Friday, June 06, 2008

Mom Dad


God is love. God's love was such that He gave us life (for it is about life not existence) to test us to see if we would inch our way to Him to lay hold of Him even if there are distractions, divided hearts, cares of the world, or divided attentions spans. In spite of crowds who wanted to hear Jesus (and there will always be crowds who want to do that) there were relatively few in number that wanted to be His Disciples at such a time as when Jesus could begin talking about discipleship after performing miracles.
Jesus' statements and mention of counting the cost, forsaking all, to follow, to be able to believe Him to be the Messiah, Son of Man, who is servant to man and minister to all, etc. all were irritating. People found them hard statements if they had not been softened by His goodness enough. To Jesus miracles were a side issue to heart matters if the temporal need was not immediate as He saw fit. Jesus did not like to be called Master for this reason.
He would go to the cross and rise from the dead to be seated in Heaven to go great lengths to reveal His Risen purpose to obtain true Disciples of God in this grace age.
And when He arose from the dead over five hundred brethren (see I Corinthians 15) observed Him ascend to Heaven but where were they ten days later? Only one hundred twenty were in the upper room to be commissioned by our Lord and to wait for the Promise of His Father: The Holy Spirit which was to come. (Jesus said, "I must go away, so that the Comforter, The Holy Spirit may come John 14-17.")
Jesus wants us to go beyond the bread and the fishes of His provision and the tingling of the ears of hearing His sermons and allow Jesus Himself be the "first love of our life" and to embark on a journey of leaving the past behind for The Great Adventure of being born from above. And simply if we would go after Jesus' Gift with reckless abandon for Him and the calling from the Christ, and pursue His cause, leaving sin and sinful things on a permanent basis behind and obtaining forgiveness from God, they could have '"church" with their heavenly Father God and one another consistently so they could find the simple relationship God is after with them, and they too reciprocating of what would fulfill them the most (God-man relationship!) Jesus saves, keeps, and satisfies!
God is reaching out to you and if you will hear His Voice, don't harden your hearts while it is still called Today, but come to Jesus Christ Hebrews 3:15! His love is unfailing! He will not fail you to not accept you (He will not cast you away) but He will throw the biggest party for you this side of heaven has ever been for you! Accept Him and you can be His crucified yet risen child Gal 2:20;Col 3:1. God will put you right with Him.
All of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. And there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who's repenting than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance!
When a man found a treasure in a field He hid it in the ground and sold all he had to buy that field. Jesus said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things will be added unto you" Mat.6:33. This is that Kingdom treasure we can lay up in heaven. Nothing, no thing can corrupt it. It starts w/ love, joy, peace, and healing (Therapuo sounds like therapy in Grk?)
Jesus Christ will listen to you with meekness of heart and become your rest (Hebrews 4) and cause you to find Him the Savior and Lord, Jesus for your soul, real refreshment! Talk it over with Him. We're not talking about never a bad thing happening but a well-balanced Christ - in - you, the hope of glory, life Col 1:27; Phil 1:21;2:12,13. A more than a conqueror love from God to firm up your spirit in Christ in victory will be yours also Roman 8:29-38.
These steps are to real peace with God in prayer, praise, worship, and purpose Rom. 5:1. Read Matthew 8:1-22. Read, "The Pursuit Of God," by A.W. Tozer.
Jesus gave the signs of the Kingdom and then the calling to the Kingdom. His miracles were just a preview of the Kingdom. But right in the middle of all this power...Jesus thought... of as important: calling children to Himself for blessing and the basics for disciples.
PEOPLE are Drawn to Jesus. The great PASSION of God is the unsaved. Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10.) Jesus sees the crowd - He has compassion. The "crowds" come because of their needs. It is all about what they can get out of Jesus (Jn 6:26.) This is the major problem with the "Seeker Sensitive." People will always be drawn to those who will help. But, they will not stay when they don't get what they want!
Jesus knew it was time to leave! In the middle of the miraculous, God gets tough! He will use the blessing as a call to commitment. Jesus is asking for our hearts today... Let us come and commit it all to His Hand... and forsaking all, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.
Signs and wonders are part of LIFE in Christ. They follow obedience and preaching the word. Jesus can touch anyone...leper,Roman,evenaM -I - L!
It's not about the disease, but about the WORD! Jesus takes and carries them... Disciples learned: The heart of ministry to the hurting is Jesus. The Passion of the Heart of God is LIFE. Our ministry awaits...
Following Hard after God, tenaciously serving Jesus... I am His servant, Dave C w/ help from beloved RC