7 – VICTORY !
What a real thrill it would have been to be standing next to Moses as he lifted his arms toward the red sea, and the sea parted by God's power. And then watching God's people, whom Moses loved, carry the ark across and put sea-bed rocks on the shore of Canaan, as a memorial. This mighty man with outstretched arms began his life with a death sentence over his head. We all remember him being hid in the bulrushes and then 'discovered' and 'rescued' by the Egyptian princess to be raised in a palace.
To begin putting this journey in some perspective, we need to take a closer look at a word and attitude that people today have lost the true sight of... love. Love has several levels we'll take a short look at. The word LOVE is like a wooden ruler that has been misused to mix paint, it has lost its value in being able to describe the dimensions of things. The length of a dress or the depth of a post hole can't be described. Today the word love has been tossed around and is useless for describing one's dedication or depth of sacrifice to another, or a principle. It might as well be spelled LUUV.
Here we'll measure the levels of love with a ruler that measures the amount of personal sacrifice, not inches. EROS is near to sexual lust, which TAKES from another, without regard for their feelings – like the opposite of personal sacrifice. PHILEO is like 'brotherly love' or friendship. The personal sacrifice is shallow with no tears. This is the level that many fearful soul winners are working at. AGAPE love is God-like love. With tears and greatest sacrifice for the other, God showed us the greatest love at Calvary, with the sacrifice of His own innocent Son, Jesus Christ.
In the personality of Moses, we see AGAPE love in two directions, which is always required. Moses obediently raised his arms over the Red Sea opening the gate of the often rebellious people to the promised land, Canaan. That took real forgiveness; real sacrifice. Then in Exodus 17:12, we see the tired Moses getting life-saving support (sacrifice) from Aaron and Hur, holding up his arms.
This two-directional AGAPE love is so often missing in our church leaders today. The pulpit power of today, includes little conviction, little sacrifice, little call to repentance. The agape love and sacrifice on Calvary, and the fires of an eternal Hell preaching are replaced with messages of a PHILEO love level. We can think of sacrifice as the 'currency' of love, and tears as the 'evidence' of love. Both must be taught in relation to Calvary. No wonder verses in Revelation warn about the churches that have lost their 'first love'.
But this AGAPE love must always be two-directional. In the same way Aaron and Hur held up the tired arms of the mighty Moses, we must hold up the arms of our church leaders. So many church attenders think of church as a spectator sport, forgetting their arms-length worship is destroying the ministry to the youth of our future church.
All of this resource might be subtitled PEW POWER. That is, the life-blood of the church, AGAPE LOVE remains continual and life-changing only when church leaders keep the Calvary love in the forefront. But also, the church family sees their life-saving duty to encourage and help the pulpit message to ring with praise for God's love and conviction toward the salvation of souls, with tears and sacrifice. [~]
