God is Impressive! Yet, do we really love Jesus for Whom He Is? By Karen Rowe

As I write this, we face another hard decision.  Yet, really what we are facing is that we really have no control over the situation.  God has made some things just so! And, this is a difficult day for us … And, this too shall pass.

Leading into the topic of today:  Can you really say that you love our dog, just because you know of our love for Bonnie; or that you love our dog, because you love your own dog? And, as the Lord leads to ask, “Who is your Jesus?” And, in Christ, my answer is, “your Jesus is the same Jesus as mine.”  Jesus makes us family through the bond of Christ!

As you can’t love my dog as we do, … in other words, you can’t love our dog as we do, just because you have met her a time or two; It’s when we spend time with our Jesus; like when we get to know our pet’s personality that we can really say that we love our dog…like we can say, we love Jesus.  And, like until a dog has sit beside you, and comforted you as you cry, and now you have to sit beside them while they die that you experience the fullness of love, no love can compare to the way God has loved us!

I hope to stir up the spirit in you to consider a couple of things.

Can you attach yourself to Jesus without knowing Him as the Christ?

Can you attach yourself to Jesus without knowing Him as the Christ?  What is the sacrifice of love?  Can we say that we know Jesus just because we experienced Peace and Joy in Church on Sunday?  Or, can we say we follow Jesus just because we experienced comfort through a difficult time?

It’s a living and growing relationship, a side by side walk through life together, through it all.  But it is not about self.  When we put God in HIS rightful place in our life, everything else rains down from Heaven above.  Peace, joy, comfort, wisdom, life, blessings, strength, courage, righteousness.  This is just set in motion by God.  Yet, we are not to grow to the point that feel “abstractly entitled” to spiritual blessings just because of our family position.  We are to abide in a personal relationship position with the Christ; and produce the fruit of the spiritual blessings in our life with Christ; in a living and personal relationship!

I sense a strong message in this.

Question 1:

God is Impressive! Yet, do we really love Jesus for Who He Is?

Hope in Today Ministries, Inc. Tuesday Devotion

“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. 

“And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 

“But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 

“All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. 

“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:4‭-‬7 NLT

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

“If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also.

“If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back.

“Do to others as you would like them to do to you. “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!

“And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit?Even sinners do that much!

“And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.

“You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you.

Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.

Luke 6:27‭-‬37 NLT

 

Question 2:

God is love!  What do we do with love?  Is love a choice?   How generous are you?  Can you say you are generous, just because God is generous; without being generous yourself? 

Question 3:

How did Jesus define His family? 

…By his association with “earthly” family?  Jesus loved his family, no doubt!  Yet, Jesus was teaching us about spiritual and everlasting things.  Jesus is still teaching us about how much God has SO loved us! 

Jesus has sit beside us and comforted us; have you known this comfort in God’s Grace in the presence of the Christ?  Have felt His presence?  Do we know Jesus; or just know about Jesus?

 

Do we know Jesus; or just know about Jesus?

Let’s seek to really hear how Jesus replied in Luke 8:21 & also recorded in Matthew 12:50; as we reflect on our own heart with eyes of God to really see as God sees.

Jesus replied,

“My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it.”

Luke 8:21, NLT

“Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother (Matthew 12:50, NLT).”

 

Jesus grafted us in to love, but gave us a command to love!  Can we claim we love, without love?  God is love.

Grafted in the sacrifices of love?

Just how much do we love Jesus?

Life is about Jesus, Christ the person -not about the things we can get by associating our name with His, because life is about an honest relationship Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God … & life is about living life to please God in all that we think, say or do.

YET ~ Isn’t doing life together about being willing to admit that we are weak, but He is strong.  Willing to admit that I struggle; and I have battles within my own self to win through Christ.  But all glory will go to God, because that is the Truth!

It is His Name; JESUS the person of the Risen Christ WHOM is our Way to God, whom is the power, not my name, just because I know Him.  Yet, Whom does Jesus make us to be, but a Child of God in a real relationship with the living God.  It is not about ego, it is about Christ the person; and it is Finished!  And, God is God always!

Life is about God & the fact that God has SO loved us SO! God has loved us SO much that He gave us His Son, so that we could have a choice to choose life & choose blessings.

This is a hard one to post.

This is a hard one to post.  Jesus suffered for us to give us life and to give us life more abundantly.  Jesus died and rose again to make us a part of God’s family.  Can we attach our self to the family of God without going through some of the sufferings?  Or, perhaps like this:  Do we have a right to say, “we” (us and God), and include our name; if we never take part in any of the suffering to get to the place God provided?

To say, “I love” …

Love really has nothing to do with us, except that we are made by God to be in a relationship with Him; to love God and love others; as God has 1st loved us.  We didn’t accomplish love; and we are merely a reflection of whom love is, GOD through love!

God is love.  By Grace through faith in Christ Jesus, we abide in God through abiding in love; and God abides in us.

Letting go is the hardest part about love.  And, just like holding on to love, by love, it is God who is love; and it is Christ who holds on to us all, because of His love for us all.

thank God we have Jesus

I told our son this morning, thank God we have Jesus, because with Jesus we have everything!  Thank God Jesus has come, because, IF Jesus had not come, then we would have plenty to worry about in this world and beyond!

 

But because we have Jesus, we can surely believe and trust in following Jesus, & rest in “Worrying just questions God’s Plan!

 

We must look up to Jesus!  And, I truly believe God showed me how HE feels.  I truly believe God does not want us feel abstractly entitled to His gifts, just because He made us family; God wants us to be a real  follower of Jesus abiding in Christ. God graciously gives us everything HE IS!!!

 

Instead of paddling upstream, I walk up the mountain of Grace and get in God’s boat to ride down the stream with Him…and thank you for joining me… you are a sense of strength with me through your time and prayers.

 

So much more than not a brag or boast in who we are, but in Christ to live our life as a sacrifice to love each other, to admit we all need Jesus.  To comfort each other and admit we all are weak, but know that Jesus is strong and God’s hand is Strength:  When we believe in our heart, Christ is Risen; we can also believe God is for us, with us and in us.

 

God’s gift of love is a gift to be received with Praise and Thanksgiving to God; with no mention our own name, but the Son, Jesus to whom glorified the Father’s love; and the Father glorified His own Son.  All Glory goes to God, with no credit to our name, except as our names are to be written in the Book of Life!  Praise God and Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!  We can’t otherwise attach our self to God as righteous; but Jesus has grafted us in! There is a difference.

God gave the ultimate sacrifice for us!  God gave the death of His Son to bring life to us all!  Yet, there is a decision that has to be made -Otherwise, there is no control over the situation that God is over life and death.  You choose; so do I.

 

Praise be to God; there is life everlasting, and there is more than we can comprehend.  Many would not understand what they can’t believe, but as for me, I know.  And, in this knowing there is hope and in hope there is life.

 

Perhaps, this is just for me, but perhaps someone else will be blessed by this….

It hurts terribly to watch a loved one go; and today our Bonnie could be passing.  I have great and tremendous faith, because of the grace of God in that I know who Jesus is.  Yet, it hurts deep to let anything we love go.

I hope this is a blessing to you in some way.

 

I don’t know who this is for, but Sometimes, people like to attach their self by family association, but to truly belong in that family, we have to live in the household and go through the good and the bad together as a family.  To grow through disappointments as a family.  To celebrate the products of hard work, patience and dedication as a family.

There is more to family than just by association.   Do you know that you are invited by God to be truly in the family?  And, it is not all easy, but possible!  Yes, there is hope!

 

the privilege to be loved by God!

 

 

We don’t have the privilege to love without the pain and suffering of the price of love; and integrity of love, but by Grace, we do have the privilege to be loved by God!

 

A blessing goes deep and wide into every aspect of our life.  Yet, again, it is not about what God gives or takes away.  It is about who Jesus is; as the person & the Christ.

 

Friends, if we get this, we will never be the same.

Who do you say Jesus is?  Who do you say I am?  Who do you say you are?  Who does God say we are?

Hope in Today Ministries, Inc. Devotion to God’s Word.

I am convinced God is God!

 

Sometimes we may TRY to attach ourself, BUT …

The Privilege of Holiness.

“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
Deut 7:9 NLT

“But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and will be burned at the end.

“Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope, so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.
Heb 6:8‭, ‬11‭-‬12 HCSB

“When the Lord your God (moves) before you, do NOT say to yourself, … BECAUSE of my righteousness.’

Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

Understand that the Lord your God is NOT giving you ( ) BECAUSE of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day you left the __….

“I fell down in the PRESENCE of the Lord 40 days and 40 nights BECAUSE the Lord had threatened to destroy you. I PRAYED to the Lord : Lord God , do not annihilate Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through YOUR greatness and brought out of Egypt WITH a strong hand. BUT THEY ARE YOUR PEOPLE, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.
Deut 9:4‭, ‬6‭-‬7‭, ‬10‭, ‬12‭-‬13‭, ‬19‭-‬20‭, ‬24‭-‬26‭, ‬29 HCSB

…”there WILL BE a blessing, IF you obey the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you today, AND a curse, IF you DO NOT obey the commands of the Lord your God AND you TURN ASIDE FROM the path I command you today BY following other gods you have NOT known.

For you are ABOUT TO cross __ TO enter and TAKE possession OF ___ the Lord your God is GIVING you. When you possess it and settle in it, BE CAREFUL TO follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today.
Deut. 11:27‭-‬28‭, ‬31‭-‬32 HCSB

 

Just because we have Jesus?

Just because we have Jesus; can we avoid the pain?  It’s still about God & His LOVE.

The story is not over on this world.  There’s more!

 

I hope this is a blessing that God can use by His Wisdom and Grace.

 

Love in Christ,

Karen