Category: Verse of the Day

““I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.”

“Even when we’re at our worst?!”  If all these things sound so terribly impossible to you, well then, that’s even more reason to try and see if you could possibly surprise yourself.  It may sound very un-doable, but if Jesus has commanded the believer to do it, surely it must be possible — even in our own unique, broken, half-hearted way.  So, let’s just do it!

“If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God.  Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.”

This may seem like a tall order — to live the kind of life that Jesus lived — and it is indeed a tall order!  And that is not to say that we will succeed in our efforts every day, but at least we can try.  Perhaps we will succeed some days more than others.  And over time, perhaps the frequency of our successes will increase, but regardless, the takeaway is this:  do not claim to be a follower of Christ if you cannot try to be more like him.

 

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels — everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.”

Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, that is the very bottom line.  There’s no two-ways about it; there’s no politically-correct way to present it.  It is a fundamental fact and truth central to the believer and to the church. 

“^12-15 Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors.  Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.“

To a believer, the resurrection of Christ is a matter of pure faith and steadfast belief in the event of Christ having been raised up from the dead.  This is no “barefaced lie” and no “smoke and mirrors”.  It is not allegory or abstraction, either.  It is the  fundamental, factual truth upon which one’s faith is built upon.  And death is no longer a scary proposition because we know that we are not contained in death.  This is pure faith and nothing short of it.  This is the message every believer holds dear, and especially in the reality of the physical loss of a dear one.

It’s like asking a friend for a personal reference and fearing that they’ll say things about you based on what you have and how you look.  Aren’t you glad God doesn’t reference us like that?  And doesn’t even use that criteria when he thinks about us.  What a beautiful relationship we have with him! And since we do have this one-on-one personal relationship with a God who looks at us with so much love and forgiveness, ought we not do the same with our fellowmen?

 

“If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.”

This love business doesn’t let up, you see.  And there’s nothing ambiguous about it either.  You claim that you love God?  Well, then you need to be clear that loving your fellowmen is as good as loving God.  In fact, you can’t claim to love God if you can’t love your fellowmen.  How much clearer could that possibly be?

 

“Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?”

Some rather seemingly unsettling advice being offered here.  Do you dare?  To let go and let God?  To embrace suffering? To follow God in utter and only faith?  To stop trying to arrange things?  Because, there’s a question here that one must honestly answer:  what good is it if you get everything you think you really want, and yet lose yourself in the process?  Would that be worth it all?

 

“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. “Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God ’s Decree. “I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”— God ’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.””

I suppose one could read a verse such as this one and feel nothing but detachment, given the nature of the prophecy and the intended audience.  And yet, notwithstanding the facts, it is possible to read it as if you are the intended reader, and this is God telling you and me that He is there for the finding.  Are you looking for him?  Do you want him more than anything else?  If you do, you are free to claim this promise as well!