Blessings

Our decision to love is an ACT OF OBEDIENCE

Note from Sharon:

In reading this article, I was blown out of the water at the emphasis of “Loving one another”.

One thing that came to mind, however, as I read it was that Jon Walker continually used the term of “loving one another” as in relation to other believers.

I, personally, believe that this entire article would be better if emphasis was placed on the fact that we should “love one another, including non-believers as well as believers”.

God loved “all”. To love “all” is the only way that we can point people to the Savior, the great Lover of “all”. To limit our love to “believers”, I think, would undermine the purpose of His plan of salvation.

Love is an act of your will
by Jon Walker

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV)

Fellowship — Love is an act of your will

That may fly in the face of falling in love, or your notions of romance in the moonlight. Now, don’t get me wrong – there’s plenty of room for romance in God’s world, but it pales in comparison to how the Great Lover sacrificed to bring you into oneness with him.

That Great Lover, God Almighty, says we must choose to love one another. We’re to love other believers regardless of how we feel about them or how unlovable they may appear.

No matter how difficult it may seem, we’re to actively, consistently, and deeply love the believers God brings into our lives, our congregations – and our Bible studies.

Love is a command; our decision to love is an act of obedience

God considers loving one another so important that he told us we must do it. (1 John 4:21)

It is a lesson so important that the Apostle John consistently describes love and obedience as synonymous: If you love Jesus, you will obey his commands. (John 14:15, 23-24; 15:12, 14, 17; 1 John 2:3; 5:3; 2 John 1:6)

Why is obeying connected with love?

Because it reflects unity among believers, a oneness of spirit that is foundational to our union with God, a necessary element of all true and anointed kingdom work: “The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another.” (1 John 3:11 TEV)

Christ crushes the myth that love is based on feelings. He pushes the definition of love to a higher level – where behavior and beliefs combine into godly action. Love is no longer a schoolyard romance or a relationship dictated by compatibility. Rather, real love is – and has always been – a mother stumbling to her baby’s crib for the fifth time in one night, or a passenger giving up his place on a lifeboat to save someone else from a sinking ship. Love is Christ on a cross, dying for us – even while we were still lost in our sins. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus requires us to view other people as highly valued children of God, well worth of our time, attention, and energy. As members of God’s family, we must choose to love, not selectively choose who to love.

Love requires community

We cannot obey Christ’s command in isolation. We must be connected to other believers in order to “love one another.” Being in community with other Christians forces us to drop our “relationship fantasies,” where everyone we know is easy to get along with and every conflict is resolved in happy compromise.

God shaped each one of us differently, and he knows we all bring different perspectives and needs into any community. The hurts, habits, and hang-ups present in any group of believers create potential for conflict, but God’s design is to use that conflict to help us grow in Christ.

So what?

Love carries high standards

Jesus says we are to be to one another what he is to us. The love of Christ is selfless, sacrificial, and submitted to the Father’s will. His standard of love is personal, reaching out to the undeserving, looking past their faults and into the desperate needs of their hearts. Relying on God’s grace, begin moving toward that standard.

You cannot meet the standard

God’s standard is so staggering we can reach it only by relying on the spirit of Christ within us. To paraphrase Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer just I who loves, but Christ who loves in me. And this unlovable person that I now love, I love by the faith of the son of God, who loved this unlovable one first and gave himself up for this person I incorrectly see as undeserving of my love.”

Love is more than the minimum

Our love is not to be measured by the minimum of what we can do, nor is it to be limited only to those who appear deserving. Our standard for real love is that God “… loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins … since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” (1 John 4:10-11 NLT)

How would your relationships with other believers change if you began to love them with the standard of Christ?

Eat that FROG!

Eat that Frog Movie – I think you’ll find this little movie to be very inspirational!

Fill yourself with the Word

How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your Word and following its rules.

Psalm 119:9 NLT

Let the Bible fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet.

Henrietta Mears

A drunk meets a cop

Dawson Troter, founder of the Navigators, was student body president, basketball team captain, and class valedictorian when he was in high school. But then life fizzled out. He gambled, drank to excess, and caroused. He was staggering through the streets one night when a policeman stopped him, took his car keys, and asked, “Son, do you like this kind of life?” “Sir, I hate it,” replied Trotman. Instead of arresting him for drunkenness, the policeman urged Dawson to change his life.

That encounter was a turning point. Dawson attended a church gathering were he was challenged to memorize ten Bible verses stressing salvation. Trotman memorized the verses, then memorized another ten the next week. Several weeks later, as he pondered the meaning of what he had learned, he quietly prayed, “Oh God, whatever it means to receive Jesus, I want to do it right now.”

Trotman never got away from the power of the Word. As his knowledge of the Bible grew, he realized that a combination of prayer, worship, service, and the study of Scripture produced spiritual growth.

Harold J. Sala in Heroes

David used every technique he knew to ensure that he’d do things God’s way. He programmed God’s Word into himself so that he could retrieve it at crucial points along the way. He recited God’s Word aloud, reinforcing his learning. He studied and reflected on God’s Word. All this transformed his character and kept him on the right path.

Adapted from Men of Integrity Devotional Bible with devotions from the editors of Men of Integrity, a publication of Christianity Today International (Tyndale, 2002), entry for June 5.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

Every word is true

Every word of God proves true. He defends all who come to him for protection.

Proverbs 30:5 NLT

We must both affirm the inerrancy of Scripture and then live under it.

Francis Schaeffer

The perfect word

In a world of shifting loyalties, devious cons, and ever-evolving ideas, we need to know where to anchor our souls. We aren’t diligent enough to analyze every counterfeit that comes our way, nor are we perceptive enough to expose every false philosophy. Human rationalism is not equipped to establish eternal truth. That’s why we need help. Only God can point us in the right direction.

It’s a comfort when we are searching for absolutes to actually find them. According to this proverb, such absolute truth will shield us. What from? Every subtle deceit, every malicious word, every doctrinal error, and every false messiah. Much to our dismay, the world is full of empty promises. If we are left to ourselves to figure them all out, we will spend our lives tossed around on tumultuous waves of competing “truths.” By the time we obtain understanding by our own efforts, it’s too late to settle on the foundation of God’s wisdom. In short, we need to be anchored in revelation.

How do we do that? A daily time in God’s Word is a good first step. It works truth into our minds on a regular basis. But is that really enough?

Here’s a good pattern to follow:

Ask God every day to convince your heart of His truth and to give you discernment of lies.
Find at least one verse a week to memorize. Chew on it, let it sink in, look at it from every angel, and come up with specific ways to apply it.
Don’t just study God’s Word, fall in love with it.
Consume it as voraciously as your favorite meal.

God has a way of working into our hearts the things we love. If we love the flawless Word, the flawless Word will dwell within us.

Adapted from The One Year® Walk with God Devotional by Chris Tiegreen, Tyndale House Publishers (2004), entry for May 17.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

Six terrific truths about time

1. Nobody can manage time. But you can manage those things that take up your time.

2. Time is expensive. As a matter of fact, 80 percent of our day is spent on those things or those people that only bring us two percent of our results.

3. Time is perishable. It cannot be saved for later use.

4. Time is measurable. Everybody has the same amount of time…pauper or king. It is not how much time you have; it is how much you use.

5. Time is irreplaceable. We never make back time once it is gone.

6. Time is a priority. You have enough time for anything in the world, so long as it ranks high enough among your priorities.

by
Lewis Timberlake
~~~~~~

Consume my life

This week’s promise: God’s Word is Powerful

Consume my life

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Jim Elliot, 1949

God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.

Jim Elliot, 1948

Jim Elliot’s prayer

When he died [at the hands of the Auca Indians], Jim left little of value, as the world regards values.…Of material things, there were few; a home in the jungle, a few well-worn clothes, books, and tools. The men who went to try to rescue the five [missionaries — all of whom died] brought back to me from Jim’s body his wrist watch, and from…the beach, the blurred pages of his college prayer-notebook. There was no funeral, no tombstone for a memorial.…No legacy then? Was it “just as if he had never been”? Jim left for me, in memory, and for us all, in these letters and diaries, the testimony of a man who sought nothing but the will of God, who prayed that his life would be “an exhibit of the value of knowing God.”

The interest which accrues from this legacy is yet to be realized. It is hinted at in the lives of…Indians who have determined to follow Christ, persuaded by Jim’s example; in the lives of many who write to tell me of a new desire to know God as Jim did.…His death was the result of simple obedience to his Captain.

Jim Elliot and four other missionaries met their deaths trying to reach the Auca Indians for Christ.

Elizabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty

Adapted from The Prayer Bible Jean E. Syswerda, general editor, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), p375.

Digging Deeper: End of the Spear by Steve Saint (Tyndale, 2005), son of Nate Saint, chronicles the story of the encounter with the Ecuadorian tribe, which also became a major motion picture.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

A vision of heaven

A vision of heaven

Now I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war. His eyes were bright like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God.

Revelation 19:11-13 NLT

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne; Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but His own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

Crown Him with Many Crowns,
Matthew Bridges (1800-1894)

Crown Him with Many Crowns

Matthew Bridges became a convert to Roman Catholicism at the age of 48 and published this hymn three years later under the title “The Song of the Seraphs.” Godfrey Thring, an Anglican clergyman, added several stanzas to the hymn about thirty years later, with Bridges’s approval. So a Roman Catholic layman and an Anglican cleric, who probably never met, were coauthors of a hymn about heaven, where Christians of every tribe and tongue, as well as of every denomination, will crown Him Lord of all.

One of the aspects that Godfrey Thring felt was missing in the original was a stanza on the Resurrection, and so it was added. “His glories now we sing who died and rose on high, who died, eternal life to bring, and lives, that death may die.”

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995), entry for May 16.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

A message for all people

Note: This devotional explains some things about Muhammad, and the Islamic religion. I think you’ll find it an interesting read.

A message for all people

With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: “There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.”

Luke 24:47 NLT

A man named Muhammad

In an age of pluralism, most people assume that all religions have equal access to heaven. One getting much attention today is Islam.

Muhammad, the founder of Islam, the world’s youngest major religion, was born in Mecca between 570 and 580.

When he was forty, Muhammad claimed that he received a prophetic call from Alah through the angel Gabriel. He began preaching monotheism, a final judgment, alms, prayer, and surrender to the will of Allah. Persecution in his hometown of Mecca forced him to flee to Medina. Traditionally dated to July 15, 622, that flight, or hegira, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

During his time in Medina, Muhammad’s revelations become more legalistic and more secular and Islam, as the new religion was called, became a community and state with Muhammad as ruler and lawgiver.

By the time he died on June 8, 632, almost all of Arabia embraced Islam. The successors to Muhammad encouraged jihad, or holy war, against non-Muslims and within a century built an empire stretching from Spain all the way across North Africa to India.

In 1900 only 12 percent of the world’s population embraced Islam; by 2000 it had grown to 21 percent, partly due to a higher birth rate. Islam is the majority religion in forty-two countries and territories. Most of these countries prohibit Christian evangelism and exclude Christian missionaries, yet since 1980 more Muslims have turned to Christ than in any earlier period in history. Pray that the doors will open even wider and that many more will come to Christ…while there is still time.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten (Tyndale, 2003), entry for June 8.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

A Heavenly Vision

This week’s promise: Christ will return

A Heavenly Vision

After I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a mighty shout, “Salvation comes from our God on the throne and from the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10 NLT

Heavenly praise for the Lamb

Many times our prayers tend to focus on this world and the struggles we encounter in our lives. God understands and accepts these prayers, but we must also direct our thoughts and prayers to the victory we will share with Christ. In Revelation, God gives us a splendid portrayal of that final victory. In a vision, the apostle John sees a magnificent scene: a vast multitude celebrating the triumph of the Lamb of God. Waving palm branches, the traditional symbol of victory, people from all over the world extol God for the salvation he had provided through his Son.

As followers of Christ, today, we are privileged to be part of this multitude — the communion of believers. Because Jesus has overcome death, a new life of wholeness and peace through him has opened up to us. This is worth shouting about — praising God with all that is in us!

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, I join your praying people through the ages to shout about that salvation that comes from you…

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Bible Prayers edited by Bruce Barton, Tyndale House Publishers (2000), entry for April 3.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

No fear of judgment

This week’s promise: Christ will return

Everyone will see

[Jesus said], “Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!”

Luke 21:27-28 NLT

No fear of judgment

What images come to mind when you think of “end times prophecies”?…Most people, if they were honest, would admit that their view of the end times is a frightening one.…They imagine an angry and vengeful God hovering high above it all, bent on destruction and raining terror on all who have rejected him.

Have we missed something? In many ways I think we have. God didn’t reveal these graphic images of the coming judgment to express his wrath or even to frighten us into believing. He revealed them to show us his wonderful grace and mercy in the midst of our sin and unworthiness. The story isn’t about pending gloom and doom, but it’s about a loving Father who will do anything he can to help people escape the consequences of evil.

Bible prophecy isn’t intended to frighten us, but it’s to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is real and omnipotent and active in our lives; to warn us of the very real danger lying ahead for those who reject his love and mercy; and to encourage us to accept his gracious and free offer of salvation through his Son, Jesus.

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul tells us that God “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth” (2:4).…Time and again in Scripture we are told that God longs for his people to be with him in heaven. The Bible is not a story of wrath and judgment but of unconditional love and redemption. God longs to be with us and wants desperately for us to accept his hand of salvation. What we do is up to us.

Adapted from Embracing Eternity by Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and Frank M. Martin, Tyndale House Publishers (2004), entry for January 3.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

Christ will return

This week’s promise: Christ will return

“I will come back”

[Jesus said], “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there.”

John 14:3-4 NLT

His promise to return

As a child, George Tulloch was fascinated by stories of the Titanic.…In 1996 he put together a team of the best scientists and sailors and set out to the exact spot where the Titanic sank in 1912. He and his crew were able to recover numerous artifacts from the ship—eyeglasses, jewelry, dishware, some coins and the like. But the most exciting thing they found was a large piece of the hull resting several hundred yards away.

The team did its best to raise the twenty-ton piece of iron, but to no avail. At one point the team almost had it.…but a storm blew in and.…the Atlantic reclaimed its treasure. Then Tulloch did something surprising before they were forced to retreat. He descended into the deep once more in a small submarine, and using a robotic arm, he attached a small handmade placard onto the section. It said, “I will come back. George Tulloch.”

For a lot of the same reasons, Jesus left us a similar message. “I am going to prepare a place for you..…When everything is ready, I will come and get you” (John 14:2-3). Some may wonder why he cared in the first place. Why would he even want to reclaim us? What good are we to him? In many ways we’re just as worthless and cumbersome and unyielding as that lazy piece of iron in the Atlantic.

But Jesus doesn’t see us that way. He’s dreamed of this moment since the beginning of creation, and now that the time is near he can’t help but leave this mark on our hearts. “I’m leaving now. But don’t worry, I’ll be back.

Adapted from Embracing Eternity by Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and Frank M. Martin, Tyndale House Publishers (2004), entry for January 1.

Digging Deeper: This week (Tuesday) is the release of the The Rapture , the last of three prequel stories to the Left Behind series.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House