A DISCIPLE’S LOVE

“All men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35

God is the source of love. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). How can we think of the love of God apart from John 3:16, “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.” God’s love is “unconditional love.” We cannot qualify for it, we cannot earn it, nor do we deserve it. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

As a Christian, how have you responded to such infinite love? If we are honest, we would have to admit that the greater majority of Christians have responded passively. Many have accepted God’s love and received Christ as their Savior, but there has been little, if any, real growth in grace. Look into your own life and ask yourself, “What effect has His love had on how I live? Has my life style had a radical change…my priorities, my desires, in every phase of my life?” Jesus said to His disciples, “As I have loved you, so must you love one another” (John 13:35).

This is not a casual request, but a direct statement by Christ. It is not for us to debate, to consider at our leisure, or discuss. It was a command given to all who would follow Him as a “disciple.” The first and greatest commandment was…“Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). What hinders us from making this a reality in our lives with unreserved commitment?

I think first of all, Christ is not THE PRIORITY of our life. We have self-interests…“things” have a prior concern…and we are not constrained or motivated by the love of God. You might say, “I struggle with this. How can Christ be THE PRIORITY of my life that finds expression in every phase of my life?” We all struggle with this because of the constant battle between the flesh and the Spirit.

Secondly, Paul said, we need to "mortify, put to death, the fleshly desires of our lusts and carnal nature" (Romans 8:12-15). John tells us…“If anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him” (1 John 1:5). To have a disciple’s love, it is imperative to turn over to God the authority to control our life. He must be the “Lord of All.” He must be sovereign in our life. Then, the Holy Spirit will have free and full control, giving to us the strength and power that “in all things we may be more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Being a disciple is a struggle, a battle, a warfare against Satan himself, and it is only as we recognize our enemy and appropriate for ourselves the full armor of God that we can stand triumphantly against our powerful foe (Ephesians 6:10-18). Are you ready for the challenge? Are you committed to be a disciple of Christ, to follow Him without reservation, surrendering to Him the control of you life?

This is the will and purpose of God for your life. Only as we let HIM LIVE HIS LIFE through us, can we glorify HIM and magnify HIS NAME. The challenge is yours!



From: http://lmi.gospelcom.net/dare.php

The Journey to the Cross

“This was God’s plan which he had made long ago; he knew all this would happen.”
Acts 2:23

Jesus died…on purpose. No surprise. No hesitation. No faltering.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he dies. And the way Jesus marched to his death leaves no doubt; he had come to earth for this moment. Read the words of Peter. “Jesus was given to you, and with the help of those who don’t know the law, you put him to death by nailing him to a cross. But this was God’s plan which he had made long ago; he knew all this would happen” (Acts 2:23 NCV).

No, the journey to the cross didn’t begin on Jericho. It didn’t begin in Galilee. It didn’t begin in Nazareth. It didn’t even begin in Bethlehem.

The journey of the cross began long before. As the echo of the crunching of the fruit was still sounding in the garden, Jesus was leaving for Calvary.



From: Max Lucado

Jesus Christ, the Seeking Savior

In this busy and impersonal high-tech world, it seems easier than ever to ignore Jesus Christ. We are led to believe that every need can be met with a few clicks on the computer. After all, if we want to keep our eyes on the future, why seek a Savior from 2,000 years in the past?

As we grow more and more accustomed to looking to ourselves for answers, we can easily fall into a dangerous trap—the idea that just because we don’t care about Him, He doesn’t care about us. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

All through the Bible, God takes the initiative in the salvation of man. None of us who are saved have sought Him out; we’ve just responded to His initiative. He made the first move; He chose to save us and then we chose to respond.

What does Scripture say? In John 3:16, we see that the Father actively gave His Son so that we might be saved. In verse 17, the Word clarifies that the Son was sent not to condemn but to save the world. And think about Jesus’ parting instructions to His disciples in Mark 16:15. Did He say to sit idly by and simply mention His name to anybody who walked past? No! He told them to go out into the world and tell everyone the good news! He wants the gospel to go forth, because He is still seeking the lost today.

Have you been sitting around, waiting for Jesus to show up? Stand up, my friend. Jesus is here, and He’s been looking for you all along.



From: InTouch - Early Light Devotional

How's your "Up Look"

There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

--2 Timothy 4:8


Did you know that you can live with God’s protection and provision? You can live every single day in His love! How do you do that?

One way is to embrace your future by living for eternity. Or, as Steven R. Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” That’s how you and I are to live our lives as followers of Christ.

When everything around you is crumbling, when you’re facing danger and difficulties and deception of all kinds, your outlook on life will be determined by your “up-look.”

And if your up-look is to love Christ’s return and to long for His appearing, knowing that at any moment He could come for you, then you are living in His love.

As today’s verse says, “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

When we are daily embracing our future with God, that keeps us in His love!

WHEN EVERYTHING AROUND YOU IS CRUMBLING, WHEN YOU’RE FACING DANGER AND DIFFICULTIES AND DECEPTION OF ALL KINDS, YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE WILL BE DETERMINED BY YOUR "UP-LOOK."


From: CrossWalk Devotionals

The Place of Ministry

He said to them, ’This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting’ — Mark 9:29


His disciples asked Him privately, ’Why could we not cast it out?’ " ( Mark 9:28 ). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. "This kind can come out by nothing but" concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.

When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.

We must be able to "mount up with wings like eagles" ( Isaiah 40:31 ), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" ( Philippians 4:13 ) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, "No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God." Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?


From: RBC - Utmost For His Highest

Oops, I Guess that was a Bad Idea

1 Samuel 6:19-20
But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them, and the men of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?


God is Holy

Some pretty interesting things happened between yesterday’s reading and today’s. First off, The Philistines discovered that the Ark brought them terrible luck. They kept moving it around from town to town because everywhere they put it the people got sick. It was a real disaster. So, they decided to just send it back to Israel. They put it on a cart drawn by some cows whose calves were kept in the barn. Their thinking was that if the cows headed for Israel instead of back to their calves, it had to be a good omen. It worked. Those cows headed straight toward the border of Israel.

When the Ark entered Israeli territory, the Jewish religious leaders, took it off the cart and set it in a field. All was going well until some Jewish men decided to take a look inside. It was the last thing they ever did! God struck them down dead.

You might wonder why just looking into this golden box was such a big deal that the men had to die. The people of Beth Shemesh knew exactly why their fellow-citizens had died. It was because they didn’t take God’s holiness and honor seriously. They treated the Ark as a curiosity. They didn’t realize how important the Ark was as a symbol of God’s presence.

The men of Beth Shemesh died because they didn’t honor God as they should have. They treated the Ark of his Covenant, the place where he had promised to dwell, like a display in a museum. Sometimes we treat God that way, too. We say, “Oh God,” to express mild surprise. We may watch movies that make God out to be some sort of bumbling goof-off. Even more importantly, we often ignore him completely for days at a time.

If we could define God with one word it would be “holy.” All of his other characteristics are controlled by his holiness. God could have chosen to be bad instead of good. He could have been demanding and mean like some of the Greek gods and goddesses portrayed in movies and myths. He could have been selfish and arrogant. But, God decided to be perfect in every way. Imagine how awful it would be if God wasn’t good all the time. What would happen to us if one day he decided “to have an attitude?” We’d never know what he was going to do. Because of his holiness, we can totally trust him with every part of our lives, knowing that he will always do what is best for us.

God is important. He loves us more than we can ever imagine. He is powerful and jealous for first place in our hearts. He is also holy. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the men of Beth Shemesh so we treat God the way he deserves to be treated, with honor and respect.


Today’s Prayer:
Holy Father, I confess that I often don’t treat you the way you deserve to be treated. I listen to jokes that don’t honor you. I use your name in wrong ways. Please forgive me. Also, please teach me how to respect and worship you as you deserve. Amen.



From: New Wine Skin - Written by Martha E Menne

Come Unto Me

Jesus said, "Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
-Matthew 11:28 (NRSV)

FRESH out of a broken marriage, I was drinking and carousing, thinking I was socializing when in reality all I was doing was hiding from my pain. I was an angry man who felt betrayed and couldn't trust anyone. Wives and girlfriends and even my male friends had lied, cheated, or taken advantage of me in one way or another. I was angry at the world, and every time I was around other people I felt as if I had an open wound.

Soon I discovered, however, that my anger was harming me more than them. I knew I had to do something to rid myself of this hostility because it was making me not only friendless but also a paranoid, shallow person. One day a small, inner voice spoke clearly to me: "Forgive them." I thought about those words all day long. That night I prayed, asking God to help me forgive everyone who had hurt me. When I prayed this prayer, a huge burden was lifted from my heart.

Today I am a born-again believer, and with Christ's help I will never again be burdened with the inability to forgive. I pray that this message will find its way to someone who is having difficulty forgiving others. Jesus Christ offers to help us lay down that burden.


Prayer
O God, help us to realize that we need forgiveness as much as we need to forgive. In Jesus' name. Amen.



From: UpperRoom Devotionals - Charles H. Greever

How He Loves Us

Do you truly understand the truth that God loves us so much? There are so many verses that we already know which supports this idea but it seems it does not impact our lives.

Let me share to you a video from Jesus Culture, I saw this unintentional on a website I visited. I believe there is no accident in the kingdom of God so I know deep within that this song has a purpose in my life. In fact, it made me realize a lot of things about how God loves us so much.

May you also be blessed as you listen to the song. It is not an ordinary music that we hear, it is a message we need for our lives.