The GOAT

Over the last few years, I have watched several terms totally change in meaning.  Dope used to be a bad thing but now the term means something good.  Cloud used to be a visible mass of condensed vapor, but now it is a storage medium on the internet.  Then there is GOAT.

When I grew up, you didn't want to be the goat.  The "goat" of the game was someone who did something that caused calamity to befall their team.  But now GOAT is the "greatest of all time."  We Americans like to use our words to be confusing, don't we?

The Bible has a GOAT.  Paul reminds us there are eternal things or virtues to which we should aspire.  In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, three things "remain" (are eternal) ... "faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13)."  What does God's word tell us about this "greatest" thing?

Love is a companion of truth.  In Ephesians 4, Paul warns his people to "no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of doctrine. "  Then Paul uses the word love to describe how we offer doctrinal correction to those who need to hear and know the truth.  In Celebrate Recovery this GOAT is played out by being open and non-condemning, while offering the truth of God's correct path to healing.  People are welcome to come, cry, try, struggle and express frustration, but always (at every meeting) truth is offered that is Scripture-based and God-breathed.  Hebrews 12 reminds us of this when it says, "the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as a son."

Love is a companion of another GOAT ... the greatest commandment.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind (Luke 10:27)."  The love of God encompasses our entire being.  The heart is the center of human life.  Love of God should be central to who we are.  The love of God flows from the breath that God gave us as He breathed life into us.  Our feelings, desires, affections and aversions should flow from our relationship to God.  The love of God should be an investment of our physical strength.  It is good and proper that when we love God this way, we describe the result as "a good tired!"  And, love of God should capture and challenge our intellect.  I wonder if this is why the Old Testament often says God acted, "so that they will know that I am God (Ezekiel 33.29)."

Friday, part of the struggle of disaffiliation will be completed.  The Abbeville Methodist Church will have new deeds that will name the AMC corporation as the owner of this property some of us call our church.  But as we celebrate this new thing in the life of Abbeville Methodist Church, I hope we will only consider this milestone as a part of something that is much greater than deeds or property or our often shallow concept of "church."  For Jesus, Church is God's people whom God loves with perfection.  The Church is Jesus' bride who will be claimed by Jesus when He returns.  And the Church is the people God loves with the greatest love ever ... love that gave Himself for us by living, dying and rising for the people He loves.

Nothing on this earth is greater than the love that God sent us that first Christmas.  We light the candle of love to remind us that God's love is perfect, complete and without comparison.  I only have one word that can come close to describing how much God loves us ... that word is Jesus.  AMEN