What does true love look like? In this 5-day journey with Rabbi Kirt Schneider, you’ll discover what it means to love God, to be loved by Him, and to live a life overflowing with this deep, compassionate love. There’s so much more to the love of the heavenly Father than you ever thought possible.
Charisma House
Day 1
Scriptures: John 17, Romans 16:17-20, 1 Thessalonians 5:15
You were not meant to do life alone.
The Christian life does not really exist without sincere, loving relationships. It would be a loveless faith, which is no faith at all. If Yeshua’s love is in us, then it needs to be displayed not only in our relationship with Him but in the way we relate to—and enjoy and forgive and encourage and love— other people.
To participate fully in the life of Yeshua, we must live in relationship with other people. Messiah Jesus prayed in John 17 that His people would be one, even as He is one with the Father. Notice this is a group endeavor, not a program for lone rangers.
The enemy is the one who divides and isolates. God always unites and draws people together. In fact, the promises of God in the New Testament are usually given as corporate promises, not individual ones. They are given to a body of people. Paul never conceived of individual Christians pursuing their faith journeys alone. Rather, he spent a lot of time teaching local groups of Christians how to get along with one another. Take a look at just some of the things he wrote, encouraging unity and peace:
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. —Romans 16:17–20
Always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. —1 Thessalonians 5:15
In other words, we all need to be connected to one another, though we differ significantly. None of us are islands unto ourselves. We are each called to be a part of Jesus’ body.
Day 2
Scriptures: Romans 1:20, Luke 3:21-22, Matthew 13:45-46
You were meant to Love and be loved by Jesus
The Lord doesn’t see you the way you see yourself or the way others see you. He doesn’t define us by our failures or our struggles. He sees our eternal identities and destinies— who we are in Him and who He has called us to become. He praises us for qualities we don’t even know we possess. God wants you to know that you are His best. You are His favorite. Others can be God’s best and His favorite, too, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that you are uniquely His best, His favorite, and His most beautiful. That’s the way God feels about all of us, and He wants us to have that revelation in our own hearts. Jesus didn’t just die for the world; He died for you, personally. That’s a big deal.
If we are a fragrance to God, what is that fragrance? Paul says it is a fragrance “of Christ.”
The beauty of Yeshua is inside us. What an incredible reality that when Father God “smells” us, He smells the essence, the fragrance, the purity, the freshness, and the beauty of Christ emanating from our innermost beings.
When you lie in bed at night, think about Messiah Jesus and His extravagant gift of love for us. Hold on to it when you are going through difficult times in the “night seasons” of life. When God seems far away, hold the memory of Him in that place close to your heart all night long. It will help you go safely through the trial.
God has made His invisible beauty manifest to us in the natural world. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” (Rom. 1:20). There is a reason the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, descended as a dove during Yeshua’s baptism (Luke 3:21–22). God made doves with characteristics that speak of His Spirit’s attributes.
Doves are affectionate. The one thing Jesus desires that nobody can give Him but you is your affection. He desires this more than anything. We are to be like the merchant Yeshua spoke of who went and sold everything he had to buy the pearl of great price.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. —Matthew 13:45–46
Jesus is our pearl of great price, worth everything we have.
Day 3
Scriptures: Romans 8:28-29, Song of Songs 2:9, Song of Songs 2:11-12
God’s Love Calls Us to Unexpected Moments
Over the course of our journeys as children of God, there are marking moments in space and time on this earth when Yeshua reveals Himself to us in a deeply personal way. They touch us and change us for what is ahead. These “markings” come in a million different ways. They can happen while we’re reading the Word of God, watching a sunset, sitting quietly, or in a loud, exuberant worship service.
They may come out of the blue while we’re driving somewhere on a normal day. No matter how they happen, these moments elevate us. We experience the ineffable, intoxicating, rapturous presence of God in some unique way. The truth is that we need these marking encounters because people who have never encountered Jesus become easily bored with Christianity.
The banner over our lives as followers of Yeshua is love. There is nothing higher than that. Messiah Jesus is leading us onward through various battles and is already victorious over everything on earth. We can trust Him to turn everything that happens to us for good: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:28–29).
His love overshadows us like a royal banner waving over our heads. Circumstances do not control us. The future cannot harm us. We have a King who cannot suffer defeat.
Behold, he is standing behind our wall, he is looking through the windows, he is peering through the lattice. My beloved responded and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.” —Song 2:9–10
Not only is He revealing Himself in an unfamiliar form in an unfamiliar place, but He is beckoning her to come with Him.
Anyone who has walked with the Lord for some time can tell you there are different seasons of the Holy Spirit’s operation in our lives. Do you remember when you first met Him, how God did so many little things for you? But as time goes on, some of those noticeable moments stop happening with the same frequency. God requires greater and greater levels of obedience over time. The progression never ends, and this is for our transformation and glory. Of course, His way of leading us includes times of rest when we are simply strengthened in His presence, being still and receiving. But then He changes it up and calls us out from under the apple tree to take greater steps of faith up the mountain in our work and relationship with Him.
The rain is over and gone. The flowers have already appeared in the land; the time has arrived for pruning the vines. —Song 2:11–12
Day 4
Scriptures: Song of Songs 3:3, Matthew 4, Psalms 27:1-6
Be Obedient to the Deep and Loving Work of the Holy Spirit
How many times do we spur ourselves to action—but not the action He wants? Rather, we go to the place of distractions. Think of it like this: maybe the Lord is calling someone to serve in a homeless shelter, but instead of obeying, he increases his Christian activity by going to all sorts of conferences, reading numerous books by Christian authors, and joining Bible studies—all while avoiding being obedient to serve at the homeless shelter to which he has been called. Beloved ones, we will not find the Lord unless we obey Him! The deep fellowship we desire does not come without obedience.
God will not be impressed if we are running diligently around “the city” when He has called us to “the mountaintop.”
The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me, and I said, “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” —Song 3:3
There are seasons in our lives and in the lives of others when God is doing such deep work that we need to give it space and not allow anything to disrupt it. There are seasons in life when the Holy Spirit ministers to us and brings us to a new level in the Lord Jesus. We need to be careful when these seasons are happening not to disrupt what He is doing by getting too busy or by letting personal interactions disturb us.
We also must do the same when we sense that somebody else is being deeply impacted by the Holy Spirit. Be careful not to disrupt what is happening. Let’s not be like the daughters of Jerusalem, who needed more sensitivity. Don’t pry, don’t keep asking questions, and don’t demand explanations. Give them plenty of space “until love pleases,” and allow the Spirit to finish His job undisturbed.
Messiah Jesus overcame the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4). The wilderness can also represent a time of feeling lost or empty. Maybe you feel you are in a wilderness right now. If so, Yeshua identifies with you and knows how to get you through that wilderness.
We might reasonably ask, “What is Jesus doing in the wilderness?” It is true that He never wandered away from the Father, but He had to defeat Satan in the wilderness and was identifying with you and me in our sinfulness, brokenness, and weakness. He was neither sinful nor weak but made Himself totally vulnerable to the human plight and overcame all on our behalf.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries, and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident. —Psalm 27:1–3
The Lord wants to build a sense of security in our lives. He wants us to deeply receive into our souls the revelation that we are well-protected on this earth.
When I look around, I see a world where evil abounds and bad things seem to happen at random—catastrophes, car wrecks, people losing jobs, losing their houses, losing their health. I know that if not for the protection of God in my life, random evil and chaos would destroy me. So I cry out to God, “Help me to know that You are protecting me. Help me to know that I am secure.”
One thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek is that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to meditate in His temple. For in the day of trouble, He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent, He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. —Psalm 27:4–6
Day 5
Scriptures: Song of Songs 4:1, John 1:14, Isaiah 62:5, Matthew 10:42
He Rejoices in Your Love
How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are! —Song 4:1
Some people think the primary way God grows us in Him is by condemning us, but that is not true. The primary way God brings us into maturity is by cherishing us! I’m grateful for the Lord’s discipline, but I’m forever thankful that the main way He brings my character and will into line with His is by lavishly loving me.
Jesus affirmed Peter and called him “the rock,” even though He knew Peter would deny Him very soon. Peter was about to fail Him massively, and yet Jesus defined Peter by his best characteristics, not his biggest blunders. Even in your worst moments, you are a child of God whom Jesus purchased with His own blood. Your identity has been settled in heaven and on earth forever. Hallelujah! Messiah Jesus treats you as He did Peter by calling out the budding virtues in your life. He knows we aren’t done “cooking” yet. Nobody is where we need to be. Yeshua looks ahead to our fullest potential and interacts with us now based on that reality. It gives Him great joy to teach us that way.
Many of us think of Jesus as somehow too holy to share in or be moved by our human experience. However, consider that John 1:14 says the Word of God “became flesh, and dwelt among us.” We sometimes tend to think of Father God as distant and separate from our lived experience. We think of Him as our provider, our protector, our Creator, but we don’t often imagine Him being moved or receiving pleasure from our love for Him. But the truth is our God humbly clothed Himself in humanity and identifies with us to such a degree that He feels what we feel. The Son of God gets excited over His bride’s love for Him.
God said to Israel in Isaiah 62:5, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.” In Isaiah 65:19, He said, “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people.” While He is eternally complete and lacks nothing, somehow, He has arranged things so that we can add to His pleasure.
Some people think that if God could get joy out of our loving Him, it would somehow make Him “less than.” But the opposite is true. God is so secure and complete in Himself that with no loss of any kind, He can put Himself in a position to be touched by us.
The Bible says Jesus keeps track of every single act of love we perform (Matt. 10:42). Every time you get up early in the morning to spend time with Him, it moves His heart. Every time you are gracious when someone is mean to you, it means something to Him. Every time you let someone go in front of you in traffic in order to abide in Him, He delights. Every time you breathe a prayer for a loved one—or for an enemy— Jesus knows it, feels it, and rejoices in it.