Tag Archives: God’s love

THE ORCHID, MY TEACHER

Christian Life, ,

Orchids are unique tropical rainforest plants, growing in wild profusion on and under the protection of trees. They can adapt and grow, but very slowly, as proud house plants, given the correct environment, treatment, and care.

I know, because I have killed a few through my own ‘wisdom’ and mismanagement. When my umpteenth orchid looked like it was also on the way out, I decided to seek expert help from YouTube. After doing the right thing, to my amazement and joy, my only dying plant began to show signs of life again. Two new roots emerged from the rootless stem, new leaves grew and my orchid bloomed again.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, another birthday gift died which, in my ignorance I discarded, not knowing the resurrection power of this marvellous beauty.

My success at rejuvenating my last hope awakened in me a love for orchids and a desire to be an orchid ICU. From this experience, and the wisdom of experts, I now have five orchids, growing in water, their native environment, four with new flower spikes and one showing signs of new plant growth under its topmost leaf.

Cultivating orchids has taught me much about the Christian life. I have a friend who gave up on her orchids because they “grow too slowly”, she said. She likes plants that grow, bloom, and die in one season.

Like believers in Jesus, orchids must first develop a strong and vigorous root system. Their growing medium profoundly influences their production of roots. If they are planted in a medium too dense to aerate the roots, they will die. Too much water rots the roots, too little causes them to dehydrate and shrivel up, inhibiting them from taking in the moisture and nutrients that will sustain them and promote healthy leaf growth.

Believers also need a strong, healthy root system. We cannot expect baby believers to produce the fruit of maturity without roots. Rootless believers soon die. The toxic world around them neutralises their faith in God when trials and tests come. They need to be taught, fed, and nurtured to become established in their faith.

How and where do we grow our roots?

Like the orchid, we need spiritual air, moisture, and nutrients. We get these from the growing medium in which we are planted, God’s Word. This is not about our physical environment or circumstances, but rather about the air and environment in which our spirits can grow and flourish.

New ‘babies’ in Christ need to learn to live in the ‘atmosphere’ of the Holy Spirit. They need to know that He is in them, like a mother, providing everything they need for healthy growth. He is their ‘Paracletos’… their Helper, Guide, Teacher, and Counsellor.

They need to learn how to ‘walk’ by the Spirit…

‭Galatians 5:16a NLT‬
[16] “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives…”

… and be led by the Spirit…

‭Romans 8:14 NLT‬
[14] “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

…to avoid and overcome the spiritual diseases that threaten their lives.

Galarians 5:16b NLT
“…Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.”

Learning to live in the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit in the growth medium of the Word is a long, slow, ongoing, lifetime experience. Like the orchid, we need, constantly, to live in this ‘air of heaven’ to promote healthy growth.

Root growth needs a growing medium that is loose enough to aerate, yet strong enough to support the plant and of material that will hold moisture and nutrients without rotting the roots. Either pine bark or moss are the materials of choice. Growing them in water is a whole new ballgame.

Believers also need to grow their roots in the appropriate medium. What are our roots and where do they grow?

Matthew 4:4 NLT
[4] “But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

We derive the nutrients that feed our spirits from the Word of God.

‭Colossians 2:6-7 NLT‬
[6] “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. [7] Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Very simply, our roots are faith, and our growing medium is God’s love revealed in Jesus, and the process is growing trust so strong that nothing can shift the believer from confidence in God’s love.

‭John 15:9-10 NLT‬
[9] “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. [10] When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”

‭John 15:5 NLT‬
[5] “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

‭Ephesians 3:16-17 NLT‬
[16″I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. [17] Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”

He is our ‘bread from heaven’ and our ‘fountain of living water’. We will keep growing as we ‘eat and drink’ from His life on earth and His life in us as we feed on His Word.

‭John 6:33, 35 NLT‬
[33] “The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”..
[35] Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

‭John 7:37-38 NLT‬
[37]” On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! [38] Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

‭John 4:13-14 NLT‬
[13] “Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. [14] But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

With a strong, healthy root system, the orchid begins to grow the leaves that gather sunlight to mature the plant. The fully-developed orchid will eventually produce beautiful blooms that reveal its nature, a fragment of creation that brings glory to its Creator.

And so with every believer who faithfully follows the procedure that will glorify the Lord by producing the blooms and fruit which reveal the nature of who we are. Strong, healthy roots are the key to the cultivation of a mature, fruitful life in Christ Jesus.

ROOTED IN GOD’S LOVE – 8b

Bible Study, ,

Colossians 2:6-7 NLT‬
[6] “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. [7] Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

We cannot leave this topic without considering a vital aspect of our knowledge and experience of God’s love.

In Jesus’ letter to the Ephesian church, He had an issue with the very people to whom Paul wrote his letter.
It seems that these people had slipped away from the root of their service and ministry. They were just doing things without the pure motive of love for Jesus.

‭Revelation 2:1-4 NLT‬
[1] “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:
[2] I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. [3] You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
[4] Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.“

“First love”… what is the implication here? We must look elsewhere for its meaning. Does “first love” mean the love these believers had for Jesus when they first believed, or does it mean something else?

John’s first letter throws light on what the Bible means by “first love”.

‭‭1 John 4:10, 19 NIV‬
[10] “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins….
[19] We love because he first loved us.”

“First love”, then, refers to the one who first did the loving!

How important that we understand this principle! Our love for God has its roots in His love for us, not the other way around. Our love for God is our response to the love which gave His only Son as an atoning sacrifice for us.

Without a root, the fruit of our love for God will wither and die.

The Ephesian Church had abandoned, let go, sent away (Greek word ‘aphiemi’) the love they had in the beginning of their relationship with Jesus. They had forgotten how great God’s love was for them. They were acting mechanically, not dynamically, out of duty, not love.

How did Jesus restore Peter after his tragic denial of his relationship with his Master? Not “Peter, why did you deny me?” or “I’m putting you on probation until you prove your loyalty to me!”

‭John 21:15 NIV‬
[15] 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.”

Three times, Peter denied Jesus. Three times, Peter reaffirmed his love for Jesus. Restoration accomplished! Would Peter ever forget that moment on the beach?

Repeatedly, the Bible reminds us that our love for Jesus must be rooted in His love for us. Only then will we remain steadfast through all the tests and trials we face on our journey towards eternity. We can only remain rooted in the love of God if we constantly cultivate an awareness of that love in every circumstance.

‭John 15:5-6, 9-10 NIV‬
[5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned….
[9] “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. [10] If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

If the love of God, shown so vividly to us in what Jesus did for us, is not the root of our love for Him, whatever we do for Him will be nothing but empty and fruitless, fit only for the fire.

So, Paul prays, in response to the revelation of God’s great and cosmic plan of salvation…

‭Ephesians 3:14-19 NLT‬
[14] “When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, [15] the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. [16] I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. [17] Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. [18] And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. [19] May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

When I think about my own past, and the many” good works” I’ve done that were nothing but worthless and empty actions, without love for Jesus, what can I do about them?

I see a mental picture of myself walking barefoot along a sandy road. Someone walks behind with a leafy branch in his hand, obliterating my footsteps as I walk. That’s God’s mercy! He blots out all my failures and doesn’t remember them.

‭1 John 1:7 NLT‬
[7] “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

What can I do to remain constantly, in Jesus’ love?

‭Jude 1:20-21 NLT‬
[20] “But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, [21] and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.”

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – RELIGIOUS FRAUDS

Bible Study, ,

RELIGIOUS FRAUDS

“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God’s love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable but basics are required.” Luke 11:42.

Jesus’ perspective on what is important to God is very different from ours. Every man-made religion considers what we do more important than what we are. The gods of human imagination always require rule-keeping and rituals as the way to gain the god’s favour and get what we want.

Does it really matter who or what we worship as long as we worship something? It is in the basic nature of humans to worship and to pray. We are incomplete without allegiance to a higher power. To many people, sincerity is the most important ingredient in our worship. “It doesn’t matter who you worship, as long as you are sincere.” they say.

This is flawed thinking because every action in life has consequences. It does matter who or what we worship because we become like the thing we worship. What we embrace as the source of our life, we embrace as what we value and where we end.

The tragedy about the gods of human imagination is that they inevitably reflect the worst of human nature; cruel, heartless, demanding, unpredictable and unstable. Worst of all is that they do not exist but are the deception of demons to entice us to worship Satan.

Whether people bow down to idols of wood or stone or some invisible ‘god’ some human being told them to worship, the outcome is the same – behaviour that says one thing but hearts that are still rotten to the core.

What is God’s remedy for this terrible dead end? A heart transplant. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you…” Ezekiel 36:26,27a (NIV). Can God make good on His word? Yes! The evidence of a changed heart is a changed disposition.

Jesus’ quarrel with the Pharisees was that their religion was a cover-up for greed and wickedness and the people thought they were ‘holy’! They lived double lives, hypocrites playing to the crowd, but underneath they were worse than the tax-collectors, prostitutes and ‘sinners’ whom they despised.

Jesus was more comfortable with the outcasts because they had no reason to pretend. God cannot do anything for ‘holy’ people, those whose religious cloak keeps Him out. He is near to those who know they cannot pretend with Him. He can change the hearts of those who know their need but He can do nothing for those who think they are okay.

No matter what the barrier is between us and the only true God, only one thing will give us access to Him – to admit that we were deceived and to believe what He says.