Just like Dad... Monday moments with God

My Dear Children,
Nothing pleases me more than knowing you are growing up in your spiritual lives to
become more like me. You must be controlled by love, showing love to others just like I have shown it to you.

Though it's hard, you must love those who hate you and hurt you. Allow the things they do to you to bring out the best in your character and your responses. Anyone can love those who do good things for them, but only my children can love like I do - responding in a caring way in the face of evil.

When you love as I do, you can pray for others who hurt you - not just pray that the hurt will stop. You can forgive them, even when the things they do threaten to snuff out your very life, even as I did on the cross.

When you show the same love to others that I have shown you, people will recognize that you are my children - that you belong to me! Nothing makes my heart swell with joy more than that.

Love,
Jesus


Ephesians 5:1-2 GNT, “Since you are God's dear children, you must try to be like him. Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.” 
      
Matt 5:44-47 The Message “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

John 15:9-17 (CEB) As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

Luke 23:34 NIV Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Giving our all, Monday Moments with God

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” Romans 12:1 NLT*

My dearest child,

You may think that I'm asking too much when I ask that you give your whole life to me - your body, your soul, your intellect, your emotions.

But I don't ask any more of you than I demanded of myself. I gave up all of heaven's
splendor to be born in human form in a stable of all places. Have you ever tried to breathe deeply in a stable?

When I took on your form, I felt the same things you feel - the warmth of the fire, the chill of the winter air, the joy of worshipping my Father and the pain of betrayal and death. I even experienced a moment of intense, excruciating aloneness when I believed my Father could not look at me because of the sin, your sin, that I bore on the cross.

Because I love you, I will never turn my face away from you. I will never leave you alone or forsake you, no matter how much sin you believe there is in your life. I have already shouldered it all and covered it with my blood so it cannot be seen again. All you need to do is accept that as a free gift from me.

Give me all of your heart, mind, body and soul. Let me hold them in my hands. That is the best gift you can give me - a living and holy sacrifice - a gift of worship and obedience .

You will find it isn't a sacrifice at all. I will love you, hold you, comfort you, protect you and lift you up as a good shepherd that loves his sheep. I will write your name on the palm of my hands and hold you close to my heart.

All my love,
Jesus

* Romans 12:1, Philippians 2:6-11, Hebrews 13:5, Isaiah 49:16

God is...

It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6MSG

"How do you convince an atheist that Jesus exists?" Two teens in my Sunday youth Bible class recently asked this question because they had a family friend who refused to believe there was a God.

Their question led to a discussion of the ways we know Christ is real:

• Personal experience - I know Christ exists because I had a real, up-close and personal experience with Him when I was a child, following an abusive experience.I knew Him as a big brother while growing up and I've known Him as a Father since I became an adult. I can't imagine living without Christ in my life because of all the times I 've sensed, known, felt His love and presence with me.
• The experiences of others - When I hear the testimonies of others, my faith is strengthened. In some cases, their stories help me to know I'm not alone - not the only one wh has ever felt a certain way. Other times, I am awed by the things God has done for them.There are simply to many valid experiences by others to say that God isn't real.
• Nature- the development of a baby in the womb and feeling it move for the first time. The Grand Canyon, The intricacies of a snowflake and the fact that there are no two alike. All I have to do is look around and I can see Him everywhere.
• Miracles - How a person with cancer becomes cancer-free and the doctors can't explain it. How a migratory bird finds its way thousands of miles to a seasonal nesting area for the first time, even though it's never been there. How situations line up just right for the perfect outcome, even though it looked impossible in the beginning. Even "coincidences" or God's little miracles incognito are evidences of his reality around us. I've seen too many "God-incidences" not to believe.
• Because the Bible says it's true.The Bible is a life-changing book. When a person sets out to disprove God by discrediting the Bible and ends up believing instead - wow! Now that's a powerful testimony of the truth of God's word and his existence.

While they cannot change their friend's mind, they can pray for him and live their lives so that he will see the reality of Christ in them - then trust God to do the rest.

Lord, help us to live every day so others will see your reality in us and believe! Amen.