“I love Jesus.”

A friend gave me a book, The Pietist Option, which talks about living the Christian life in a way that engages the heart as well as the head.  The authors observe that some Christians “treated faith as a noun with which one agreed … “ but it is a “verb, a way of being which was a necessary outworking of both intellectual and emotional assent to the claim that Jesus is Savior.”  More simply said - Christianity is not just a doctrinal statement that I believe, it is a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Yes, I love Jesus.

I said that “I love Jesus” to a man who is able to make fine theological arguments for the key Christian doctrines and his response was somewhat dismissive.  He, though orthodox in his faith, thinks that ‘loving Jesus’ is a romantic notion, a childish idea that needs to be outgrown. Though he is mistaken, I understand his concern. There are many Christians (perhaps too many?) who are content to remain ignorant of Scripture, incapable of thinking about hard questions of faith, who refuse to deal with the commands of Jesus, while fervently insisting “I love Jesus.”  I do not question their sincerity, but I would ask, how has that professed love changed your life?

Jesus is clear about the connection of love with obedience. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23, NIV)  He spoke of His own life as an example. He was about to go to the Cross in obedience to the Father’s will, because "the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me." (John 14:31, NIV)

We would scoff at a person who professed to love us but never spent any time with us, never really shared their thoughts with us, never offered us any kind of real support; right?  Human love involves more than words. It must be demonstrated in fidelity and affection.  It is tragic when a marriage becomes nothing more than a contract between two persons!  The paper says “married,” which is legally factual. Joy can only be found when, in addition to the signatures on the paper, there are acts of affection.

Does your Christianity include a desire to really know God, or are you content to know things about Him? 
Do you hunger to experience His Presence?  We absolutely can. He is not ‘out there somewhere,’ He is near us, known to us by the Spirit.

Is your worship only a dutiful attendance to prayers, church attendance, learning of a creed? Those are admirable choices, but He invites us to something more.

Yes, our worship can engage the heart. We can love Jesus as Friend and Brother!  Will we?

Cultivating that relationship will require time, pursuit, being open and transparent before Him, giving up our Self for Him – yes, loving Him.

We need not replace doctrine with passion. We need both – to know the warmth of love in our hearts and the steadiness of truth understood with our minds.

As you read the word from the Word, allow yourself to feel the depth of John’s emotion. Ask God to take you beyond believing certain things about Him to be true, to lead you to loving Him – “with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

"My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.
This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love! " (1 John 4:7-12, The Message)

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My Jesus I Love Thee

My Jesus I love Thee I know Thou art mine

For Thee all the follies of sin I resign

My gracious Redeemer my Savior art Thou

If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me

And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree

I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow

If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now

I'll love Thee in life I will love Thee in death

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath

And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow

If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now

In mansions of glory and endless delight

I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright

I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow

If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now

Adoniram Judson Gordon

© Words: Public Domain

Jerry D. Scott, Pastor

Faith Discovery Church

www.FaithDiscovery.com

The one thing we must never forget

“I love you.” What a phrase; powerful, moving, comforting. The meaning is found in the context.  Spoken by a parent to a child it means something entirely different than when it is whispered into the ear of a spouse! Next week, we celebrate the holiday of ‘love,’ St. Valentine’s Day. It was one of my favorite holidays, a time to attempt to delight Bev with flowers, a dinner date, or a sparkly piece of jewelry.  We will do most anything to be loved, won’t we?  

Did you know that God is crazy about you? 

Forgive the phrase, but it is true! God loves you and me – let me say it again –

God loves you and me!

One of the most famous verses in the Bible is found in John’s Gospel. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16, NKJV)  You have read it before, of course, but read it again. Now, read it but instead of ‘the world’ put your name in that place. Why is this so important? Because it is the love of God that heals us, keeps us, gives our lives the richness that we cannot find in any other place. 

Spend much time with a group of children and it will not take long to sort out those who are loved well and deeply. They will be more open, more trusting, tending to share, more secure, happier.  Oh yes, there is that indulged child whose parent confuses permissiveness with love; who does not love him enough to provide strong, secure boundaries. That child is not well-loved. There is the one whose parent is engaged, who enjoys meaningful interaction, who has no doubt about the commitment of her parent to her well-being- all the time, everywhere, no matter what! That wise parent does not attempt to be a buddy, not confusing the role of father with playmate.

Our heavenly Father loves us, not as playmate, but as Provider, Protector, and Guide.  A child who is secure in love can accept even discipline because, consciously or unconsciously, she knows that the correction flows out of her best interest, not the parent’s anger.

Are you questioning God’s love? It not uncommon. I have done it, so will you.

The issue at the root of the Genesis story describing humanity’s Fall in sin is about God’s love and our trust. “Is God really good?” was the serpent’s implied intent. He sowed doubt with this idea - “Your Creator does not want you to know what He knows. He is holding back on you.” When we start to give that thought space in our mind, temptation finds a place to grow.

God speaks to us – demonstrably – about His love in Jesus. Yes, we also see His love in the providence of the world, in the beauty of what He’s made, but without a doubt, we see it in Jesus- God come to us, to be one of us, to die for us, to restore us to Himself. There is more to know! Just as the first ‘love’ of a young heart matures into a life-long commitment, the love that calls us to salvation matures into discipleship. You see, we NEVER outgrow our need to be loved.

That is why Paul offers this prayer, one that I read often, both for those in my pastoral care and for myself. As you read this word from the Word, invite the Holy Spirit to make it new, to set the love of God in your mind and heart, making you secure. He says, I pray that "Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19, NIV)  That we are loved by God – it is the one thing we must never forget!

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How He Loves

(worship at this link)

He is jealous for me loves like a hurricane

I am a tree bending beneath

The weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden I am unaware of

These afflictions eclipsed by glory

I realize just how beautiful You are

And how great Your affections are for me

Oh how He loves us so

Oh how He loves us

How He loves us so

 (Yeah) He loves us

Oh how He loves us

Oh how He loves us

Oh how He loves

We are His portion and He is our prize

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes

If grace is an ocean we're all sinking

So Heaven meets earth

Like a sloppy wet kiss

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest

I don't have time to maintain these regrets

When I think about the way that

(Yeah) He loves us

Oh how He loves us

Oh how He loves us

Oh how He loves

CCLI Song # 5032549

John Mark McMillan

© 2005 Integrity's Hosanna! Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing (Integrity Music [DC Cook]))

CCLI License # 810055

That first step is the BIG one

Do ever wake up and see just one thing out in front of you – impossibility?  The difficulties pile up like a wall of boulders. You know you should tackle the task of finding a way but sometimes the temptation comes to say, “I’m done. I quit.” I met a man living on the streets who once had a family, a job, a life; then he ran head-long into some really hard times and he just dropped out. Now he exists, by choice, sadly in the grip of addiction’s haze. That is a radical example.  Most of us will not choose to abandon life, but too many will resign inwardly. There is a better choice which we learn in an ancient story about God’s people. He led them to a place where they had to rely completely on Him.

That is why faith is so very important to me!  I claim no insight into all of the mysteries of life, but I hold onto the promise that I never walk alone, that those things that appear ‘impossible’ to me, are God’s opportunities to shape my life and faith.  So, I pray for courage, for steady faith, for a willingness to let Him lead as He wills.

After Moses died, Joshua prepared to lead God’s people into Canaan, the Promised Land. They were ready to move but there was one BIG problem. Right in their path flowed the Jordan River. To complicate matters, the Bible  says it was 'at flood stage.'  Joshua, who was an old man with a lot of experience in ‘walking by faith’ told the people -  "Think of it! The Ark of the Covenant, which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the Jordan River! Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. The priests will be carrying the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. When their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will pile up there in one heap.” (Joshua 3:11-13, NLT)  It is a great challenge but I want us to take note of one little line … “when their feet touch the water.”   They had to step into the river before the miracle happened! 

40 years earlier, their parents had come to a similar moment, faced with the difficulty of possessing the Promised Land. That generation refused God’s invitation to let Him lead and they died as wanders in the wilderness. Joshua knew that lesson, one of the few survivors of that generation. So, he pressed them. What did they do?  They choose to believe God. And sure enough, when they stepped into the water, the river stopped flowing! Joshua summarizes the occasion saying, "This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always." (Joshua 4:24, The Message)

Honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to be the first priest to step into the water. I wonder how far in did he wade before the water receded? Knee deep? Waist deep? Why wouldn't God have just stopped the river's flow that morning so they could just walk across? We have no answer for that question but there is a life lesson here for you and me. When God says, "Go," and it appears that there is no way, it’s time to step into the water! Obedience will open a way forward - from where we are into a new and wonderful place of His purposes.

Is God leading you toward a flooded river place?

Are you following obediently or screaming protests?

Follow faithfully.
Keep your focus on the Lord who goes before you.

When you are on the other side of that ‘impossible’ situation, you will look back with new faith.

This word from the Word is a song for the tested, one that anticipates the fulfilment of His promises.

"Sing a new song to the Lord, for he has done wonderful deeds.
His right hand has won a mighty victory; his holy arm has shown his saving power!
The Lord has announced his victory and has revealed his righteousness to every nation!
He has remembered his promise to love and be faithful to Israel.
The ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God." (Psalm 98:1-3, NLT)

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To God Be The Glory

To God be the glory great things He has done

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son

Who yielded His life an atonement for sin

And opened the life gate that all may go in

Praise the Lord praise the Lord

Let the earth hear His voice

Praise the Lord praise the Lord

Let the people rejoice

O come to the Father through Jesus the Son

And give Him the glory great things He has done

O perfect redemption the purchase of blood

To every believer the promise of God

The vilest offender who truly believes

That moment from Jesus a pardon receives

Great things He has taught us

Great things He has done

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son

But purer and higher and greater will be

Our wonder our transport when Jesus we see

Fanny Jane Crosby

© Words: Public Domain