But we are talking about "this" life. We all know that this life will end. I'll be sixty one in April. Or will I? I might be pushing daisies in March. We don't have to be old to go. Several young men have been murdered in my neighborhood recently. I would like a home where murder was not ever heard of again. I would like a home where death was never heard of again. Is there such a place to move to and call home? Yes, there is. God is bringing His children home to Himself. Is your heart with Him? Do you long for King Jesus to be the King you bow to forever? Do you want His Father as your own dear Father forever? Perhaps you know Jesus as your Lord, your Savior, your King, and His Father as your own dear Father. If so there are several very important questions I want you to consider:
Do you want your loved ones to be home with you in Jesus Kingdom?
Do you want your friends to be home with you in Jesus Kingdom?
Do you want your neighbors to be home with you in Jesus Kingdom?
Do you want your enemies to be home with you in Jesus Kingdom?
If you can answer yes to all these questions, I think you will agree with me that Jesus commands us to love, and to do good, and to pray for all our loved ones, friends, neighbors and enemies. Love does no harm. Love may be tough, it may be taken as an intention to harm, but love cannot sin. Not the God kind of love. The God kind of love never fails to work for the good of others.
The Bible is God's love letter to mankind. It is the history of God's execution of His plan to reconcile, to redeem and to provide an everlasting home for all who trust Him. Do you trust Him? Do you trust that no matter what happens to your body in this life God will take your soul home when your body dies? If you are sure it is so, wouldn't that assurance free you to lay down your life for your friends? Jesus laid His life down for His friends. And because He rose again from the dead we trust that He will raise us to everlasting life in His Home, His Kingdom. But if you do not trust Jesus can you be at Home in His Heavenly Home? No you cannot. To mistrust the truth is to love a lie. Jesus is the way the truth and the Life. He said so.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
No one can be at Home with Jesus Father without going through Jesus. The is one mediator, one "go between" God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus died that you might live forever, and that your loved ones, friends, neighbors and even your enemies might also live forever. He died for your friends in Baltimore, your neighbors, your loved ones and your enemies God loves everyone of them just as much as he loves you. Jesus died for everyone of them. He did it so they could have life in heaven.
Luke 15:7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
We will know the love of God when we begin to be grieved that our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors and our enemies do not trust God and His Only Son. We are qualified for God's Kingdom because we believe and trust that His Son is able to save us. We trust that Jesus loves us and that He came from the comfort and safety of heaven to become a man of flesh so that He might take the punishment of death we deserved for our sins against Him. If we are not deeply disturbed that others all around us do not trust Him for everlasting life, we do not know that God loves them and is suffering today and every day that they remain apart from His eternal trust. It is the great commission that the gospel be taught to every man, woman and child. And there can be no more worthy occupation than to teach the gospel. Jesus said to the apostles "go and make disciples of all the nations."
What will you do to help those who are not disciples of Jesus to become disciples? To be a disciple means to be a student. Students learn their subjects. Jesus is the "subject" whom the apostles knew, He was the one whose words and teachings they had learned, He was the subject they were sent to teach the nations. They did as He commanded them, and because they did, the ones they taught taught others, and others taught others and those eventually taught you and me. Now it is our turn to teach those who have not yet been made students of the Master Jesus. If we are not to teach them directly, we are to help those who teach them. We will not lose the reward for helping the Lord's teachers in any way we can. Could it be a better thing if we ask God to make us teachers, to make us shepherds (Pastors), to make us evangelists, to make us prophets, to make us apostles? God will make us what we are able to be! He is able to place His ability in our hearts, minds, souls and bodies. Man was meant for these occupations. Will we all become these things? Perhaps not these things, but if we simply do what God wants us to do, we will be rewarded mightily in the age to come. Deacons are very needed in the church today.
Being what God has made us to be will mean doing what God commands us to do.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
To keep, to do His commandments is what He loves for us to do. He loves all men, and He loves that some (we) do what He commands! And He does not command us to do hurtful heart breaking things, He commands us to do good. Love and good do not harm others. The truth will sometimes, even many times, (some say every time) seem negative when it first appears. Jesus is the Truth and almost without exception everyone on earth who heard Him rejected Him when they first heard His truth. We need to trust Him, when He says He loves us, and when He says we must love the smelly man on the bus.
Love is the best teacher. God is Love.
1 John 4:7
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
If we trust Jesus, he will make us lovers of men. We will not be able to harm anyone when we are walking in love. The surest sign that our hearts are moving away from fellowship with God will be a desire in our being to harm someone or even to harm our self. Mankind was not made to sin nor to be sinned against. Yet we know that all have sinned. Therefore the command to repent, to stop sinning and begin doing good makes perfect sense.
Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
This is the nature of our Redeemer, to do good. As sinners it is not often and even sometimes never in our nature to do good. If we are honest, even after we are saved we find ourselves unable to do the good we ought to do. Thanks be to God for His mercy endures forever.
To be a good teacher we must do good to our students. Our students can be almost anyone who shares our "space." Why? Because we are always learning things from the things we observe. If someone sees you doing good, the good that Jesus would do, and you are able to give the credit for your good deed to the Name of Jesus, you may have made a disciple. You may have planted the seed of Jesus in their thinking that one day will sprout and grow into a towering oak tree of faith. We need to give the credit to Jesus at every opportunity by speaking His name.
It is essential that those who live on your street know you to be one who trusts Jesus and is born again. How will they know this except you say it and demonstrate it by doing what Jesus Commands? The same in your work place. The supermarket you shop at and the McDonald's you eat are filled with people who need to see you doing good. Just to see that may provoke them to ask why you are acting so selflessly. Then you can explain how Jesus loves it when we love others.
As a young teenager it is written of Jesus:
Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
No matter how old we are, if we believe in Jesus, if His word dwells in our hearts and we dwell in His, we can ask to increase in wisdom and stature as believers and in favor with God and man. Why is this a good thing? Because we will be making people see that Jesus is someone to be reckoned with, someone who deserves our attention. We will be influencing men in a good way. Would God not want this very thing to be done in us? I pray now that in every corner of the globe those who have received the trust of Jesus increase in wisdom and stature, that they find favor with God and with man, and that those who observe their lives become believers through the influence of their example.
We are warned by the apostle Paul:
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
It must be so that the opposite is true, that good company encourages good habits, and discourages bad habits. Will you join with me today in setting your heart to be good company for whom ever you meet? Even set your heart to do just one selfless act of loving kindness for someone each day. I am sure that eventually some one will ask why you do these things and open the door for your testimony. I'm also sure that doing these things will strengthen your heart in love and faith. I am one who learned late in my life the truth the marvelous and joyful truth of these words of the Savior:
Acts 20:35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
If we want Jesus to bring Baltimore home, we must begin to love one another, and to love everyone we meet in our daily journeys.
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