2013-10-11
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I posed an overarching question, which I didn’t answer. The question is: We all want unconditional love. Are we willing to give it? With this in mind, we need to consider this question and work our way toward a really honest answer to it. Thus, we set upon this path by examining how God can “transform us by the renewal of our mind” [RO 12: 2]. We first looked at our changing attitudes toward Him and other people. As we continue working toward our own answer to the big question, we need to look at behavior changes, our responses to our trials and relationships, outside interests, and choice of a circle of friends.
Once again, I’m only an expert on myself, not on others. So, my story will be used as an example of what God can do. Anyone reading my writing knows God has a “hard nut to crack” with me, because of the stubbornness, pride, impatience, and selfishness, which are hopefully, in my past. When we are young, we think we have all the answers. As we mature, we realize just how little we know. At times the immensity of God’s power, knowledge, and presence can feel overwhelming, but I’m convinced He doesn’t mean that to do anything to stop our forward progress in realizing just how much He loves us and we need Him. Stop and think about it. He tells us, in RO 14: 13, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.” If He is saying that to us, isn’t it illogical that He Himself would do that to us? Our God loves us and never abandons us. As early as DT 31: 6, Moses writes, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, because of them [our enemies], for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Instead He has entered into a covenant relationship with us, and has given His Son on the cross, so we can have reconciliation, peace, and salvation! [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]
God created us to belong to Him forever, however, Satan in the form of the serpent in the Garden of Eden got in the way of that. It happened in GN 3: 1-6 with the original sin. As we learn in the Protevangelium, GN 3: 15, “And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” This amazing verse lays out the entire story found in the Scriptures, even to the point of giving us the conclusion of it! Those following God and not Satan, will prevail, because Satan will be crushed. We’ll have plenty of pain and turmoil before that end, but God will have His way in the end. We must remember PS 46: 1 and IS 46: 9b-10, “God is our Refuge and Strength, an ever-present Help in times of need…I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” No other being than our God can truthfully speak such words.
Since we are created in God’s image [GN 1: 27], it would be wholly illogical that He would not love us, even to the point of laying Himself open to being vulnerable to suffering grievous disappointment in the face of so many people who are today rejecting Him. Our God is Trinitarian, i.e. one God with three personalities –the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While traditional Jews don’t really understand this, the Hebrew word Eloheim, is plural, and that’s the name for Him used in GN 2: 7, for example. Each of His personalities operates on the same page, teaches the same things, believes the same things. JN 14: 9, 11, [Christ speaking] “Anyone who has seem Me has seen the Father…Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is on Me…” As for the Holy Spirit, Christ says, in JN 14: 16-17a, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. God is truth, for there is no evil in Him [2 TIM 2: 13]. Thus, God’s three personalities would never work at cross-purposes.
When the Holy Spirit makes progress in this transformation of a human’s heart, big changes arise in his behavior and thought processes, his choices, his relationships, his outlook and responses to challenges/trials, his outside interests, and his choice of friends [EZK 36: 26-27]. This has certainly been my own experience. I no longer had destructive anger that led me to doing vandalism; I no longer acted completely selfishly-always asking “what’s in it for me?” Certainly, there are times when I backslide on the selfishness issue, but now I have the choice to catch myself before it leads to disaster. Despite being raised to reject Christ as Messiah, I came to accept Him as my personal Savior. This is despite the opposition that still exists among some people in my life. Instead of always thinking of myself as the victim when bad things happen, I now ask, “does God have a lesson for me in this?” A sign of maturity is taking responsibility for one’s own actions. I’m less impatient than before, even to the point of being willing to put myself on the front lines of reaching out in the face of the sometimes truculent, judgmental behavior of traditionally Jewish people who are seekers. Instead, I ask for your prayers as I reach out to them with the Son’s message of salvation and peace. Yes, even my outside interests have changed at God’s hand. Have you seen such changes in your own lives?
PRAYER: Dearest Abba, we come before You with reverence and a desire to be obedient to You. We offer You praise and thanks for the blessings You bestow upon us every day. And now, we take the time to listen to You for Your wisdom and important reconnaissance, which allows us to carry out Your will. Today, we examine many issues in an effort to better understand the privilege we have of being in a covenant relationship with You and in finding our own rightful/honest answer to the question: Are we willing to love You and other humans unconditionally? We believe what You teach us through prayer and Your word. We understand that You love us, more than any human can love. We also understand that Your Son has commanded us to love one another. For that is the way that others will recognize us as His disciples [JN 13: 34-35]. It is our intention to ask You for Your help in answering this very important question. So we ask for that help now. We face many trials and interruptions in the course of our efforts to obey You. You know this and always grace us with Your presence and Your intervention when You deem it necessary. PS 61: 1-3, “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to You, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to a Rock that is higher than I. For You have been my Refuge, aStrongTower against the foe.” We express our love and willingness to let You lead through the Holy Spirit. Our hope is that we may please You with our obedience and confident courage in You. We offer this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I have been led to write about more ways that we were created to be in an eternal covenant relationship with God and with other believers in His Son. The significance to our lives of the Atonement mustn’t be under-rated. There is no facet of our lives that isn’t touched by our covenant relationship with God. Our entire perspective is changed by it. The same can be said of our interests, our response to trials and losses, and the criteria we use in choosing friends. We are changed for the better to our very core! The One of Whom we may have been afraid in the past, now becomes our very Dearest One, our God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus. We are told not to be judgmental of other people, and He empowers us to make this and many other changes in ourselves that weren’t possible before we had faith in Him. And to think: Our God loves us so much that He has promised never to stop loving us or to abandon us. God brings us together with other people, who teach us what God feels we need to know. I love that about Him, because these friendships have given my own life so much purpose and fulfillment. Have you had this experience? Each of my readers is precious to me, and God hasn’t even allowed me to know every single one. He has given us the great gift of hope (from the resurrection) and the knowledge of His love, love which we can mimic. We who believe in Him, we who have a covenant relationship with Him are truly a blessed people! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24:15
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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