God Speaks Love

Are you ready for Christmas yet?  Have you been able to get your shopping started? Will you get together with family this year? Is that all there is to this holiday? 

This past Sunday was the second week of Advent at our church and the theme was love. What a great time of year to talk about Love, especially if we can focus on the Love that God has for us. God's love for us is displayed in many ways. First of all, the simple fact that God created each one of us means that He loves us. 

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life." (Psalm 143:6)

He is also available to us at all times of the day, 24/7, 365(6) days of the year. Also because God made each of us, He knows all about us and cares for us. God knows what we need, sometimes when we don't even know what we need. God does not want any harm to to come to us or our families. This also means that God is working on our personal life events and desires that nothing but good comes to us. 

"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)

If we ask God, He will provide direction for our relationships with others. As mentioned in the last post, God thinks about us and rejoices over us in singing. These are all great examples of how God shows His love! (adapted from 10 Ways God Shows His Love For You! POSTED ON JUNE 1, 2017 BY DEBRAPEDROW)

The best example however, is when God sent His Son, Jesus to earth as a baby. Can you imagine the sacrifice made by Jesus Himself for us? Jesus was already in Heaven with God and He knew God's plan of salvation for each of us. Jesus willingly came to a dirty, sin-filled earth as a humble baby to begin a very rough journey of love for us. 

"and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:2)

He was born into a world of sinners, many of whom treated Him unkindly, and endured 33 years before offering Himself as the ultimate sacrifice and bridge for our entrance into Heaven. God the Father suffered for us by sending His Son out of the safety and "wonderfulness" of Heaven and into the wicked world. Not only that, God knew that the mission for Jesus would require great suffering on the part of His Son. Parents do not typically send their children out of safety to a place where they will suffer, but God did. Both God and Jesus sacrificed even more by the death on the cross. 

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)."  (Ephesians 2:4-5)

When Jesus died, because He had consumed the sins of the world (the Bible says He BECAME sin), God had to turn His back on Jesus. 

"He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

As a parent, I cannot imagine willingly turning my back on any of my children. Imagine Jesus too, at the time that He needed His Father the most, God turned His back because He WAS sin. Fortunately, this was a short-lived occurrence. Once Jesus released the hold that the devil had on those He loves, Jesus went back to Heaven. Still, God and Jesus willingly made these sacrifices in order to save the ones they love....anyone that calls on the name of Jesus for salvation!  Remember this Christmas season that the cute little baby, whose celebration we await, became SIN for us, so that we would be able to celebrate Him for eternity!

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:13)

Life--"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;" (John 11:25)

Obedient--"And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:8)

Value--"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."  (1 Timothy 4:8)

Eternal--"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)

God Speaks. How do we know what He says is true?

In my last blog post, I mentioned going a little more in depth with the resurrection part of Holy Week. Thinking of the title of this blog, resurrection is the answer to the question. We know what God says is true because of the resurrection of Jesus. We know that Christianity is true because of the resurrection. This is also what separates Christianity from the other popular world religions.

Some time ago I did very brief research on several of the world's most popular religions. There are two significant distinctions between Christianity and the other religions. Let me first clarify what is meant by Christianity. Christianity is belief that Jesus is God's Son; that He was born as a man through a virgin; that He died and resurrected and that the way to heaven is through belief in and acceptance of Jesus and what He did for us. If any of these beliefs are other than described, then it is NOT Christianity.

The first significant difference to mention between Christianity and other "religions" is that in all the other beliefs, humans are responsible for their arrival in heaven or nirvana or whatever the "place of peace" may be called. According to most other popular religions, only if humans do the "right things" or "try hard enough" or "do enough good things", can they enter heaven upon death. From what I researched, most of these other beliefs do not even signify that the person on whom their religion is founded is the one who determines their entry. Who is the one to judge whether they are good enough, or have done enough good things? Christianity still requires action from the individual; however, it is not subjective. God asks us to believe and accept Jesus and His sacrifice for us and to let Jesus have charge of our life, then we can go to heaven with Them. God is the one that determines if we have done that and it is not subjective, it is objective. Believe and accept or not; very cut and dry.

To further describe the sacrifice of Jesus for us, it was much more than just dying on a cross. Realistically none of us are worthy of communing in Heaven with God because God cannot tolerate sin and we are all sinners. If there had been no Jesus, or He had not become our sacrifice, ALL humans would spend eternity in Hell because we ALL sin (do bad things) and sin cannot be in God's presence. God knew that there was really nothing that WE could do to get rid of our sinfulness, so He sent Jesus. God's ultimate goal for Jesus was to experience OUR punishment of Hell instead of us. When Jesus was on the cross, Jesus BECAME our sin (our bad things) according to 2 Corinthians 5:21. He spent time in Hell and took the keys of our jail cell from Satan so that we won't have a room there. All God asks in return is acknowledgement and belief that Jesus did this and a willingness to allow Jesus to lead us in life. If we do that, our key is thrown away. If we don't do that, Jesus returns our key to Satan.

The second significant difference between Christianity and other "religions" is Resurrection. No other leader has resurrected anyone nor has been resurrected themselves. The Bible mentions several stories about resurrection. Most were in relation to Jesus. Either he performed the resurrection or was resurrected Himself. In Luke 7 we read of Jesus bringing back to life the son of a widow. In Luke 8, Jesus resurrects or brings back to life the daughter of Jairus. The third resurrection performed by Jesus was that of Lazarus, his friend. To the Israelites, only God had the power to resurrect and by performing these three resurrections, Jesus was proving that He was God. The next resurrection recorded is that of Jesus Himself. On the third day of His death, Jesus came back to life. Matthew 27:51-53 tells us also that when Jesus was resurrected, many others were as well.

"Matthew 27:51-52 The Voice (VOICE)

At that instant, the temple curtain was torn in half, from top to bottom. The earth shook; rocks split in two; tombs burst open, and bodies of many sleeping holy women and men were raised up. After Jesus’ resurrection, they came out of their tombs, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and showed themselves to people."

This verse also describes the temple curtain being torn in half. The temple curtain was used to separate the "commoners" from the area of the "presence of God". Once that curtain was torn in half, the "commoners" had immediate direct access to God and no longer had to go through a mediary like a priest. In comparison to the other popular world "religions", no other leader came back to life after dying! That is what makes Christianity different. Jesus came back to life and is still alive in Heaven waiting for us. The other religions follow their leaders' teachings long after they are dead, but Christianity follows the teachings of Jesus, Who has come back to life and is still living. Because Jesus died once and came back to life, so can we. Whether pr not we acknowledge and belief in Jesus sacrifice and let Jesus be in charge of our life will determine whether we live eternally in Heaven or Hell.