HOW MUCH WILL YOU SACRIFICE
WRITTEN BY JACO VAN AS
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Dear reader, today I would like to talk about love, true love. I am sure that most of you reading this e-book have had the opportunity to feel love, may it be love towards a mother/father, a brother/sister, child, a close friend, boyfriend/girlfriend or a husband/wife. Loving someone is a special feeling, a feeling words cannot really explain. Have you ever been in a position where you just could not really explain what you feel for another?
The website dictionary.com explains love as profoundly tender, a passionate feeling of affection for another person, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection. It is clear that love is all about feeling, which is exactly the reason why it cannot really be explained in words. Today my friends in Christ, I would like to go a little deeper than just love and you might say that it is not possible, but sit back and relax while I take you on a journey of a love, deeper than love itself.
Loving someone is great, it feels great, it makes us do things we would normally not do and it makes us happy, but there is a deeper love than love itself and its called TRUE LOVE. I am sure that you laughing at me now, thinking that true love is the same as love or maybe just a level up from normal love. Dear friends in Christ, today I will prove to you that true love is a lot more than love and it opens a door to a new world, a world you might have thought never exist.
I have searched the internet for a great definition of true love, but with no real success and also as expected. One could say that true love is love but when you love someone so much that you would marry him/her. This is not completely wrong, but I would now like to share with you my very own definition of true love:
True love is a passionate LOVE (not feeling) you have towards someone to such a degree that you would be willing to lose ANYTHING AND/OR EVERYTHING to prove it, including losing your own life.
My friends in Christ, true love is not just a feeling, it’s a feeling to act to proof your love. Have you ever told someone that you would be willing to die for them, “take a bullet” for them? Maybe you have, but I want you to think about this, think about whether you would really actually jump in front of a bullet to die in the place of another? It seems so easy to say that we would do it, but would we actually do it when push comes to shove?
If you meet someone and become really good friends, so much that you truly love this person, not just for whom they are but also for what they do for you and then after a while this person hurts you so deeply that you cannot forgive them and end up losing them as a friend. Would you say that it was true love? Where you willing to sacrifice your pride and take them back? If not, then this was not true love my friends in Christ.
Let’s say that this same friend, while truly loving this person, asked you to give up your well paid job, house and your wealthy lifestyle and go with them because of a great opportunity they got, which also happens to be what he/she always dreamed about, would you do it? Don’t just answer, think about this question and be TRULY honest with yourself? If the answer is maybe, I am not sure or no, then you do not truly love this person.
Now as a third example, let’s say this friend committed a serious crime, but he/she has a husband/wife and kids and you don’t have and he/she asks you if you would stand up and take the blame on his/her behalf, would you do this? Let’s take this a step further. Let’s say that you live in a country where you get the death penalty for such a crime that was committed, would you be willing to take the “rope/needle/electric chair” on their behalf so that this man/women can be there for their family? I know that doing this would mean that you would have to lie and as a re-born Christian we would not lie, not to even mention die lying, but I want you to not think about it as lie, just for the sake of what I am trying to explain to you. So tell me dear friend in Christ, would you take the chair/needle/rope on his behalf? Would you?
My friend in Christ, I am not asking you to take your life today to proof to the one you love that you truly love them, I am simply trying to explain to you the concept of true love, loving someone so much that you are willing to SACRIFICE something to proof it.
The question of how much we are willing to sacrifice for the sake of love has been in my mind for a long time and a serious topic the Holy Spirit has put on me to write about. I just did not know when to write this as I wanted to make sure that the words I put on paper will not be mine, but really those of the Holy Spirit.
I had many opportunities to write, but every time I started writing, it became clear that something needed to happen in my own life so that I can not only write a story but rather share something that I experienced for myself. This e-book I am writing today is not just naked words; they are words of feelings experienced directly over the last few months. The purpose of this e-book is not to share my personal life with you, but I would like to touch on something which led me to writing it.
Over the last few years I have had many experiences of love, especially through friends. Those friends, whom I ended up trusting with my life, hurt me badly and I was challenged with the question whether I truly loved them so much that I would forgive them. I did, but I did not want to be friends with them anymore. After a while I realized that real forgiveness also mean allowing them back into your life, which I then did. I was then heard again, after which I decided not to ever allow them into my life again. Was this wrong? YES IT WAS!
Peter once asked Jesus how many times shall we forgive our brother or sister, 7 times? Jesus answered him: I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. You might now say that I did forgive my friend but simply decided to move on. Well that is really the oldest and the easiest way to get out of not truly forgiving someone. If you truly forgive someone, you will also be willing to let them back into your circle of love. If you allow him/her back into your life, then it also means that you truly loved them. If you don’t it means that you only loved him and were not willing to sacrifice something to proof your love. Remember, true love is loving someone so much that you are willing to sacrifice something to proof it.
Maybe today you are reading this and you were hurt by someone so deeply that you believe you will never be able to forgive that person. Maybe today you are reading this and you have been hurt by your partner, your husband or wife and you are struggling to accept what happened and therefore cannot move on in your life. My dear friend in Christ, maybe you were hurt so badly that you feel you really don’t have love for that person anymore, but then I would like to ask you how much you love yourself? Be honest? I am asking this because if you have true love for yourself, then you would be willing to sacrifice the pain you are experiencing, forgive the person that heard you and continue with your life.
A few months ago I hurt someone deeply, but in the process I experienced true love for the first time in my life. I always thought that I knew what true love was, but I didn’t. I also realized that love can come in any form and as much as it can bring joy, it can even bring pain, but that is what true love is all about. While I was experiencing a love so big, others were going through tremendous pain.
My friends in Christ, I loved so much that I wasn’t just willing to sacrifice everything, I actually did! Well, maybe not everything, but most of the earthly life I was living. In no time I found myself in a familiar place, a place where I once again had nothing but true love and Jesus Christ. I say “familiar place” as I have been in a similar position before in my life where I lost everything, which also happened to be where I found Jesus and became a true believer and follower of Christ.
In this time Jesus gave me word on a continues basis and never left my side. He never allowed me to live on the street, He never left me hungry and He once again gave direction and brought be back onto my feet. In this time I lost friends, good friends, friends I thought truly loved me. However, in this time, Jesus showed me who truly loved me, who loved me so much that THEY were willing to sacrifice anything to stand by my side and they did! Friends and family that did not judge me or turned their backs on me because I made mistakes or decisions they did not like. Wow, dear reader, can you see where I am going with this? Are you starting to see the difference between love and true love?
Dear friend in Christ, maybe today you are reading this e-book and you have heard others, but deep down inside of you, you know who you are and God knows who you are, but yet, people turned their backs on you based on decisions you made they did not like or based on mistakes you made which you already asked forgiveness for towards those you heard and to Jesus Christ. I would like to bring comfort to you today by telling you that there are people out there that truly love you so much that they will accept you for who you are and will focus on your standing with Christ and not judge you on your mistakes. Joseph Prince once said: “My current state does not define my standing in Christ.” This simply means that if we make mistakes and sin, it does not mean we are not a child of Jesus because of that sin. We are who we are and God knows who we are. If you know your heart and you are a true follower of Christ, making mistakes in life will NEVER EVER change that!
I want you to realize today that even though you made mistakes or decisions people did not like, keep your focus on Christ. Making mistakes does not mean that you lost your faith and it does not make you a sinner! Those judging over your life, turning their backs on you need to reflect onto their own lives as nobody is perfect and every single one on this earth sins. This reminds me of the story where a women committed adultery and the people wanted to stone her to death. Jesus stopped them and said: Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:7). Those who were standing with a stone in their hand dropped it to the ground and walked away.
Life is not about how we fall, but how we get up, it’s not about killing ourselves because we sinned, but rather about getting up and taking the hand of the Lord, getting back up and walking with Him trying not to fall again. If you feel that you are alone, trust me you are not. There are people who believe in you, who stand by you no matter what and those people are the people that are willing to sacrifice anything, those are the people who shows true love.
The last part of this e-book is also the most important, but before I get to it, let’s reflect on what we have learned so far. We have two types of love; one is love and the other true love. Love is all about feelings, while true love is loving someone so much, that you are willing to sacrifice something to proof your love for someone. We have also learned that true love is not just something we have for someone else, but also for ourselves. Furthermore, we learned that true love comes in difference forms and can sometimes even hurt us or even others, but because of the true love we have, even if it is for ourselves, we can learn to truly forgive and move on.
We have also seen through my own life experiences that true love also means forgiving others when they have sinned and doing so without judging them. Sacrifice does not always mean giving up everything or losing your life, it could be something as simple as saying sorry or forgiving those whom have heard you. The important thing here is to understand that to truly love and be truly loved, we need to learn to sacrifice, in whatever form this may be.
My last and most important point I would like to touch on is also the biggest explanation and proof of my definition of true love. I could not start this e-book with it as you first had to understand my explanation of true love as well as explaining this in a way we as humans live and operate on this planet.
By now you might have made decisions in your life, maybe letting a friend back into your circle of friendship, maybe you decided to give up your wealthy lifestyle so that your partner may live his/her dream or maybe you simply decided to forgive someone that hurt you badly. The great news my friend in Christ is that while making this decision you can be sure that you don’t need to do this alone, because you have a person in your life that knows all about true love, a person that knows real pain, having a difficult life, knowing what it feels like when friends turn their backs on someone and how it feels to feel TRUE LOVE so much that he was willing to DIE PROOFING IT! The best of it all is that this person did not only say that he was willing to die for true love, HE ACTUALLY DID and his name is Jesus Christ, the son of the one and only living God!
Can you think of any person that would go through life, make friends, real friends, even with murderers, thief’s and prostitutes and then forgive them for the sins they have committed and doing so without judging them, putting blame on them or question their beliefs and relationship with God? Can you think of anyone that would do that? Can you think of any person that would walk the earth, preach, forgive sins and perform miracles, only to find out later that many of those friends turned their backs on him, shouting in a crowd for that same person too then be crucified?
Can you think of any person that would allow himself to go through punishment, severe punishment, for a crime he did not commit and end up hanging on a cross, left to die, all while he was innocent, completely innocent? The best question of it all my friends; do you know of any person that while he had a choice whether he wanted to go through all of that, he would still choose to do it and do it because of TRUE LOVE? My dear friends in Christ, that is what Jesus did for you and me. He had to go through pain, lose everything and everyone so that people who sin can be saved. Is this not the ultimate proof of my definition of true love and my theory that true love is not the same as love?
Can anyone tell me that if a man broke into your house today, raped your wife, killed your children and then turned on you asking for forgiveness, that you would have instantly forgiven him and if it was needed, die in his place for the sins he committed? Would you do that? My dear friends, Jesus Christ did that! He did nothing wrong, yet he made a choice of dying in OUR place for OUR sins so that WE can be set free and enjoy eternal life with God.
Do I need to say more? Do I still need to explain more why I say that true love is not the same as love? Am I wrong by saying that we as His children should learn to be more lenient towards each other, show more compassion, and learn to TRULY forgive AND FORGET? Is it wrong of me to say that we need to learn to love not just in feelings but also in a way that we would be willing to sacrifice something to proof our love? Is it wrong to say that we need to learn to judge less and forgive more? Is it wrong from me to say that we must stop preaching FEAR into people and start SHOWING TRUE LOVE?
God is love. He loved us first. He called us by name, we belong to Him. God loved us so much that He gave his one and only Son to die in OUR place so that we could be set free. Would you do the same? The great news is that He does not expect from us to die for other’s sins, we do not need to sacrifice our lives for other as Jesus already did that. All He wants is for us to see the love He has for us, feel the love, live the love and then spread the love.
I am sure that you would agree with me that after everything He did for us, we certainly can do the least and at least love Him back and then share this love with our friends. It really makes me sad and emotional when I see how easily people can push Jesus aside, mock Him and live as if they do not need Him, especially after what he went through proving His love to us. Yet I know that His love is so great that He is ready today, right now, to forgive you and to accept your offer in allowing Him to take control of your life. Just like when He was hanging on that cross, He is still there, still the same Jesus with the same amount of love, TRUE LOVE.
The greatest of all news is the fact that He is already INSIDE OF YOU, and all you need to do is to allow Him to take control. Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7). If God breathed into man’s nostrils then it means He is inside of you!
If you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allowing Him to take control and become the Captain of your ship, then why not make use of this opportunity today, right here and right now? He wants you to accept His friendship and the true love He has to offer. His love is FREE and He will NEVER turn His back on you and He ALREADY sacrificed His life for you. THE PRICE HAS ALREADY BEEN PAID!
If you would like to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour today, pray this prayer out loud:
Father God, I acknowledge that You are the one and only God. Jesus I acknowledge that You are the Son of God and that You came to earth, died on the cross for my sins and overcame death through the resurrection. Jesus I acknowledge that You are now in Heaven and preparing a way for me. Will You come live in my heart? Holy Spirit I now welcome You into my heart. Father in the name of Jesus please forgive me all the sins I have committed. Please be what I say, think and do so that I will know and do the will of my God. Amen!
Congratulation on accepting Jesus as your Saviour today! Glory to God, Praise the Lord!
Let us read some very important scriptures:
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:35 – 39
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jer 31:3
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Rom 5:3-5
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. Is 53:5
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
MY FRIENDS IN CHRIST, NOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF TRUE LOVE, IT IS IMPORTANT TO LEAVE YOU WITH THESE VERY WISE WORDS: GOD IS LOVE AND IF WE DO NOT HAVE GOD IN OUR LIVES THEN WE WILL NEVER REALLY BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF IT AND WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO TRULY ALLOW IT TO RULE OUR LIVES, MINDS AND BODIES. JESUS = TRUE LOVE!!! IF WE HAVE JESUS IN OUR LIVES THEN WE WILL NOT JUST UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF TRUE LOVE, BUT WE WILL ALSO BE ABLE TO TRULY LOVE OTHERS, EVEN IF THEY HAVE DONE WRONG TO US, EVEN OUR “ENEMIES”.
True love is a passionate LOVE you have towards someone to such a degree that you would be willing to lose ANYTHING AND/OR EVERYTHING to prove it, including losing your own life.
I would like to end this e-book giving acknowledgement to Jesus for bringing me where I am today, for saving me and for taking control of my life. I am grateful for His love and I cannot wait to meet Him one day in His Kingdom. I love you Jesus with all my heart.
How much will you sacrifice for true love?