Who Could Love Me Like You?

Psalm 139 has got to be one of the most beautiful Psalms ever. Feel free to take a look at it here: http://www.esvbible.org/Psalm+139/. All throughout this Psalm David is tripping out on the greatness of God. One of the key images David displays is how much God knows us. God literally formed us in our mother’s womb, before the foundation of the world He has loved us and thought of us. David also talks about how precious God’s thoughts are toward him. He says,

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.” (17-18)

Who could know us like God? It is true that if we could count them they would outnumber the sand. I would go on to saying that His thoughts towards us are endless. They are endless beams of perfect love, and He desires our hearts to be pierced through by His infinite love towards us.

Check out this Psalm, maybe even meditate on it for awhile. Get on your face before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who loved you infinitely before the world existed.

 

The Cure For A Restless Heart

I believe St. Augustine put it best when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” In the Greek the word for heart is “kär-dē’-ä”. Kär-dē’-ä in the biblical usage for heart meant the center of all physical and spiritual life. Your heart is everything that you are. Think about it, your heart is the reason that you are alive. If you have no heart you would have no life, and if your heart stops beating you die. That is why in the Greek of its meaning’s is that your heart is all that you are.

Now when the Lord Jesus came to the earth, a man came up to Him and asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him,”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”(Matthew 22:36-40). The word used for heart in this passage is kär-dē’-ä. Look though, Jesus does not just stop at the heart, which is already represented as all that you are. He goes on saying love the Lord your God with all of your soul and mind. So Jesus is saying with EVERYTHING THAT YOU ARE LOVE ME. For that is the reason that we were created, to love God. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever, that is the Chief End of Man. That is the only way that we will ever have joy, satisfaction, and peace.

Do not think that God is being self-centered by saying love Me with all that you are and glorify Me. If you had a child wouldn’t you want to give him or her the best gift in the world? And when they received that precious gift wouldn’t they say how much they love it? Or how great it is? If not, their joy would not be full, for our joy is made complete in expressing how great something is (giving it praise). It is the same way with God. Since God is the best gift ever, He gives us Himself, and He does not hold back. So when we receive Him, naturally we say, “Praise you Lord! I love You more than anything Jesus! Glory to Your holy Name!.” And we will never cease to give Jesus praise. He gives us everything we could ever desire in Him; completely independent of anything else, when we deserve damnation and separation from Him forever. How great is God? By giving praising Christ and loving Him with everything that we are, we are ultimately and infinitely satisfied in Him. See we do this all the time with creation, but we never do it to the Creator. Herein lies our hearts disease of restlessness and longing.

Recently in reading the Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer says before we sinned against God that, “In the deep heart of man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come.” In our hearts was God, He lived in us. That is the ultimate joy of life; to have God’s Presence living inside of us. But because of sin, The Lord our God, our Maker, and everything that we are was ruthlessly forced out of our hearts and things took their shameful place on the Throne of our hearts. Tozer says, “Men  have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk, stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.” Our hearts are not only restless when they do not rest in Christ, but they are restless when God does not rest in them on the Throne, getting all of our love, adoration, and worship.

In conclusion, Jesus is enough. So many times i fail to realize that every morning, before i get out of bed, i must say to the Lord, “Jesus, please come into my heart, and live in my heart as Lord and Master on the Throne of my heart by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Do not let anything take Your place on the throne of my heart, for my heart belongs to You and is Your throne, and Yours alone. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.” Please pray this with me today, for Christ is worthy of our hearts.

Oh Death! Where Is Your Victory?

Death has been defeated. Death itself has died. Though not completely yet physically, but death has been defeated, and has died. How? How could death, merciless, evil, heinous death, have been destroyed? Listen: Death has been destroyed by God. When Jesus Christ died on the cross He took our sin away. Sin always leads to death. Death is the offspring of sin. So God was made sin on our behalf; meaning He took our death. Jesus lived the perfect life that we couldn’t, died our horrific death for sin so that we wouldn’t, and resurrected three days later so that we may too be dead to sin, death, and the devil and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Think about any loved one of yours that has died. It’s horrible, isn’t? Because you know that death is wrong. Deep down inside you know that we are not supposed to die; we were made to live. But because we sinned, we died. God said to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”-Genesis 2:7. And we all know what happened. They ate of the tree, and since that, death has run it’s evil course through the veins of all of human history, taking no prisoners along the way. But Jesus took our place of death and wrath that we deserve from God, and not only taking away our sin, but resurrecting 3 days later conquering death. He takes away death!

The Apostle Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The victory is in Jesus Christ and death and resurrection.

Jesus today is offering you eternal life! He is offering you everything you could ever want! Everything that you could ever want is in Christ! He satisfies everything! He gives you life though you deserve death, and damnation forever! He gives you new life on this earth by allowing us to be born again! you have been longing for this ever since you were born. It’s right here.

Jesus looks at you today, with arms open wide, saying, “Come! Come! I Am everything that you could ever desire and more! I made you for Myself, for My pleasure, so that you could have fullest joy in Me. Did I not make you, and do I not know what is best for you? Everything you could ever want and more is in Me. If you come to me, I won’t hold back. You will finally have everything your heart desires, because I alone can satisfy your restless heart.”

Come to Him today. He desires your joy to be made full in Him. It’s the reason you were made. To be satisfied in Him, thus He is glorified. For God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.

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The Belt of Truth

Today we are going back to Ephesians in the short study of what it means to put on the full armor of God.

“Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,”- Ephesians 6:14

This is pretty gnarly. What even is the Belt of Truth? i don’t know but it sounds awesome. To accurately understand what the Belt of Truth is lets look at what a ordinary belt does. A belt is made to hold up your pants. All day long, you wear your pants, and if you didn’t wear a belt, you would be hobbling along all day with your pants on the floor. Therefore, you are unprepared for the day, lacking your belt. You’ll try desperately to hold up your pants by walking around all day with your hands holding your pants up. All of a sudden, that kid from across the block sees your hopeless struggle of keeping your pants up. Being not protected or girded, he brings your pants down to the ground man. This is a day without your belt.

Now, consider spiritually if you have not fasten/ put on the Belt of Truth. the enemies gonna try to pull down your pants during battle all day. Cause you’re fighting with a sword in one hand, and a shield in the other. How are you going to hold up your pants? Both of your hands are occupied? This is what Paul was alluding to. The belt of Truth is the Truth that we know. The Gospel. We know the Truth. Jesus also says,”you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.”(John 8:32). Isaiah 59:17 says, “Righteousness shall be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” What is the belt of Truth but knowing what is true, and girding up your loins and preparing for a day of battle. Once you know the truth you wear it around you like a belt to keep you from stumbling. Because when we forget the Truth do we not stumble? When we have not fastened ourselves around the fact the Christ died for us; wretched, hell-bound sinners, we will stumble. We are not ready for the battle of the day.

i’ll end with this. Jesus did not leave us as orphans John 14:18 says. He has given us the Holy Spirit! He says in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” The Holy Spirit is our Helper, and the only way a Christian can live. He is our life-source. Without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. But thanks be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us the Helper, to lead us in all Truth.

Ask Jesus today to pour out the Truth and Love of the Gospel into your heart today by the power of the Holy Spirit. Even ask Him to fasten your the Belt of Truth around your waist.

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A Wrong View of Love

In our society today, t.v. reality shows, the internet, and America in general have misconstrued love. i could be eating a sandwich and say, “Oh wow, i love this sandwich!”. i have taken this word that means so much and belittled it down to a momentary pleasure of eating a sandwich. The Greek language has four words for love: Storge- a brotherly love, Phileo- a friendship type love, Eros- being loved loving someone, and Agape- loving someone despite their condition or circumstance. That’s how important this word was for the Greeks. They made four words so that they could better understand love.

Here is the thing though: God IS love (1 John 4:8). Ain’t that crazy? and God’s love is entirely different than ours. We presume that if a person likes a person enough, they love each other. “Mom! i am in love with this girl! She is so pretty! i love her personality! And were gonna get married!”. This is the worlds view of love. Think of who loves you: your family, mom, friends, family, etc. Do you not know that anyone in this world and the love that they can give to you is utter rubbish in comparison to the love of Christ? Jesus says, “There is NO GREATER LOVE than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:3. This is love. This love is difficult. It costs you your life. It cost the Father His Son.

From this post we can learn one thing: we are desperate for love, and we long for a love that sticks. Let me tell you one thing though, if you are getting your love solely from humans you soon will become addicted to that, if not already. C.S. Lewis would brilliantly said, “Affection (love) is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.” Understand this: every other love apart from God is going to fail you. Considered that this love is from humans. But there is Good News! God is longing to pour out His perfect, everlasting, infinite love that is better than life into your heart today. If you do not believe God loves you look to the cross.
This is where The God of the universe would offer Himself to die because of our rebellion against Him, so that we could be with Him forever.

Ask Jesus to come pour out His love into your heart today. It is better than life, and it doesn’t stop.

photo: frtim.files.wordpress.com

A.W. Tozer Quote of the Week

This week we will be looking at a really sweet quote from A.W. Tozer:

“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”

That is just the best news ever. And i will tell you why. Each person in the world desires that. They want unconditional, perfect love, all to themselves. And God gives that to us. We want to know and feel that we are loved, and God does this. This truth should make you treasure Jesus above ever other person/pet or thing that is in your life. He loved you so much that He died for you. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:3. God perfectly loves us as if we are something special. Cause you are something special to Him! Even though we all are broken, ugly, sinning, wretches. you are precious to the God who made everything. (He made us out of dust).

Will you receive God’s infinite, perfect, precious love that is better that life itself? Maybe you haven’t felt His love. Maybe you have never heard about the Gospel in your life before.  “Taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” Psalm 34:8.

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This is Amazing Grace

One of my favorite songs i have been listening lately to is ” This is Amazing Grace” by Bethel Live. From beginning to end, this is just a fantastic song. Here’s some of the lyrics that are in particularly good.

Chorus:
This is amazing grace
This is unfailing love
That You would take my place
That You would bear my cross
You would lay down Your life
That I would be set free
Jesus, I sing for
All that You’ve done for me

How good is that?

Verse 1:
Who breaks the power of sin and darkness
Whose love is mighty and so much stronger
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder
Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

i can’t say much more about the song, you are just going to have to listen for yourself! Listen to it below!

To The One Who Conquers

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In Revelation chapter 2-3, Jesus speaks to the first Churches in history. He gives them rebuke, encouragement, time for repentance, promises, and an invitation to finish well. These chapters have got to be some of my favorites in the whole Bible. What the Lord said then to the Churches He is still saying to us today. This is true for the entire Bible as well, but were just looking at this chapter today.

Jesus gives us amazing, precious promises if we conquer. Meaning if we fight the good fight of faith and finish well, we will spend eternity with Him. That alone is an amazing promises, but we’re gonna look at the ones in Revelation 2-3.

1. “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” 2:7

2. “The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” 2:11

3. “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” 2:17

4. ^“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” 2:26-27

5. “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” 3:5

6. “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” 3:12

7. ^“The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” 3:21

Meditate on these promises that the Lord Jesus has promises His children. These promises are so precious, take time to thank the Lord for them.

The Chief End of Man

Every person in the world wants to have meaning. Meaning to live, meaning to have a job, meaning to have a family, etc. We actually dare i say NEED to have meaning, or else we are utterly hopeless, lost in a world of lies that say we came to existence by mere mistake. That lie is a tragedy that ruins men and women today. But we know that that theory isn’t true. That this all was not just a mistake. That the humans race can’t have just happened by a mistake.

This world, the universes, people, creatures, and all of it’s beauty, could not have just been made by mere coincidence, or else, we all should just go and kill ourselves right? Because if we think about it, if we evolved, and there is no God, then life means nothing. There is no hope, no meaning, no nothing. You may say, “That’s not true! i can go enjoy life and drink and be merry! death is just a natural process!” To you my friend, look to your death. If we die and there is no God, then why do you fear death? Since it’s natural, you shouldn’t be afraid of death, but you are. But thanks be to God, that there is hope and meaning.(we will get to that). So, why don’t we just commit suicide? Because WE DO NOT WANT TO DIE. Why do hate our loved ones dying? Because death is our enemy. Everyone fears dying. That is simply something you cannot deny. Why do we not want to die? Because WE WERE MADE TO LIVE. We have meaning because of the True God who alone is God. The only meaning in this life is glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.

The Chief End of Man: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Now, when i say “God” i ain’t talking about this far away being that we know nothing about like all religions say about their god or gods. There is no truth in any other religion apart from Christianity. if you don’t believe me, study every other religion apart from Christianity. Not one will have A God-man who predicted and pulled of His own death and resurrection from the dead. Not one will give an answer to why we die that actually makes sense. Not one deals judgment to the wrong in the world. And not one will the most historically accurate book in the whole world that has about 2400 prophecies with about 2000 already fulfilled. Only Christianity has these answers. Jesus Christ says ” I am the Truth, the Way, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6. That means every other proclaimed “way” is false.

In this i conclude, Jesus Christ is the only hope the human race has. He alone gives life, meaning, purpose, satisfaction, all consuming love that is greater than life, peace, and a reason to live. Not any other religion in the entire world has Someone who actually conquered death. Every other one is fake. Take heed to this word. Jesus Christ died for you and me, and resurrected three days later conquering sin, death, and the devil. Give your life to Him. Accept Him into your heart as Lord and Savior, and surrender your life forever to Him. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and repent of them, and turn to Him and pursue a life of righteousness, by His Holy Spirit in you. Christ has done everything He possibly could to show you how much He loves you. Why wouldn’t you give all you are to Him?

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C.S. Lewis Quote of the Week

i think i’m going to start doing posts of the week for certain things. Bible verses, studies, good worships songs, quotes from authors, etc. Just makes things a bit more organized.

Anyways, the first quote of the week comes from one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis. Lewis’s series of Narnia books are just awesome. Although i have only seen the movies, i can assume the books are pretty dang good. Aside from that, here is the quote:

“Wrong will be right,
when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth,
winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.” – C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’

Aslan, the Lion, is a perfect example of who Christ is. When Jesus comes back, He will right every wrong, He will take all of our sorrows away, and winter will meet it’s death, meaning we will finally be in heaven, with Him, forevermore. This day remember the fact the Christ is coming soon. Be on guard, living each to fully for the glory of God. “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.” Revelation 22:12.

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