WE WERE BOUGHT WITH A KISS...

1 John 3:16-17 This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

"We were bought with a kiss..." The words of the song invaded my thoughts. I've probably listened to that David Crowder song a hundred times before really hearing that one line. It really jumped out to me. In grasping the truth of that one line, the whole song became new to me.

Here's the line that caught my attention: And the problem is this: WE WERE BOUGHT WITH A KISS,
But the cheek still turned even when it wasn't hit...

Have you ever thought about that? ...How we were bought with a traitor's Kiss? Jesus knew before He ever went to the Garden of Gethsemane--Judas would betray him, setting God's plan into motion. A kiss meant for evil ultimately brought the redemption of man as God worked His will and way in the middle of circumstance.

I am in awe of such a love as he pondered Jesus' response to Judas, "And I don't know what to do with a love like that." A love that sees past betrayal and sin to the very heart of men and women like us. If I stay in my "unlovable" mindset, I can't really do much with the grace and the overwhelming love I've been given.

His love isn't measured by how well I love Him back and His grace isn't measured by how much i deserve it. When I think about that kiss--I know that I know Jesus loved Judas with all His heart. Judas should have known...shouldn't he? He had been with Jesus up close for three years! He should have known what to do with a love like that. But he couldn't look beyond his own remorse to embrace Jesus' love. He took his own life. In denying grace, he threw away Jesus' love. He wasted it...

Peter betrayed Jesus too--denying him three times when Jesus needed him most. Jesus looked at him across the courtyard as the rooster crowed. As Peter met His gaze, no doubt he knew the shame of his denial, but I think he must have seen a love that was so much greater in Christ's eyes. Though he was filled with shame and remorse for the moment, he knew that he couldn't turn away from the kind of love that looks beyond betrayal and sin. He probably wondered what to do with a love like that...till Jesus said, "Feed My sheep." And Peter did. Jesus' love changed him and because he let the love he had been given flow out of him, Peter changed the world...

"...The problem it seems is with you and me,
not the Love who came to repair everything.
Where there is pain, let US bring grace.
Where there is suffering, bring serenity.
For those afraid, let us be brave.
Where there is misery, let us bring relief.
And surely we can change....Surely we can change something.
Oh, the world's about to change...The whole world's about to change..."
--David Crowder, "Surely We Can Change" 

Listen here and see if you hear it differently:  Surely We can Change