The LORD loves you.....

Today we focus on God's love.  Love is such an important part of the Bible, of God Himself.  We read in 1 John 4:

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for GOD IS LOVE." 

And all through the Bible we find the emphasis being put on love, and how much God loves us.  We could not go far in this subject without bringing in John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

No one who understands the sacrifice that was made in sending the Son to die could question the love of God for us.  The writings of John are full of the love subject.  And remember that John described himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21).  He says in 1 John 4:19:

"We love Him because He first loved us."  His love was first....and continual.

But Jesus put this back on us; that is, that we must not only love Him back, but we must love others.  Note John 13:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;  as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

And Jesus taught that we are to love all people.  We learn in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 that an injured man is passed up by supposed religious people, a priest and a Levite, but is helped by a Samaritan, an enemy of the Jews.  We are to love our enemies.

And finally, note the beautiful and powerful wording of Deuteronomy 10:12-15,

¹² And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

¹⁴ To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

The Lord loves everyone, and especially His people.  Let us love Him.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week.....and feel the love!

Jesus Invites

Jesus made many invitations in His teaching.  He wanted people to know that they are wanted, that He cares about people, cares about their salvation.  Let's think about some of the ways that He reached out to extend open invitations to all:

One of the best, most pleasant invitations is found in Matthew chapter 11:

"Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

We see from this that taking on Jesus in our lives can be like putting on a yoke, like what was done to oxen.   But Jesus knows and tells us that this yoke is not a burden, or at least a heavy burden.  It does carry its restrictions, but He knows that the end result is far lighter than the alternative.  After all, we are going to carry a yoke of something, whether it be of Jesus....or of Satan and sin and degradation.
The yoke of Jesus is that of one who is gentle and lowly in heart, and there we find rest.

Remember that Jesus taught that we should "knock and the door will be opened."   He has made preparation for us in heaven and wants us to join Him.

Hebrews 11:6 teaches that "...he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."  He has done His part by sending Jesus to bring us salvation.  Heaven is waiting for those who "diligently seek Him."

The story of the Prodigal Son is a great example of how God wants us to be home with Him.  The son goes off and wastes his life, but when he comes home, the father comes running out to greet him, throws a celebration, and is so accepting. 

The love of the Father is far greater than we can even imagine.  He invites and wants us to follow Him.  Let's pledge ourselves to Him, the one who loves us so.

Thanks for reading.  Feel the love.

Keeping Company....inside or outside?

The Corinthian church had lots of problems, problems that the apostle Paul dealt with in his letter of 1 Corinthians.  In chapter 3, he says:

"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out to the world.  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is a fornicator, or covetous, or idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person."

We see here a distinction being made between people who are in the circle of brotherhood, people who are considered Christian brothers or sisters and those people who are outside this circle.  He is reminding them that they cannot remove themselves from the world, from worldly people, and cannot be an influence for good if they do not associate with all kinds of people.  But he goes on to say:

"For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside?  Do you not judge those who are inside?  But those who are outside God judges.  Therefore 'put away from yourselves that wicked person.' "

He makes it clear that it is not our place to judge those who are outside.  Oh, we will notice their evil lives, but not to judge, not to condemn; God will see to that.

On the other hand, we are not to tolerate open sin among our fellow Christians.  There are a number of other passages/teachings in the New Testament that indicate that we must not accept freely those who are claiming to be Christians but are openly living in sin.  And realize that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  But those who simply live in sin with no attempt to repent, to correct their lives, but live in sin, flaunting their sin, these must not be allowed to also openly claim faithful Christianity.

The Lord has given us great instruction for practical living.  He is to be praised!

Thanks for reading.  You are important. 

....whoever believes in Him......

We are all familiar with the popular verse,  John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned...."

Believing in Jesus is the key to being saved, saved forever, for eternity.  But believing is not a casual thing.  It was not in Jesus' day.  Those who believed in Jesus then did so at the risk of great persecution and many lost their lives.  And it is not a casual thing today.  Jesus taught that we must take up our cross and follow Him.  And we know that Jesus taught that the only way to God was through Him:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Belief in God and in Jesus, His Son, requires that we be passionate about it, that we truly seek Him.  Note Hebrews 11:6,

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." 

To believe in God is to "seek Him," and to do so diligently, passionately, and to keep His commandments.  When Jesus was leaving some final thoughts with His followers in Matthew28, He said:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you..."

Jesus expected us to believe, but to believe in such a way that we keep His commandments.  He said in John 15:14,

"You are my friends if you do whatever I command you."

This is what we must do; that is, do His commandments.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Destruction Leading to Salvation

One of the themes of the whole Bible is that out of destruction comes Salvation.  In this blog we will look at some of the examples of this principle.

One of the most obvious examples is that of Noah and the ark.  God was upset with the evil that existed in the world.  In this case, He brought total destruction by the flood, but allowed 8 people to be saved, Noah, his 3 sons and all of their wives.  Just a small remnant was allowed to be saved, all being God fearing people.

David is an example of this principle.  He sinned by taking Bathsheba and having her husband killed in battle.  God was hard on this sin, causing the baby of David and Bathsheba to die.  But out of this painful story came David, a man described as one after God's own heart, one who loved and served God.

When we look at the history of the Jewish people, we see that Israel split into two parts, Judah in the South and Israel in the North.  As we read through Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament, we see that in the North there was a total desertion of following God.  And God allowed them to be taken into captivity by Assyria.  Following that, Judah was mostly following idols, sinning against God.  But there was some turning back to God from time to time, so God remained patient for awhile.  But finally God allowed Judah to be captured by the nation of Babylon.  Out of all this destruction, God allowed some of the people of Judah to eventually return and rebuild.  Out of destruction came restoration, deliverance.

The best example of all is Jesus.  Jesus had to endure the worst kind of destruction; yet we know that out of His suffering and crucifixion came triumph and salvation.

And Paul, known then as Saul, was killing Christians.  And out of all of this evil came a powerful teacher and leader for the Lord's work. 

And then to us.  As we read in Romans 6, when we are baptized we die to sin and come forth a new creature.  Out of our own devastation comes salvation.

Thanks for reading.  Have a blessed week.

Clothe Yourself With Christ

Perhaps my favorite chapter in the New Testament is Galatians chapter 3.  Here there is a clear discussion of three basic principles that are taught throughout the Bible, that of Promise, Law and Faith.  It goes into a discussion of the Promise that was made to Abraham, one that was made way back in Genesis 12, where God told Abraham that from his seed, or relative, would come one who would bless the whole world, referring to Jesus.  This chapter 3 also talks about the Jewish Law that God gave His people at a later date, and it explains why this special Law was given.  And it compares the Law to Faith, talking about the faith that comes in following Christ.  This chapter ties the whole Bible together in one place.

Galatians 3:24:   "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."  (Thus, we as Christians are no longer under the law, the Jewish law.)

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."  This is a neat way of saying that when we were converted, we were baptized, and we put on Christ like one would put on a coat.  Christ is now a part of us; we have clothed ourselves with Him.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  This is beautiful language to assure us that there is no distinction with God.  We are all His.

And finally, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."  This shows that all Christians are heirs to the promise made thousands of years ago to father Abraham, that all the world would be blessed by his seed. 

The Bible is amazing!

Thanks for reading.  Feel the love.

A Couple of Things.......

I think it is interesting to pick up little known facts from the New Testament.  So here are a couple of things that I would guess most people don't know.  That's no reflection on you because you may know these. 

The first is that Jesus walked on the earth for 40 days after His resurrection.  This is only recorded in one place, Acts chapter one.  Acts begins:

"The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."

Jesus was killed, crucified, on Friday, rose from the dead on Sunday, stayed on the earth for 40 more days, then ascended to heaven as recorded at the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts.

I would suggest to you that most people are not familiar with this timetable and are not aware that Jesus spent 40 days showing Himself arisen to so many people.

A second fact that most people would not know is that Jesus, while growing up in Nazareth, moved His hometown to Capernaum when it was time to start preaching.  This is only recorded, at least in clear fashion, in Matthew chapter 4:

"Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.  And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulon and Naphtali...."

Nazareth was not a good place for Him to teach, because they knew Him as a hometown boy, a carpenter, and just couldn't believe.  But Jesus continued to live in Capernaum when He wasn't traveling about and teaching.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!