His Total Love for the Total Man

A lady informed me recently that she had been visiting with an old couple and being friends for many years, the 88 year-old man asked her to write his obituary.  Both people are professional horse trainers, but she is also a Christian, a popular writer and author.     She attends church with the old man’s wife and had always thought that he shared the same views as his wife.  Whatever his beliefs were, it would appear that they were not deeply rooted within his soul, because during their conversation it showed up that he had no assurance of his eternal destiny.  In other words, the old man had no witness in his heart that his soul had been saved from eternal damnation.

As is very typical among so many church-goers and non-church-goers alike, it turned out that the old man could not believe that he was good enough for God to accept him.  I love the language the lady used to get through to her old friend … she did not use Christian-speak, she used horse-speak!  Or rather, the Holy Spirit used it, as He spoke through her.  In other words, God did not use the language of the church to reach the old man with the gospel, because “church” was not on His agenda.  God used the language of the old man.  Why? Because firstly, He knew it was language that would clearly be understood.  Secondly, it was His intention to reveal His total love for the total man, not just the “religious side” of him.

I have read many books and done lots of studies on God’s total love for the total man (person), and just like the lady’s experience, I’ve seen it touch loads of people outside the church.  But, I am very sorry to say that in my twenty-five-plus years as a born again Christian, it has been an extremely rare message ever to come from the pulpit, or home groups, church camps and elsewhere.  Oh yes, I have heard words about it, but they were not accompanied by a lot of reality.  They were all too often accompanied by condemnation, fear, veiled threats of God’s wrath, plus all sorts of manipulative and intimidating methods used to ensure one gets with the church programs and agendas.

I’ve sat under many others who’ve tried to convey the message, of God’s total love for the total man, but often in the context of, “God loves a cheerful giver – Amen?”  Lots of shouting, hand clapping, hallelujah brother/sister, as we were “encouraged” into tithing our money, “to build the kingdom of God in this place!”  Did God build His kingdom in “this place”?  No.  Because when it got right down to it, these were very insincere men.  It was not God’s kingdom on their agenda, it was their own.  I don’t know why this was so, I have never been invited to speak into a church leader’s life.  But primarily, I believe it is because they have overlooked their own experiences of the total love of God for their total being.

Church leaders and people love to talk about fellowship.  It is only in recent weeks that I looked into the biblical meaning of this word “fellowship.”  It means: ‘communion’ ‘communicate’ ‘associate’ ‘companion’ ‘partner’ ‘partaker’ ‘participation’ ‘intercourse.’  No wonder God seeks fellowship with us, with meanings like that … what better way to experience His total love for our total being?  Which brings me to these questions.  Why do we rarely see or experience this kind of fellowship with one another in our church gatherings? There’s lots of talk, but how much authentic communication, companionship etc, etc?  How much sincere interest for the total person?

Here is what I have found.  Take away local church traditions and programs, remove doctrinal over-emphasis that hinders Christ-centeredness, cease from engaging in shallow, surface chatter about work, homes, hobbies, holidays, food, football (in fact, all sport) … and what “fellowship” does the average church gathering have left?  Answer?  None.  That may seem harsh and cynical, but the reality is all those things can be and are done without truly communicating with each other.  For the most part, the only real listening going on is the, “waiting for you to stop speaking so I can talk.”  Over all, if it were any different the church would be different, but it is not.

No change can be expected to come to any church until we each individually commit to engaging in daily fellowship with our Lord.  Out of such fellowship, it is not too long before one senses the total love God has for our total being.  It is something so awesome and spiritually liberating, one cannot wait to get out and tell others about it.  It is out of this fellowship and no other, can one open his/her heart, mind and mouth for Jesus, the Lord.  Why don’t we see more of this in churches?  Well, it’s a fact of life, whatever is at the top flows down and out.  If there’s divine life flowing from the leadership, it’ll flow down and out and others will catch it.  Same with lip-service and pretense too though!

As far as genuine fellowship with others is concerned, I have experienced it with only three people whereby we each experienced the total love of God being ministered to our total beings.  No analyzing one another, no judging, no checking to see if we were on the same spiritual page, no doctrinal over-emphasis, no hidden agendas of any kind, just one huge on-going admiration, love, honor, reverence and respect for each Person in the Trinity of God.  Why?  Because of what They had done and were continuing to do in each of our lives.  “What’s the Lord saying to you?” “What’s He doing with you and the family?”  “How about the vision He’s given you in His service?” “What problems are you facing?” “What can I pray for?”  That kind of fellowship is rare indeed, all over the western world.

I was mightily blessed when the lady shared her testimony with me.  Being a mature Christian, as well as a writer and author I’m sure she could have easily called upon any variety of words in her endeavors to reach her old friend, but she did not.  Out of her own on-going fellowship with God, she remained sensitive not to her own needs, methods and opinions, but only to those of the Holy Spirit.  And, not only did God bless the old man with familiar speech, but He blessed the lady with it too.  She has a deep natural love and affinity with horses, but since she recognizes this as God-given, she daily hands it back to God, Who then turns it  into something supernatural.

An insurance salesman visited me one time.  He was curious to know about Christianity so he asked me what it was all about.  At the same time he said he was not sure that the Bible was the word of God, therefore, “everything in it is questionable.” Without going into detail here, I didn’t use Christian-speak either, I used insurance-speak.  I know very little about insurance, but the Holy Spirit knows all about it.  So the words He spoke through me reached deep into this dear man’s soul.  So much so, that he wanted to know more about God, more about the Person of Jesus, and more about the Bible.  At the end of our time, the man told me he could never have imagined the gospel of Christ, “being like that.”

A lady came to the door of her home one day with such a frazzled look on her face that I told her so.  As well, I offered to pray for her there on her doorstep.  She was a little surprised, but gave the ok nevertheless.  At the end of my prayer the frazzled look had been replaced by a smile and a question, “How did you know I had these concerns?” I informed her that I didn’t know, but that the Lord Jesus did, because He knows all things.  Not only that but I reinforced the words from my prayer that, “Jesus’ love is so total for you, that it includes your entire being, your fears, desires, work, family etc.” She believed that.  Too, she informed me that she had never heard God’s message presented in such a manner.

I have met countless people who believed themselves to be not good enough for God.  They are somewhat surprised to learn that none of us are good enough – never have been – never will be.  That is not what they expect, “to hear from Christians who go to church.”  Where do such beliefs come from, about themselves and “Christians who go to church”?  Too often they come from the church.  In other words, these beliefs are passed on to them from Christians who are experienced in “fellowship” with one another, but very, very inexperienced in fellowship with God.  Another thing I’ve noticed.  Some visitors to our churches expect to see the reality of God in our midst and nothing else.  We talk about Him, “so where is He?” they ask … without using words.

They may well not know where God is, but they surely know where He is not! And we who are big on “fellowship” but light on fellowship are bewitched if we think otherwise.  Many of them don’t want to know about our church agendas, programs, clever doctrines or football teams.  That may come later, but right now they want to see Jesus.  Not possible for them though, unless we who talk about Him make it our daily objective to talk with Him.  If we don’t, we have nothing to offer those visitors.  It is not hard to work out why outsiders are not impressed with our church activities.

No better examples of the reality of God’s total love for the total man are there for us, than those demonstrated by the Lord Jesus, Himself.  Whether one be a “good” person or a tax collector, harlot or thief … Jesus met each of them where they were at as individuals.  Their own uniqueness was most important to Him.  He had no interest for “cloning” them through Christian-speak.  To prove this, we see He used common, everyday language – the language they best understood.  And, the only ones who didn’t “get it” were the religious.  It is no different today.  Daily fellowship with His Father was the priority for the Lord Jesus.  It was this which gave Him every key He needed to unlock every imprisoned mind yielded to Him. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,……He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives……to set at liberty those who are oppressed……” Luke 4:18.