Tag Archives: love

The Power Of Love

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THE POWER OF LOVE

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ Again Jesus said, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ The third time He said to him, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.’ “John 21:15-17.

This was not Peter’s first encounter with Jesus after the resurrection. He had seen Him in the Upper Room on the morning of His resurrection. He had been there a week later when Jesus reassured Thomas that He was really alive.

I think that Peter did not doubt that Jesus had forgiven Him. He did not take off and commit suicide like Judas had done. He knew his Master well enough to know that He would forgive him for his failure. After all, hadn’t Jesus answered his question about forgiveness, ‘Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother for the same sin against me?’

So what was this encounter all about? It was not about forgiving Peter; it was about Peter’s future. How did he stand with Jesus with regards to his calling? Would Jesus trust him enough to count him among His disciples or must he step down and go back to his fishing? What were the thoughts that were running through his head when he saw his Master cooking breakfast on the beach?

There was significance even in that simple action. Jesus was inviting His disciples, all of them present there because they had all deserted Him at the critical moment, to a fellowship meal. Eating together meant relationship – reconciliation – nothing to disturb their togetherness. And Peter was also invited. They were all in it together; failure and restoration.

But Peter needed to have his nagging insecurity settled once and for all, and Jesus knew it. Would He put Peter through a period of probation, a time to rebuild trust in him?  Would He suspend him from service for season so that Peter could be “rehabilitated”? Would He demote him to a lesser status, a sort of “tea boy” for the others?

Peter was shocked at Jesus’ question; not “Why did you do it?” or “What do you think I should do with you?” but “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Three times the same question! It was not what he had expected. Perhaps he would have felt better had Jesus given him a good dressing down and suspended for a while. After all, he was guilty and he needed to be punished, but “Do you love me?”

What was Jesus doing? He was redirecting Peter to the core of his future ministry. Nothing but love for his Master would steady him in the days to come when all hell would break loose against him. He would need the same power of love that held Jesus steadfast to Him mission in the face of hatred, antagonism and opposition – the power of love – to keep him loyal to his Master even in the face of a brutal death. It was Jesus’ love for the Father that kept Him true to His commission, and so it would have to be for Peter.

An invisible bond as strong as a spider’s silk, held Father and Son together through every human experience Jesus had to endure. Now it was Peter’s turn to learn the power of that love. Not even love for the sheep would hold him – only the power of Jesus’ love flowing back to Him through Peter.

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

“Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.” Song of Solomon 8:7.

So sang the beloved of her lover, and this is the love that Jesus had for Peter. “Peter, my love for you is as strong as death, burning like an unquenchable fire. Peter, do you love me?”

No amount of discipline or rehabilitation will hold our hearts to Jesus when we fall – only the love that holds us in an unbreakable bond. That alone is the foundation of our calling. “Do you love me? Then take care of my sheep.”

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

In The Nick Of Time!

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IN THE NICK OF TIME!

“You see, just at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will one die for a righteous person, though for a good person one might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him.” Romans 5:6-9.

Can one person die for another? Of course! On many occasions all over the world, people have given their lives to save another.

So what was Paul saying? Was Jesus’ death any different? In what way did He give His life to save others? There was no emergency or crisis where He intervened to put His life on the line to rescue someone in danger.

There is a much greater parallel between one human being giving his life to save another and Jesus laying down His life to save us. It is one thing to rescue someone from physical death and quite another to save the whole human race from spiritual death. No human being can do that, but Jesus could because He was a sinless offering in the place of sinners.

Jesus’ death was the greatest demonstration of God’s love that He could ever have given. It’s one thing to say, “I love you,” and another to show it by giving the life of the dearest person in all the world to you. And even more powerful is that gift when it is given to rescue those who have spat in your face, waved their fist at you and shouted, “Leave me alone! I hate you and I want nothing to do with you!”

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him by the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:10, 11.

Jesus’ death achieved much, much more than just the forgiveness of our sins and a place in heaven when we die. That was just the beginning. We were God’s enemies! Imagine being an enemy of God! What hope do we have against Him when He has all the power, all the resources and all the armies of heaven at His disposal to defeat and destroy us? What chance do we have to escape His righeous anger when we have defied Him and broken His holy law.

God saw our pitiful plight and sent His Son to take our place under His judgment so that He could reconcile us to Himself. Forgiveness…reconciliation…two of the many results of what the Jewish leaders and the Romans did to Jesus that day.

But there is more! We have been forgiven and reconciled while we were still God’s enemies. Paul put it this way: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away havve been brought near by the blood of Jesus.” Ephesians 2:13.

God has changed our status from enemies to sons. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1a.

And there’s more! Not only have we been saved from God’s wrath by His death, we have also been saved to a new life by His life. Since Jesus is alive, His life has made it possible for us to live a new kind of life – not the old way of rebellion and disobedience, but a new way of life lived in submission and obedience to our heavenly Father under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.

But why should we? What was wrong with our old way of live? Rebellion against God and disobedience to His way brings the disintegration of our lives, both physical and spiritual, the wasting of our potential and the inevitable result of living worthless lives – the rubbish heap! Jesus saved us from that and set our feet on a path back to restoration – the restoration of what God created us to be, sons and daughters made in His image to live for His glory.

And who would not want to brag on God about that!

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A River Of Consequences

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A RIVER OF CONSEQUENCES

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5.

It had happened. We have been justified. It is a cut-and-dried fact!

But justification releases a river of consequences. The first one is peace with God. The war is over. God and man have been reconciled. God and we have “smoked the peace pipe” and there is no longer any reason for Him to be at odds with us. The solid ground of peace with God is that the reason for the war has been removed. Where once the broken law was the issue, it no longer exists. Jesus has satisfied God’s holy standards by living a perfect life and then doing away with the law as a standard of judgment.

Jesus has become God’s standard of judgment and, because we are now “in Him” through faith in Him, we wear His righteousness as a covering for our sin. Justification, and the peace with God which follows, is our legal standing before Him. We can approach Him without fear, look Him in the face and receive His smile of approval because there is nothing left to condemn or separate us from Him.

Through Jesus, we have been given access into God’s grace – all His resources of love, strength and enabling that we need to live our lives in and for Him. We have a standing in grace – we are surrounded with His favour as David experienced:

“Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with favour as with a shield.” Psalm 5:12.

Another consequence flows from justification – the hope of the glory of God. What does this mean? When Adam sinned, the whole human race was plunged into darkness – selfish and self-centred living that brought chaos and conflict into the world because everyone was looking out for number one. Jesus died in our place, not only to deal with our sin but with our sinfulness as well. That means that, through the power of the Holy Spirit we are being and will be restored to God’s original intention, to be replicas of Him in our nature and behaviour.

But how does that happen? Strangely enough, the very hardships we experience, which we so often use to accuse God of not loving us, or of punishing us for something we have done wrong (which cannot be because God has already punished Jesus for all sin, ours and everyone else’s), are God’s way of knocking off the rough edges so that we begin to understand and share in the hardships of others instead of being self-absorbed and self-centred.

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? …They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:7; 9-11.

Three more consequences flow from our training to reflect God’s glory: perseverance, character, hope. Have you ever noticed how God’s children who have suffered much have been mellowed by it and are full of hope for their future in the life to come? Paul says, “Revel in it! There are indescribably great things up ahead.”

These consequences go full circle – they begin with God’s great love for us and they work in us until God’s love is poured through us to touch the lives of others who, in turn, follow the same pattern, over and over again and on and on. Justified; peace; grace; perseverance; character; hope; love. And it all flows out of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Love So Amazing!

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LOVE SO AMAZING! 

“‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“‘Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me.

‘”I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.'” John 7:24-26 NIV.

This beautiful, intimate communication between the Son and His Father breathes the atmosphere of tender love. After a physical and geographical separation from Him of thirty three years, Jesus’ taste of living as a human being in time and space, He was on the brink of experiencing the worst that a human being could ever suffer. It was the necessary gateway to His return to His beloved Father to take His place once again with the Father in the eternal realm.

A new position awaited Him if He completed His mission — to reveal the greatest measure of the Father’s love for His fallen world by being obedient to death, even death on a cross. He would be exalted to the highest place and given the highest name in all the universe. He would be elevated to king, ruling over everything, and head of the church, His body, the composite woman who was destined to be His bride when the universe was restored to its original perfection.

Jesus had spent three years imparting to this group of men whom the Father had given Him, the nature of the Father and the enormity of His love for His human race by teaching and showing them what the Father is like and wooing them back to intimacy with Himself so that they would understand how much the Father loved them and desired their love in return.

He had done what He could and finished the task, sowing the seeds of the words God had given Him into His disciples in the confidence that, when He had returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit would continue the work of nurturing in them the knowledge of the truth.

It was time to go. In one last expression of desire, He poured out His soul to His Abba. So precious had these men become to Him that He wanted them to be as close as they could ever be to Him, with Him, by His side so that they could gaze on His glory, the glory He shared with the Father before the beginning of time.

Yes, they had been with Him on earth, listening, watching and marvelling at a human being so different from all other humans that it took every effort of His to teach them that He was truly the Son of God. But this was only preparation for what was yet to come, something so otherworldly that the Apostle Paul could only declare, “No eye has seen, no ear had heard…” No imagination could stretch to embrace so glorious a being whom they were yet to see.

So deep was His love for them that He wanted to share it all, not only His place in eternity with the Father but the environment of love so pure and so all-embracing that He would give them not only His love and the love of the Father but His very position of power and authority in His universe — His throne. To be “in Him” is to be in everything He is and share in everything He owns.

Who can fathom the mystery of being “in Christ”? Through His Spirit we are in such intimate union with Him that our spirits have been fused to His Spirit, inseparably joined to Him so that we have become one. This does not mean that we have become gods! Nowhere in God’s word does He even suggest such nonsense. No, He has restored us to the place of oneness with Him that He created in His first human pair.

It was God’s intention that Jesus, through His death on the cross, would reconcile all things to Himself — “For God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” Colossians1:19, 20 NIV restoring perfect harmony in the universe, the environment He prepared as a home for His children.

The Keys To Real Life

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THE KEYS TO REAL LIFE 

“‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.’

Then Judas (not Iscariot) said, ‘But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.'” John 14:18-24 NIV.

We are dealing with a fairly long passage of Scripture today, but it is important that we look at the whole piece because there are some very important teachings in it.

It was difficult for the disciples to make the transition from the seen to the unseen. As Jews they understood abstract ideas through action. Take, for example, the word “holy” meaning items that are set aside for a special purpose. The Hebrew verb is qadash and the nouns derived from it are qodesh and qadosh.

“‘Do not come any closer,’ God said.’Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing in holy (qodesh) ground (ground set aside for a special purpose). Exodus 3:5.

“When these words are translated as “holy”, the original Hebraic meaning is removed and replaced with an abstract word that conveys the idea of pious, perfect or sinless. But the Hebraic concept of these words is about the position of a person or object and does not necessarily have to be a “holy” position.” The Living Words Volume 1, Jeff A Benner, Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc, 2007, page 84, article “Holy”.

One can understand why it puzzled them that Jesus was talking about “going away” and “showing Himself” to them but not to the world. They did not realise that He was speaking about living in another realm in which they could be “in the world but not of the world.”

This realm into which, from Jesus’ perspective, they had already entered although they did not yet fully understand it, was entered through recognizing who He was and entered into by faith in Him. Hence Jesus’ insistence that they believe in Him, without which faith they could never experience what He was talking about.

But faith in and of itself was not enough to embrace the fullness of the life Jesus had come to give them. Without a passionate love for Him, faith was sterile and would not issue in the kind of obedience that was more than mere compliance with what Jesus “commanded”. He spoke of a union with Himself and with the Father that was so close that it produced a spontaneous obedience out of submission to Him and the Father that did not question or resist but simply flowed with the will of God in perfect harmony.

What I find significant in this passage is that Jesus spoke of this union and obedience as though it were already a reality in their lives. They were still to enter into greater measures of its fullness but they already had the life of God in them because they believed in Him, and their love for Him was real and growing. They had developed a dependence upon Him that would be shaken by the whole cross event but would be rekindled as they learned to relate to the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ “other self”.

It was important that they realise that they were to see themselves as sons of God and not as orphans! How important this is in the life of every believer because the “orphan heart” robs us of everything we have in Christ and neutralises our effectiveness as His representatives of the kingdom of God. As orphans we have no sense of belonging, no inheritance and we live like slaves in the fear of punishment.

Only as we recognise and embrace our sonship can we live in the power, authority and resources of our position, and experience the perfect love of God that drives out fear and can respond with faith and love that enable us to appropriate all that we are and have “in Christ”..

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1a NIV.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18 NIV.