God is Love

November 9

“....we must never accept any conception of God that is contrary to what we see in Christ.  We must utterly reject any view of God’s character or acts or any statement of His relationships with us, no matter how strongly upheld, that is at variance with what Christ has revealed.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 10/20

Jesus said He was one with the Father and anyone that has seen Him has seen the Father.  I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated this fact.  Jesus was God incarnate--God in the flesh--I know that.  But what I haven’t let sink in is the fact that everything written about Jesus applies to God.  If I find it difficult to have a real relationship with God, I need only think in terms of Jesus.  Perhaps this has been my problem.....I’ve separated Jesus from God to the extent that I’ve made  Jesus merely a link.  I think the theology of the Trinity, in its attempt to explain God, has led me to this separation.  I’ve taken it literally when it was meant to explain.  God came to earth in the form of Jesus so that I could understand Him.  His death on the cross was meant to show me how much He loves me.  It wasn’t literally necessary that He die.  God could have done anything He wanted to do to satisfy His Justice and show His Mercy.  He did it for us because that was the only thing we could understand.  I believe Jesus was explaining this when He said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  (John 15:13)  Let this settle once and for all any questions you may have about God’s love.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”  John 14:6

September 3

“A disciple named Stephen, outstanding for no other reason, kept looking at Jesus, and as he was murdered, he didn’t fall to the ground screaming in self-pity and anguish, ‘...he kneeled down, and cried in a loud voice [as his Master had cried], Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S., 8/31

Self-pity is devastating.  It saps you of all strength and then finishes you off with your own hands around your neck.  It’s not a pretty sight.  Why do we succumb to this so often?  It’s because it’s the only tool the ego has to get attention for itself.  Ego thrives on attention.  If we could just see this, we would see ego as our enemy because it is the antipathy of self-respect.  When we give it power over us we become duped into thinking it’s looking out for our best interest.  But it’s not.  We suffer greatly under its rule.  This is what Jesus came to save us from--the tyranny of the ego.  I think one of the ways ego has blinded us is to make Self out to be the perpetrator.  Then when ego gets caught we blame Self instead.  All this does is lead us further into self-pity because we begin to attack Self.  We need to understand that Self is who God made us to be and it’s only in giving ego power over us that Self has become corrupted.  Christ has come to save Self from this corruption and restore Self to HimSelf.  We need only allow Christ to love us into this restoration by declaring our old Selves dead and our new Selves alive in Him.

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”  Psalm 23:1-4

July 25

“I am afraid a great many people are so taken up with Christian doctrines and dogmas, and are so convinced that their salvation is secured because their “views” are sound and orthodox, that they have never yet come to a personal acquaintance with Christ himself.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 7/25

This is the difference between being a real Christian and a pretend Christian.  Most of us can act a certain way once we find out what is expected of us.  It becomes a matter of whether or not we want to act that way or not that determines how well we can pull it off.  If we get a lot of positive feedback and are made to feel good about ourselves, we are encouraged even more so to act in a certain way.  That’s why we care so much about whom our children hang out with.  They are impressionable and their behavior, with our help, has pretty much been fashioned by reward and punishment!  But Christianity has nothing to do with rewards and punishments because the punishment has already been carried out on another--Jesus Christ.  Only reward is waiting for us if.....and it’s a big IF....we have a relationship with God through Jesus.  It’s this personal acquaintance with Christ himself that makes us one with the Father.  It’s there that we are truly changed--not on the outside for others to see, but on the inside where the new life begins and then grows outward for all to witness and whereby God is made known, too.

“No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”  John 1:28

April 12

“Truth is a Person, not a concept.  Jesus said He was the Truth (John 14:6).”  H. Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, 4/12

Today there seems to be more than one Truth, at least this is what the world would have you to believe.  To accept anything as an absolute raises people’s hackles and the "perpetrator" is labeled prejudiced or bigoted.  This is why what Christ stands for isn’t what we need to be preaching because in the minds of the lost that is arguable.  Instead we must “preach” Christ, Himself.  Nothing can stand against Christ.  All arguments, all doubts must fall before Him for He has already won the victory.  And how do we preach Christ?  The only way is by our own lives.  His power, His strength, His love is what the world must see in us.  It must be clear that it is not I, but Him.  This Truth they cannot resist.  So, if you’re having a difficult time reaching someone, make sure you aren’t blocking their view of Christ.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”  John 14:6

February 4

“....and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”  Galatians 2:20b (KJV)

Words are so inadequate at times!  The difference between OF and IN can change the entire meaning in a sentence.  The Revised Standard Version says “I live by the faith IN the Son of God”.  Eugenia Price used the King James Version of Galatians 2:20 which says “I live by the faith OF the Son of God” to show me that God not only gives me the faith to believe in Him to begin with but He also gives me the faith for my daily living.  Just as Christ died on the cross for me to save me from my sins, He continues to save me daily from my flesh.  Could this be what He means when He says I must take up MY cross and follow Him?  His cross has become my cross as well and it is in realizing it--that I was crucified with Him--that I am enabled to follow Him because it is His faith that I now possess.  This changes everything for me.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in (of) the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Galatians 2:20

January 26

“I wanted God and Christ to be one and the same.  That’s why I finally became a Christian.  I wanted it to be true when Jesus said “I and the Father are one.”  Then how could God smite the Christ who had saved me?”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S., 1/26

This was Eugenia’s question upon reading Isaiah 53:4b:  “....yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”  Finally, I was about to have my longtime, forever-lingering question settled.  I had always wondered how I could trust God to show ME any favor (grace) when He did not even spare His own Son.  This was not something I could speak out loud amongst my Christian friends for fear of exposing what looked liked doubts.  And I certainly couldn’t pose this question to nonbelievers for fear they would never give God a second thought again!  So I suffered in silence, always pushing it aside when it threatened to cause me to lose what faith I did have in God’s goodness towards me. So as I prepared to read some profound yet unknown truth to me I was not prepared for the simplicity of her response--the obviousness of it--the slapping-of-my-forehead-upon-the-discovery type of revelation.  I will share her words:  “Rejoice and again I say rejoice,” because cleave this “pleasant clear stone” to its heart and you see as I have seen at last, that God actually smote Himself for our sin!.....He afflicted Himself, as the Lord God “laid on him (self) the iniquity of us all.”  NOW I understand.  Jesus, the man--all that was written about his life--is meant to show us that God was identifying with us.  Once He was nailed to that cross, it was God Himself who gave Himself for us--who suffered and bore our sin against Him.  God took responsibility for my sin and knowing the weakness of my flesh did not leave me on my own.  He came to me Himself.  He has exchanged my old life for His.  My flesh is merely the earth container until my soul is brought back home.  Jesus was also a container and meant to show me how it is possible to live a sanctified life here on earth.  When the container was no longer needed, God displayed it on a cross for all to see that it was no longer needed.  God Himself was now back on His throne.  The Power of Sin had been defeated.  Through our faith in the finished work of the Christ we share in this victory. 

“So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.”  2 Corinthians 5:6,7