Did You Know This About God?

Romans 15:13--Now may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
     Paul calls God the God of hope. The Greek word for hope is--elpis. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines elpis as--to anticipate, usually with pleasure. Or, we could say "happy anticipation".
     In the beginning, God worked with His usual diligence and with "happy anticipation" to create a "good" place for His masterpiece of creation---Man. God created until He saw that it was all "good". He didn't bring His Man into a place that was shabby, run-down or half-way pieced together. He worked with a "happy anticipation" that everything would be "just so" for His Man.
     When mankind ruined his masterpiece through sin, God moved with "happy anticipation" and sent His Son to die so He could blot out their sin. He wanted to remove everything that hindered His fellowship with the Man that He loved.
     He gave promise after promise to His Man ever since creation. He gave these promises with a "happy anticipation" of keeping those promises. It was and still is His greatest desire to ensure the joy of His Man child.
     This God of "happy anticipation" wants to fill you with joy and peace--as you believe. Not as you whine, pout, get angry or go to cussin'. The greatest work that you could ever do is believe (with "happy anticipation") what God has promised. Paul declared that there is joy and peace in believing in God's "happy anticipation".  Have you ever thought about it that way before?
     After all the apostle Paul went through, I just believe that he knows what he's talking about. He firmly stated that the God of eternal "happy anticipation" would FILL you with joy and peace WHILE you were believing that His Word is true and that He's working on a solution to your problem.
     Paul's experience takes it one more step and declares that AS you believe God's "happy anticipation", you would overflow in your own "happy anticipation" by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. God is His Word. There's agape love in His Word. There is "happy anticipation" in His Word because it came from a "happy anticipation" God. The longer and stronger we believe His Word more than the circumstances that we are faced with, the longer and stronger the power of the Holy Spirit increases our "happy anticipation" until we overflow with it.
     You've given sad, mad, and feeling bad a real, real, real, real good shot at changing your circumstances. So why not hook up with God's "happy anticipation" and give that a try? What can you lose? Your worries? Your cares? You anger? Your sin? Your sickness? Your poverty?
   

Jesus' Lost and Found Department

     While reading My Utmost for His Highest this morning, I dug up a little nugget. In John 15:13, Jesus makes this statement. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." My poor little noggin had always thought that Jesus was saying that a "Greater Love" would be to die for some one else. After all that's what He did....once....or so I thought.
     But, He wasn't talking about dying in this scripture. He was talking about laying aside our ambitions and desires to pour out His love on someone. Think about it this way. He didn't just 'lay aside' His life once and for all on the cross. He laid aside His life for thirty-three years when He stepped out of His comfort zone to walk in the muck and mire that humanity had become. He had one high spot and that was on the mount of transfiguration. Even with that, He had to interrupt the glory of God and a great conversation with Moses and Elijah to come down to cast out a demon.
     Jesus was talking about laying aside our personal ambition and interrupting the things we really would rather do to do something for someone else. And, He meant for us to do it out of a loving heart. He's not asking us to do it grudgingly or out of a since of duty. He asks us to purposely lay aside the things we would much rather do and do something that He would rather us do. He asks us to love somebody whom others might consider as being unworthy of love. After all, that's what He did for all of mankind. The good guys and the bad guys.
     He said something else in Matt. 16:25. "For whosoever will save his life will lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." When we lay down what we would rather be doing and wash someone else's feet for them, so to speak, we begin to find new life in Jesus. We find something we've never had before. We experience a depth of His love that we have never sensed before. We develop a closeness with someone we might not have ever wanted to be close to and in so doing find the Jesus just stepped a little closer to us. We sense that we are more a part of Him than we have ever been. Truly, when we lose our lives for His sake we find explainable and unexpected treasure.

How's Your Love Life?

     I have heard couples say 'We fell in love from the first moment we met'. Really? You don't FALL in love. You FALL into a ditch. You FALL off a cliff. You FALL off a ladder. But, you MAKE A DECISION to either love or hate somebody. It would be true to say that we made an 'instant decision' to love somebody.
     It would also be true to say that we make a progressive decision to love somebody. We get to know them, we fellowship with them, enjoy that fellowship and desire more fellowship. They do something we like or enjoy and the desire for fellowship increases. The more they please us the more 'in love' we decide to become.
     The opposite it true, also. We make progressive as well as instantaneous decisions to hate somebody. We meet them and instantly we are not truly impressed with them. They do this, they say that and progressively we decide not to waste our time on caring for that person.
     Here is an interesting observation. Whenever a couple is expecting a child, they make a decision to love that child. They haven't seen it to know if it is pretty or not. They haven't talked to it, worked with it, played with it or anything. Yet, a decision, yes, and a growing decision is made to love and fellowship with that child the entire time of the pregnancy.
     Keep following me, now. This same couple even prepares to be inconvenienced. They stock pile diapers, clothes, baby wipes, baby powder, baby soap, baby wash cloths, baby towels, baby blankets as well as a host of toys and do-dads for a human being they have never seen before. They EXPECT to get pooped on. They EXPECT to be awakened in the middle of the night. The EXPECT to be inconvenienced. Yet, BEFORE the baby is born they are crazy in love with it.
     Yet, how come your best friend, your spouse or someone close to you POOPS (so to speak) on you one time and you turn or begin turning on them like a ravening wolf?
     Jesus, God's Word made flesh (John 1:14), made decisions too. He decided to love the whole world (John 3:16) whether they loved Him or not. He made efforts to fellowship with them whether they returned the fellowship or not. It is true that Jesus spent more time with those who desired His friendship but that never stopped the love that He had for the entire world. He gave evidence of this from the cross when He cried out, "Forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34)
     But, today I don't want to talk about everybody. I want to talk about Peter. You would have to read all four gospels to get the whole picture. Like expectant parents, Jesus knew some things about Peter. He knew that Peter would forsake Him. He knew all along that Peter would lie about their relationship. He knew that Peter would deny Him. He knew that Peter would cuss. He knew that Peter would deny Him and cuss in front of people. He knew that Peter would make a scene in front those that hated Him. And, yet, despite all of that, Jesus washed Peter's feet and talked to him in love. Jesus never scolded Peter. His plans for Peter were the same. Peter was still going to be the leader of the church in the very beginning.
     Jesus made a loving choice to throw away all the bad stuff and love Peter anyway. Even after His resurrection, Jesus never brought up the subject of Peter's sins. Jesus treated him just as if Peter had never done anything wrong.
     Here's what Jesus told them just before He died. John 13:34-A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. That's tuff stuff not to want to get back at somebody that you've been offended by but Jesus said that you "MUST" do it.
     Why? Why is it so important to look past hurt, shame and degradation and CHOOSE to love and actually CHOOSE to fellowship with someone who is unlovable TO YOU. I didn't say that they were unlovable to Jesus. I said they were unlovable to you. After all, Jesus has proven that He loves the whole world, good guys and bad guys.
     Do you remember Saul of Tarsus who became the Apostle Paul? He was Mr. I hate all Christians. He proved it by his actions. After his conversion, he made an astounding discovery that fueled his ability to reach the lost. Galations 5:6 says that faith works by love. The type of faith that fuels revival and reaches the lost is the faith that is brought about by our unfailing love for one another as well as the lost soul.
     You've tried to pump your faith, shout your faith, preach your faith, sing your faith and all the other things that preachers tell you to do to increase your faith and still revival is not here. Paul identified you in 1 Cor. 13:1 as a clanging cymbal because your actions are not fueled by the pre-forgiving love that Jesus showed to Peter when He washed his feet. He knew Peter would disappoint Him but He made a decision to love Peter anyway.
     Those of you who declare your desire to follow Christ to the cross, find some feet to wash first. It's His command and His way to reach the lost.