Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
The trend is “you only live once.” Sadly people view it as a license to foolishness. They act on their desires without regard to consequences. “We are young.” It doesn’t matter what we do…. we can pay the consequences later. Nothing matters but the here and now so you should live for the moment. You only live once. Do what you feel and do what you want.
Regardless of the reasons the statement is made, Satan would love to have you believe this is true and that sin is harmless. That the consequences are minimal in the long run, especially since YOLO. It really is just another way to rock the world to sleep in his arms, especially the young people. Act up, life’s a party, and it only happens once.
Yesterday some of our college graduates hosted a special Easter open air event at a inner city community apartment complex. They hosted 500 people in attendance. Out of those 500 people, 100 people started a relationship with Christ.
Happy Independence Day! Today we honor the day you were freed from the sentence of eternal death.
We are all condemned to die by God because of our inherited nature from the first man Adam to disobey God’s degrees;“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”(Romans 5:12 NKJV)
In the eyes of God “…there is none good” (Romans 3:10 NKJV)
Every person is affected by sin and in our sinful nature there is no way we can please God. Even the good things we do, God observes them as “filthy rags”.(Isaiah 64:6 NJKV)
Because of sin, we stood under the righteous judgment of God “…but God demonstrate[d] His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NKJV)
Jesus intervened and offered Himself as the substitute for God’s judgment (1 John 4:16). He Himself laid down His reputation as God, humiliated Himself to be a man like us and on earth He absorbed God’s wrath by dying on a cross:
“[Jesus] bore our sins in His own body on the tree (the cross), that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.(1 Peter 2:24 NKJV)
The wall which divided us from God was torn down by the blood of Jesus. His selfless gift of love diverts anyone from death by the wages of our sins (Rom 6:23), and “…whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”(John 3:16 NKJV)
Death couldn’t hold Him, “…but God raised Him from the dead.”(Acts 13:30 NKJV) By His resurrection, we are longer encumbered by the strength of sin because the power of Christ that resides within us (1 John 4:4).
This gift called salvation is applied to us by faith: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”(Romans 10:9 NKJV)
Jesus brought you freedom. Enjoy your independence in the peace with God by the love of Christ.
In romance, I have been infamous in the action of what I call “love branding”. This is where you see a girl, you “fall in love” with her and then you claim her as “the one“. Can’t count the number of times I have done that and then left away with my heart shattered and bitter. Yet as much as I despise it, whenever love warms itself to me again, I always find myself on that same turnpike to prone my heart to that fantasy that she and I will live happily ever after.
Tasting the sourness of rejection one times too many, I have learned my art of “love branding” is actually very selfish.
1 Corinthians 13:5 says, “(Love) does not seek its own…”.
I define it that Love gives up.
What I mean is that love is not-self centered: it does not think about itself…ever. It’s always selfless: it orbits around the well-being of the other person even when things don’t go its way.
If you want an example: look at Joseph. Here is a man who has, in our contemporary language, “scored”. He has won the hand of the beautiful maiden Mary and now is ready himself to marry her. Then suddenly, he takes the long fall back to earth when he discovers his finance is pregnant.
By Jewish custom, he had rights to have her tried for adultery which could lead her to be killed. Rather than going to that extreme, he could have went into the city square and broadcast what an unfaithful and deceitful woman Mary was and call for her to be socially ostracized.
What did Joseph do?
Matthew 1:19 says,”Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.”
There was another option in Jewish tradition which was to file for an end to the relationship. And Joseph favored this option because I believe he still loved her.
His heartstrings were cut and left to bleed. His dreams crashed and burned; yet in all his pain, he still cared sincerely about her. Joseph didn’t want Mary to die, because he probably felt this was the girl he wanted to die for. He didn’t want to humiliate her, because this was the girl he wanted to fight for.
When romance’s hands are severed, love gives an elbow. It never gives in to think about self, but gives up its rights for the right of the other person.
Even in disappointment, it continues to faithfully care for the well-being of the person.
Thank God Joseph remained faithful, and God saw that and later revealed to him the mystery of Mary’s pregnancy: she was carry the Messiah. If the dude had followed his emotions, he would have missed out of being the step dad of Jesus!
I’ll end with a question my mom asked me when I was ready to brand someone as my bride. She asked,”John, could you let her go if God didn’t call her for you?”
Don’t get tied to romance. Love the person. See from her what God is wanting from her. She may be called to be a nurse in Dominican Republic to the orphans there; or she could be called to be a missionary India.
Whatever it may be, if it does occur to you, you should still be able to love her. Give up what you want. Give in to what she needs.
FOLLOW THE SON 