Kainos Movement 2015 Conference Main Session 5: The Transforming Power of God's Love with Dr. Crawford Loritts
Previous Kainos Movement 2015 Conference posts:
The following posts will feature my notes from the strong collection of Kainos 2015 pastors, nonprofit leaders, and sociologists who prophetically spoke into our segregated American culture. Our prayer,
hope, and striving is that Emmaus City will be a transcultural and
multi-ethnic church in Worcester, of Worcester, and for Worcester. As we
move forward, we have much to gain from these men and women who have gone before us and lead the way in Jesus' name.
Kainos 2015 Main Session 5: The Transforming Power of God's Love
Dr. Crawford Loritts
Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church
Doctor of Divinity, Biola University
Doctor of Sacred Theology, Philadelphia Biblical University
Visiting professor at
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
The essence of transformation is always a loving relationship. We love in context because we were transformed by God's love as He came into our context as Jesus. He is the Incarnation and He creates and empowers incarnational love through us for others.
Our understanding and embodiment of our reconciliation to God will reveal itself through our pursuit of reconciliation to others. There is a danger in approaching diversity as a project. The exchange of processes is not the same as heart connection. We need to connect with people who are not like us. We are God's blessed, beautiful, broken people called together from tribes, tongues, and nations to be world change agents. We lay down our lives to seek and display God's transforming love among us and outside of us.
How do we do this?
The active work of the Spirit of God empowers us to love (Galatians 5:22-26). Love should drive everything that Jesus' Church is, does, and becomes (1 Corinthians 13). When Jesus condensed His teaching from the past three years into one new command, it was "Love one another" (John 13:34-35).
This new command to love one another was going to be the prevailing feature of Jesus sacrificial followers. It was new in that it was going to cost them something. And He didn't ask them to model the possible. He wanted them to reflect the supernatural. That's why He said He would give His Church the Spirit to connect us to Himself so we would be able to obey His great command (John 13-16).
So are we reflecting Jesus? His agape love is love without conditions or qualifiers to do what is right for others. This God-transforming-love is:
(1) authentic
(2) distinctive
(3) binding
And don't wait to feel this love for others. Love others and watch Him work in you and through you. We don't tell God who we will choose to love. Demonstrating His love is not a choice if we have been immeasurably loved by Him. Our failure to love others like He loves us is sinful disobedience against Jesus and His Spirit He has given us in order to become like Him. We need to stop preparing to obey Him and instead obey Him. Demonstrating His love to others will present the possible impossibility of supernatural love in us and to them.
Are you gaining a sense of holy impatience to love others?
Then go, and remember, as you love in action with others and for others, it's "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord" (Zechariah 4:6).
Next post: Kainos Movement 2015 Conference | Main Session 6: The Importance of an Accurate Diagnosis: Disentangling Race, Ethnicity, and Culture with Dr. Korie Edwards
– Sully
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