2012-11-23
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week at the behest of the Holy Spirit, I began writing about how Christ’s choices were driven by love. Were it not for Christ’s love, we would not have been the heirs of His obedience on the cross which gave us the chance to be saved. JN 14: 9b, 11, are Christ’s words on His own traits. “…Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father…I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.” In JN 15: 9, Christ states, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love.” Now, if we fast-forward to Christ’s time in the Garden of Gethsemane the night of His arrest, we have a practical demonstration of the nature and extent of Christ’s love. LK 22: 42, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will but Yours be done.” We all know that Christ suffered more than any man on earth ever has to take our sins to the cross, so that salvation could be opened to those who will hear and believe in Him and repent from their sins [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. I’m honor-bound to mention this amazing sacrificial act of atonement in every devotion I write. Nothing more significant to the Christian experience exists.
HE 4: 15, reminds us that Christ went through all the temptation and suffering that any person on earth ever does, so that He can relate to our plight as the targets of the devil’s fiery arrows tossed at us. We read the story of what happened with the impetuous Peter lopped off the ear of Herod’s servant, Malcus, in LK 22: 51. Christ touched the man’s ear, and he was healed. Comparing the friendship covenant between David and Jonathan with the Covenant of Grace helps us to see God at work in bringing us to where we are friends in a covenant relationship with Him [1 SAM 18: 3-4; 1 COR 11: 23-25; RO 5: 9-11].
After reviewing the above Scriptures, we must take time to look at ourselves to find out if we function driven by Christ-like love or not. We are told in RO 14: 13, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling blocks or obstacle in your brother’s way.” This is where the rubber meets the road. Since the only person I’m an expert on is myself, I will share from my life. I’ve mentioned my non-believer relative who pushes my buttons before. Christ is asking me personally to set an example for this relative that is like His. When the emotional hook to argue or say something mean is presented, I must not take it. This is tough to do! But I must not answer back in kind. When another detractor (also a non-believer) acts without God’s ethics, I must not respond in kind. Christ wants us to remain peaceful, non-combative (except when dealing with spiritual warfare), and unmoved to join in when temptation is present. Like all hard things to do, acting Christ-like is worthwhile and brings blessings. Sometimes we must wait longer than we would like for those blessings, but our Lord knows exactly the right time to bestow them.
We must remember that our Lord Jesus became like a man, taking on all the temptations, dysfunction, and other challenges that mankind faces. JN 1: 1-4, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” This job of redemption with which God charged His Son was no accident. 1 PET 1: 20-21, “He [Christ] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” I like to think of this as the “pre-creation council” meeting with the Father making the decision to charge the Son with the job of redemption, and the Holy Spirit being the Lord’s mouth-piece to us individually. Now look at JN 10: 30, Christ’s words, so there can be no question Who He is. “I and the Father are one.” Christ makes it clear that sacrificial acts are acts of love when we are in union with Him. Sacrificial love is what Christ is all about! JN 10: 38, is Christ’s answer to Jews who questioned Him. “But if I do it [what My Father does] even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and that I am in the Father.”
Our Lord, like David and Jonathan did, swapped robes with us. HE 2: 9-11, “But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for Whom and through Whom everything exists, should make the Author of our salvation perfect through suffering. Both the One Who makes them holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” I’m hoping you are finding this as huge a blessing as I do. We need to look at our own thoughts about this and see how we are shaping up to the great example of love our covenant Partner sets for us.
PRAYER: O Lord, with heads bowed in utter reverence, we come before You this morning. We are willing to look to God’s word for a better understanding of the sacrificial love that goes into Your covenant relationship with us. I am reminded to cite COL 3: 9-10 as an example of this. “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” You, our loving Lord, sacrifice Your time and energy to work on us to renew us in Your image and to help us know the Father (and thus, You) better. What a great blessing this is to us, as we are gradually shucking off the habit of letting the evil one drive us through our natural fleshly desires. He is angry, because he knows he has a time which You purposely limited [REV 12: 12]. You offer us Your protection and direction, Your provision and blessing. PS 139: 5, “You are all around us on every side; You protect us with Your power.” We can pray to You for wisdom and discernment, knowing that You are listening and willing to share it [PS 51: 6; PS 119: 125]. We know that we need to practice and practice again, learning how to look for Your activity in our lives and understanding the sacrificial love that goes behind it. We ask for Your help in elucidating the sinfulness that keeps us from doing this. Once we know what our blockages are, we ask You to give us the strength, stay-power, and knowledge to expunge that sin from our lives. Thank You, Dear Abba, and we offer you our loyalty, love, and heartfelt praise for all You are and all You do in our lives. We thank You for the example You set for us, and the drive to work toward it. In Christ’s holy/mighty name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led to continue writing on how Christ’s choices are driven by love. We’ll look at how He destroys the fear of death and how He gave up His free will to become incarnate, becoming a man. If this sounds supernatural, it is. But it was the Father’s will that Christ should take on the suffering and challenges of being a human, while at the same time being divine. No other being has ever done that, except our Lord Jesus. Trying to list all the things that our Lord has done for me is something hard to do, because there are so many. How about you? Have you ever tried to do this? As I reach the last third of my life, I can look back and see that He has been there the whole time. When I think that I didn’t know this for the first 25 years of my life, I’m ashamed, but I also know this was the Father’s will for His own reasons. Perhaps, I can say that everything from my past was in preparation for what I am doing in service to Him today. Is your life like that too? PHIL 4: 6-7, 13 gives us encouragement to find the Lord’s will for ourselves and to fulfill it. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends human understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus…I can do everything through Him Who gives me strength.” We can be reminded of the challenge God has given us and the promise of help as well, in JS 1: 8-9, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. The you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” He never abandons us, and He wants us to rely on Him. Learning to place our trust in Him isn’t easy, but it sure is wise! Praise and thanks to our loving Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24:15
© Lynn Johnson 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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