VISION / LIFE

Today’s Scripture    (Received today from a church in Texas.)
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.  1 John 4:16, NIV

Sometimes religion tells us, “Clean yourself up, then God will love you. If you fail to do what’s right, if you don’t perform correctly, God won’t have anything to do with you. If you’re good enough, if you measure up, then God will help you.” That’s not real love; that’s conditional love. Real love is not about your performance, what you do or don’t do. It’s about who God is, and what He’s already done. Nothing you can do will make Him love you more.

When you know that God is love, and you rely on His love for you, you’ll go to Him with confidence. You’ll pray bold prayers, you’ll ask Him for your dreams, you’ll believe for your health to turn around, you’ll expect new doors to open, you’ll move up to the next level—not because of who you are, but because of who your Father is. When you receive His love, you’ll quit trying to be good enough. You know He’ll go out of His way to be good to you.
    
A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that You love me because You are love, that it’s not just what You do but it is who You are. Thank You that I don’t have to clean myself up to earn Your love or get You to love me more. I receive Your love and rely on You to show out in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Ken’s Comments,   So GOD is Love, but is that all that HE is?   NO !  GOD is LOVE, of course but HE is also HOLY and POWERFUL.  He totally destroyed all of the civilizations of Noah’s day, saving only 8 souls.  He cremated Sodom and Gomorrah and instructed Joshua to kill every soul and animal in Jericho except for Rahab.  The 10 commandments is not Thou shalt not kill but (murder.)   And the ultimate judgment of the fallen angles and fallen man is outer darkness for eternity with no possibility of redemption.  So are you on God’s good side in loving HIM in humility and obedience or are you on HIS bad side in rejecting Christ Jesus as LORD as HIS salvation for you?  So YES, GOD is LOVE and in HIM is no darkness at all.   But you better believe it that our Creator God is also balanced and is storing up a great WRATH for those who have ignored His salvation in Christ Jesus and what God’s Prophets and Apostles have brought to us to help us gain the victory over the World, Flesh and the enemy.  God has allowed evil to exist as He knew that we would need a spiritual gym with some weights in it in order to get spiritual muscles.   That is why God allowed lucifer to destroy Job’s health, family & wealth.  He allowed it in order to deal with Job’s fear as in Job 3:25.   Interesting to note here that nothing happened to his wife, as Job was not fearful about her in a negative way.   Fear is Faith going backwards and fear causes that which you fear to find you out.  A good verse on this is: 1 Tim. 1:7-8, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].  So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or about me His prisoner, but with me take your share of suffering for the gospel [continue to preach regardless of the circumstances], in accordance with the power of God [for His power is invincible],     So how do we go from where we are to where we need to be as Real citizens of God’s Eternity?   And I use the word real as many think that they have changed their citizenship but really,  they have not,  Isa.28:9-20.  They are still self centered and in love with this world.

First we must find God’s vision for us and then His Church and Biblically confirm it until we have no doubt that we are on the narrow way (road) to receive that Holy Vision which Jesus also talked about as in Heb. 12:2, “  [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].   Peter puts it this way, “For by these He has bestowed on us His precious and magnificent promises [of inexpressible value], so that by them you may escape from the immoral freedom that is in the world because of disreputable desire, and become sharers of the divine nature.”

So as we find promises & vision for us and decided to go for it then we tend to toss the stuff that tends to hold us back.  And proverbs puts it this way,  “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”  So really what is your vision and spiritual purpose of life?  Why did God create you?  How do you fit into the Body of Christ, 1 Cor. 12.   Or are you so absorbed in being self centered that you don’t have time to even consider such things.  Of course when you life is over you will have eternity to consider what was really important in your life.  Had my 11 yr old  great grand daughter just ask me how you can know someone is saved or not.   I told her it is not about good or bad it is about adoption.  That we are born into this world as the children of this world and the children of Adam who died spiritually in pride and rebellion.  And we were born spiritually dead but God, our Creator, in HIS great love sent us an invitation to be able to change citizenships to the Kingdom of God and to be spiritually born from above by our Creator if we want to, as in John 3.   So what family do we belong to?  She left happy.

In other words,  have we  agreed to change our citizenship from this world in being self centered into becoming a true citizen in the Kingdom of God and Jesus centered or not?   All we have to do is ask Christ Jesus to forgive us and to make HIM the LORD of our lives and center in HIM instead of ourselves. In old Hawaii the word was “Hanai” or to be taken from one family and placed into another.  And it was often done as one couple would have too many kids and another couple would have too few or none.   We have been invited to change families, have we done it?

So in the last chapter of the Book of the Revelation we find these words: “The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, believers) say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take and drink the water of life without cost.”  So it is really up to you to find the great and precious promises in scripture for your personal vision and to use your time on earth to grow spiritually into the person that would enjoy living with a Holy God in a totally righteous Kingdom of loving  fellowship.  If this earth is representative of our potential future, we have a lot to look forward to in eternity in creative light.  So have you taken the time to really change your citizenship?  It is not automatic….

Yours in HIS great Love and wonderful Grace & Mercy,   Ken<><     www.OhanaChurch.Life