Commandments

 Matthew 22:37-39 NLT

Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

How many of us love our self? We have done things in our past that may question our worthiness. Even our current lifestyle may not be the one we believe is right for us. We have a problem wrapping our arms around the fact that the Grace of God allowed us to become saved.

Because of God's grace our past actions and lifestyle does not matter to our salvation. We are saved just as we are. There is no work to be done to obtain our place in heaven. That work was finished at the cross.

Ours sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. Jesus took them away on that awful day when He gave up His life for ours. He took away all curses, all sickness, all disease. By His stripes we are healed. We are not punished when we sin, but we don't sin because our nature is changing to be the nature of Jesus. Our mind is being renewed a day by day. Each day brings us closer to being Christ like.

As born again believers we have the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit in us. And our spirit is one with Him. Our spirit is already with Him, but the rest of us is working out its salvation with fear and trembling. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And then to love our neighbor as our self. 

And the more time we spend in communion with Holy Spirit, the more our heart, soul, and mind are changed. Our thinking changes. Our soul becomes Christ like. Our mind becomes renewed to the be the mind of Christ. Praise God!

Choices

Proverbs 3:5 NLT
LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

The only choice we must make is the choice between the word of God and what the world says.

That is not a one time choice. Sure we are saved and our eternal resting place is secure. But we are confronted daily with choice after choice. How do we make the right choice?

When we depend on our own knowledge, our own understanding and look to God last we may be heading into disaster. For Gods word tells us to not depend on our own understanding.

We spend untold hours absorbing books and videos of others to know more about God. And yet few go to the source. Few read the infallible word of God. Few regularly read their Bible.

When faced with issues day by day do we try to solve things on our own? Do we fall back into our worldly knowledge base? Or do we seek God for direction? I pray it is the later.

As we face today, may we go forth seeking His face. May we read His word daily and allow Him to lead us each step of the way.

I will praise the Lord at all times

Psalm 34:1-7 NLT
1 I will praise the Lord at all times.
    I will constantly speak his praises.
2 I will boast only in the Lord;
    let all who are helpless take heart.
3 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
    let us exalt his name together.
4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.
    He freed me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;
    no shadow of shame will darken their faces.
6 In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;
    he saved me from all my troubles.
7 For the angel of the Lord is a guard;
    he surrounds and defends all who fear him.

Working for God

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

We don't work for God. Doing what we think will please Him is good, but unnecessary to securing our salvation. That was secure the day we asked Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, the day we believed. His grace is sufficient and we cannot displease Him. We are in Christ fully covered with His blood. We are righteous in Christ and available for whatever He calls us to do.

Fear is not of God

1 John 4:18 NLT
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

Allowance

Ephesians 4:2 NLT
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.

When the word allowance is mentioned my first thought is back to my childhood when I would be given an allowance weekly to do what I wanted. It was not much; I think a quarter or less. When I was a teenager I had a paper route and earned my own money. So when Paul speaks to the Ephesians about making allowance for each other the word takes on a whole new meaning for me.

As we walk out in the Father's Love as Jesus said, being humble, gentle, and patient with each other should be easy. But here we are walking in the flesh instead of walking in the spirit once again where our old man is far from gentle and perhaps even a little condescending with a brother or sister.

We must allow our spirit to take over so we can get out of that fleshly mode we have lived through most of our lives. Holy Spirit and our spirit became one the moment we asked Jesus to be Lord of our life and He sent Holy Spirit to live in us. As we allow the spirit to rule, we see others as Jesus sees them and our old way of judging others because they do not line up wtih our way of thinking is replaced with our love for them.

It is God's love that we take on that gives us the ability to make allowances for those things that our old way of thinking would have seen as faults. For they are perfected in Jesus walking in the same promises as us. As we see them as Jesus sees them, we realize that. Thank you, Jesus!

Believe

John 3:16 NLT
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Words used today have totally different meanings than they did when I was growing up. Think about the word friend. If you are a Facebook user you know that the word friend has taken on new meanings. Are your friends on Facebook really friends? When you unfriend someone will you never speak to them again? And why aren't friends of friends your friend, too? Or can they be?

Everyone has seen the scripture reference to John 3:16. Some know the words, but do they really know them? The same can be said of His name, Jesus.

Knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. I grew up in church and knew the Bible stories. I knew God was always with me and that He was a good god. I knew the story of Jesus' birth and about the many times he healed the sick. I knew about Jesus.

I thought I was saved and that Jesus was with me in my daily walk. But it was not until I experienced Him in my life in 1991 that I asked Him into my heart, to be my Lord and savior. It was then that Holy Spirit came to live in me and everything changed. I was born again.

So before 1991 I believed about Jesus. I knew who the Bible said He was. But I did not truly believe in Him. I had not asked Him into my heart. Now He is in me and I am in Him. My spirit and Holy Spirit are one. Jesus lives in me!