Through Jesus' Love

God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for all the sins of every person.  In this one act, we see the full expression of God’s perfect love and forgiveness. 

When we receive Jesus as Our Savior, we receive His perfect love and forgiveness.  We also receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which leads us to share this perfect love and forgiveness with the world around us.  We are called to make this full expression of love and forgiveness to every man in every place without withholding even the smallest portion.

There is not a single work that we do that has God saying, “Thanks, I could not have accomplished my plans without you.”  If God has anything that He would like to see done through human efforts, He can always find a replacement for us if we refuse to follow His calling.

The loss will never be His.  The loss is always ours when we are not obedient to what the Lord is calling us to do.  The work that we do for the Lord does more for our sanctification than anything else.  Who we are in Christ is defined by our obedience.

Every man is called to lead his family spiritually.  When the fullness of the calling hits him, he soon realizes how ill equipped he is for the work and how ill prepared his family is to receive him.

This is all part of the God-work that begins once the man expresses his desire to God to meet his calling.  God has complete control of all aspects of the work to be done in the man and in his family.  God will overcome all the individual disappointment and provide for all the personal enlargement needed to fulfill the calling.

“Enoch walked with God.”  (Genesis 5:24)  How cool would that be?  At any given time, just dial up the ruler and creator of the universe and invite Him for a walk.  It sounds impossible and nearly unimaginable.  Yet it is absolutely within our reach.

The only obstacle to dialing up God is that we have to be on the same line with Him.  We can only get on the same line by shedding all the old lines of distraction in our lives.  Certainly a lot of personal work to be done there, but well worth the effort considering the benefit.

“Mommy, I really want a chocolate cake,” is a child’s simple request.  Mommy says, “OK, but not now.  I will do it later when I have all the ingredients and I can make the cake exactly how you like it”.

This is how God works with each of us.  He hears our prayers and He prepares the perfect answer.  He does not rush to provide an answer to our prayers.  He waits for all the best “ingredients” to be in place.  He wants to prepare only the best for us – just like Mommy.

As parents, we understand the joy of an obedient child.  The obedient child’s constant compliance melts our hearts.  It is likely that we extend special favor to the obedient child.  It is also easier for us to give the child greater responsibility because we are confident that they will handle it appropriately.  

So it is with God.  He rejoices in His obedient children who are compliant to His Word, His laws and His calling on their lives.  He rewards them with more knowledge and greater responsibility in the Kingdom.

When we are born, we inherit the sin nature brought to us through the bloodlines of Adam and Eve.  Through the grace of God we are given the choice to keep the sin which separates us from Him or receive the atonement for our sin provided by the shed blood of His Son, Jesus.

If we accept the precious gift of salvation, we are then sanctified through the Holy Spirit working in our lives.  We become righteous, holy and fully acceptable to the Lord in heaven.  Through His grace we receive what we could not otherwise earn.

When we hear the word sin, we think of a single transgression which breaks God’s law.  In reality, sin is a complete condition that separates us from God.  It is a chasm that we cannot cross on our own.

When Adam and Eve sinned, we inherited a condition that separated us from God for all eternity.  Thankfully, our merciful Father provided the way for us to cross the chasm created by sin.  He provided His Son, who knew no sin, to take on all of our sin on the Cross.  By the shed blood of Jesus, all who accept Him as their Savior, are washed clean of their sin for all eternity.

Without the aid of the Holy Spirit we would live our entire lives in darkness.  We could not recognize the light, the truth and the way that is in Jesus Christ.  Our hearts could not be molded so that we could submit to Jesus as Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.  

Only through the loving kindness, mercy and grace of God are our eyes opened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only through this precious gift can God do His good work in us.

When we say that man is born with a sin nature, we are indicating that man puts himself above all things.  Our nature without Christ is to put ourselves before God in our decisions.  

“I am the Lord thy God.  Have no false gods before me,” is the first commandment sinned against by each of us.  There is no recovery from this sin except through the redemption provided by Jesus Christ.  

God does not hold us responsible for our sin nature.  He does hold us responsible for recognizing and accepting that Jesus is the only way that we can be redeemed from our sin nature.