From God's Word

We've been revisiting various truth lessons here at Abundance House. As littles grow into no longer littles, faith lessons come back around. Hearing these lessons again is good for us all, even if the situations that reveal their need seem unpleasant. Everyone benefits from hearing God's ways of life.

While praying through some of these things this afternoon I went on a hunt for truth. God's truth. A hunt for God. He is the truth. As I prayerfully read the words Jesus spoke to his disciples in the book of John His love and care began to wash over me in wave after loving wave. The more I read, the more rested and refreshed I became.

I have been following Christ as long as I can remember, yet even after all of these years I still can't help but be overwhelmed at why He loves us so. Why did He do this? Why did He come to earth and die for us? Why? The answer was there in the words I read on my hunt for truth.  Love. For God so loved He gave His Son, and because the Son loved the Father He laid down His life.

More than once in the book of John Jesus said love empowers us to obey His commands. His parting command before returning to the Father? Love one another deeply. Only Love that lays itself down for the undeserving and unholy strengthens a person enough to obey. If Jesus laid down His life for me when I was so unholy and undeserving, who am I to not lay down my life for others as well? Am I greater than the One who made me? No! Indeed I am not!

Here, at such a moment of revelation, is where I find myself in a place of repentance and sorrow for forgetting the undeserved extravagance of my Savior's love, for treating His great sacrifice more casually than I ought. And on the other side of repentance is where I now have the blessed honor of living transformed. This is where I remind myself of what being a child of God is about.

This is where I refuse to be entangled by emotional woundings of yesteryear and choose to live out the freedom Jesus paid for instead. Every day opportunities to live Jesus and lay my life down for others are all around me. Every word I speak is a seed of either life or death. Everything I do and say is worship to either God or Satan. I am glorifying God or I am praising satan, one or the other. There is no neutral ground.

Sharing these words with you right now, I ask the questions I ask myself. These are not to be condemning but revealing. Remember Christ's extravagant love. Whatever we discover about ourselves can be confessed and repented of. Amazing grace is ours because of Jesus. His extravagant love is what we are celebrating. These questions are for leading us more closely to Him.

For whom do I live? For whom will I live?
Do I serve God or Satan?  Will I serve God or Satan?
Which one will it be?
Who do I glorify? Who will I glorify?
Who do I honor? Who will I honor?
Who do I follow, adore, and obey? Who will I follow, adore, and obey?
Who do I serve with your words and deeds? Who will I serve with your words and deeds?
Who do my conversations glorify and praise? Who will my conversations glorify and praise? Who?
Whose deeds do I recount and tell to the generations? Whose deeds will I recount and tell to the generations? God's? Or Satan's?
Who do I set my affections on? Who will I set my affections on?
As Joshua told the Israelites, today God says to us,  " ... choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods your fathers worshiped on the other side of the river, or choose the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living." And as Joshua also decreed may we each decree as well, " But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. ”  Joshua 24:15

Resting in His love,
Abundantly Blessed