Guest Blogger ... Michelle Borquez

Agape Love, God Crazy Love!

No one can measure the depth and intensity of God’s love. You will only be as big as your concept of God. Here is what Jesus says to us: I know your whole life story, I know every skeleton in your closet, I know every moment of sin, shame, dishonesty, and degraded love that has darkened your past. Your shallow faith, feeble prayer life, your inconsistent discipleship and here is my word to you:

I dare you to trust! I love you just as you are and not as you should be, because you will never be as you should be.

The God of so many Christians I meet is too small for me. – Brennan Manning.

The more we feel accepted by God, loved by God, the more we are able to surrender and entrust our life to him, and the more intimate our relationship with Him becomes. It’s one thing to know you love God but what does that truly mean? Do we really understand what God means when He says He loves us? Phileo love which means casual friendly kind of love is the love we are used to hearing about when we talk about the concept of love between one another. It’s what most of us mean when we say we “love” someone, but there is a deeper love which is how God loves us and asks us to love others; and it is “agape” love. Agape love is a deep, intimate, selfless love. Phileo love only loves when loved and is based on receiving something in return. It is a very emotional centered affection based and focused on being satisfied by the object. It is based on performance of another individual and not on the acceptance of the person for who they are regardless of how they perform. Once the satisfaction of what the person does for you is gone, so is the phileo love. If the object of the phileo assumes any attitudes or actions which are displeasing, the phileo disappears in direct proportion to the displeasure. This is one reason we see marriages and even friendships not last because they are based in this “what are you gonna do for me” kind of love. This love is not able to endure, to persevere through hardships, this love is not a lasting, go through the muck with you kind of love.

How many times have we ended a friendship because the person has disappointed us, or failed us? Unmet expectation is a big reason why both marriages and friendships fail. If we have no expectation, if we love with the love of Christ which is agape love, then we are able to then love beyond the circumstance, beyond the offense, beyond the disappointment and failure and extend grace and mercy. The same grace and mercy that is extended to us by Christ is the grace and mercy he expects us to extend to the world around us. Agape love can love while being hated. This is why Jesus said was able to say to us love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic, either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

He goes on to say “If you loves those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend from those whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful. Judge not and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned, forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it, it will be measured back to you. Luke 6:27-37

You may think what Jesus was saying here to his disciples was just plain crazy. Yes, you are exactly right. It is so opposite what the world tells us, what our friends tell us, and even what we “feel” like doing. It’s just plain God Crazy is what it is. When we follow the principles God has laid out for us in His Word, we will be amazed what will come forth from it.

You may be thinking “ya know Michelle Jesus just could not have been talking to the people in this world who have been seriously hurt, those who have been burned, beaten, abused, betrayed, spit on, verbally trashed…Jesus wasn’t talking to them right?” Jesus himself had all those things happen to him and when He died on the cross He said “Jesus forgive them for they know not what they do”. Yes, He forgives us, loves us, has mercy on us, and the same love, mercy and forgiveness we have been given freely by Him, we are to extend to others.

We all have heart bruises, each and every one of us. As long as we are keeping those walls up around our hearts no one can get in and we cannot get out. No one can love us, and we can not let ourselves love either. It is in the embracing of forgiveness, and loving with agape love, we are set free. FREEDOM! At the very end of the movie “Braveheart”, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) is in the greatest pain, and at the end of his life and he cries out with everything in him, “Freedom”. He is not “free”, but yet he understood no one could take his soul. They could kill his body but not his soul. He was free because He was going on to another place and he understood he was dying for a greater cause. Something he felt to be way beyond himself…the freedom of Scotland.

“All men die, but not all men really live” expressed by William Wallace, was another quote from the movie. I love it. How true it is. We all die. This life is temporary. Our life is a vapor and then we go on. So let’s get God Crazy. Agape those who are persecuting you, forgive those who have wronged you. Do good to those who have done you wrong, and lend to those without expecting anything in return and you will begin to see lives changed, and miracles take place as a result and I am not talking just in the lives of those you are extending agape love to. I am talking about miracles taking place in your heart, and your life being radically changed.

Understand we serve a very big God who can get us through anything and restore our lives and heal our hearts. In the words of Brennan Manning as he declared Jesus saying to each one of us “I dare you to trust.” Trust Him with the outcome of your life. Trust Him on His word. Why? Because love never fails…agape love that is.

From my heart to yours,
Michelle Borquez
God Crazy Ministries
www.Godcrazy.net

About Michelle:
In 2005 Michelle Hosted and Co-Produced I-Life Television's 'SHINE With Michelle Borquez” and was the national spokesperson for Beth Moore’s “Loving Well” Television Ministry Special. Her book "God Crazy - An Adventurous Road Trip to Joyful Surrender" was released by Harvest House in July, 2007 and recently released in September 08 “Overcoming the Seven Deadly Emotions” a guide to Emotional and Spiritual Healing. Michelle is a dynamic writer and speaker with a heart for the broken, the wounded, and for restoration in the body and is President of God Crazy Ministries, whose mission is to educate and edify the body of Christ, and to empower them with their own awakening to God's transforming power. Michelle lives with her family in Tennessee.
A woman of vision, Michelle is a business entrepreneur, ministry leader, international speaker, television and radio personality, and mother of four. She has worked as a leading business consultant for George Barna, John Maxwell’s INJOY, Bee Alive, American Association of Christian Counselors, Extraordinary Women, Family Restoration, and has assisted to achieve long term goals and objectives for major ministry leaders and church organizations.

In 1999 Michelle founded Shine Magazine, a general interest publication focused on spiritual, physical and emotional health, highlighting fashion and travel. Her role as Editor-in-Chief allowed for wonderful interviews with well known personalities and ministry leaders, such as First Lady Laura Bush, Anne Graham Lotz, Michael W. Smith, Kurt Warner, Chuck and Gena Norris, Beth Moore, and many more.

posted by Margaret McSweeney @ 4:39 AM