relationships

New impulses created by Jesus’ love.

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9“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

12This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.

15I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.  John 15:9-17

Jesus says, “You are my friends!”

Jesus expects friendship with Him to create new impulses.
Remain in my love. vs. 9
Obey my commandments. vs. 10
Love each other. vs. 12, 17

The order matters here:

Remain in my love. Obey my commandments. Love each other.

Without this order, obedience to Jesus will turn into a dance with self-righteousness. All of our efforts to obey Him will turn into religious appeasement crafted with the hope of making ourselves lovable to Him and OK with the world… except that we are so unable to make ourselves loveable and the world’s applause is fickle.

The order starts with love. To remain is to abide, live in, and enjoy the reality of Jesus’ love for us. His love His solid and fully expressed in His life, death, and resurrection. Obedience is a fruit of being gracefully loved by Jesus. He has initiated this divine friendship.

Live loved! Being loved by Jesus brings us into the communion of God. As we deliberately move our thoughts into the Gospel narrative we will discover new impulses given us by the Spirit to continue in His love, to obey His commandments, and to love people.

In you.

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9But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

10And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

12Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. Romans 8:9-13

The glorious reality of the new creation accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ and His work for the forgiveness of sin is this: “The Spirit of God, who raise Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”

In you. The Holy Spirit confirms you belong to God.
In you. Though your body will die because of sin, you will live.
In you. The Spirit gives life because you have been made right with God.
In you. The same Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead gives life.
In you. The Spirit frees you from enslaving obligations to the sinful nature.
In you. The Spirit has the power for you to put to death sinful deeds.
In you. By the Spirit, you will live.
Wow! This causes me to pause.

Consider. Give thanks. And listen and respond now – to Jesus.

The Day You Start Something New

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22The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 23This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. 24This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success. Psalm 118:22-25

September is full of new starts for many of us. And for those of us who aren’t in school anymore we probably still feel the echo of an impulse to start something new. We still like the smell of a box of crayons, the feel of a new notebook, and the adrenaline that accompanies the unknown. And yes I know some of you are so glad to be done with school, but I bet you still have to face days in which you face something new.

On the day you start something new, I hope you are continuing a prayer conversation you started some time ago with God. In my house this morning I heard this line called out as a wake-up call: “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

I love the rest of the prayer too: “Please, Lord, please save us. Please Lord, please give us success.”

When we start something new perhaps one of the greatest fears before me, is not just that I might fail, but that I might be rejected. Its really good for me to note that the Psalmist’s prayer here for success recognizes the grace of God even in the context of rejection: “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.”  That’s Jesus. Jesus crucified is the stone rejected. Jesus resurrected is now the cornerstone for the people God is building. Jesus is enough!

So, now on the day we start something new, we can call out the prayer with Jesus and in the name of the One who knows the pain of rejection and the joy of the Father’s redemptive power!

When faith gives voice to fears.

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The Lord will work out his plans for my life—

for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.

Don’t abandon me, for you made me.

Psalm 138:8

Christian faith does not ignore the doubt stirred up by conflict or the challenges to our hope in the promises of God. When we have adjusted our life to follow God the inevitable testing comes. Practicalities and pragmatism pull at us. Is this really going to work? Am I an idiot for trusting God? Is there a shortcut to the dream God has given me?

When King David was a young man Samuel anointed him to be the next king. But David’s journey to the throne was long and tedious. His commitments and values were tested. Having faith did not mean that David had to ignore reality in the world around or in the world of his mind and heart. It was his faith in God that actually gave voice to his fears. His fears were not allowed to be a unspoken hidden force controlling him.

This weekend Psalm 138 was read at the beginning of our worship gathering. Do hear the tension in the last verse? The whole prayer moves along the tension created by faith and fears. “Don’t abandon me.”

The Lord will work out his plans for my life—

for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.

Don’t abandon me, for you made me.

Psalm 138:8

Have you been this real with God lately? When was the last time your conversation with God moved along the tension created by your faith in Jesus and by your fears? He is waiting and willing to meet you.

The heart seeks life.

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2“I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

3“You must not have any other god but me.

4“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind…

Exodus 20:2-4

The heart of humanity is on a search for life. When the affections of our heart are not shaped by the Presence and worth of God, they will latch onto something else as a source of life, meaning, hope, and happiness. Our heart has been called an idol factory. So true!

The testimony of Scripture shows humanity over and over intensely preoccupied with constructing idols out of people, ourselves, and the stuff of earth. The Scripture show us that even in the pursuit of “god” we are capable of constructing whole systems of belief that obscure the Truth and abandon grace.

God reveals Himself. God rescues. God liberates. He is the Lord our God. In these Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) God casts a vision of what knowing Him creates in the heart of those who cherish Him. Knowing Him creates a will to pursue Him and to forsake idols. I rejoice in Jesus Christ. For He has come from the Father full of grace and truth. He says,

24“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

25“And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. 26The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.  John 5:24-26