As a Christian we live two lives. One is our inner life…or our vertical life. This is our very intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father and consists of prayer and Bible study. This vertical life is spent getting to know God. The other is our outer life…or our horizontal life. This is our relationship with others as an ambassador for Christ. It consists of being the hands and feet of Jesus. This horizontal life is spent showing the love of God to the unloved and unlovely. Both are vitally important and interdependent on each other…for both are necessary to a vibrant and growing Christian walk. Our vertical relationship with Christ sparks us to reach out horizontally to others with His love… which sends us back to Him to be refilled…only to be again compelled to reach out for Him.
Tag: god’s love for us
Psalm 89:6 ” For Who in the skies above can compare with the Lord?”
As God expressed in Exodus 9:14, “There is no one like Me in all the earth.” God is just that…incomparable, and matchless to anyone or thing we can imagine here on earth. He is transcendent and beyond what our paltry human minds can contrive. Look up into the sky today…take in the sheer vastness of it…now ponder, that’s just a tiny bit of God.
Job 21:22 “Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges even the highest?”
The very source of all truth comes from God. No one teaches or advises Him. He is the Supreme Ruler of both heaven and earth…and He governs justly to all. No one is like our God, not one. And for those who put their trust in Him…there is the promise of eternal life.
John 15:12 ” My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Jesus loves us with an unconditional love…it has no bounds…no restrictions. But can we love each other in the same way? Maybe it can be in what we don’t do that can show the love of Christ more effectively to those around us. Instead of yelling in anger and frustration at the kids…we don’t. Instead of becoming upset and disappointed with a co-worker…we don’t. Instead of allowing discouragement and despair to break apart our marriage…we don’t. For sometimes the greatest way to demonstrate God’s love to others… is in what we don’t do.
Joshua 22:5 ” But be very careful to keep the commandments and the Law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
It’s your first day of work at a new job, and how do you spend most of it? Reading and signing paperwork. There are contracts, job descriptions, and policies and procedures to review and sign. But as a Believer, you also have a job description for the work the Lord wants you to be doing here on earth. This scripture shows us we are responsible to so well represent the Lord, that if someone looks at us, they will only see the love of Jesus shining forth. Our relationship with God should be such, that our faith is never doubted…our love for Him never questioned…our worship of Him, uncompromising and pure. Yes, our obligation to the Lord is great…but not in any comparison to the reward.
House Rules – If it cries…love it.
If there are young people in your house, you probably either formally, or informally have House Rules. Principles that help maintain order, routine, and guidance for everyone within the household. The same goes for the Body of Christ. This House Rule – If it cries…love it, takes it context from II Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” He is the God of all comfort…extending mercy, love and encouragement to us in our times of crisis and pain. And in that, we learn how to pattern and demonstrate that same love to others.
We’ve got to live: Securely in His love
For those of us who have been betrayed by someone who said they loved us, but did the opposite. Who said they would protect and esteem us, yet carried out appalling acts against us. We feel hesitant that the Lord is really trustworthy…we are anxious and uneasy to put our total faith in someone who could, for all we know, suddenly turn and threaten or deceive us. But by immersing ourself in His Word, and reading promises such as Psalm 13:5, which says, “But I trust in Your unfailing love.”…we can grasp with certainty the unending, unchangeable love of the Lord.
Colossians 3:19 ” Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”
I cringe inwardly every time I over hear a married couple bickering in public. It hurts my heart to hear a husband belittle his wife, and she return it with a volley of sharp and biting comments. The type of love in this verse that the Apostle Paul is talking about is a love rooted in the mind and will of the person, and means to value, esteem, prize…to treat as precious. The fastest way to embitter a person is to make them feel devalued, worthless, and unappreciated.
Joshua 1:5 ” No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
No matter what, the Lord is there for you. His presence doesn’t hinge on how good you try to be or how many times you read His Word and pray…No, it doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do… God’s always there. Maybe you’ve been abandoned or deserted by someone in the past, so now you feel you can’t trust God. But it’s different with the Lord, for His covenant with you is unbreakable, unchangeable, unshakeable. Realize today…God will never leave or forsake you.
II Peter 1: 5-7 ” For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. “
Your Christian walk starts out on a Christ-shaped foundation…grounded in His Word…built on the solid rock of His love for you. But then starts the journey all Believers must make towards maturity. This scripture shows the progression from baby Christian to deeply rooted saint. Like a house being built on a stable foundation, each moral quality is stacked on top of the next…teaching, disciplining, and encouraging as we go. And in the end, a perfectly built structure will stand before our God.
Safetypinlove 