Searching For What it Looks Like to LOVE Jesus

So I am trying to figure out what it means to Love Jesus. People say it all the time but I am not sure what it really means...How do you LOVE Jesus...he isn't here physically. It's a hard concept to grasp. First off, the Bible talks about three different types of Love: 1) Agapo , 2) Philo, 3) Eros. Agapo is unconditional love, Philo is brotherly love (friends), and Eros is romantic love. So how do you LOVE Jesus in these three ways?

Agapo is the love God expects us to have. The unconditional, selfless love. However it is hard to have in this world and when our flesh (bodily desires) want to take over. However, it is a love to try to achieve and work towards with others. Although I will not lay down my life to total strangers like Christ did, I do try NOT to be judgmental towards others but love them for who Jesus sees them as. It is not my job to judge but God's.

Philo is something that I feel I have a better understanding of when it comes to Jesus. He is like my Abba, father. He takes care of me, and knows what is best for me in situations. I have come to trust in him, the hardest part is knowing what path he exactly wants me to be on. My philo for Jesus is also that of my friend. He is there for me in tough times and great times. Those times where I repeatedly dealt with injury to those days when I would just see beauty in this world, like a sunset. Like friends, we have the chance to share these moments with Jesus.

However....Eros is something that sounds just OFF THE WALL when it comes to Jesus. Seriously, like...what??!!! How do you Romantically Love Jesus???? However, the other day I was wrestling with this question and came upon this blog. Check it out because it was awesome. It really helped me think of Loving Jesus in a different light.

The Bible describes Jesus as the Groom and us (male or female) as the bride in several places. Here are a few of my favorites: Isaiah 62:1-5; Isaiah 61:10; 2 Corinthians 11:1-2

So now that there is truth in the fact that we are brides to Christ, how do I go about LOVING him? Well the blog from above opened my eyes explaining that we need to love Jesus in the everyday things that surround us. Jesus is in the beauty of nature and like it says in Genesis 9:6 we are made in his image; therefore, look for Christ like characteristics in others. What characteristics do you want in a husband/ (wife)? Those things are found around you in everyday life and are from Jesus. This is what it means to fall in Love with Jesus.

I don't know. I am still trying to discover what it feels like and means to love Jesus but today I think I have come a bit closer to doing so. I hope this was helpful and you too can learn to Love Jesus; because he loves us unconditionally and died for us. :0)

Update

So it's been about 5 days since UTC and it is hard living in this horrible world. Our little bubble we had was so easy and peaceful, but once I got back to LA there was yelling, people cutting me off on the road, cursing, and just talk of un-Christ like things. I didn't think it was going to be so hard. Without anyone around to help support me on a day-to-day basis its difficult. But I NEED to get back into the Word and community.

However, today during workouts, I was able to apply the principles and tools I learned at camp. It was effective and helpful. Hard to focus when outside forces are yelling and gesturing otherwise, but I kept my focus on Christ and he helped me through. God is Good! All the Time! And All the Time, God is Good. Hopefully I can keep up the tools I learned and applying them in basketball. :0)

Last day of UTC

So yesterday after the special we went to the Rocky Mountains for a Bonfire. It was gorgeous. It was just so beautiful and glorious to see this beautiful land that the Lord made. While at the bonfire we made s'mores, worshiped, and fellowshiped. Before we left one of the staff members shared this beautiful analogy of Jesus Christ and a relationship with him. He said:

Our relationship with Jesus is like a marriage. You love someone so much you can't wait to run into the arms of the one you love and want to spend the rest of your life with. On your wedding day, as you get to the alter you realize your garments you have on are dirty and have holes in them. While Jesus is the groom at the end of the aisle wearing pure, beautiful, clean garments. You want to run to the bathroom to wash them and fix them but there is nothing you can do. But the Father of the groom has had the solution for some time now. You freeze in the aisle not sure what to do, should you run away? You're not worthy to be there next to your beloved groom. But just before you decide to turn, Jesus starts walking towards YOU. As he walks down the aisle towards you, he begins to unzip his clothes, taking off his pure white clean garments and places them on you. You look at him thinking, "What do I have to do for these? What do I owe you?" but he says NOTHING, just put them on. He then takes your dirty holed garments and places them on walking towards the cross taking every piece of wrath that you deserve and dies on the cross paying for my sin.

This analogy was just beautiful. Just like 2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."

Then this morning we recapped what we did this week, the principles and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. We discussed what we were suppose to do now that the camp was over.

NOW WHAT?

Jon, one of the main staff leaders, said that this camp is not meant to just be a spiritual high and then eventually fade. It is a spring board to take you further. For example, he said gymnasts don't use a spring board to just fly through the air, but to help get them on the vault. The spring board is the way to the vault. UTC is a spring board for growth and a direction towards walking with Jesus Christ. An acceleration in direction. Spiritual highs don't produce fruit (John 15:1-17).

Then we talked about the Parable of the Sower, which explains 3 different ways a person can take what they learned and walk away with it. It's a good story and I recommend you read it for I am a bad story teller and give poor recounts. Read Matthew 13:1-9 and 13:18-23

Then Jon told us some steps to moving on after this camp. First, burn your ships. He said, Cortez the explorer of Mexico, landed on Mexico and told his crew to take everything off the boats. After they did so he set the ship on fire. He did this to make the point that there was no going back and only forward. So the question is what ships do you have to burn in order to follow Jesus and move forward in your walk with Christ. Secondly, you need community to grow. It's not about if you like them, if their weird, etc.. but can they help you grow. It's important to surround yourself with people who will keep you accountable, help you grow, and build you up.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience at this amazing camp. I grew so much and learned a lot about myself. I just pray that you have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ and have a personal relationship with him. I will leave you with a verse from Matthew 13:44

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field."

Day Five of UTC

First off, I want to say I am totally EXHAUSTED. So exhausted that my arms hurt holding them to type and are shaking. My legs feel like they are about to rip apart and I think I even walk with a little waddle because of it. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. definitely broke me down, physically (through my soreness), mentally (learning to keep focused), and spiritually (learning to apply the principles and just talking to God during the events). This is the theme song for me during the S.P.E.CI.A.L.

So I was looking at what I shared about last time and realized I didn't explain what the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is a 19 hour competition including teams sports like basketball, sprints and relays, and additional ab and leg workouts. I don't want to spoil everything so I wont talk much about everything that we did, but I will share with you how I applied the principles and what I learned. 

So yesterday wasn't extremely hard, but I did struggle with swimming. I never knew how hard that sport was. It looks hard, but geeez!! I really relied on the Lord to get me through it. I made analogies telling myself I was chasing after the Lord, and that he was just on the other side; or used the thank you responses praising him for the things I have been given. The night ended about 1am and depending on you place in the competition, you had anywhere between 4-5 hours to sleep. If you know me, I am not an night owl and my bedtime is 9:30!!! haha so I came back and crashed.

I woke up at 4:54 and got ready in 7 minutes. Rushed out the door to go meet my team and head over to what was to come for the new day. I was feeling great, until we had to army crawl through the cold, wet grass at 5:30 in the morning!!! I really struggled and had to use the same strategies from swimming to get me through. I eventually became numb and finished. We had 13 parts to the obstacle course which were a various of things increasing my leg fatigue and soreness.

Something I realized later was that during the S.P.E.C.I.A.L., the Lord was giving me an opportunity to lead. I mentioned a few days ago that I learned about other talents that just basketball. One of the talents is leading through example and encouragement. The Lord really worked through me to lift up my teammates and help them through when things were rough. But the great thing is we made it!

After we had another type of relay. I was completely DEAD by this point. I had nothing left, I was dehydrated with headaches and just out of it. It was hard, but once again I got through it with the Lord pulling me along. The major theme I dealt with surrendering. Here I totally surrendered and prayed asking for his help. I could not go on. There were times where I was just dazed looking at the sky totally unaware of what was going on. Like I said OUT OF IT! hahaha But I always got back in line for the next race. Each time, I would fall to the ground thinking I don't know if I could finish and if I would just fall and pass out. But the Lord is Good and he pulled me along, giving me my second wind towards the end to help my team.

Finally, we bussed to a hill to run down and up with a ply board on our back like Jesus carrying the cross to his crucifixion. Throughout the entire S.P.E.C.I.A.L. we listened to Jesus' struggle and steps toward being crucified. We too were going through the same events (in a minuscule way): being at point of exhaustion, in pain, sorrow, and more. This camp has been an encouraging experience and I have grown and learned more about my walk with the Lord. My weaknesses and strengths in which way I can Glorify him. We have one more day, however not sure what there is left after all this, however I will write tomorrow to fill you in. Thanks for reading and caring. 

Day Four of UTC

So today we finished the principles and begun the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (19 hours of activity) The fifth principle is called victory beyond competition.

VICTORY BEYOND COMPETITION:

We read Matthew 25:14-30 today which is a parable of the talent (a sum of money). Victory beyond competition is about investing your talents and making an impact because you are not guaranteed tomorrow. How should I live today? 

You have a choice to invest or waste your talents. You should be glorifying God with your talents in thanksgiving to him (since he has blessed you with those talents). You were given talents for a purpose: to listen to the Spirit to guide you for what God's plan for you is that day. You have a responsibility for your talents: the best place to put your talents is back to the Lord. 

An example of this is the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people. The disciples ask him for help to feed the 5,000 so Jesus multiplies the bread and fish and gives it back to the disciples to feed the crowd. Likewise, we are to come to the Lord and ask for help and he will multiply what we could ever do. 

Finally, invest faithfully. Keep working to for the Lord and don't quit. Not knowing the Lord's plan and where you are going is so much sweeter than knowing because you may stop short. We can go so much further with the Lord's help. His plan is so much better than we could ever imagine! 

I learned that I have many talents other than basketball and need to share them and invest in them to honor the Lord. His plan is so much better and can take us further than we could imagine. 

THE S.P.E.C.I.A.L:

We started the S.P.E.C.I.A.L with Volleyball and it went well. I applied the Thank-You Responses, Focus Point, and Down Time is God Time. The next 20 some hours I will be in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L so I will write tomorrow about what I experienced. If you are reading this June 1, 2011 please be praying for me, for I will need it because my body will be exhausted from all the activity. Pray for surrender, strength, energy, and that I can practice these principles. Thanks, and I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow!!! :0)