Through Jesus' Love

We, who are in Christ, are to be living proof that Jesus was victorious on the Cross.  We are to live our lives in such a way that others will see the Spirit of Jesus in us.  And when they see Jesus in us and ask us about our new lives, we must be prepared to testify to the power of God in our lives.  We must be able to express to the world what it means to accept the gift of salvation.

Our lives should become our message to the world.  Our living testimony and our ability to express it should become our gift to those who come into our lives. 

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ requires that we walk with Him.  No matter where He is going or what He is doing, He simply asks us to join Him.  There is no gray area.  We are either on the same path as Jesus or we are on our own path.  The longer we try to stay on our own path, the further away we will drift from the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus, Our Savior.

We have suffered nothing and we have gained nothing until we take up our cross and follow Jesus Christ.  We cannot take up our cross until we realize how much we need The Cross.  The Cross is our bridge into eternity.  We cannot earn it, but we can cherish it and receive it.  We will not cherish it until we realize that there is nothing about our old selves than can cross the bridge into eternity.  Everything about our old selves must be left behind.  Our old selves require cleansing – complete and total cleansing.  The kind of cleansing that we need is only available through the spilt blood of Jesus Christ.

If we have no trials in our lives, we can probably assume one of the following:  1) we just came out of a trial and God is providing much needed rest  2) we are about to enter into a new trial  3) we are doing so little for the kingdom that we aren’t getting Satan’s attention.    

Against all human nature, the Lord teaches us to rejoice in our trials for they are meant to prove the genuineness of our faith, to build our character and to bring praise, honor and glory to Jesus.  When we are in a test of faith, we can be sure that we have rattled Satan’s cage and demanded his response against us.  It brings the Father great joy when He sees us entered in battle with the enemy as a result of us joining Him in His good work.  It brings Him even greater joy when He delivers us from the battle strengthened by His Spirit and covered in His peace.

There is common drudgery in every person’s life.  Some days our tasks at hand are nothing more than menial activity.  It gives God great pleasure when we perform even the smallest task for His glory.

Do you think Jesus was very excited about carrying His Cross up Calvary?  He certainly was not.  Yet with every step up the hill, He brought glory to the Father.  And with each painful step, He got closer and closer to delivering our salvation.  And with each step we take for His glory, we get closer and closer to completing His work in us.

We all want to please God once we have received His Son as our Savior.  At times, driven by our desire to please him, we run ahead of His calling on our lives.  The good work that we are doing to please the Lord can actually become unfulfilling and result in burnout. 

When we are doing what God called us to do, we can work endlessly.  Even when the work might seem tedious and boring to others, we can go on day after day with great joy.  When we start working to join Our Father in Heaven in His work for His glory instead of working simply to earn His praise, our efforts are more inspired and fulfilling.  As a result, our intimacy with the Lord grows and we experience the richness of living the abundant life that God has planned for us. 

Good plans are never as good as God plans.  It is better not to call on God to bless the grand feat that we have planned without Him, even if it was planned in order to please Him.  Instead, we should submit ourselves to His calling and join Him in His work.  We must recognize that even though His calling on our lives may seem small or insignificant in the eyes of man that it is glorious in God’s eyes.  The smallest deed done at the Lord’s request can move mountains.  The grandest feat done for the kingdom without God’s inspiration is likely to end up in drudgery, perhaps even failure.  We should join the Lord in His work and rejoice in our calling.  

Jesus tell us that there are two great commandments:  “Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”  All other commandments hang off of these two.  If we keep these two commandments, we will not be able to break any of the other commandments.

If we love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength, then His Spirit will guide us.  His Spirit will fill us with His perfect love.  Filled with His perfect love, we will naturally and supernaturally pour out the love that He has given us to the world around us.  There is no way to hold God’s love to ourselves.  It would consume us.

Almost all of us can relate to a time in our childhoods when we did something wrong that hurt our parents.  Almost all of us can remember how much it hurt us to see our parents hurting over the wrong that we had done.  

Jesus bears all the hurtful deeds of all of His children.  In His mercy, He loves each child perfectly and unconditionally.  He died on the Cross so that the stain of each hurtful sin could be removed.  For those that accept Him as their Savior,  the memory of each hurtful deed is absolved in heaven.

When we confess our sins, we should be ever mindful of all that Jesus bore for us and all that He provided in His mercy.  Clothed in the freedom of His loving kindness, His mercy and His grace and refreshed by the memory of His sacrifice, we should love Him to the depths of our soul and let it reflect in our lives each day.

If we experience suffering when we think of what Jesus did for us, then we have truly learned to love Him.  We have come to a point where we really know Him.

If we can think of Jesus as Our Savior without feeling the pain of His sacrifice, we have accepted His gift without knowing Him intimately.  It is natural for us to be without pain when we first receive Jesus into our lives.  Over time, we are not maturing spiritually if we are not beginning to feel the pain of the Cross and have the pain affect our lives.  

“Lovest thou Me?”  John 21:17