Love: Handle With Care

For September 1, 2019
Performing good works is the path to God for many people. For them, consistent charitable giving, or demonstrating selfless acts of hospitality, or showing kindness to a friend or stranger in need or encouraging the downtrodden guarantees one’s eternal bliss in Heaven.

There was an era when being raised in a Christian home, as part of a nuclear family was common practice. Then, it was common to see neighbors assisting parents with providing proper instruction to children using revered Bible teachings, especially those of Jesus Christ—even in public schools—because Christianity held a prominent role in the public discourse.

Timeless principles like don’t steal, murder, covet, commit idolatry, worship crafted images, lie, irreverently use God’s name, or commit adultery, along with honoring one’s parents, remembering to worship and abide by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” were constantly reinforced at home, in church and the community as well, thank God.

As a result, treating others with civility and respect was a common practice for many. As “looking out for #1” seemed to be more the exception than the rule. Altruism was encouraged and reinforced through the promise that if we performed enough good deeds, we would make it to Heaven.

Trying to earn God favor through our good works alone leads to futile exhaustion and ultimate disappointment. Because without Jesus Christ in our hearts; prompting and perfecting our works. Certainly good works matter, but good works without fellowship with God just won’t cut it alone. Because without Christ, our works are motivated by selfishness as we do them not with what’s best for the recipient, but with what’s best for us in mind.

Jesus gives us a new paradigm for good work by emphasizing love as the greatest work in Matthew 22:37-40:

Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the only person who could perform untarnished good works because He alone was without sin. More importantly, He loved us so much that He freely gave Himself as a holy sacrifice. In this way, He canceled our debt of sin so that each of us could inherit His righteousness and thus have unbroken fellowship with God.

Now loving God with our entire being through Christ not only grants us unlimited access to God. It also frees us to express His unselfish love fervently towards others and ourselves as well.

O Taste And See That The Lord Is Good!

August 17, 2019
Living a fully satisfying life without the presence God is impossible. For He provides His children an exquisite, unsurpassed quality of life along with the exceptional pleasure. As the Lord Jesus Christ says in John 10:10 (NLT): ”The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Unfortunately, far too many people try to obtain an abundant fully satisfying life through the pursuit of that newest, biggest, and best “toy.” Often at another person’s expense.

Those people who have futilely tried to find happiness thought worldly extravagance and pleasures (i.e., power, money, sex, drugs, social-political affiliations, etc.) invariably learn that although tantalizing, acquiring material things will leave us empty and unfulfilled; hungry for more material things.

Ultimately, things cannot satisfy the deep human longings as intimate relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ does. Our faith in Christ secures our eternal fellowship where He becomes more than just a historical figure—He becomes real and personal friend.

We who experience a personal relationship with God though Jesus Christ truly understand the sentiments expressed in Psalm 34:8: “O taste and see that the Lord is good!”

Peace and joy are two wonderful outcomes of the Lord’s goodness. Peace comes from our reconciliation to God afforded us by Christ, which enables us to extend peace towards others (to the same extent we experience peace with God). His perfect peace also comforts us as He loves us and satisfies our deepest needs.

The goodness of God also brings us great pleasure and joy that grows within us daily as we grow to understand that He with us always; working all things together for our good as Romans 8:28 tells us. In addition, our joy is not triggered by material things.

In other words, the joy we have in God through Christ is not based on our external circumstances or on the acquisition of things. Instead, our joy is spiritual, internal and eternal. It enlivens and strengthens us, even in adversity.

When faced with adversity, we can find true comfort in God’s Word (the Bible) as we reflect how He delivers us and continues to prove we are not forgotten. Truly the Lord loves us, cares for us, and will not forsake us. What a wonderful Savior!

O taste and see that the Lord is good.

We Can Come Home Today

July 26, 2019
In Luke 15, the Lord Jesus Christ presents three parables about a lost item that was found. In the Lost Sheep Parable, the Lord describes how a concerned shepherd left ninety-nine sheep to search for one lost sheep. The Lost Coin Parable presents a woman who searches her house diligently to recover one lost silver coin. The Lord’s third parable is about a Lost (or Prodigal) Son.

These parables share a common theme: something lost is found resulting in celebration.

The Lost Son is especially endearing to those of us who can relate to being “lost” by making poor financial decisions, wrong career choices, keeping company with the “wrong” friends, engaging in antisocial behavior, In other words, doing things that caused harm to ourselves and/or others we later regretted.

From this perspective, it is easy to understand how the son could change his perspective as expressed in verses Luke 15:17-20 (NIV):

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’So he got up and went to his father.

Revelation 3:20 tells us that Jesus stands at the door of our hearts, knocking, and if we are willing to open the door—giving Him complete control of our hearts, minds and lives—He will provide us with a life of freedom that is completely fulfilling forever. We must “come home” as did the Lost Son!

Jesus Christ, our Lord, Savior and Friend graciously bestows an unselfish love we cannot earn by human effort; a consuming and incomprehensible peace that cannot be taken from us; the necessary provisions that sustain our life and existence, and a deeply satisfying purpose for living that is uniquely suited for each of us individually. What a wonderful Savior!

While serving as pastor in Kelso, Scotland (circa 1846), Horatius Bonar wrote this popular hymn that inspires our Christian faith today:

I heard the Voice of Jesus Say1
Horatius Bonar

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down Thy head upon My breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, Weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely give The living water thirsty one, Stoop down and drink and live.” I came to Jesus, and I drank Of that life giving stream; My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, And now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s Light; Look unto Me thy morn shall rise, And all thy day be bright.” I looked to Jesus, and I found in Him my Star, my Sun; And in that Light of life I’ll walk, Till trav-‘ling days are done.

Oh how these precious words adequately express the sentiments of those of us who have “come home” to abide in Christ forever. For as Acts 17:28 (KJV) reads: “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.”

Won’t you come home today?

We Are Small Yet Large

July 19, 2019
A prevalent misconception links size and scope with the Lord’s association. Perhaps this derives from our interpretation of Scriptures like Ephesians 3:20 (KJV): “Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” and Deuteronomy 28:13 (KJV): “The head and not the tail” depicting God’s bountiful grace and providence towards His people.

Linking material prosperity with God is problematic since His Word offers a very different view of His intervention that is independent of our feelings and circumstances. For example, the Lord Jesus taught the meek will inherit the earth. He also acknowledged and praised a poor widow for giving all she had, and He promised there will always be the poor.1

A similar theme can be found in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NIV):

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

During that morally and spiritually bankrupt time in ancient Israel’s history, near the end of Ahab and Jezebel’s evil reign, God’s prophet Elijah confronted Ahab and the 450 false prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. There, the Lord demonstrated His power to consume the water-soaked, evening sacrifice with fire from Heaven after the false prophets and their god failed to consume that same sacrifice.

Yet in 1 Kings 22, the Lord used a lesser-known prophet to declare the exact day of Ahab’s death.2

Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, formed an alliance with Ahab to defeat the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead. Before engaging in battle, Jehoshaphat asked King Ahab for the Lord’s counsel, so the prophet Micaiah was summoned.

Imagine the spectacle as this one man stood alone among the pomp and splendor of two great kings seated on thrones in their regal glory surrounded by hundreds of false prophets who were predicting a resounding victory at Ramoth Gilead.

It would have been easy for Micaiah to follow the crowd and repeat the same false assurance his contemporaries were declaring. He did not, however. Instead, he declared one simple message: King Ahab will die in battle! A few hours later, King Ahab died in battle just as the man of God predicted—even though Ahab changed clothes with Jehoshaphat in an attempt to disguise himself from the enemy.

As Christians, we should never consider ourselves to be mistakes or afterthoughts. We are special and unique persons designed to fulfill the Lord’s perfect, eternal purpose. He created us with all our complexity, to function according to His perfect will.

Our Lord can and will use anyone, even those considered “small or insignificant” to accomplish a great work that will honor Him and benefit others and ourselves. All He wants is our willing and obedient hearts.

We are small yet large!

 

Just Because

For July 12, 2019
Intimate, loving fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ—especially now, before His glorious return—is of critical importance. Yet it is often overlooked, as there are many who will define fellowship with the Lord within the context of our service performed. This is problematic, because how much we do to help others in need or to point others to Christ do not constitute fellowship.

It’s easy to get caught up in the “stuff doing” routine and lose sight of the relationship the Lord desires for us and offers us freely. Like Martha, as presented in Luke 10:38-42, we can become so focused on the “doing for” Jesus that we miss the “being with” Jesus; the opportunity to sit at His feet, and to feast on His words, as did Mary and others who were privileged to be with the Lord on that marvelous day.

What we do for the Lord reflects the inner work His Holy Spirit is perfecting in us. In this proper context, works rightly serve as the thermometer to reveal our spiritual fervor towards and our growth in the Lord. Since we cannot return to the First Century during the time of Jesus, we pray, read, study, and memorize God’s Word (the Bible), fast, and attend regular worship services to maintain and enhance our fellowship with the Lord.

The Lord wants us to love Him first and foremost.1 But, the Apostle John illustrates how the Lord expresses His pure, self-less, eternal love towards us in 1 John 4:7-10 (NLT):

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

It is comforting to know our fellowship with the Lord is not contingent upon our performance. It is contingent upon His all-encompassing performance on our behalf that reconciles us to Him forever.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord prayed to have “this cup pass”2 and to be excused from the cruel death awaiting Him on Calvary’s Cross in a few hours. Nevertheless, His desire to redeem us prevailed as He when on to pray: “Not my will but yours be done!” Thus, beaten, humiliated, disgraced, and mocked, our Lord loved us enough to die for our sins.

Ironically, Jesus foreknew about His death and suffering long before it happened. Yet created His executioners, the hill on which He was crucified, the trees used to make the wooden cross, and the metal ore used to make the spikes that fastened Him to the cross when He created the heavens and earth along with everything in it in the beginning.

Moreover, He died for us although He was innocent of all the charges leveled against Him. Even Pilate, the Roman Procurator over the province of Judea at the time of Jesus stated repeatedly in His defense: “I find no fault in Him.” Yet He was crucified.3

Matthew 26:53 tells us the Lord could have commanded legions of angels to destroy His captors and accusers. Instead, He chose to pay our sin debt and restore the fellowship that was lost by the disobedience of our ancestors: Adam and Eve as presented in Genesis 3.

Then He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven where, at the right hand of God, He continues intercede for us. Hebrews 12:2 (KJV) sheds light on the importance of our looking to Jesus in light of His redeeming, efficacious work:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Ever concerned for our spiritual welfare and security, He provides us with His precious Holy Spirit to guarantee our spiritual success as we await His glorious return.

A hundred lifetimes of our “good works” will not begin to compare with one instant of the Lord’s perfect work for us. The Lord Jesus Christ left His deity and glory to redeem us, not based on what we could do for Him, but because of the glorious and eternal fellowship He desires for us.

It is amazing how the Lord offers His loving fellowship to everyone everywhere—even to those who choose not to believe in Him just as John 3:16-17 (KJV) states emphatically:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

We are no longer without hope, because God’s love expressed through Jesus Christ lifts us from the depths of despair and raises us to the lofty heights of His love and fellowship forever. Although He is not obligated, The Lord continues to do more than we could ever imagine—just because.

What a wonderful Savior!

 

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