Fierce and Untamed Love

What does a deep, fierce, even violent and definitely untamed-by-the-world, love look like?

VIOLENT (according to the online dictionary):
-intense in force, effect, etc.; severe; extreme
-roughly or immoderately vehement or ardent
-furious in impetuosity, energy

PICTURE a child walking down the center of a four-lane highway.

HIS FATHER charges into the rushing traffic to save his son who’s stepped out of bounds and into death’s path. Heart pounding, Dad runs, intently focused on the one he loves. The oncoming cars don’t scare him. Honking horns don’t faze him. Dad knows what’s at stake, and he’ll do whatever it takes to rescue his disoriented child.

In his FIERCE LOVE, he grabs the kid, slings him over his shoulder, and hauls him to safety.

BUT WHAT IF Dad gets there and the child ‘gives him the hand’ and says, “No thanks! I’m doing this my way.”

IS THIS KID following wrong advice? Heeding his own immature understanding of the world? Perhaps he’s listening to a different “father” than the one who sired him. (Sounds weird, I know) What captured his heart and turned his free will south?

?

THE FATHER in Heaven gets blamed for a lot of crap that goes on today. He’s accused of indifference, impotence, and nonexistence. He’s more than able to defend His own reputation, as if that were necessary, so I won’t bother.

BUT I MUST ask, where does humanity get these false ideas about the God who created us in His image and designed us to love one another?

Is it my lack of love–our lack of love– that encourages children to play on a busy highway? 

WHAT do non-believers hear believers saying:

End Times!
But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly, as a thief.
Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise,
and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire,
and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
2 Peter 3:10

TO GET TO that ‘exciting’ part—fire, destruction and judgment—we have to rush over the more important verse 9.

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise,
as some people think.
No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed,
but wants everyone to repent.
(as any good Dad would)

DID YOU CATCH what the Lord said through Peter? God does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent (change their thinking, reconsider their life path).

HE WANTS EVERY CHILD OFF THE 4-LANE HIGHWAY.

SERIOUSLY! Why does man crave the destruction of his own kind? The news stations air devastation of cities, and movies create heroes with destructive “talents.” Who comes up with those ideas? Could it be that people already know some sort of destruction is coming, and so this truth oozes out in the cinema, on stage, and in fairy tales?

IN THAT CASE, if we’re all cast in the End Times movie, what’s my role? Your role? The omniscient Father knows what’s coming after the real End Times, so I don’t need to bother with judgment.

MY ROLE . . .

Patience in the midst of chaos.

Loving in the midst of animated hatred.

Kindness in the face of persecution and harassment.

. . . PEACE . . .

♥

DON’T WORRY. God won’t be mocked. He’s got the whole world—its beginning and its end—in His hands, and He’s patiently and eagerly waiting to rescue any man/woman who confesses that their way isn’t working and cries out honestly for His help.

He is right there . . . in the middle of the highway . . . waiting for that child to lower her hand

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WHAT’S YOUR ROLE in steering the children off the 4-lane highway. . . and pointing them toward that deep, fierce, even violent and definitely untamed-by-the-world Love?

The Way of the Embattled Spirit

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They deliberately forget that
God made the heavens by the word of his command,
and He brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
Then He used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.

And by the same word,
the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire.
They are being kept for the day of judgment,
when ungodly people will be destroyed.

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends:
A day is like a thousand years to the Lord,
and a thousand years is like a day.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise,
as some people think.

No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed,
but wants everyone to repent.

But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly, as a thief.
Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise,
and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire,
and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

2 peter 3