God Loves You

God Loves You
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Romans 8:31-35

It can take a long time to learn that God the Father wants to bless our lives for His glory. The Father wants to lavish all the fullness of His blessings on us. He doesn't promise that everything will always be perfect or that He won't allow difficulty, temptations, or tribulations come. He does promise to be the Giver of good gifts to His children. He did absolutely everything He could to find us, to reach us, and to forgive us. Why? Because He is holy and because He is holy He loves us. Take a look at these verses…

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son”

Romans 5:8 says, "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:6 “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,”

Romans 8:31-32 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His Own Son but gave Him up for us all."

1 John 4:8 “God is Love.”

I John 4:16 “God is Love.”

If you've ever wondered if God the Father cares about you, look at what He did for you, He "did not spare his own Son."

Question: Did not spare Him what?

Because God loves you, God the Father did not spare His Son the humiliation of becoming a man. Jesus, one of the persons in the Trinity, Creator of the universe, became a human being. Talk about a step-down, which is not even close to a CEO becoming a Bell-boy.

Because God loves you, the Father did not spare His Son the rejection of His family not to mention the disbelief of those that listened to Him when He lived here on earth or the constant abuse of those that came to get healed and then left not even thanking Him but instead told those that hated Him. Then at the end of His life the mocking, the torture, the crown of thorns were all laid on the precious Son of God because your heavenly Father loves you.

And because God loves you, our Father did not spare His Son crucifixion. Jesus became "obedient to the point of death," Philippians 2:7-8 “but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. A cross was the most humiliating, torturous way for a person to die.

Question: But why did God our Father not spare His own Son?

Because He loves you. He gave the best for the worst. He gave the highest for the lowest. He did the most for the least. He gave the pure for the impure, the cleanest for the filthiest, the Holy for the rubbish. That is God's message of love to you and me! That gives me a reason to serve Him and praise Him no matter what I have or what I am now going through!

TUPOS

Tupos (too-pos') is a Greek noun with a double meaning in English.

Tupos means:

(1) to be an example or a pattern for.

(2) to make an impact on or leave an impression from one object on another.

Tupos is the word found in 1st. Timothy 4:12 "Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an TUPOS/example/pattern/impact/leave an impression of those who believe".

All Must Be God's

What does it take to be a Christ-follower?

It takes all we have. We can not buy our salvation, or earn it. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. We can't receive it on our works but salvation is by God alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The cool thing is that faith alone is faith in all that God offers, His salvation, His protection, His Righteousness. We must have faith in all of God, not our works, our savings, or even our president. Our faith and trust must be in Him, He must be our treasure (Matthew 6:21). When we put our trust in money or our businesses we fall into the same trap as the rich man who asked Jesus how to be saved, Jesus responded by saying, Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

When we put our faith in God we must put all our faith in all of God not part. All must be God's. Yes, you may be a good man, but what is your treasure? We must do what Jesus told the young rich man to do. What are you giving up to follow God, or what are you not giving up? God must come first and everything else second.

Growth With That Child Like Faith

Hebrews 5:10-14 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.. (11) About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (12) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, (13) for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. (14) But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Hebebrews 6:1-3 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, (2) and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (3) And this we will do if God permits.

When we come to put our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we are all infants or babies in the faith. We need good spiritual milk to drink from God’s Word the Bible. However God doesn’t want us to remain babies in the faith but to grow to maturity. However, most people in the church keep being feed spiritual milk by their leaders and they never grow to maturity as Paul tells us to do in Ephesians 4:11-14 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Instead they keep going over the elementary teachings of repentance from the dead works and faith in God, of washing, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (Heb. 6:1,2). Church leaders must be able to teach and help new believers grow in their faith. I have a 1 year old son. He loves to be around us. He is learning to walk better each day, stack blocks, and he copies us in our playtime together. Whenever he does something new he looks up to us in pride. He loves spending time with us as we encourage him to learn and to have fun doing so. He doesn’t care about fancy toys and gadgets, he is happy with a empty water bottle with pennies or popcorn in it as long as he is close to mommy and daddy. All he wants to do is be by his daddy and mommy, and get approval of a job well done, as he grows and learns new things. The smile on his face is all the thanks we need as we delight in him and grow proud of his accomplishments.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. We must come to Christ as a child Mark 10:15, and we must then continue to grow in Him. We do this with the help of spiritually mature Christians who have grown in their faith after spending time in the Word. Then as we grow we must move past the milk and get to solid food, such as Melchizedek. However, we must be careful as we grow not to lose our first love like the great church of Ephesus (where Paul preached along with the apostle John) did in Revelation 2:1-7.

Every Wednesday I teach teenagers/young adults the Word of God inductively. They are excited and can grasp the meaning of the Bible and what it means, being a slave of Christ in a world that does not want us here. However, they also think they know it all already and grow confident in their knowledge and energy. They can easily get off the wrong path and their enthusiasm leads them down destructive theological paths. I also teach several adult small groups and they know their Bible inside-out. The problem with these older saints is that they lose that spark, that dependency on God, they stop looking to God with awe and instead sit back and look at their accomplishments.

It is time we grow our theology like the older saints, have the energy to never quit like the teenagers, but all the time wanting to be close to our Father and turning to Him for all our joy and treasure as my little boy. Lets never lose our first love as we grow deeper in our theology by studying the Bible one precept at a time.

Live In The Word

As He (Jesus) was saying these things, many believed in Him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, "If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John8:30-32)

Wow, I love these verses! Jesus was telling a group of people who He was, that He is God, that He always existed came to earth and would die and then rise from the dead for their sins. The result was that people believed in Him. Jesus also taught them that He is the light of the world and whoever believes in Him must not walk in darkness (John 8:12).

So how is this possible? Jesus tells us in John 31 & 32. He says "If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Basically if you are truly a student of Christ a Christian, you will continually live in God's Word the Bible. Then and only then can we stop walking in darkness because we know the truth, the light, and that frees us from the darkness. This is not automatic it is something each of us must do intentionally each day. The word abide in the Greek means to stay in a place ,to live in and not depart. We all must live in the Bible, the Word ,every minute of the day. This is possible by first reading the Bible then you have to study it.

But you say I can't study 24/7. Your right, but you can take a note card with a Bible verse that you studied in context and memorize it, think about it and apply it to your life by living it out 24/7. See, when we study and read the Bible we have a tendency to put it down and go through our day without even thinking about what we have studied. But when we intentionally memorize and look for a way to apply what we studied that is when you continually abide in the Word. That is what will change us, that will free us to live the life Christ wants us to be living.

I challenge you to abide in the Word. But be careful that you know the context of the verses you are memorizing and taking with you throughout the day. Many believers in Christ memorize verses out of context and thus have false promises. When those promises do not come about they are disillusioned and become discouraged and think God failed them. You must know what you are putting in your head and the best way to do that is to discover truth for yourself. The way you discover truth for yourself in by studying the Bible inductively. To find out how to do that check out Precept International http://www.precept.org/.

So, brothers and sisters in the Lord I challenge you to know the truth of God's Word for yourself and constantly live in the Word of truth ,the Bible. Start today and you will find yourself free to serve Christ with out any of the things of the world holding you back and that is a great way to live!

Remember what Jesus told those that believed in Him... "If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
(John8:31-32)

Old & New Testaments on being prosperous and safety

How, what, someone help… Proverbs 10:22 & II Timothy 3:12…

Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. (ESV)
II Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, (ESV)
Parts of the Old Testament and New Testament are very different. For instance, in the old testament Israel was promised that everything they did would be blessed and multiplied. That they would never have to borrow from anyone if they kept God’s laws (Deut. 28:1-14).

But in the new testament we don’t find those promises repeated. Instead, we are promised a life of sacrifice and persecution? And the grace to be content with food and clothing alone I Timothy 6:8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (ESV)

God is under no obligation to make us prosperous or powerful regardless of what you might have heard from some pastor or read in a book. He has promised to bless us; but under the New Covenant, blessings are more spiritual then physical.

In fact, one of the greatest blessings we are promised is that our grace is to be given away to others, just as we ourselves have been given grace II Corinthians 8:9-14 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness (ESV). Yet in addition to the grace to give, God gives the grace to enjoy every good and perfect gift He gives. When God gives us good gifts, as His children, we are to rejoice and celebrate the pleasures of His blessing.

However you have been blessed, take time to thank God for the blessing of salvation in His Son.

Out of darkness and into the Light

Out of darkness and into the Light
Romans 13:11-14
11Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
12The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (ESV)
We are to be living in the light not in darkness. We can only walk in the light when we put on the armor of light; we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we don't we are walking in darkness. Here are just a few ways to put on Christ everyday by reading His Word/Bible, studying His Word, prayer, fasting and getting alone with God.

I got up the other day and it was still dark outside. I did not want to wake up my wife, so I kept the lights turned off.. I grabbed my clothes and headed out the door. When I got into a light room I noticed I had on a dark blue tee-shirt instead of a black one under my shirt. The point is in the dark you cannot see what you are putting on. Also if you have ever been in a dark room, a little noise at the front door can be a scary thing. When you hear the same noise in the day time you notice it is just some cats at the front door, no big deal.

When we are not walking in the light of the Word of God, we can come up with some pretty weird things about what is good for us. We justify things that will make us satisfied. It does not matter if it is money, TV shows, movies, friends or even relationships. If we are not comparing all we do with Scripture we get off track, and what seems right is really sin, just like that tee-shirt I thought was black and it was not it was blue. Along with this thought, when we are not walking daily in the light of God's Word, small problems can seem huge and scary. We lose our bearings and our minds drift to the worst possible conclusion. When we are in the Word being lead by God's light we can see God's guidance and hand in all we do. The problems that seemed like they would over take us are seen as small compared to living with Christ and walking in the Light.

I encourage you to stop living in the darkness of the world, stop letting others that live in darkness influence you and your thoughts. Start putting on the armor of light, put on Christ daily start with prayer and studying His Word given to us so each of us can be a light shining in the dark world we are living in until our True Light comes and shines for all to see for eternity.

What is your treasure?

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness." Matthew 6:19-23

So the question I have for you is what is your treasure? Is it security, having a savings and retirement account. Is it safety, living in a nice neighborhood and driving new car that will not get you stuck in the twilight Zone. Is it love, love of your family and friends. How about stuff, flat screen TV, cable, cars, homes, clothing and anything else you think you need but don't. What is your treasure what would you die for?

That is a great question... you want to know because I know tons of people storing up money, homes, cars, and they are the things Christ tells us not to store up. But stop, you say, you have to be smart and God wants you to be smart and not foolish. Yes, but what is your treasure? What do you look at and dream about, what do you spend most of your time doing and thinking about? I am not saying not to have a retirement account, I am saying why spent 80 or 100 plus on cable TV and not on Bibles or helping out a pastor in a small church.

We are told what you look at will help determine your treasure, are you looking at Lost, Desperate House Wives and other TV shows more then spending time in the Bible? You need to unwind but why not let Christ unwind you and not the world "come to Me all you who are weary and tired"-Jesus. Lets make Him our number one treasure, and to do that you have to spend time (not just 5 min.) in the Bible, you have to meditate on what you study, you must spend time talking to our Lord and Master, you have to think about Him and His Word/Bible daily. Remember when you fell in love, or your baby was born... All you could do was talk, think, look at them... wow what a time, money, cars, savings, did not matter only that person. That is a treasure and that is how we are to be with God. we must give Him our eyes, our time, our commitment.

So I ask you again what is your treasure, what do you spend the most time looking at, dreaming about, wishing you had, what do you protect the most, is it stuff on earth or is it Him (God) and His Word (Bible)?

God’s Property

I Peter 2:9 ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His Own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.’ When I hear people talk about this verse they usually talk about the first three things we are when we trust Christ as our Lord our Master. The first three are great and that is true we are 1) chosen race (all Christians), 2) royal priesthood (now we can go directly to our Father in prayer), 3) holy nation (not USA remember we are exiles and sojourners here on earth our nation is not of this world). These three are great! I love them, but we forget about the fourth one 4) people for His Own possession. This is huge you are not your own person anymore, you have an owner and that owner can do with us anything He desires for His Own purposes. We are God’s possession.

All things that I own that I bought or made, I buy and make for a reason. We own things to help us out or to give us pleasure. Well, we are Gods possession. We are here for a reason and that reason is to proclaim the excellencies of God. That means all the time in bad times, in dark times, in great times you get the idea. It means at work, school, home, alone on the computer all of us that are chosen of God must proclaim the excellencies of God every place we go and all the time in how we talk, look and act. Why? Because He is God, because we are His possession, because He called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

This is hard to do in the world that we live in. However, it was harder to do in the time Peter wrote. These Christians may have faced death, would be treated as outcasts, they would have lost family, work and friends if they proclaimed the excellencies of Christ. Yes, it is hard, but we have to always remember who we are. We are a chosen race no longer Americans but Christians. We are a royal priesthood so we must all live like it and pray to our Father daily, study His Word/Bible, we must live out what we study and live not for ourselves and comfort but for God and His Name. We are a holy nation and we are not living in that nation yet, we are sojourners and exiles we are representatives of our heavenly nation and when people see us living for the comforts of this nation of this life we are terrible representatives. Above all we are God’s Own possession we do not belong to ourselves, all we have is His so lets act like it is all His. Then we will find truth joy.

A Word On Prayer...

'Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.' Colossians 4:2-6


Prayer is important, if we intend to L.L.J.L. (Live Like Jesus Lived & Love Like Jesus Loved). Prayer is vital to any follower of Christ, however if we are honest it is hard for us to do. Some thoughts that will help you in your prayer life as we pray. Start by getting into the Word/Bible, then pray (even in the middle of your Bible reading) using concentric circles (circles inside of each other).

John Piper said that it helps when praying to use the tool of concentric circles. For example, when praying, picture concentric circles in your mind. In the first circle, pray for own soul. Pray using the acronym I.O.U.S.. Incline my heart to God and His Word/Bible. Open my eyes that I might see wonderful things from His Word/Bible and that I would see Him. Unite my heart with what the Word/Bible says. Satisfy me with Himself. After pray for yourself, spend time in confession. Then move on to the second circle, pray for your wife/husband. Third move out in the circles and pray for your children and other family members including friends. Then move out and pray for the ministry’s your involved in, praying for workers and individuals as God brings them to mind. Keep moving out to the next circle and pray for your church and the staff, including the ministry’s that your church is involved in.

Can you imagine what might happen if we all prayed this way for each other and our church? Strategies are important, but they can never replace prayer. I think we would begin to see unbelievable spiritual growth in the lives of our church and staff and this would begin to move out through the congregation and into the community. You can put anything you want in the concentric circles – Church families, missionaries, and our country. etc. Maybe you already have a great prayer life, then keep it up. I just wanted to pass this tip on to you, it may be helpful in your walk with our Lord/Creator.

It would be helpful to memorize this verse:
Colossians. 4:12 "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured." another translation says "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God."

Here Paul told the Colossians that Epaphras always struggled on their behalf in prayer. He was praying for their spiritual growth. The word “struggle” means to fight for, to agonize over. It actually has behind it the meaning of praying for someone it such a way that the one praying can actually become physically sick. If someone were to ask you to describe your pray life with one word, what would that one word be? For most Christians, it probably wouldn’t be the word “struggle”. Anyway, let’s begin to struggle on each other’s behalf so they may Live Like Jesus Lived.

L.L.J.L.?

L.L.J.L.
What does L.L.J.L. mean? That is a great question. Let me explain, it is short and simple.

There are two meanings for L.L.J.L. the first is taken from I John 2:6 ‘whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.’ and I Peter 2:19-23 ‘For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.’ So the first meaning of L.L.J.L. is to Live Like Jesus Lived. This is not easy to do, if we really Live Like Jesus Lived making no exceptions or making excuses.

The second meaning of L.L.J.L. means Love Like Jesus Loves and is taken from John 13:34-35 ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."’ and Romans 5:8 ‘but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ Remember the context of John 13 the night Jesus is betrayed and handed over to die for our sins, Jesus washed the disciples feet. Here Jesus says He is giving us a new commandment not that the old is not good, but the new encompasses the old and then some, the old is in the new. He tells us to love each other as He loved. Remember Judas the betrayer was there and Jesus loved Judas as well even thou He knew what Judas was about to do. We are to love others so much that the world, those at our work our neighbors those at our schools will say wow there is something different about them.

In I John 4:11 ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ I John 4:21 ‘And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.’ I John 5:1-4 ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.’ here John being lead by the Holy Spirit/God tells us loving others is a command it is a must if we claim to be followers of Christ. In chapter 5 he tells us that by this we know that we love our Christian brothers and sisters when we love God and obey His commandments. Thus we must be in the Word/Bible daily in order to know God’s commandments and obey them. We must study diligently by observing the text, only then we can interpret accurately and thus apply what we studied to our lives. Only then can we L.L.J.L. Live Like Jesus Lived and Love Like Jesus Loves.