Discovering His Love

 

“And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.

So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face

him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.”

I John 4:17 (NLT)

 

Who wants a more perfect love growing in their lives?

We find the answer to how that can happen in the same verse that offers the promise.

We are told to “…live in God…” and to “…live like Jesus…”.

That’s easy enough, right?

Actually, it is impossible apart from abiding in Christ and being filled

with the Holy Spirit.

We were challenged a while back to spend some time each day discovering God’s love for us.

Discovery is an active process.

I set about to ‘find out’ something.

“Columbus sailed the ocean blue;

in fourteen hundred ninety two...”

Remember that little ditty from grade school?

Columbus “set out to find” something – a new trade route – and in the process discovered a “new world” and a “round globe”!

Are you setting out to “find” Gods’ love today?

Are you being intentional and active in discovering how much and in what ways His love is demonstrated to you?

When I abide in Christ, when I am filled with His Spirit the blessing of His love are abundant and evident; but I must make them appreciated.

As I acknowledge His care, His provision, His love for me there is a peace and confidence that comes to me so that I am no longer afraid of that Judgment Day we all will face.

I am growing perfect in His love and we are told that perfect love casts out all fear!

Are you actively discovering His love for you?

Are you finding out each and every day how much you are loved?

Is that love growing and being perfected in you?

Live in God.

Live Like Jesus.

Abide in Him.

Be filled with His Spirit.

There is a Harvest to Bring In

 

“After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:9-11

Most of us resist change.

Human nature being what it is I cannot imagine these disciples were any different.

Jesus was with them.

Then he was crucified and they thought they would never see him again.

Then Lo and behold, He was with them again for another 40 days following His resurrection.

Then, once again, He was going away.

Their heads must have been spinning.

I can kind of understand why they would stare into the sky as He disappeared.

But their intent gaze was broken by two angels with a forward looking message.

It would have been easy to stand and reminisce, wishing for the ‘good old days’ when Jesus was turning water into wine, healing the blind and raising the dead.

Had you and me been there we likely would have felt the same.   

But Jesus’ last words sent them back to Jerusalem to wait for the promised Holy Spirit.

When they received Him, the real work of the Great Commission was to begin.

That Commission still stands today for you and me.

We have work to do.

We do indeed look forward to the return of Jesus but we do it with our hand on the plow.

There is a harvest to bring in!

Share Your Talents

 

“In my former book, Theophilus,

I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach...”

Acts 1:1

Luke was the writer of the Book of Acts as well as the Gospel that bears his name.  

He was also a physician.

Luke was a detail person as evidenced by his writings.  

We have much to thank him for because of the record he left us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

There can be inspiration from the same Holy Spirit on your gifting as well when you use it to bring a lasting impact for the Kingdom of God just as Luke’s was.

Are you a musician?

Surrender your talents to God.

How about an artist, dancer, business person or teacher?

Whatever God has given to you in talents, skills and abilities you can give back to Him for His use.

Anything you place in the hands of God will be blessed beyond measure.

Perhaps you are reading this and thinking to yourself:

“What do I have?”

“I don’t have any talents, skills or abilities to give to God.”

I assure you, you do.

And if it is not obvious to you, go to God in prayer and ask Him to reveal them to you and how He wants to use them to advance His Kingdom.

I promise you that is a prayer He delights to answer!

 

Share the Kingdom

 

“After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them over a period of forty days and

spoke about the kingdom of God.”

Acts 1:3

Likely no human has endured the horrific pain and suffering that Jesus did up to and during His crucifixion.

He was with His disciples, as detailed above, for over forty days following His resurrection.

He had plenty of time to throw a pity party.

Nowhere is it recorded or even hinted that Jesus complained about all that He suffered.

We would certainly be howling and lamenting to everyone we came across how terribly we had suffered.

Not Jesus.

We are told He spent that time telling his followers about the Kingdom of God.

The Word made flesh knew how to redeem the time.

Though no human had experienced what Jesus had, He remained steadfast in declaring the Kingdom of God.

He was looking forward to the promised Holy Spirit being sent by His Father to the 120 gathered in that upper room.

He was looking forward to the untold numbers to receive that promise in the days and years following.

He was looking forward, with joy, to the day you received the Holy Spirit promise from the Father.

Now it is our turn to turn away from any complaints, pity parties or the like.

He showed us what to do.

Share the Kingdom with others!

 

 

Life-Giving Power

 

“In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground,

but the men said to them,

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here; he has risen!

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:”

Luke 24:5-6

 

Some questions posed in scripture may not be as thought provoking as others.

But I cannot think of many like this one: 

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

That should cause us to pause and think – “What am I chasing after in life?”

It is a question as relevant today as it was the day it was asked of the woman headed to Jesus’ tomb with the spices they had prepared.

Indeed, He was no longer in the grave.

But so many today seek life from dead and formal religion.

It has about as much life in it as an empty container.

That is exactly what the woman found that morning.

An empty container, an unoccupied tomb!

 Jesus, whom they loved, was indeed risen.

The promise made was a promise kept.

One would expect nothing less from the Almighty One.

Today, the morning after the celebration, remember that that same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.

Life-giving power in you to advance the Kingdom of God;

what will you do with it today?

Make it Personal

 

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Colossians 2:15

There is an older song we used to sing that included these words:

“Something Beautiful

Something good

All my confusion you understood

All I had to offer you was brokenness and strife

But you made something beautiful out of my life”

 

Bringing it more up-to-date is a song we currently sing that says:

“You take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good.”

God is in the turnaround business!

Let me take you back now to the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and what we celebrate as Palm Sunday.

Was there a divine turn-around in Jesus’ life?

Well, we all know the answer to that.

Remember, prior to the resurrection the cross was in-between the two events of the Triumphal Entry and the Resurrection. 

The cross was not a mistake that required God to suddenly alter His plans.

It was all part of the plan.

There was no mystery in heaven that had to be quickly resolved.

Imagine a mystery writer who always reveled the whodunit on page one of his story?

How many books would he sell?

Not many.

If Jesus could send two disciples into a town with such specific instructions about His transportation in order to fulfill a prophetic word, how much more so did He understand what was ahead for Him in Jerusalem.

“Palm Sunday” would be followed by the greatest turn-around ever recorded in human history.

Jesus had to go to the cross.

But that was never a mystery to Him or to His Father.

We look now and can declare that indeed history has never before and will never again record a more vital, more necessary turn-around than what took place between the Triumphant Entry and Calvary and again between Calvary and Gethsemane.

But it was only a turn-around, a plot twist, a mystery to us.

To God it was a straight line plan and purpose.

The disciples without the benefit of hindsight might have called it tragic but it was truly anything but.

It was Gods’ triumph.  

God has a turnaround for you too if you need it.

He cares for the nations of the earth but He also cares for each individual as well. Remember He will leave the ninety and nine to go after the one in need of that turnaround.

He cares for you!

Understand that the God that brought countless divine turnarounds in the Bible is still the same—yesterday, today and forever.

His arm is not short and His promises are sure.

 

Turn, Turn, Turn

 

You turned my wailing into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

Psalm 30:11

 

The long pause between the Old and New Covenant – that time of Gods’ seeming silence; how many generations did that silence last?

Biblically speaking, it was about ten generations.

That would be like saying that God was moving and speaking in history in your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather’s generation and then nothing for 400 plus years.

But...then there was a turn-around!

It went from silence to the Word made flesh to dwell among us!

That was a turnaround well worth waiting for wasn’t it?

It certainly wasn’t a ‘suddenly’ as some turn-arounds can be

Still, it all happened in the perfect timing of God.

God doesn’t get stuck in a round-about!

He knows when and where to exit in the fullness of His timing.

Of course, the first miracle Jesus performed had a turnaround, didn’t it.

Water turned into wine!

How about the great midnight prison turn-around?

It came following a worship concert by Paul and Silas. The doors of the jail they were in flung open and those in captivity found themselves free.

How about the Damascus road turnaround?

Saul had a name change and more importantly a heart change. A blinding light and a voice turned Him around from Christian persecutor to one of the greatest men to have ever walked the earth.

All of these are examples of how God can move in your life to turnaround for good what the enemy planned for evil.

Doesn’t that make you want to shout – “God, you are worthy of all my praise!”