooks family practice. We were in filler time when some of the Broadway shows perform before the parade reaches Herald Square. I remember the Motown performance and thinking how awesome it was and that I would very much like to see that on Broadway.

I don’t recall the time exactly, but suffice it to say it was between 9 and 10 o’clock in the morning, when the broadcasters announced a performance with which I was unfamiliar. It was a show called Kinky Boots. The next 3 or 4 minutes were filled with men and women parading around in knee-high boots along with men dressed up like women. I later learned that to try to describe that with the traditional phrases such as “dressed in drag” or “transvestite” is demeaning, mean-spirited and hate-filled language. At least one friend suggested I instead use “transgender.” As an aside, I always thought someone who was going through the process of being surgically altered to go from being a man to a woman or vice versa was known as transgender. I could be wrong.

At any rate, I was a bit aghast at the idea that at 10 o’clock on Thanksgiving morning a traditional family oriented program was broadcasting anything “kinky” with cross-dressing people. As a father, I prefer to choose the time and place to explain things to my daughter. That decision and those conversations happen when her mother and I feel she is mature enough and there is reason for her to know certain things. That’s why we are careful about the things to which she is exposed. To see that on my TV knowing not only my child, but children all over the United States were seeing that, took me aback. So what did I do? I did what many folks do. I expressed my amazement at what I had seen on social media to see what my friends thought of said event. Here is what I posted:

“And then the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade got weird… Transvestites singing on my TV! What? So much for family programming.”

This set off a litany of posts expressing their displeasure with my statement. Apparently, I was being “negative” and “hurtful” with my comments. In actuality, I was merely being factual with what I had witnessed on the screen. There was not one shred of hate in my heart, nor was their any hint of negativity. It was Thanksgiving for crying out loud! However, I learned long ago that there is absolutely no win whatsoever in arguing and badgering one another on Facebook or any other online venue – especially if you are a pastor or an otherwise reasonably intelligent person.

It’s not the first time. In the past, I’ve been accused of being hateful, mean, small-minded, a racist, a homophobe, and generally out-of-touch along with many other things. All of the above have stemmed from my taking a stand on things that are in opposition to God’s Word. I hope and pray that those who truly know me know that I am none of the aforementioned. I have dedicated my life to being faithful to the Truth. The fact is, just as the verses which opened this post stated, those who disagree with the Truth will find me disagreeable.

(To be continued…)