Christ provides what you need

John 17:17 (NKJV)

17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

This is part of a prayer Jesus gave for His disciples. The prayer was to God The Father that He would sanctify them according to the truth of His word.

Chuck Swindoll, in Embraced By the Spirit, published by Zondervan, 2010 wrote: One of my most unforgettable moments happened when I was about ten years old. My father served our country during World War II in a plant in our hometown, building all sorts of interesting equipment for the massive tanks, fighter planes, and bombers that defended us in lands far away. Dad worked too long and too hard. As a result he suffered a physical breakdown. And on its heels came an emotional trauma that puzzled everyone, including the doctors.

I was convinced in my heart that my dad was going to die. He may have had such thoughts too, because one night he called me into his room for a somber father-son talk …. I remember leaning hard against his bed, listening carefully to a voice that was hardly more than a whisper. I thought I was hearing him for the last time. He gave me counsel on life—how I should live, how I should conduct myself as his son. The counsel wasn't long, and then I left and went across the hall to the room that I shared with my older brother. All alone, I lay across my bed and sobbed, convinced that I would never see my dad alive again.

That scene still haunts me. Even though my dad recovered to live … I still remember the night he talked to me. Something very significant is wrapped up in our final words. Consider the night in Jerusalem when the Lord and his disciples gathered for … what we call "The Last Supper." Less than twelve hours after [that meal], Jesus was nailed to a cross; a few hours later, he was dead. Jesus understood the significance of those moments and the importance of his last counsel. And so he gave them exactly what they would need to carry them through the rest of their days.

Christ can give us exactly what we need in our lives. Take the time to fellowship with Christ, read the truth of His words and learn the lessons He teaches. 

Impacting the world

Joshua 24:15 (NLT)

15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

Chapter 24 concludes the life and reign of Joshua. In this passage Joshua challenges the faith of the people by first asking who they might follow. Then he makes a bold statement to show them his faith and to let them know that he and his family would serve The Lord. Joshua led the people to the Promised Land and now he challenged them to follow The Lord who got them there.

Many think to themselves, “One person can’t make a difference.” But the truth is one person can be the start of something great. Yesterday was Billy Graham’s 95^th birthday and media covered the events of his life. Over the years Billy Graham preached in many cities, speaking to thousands of people about the love of Jesus Christ. Dr. Graham would talk to them about the cross Jesus suffered on and died on as payment for our sins. In hearing the message from this one man thousands upon thousands came to know Jesus Christ in a real in person way. They came to know the love of Jesus and the hope for a better tomorrow.

Start believing in what you can do to impact the world in a positive way. There are some many ways to reach out to people who are desperately in need of hope. There are those in need of shelter. There are those who need food. There are those who just need to know they are loved. Find ways that you can help others and start impacting the world for The Lord.

Praying for all people

1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NLT)

1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.

The Apostle Paul writes Timothy giving him instructions on how Christians should pray. First they are to pray for all people. There is no specific manner in which they are to pray, but their prayers so be for God’s help; interceding on their behalf; and giving thanks specifically for there. It would be easy to neglect the upper class for they have much, but Paul reminded Timothy to pray for the leadership of the county so there can be peace among the people.

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others. [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (HarperSanFrancisco, 1954), p. 86]

When you begin to pray for others they become someone special. They come to your mind often and it’s usually at that moment you say another prayer for them. You find a desire for them to have a good life and for peace and good will to fill their hearts. You want to see them free from sin. If they don’t know The Lord you pray they may know The Lord. If they travel you pray for safety of their life. You give thanks for them, you ask God to help them and you ask for God to intercede on their behalf. This is how a Christian loves another who others may not even love or like. Begin praying for others and see what God does in your own life.

Love is sacrificial action

John 13:34-35 (NKJV)

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Judas had left to go and betray Jesus. The other disciples were still with Jesus. Jesus in His authority gave the remaining disciples a new command that they were to pass on – they were to love one another as Jesus Himself had loved them. Jesus was soon to die and they needed their love for one another to sustain them through the difficult times ahead. They needed each other now more than ever.

In his book Dad the Family Coach, Dave Simmons describes the shape love took in the life of his daughter.

I took Helen (8-years-old) and Brandon (5-years-old) to the Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg to do a little shopping. As we drove up, we spotted a Peterbilt 18-wheeler parked with a big sign on it that said "Petting Zoo." The kids jumped up in a rush and asked, "Daddy, can we go? Please. Please. Can we go?"

"Sure," I said, flipping them both a quarter before walking into Sears. They bolted away, and I felt free to take my time looking for a scroll saw. A petting zoo consists of a portable fence erected in the mall with about six inches of sawdust and a hundred little furry baby animals of all kinds. Kids pay their money and stay in the enclosure enraptured with the squirmy little critters while their moms and dads shop.

A few minutes later, I turned around and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent down and asked her what was wrong.

She looked up at me with those giant, limpid, brown eyes and said sadly, "Well, Daddy, it cost 50 cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter." Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is, "Love is action!"

She had given Brandon her quarter, and no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy take my steak and say, "Love is action!" She had watched both of us do and say "Love is action!" for years around the house and Kings Arrow Ranch. She had heard and seen "Love is action," and now she had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her.

What do you think I did? Well, not what you might think. As soon as I finished my errands, I took Helen to the petting zoo. We stood by the fence and watched Brandon go crazy petting and feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and chin resting on the fence and just watched Brandon. I had 50 cents burning a hole in my pocket; I never offered it to Helen, and she never asked for it.

Because she knew the whole family motto. It’s not, "Love is action." It’s, "Love is sacrificial action!" Love always pays a price. Love always costs something. Love is expensive. When you love, benefits accrue to another’s account. Love is for you, not for me. Love gives; it doesn’t grab. Helen gave her quarter to Brandon and wanted to follow through with her lesson. She knew she had to taste the sacrifice. She wanted to experience that total family motto. Love is sacrificial action. [Dave Simmons, Dad the Family Coach (Victor Books, 1991), pp. 123, 124]  

Letting love outweigh all

Romans 13:10 (NLT)

10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Love has no design to do wrong to others. In loving others we fulfill the requirements of God’s law in the treatment of others, because we do no wrong.

Canadian journalist Bronwyn Drainie in My Jerusalem: Secular Adventures in the Holy City (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1994), p. 220; describes the surprising behavior of a Haredi woman—an ultra-orthodox Jew—at a Jerusalem street market. Drainie says:

The most heroic single act I heard of during my two years in Jerusalem involved a Haredi woman. At the Mahane Yehuda one day, the Jewish street market just around the corner from my boys' school, an Arab terrorist drew a knife among the throng of shoppers and managed to stab two young men before fleeing for his life. The crowd of Israelis, incensed, began running after him, a number of them drawing pistols as they ran. The Arab darted across the street, running straight towards a Haredi woman of 40 who was standing at a bus-stop. Her name was Bella Freund.

In a trice she sized up what was happening. She stepped directly into the Arab's path and tripped him so that he fell to the ground, and she threw herself on top of him to protect him. The crowd kicked her, spat on her, threatened her with their guns, but they could not loosen her hold on the Arab, and she lay there until the police arrived to take him into custody.

Later, when the reporters got to her, Bella Freund said: "It was very simple. If you can save a life, you do it." Her hatred of Arabs, her lifelong conditioning never to touch a man who wasn't her husband, all of it was set aside in a split-second of truth. "I could not see a helpless man killed by a mob, whatever he had done," she said. "That's not the way I was brought up."

In an instance Mahane Yehuda took everything she believed about religion and replaced it with love. It was a love for life that motivated her to save this man who had hurt others. She gave him the chance to be justly tried instead of being condemned by an outraged mob. Her love outweighed her beliefs and gave this man a chance to live and a chance to possibly change his ways of thinking too.

Gone astray but there is still forgiveness

Isaiah 53:6 (NLT)

6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

All of mankind has been stained with the original sin brought into the world by Adam and Eve. We are bent on following our own ways and disregarding God when He is trying to lead us down the correct paths of life. Instead of walking with God we willfully and corruptly turned to our own ways following the sinful nature that lives inside of us. Despite our desire to go our own way The Lord has granted us mercy and grace from the transgression of our sin.

According to the Chicago Tribune, on June 22, 1997, parachute instructor Michael Costello, forty-two, of Mt.Dora, Florida, jumped out of an airplane at 12,000 feet altitude with a novice skydiver name Gareth Griffith, age twenty-one.

The novice would soon discover just how good his instructor was, for when the novice pulled his rip cord, his parachute failed. Plummeting to the ground they faced certain death.

But then the instructor did an amazing thing. Just before hitting the ground, the instructor rolled over so that he would hit the ground first and the novice would land on top of him. The instructor was killed instantly. The novice fractured his spine in the fall, but he was not paralyzed.

One man takes the place of another, takes the brunt for another. One substitutes himself to die so another may live. So it was at the cross, when Jesus died for our sins. [Choice Contemporary Stories and Illustrations, Baker Books, compiled by Craig Brian Larson, pg57.]

We may all have turned to our own ways, but God still offers a chance for redemption. God gave His son Jesus Christ to atone for our sin.  It’s up to us to acknowledge our sin, have a desire to repent from the sin, and place our faith and trust in Christ who died for us.

Injustice of the world

1 Peter 2:11-12 (NLT)

11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

The apostle gives warning to those who have accepted God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. For now they remain here on the earth where they battle against the temptations of sin. They are told to live properly, in wise fashion among those who do not place their trust in Christ. They do this so that in time the unbelievers will see their honorable behavior when God reveals the injustice of the world.

Author Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military regime there and its human rights abuses. Local police took their revenge on him by arresting his teenage son and torturing him to death. Enraged townsfolk wanted to turn the boy's funeral into a huge protest march, but the doctor chose another means of protest. At the funeral, the father displayed his son's body as he had found it in the jail—naked, scarred from electric shocks and cigarette burns, and beatings. All the villagers filed past the corpse, which lay not in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from the prison. It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on grotesque display.

Isn't that what God did at Calvary? … The cross that held Jesus' body, naked and marked with scars, exposed all the violence and injustice of this world. At once, the cross revealed what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have: a world of gross unfairness, a God of sacrificial love.  [Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God (Zondervan, 1997), pp. 185-186]

We often miss seeing the injustice of this world, but this father laid his son out for all to see. He allowed them to see what was done by the hands of others. Their shame was put on display for all to recognize the evil that exists in the world.