To love like Jesus loved…
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Woke up at 7:45 a.m. Would you believe it?
Well, I have a confession to make. The chemo treatments that I take really keep me awake at night. My mind races. Never bad stuff. In fact I never let an evil thought rest in my head.
To offset this sleeplessness my doctor prescribes me sleeping pills. Here is what happened. I was so tired when I went to bed last night, that I decided to forgo the pills. After all, sleep should be no problem.
2:45 a.m. rolls around and I am still laying there with good thoughts flowing through my mind. This is one reason that I simply lay there.
Well, I knew I needed to do something if I intended to have an active day in the morning. Finally got up and took a sleeping pill. You know the rest. My eyes pop open at 7:45 a.m. What a refreshing night. Believe I could wressle me a grizzly bear.
Speaking of bears, I’ve got to tell this. When I was young they had these small carnivals that would travel around smaller towns. One such carnival had a wressling bear. We were all gathered around the ring.
The ring keeper offered a certain amount of? money if any man would take on the bear and last just a short time. There were some pretty big dudes there. No one would take the challenge.
Then I heard, ‘Buddy, you take him on.’ Several voices joined the chorus. Guess what? I am not a stupid man. I did the same thing I did when they wanted me to grab the alligator and drag him into the boat. My resounding cry was, ‘You take him on.’
Course I would have whopped the tar out of that bear. I just felt compassion for him.? ? 
Ok, CJ and I went for the paper. Skimmed over things while drinking my one cup of morning java.
By the way I did catch up on my memoirs last evening. Brought everything up to my last teaching at Christian Challenge. It was titled, ‘A Stranger in the Land.’
Let me share just a bit from my devotion this morning. My reading took me from Nehemiah chapter one, to chapter two, verse 10. I’ll only touch on a handfull of Scriptures.
Nehemiah was made aware of the stressful conditions in Jerusalem. Here is part of his prayer:
v6 “…let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You? now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You: I and my father’s house have sinned.”
It all begins with an awakening and a confession. Nehemiah identifies with the sins of his people. He is so reminded of the Law of Moses. But he also knew that the Lord made a promise to the people — In their returning to the Lord, He would bring about their restoration, their healing, and their blessing.
Is it not so with us? When we awaken to our sin failures, and confess them before the Lord, is He not plentious in mercy? Does He not restore us fully in His grace and bless us with the blessings of heaven? Yes, He does.
2:4 “Then the king said to me, ‘What would you request?’ So I prayed to the God of heaven.”
Can there be a picture here of our throne privileges as children of the great King? We hear Jesus say to certain ones, “What would you have Me do for you?” How much more does He speak that into our lives. Learn this and live.
Nehemiah does something that every child of God should do. Before making his request to the king, he first prays for guidance.
I? need to give an entire study on this one issue. In a general sense the kinds of prayers believers should be praying,? are? prayers that are supervised by? the Holy Spirit. I wish all of God’s children understood this.
The Lord does not answer prayers that are according to the flesh. On the other hand, any Holy Spirit supervised prayer has a guarantee of being answered. The reason is because these kinds of prayers are given to us from the Lord.
Brings us back to the wonderful statement that Paul make, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36 nasb.)
Perhaps a point needs to be made — Prayers given to us by the Holy Spirit will always carry the witness of the Spirit on them. This is the vital key to living a victorious prayer life.
Well, that’s enough from my morning devotion.
Yesterday Nathan and family went to West Monroe to visit with Joel and Angel Dyke. These two couples are life-long friends. They worked together as a team in Mexico. In fact both Joel and Nathan got married while they were missionaries.
Good friends are a premium. Life-long friends are treasures from heaven.
Interesting how this thought came to me out of the blue. I’ve thought about it for a couple of days. Seems the Lord is telling me, to tell His children to ‘beware of 10% faith.’ (I’ll leave that with you. You can read between the lines.)
10:30 a.m. Got a call from my granddaughter Jade. How I love this beautiful teen. Jade is a typical teenager. Her frontal lobe hasn’t developed yet. (Don’t ask.) Of course she is always looking for grandmother. But it was sweet to talk with her. Jade is so concerned for my health. She has such a tender heart.
11:40 a.m. Betty called from the bank. Said it had begun to sleet with some snow mixed in. On goes my coat and gloves, my hat and walking cane, and out the door CJ and I go. Boy, we just have to see this snow storm.?
Sure enough. I saw some of what looked like very tiny snow flakes. They were widely scattered. Had to look hard to see them.
Ok, call out the national guard! Call out all the emergency workers! Close the schools! All cars off the highways! Sorry, I just had to do that. We in Louisiana are not use to flakes of snow.
Another thought has been running through my mind for the past days, ‘If we could just love the way Jesus loves.’
Jesus loves the whole world. He forgave all the sins of the world in a moment of time. So why do we have such a hard time forgiving folk? Why do we have to keep thinking about the hurts someone gave us from the past? Why can’t we just love the way Jesus loves?
This really is an awesome subject. Actually we are commanded to love the way God loves and to forgive the way God forgives. The apostle said, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children…
“…and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1,2 nasb.)
The only true freedom in the Spirit is the freedom of a love walk.
Do you recall the greatest message from the cross? In my way of understanding it was when Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:24 nasb.)
When the Lord said this He was looking at the Roman soldiers who were dividing up His garments among themselves.
Perhaps here is where we need to understand the deeper side of the forgiveness message. The forgiveness Jesus offers is to the whole world. He knows that the world had been blinded by Satan. In this sense the world does not know what it is doing. This does not mean that the world is not accountable. The Law of conscience is in every man.
Is the excuse of ‘not knowing’ a valid? excuse? Not really.? God is a perfect judge. Perhaps it is enough to say that God alone is the Judge of all things. We must leave unanswered questions alone.?
But a question remains.? Who, then, will have the hardest judgment before the Lord? It is those who knew or who know better.
James said, “Therefore, to one who knows the right things to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17 nasb.)
This is the sin that was charged to the Jewish leaders. It is also? why Jesus said that the one who handed Him over to Pilate had the greater sin.? A greater sin is always a sin with knowledge.
Just remember that under the cross, all sin is considered sin, and all sin can be forgiven. It is a matter of coming to the cross.
I need to give a qualifier here. No one can be saved aside from receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But it appears that some people groups? will be allowed to enter into the millennium, that is, those who did not persecute God’s people and such like.
This is another area where a deeper understanding is necessary. Of course all this is not the? purpose of my journal.?
What remains is that God? alone knows the hearts of all men, of all people groups, of both the lost man and the saved man. This is why all the apostolic writers? cautioned us against making judgments. Jesus said that all judgment had been placed in His hands.
James said, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor.” (James 4:12 nasb.)
There is one thing I contiually rejoice over. When a person truly receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit places an eternal seal on that person’s heart. And no sins are placed on their record. How can this be. It is because all the sins of that person’s life were accorded to Jesus. What a great mystery this!
Let’s come back ‘To love like Jesus loved.’ My observation is that no believer has the initial? capacity to love that way. Yet this area is the primary focus of spiritual growth. Every apostolic writer places the highest premium on believers learning to live in the love walk.
To love as Jesus loved, is to live as Jesus lived, to walk as Jesus walked, to forgive as Jesus forgave,? think the way Jesus thought, and to have the relationship with the heavenly Father, that Jesus had.
Is it possible to love the way Jesus loved? Not only is it possible, it is a command. The Lord would never command us to do something without providing the means to accomplish the command. Paul said that God Himself teaches us how to love one another. (1 Thessalonians 4:9 nasb.)
So what about it? How are you doing in the forgiveness business? Are you still harboring ill thoughts towards someone who sinned against you? If this is the case, then the sin of unforgiveness is going to pester you continually, but not so with the? one who offended you.
Jesus said that if we do not forgive our brother from our heart, then our walk with Him will be? hindered by our attitude of? unforgiveness.? If we forgive the way God forgives, then we can never talk about? our brother’s failure again.
Our Father in heaven forgave us all our sinful debt. How can we hold unforgiveness against another?
Learn the walk of love and forgiveness and you will learn the true walk of a Christian. You will learn life. And you will learn to walk wisely.
Just something to? consider.
CJ is snoozing behind my office chair. That boy can sleep more than any one I know. He is so spoiled.?
Signing off for now.
Love is coming your way,
Buddy
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