LOVE THE LORD

 All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version

        All through the Old Testament, there was one commandment the Lord was always reminding His people, the children of Israel of: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5). The Lord had to not only remind them of this first commandment, but He also had to keep telling the children of Israel not to have any gods before Him. Israel was constantly forsaking the One true God and going after other foreign gods from the nations around them.

I wonder if we ever forsake the Lord and put other “gods” before the Lord in our lives. You might ask, “How can I have foreign gods today?” A foreign god is anything we put ahead of the Lord. It could be a person, a job, a hobby or anything else that takes first place in our lives. Are we giving our first love to something or someone other than the Lord?

The church in Ephesus had been doing all the right things. “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them to be liars;…Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:2-4).

I know that there have been times in my life when I had lost my first love for the Lord – when I felt like I had drifted away. I wasn’t praying, reading the Bible or worshipping the Lord. It took moving into a private room in a Long-Term Care Facility to renew my first love for the Lord. As I did, the Lord began to anoint me afresh to write and create this Newsletter.

   While Jesus was teaching, a lawyer spoke up, “Then one of them, a lawyer asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:35-37). There are not only commands for us to love the Lord, but there are also promises to those who love the Lord. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which He has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Many of us who have been in church most of our lives have heard this truth time and again, as it is the first and greatest commandment. The Lord continually repeated this to the children of Israel, especially before and after they entered the promised land. The Lord wanted to make sure He had a people who really loved Him. But what does it really mean to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength?

Your heart is that part of your being from which your emotions or your true feelings about something or someone flow. If we truly love the Lord with all our heart, we would have such a passion within us that we would want to spend all our time with the Lord to satisfy our longing. The more you love someone, the deeper your passion would be to be with them. Spending time first in praise and worship, Bible reading and prayer, would be something we would look forward to, as if we can’t wait to be in our secret place with our Father where He can open the secret treasures of His heart to our heart.

The psalmist puts it this way, “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All your waves and billows have gone over me.” (Psalms 42:7). From the deep places of our being, we cry out to know the deep secret treasures of our Father’s heart. Imagine being so completely immersed in our Father’s great waves of love, mercy, and all His fullness that can wash over us. That’s where I long to be. I pray every day that I would draw so close to my Father that I could hear His every whisper and feel His very heartbeat. Paul says, “For in Him (Jesus Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9). If we are in Christ, then we have access to the fullness of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

If we love our Heavenly Father with all our hearts, we would want to remove everything from our lives that displeases Him. This could be anything from a physical object, a physical act, what we watch on T.V. or the internet. Sometimes, I have a hard time choosing what to watch. The title and promo may sound good, but 10-15 minutes into the movie, unclean language is used, then I stop it and search for something else to watch. If we love our Father, we would stop doing the things which would not bring glory and honor to Him. We would want to do everything we could to please our Father.

The same verse tells us to “…love the Lord your God with all of our soul…” First, we need to identify what the soul is. Our soul is the real us that contains our will and emotions. The will is where you make every decision, both short term such as what you are doing right now; and long term such as what school or job you are going to decide on, or where we would like to retire. Our emotions are our feelings about things or people. To love the Lord with all our soul is to love our Heavenly Father with our entire being. Again, the psalmist says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul after You, O God.” (Psalm 42:1).

We have a free will to praise and worship our Father, and because we do this, our relationship and love for Him continues to grow.  Each day I pray that I would love my Father more and more. I desire to deepen my love for Him and for my Father to bring me into the secret treasures of His heart. I want to go beyond where I was yesterday in my love for Him.

From the decision to love our Father from the depths of our being comes a passion and desire to serve the Lord with the gifts and talents He has given us. Whether He has given us one gift or ten gifts, let us use every one of them to glorify Him and bless His people. That is what I pray my one gift of writing will do.   

We are also told to “…love the Lord your God with all of your mind…” When we think of our mind, it is the part of our being we think with. With that said, how do we love the Lord with all of our mind? The way to love our Father with all our mind is reading His Word. When you love someone very deeply, you cannot get them off your mind. In Colossians 3:2, Paul says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” When we really love the Lord with all of our mind, we would want our thoughts to please Him. We would have no place for an impure, hateful or evil thought of any kind. Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21). We understand the Lord’s commandments with our minds, but we do them with our strength.

 The same verse tells us to “...love the Lord your God with all our strength…” Loving someone means doing things for them, special things that you know they really enjoy. It really pleases the Lord when we serve Him by fulfilling His calling in our lives. Just by doing what we were created to do shows the Lord how much we love Him. There are so many ways we can show the Lord how much we love Him. We can reach out and meet the needs of the poor and needy. We can do acts of kindness, such as giving a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. Jesus said that the person who does a simple act will not loose their reward. By doing simple acts of kindness, we are being rewarded for loving the Lord.

The Lord says, “If you love me, keep My commandments.” The Lord’s commandments are not meant to overwhelm us, or be burdensome. If we simply do things which we know will please our Father, that will show Him that we love Him. Just like each child in a family has their own unique relationship with their father and mother, so each of us, who know Jesus as Savior and Lord, have a very unique relationship with our Heavenly Father. Each of our expressions of love for our Heavenly Father will be as unique as He created each one of us to be.

If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and would like to, pray this prayer, or something similar: “Jesus, I come to You and ask that you would forgive all my sin, and cleanse me with Your precious blood. I want to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. In Jesus name, Amen.”  If you have a Bible, start reading in the Gospel of John.

 

                                                

FORSAKEN BY HIS FATHER

 

All Bible verses are taken from the New King James Version 

          Most of us, who grew up in church, know the Easter story as well as we know the Christmas story. Even though we know the story, let us stop and review it for the sake of those who may not be as familiar with it.  But before I plunge into the Easter account, allow me to remind you of some doctrinal truths. God is from everlasting to everlasting. “Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” (Psalm 90:2). Isn’t it absolutely incredible to think that we serve a God who had no beginning and has no end? Yet, there is something even more incredible. God exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit. All three together are One Person. All three Persons of the Trinity existed together from eternity past and will exist into eternity future. Therefore, they have the most intimate relationship than any human being could ever come close to having or comprehending.

It all started in the Garden of Eden where God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, then Adam became a living being. God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. God gave man one simple commandment. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17). But Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling her that she would be as God, knowing good and evil. Eve partook of the fruit and also offered the fruit to Adam and he ate. Adam and Eve’s actions not only affected their lives and fellowship with God, but it also brought God’s punishment for their sin, as well as affecting the whole human race, and nature for all time. “For the creation was subjected to futility; not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20-21).

God’s main purpose in creating man was to have fellowship with him. God would walk with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day. But when Adam and Eve sinned, their fellowship with God was severed. Adam and Eve’s sin did not just affect their relationship with God, but it affected man’s relationship with God down through the centuries. Yet God loved man so much, He knew He had to do something to draw man back to Himself.        

In John 3:16 it says, “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.” Jesus, the Son of God and the Second person of the Trinity, was willing to become a human being and dwell among us. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). During His earthly ministry, Jesus was continually seeking a solitary place where He could be alone with the Father. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35). There were times when Jesus would spend all night in prayer. “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12).

Jesus came to earth to redeem us to the Father by being obedient to death on a cross. “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8). Jesus knew the entire time He was on earth why He was here. As the time drew near for Jesus to face the cross, He tried to explain it to His disciples, but they did not understand what He was saying. “He (Jesus) said to them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said, The Christ of God. And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” (Luke 9:20-22). Jesus was tortured, beaten and wiped, leaving stripes across His back. The elders and scribes twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head and mocked Him. All of this left Him physically weak. “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53:3). After all this, they led Jesus away to be crucified.  

As Jesus’ earthly ministry drew to a close, and the purpose for which He came was before Him, to bear the world’s sin upon Him, He felt the heaviness upon Him. “And He was withdrawn from them (the disciples) about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:41-42, 44).    

When Jesus was crucified and had been nailed to the cross, the weight of the world’s sin was bearing so heavily upon Him, that God, His Father had to turn His face away as He is a Holy God and cannot look upon sin. God the Father had to forsake His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Here Jesus was hanging on the cross without anyone around as His disciples had forsaken Him long before Jesus was led away to the cross. You and I have probably been forsaken by those close to us and have felt alone.  Can you imagine what Jesus must be feeling during these most intense hours on the cross. Jesus had never, throughout eternity, been separated from His Father. Yet, during the most intense time of His existence, when Jesus needed His Father the most, He is forsaken by His Father. This time was so extremely intense that darkness covered the land. “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). How many times have we just casually read this verse without really giving it much thought? There is something different about the way Jesus cries out. Do you see it? Almost every other time when Jesus prays, He addresses God, His Father as, Abba Father or My Father. Yet, here Jesus addresses God as “My God.” Can you hear the anguish in Jesus’ voice? He cried with a loud voice. By this time, Jesus has been hanging on the cross for six long hours with the weight of the world’s sin upon Him. For the last three of those hours, darkness hung over the land. When the darkness started, it could have been the very moment when the Father turned His face away from His Son. Jesus hung on the cross for three hours being abandon and forsaken by everyone on earth, and His Father in heaven until He could no longer bear the burden of the world’s sin and feeling forsaken. It was at the ninth hour that Jesus cried these words from the cross. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” Sometime later, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” (Matthew 27:50).    

       The Easter account does not end there. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, and lives forever, seated on the Father’s right hand, to make intercession for us. “Therefore He (Jesus) is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25).                                 

        Have you received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and asked Him for the forgiveness of sin? Through Jesus, you will have a relationship with God the Father. If you would like to receive Jesus and the forgiveness of sin, pray something similar to this: “Jesus, I thank You for the price You paid to forgive me of my sin, and bring me into a relationship with my Heavenly Father. I ask that You will cleanse me of all my sin. I receive You into my life and I desire to live for You. In Jesus name, Amen.” If you have a Bible, begin reading the Gospel of John.     

 

 

                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

GENUINE LOVE

        

All Bible verses are taken from the New King James Version

          We often think of February as the month we cerebrate love, particularly between couples. By thinking like that we are limiting ourselves to what genuine love is. First of all, we need to consider where genuine love comes from. In the Bible it says, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8). This verse tells us that God’s very nature is love, and God’s love is the most perfect, unconditional love that we will ever know. Not only is God’s love perfect and unconditional, it is also everlasting, just as God is everlasting. “Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” (Psalm 90:2). There is no limit to God’s love. No matter what you have or have not done, God will always and forever love you.

          How are we, as mere humans, supposed to relate to such a high standard of love? The Lord knew we would need help in comprehending how deeply He loves us. In order for us to relate to His love for us, the Lord uses the most tender picture of love that exists – that of a mother caring for her newborn baby. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget. Yet I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15).   The Lord uses the most tender picture that we as humans know to describe His love for us – a mother nursing her newborn baby. A newborn baby is the most helpless human being who needs constant care.  If the mother did not nurse her baby constantly or look after all his other needs, he would die.  Yet there are times when the mother forsakes her baby.  How often we hear the tragic stories today of mothers leaving their babies in hospitals or even worse, in a garbage somewhere, or mothers neglecting to take proper care of their young children.  Yet even if a mother forgets her baby or young children, our Heavenly Father will never forget us. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5). We have a Heavenly Father who will never stop loving us as His children. In fact, it would be impossible for our Heavenly Father to stop loving us as it is His very nature to love.

          Our Heavenly Father loves us more than we can ever imagine. Even as He is the God from everlasting to everlasting, so is His love for us.  “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3). It is so far beyond our comprehension that the God of the universe would love each and everyone of us with an everlasting love. Yet it is true.

The greatest demonstration of God’s love for us is when He sent His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world as a baby and lived among man as the Son of God, identifying Himself with us. The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Have you reached out and accepted God’s love gift for yourself? Have you believed in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and asked Him to forgive your sin and give you the gift of eternal life? Why not do it now? Just pray this prayer, or something similar: “Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Your only Son Jesus. I ask that you would forgive me of my sin and give me Your gift of eternal life. I surrender my life to You today.”  

After we have accepted Jesus, the Lord wants us to grow and experience His deep love for ourselves. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19). Have you ever experienced God’s love for yourself? I have, and it is the most wonderful feeling I have had. I remember after my step-father passed away, I grieved and cried uncontrollably, not because I was particularly close to him, because I wasn’t, but because I was once again without an earthly father. My dad passed away when I was only ten years old. I would lay in bed, looking up to the heavens, crying my eyes out. These were the times when I could feel my Heavenly Father wrapping me in His arms of love, and saying to me, “I want you to call Me, Abba (Daddy) Father and I love you more than you will ever know.” My Abba was drawing me into a more intimate love relationship with Him, while at the same time, healing my broken heart.

In the same way the Lord loves us, we need to love Him. Our love for the Lord must exceed and go beyond any other love relationship we have. He must have first place in our lives. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:37). Our love for the Lord must take priority in our lives.

The way we demonstrate that we love the Lord is by keeping His commandments. The Lord’s first commandment all through the Bible is that we love Him with everything we have within us.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5).  When Jesus is asked which is the great commandment, Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38). Even though we are commanded by the Lord Himself to love Him, we cannot love the Lord in or of ourselves. The Lord must give us the love to love Him with. “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).

The Lord must always be the first love in our lives. As Jesus said to the church of Ephesus, after He mentions all their good works. “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4). We can do all the good works we want for the Lord, but if we have lost our first love for Jesus, our works mean nothing. The Apostle Paul spends a whole chapter saying this very thing. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul mentions several things that we could do for the Lord, and they may all appear good on the outside, but if they do not flow from our love for the Lord, they are meaningless. “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3).         

        Everything we do for the Lord must flow out of a heart of love for Him. Our work for Jesus needs to be an outward expression of our first love for Jesus. Why do I write for the Lord when I can only type with one finger and it takes me more time and effort than other people? There is only one answer: This is an expression of my love for my Lord Jesus, and it is the gift He has given me to minister to His people.