Through Jesus' Love

All of us have gone through that wonderful self-development period known as the “terrible twos.”  During this time period, we began expressing our own individuality.  We recognized for the first time that we were our own person and could make choices for ourselves.  Our favorite word was “no”.  Our rebellious nature was evident as we regularly rejected the good counsel of our parents in order to have our own way.

This rebellious (sin) nature carried right over into our adult lives as we rejected the laws of God and the good counsel of His Holy Word.  Fortunately, our loving Father provided us with a way to overcome the weaknesses that He knew we had.  He provided a His Son to die for our sins and He sent the Holy Spirit to inspire us to receive His Son as Our Savior. Then He allowed the Holy Spirit to dwell within us so that we would be able to die of self, giving up our choices of the flesh in exchange for the will of God in our lives. 

Our sinful nature separates us from God.  God gave His Son, Jesus, as a living sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven and our inheritance as heirs to the Kingdom of God could be provided.  

In turn, we are called to sacrifice our own lives in the flesh by surrendering all that we are to Jesus.  When we keep our flesh in submission to the laws of God, we allow the Holy Spirit to work supernaturally in our lives.  In doing so, we receive the full measure of our redemptive blessings.

The endless pursuit of self leads to a constant and unavoidable destiny that will be deviant from the way, the truth and the life of Jesus.  The flesh is unable to maintain a course of positive growth.  Destruction and deterioration are inevitable.

Only by turning to God and focusing on Him instead of ourselves can we avoid destruction.  We may find interim good without God.  We will never find God when we are focused on ourselves.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  No man can get into heaven without recognizing the sacrifice of the precious Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.  

Yet every man, no matter how vile, corrupt and sinful he may be today, can receive the eternal life with God that is promised through His Son.  The shed blood of Jesus has the power to wash all repentant sinners clean of their sins.   Every man that is willing to call on the name of Jesus can claim this miraculous gift of grace. 

Repentance comes from the Holy Spirit within us.  The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, past and present, as we go through the sanctification process.  For the first time, we see our sins in the light of the pain and suffering that they caused Our Savior to endure.

This new sorrow-filled enlightenment inspires us to dig deeper into our relationship with Our Savior.  We yearn to bring to light the sins in our lives that we are not aware of or have learned to overlook through our worn conscience.  Through new found desires to repent of anything in us that displeases Our Heavenly Father, we seek to relieve that which sent Our Savior to the Cross. 

The Christian life can be frustrating because we are trying to be “good Christians” instead of “God led” Christians.  The things that we are trying to attain or achieve are probably good things.  But if they are not God things, they will not bring lasting satisfaction.

We need to focus first on our relationship with Our Savior before we set our paths.  The process is simple.  All we have to do is pray, “Jesus, I seek you.  Jesus, I want to walk with you.  Jesus, I want to serve your needs.”  Then prepare to receive the overwhelming sense of peace and joy that comes from being in union with Our Savior and not from our own merits.

Once saved, the sanctification process begins.  Every blemish on our soul is brought to light to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.  We are constantly being led by the Holy Spirit to come to our highest point of obedience.   We are being prepared to love God above all things with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength.

Until the day we die, we must submit the control of our lives over to God so that the Holy Spirit can assist us in walking the ascending path of sanctification.  We will reach our apex 
when we stand before the Lord in heaven.

We all produce activity in three areas – physical, emotional and spiritual.  The proficiency of what we produce is based on our strength, emotional stability and holiness.  

The levels of our proficiency are built up by the way in which we consistently respond to the choices that we have to make daily.  Good responses build proficiency.  We become stronger and more proficient in each area when we choose exercise over idleness, patience over anger and righteousness over sin.  We become weaker and less proficient when we select the alternatives.  By the grace of God, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us to make the right choices.

One of the biggest mistakes that we can make is to try to deliver the Good News of the gospel with a manipulated salvation message.  We do a disservice to the listener when we word the salvation message in such a way that it sounds politically correct instead of biblically accurate.

We can be certain that political correctness will get no one into heaven or keep anyone out of hell.  The truth and power of the salvation message is found in the exact Word of God and not in our own politically correct version.

When we observe beauty in nature, knowingly or unknowingly, we are usually not looking at a single object.   We are looking at a group of objects gathered within a larger picture.  Within the observed area, none of the individual objects are perfect.  But when we consider the individual objects within their setting, we see a perfectly beautiful site.

Similarly, God creates beauty in our own lives.  Even though we are not perfect, God can use us perfectly within the environment that we live in.  In the flesh, our imperfections will limit us.  In union with Jesus, perfect fruit will be yielded.