WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT
If we do not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that he died on Calvary and was buried in a borrowed tomb and that He rose on the third day, then we are wasting our time to call ourselves Christian. Easter is the culmination of everything that Christ lived for. It is the proof of whom He said He was and who He was.
Calvary was not the completed purpose of Christ. Calvary was just the beginning of a Kingdom that will not end. God never intended us to look at Calvary as a means of getting to heaven; heaven is just a by-product of Calvary. Calvary purchased everything that Heaven holds. His kingdom dwells on the earth in the hearts and souls of each of us that are called by His name. The kingdom of God now is within us.
We need not go here or go there to find the presence of God, for the presence of God lives within us, and that was bought and paid for by Calvary. He died so we are no longer under the curse of the law of sin and death. No longer need to live in fear of the death and a place that lies beyond the grave. What Calvary purchased is life. Free from guilt of the past, free from fear of the future. Free for us to grieve but not as others grieve, but to grieve with hope. Calvary gives us the right to love each other as God loved us.
Calvary is the gift of God to a lost and dying world that has no hope to live, let alone die.
If you need a reason to live then Calvary provides that reason. If you need a reason to hope then that hope lies within that wooden cross on Golgotha. We needed a pathway in which to walk and Calvary leads the way. For us to look upon the cross that Jesus died on and wish for a better place is to take away the very purpose for which He came. The bible tells us that He came that we might have life and life more abundant,,,,,,,,,,and then eternal life.
John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Jesus did not die so that we could have life some day; He died that we might have life now. Now I know that this following scripture is long, but please take the time to read it, it will melt your heart. What love the Father has for us:
Isaiah 53: 1-6
Who hath believed our report and to who is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Christ died so that we might live now, not someday when we get to heaven, but now.
In Heaven there is no need of healing, there is no sorrow that will break our hearts. Grief cannot enter those gates and there will be no sin or transgressions in that City. God loved us so very much that he put our sin and our transgression upon Jesus. God hung Him on a cross and then turned His back as the sin of the world rushed toward Calvary.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Calvary, a place where God and man met. Calvary a force that tore the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom. Calvary is the spoken invitation for us to come and dine with the creator of the entire universe. Calvary says to the world of the lost and the dying that love conquers all things. Love handed Jesus to the crowd that day, love held Him on the cross. Love is why God turned His back and love is the reason that Jesus chose to stay suspended between heaven and earth. If we are called by Christ, if we have confessed our allegiance to the King of Kings and have not love, then we are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass , or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my good to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never fails and if we do not love then our journey is in vain.
We have to no longer talk the talk, but walk the walk. We must love in word and DEED. It is the will of Christ in your life. Love not only speaks, love acts.
If we love only those that love us and we are at odds with our families, if we fail to honor our mother and father, if we say that we love God and hate those around us then we are only fooling ourselves. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, and whatsoever we sew we shall reap.
Galatians 6:7
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
We must always remember the story of the Last Supper of Christ. It was just before Calvary. He had eaten with the disciples and after eating he got up and poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of HIS disciples.
John 13:5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
John 13:6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
John 13:7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
John 13:8 "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
John 13:9 "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
John 13:10 Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you."
Listen to what Peter is saying. Lord if you are going to wash my feet then please wash all of me. Jesus told HIM that has once been washed they need only to wash his feet.
We are saved by grace and once we have been washed in the blood of Christ we become born again. No longer should we live in condemnation of the sin of our past. There are those among us that would tell us that we as Christians should never again sin. That is impossible! We are human and until we shed this body of flesh and blood we are going to sin. That is what Jesus was trying to tell Peter.
Peter HE said, once you have been washed you need not be washed again but as you journey though this world and you will get your feet dirty. You will sin, but come to me and I will wash away the dirt of the world in which you now walk.
We need to confess our sin daily. We may not even know what that sin is. If it is not Holy it is Unholy and if Unholy then it is sin.
There is a life that we live as believers but during that life we will sin. A bad thought or attitude or anger or envy or strife…….. we could go on. Those things in our lives are a product of sin.
Thus, we have need of our feet being washed by going to the Father and confessing our sin and having HIM forgive us of our human ways and washing our feet. We do not need to once again be born again, but just letting HIM cleanse us from all unrighteous that lives within this flesh that we call our home right now.
HE wants us to understand that as HE goes to Calvary, HE is paying the price of our sin.
HE is washing it away. Our past sin our present sin and our future sin. Washed away. HE knows what sin you will commit tomorrow or next week or next month. HE knows. We are human. Without forgiveness for all our sin we would live in fear. We need not live in fear. HE has paid the price for the sins of the world. Your sin and my sin is paid. We need only come to him with a repentant heart, confess that we fall short of the life we should live. Confess that we are human with human weakness and HE is faithful and just to forgive us for those failures. HE will wash our feet and once again we enter into the Holy of Holy’s to approach the throne with boldness.
Easter season, season of great joy.
HE has paid the price for life today and eternity for tomorrow. A gift from the Father to us. Embrace Calvary with joy and gratitude. HE died…….. We live…….. HE came out of that grave……… we too will come out of our graves…… and ONLY because of HIS blood that we cry out Abba Father.
I pray that you take this devotional in the spirit in which it was written. We all struggle with situations every day that will test the love of God in our hearts. We are hurt and others even hurt those that we love. Even as I write this I deal with emotions that cause the anger in me to rise up. We need to take this Easter season and lay our hearts on the altar of God and allow Him to give us a greater vision of His love.
We are in desperate need of more grace and more understanding. We need more patience and please give us patience now. The world is watching and they keep a close eye on how we treat each other. Jesus even told us that the world will know us by the love that we have for the brethren
John 13:35
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Take time and right the wrongs in your life. Ask forgiveness from those that you have offended and forgive those that have offended. Ask the Father to give you a greater awareness of the love that cost Him Jesus. Let us open our hearts to the love of God that will drive us to our knees and repent with many tears of the hardness of our hearts toward our brothers and sisters.
Embrace your mother and father and thank God for them. Touch that husband or wife as to melt their heart. Kiss the cheeks of a brother or sister. Shake the hand of a stranger and be a stranger no more. Thank your God that there are no boundaries when it comes to redeeming a soul.
What’s love got to do with it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Everything.
In Christ
