Daily Archives: February 20, 2014

GREATEST LOVE

Christian life

T here is a chorus that we sang from time to time, and its words went some-thing like this “It’s love, it’s love, it’s love that makes the world go round. So pass it on so pass it on to every one, so pass it on so pass it on to every one. It’s love that makes the world go round.” Yet this is one of the most important commodities that our society lacks today. Far too often children become casualties as a re-sult of loveless marriages. A young girl was asked during a counseling session who showed her the greatest love in her home. Her reply was “MY DOG” The problem with many folk is that they have never ever experi-enced the love of GOD. They have never understood or accepted the fact that God redeemed mankind through His perfect love. So what I am about to write is a true reflection of God’s word.
Firstly we see that God’s love is a divine love John 15: 9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”
Then we see that God’s love is a sacrificial love. John 15: 13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This is exactly what Jesus did for us. When Jesus stood in Pilot’s judgment hall, He saved us from standing in God’s judgment hall, because He considered us to be His friends.
God’s love is also a constraining love. 2nd Cor. 5: 14 “Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live.” What more can we say? Except that Jesus became our mediator. When He stood in the gap between God and man and justified us through the shedding of His precious blood, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. His redemptive power made it possible for us to become the “HEIRS OF SALVATION” Hallelujah what a Saviour.

“It is finished” were the last words Jesus spoke as He hung on the cross.

LOVED UP

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

I was deeply moved by the video presentation we watched recently which was shown by our visitors from the Gideons. The story line: a lady on a pathway to hell, reads a Gideons bible in her hotel room, gives her life to Jesus, goes to perform at her sched-uled nightclub, finds herself “loving eve-ryone in the room”, tells everyone there what Jesus has done for them, gets fired, goes to a friend, ends up with her entire family now serving God. Really WOW stuff!

What struck me was the fact that she battled to understand at the time after giving her life to Jesus, that she “loved everyone”. Isn’t this just so true? It is very difficult for us not to “love everyone”. It may be that we are angry with someone for a time, but it doesn’t last too long and for-giveness flows as love pours out. Jesus did say it would be like this in John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Rome, said: “…God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5). You see, it’s just not possible not to love IF we are true followers of Jesus Christ. This is kind of a catch 22 situation. It al-most seems “unfair”. When someone is really different from us, when we are treated unjustly, when we desperately want to go in for the kill, WHOOSH, an-other wave of love goes surging through us and spoils our opportunity to really get the knives in. Our flesh cries out to get revenge and our spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit, spoils it all with this love stuff.

John (1 John 3:14) actually links our ability to love to our salvation, and says quite categorically that “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” Yes, I know, some-times it does seem highly impos-sible to love some people, but when this happens, I always remind myself that God has been there and done that en-tirely successfully. Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He died for me, the unlovable, sinful, selfish one, long before He cleaned me up. Therefore it frees me to allow Him to do the same to others through me.

Whoop! Whoop!

Paul

And Now I See

Bible Study, , ,

AND NOW I SEE 

“How, then, were your eyes opened?’ they asked. He replied, ‘The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.’

“‘Where is the man?’ they asked him. ‘I don’t know,” he said.” John 9:10-12 NIV.

This sounds like a far-fetched story! “A man put mud on my eyes, told me to go and wash it off, and then I could see.” That is not only unbelievable; it’s also un-believable. Whoever heard of that! It could have been a fabricated story except for one thing — the blind man was no longer blind and there was no explanation for the miracle.

The poor guy was in for a grilling and he didn’t even know who the man was who had healed him except that His name was Jesus.

“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.  Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. ‘He put mud on my eyes,’ he replied, ‘and I washed, and now I see.’

“Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.’

But others asked, ‘How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?’ So they were divided.” John 9:13-16 NIV.

At least there were some people who had the good sense to look at the evidence! The Pharisees were at it again — Jesus was an evil-doer because He did not adhere to their Sabbath rules. But they missed the spirit of the Sabbath — for them it was about not doing the wrong things. It was not about doing the right things.

This is exactly where Jesus and the religious Jews parted company. They were sticklers for keeping the rules. Jesus focussed on meeting people’s needs. They accused Him of being a rule-breaker because He “worked” on the Sabbath according to their definition of “work”. For Him is was the right thing to do to set a blind man free from his prison on the Sabbath.

How tragic that so much of the church’s understanding of “righteousness” has become like the Pharisees’ rule-keeping ritual! We have our evangelical Ten Commandments or the equivalent. We are righteous as long as we do certain things and avoid doing other things. Unfortunately we also tend to judge other believers according to our standards of right and wrong.

Interesting, isn’t it, that Jesus had much more to say to people who failed to meet the needs of others than He did to the “sinners” He hobnobbed with to the disgust of the religious ones.  He had no word of condemnation for the Samaritan woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery. Quite the opposite! He was gentle and merciful towards them, but He had a lot to say to the religious hypocrites who covered up their greedy and wicked hearts with religious performance.

“‘The multitude of your sacrifices — what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have had more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats…

“‘When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if your offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight!  Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.'” Isaiah 1:11; 15-17 NIV.

Perhaps the church would once again make an impact on the world as it did in the first century if it set aside its religious performances and went back to the simplicity of Jesus’ invitation, ‘Follow me.’