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Posts Tagged ‘new creation’

Love Wins

Posted in God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, love, Salvation, Spiritual Growth, The Father, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

THE most powerful force in the universe and beyond is love.  Love existed before there was anything else.  Within the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit there has always been an immutable, living-giving love that pulses with joy, and beauty, and holiness.  That love is other focused.  It is an eternal reality of the Trinity that the three persons exude love.  It is why they created.  It is why humanity exists.  Look at the conversation within the Godhead revealed in Genesis 1:26-31.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

The creation of mankind was God’s penultimate creation.  We are created in God’s image.  This is known as Imago Dei.  ALL of humanity is created in God’s image.  That includes those you like and even those you don’t!  With a war in Israel right now, it’s easy to take sides and hate those who instigated the war.  But even they were created in the image of God.  It is sad the evil one has so corrupted the minds and hearts of people created in the image of God.  But God has a plan!

There are many facets of what it means that we are created in God’s image, but I want to focus on two aspects that I believe are primary.  First, God has given mankind a will and the ability to choose.  In the greatest risk and reward gambit of all eternity, God allows each person to choose their own path.  The risk is immense.  God’s creation can choose to move towards Him or they can choose to move away.  The reward is a family that joins Him in true unity… heart, mind, soul, and strength.  The risk is a creation that moves away from Him and devolves into brutal, ugly chaos.

I recently read that the fall in the garden (see Genesis chapter 3) was less about breaking God’s one rule and all about choosing to love something other than God first.  WOW!  I had not seen that before, but it makes sense.  And that brings me to the second point of being created in God’s image and that is our capacity to LOVE, which is intrinsically who God is (1 John 4:7-21) for God is love. 

With the ability to choose, we have the ability to cast our love wherever we so choose.  This was the temptation that Adam and Eve fell prey to.  They turned their love onto the lesser thing.  They chose to do what they wanted.  The devil tempted them, but it was their choice to turn their love from God to something other than Him. 

All of humanity has this same tendency to turn our love to lesser things.  Now the point is not that we cannot love others.  Let’s go back to the garden.  Adam and Eve had an intense loving relationship with God AND His creation.  But the order was correct, they loved the Creator first and the creation second.  They were empowered to love because God created them in His image as an expression of His love and with the ability to love.  That has not been taken away, but it has been twisted and broken.  Fortunately, God has a plan!

When I came to faith some 40+ years ago the song that first captured my heart was “Your Love Broke Through” by Keith Green.  The chorus goes:

“Like waking up from the longest dream

How real it seemed

Until Your love broke through

I’ve been lost in a fantasy

That blinded me

Until Your love, Your love broke through

Like waking up from the longest dream

How real it seemed

Until Your love broke through

Until Your love broke through”

God’s plan… His risky, wonderful, amazing plan is that He, God the Father, sent Jesus, God the Son, to rescue us through the penultimate act of love.  We still have the ability to choose, but when we choose Him, when we surrender love of all lesser things and choose to love Him above all else, He moves into our spirit with Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit and we are restored into fellowship with Him.  We move from simply being created in His image to being Children of God.

The greatest reality in the universe is that God loves and He desires us to live in His love.  It’s a love that transforms us into the child of God we were created to be.  It’s a love that empowers us to place others first.  It’s a love that connects us one to another in a faith-building unity.  It’s love that fills life to the full. 

I know this love and God’s ongoing work in me is continuing to change me into the person He created me to be.  I’m not there yet.  And I have my moments when I need to be reminded of whose I am and that the love He has for me is to be shared.  But thanks be to God, I’m not the man I once was and I can see that I am becoming the man He has called and equipped me to be. 

Today, I pray you get a sense of the love He has for you.  You were specifically on His mind before you were formed (See Psalm 139). He set in motion the plan to rescue you from all the lesser things that vie for your attention, your focus and your love. You are created in His image, and He loves you so much He died to eliminate anything and everything that would stand in the way of you coming to Him.  Wherever you are reading this take a moment and just tell Him how much you love and appreciate what He has done for you.  Then receive His love.

Because you see in the end, love wins!

Be blessed my friend.  And let the LORD’s love empower you to love Him and love others well today!

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Conversion?

Posted in God, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I mentioned to a loved one recently that I was so thankful for the conversion of our oldest daughter.  They got this bewildered look and said, “Conversion?  What did she convert to?”  When I said, “To Christianity”.  He said, “But wasn’t she already a Christian?”

If you had asked her for a religious preference she would have put down Christian.  She could have recited some bible verses for you.  She would even tell you that Jesus was God’s Son and that He died for the sins of the world.  But was He Lord of her life, I know she would tell us no, he was not Lord of her life.  And this makes all the difference.

Judas was one of the 12 persons closest to Jesus.  From the hundreds of followers Jesus selected just 12 to become His disciples.  These men were given intimate access to Him for 3 years as He healed, taught, traveled, and preached across Israel.  Judas knew Jesus personally… closely.  Judas was committed to the cause.  He had given Jesus his life.  But, he had not given Jesus his heart.

There is a school of thought that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was based upon a misguided attempt by Judas to “force Jesus hand” to make Him declare Himself king.  The main thinking is that Judas was simply a greedy manipulator that Jesus selected knowing he would be a willing pawn in satan’s plan to have Him killed.  Either way, Judas chose his own way rather than to put his whole trust in Jesus.  At this crucial point in history his heart guided him to forsake an intimate life with Jesus and the family of God to do his own thing.

Although everyone’s story is unique, our daughter’s conversion has the characteristics that define a heart surrender to Jesus.

  • She had lived her life following her own rules for a long time, long enough to know that it didn’t fulfill her.
  • She recognized that there was something more, a sense of joy and peace that some people possessed that she couldn’t seem to attain.  She could do happiness and laughter, but these were always for the short-term.
  • She recognized that she did some things that broke even her own rules.  And that she broke God’s rules even more.
  • She came to a point of a broken heart.  She wanted to be a better person.
  • She trusted God.  She asked Him to help her.  She surrendered her heart to Him.
  • He entered her life and made her a “new creation”.
  • The transformation on the inside began immediately and it is visible on the outside as well.
  • She had worn a lot of masks and her life contained a good bit of lies and half-truths.  Part of the transformation is that she and God are identifying and discarding these.  This process, which the bible calls sanctification, is a life-long activity.
  • Today she is practicing reconciliation on a consistent basis.
  • She has given up several habits that were either harmful to her and others or were simply not helpful to growing in her new life in Christ.
  • She and her husband are closer than they ever have been as they are growing together.
  • She is devouring the bible and the Holy Spirit is opening her mind to the truth it contains.

I could go on, but the point is established – there is a fundamental difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus.  When you know Jesus, His love captures you and your heart is His.  You can know about Jesus and not experience the life-change that comes from a conversion experience.

On Easter 2000 years ago, Jesus emerged from the grave alive.  He is the living Lord.  No one else has ever died for you and risen.  Since He is alive, He is available to meet and talk with you.  It is His desire to meet with you.  To talk with you.  To help you with your needs.  To show you the right path.  To be your friend first.  But to also be your Lord.

Everyone has gods that they serve.  Some are obviously bad for us.  Others, like religion, promise to help us please God.  Religion is man’s attempt to reach God.  But God came to us.  He wants relationship, not religion.  Religion is like the workaholic father who buys his wife and kids all the stuff they want but does not invest time with them face-to-face.  Stuff and activity on their behalf is not what is needed.  Intimacy… time… relationship is what is important.  Religion can never substitute for relationship.  The best it can do is help give depth IF the relationship with God through Jesus already exists.  The worst it can do is kill people in the name of god.  More on this in another post.

God sent His Son, Jesus to live, die, and live again for you and for me.  Trust Him.  Seek Him.  Give Him your heart and you will KNOW that He is, that He loves you, and that He will live with you from now on.

If you want an intimate life with God speak to Him now.  You can pray this prayer.  You can be specific about where you miss the mark.  And about your needs.  He knows them already, but it helps us when we give them voice and share them with Him.

God, I come to you right now asking for your help.  I have run my life for so long and frankly I have made a mess of things so many times.  I am sorry for the times I have missed the mark.  I am sorry for the times I have sinned against you and others.  Please forgive me.  I turn away from my sin and I turn to you.  I want you in my life.  I want to be a new creation.  Thank you Jesus for hearing my prayer.  Thank you Lord for forgiving my sin.  Thank you Father for guiding my life from this moment on.  I give you my heart.  I accept your Lordship over every area of my life.  I give myself to you.  And it’s in the name of Jesus that I pray.  Amen.

If you prayed that prayer tell someone.  Tell me if you do not have any other believers around.  Just comment back to me.

Scripture to read – 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 5:1-5, Ephesians 2:1-10

God bless you today and always.

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