“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
This is God’s Love
13 This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
1 John 4:13-16
God is love and His perfect love is made complete in the cross. God came down to earth and became human because He has loved us first. What a beautiful and hopeful love. Think on that love: God’s love: God’s perfect love. God’s perfect love made complete in the cross: God’s love being made complete by laying down His Own life for ours.
When I look at the cross, I see love, as love so pure, a love so amazing that took my sins away, that perfect love overwhelms me. God loves you and me with such a powerful love, that by His cross, He has washed away our sins by His blood. And because we believe that Jesus is our LORD and Savior, He commands us to walk in His love, so that His love is made complete in our lives. And by walking our journey in His love, we become for others a beacon of hope. We are to be light houses shining His perfect love into a broken world.
Sadly it seems like our lights are not shining as brightly as they should. Far too often we as Christians are standing up in hatred towards those who hate God and us, in anger instead of love. We need to confront evil with God’s amazing love. We need to walk in love and when confronted by the hate, stand firm in GOD and in His love. We need to stand firm and pray in every situation that comes before us and turn the other cheek in love and walk the walk not by anger but in love. We are the Church, we are God’s chosen vessels to show His love and mercy and grace. We have to stand firm and not back down when evil says what we believe is wrong. We have to overcome the world and come to God and surrender all our life to Him and ask Him to fill us with His Spirit so that we can let His everlasting love shine out of us. We need to lift Him up and praise Him in the midst of every storm in our lives.
This world is so broken by sin. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, take heart. God has overcome the devil and He will completely destroy the hate with His love. When someone confronts God and asks why does He allow hate to exist; why does He allow others to kill others; why does God allow sufferings for His believers? We have to remember that the world is a fallen world because of sin. God is love. And He created this world and all that is in it in His perfect love. And in that perfect love, He created us for His glory. And because of His love He gave us a gift: freewill.
We as humans have two choices in freewill: to live our lives as believers or to live our lives through the deceiver. God wanted us to choose His love and to live our lives through Him and in Him. God’s way is love and the devil’s way is hate.
There is no middle ground. You cannot walk with the devil and walk with God at the same time. God does not want a portion of our love. He wants all of our love. It is an all or nothing with God. He does not want a sliver of our lives; He does not want to be in second, third or somewhere on our list. He does not want us to believe in Him only when everything is going right or it is convenient for us. He wants all of us to be all in to His amazing love. And He wants us to share His amazing love with the world. He wants every part of our being to be completely open to His Spirit to fill us and to act in love. Just think of how amazing it would be if the whole world walked in His love. Just think how the hate would go away if we all loved God and loved each other in that amazing love.
Many people hate God because of what has or is happening in their lives. They blame God that their loved one is sick or has died. They blame God for losing their spouse or their job. They blame God that they do not have enough money for things. They blame God for all the evil in the world. They wonder where God is when bad things happen. They become consumed in anger and it overwhelms them to hate. They hold on to the anger and hate and they let it grow and grow until there is no room in their lives for love. They pervert everything around them and blame everyone else including God for not stopping evil from coming upon them. They will not even look into themselves to see if their hate and anger are actually what is causing the problems.
We as humans are imperfect, but when we accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior, we can be changed. Jesus has already paid the price for our sins: all we have to do is accept God’s love. Simple if we are willing. Those who deny that Jesus has come into this world, those who deny that there even is God they are the antichrist, the deniers that say God has come into this world through His Son Jesus. Their pride prevents them from accepting God into their lives and they want to destroy everyone who believes in God. All we have to do is look around us and see how many antichrists are in this world. Just listen to how those who hate describe themselves: antifa. They say that they are against hatred and evil when in fact that is what they do. They hate everyone and God because they are consumed by the devil. They are blinded by the lies of the devil and refuse to allow anything of God. They have taken prayer out of school. They want to change the world into the ways of the devil and make everyone live accordingly. They preach socialism which is godless hate. Socialism does not want God. Socialism preaches equality but they only want to control people and to force people to live “equality” according to their views. Do you see those who want to force “equality” wanting themselves to live equal? Are they willing to give up their money, their houses and live as they want us to live? When I was a teen I thought the concept of socialism sounded great but then I read Stalin and Marx and realized they were only speaking of hate. The world they imagined was not good and there is no love in socialism and communism. Instead of listening to those who are spouting socialism, read up for yourselves and see what is happening in places where communism and socialism prevail. It does not work because the leaders control and take from the people. It does not work; it is a lie what they are telling you.
If we truly want all people to be equal, let us be equal in God’s love. His love will overcome all the hate if we let it. Can you let go of the hate and surrender to God’s love?
I believe that if we are going to walk in love we have to do so in God’s love. We have to stand firm in our faith in GOD and be overcomers. We have to fill every part of our lives in God and only God. We cannot walk with one foot with God and one foot with the devil.
There is going to be a day when we will stand before God and be judged. Not according to our standards but according to God’s standards. Every one of us when we die in this world will have to face God whether we believe in Him or not. You can deny God all you want. You can say that if God does not allow us to sin and then that is not the kind of love that you want. My sisters and brothers, when we point out what sin is, we are not judging a person, but are trying to show others the truth of GOD. God does not want us to walk in sin but to walk in His love. God knows what is best for this world and for our lives because He created us and in doing so, He knows what we need and what we do not need.
With freewill God gives us a choice. He will not force His love on us; we have to choose His love and to want to live in His love. If God stopped the evil, how would we know His love? We would be subjects blindly following forced “love”. But forced love is not freedom but slavery to hate. And God is a just God and so He judges justly according to His standards which are perfect. He will bring good out of the hate. He will always be with us and will always love us. And because of His love, when the time comes and Jesus returns, if we hate God and do not believe in Jesus and walk in His love, He will leave us with our choice. He has laid out before us what He wants in our lives. If we hate, we do not know God because God does not hate us. He loves us and He created us in His perfect love. He does not want us to follow the devil and end up living eternity in hell. He tarries in returning to continue to hold out His hands in love so that we can come to Him. But because He is just, He will not force us to love Him and when we stand before Him to be judged, He will not allow evil to be in the new earth. He will purge the antichrists from our new beginning. He will allow the antichrists to live in hatred in hell.
So our challenge is to love in the midst of all the hate. Our choice is to choose love rather than hate. Our choice is to walk in the way of the LORD and not to be overcome by the hate of the devil. Our challenge is learning to love the haters who are our brothers and sisters even when they do not love us.
But, but, but…what about those who have done evil to us? What about forgiving those who have murdered our loved ones? What about those who have raped or stolen from us? What about the spouse who has committed adultery or abuses? What about those who hurt us, who steal and lie?
The truth is, we are all sinners. Sin is sin. A small sin is just the same as a big sin. We all fall short in God’s way. We can be forgiven if we accept Jesus. We can be washed clean in His blood and in His cross. And by accepting Jesus, we can forgive. We have to allow God to fill us to overflowing with His love that we can forgive the one who killed, the one who raped, the one who stole from us, the one who abuses us or our loved ones. We can become overcomers of hate but we can only do so if we walk with GOD. Let us throw off the shackles of hate and combat evil with love. When the haters come against us, let us pray for them.
So every time for the next six weeks, let us love. Let us walk in His love, His children one and all. Let us not look at another with hate but pray that they will come to know GOD. When confronted by those who do not believe, stand firm in GOD and thank God for the opportunity to show His love. Allow God into every situation of our lives. We are not of this world: we are here to know how to love Him and to show His love. And because we love Him this world and its hate has nothing for us. We can be overcomers and walk in His love.
When we walk in His perfect love we have no fear of what is going on around us or in our lives because we know His love. And God’s perfect love drives out all fear. We may be in this world but we are not of this world because we know God and He lives in us. He is greater than the evil one; He is greater than any thing or force that may be around us. He Who is in us is greater than he who is in this world. Choose GOD and allow His Holy Spirit to live in you and through you.
Remain in God and He will remain in you. If you deny GOD you will be cut off from Him because you choose to be. We can only walk with GOD if we choose Him. Jesus shows us in His Word and in the life that He lived on earth, how to walk in the way of GOD. GOD is the vine that we need so that His pure love will nourish us and make us fruitful in His love. When we come to accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior, we come just as we are. God knows our sins and because of His love He took our punishment on the cross and paid our debt in full with His blood. And because God loves us, He will prune our sins out of our lives and change us into glorious vessels of His love. We cannot remain in hate because hate causes fear. Hate will devour you and it will poison you. Hate will cut you off from God’s love.
Let us renew our lives with GOD’s glorious love. Let us walk with Him and be His banners. Let us show His love in the midst of all the hate and let us love one another as GOD has loved us first. God is love.
Father, we ask You into our lives to make us complete in Your love. We ask You to prune every thing that is not of You from our lives. We ask You to help us to remain in Your love and fill us with Your love so that it is overflowing in every and all areas of our lives. Teach us to become the vessel of Your love that You created us to be. Father, increase of faith and teach us to surround ourselves with Your Word as a wall of truth so that we stand firm in our faith in You. Help us to be overcomers of what we have been and make us perfect as You are perfect. I surrender all to You. I am Yours and You are mine. I cannot live without You because only by You living in me can I walk with YOU. Come and live in me and purify me with Your love. Help me to forgive others and to love others as You love me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
