Jesus came to show us the love of God

 

lifewordslifewordslifewords It's a great Friday and I prayed for you this morning. Our Savior is for us, with us, in us.  As you put your trust in Him, You cannot fail today! He is worthy of all our thanks and praise and worship.  It is such a privilege to be connected with you, thanks for reading "lifewords"! Love, Amy Jesus came to show us the  love of God  I'm so overwhelmed as I read through the Gospels  and see God's immeasurable love for us through the life and Words of our Savior. Jesus left heaven to demonstrate God's love to His creation, to fallen man.  John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life."  Oh The love of a Father to redeem us from the grip of sin and death and eternal separation from Him! This love extends to all! This love is lavish! I'm so thankful for this eternal gift!  We see love demonstrated as Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God, patiently teaches His disciples, and is moved with compassion for the multitudes. We read how Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. He loved His friends. He raised the dead. He loved children. He loved the hurting. He loved His enemies. He loved those His Father had given Him, even knowing they would all forsake Him. He was completely consecrated to the will of the Father to the end. Jesus is the love of the Father demonstrated.  The most precious passages in God's Word, to me, are found in the last chapters of the Gospel of John.  Can we imagine the scene of the final gathering  of our Jesus with the men that God had given Him, knowing what was to come and what He was about to face. Our Lord purposefully gathered His disciples together for some final words. How precious this time was to Him, to have gathered with them in the upper room. The Words He spoke were for them and for all who would later become His followers. Sharing the bread and wine, speaking of His Body and Blood given for us. We also see our King removing his outer garment, wrapping a towel around His waist, taking the pitcher of water and the basin, and washing the disciples' feet. He had already told them that He did not come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. He took the form of a servant performing the lowly job of washing the dirt from their feet, giving them and example of how to love. He told them to love one another, just as He had loved them.  By this the whole world would know the Father!     In that upper room, He spoke to them of the Holy Spirit, whom He would send to be with them forever. He spoke to them of being connected to the Vine. He spoke to them of the Father's love.  In verse 15:9, "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.  This is my commandment,  that you love one another as I have loved you."   Love. Love. Love. He spoke to them of His death, of His departure and of their future. The prayer of our Lord in chapter 17 of John shows His precious love for us. I love the last part of His prayer to the Father, "I made known to them Your Name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them."   One of His final prayers was that the love of the Father would be in us.  Jesus is the  image of the Father and His love. His purpose was to reveal the Father and His love and become the Way that that love could live in us and dwell in us forever.  In the garden we see our Master on His knees saying, "not My will but your will be done." Love. At the trial, at the scourging, the beating along the path to Gogotha, nailed on the cross, the sin of the whole world placed upon Him, all the host of hell taunting Him, He loved to the end. In hell  He defeated enemy, conquered death, and took  His blood to heaven to sprinkle on the mercy seat for the atonement of sin forever.  All for the love of the Father to be made manifest and to reconcile us to that love. Even now  He intercedes for us at the right hand of God. His love pursues us! And His love will rule and reign forever and ever. Oh how great the love of our God for us.  His love is shed abroad in our hearts today by the Holy Spirit. Receive His love, let it set you free,  allow it to consume you, release it to those around you and  never stop rejoicing! Through the New Testament Psalms and Poverbs in 40 days   Day 23/40 Proverbs 23 Psalm 61-65 Acts 13-19

 

The Matchless Name of Jesus

 

lifewordslifewordslifewords 7.22.10 It's a great Wednesday and I've been praying for you this morning.  What a privilege prayer is. Jesus said to pray to the Father in His Name.  He urges us to stay steadfast in asking, seeking and knocking and promises that all who do will receive, find and the door will  be opened. I love Paul's admonitions to the Church, to pray and not faint......don't be anxious for anything but pray about everything......pray without ceasing...pray in faith believing...pray with all manner of prayer and petition. Every believer can learn to pray well because the Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Jesus is our example.  Jesus not only stayed in continual communion with the Father in prayer, but He regularly drew away to a secluded place to pray.  Have a praying day, in fellowship with Him today! Remember that you are His beloved and He loves you with an everlasting love. You are His masterpiece. All is well, because He is Lord. Love, Amy The Matchless Name of Jesus. I'm thinking of Psalm 9:9,10 again today. "The Lord also will be stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know Your Name will put their trust in You; For You O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." He is our Stronghold, our Refuge, our place of safety today! When we know His Name, we will put our trust in Him. Oh His wonderful Name above all Names!  Our capacity to trust Him is clearly linked in scripture to our knowledge of His Name. My prayer for you during this season we are focusing on Jesus, is that you will find fulfillment in God's promise in Psalm 91:14. "I will set him on high because he has known My Name." I pray that He is writing His  Name upon our hearts so indelibly that we would be ruined for ordinary thinking and mediocre living, and truly live to the praise of His glory. I'm praying that His thoughts are becoming our thoughts, His will is becoming our will and His purpose our purpose on this earth.  A friend asked Mrs. Albert Einstein if she understood the theory of relativity.  "No, not at all, " she answered. Then she added, "but I  do understand Albert, and he can be trusted!" I love this! We may have complete spiritual understanding about all matters, but if we know  Jesus and know His Name we can trust Him. As we seek Him in the Word, and meditate on who He said He is, as we truly see who He is in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate our understanding......we will be able to love and trust Him completely and grow up in our faith. As His Church, the Body of Christ, must know Him and understand Who He is. Then we will become who He has made us to be in Him. We will grow up in our faith. We will   be a reflection of Him to  humanity. Even more than this, He wants to manifest the reality of His Name to the world through us, the Body of Christ.  O Lord that we would know You  as  You are  the Word, (Jn. 1:1, Rev. 19:13, 1 John 1:1), the Creator,  (Col 1:16) the Son of God, (John 1:34)  our Redeemer, (Isaiah 59:20) the Way,(John 14:6) the Truth, (Jn. 14:6) the Resurrection, (John 11:25)the Life, (Jn. 14:6)  the living Bread, (Jn. 6:35, Jn. 6:51)Deliverer, (Romans 11:26) The Captain of our Salvation, (Heb 2:10) the Good Shepherd, (John 10:11) the Light of the world, ((Jn. 8:12) the Author,  (Heb. 12:2, Heb 5:9) the Finisher, (Heb. 12:2) the Head of the Church, (Col 1:18) Our high priest forever (Heb. 5:6) the Vine, (Jn. 15:5) the Living God who will never forsake us never leave us, and always love us with an everlasting love. To know His Name is to know Him. To know His Name is to understand the power and authority in that Name. To know His Name is to be able to exalt  Him who sits on the throne, to Whom all praise and honor and glory and power will be forever and ever! (Rev. 5:13)          Through the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in 40 Days  Day 22/40     Proverbs 22     Psalms 56-60        Acts 6-12 D

 

Jesus is The Way

 

lifewordslifewordslifewords 7.20.10   I am praying for you this morning, right now. Faith filled praying, in the Name of Jesus, is so powerful.   I hope you are meditating on  Who Jesus is,and decreasing so He can increase! I'm so thankful that He surely IS  who He said He is.....our Savior, our Redeemer, the Resurrection and the Life, our Good Shepherd, the Vine, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Living Water, the Way the Truth and and Life, the Name above every name that is named.  He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is Faithful and True. I'm praying that as you read today's lifewords, the Holy Spirit will illuminate and magnify your understanding of Jesus as the new and living Way. Remember that you are His beloved and He loves you with an everlasting love.     amy.  Jesus is The Way      I'm overwhelmed meditating on Who Jesus said He is.  One of those declarations  was in John 14:6 when He said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Wow! Just think about that.  Today I'm asking the Holy Spirit to expand and magnify and increase our understanding of just the first part......He is The Way. Oh if we can grasp this today it will change our thinking about everything!   To understand the magnitude of Jesus being The Way, we have to go back the the Garden. God created Adam and Eve because He wanted a family.  They enjoyed fellowship with Him.  They enjoyed such freedom and love with their Father.  When they chose to disobey God as an act of their will, they not only sold out their vast privileges and rights to the enemy, but were separated from God and driven away from His presence.  Tragically, every person born on earth since Adam, the first man, was born with this sin nature, separated from God.  Oh but God's heart of love for His children could never leave us in that condition! For thousands of years, sinful mankind was separated from Holy God, and no one could enter His presence.  Then God set Abraham apart, made a covenant with him, giving him the promise of the coming Messiah through His lineage.  His descendents were also given the Law and the Priesthood and they continued in covenant with God through the Levitical priesthood and the blood of animals. God dwelt in their midst in the Holy of Holies.  No priest could approach Him unless they were covered by a cloud of incense and with a basin of blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat, and this only once a year by the appointed priest to make atonement for the sins of the people.  God's unapproachable presence was not in the outer court of the Temple, not in the inner court. But behind the veil, which was 4 inches thick! The Priest, having entered into the Holy of Holies, would then make atonement for the sins of the people. Failure to approach His presence in an unacceptable manner meant death! Throughout these thousands of years sin  separated  God and man; but oh how God wanted to His man reconciled to Himself! This is why God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to bring back fallen man to Himself. This spectacular event was called Incarnation of Jesus Christ, and it changed everything!     Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became the Way back to the Father! In Matthew 27:51 as Jesus "gave up His Spirit" on that cross,  it says, " And behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom..."  I love this!  The veil in the temple was rent in two by God, signifying that the separation between God and man was removed forever.  Jesus became the Way! Now every person who trusts in Christ's substitionary death on the Cross, receives forgiveness by His shed blood, who is born again and made a new creation in Christ, is no longer separated from God because of sin.  Jesus is The Way!  He is our Way! Remember in Hebrews 10:20 where it says we now have access to the Father by a "new and living Way" .  We can rejoice today, knowing that there is now no separation between us and God.  He is the Way to Life, to peace, to joy, to healing, to wisdom, to eternal life. No person can come to the Father except through Him.   Through our Jesus, the Way,we can come boldly to His throne of  grace to find mercy and grace to help in a time of need. Through our Jesus, the Way, we are not separated, alienated from God, without hope.  Through our Jesus, the Way, we have forgiveness, fellowship with Him, and eternal life. Now, His presence is not just in the Holy of Holies in the Temple made with hands, but we have become  His dwelling place.  He desires to live in us, dwell in us.  Remember in John 14:23 when Jesus spoke of making His abode in us?! We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus, thank you for being the Way! Because He is the Way, we are not in darkness and we are not lost. We can rejoice today!!!!!!! Through the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in 40 days. Day 20/40       Proverbs 20         Psalms 48-51            John 15-19

 

Who did Jesus say He is?

July 15, 2010
lifewords
Hello it's an awesome Thursday and I'm praying for you now as the sun comes up over the hills outside my kitchen window. Every day is a new day of His grace. His mercies are new every morning. I love Psalm 34:8, "O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusts in Him." He IS good and the more we know Him, the more we will trust in Him.  I'm so glad we  can put our trust in our God today.  Psalm 34 says we are blessed because we trust in Him! Lord we thank You and praise You and love You. "Our soul waits for You: You are our Help and our Shield.  Our heart shall rejoice in You, because we have trusted in Your holy Name." Psalm 33:21		Through the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in 40 Days Day 15/40 Proverbs 15 Psalms 34-37 Luke 22-24
Who did Jesus say He is      While He was on this Earth, Jesus our Savior, the Son of God, declared many truths about who He is. Today I want to focus in on a few of these truths. You can be sure that  His Words about Himself will never pass away and they are sure. They are true. This is who He is to you! Meditate on these verses. Look them up and mark them in your Bible. Write them down in your journal.  Put them in your heart, memorize them. Speak them. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to You and then live your life believing that He is Who He says He is!    In John 8:12 Jesus was speaking at the Temple and said, "I  am the Light of the World; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life ." Every day when you wake up, proclaim these words!  Jesus you are the Light of the Word.  You are my light. I'm not walking in darkness today. I'm walking in Your light. Your light is shining through me to this dark world.   In John 6:35 He says,  I am the Bread of Life; he who comes ot Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.."  and in verse 51, "I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever."   In John 10:14 He says, "I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep."    In John 11:25, Jesus says to Martha concerning dead Lazarus, "I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies."  He is the Resurrection today and because He lives, we live!  There is no death in Him! and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you this day.   In John 14:6 He comforts His disciples with these words. "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." There is no other name.  There is no other way. He is the Truth!  He is Life!   In John 15 Jesus says, "I am the True Vine." and  speaks of us abiding in Him and His Word in us. We are the branches abiding in the Vine today.    In John 6:38 He says "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." Everything about His life was in complete obedience to His Father. Oh that this would be our heart's cry today. Lord, not my will but Yours. Not my thoughts, but Yours. Not my words, by Yours.  Jesus, Thank You  for  Who You are, the same yesterday, today and forever.

I must decrease, He must increase Part II

 

lifewordslifewordslifeswords July 14, 2010 It's a wonderful Wednesday and I prayed for you this morning. Have a great day decreasing so He can increase!  Love, Amy   I must decrease, He must increase    Part II                         A dear friend send me this beautiful hymn yesterday after reading the "lifewords" on us decreasing and Jesus increasing in our lives.  It is one of his favorites, and although I have never heard it I was immediately impacted by the precious words.  I know you will love it also.  I pray it will be life and encouragement to you this day beloved one. And thanks to Dennis for sending it!     None of Self and All of Thee  Hymns, #435       Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow,      That a time could ever  be,     When I let the Savior's pity    Plead in vain, and proudly answered,    All of self, and none of Thee,    All of self and none of Thee.        Yet He found me; I beheld Him    Bleeding on the cursed tree;     Heard Him pray, Forgive them, Father,    And my wistful heart said faintly,    Some of self, and some of Thee,    Some of self, and some of Thee.         Day by day His tender mercy,    Healing, helping, full and free,    Sweet and strong, and ah! so patient,    Brought me lower while I whispered,    Less of self, and more of Thee,     Less of self, and more of Thee.         Higher than the highest heavens,    Deeper than the deepest sea,    Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered;    Grant me now my heart's petition,    None of self, and all of Thee,    None of self, and all of Thee. COPYRIGHT protected       Through the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in 40 days  Day 14/40 Proverbs 14 Psalm 30-33  Luke 17-21

He must increase, but I must decrease

 

 

lifewordslifewordslifewords 7.13.10   I'm praying for you this beautiful Tuesday morning. His living Word is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet this day. You are surely His dearly beloved one.   I awoke this morning with the words of John the Baptist resounding in my thoughts.  Speaking of Jesus the Bridegroom in John 3:30, he proclaims,  "He must increase, but I must decrease."  Daily I realize how much of me is still dominating in my life.   I'm so thankful that this day is a new day to submit to His Lordship.....in my thoughts, in my words and my actions. Jesus!  Be glorified in our lives.  Oh that that His love, joy, peace would reign in our hearts and that His will would supercede our flesh. Isn't it great that His mercies are new every morning?  Each day is a new day for His grace.    I've been pondering how these words become real in my life.  Me decreasing.  Him increasing.  I know for sure He wants to to increase in our lives to such a degree that we begin to look like Him, sound like Him, speak like Him, love like Him.  That more and more, we abandon wanting our way for desiring His ways and serving others. My precious daughter had some wonderful insight on John the Baptist this morning.  These words about him decreasing and Jesus increasing meant that  he was willing and prepared to abandon His ideas about his life and his future to the plan of God. Are we willing to submit our ideas about our plans for our lives to His Lordship?  Are we willing each day to be ruled by His love, not by our flesh?    I think there are many ways He wants to increase.  One way is sure.  As the Word of God increases in our life, He increases. Jesus is the Word!  The Word increasing in our lives, means He is increasing.  His Word is His will. His Word is His plan.  Remember in the book of Acts it says that the Word grew, it increased in the Church.  Then it says that the Word began to multiply. It also says that the Word began to prevail.  This is exactly what begins to happen in us as we become passionate about the Word.  It will grow, increase, multiply and begin to prevail in us.  When this happens, He will be increasing and we will be decreasing. Let's make living Word our priority.  O Lord, we pray this day that You would increase in our life, in our families, in your Church. We pray that you would help us to decrease, that You would be seen in us. 40 Days through the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs   Day 13/40    Proverbs 13     Psalms 26-29     Luke 12-16