God Loves People

Living in God’s Presence

godlovespeople — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:27:38 +0000

Psalm 91:1: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” This is a wonderful verse, but like many verses in the Bible it leaves a very important question unanswered:

“How can I GET to the ‘secret place of the Most High?’” That, of course, is the place of God’s protection, His care, His constant interest–like He said in another place: “The eyes of the LORD are always upon it…” It’s what everyone wants, if he has any intelligence at all, because all of us recognize that when we are alone and unprotected against all the problems of life, we can easily be destroyed. We need a Protector, a Caregiver, a Friend. How can we get to that place, and how can we KNOW we are there?

The question’s answered in the verses after the text, and in many other places in the Bible: Here’s what Psalm 91 says about getting to the place of God’s protection: Psalm 91:9-11: ”Because you have MADE the LORD…your dwelling place, … He shall give His angels charge over you…” In other words, we make a decision about our relationship with God, and then He’s there. This implies that HE waits for US, and that HE’S ready when WE are. This is the incredible thing about God. He waits for you. Oh, He’ll tell you in many ways that you need Him, that you are nothing without Him, that His love and His care are necessary for your life–He’ll work through events, problems, circumstances, or tell you personally, through the Holy Spirit, but He waits. And it’s for you that He waits. In the little New Testament book of James there’s a verse that expresses this perfectly (James 4:8): Draw near to God, and HE will draw near to you. God is seeking YOU. He wants to be your Refuge, your Shelter, your Strength. But you have to move first, because He will wait for you to decide.

The “Comforter…” John 14:16

godlovespeople — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:49:29 +0000

In the old English version (the KJV, still used by many), Jesus tells us that He will pray the Father, and that the Father will send the Comforter to us; the newer versions are much the same, except they used the words “Helper,” “Counselor,” and even “Advocate.” It’s interesting that this word in Greek (the original language) has so many meanings, or that the translators have invested it with so much meaning.

Part of the reason they did that is the peculiar structure of the Greek word which is translated “Comforter” in the KJV. It’s the word parakletos, which means “One who has been called alongside.” Without going into the details of Greek Grammar, this word means someone who’s been called alongside to offer help or advice or to stand with you in a court of law, in your defense. It was used all those ways in the era of the New Testament, along with a number of other ways. When Jesus referred to “the Spirit of Truth” as “another Comforter,” He meant to point out the reality that we have a REAL PERSON who stands by us, who has our best interests at heart, and who has all the power of the Godhead at His disposal to help and guide us. This promise is for anyone who is in a relationship with Jesus Christ (see the other materials here); it is not dependent on YOU calling out for the Comforter’s to be sent; it is dependent on one thing–Jesus’ prayer to the Father, and the Father’s answer. So if you are in relationship with Jesus Christ, the Comforter stands beside you, ready to be your Helper, your Guide, your Defense, your Comfort and your Strength. Access Him today. Let Him direct your steps. Let Him fill your mind and show you God’s great love for you. Let Him straighten out the crooked paths of your life. Let Him fill your life with worship and joy. He wants to do that, right now. Ask Him. He will not deny you.

How God finds people…

godlovespeople — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:05:37 +0000

John 1:35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following, and *said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He *said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He *found first his own brother Simon and *said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He *found Philip. And Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me.“

In this passage, we have John the Baptist introducing two of his own disciples to Jesus, and then Jesus “takes hold,” and He finds them, so to speak, for His Father. As the next few days progress, He “finds” other people, who also become His disciples, and come to believe in Him. So the question is, “How does this take place?” How is it that Jesus can find me, and convince ME that He’s really the Savior–not just the world’s Savior, but MINE?

The answer seems to turn on the relationship I can have with Jesus, who is able not only to point me to God His Father, but to actually bring me to Him. When John points Jesus out as the “Lamb who takes away the sin of the world,” the two disciples who heard him followed Jesus, and He turned and asked, “What do you want?” They are really too shy, or too reserved, to tell Jesus what they’ve heard from John, so they say, “Where are you staying?” They want to discuss Him, and themselves with Him, privately. He responds, “come, and you will see.” This is the essence of how we become Christians. We enter into relationship with Jesus Christ (we “come and see”), who, although He died, is alive again forevermore, and is able to touch each one of us at the core of our being. This is an experience, based on personal revelation (like Jesus said to the two disciples, “come, and you will see…”), which results in faith, because we know Him now, and cannot deny His reality. This results, in turn, in our receiving His offer of eternal life, because once we do know Him, we want to live with Him & His Father forever. From that point, our relationship grows throughout life, into eternity, where it never ends. It is this relationship that is the basis and reality of eternal life.

Jesus Himself put it like this: “This is eternal life, that they might know you [the Father], and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

Christ the Lord Has RISEN–He is risen, He is RISEN INDEED.

godlovespeople — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:19:33 +0000

Thus goes much of the current comment in the Christian Church. Although Christians disagree about many things, they agree about this one thing. Jesus Christ, who was dead, “crucified under Pontius Pilate,” as the Creed goes, has risen “because He could not be held by death.”

The question is, “Is it true?” There have been many examinations of the historicity (big word for whether or not something that people say occurred in history is true) of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and most people who have looked at this come to the conclusion that it had to happen, even though it’s a one-time event. However, when folks do this, and in order for it to meaningful to them, they must ultimately take the next step, which validates the truth to themselves. So what I want to do is focus on an event that took place in the First Century.

In Luke 24, two friends journey to a village called Emmaus, near Jerusalem. They are discussing the events of the past few days, and mourning the loss of Jesus, their Teacher and Leader:

13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.

14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.

16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.

17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”

18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”

19 And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.

21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.

23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.

24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”

25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”

27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther.

29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.

30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.

32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,

34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

This is a fairly long passage, but I’ve laid it all down for you so that you can see the intimacy and the “personalness” of Jesus’ appearances after His resurrection. There are actually a number of these, ranging from an event like this, where Jesus appears and vanishes, to Thomas’ rejection of Jesus’ resurrection (“until I put my hands in the wounds, I will not believe!”), and subsequent affirmation (“My Lord and my God!”). It’s not as if He appeared in some sort of “vapor, with a voice from beyond the grave;” He was the real Jesus, with whom the disciples had walked for three-plus years. They could touch Him, eat with Him, laugh with Him, and see Him. It was all very real and very personal, and every disciple believed Him, even the most skeptical. The Resurrection accounts are not, “Oh, look, there He was!” But, “Wow, It’s Him!” They are short, because Jesus had a limited time left on earth (40 days), but they are definitely enough.

In fact, in Acts 1:3, the writer says that Jesus “showed Himself alive after His suffering by MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS, meaning that nobody doubted Him.

The interesting thing is that the resurrection of Jesus is “self-authenticating.” In other words, God has actually provided a mechanism by which you and I can KNOW that Jesus Christ lives, and that He has conquered death, not only for Himself, but for us, so that everlasting life is not just a “wish,” but a reality.

You do, however, have to take the first step–the step of saying to God, “OK, God (if you’re out there), if it is true that Jesus rose from the dead, and if because He rose, I can live forever, I want that.” When you do that, and open your heart to the possibility that Jesus actually died and rose again, you open your life to the following three things:

1. You can know the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins–when you open your life to God and His Son Jesus Christ, you receive complete forgiveness of all your sins. Complete. Forgiveness. Most people can tell this has happened by the incredible sense that they are no longer burdened. They feel “different;” “clean inside;” “changed;” “light as a feather;” lots of words are used to describe this, but no description is really adequate. It is too powerful for words.

2. You can know the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the presence of God in your life. I cannot explain this, any more than I can explain “blue;” but it is definitely real. When you open your heart to God through Jesus, it’s like, “He Arrives at your house,” and everything is different, from there on. He does explain it, and so does Peter, in Acts 2, when he says that this is “the Holy Spirit;” Jesus put it like this–”If anyone loves Me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him.” Jesus also calls this “arrival” the sending of the “other Helper, the Spirit of truth;” In every respect, and in all ways, the point is that the presence of God and His Son “comes to our house to stay,” bringing with them light, and love and beauty unknown before.

3. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a “one-time event;” it never happened before, and it will never happen again. This takes it out of the realm even of “miracle,” and puts it into the realm of things like “Creation.” However, embodied in the resurrection is a truth about us that is undeniable–God has “set eternity in our hearts;” we, at some level, MUST believe that life has more meaning than mere temporary existence; we are “wired that way.” In other words, the message of the resurrection touches the deepest parts of our hearts, and calls to us. It’s like waking up in the morning, and knowing the sun comes up. It has to be. It’s more than, “I want it to be so;” in fact “it must be so,” and it is unavoidable. Something that calls to us like this is personally verifiable. We may not be able to say, “Look, there He is,” but we KNOW. Jesus actually said this. He said, “If anyone will do His will (the Father’s), he shall know concerning My teaching, whether I speak from God, or merely from myself.” In other words, the truth that He spoke is “self-activating,” such that once you decide the will of God is for you, then you KNOW. Can I explain it? Never. No more than I can explain a star, a sunset, or the smile of a child.

But it IS true, and you can know for yourself, today.

Just ASK. –> “God, are you really there? Is Jesus Christ your Son? If this is true, I will follow you.”

Then YOU will know.

So What Happens to my sin?

godlovespeople — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:10:04 +0000

John 1:29: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

It is a fact that God’s Son, Jesus takes away sin, and that He took away sin. He has “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” That is the sense in which He is the “Lamb of God.” He gave Himself to deliver mankind, and specifically, you, and me, from sin, and give you (and me) everlasting life, at the same time separating us from our sin “as far as the East is from the West.” So how does He do this? How can He do it? Christians are always saying things like, “Jesus died for your sins.” (and He did), but what does it mean? How do we get to that? Why is it necessary?

The Bible views our sin (and sins) as a thing; it is like a weight, or a pollution, that will prevent us from ever seeing God, or being with Him in Heaven; therefore sin must be separated from us, and we from it, so that we can be free of it, or it will eventually destroy us, and prevent us from going to heaven. When the Bible speaks about forgiveness, the original word actually means “send away,” so that it is God’s plan to send our sins someplace where we are no longer impacted by them. This is expressed many times in the Scriptures:

Psalm 103:12: ¹² As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Isaiah 1:18: ” Come let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

MIcah 7:19: [You] will again have compassion on us, And [You] will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

When I ask the Lord for His forgiveness for my sins, and offer myself up to Him as someone who needs Him, He performs a miracle–the miracle of forgiveness, and cleanses me from my sin, and changes me so that I am fit to meet Him in heaven.

He does this because Jesus Christ, His Son, accepted the penalty for my sin, and suffered and died for it–like the songwriter says, “WE were the reason He suffered and died…” This acceptance of penalty on the behalf of another (or in the case of animal sacrifices, imposition), is part of the very fabric of the Old Testament. At the time of the first human sin, God Himself sacrificed animals to cover Adam and Eve’s bodies, as a symbol of the fact that He would someday deal with humankind’s sin. Later, He appointed sacrifices of animals, who “stood in the place” of the people who had actually committed the sins. And finally, Jesus came, and He willingly offered Himself to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. He said,

John 10:17: My Father loves me because I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

1 John 3:16: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

The Bible tells us that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins through His death. :

Isaiah 53:5-6: ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises and pictures in the Bible that tell us God has a plan to remove our sins from us, and make us pure and clean. In order to be that fulfillment, Jesus actually chose to accept the punishment for our sins. He chose to pay the penalty that would have been exacted upon us. NOT FAIR! Some will say–well, it’s fair if He can do it, and if He wants to do it, since God accepts His payment for my sins–and for yours. He did this, we are told, through His death:

Hebrews 10:10: we have been sanctified [made holy, pure] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:14: For by a single offering [Jesus offered Himself, His blood His body] he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

As He Himself said, the night before He gave up His life:

Matthew 26:26-28: Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
He paid the penalty for you.

All you need to do is receive Him and His forgiveness, and you will be made clean and purified forever from all your sin.

¹² As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

God, who cannot be understood–Jesus explains Him.

godlovespeople — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:44:47 +0000

Joh 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him

The Bible is universal in telling us that God is “unknowable” in the analytical sense–He is infinite, so we cannot understand Him fully; He “dwells in light unapproachable,” and “nobody has seen Him, nor can see Him;” but every line we read about Jesus also says something about God, since Jesus came to earth to unite us with God, and to bring us to the Father. So when we see Jesus’ wonderful miracles–that is what God is like; when we read His teaching–those are God’s words; When we know that He rose from the dead, that is God’s indestructible life, shining through.

Because Jesus is God and man united in one Person forever, He can do something nobody else can do–He can truly interpret God to us. Just as nobody knows a mother’s heart like a mother, nobody knows God’s heart like Jesus–and He not only can explain God, He HAS.

This is important because knowing God is eternal life (knowing Him in the personal sense, like you know any person, as a friend or relative, not so much in the intellectual sense). The real question is, “How?” Jesus Himself answers this question in several different ways, but they all center around one idea: faith–or as John puts it, “believing.” Believing in Jesus. Believing that God sent Him. Believing in what He did, and what He said.

John 5:24: “He who hears (listens and accepts) my (Jesus’) word, and believes in the One who sent me, has everlasting life…”

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him [Jesus] whom He has sent.

But these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name.

Joh 6:35 And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes on Me shall never thirst.

Feel empty? Need something else in your life besides money, work, food? What happens when the best of life is over? Or when life itself is over? What then? Come to Jesus Christ. He will satisfy you with everlasting life–and the knowledge of the true and living God, whom you can know personally for yourself.

Want to know more? just write.

Jesus is the bridge between you and God

godlovespeople — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:28:05 +0000

John 1:14 says, “The Word became Flesh (human), and lived among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:1 tells us that The Word was ‘in the beginning;’ that The Word was ‘with God,” and that the word ‘was God.’ These verses show one of the most important things about Jesus Christ (the subject of John’s Gospel)–God became a Man. He didn’t stop being God, but He did become Man. Whenever I thought about God (as a child, and then as a teenager), I thought of Someone far away–Someone who had set the universe running, and now just watched everything happen from a distance. When I became a Christian, I discovered that God had actually become part of time and space. In fact, He had bridged the gap from God to me by becoming what I am–human. It’s like this. The Lord Jesus became a Man for many reasons, but the main one is so that He could bring us to God through His mighty power. He said it like this: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; nobody comes to the Father except through Me.” When Job was going through his terrible time of suffering, he said, “I wish there was Somebody who was like us both, and could stand between me and God, and tell Him about me, and me about Him.” God has answered that cry in Jesus Christ, who actually IS both–God and Man, united forever in one Person, and who can give us everlasting life with God in heaven.

Want eternal life? Write. I’ll explain what to do in step-by-step fashion, so that you can be sure that you do have everlasting life with God.

“The Three-Step Plan” to enter God’s family

godlovespeople — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:22:44 +0000

There are three steps to entering God’s family listed in John 1:11-13, and they are simple:

11   He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12   But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13   who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Step 1 is to believe.

Believe that Jesus Christ came into the world (see John 1:14-18); that He entered time and space by invading it from eternity, and that He did this to bring us to God. This is exactly what His own people, who saw Him in the first century did not accept (receive) about Him. They did not believe or receive Him when they saw Him because He did not “fit their mold.” He was not what they wanted. But God is never “what we want.” He is who he IS, and we cannot remake Him in our image–same with His Son.

Step 2 is to receive.

To receive Jesus Christ meant (originally) to receive Him as the Messiah, the Christ who was to come. Today, it means much the same, except that in addition to receiving Him as Messiah, we now know that “Christ died (to pay) for our sins according the Scriptures, that He was raised from the dead, that He ascended to Heaven, where He now lives with His Father, and that He sent forth His Holy Spirit, so that He can live by His Spirit in all who open their hearts to Him, who receive Him spiritually in prayer. Yes, it’s mysterious, but it works. What you do is beyond easy–you pray, and invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior and to enter your life. Then, you become…

Step 3: Become.

John says that once you have received Jesus Christ, you have the right to become a child of God–meaning, of course, that you do become God’s child, and enter His family, and that you are “born…of God.” This is what people mean when they talk about being a “born-again Christian”–the person who is “born again” literally has God’s own life and Spirit dwelling in him. He is forgiven of all his sins; he is brought into a full relationship with God, who is now his Father; he has a completely new life with God, which begins at the moment he receives Jesus Christ, and never ends–it “wells up into life eternal,” as Jesus said in another context.

This can be YOU. It can be you TODAY. Receive Jesus Christ today. Enter God’s family. Don’t delay, even a moment.

John 1–Life–In Jesus Christ

godlovespeople — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:51:39 +0000

Life! Light! Both come through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who is the central figure in John’s Gospel. We live in a world that is literally consumed by death, and full of darkness. Into that world Jesus Christ came two millennia ago, and reversed the course of the world. When He came, both life and light came with Him, because they are IN Him–”in Him was life…” the Greek word for “life” here is the word zoe, which is different than just biological life–this life is the life that lightens men’s souls, and makes them sing. This life is the life that cannot end. This life is the life that “wells up into eternal life.” It is also light. It is light because through Jesus Christ, men can know God, know themselves, know each other, and know heaven. The entire world is “lit up” by Jesus Christ, and He is the “true light,” who causes the “darkness to pass away.” These two words, Life and Light, are two of John’s favorite ideas. ”Life,” in John is always the kind of life that opposes all death–spiritual, physical and eternal. ”Light” is always opposed to “darkness,” and is one of John’s metaphors for wrong, evil, sin. It appears that John sort of “circles around” his main message here, which is fully expressed later, but his method is really borne of necessity. He has to explain where all this comes from, and integrate it with the rest of the Scriptures. So his first statement ties The Son, Jesus, to the Father, God, with eternal cords. In fact, says John, they share the same nature–”the Word was with God, and the Word Was God.” If you think about it, this is a natural outgrowth of John’s first statement–”In the beginning was the Word.” In other words, when there was nothing else but God, then the Word was there. What else could He be, then, but God? He Himself affirms this in John 8:58, when He says, “Before Abraham was, I AM”–identifying Himself with the God who appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush (Exodus 3). To receive Him–i. e., to open your heart to Him, and all He has to offer you, and then to decide to follow Him as the Director of your life, turns you into the Father’s own child (1:11). More about that later.

No Judgment will stand against you–Ever!

godlovespeople — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:01:58 +0000

In an amazing passage in the Old Testament, the writer declares:

every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn…(Is. 54:17, NKJV)

The question is, how can you be sure that there’s not going to be any judgment against you?

Jesus answers this question in one verse in the New Testament–He said,

“He who hears my word, and believes in Him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24, NKJV)

In other words, if you listen to Jesus, and believe in the God who sent Him into the world (not just any god), you move from a state of death into a state of everlasting life. It sounds too simple, doesn’t it? Too easy. No qualifications, no questions, no resume’ or anything, no works, no membership in any organization–just, “Hear what I have to say, ” and believe in the Father who sent Me. Nothing else. Nothing more. But also nothing less. This is a sword that truly “cuts both ways.” You can receive everlasting life by believing, but if you do not receive Jesus’ words, and believe in the Father who sent Him, you have NOT passed from death into life.

But if you hear Jesus, and believe, then you immediately transfer out of the realm of death (spiritual, eternal death) into the realm of life–and you will always live there with Him and with His Father.

Too simple. Immediate. Sudden. You will never be the same.