The Love Initiator

Before we arrived at Clydehurst Christian Camp, I was oblivious to what would take place. I had two goals going into the week. The first was to look for God everywhere and in everything that I did. The second was to rest. After the chapel I was utterly blown away!

The morning series was about how the cross of Jesus Christ affects our everyday relationships. Every morning Jerry presented from the Scriptures an aspect of Jesus’ character that we see at the cross and how that should affect how we treat others.

The first morning Jerry described the love of the cross from a most familiar passage, John 3:16. Walking out of that chapel session, I almost believed I had never heard John 3:16 before. He carefully picked open the familiar verse revealing glimpse after glimpse of God’s love for us.

He started with, “For God so loved the world…” I never realized how much that phrase alone means! God, who is holy, perfect in righteousness, initiated love with the world, which was dead, filthy, and helpless in sin. That’s incredible!

Thoughts raced through my mind. Why would this beautiful and awesome God even look at something as unlovely as me? But He did! He looked at me with love! Such love that he sacrificed His own Son to free me from my slavery to sin and give me a new life!


Jerry helped us to see that we did not deserve this love at all. Steeped in sin, we were nothing – worthless. Yet God initiated love toward us, not because of who we were, but because of who He is. God is a love initiator! It’s his very nature.

Lately I’ve been reading in Ephesians. This is what Paul says about the matter:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live…Like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath…But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:1; 3-4)

From an earlier post, the theological definition of grace is unmerited favor. Our salvation is the result of God looking on us favorably, in love, when we could do nothing to earn or deserve it. He is a love initiator!

Jerry ended with a challenge from the apostle Paul:

“Be imitators of God…as dearly loved children…and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:1-2).

I was challenged. I know the people in my life that I have difficulty loving. Suddenly it seemed easier; before the cross, I see that I was a very unlovely person, yet Christ initiated love to me. Now with the love He gives to me, I need to imitate Him and initiate love towards others, even those who are hard to love or don’t return that love.

The Big God

I spent the past week in Montana with my family. We went to Clydehurst Christian Ranch Camp for family camp in the mountains. What an awesome week! One of the highlights of the week was a hike that is called Steeple Rock.

Steeple Rock is the most difficult hike they run at the camp. I had heard alot about it from my Dad, but I had no idea what I was in for until I experienced it.

We set out right from "Old Faceful", the water fountain in the middle of the camp grounds, toward the mountains. The first leg of the hike was pretty easy, up a trail that horses routinely travelled on, until we reached a landmark called "Big Rock". It's called Big Rock because it's just a big rock on the ground :), about the size of a camper. From Big Rock we proceded up the mountain. Almost immediately, the trail got quite difficult. We were now trudging uphill at about a 60 degree incline through a series of swithbacks. We winded back and forth back and forth huffing and puffing, wheezing and coughing for a pretty long time...My calf muscles were burning and my lungs were dying. And the higher we got, the thinner the air got.

It was at this point in the hike that a friend commented to me: Can you imagine what it would have been like for Jesus to have hiked up Golgotha exhausted, beaten to a pulp, bleeding profusely, carrying the cross, and preparing himself to have the burden of the sin of the whole world heaped on his shoulders? That was a special moment for me. I caught another glimpse of God's love for me there, knowing that Jesus once hiked up the most difficult mountain path for me.

Eventually we reached the end of the switchbacks. The ground leveled out at a small place in the mountain where a helipad was constructed out of logs. We stopped there for a long break, gulping down the water and munching fresh fruit. When we were ready we continued on up to Steeple Rock. The next leg was much easier with a lot less incline through the forest on the side of the mountain. Not too long later we encountered the remains of a small log cabin by a stream. Hard to imagine someone used to live way up there at about 7000 feet!

Soon after we broke out of the forest onto this very steep incline of fallen rocks. Eventually we got past the uphill fallen rock field to plain dirt again but this time the incline was about 75 degrees. Basically, we had to clutch at tree roots and plants sticking out of the side of the mountain to continue up.

The very end of the hike was simply climbing up onto the rock called Steeple. It juts out of the mountain at 7700 feet in the air. We all clambered up there ontop of the rock, and I made my way to the very edge of the cliff.

The view was incredible. The mountains of the valley soared around me even at 7700 feet. On the other side of the valley I could see a snow capped mountain. The camp was small enough in the valley from where I stood on the rock to block it out with an outstretched hand. At that distance it was so small that it was impossible to see people with the naked eye. The view was incredible. Again and again my eyes were drawn to the mountains around, huge magnificent masses of earth. I have never felt so small in my life... I was completely awestruck at the beauty and grandeur of God's creation. I felt like a speck of dust in the eyes of an Almighty God. And to think that God loves me the way He does when I am so small and insignificant. Incredible.

I was reminded of an old rock song from my Dad's tape collection. The main line of the song was, "My God's a Big God, he walks among the mountains..." When I realize how big God really is, His love for me means so much more to me. For the first time in my life I had a real mountain path to climb, where I met God, just like Moses, in a way I never had before.

More to come on my experience in Montana soon! May you continue to seek Him with all your heart!