Hi, All! I have been sitting here and thinking for a while. I love the nighttime when I am alone with Jesus! He shares SO MUCH with me that I am simply inundated with such blessing and grace.
In Jeremiah 33:3 (KJV), God challenges us as believers. He says,
“3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
I find this an AWESOME challenge. You see. God is NOT afraid of a challenge and He WILL put His money where His mouth is so to speak. Time after time, He seemingly BEGS us to just try Him out to see if He’s as GREAT as He says He is.
The thing that is so fascinating about this challenge is that God has absolutely NOTHING to prove to us! If we don’t get what we want, then does that make Him any LESS God? NOT AT ALL! As a matter of fact, it’s bound to happen more than once that we will not see things go the way that we’ve expected for them to go. Does that mean that God isn’t good? Of course it doesn’t!
God makes it clear that we won’t always understand His reasons or His actions. “Well, what kind of God would say no and NOT explain himself”, you say? Well, I’m so glad that you asked! The kind of God that would do this is the VERY same God who became a human being in order to be tempted in all of the manners that we are and overcome since He knew that we COULDN’T fulfill this requirement of being “…without spot or blemish.” Knowing that He was the ONLY ONE who COULD be this great sacrifice, He decided to become a baby and come to Earth to endure the same temptations that we endure and He did it all WITHOUT sinning. If He hadn’t been successful, then He COULDN’T have gone to the cross for us and His birth would have been in vain. However, He wasn’t ABOUT to let THAT happen! So, He came and submitted Himself to all that we face and the expectations that we live with, yet He was COMPLETELY successful! This victory allowed Him to go to the cross and die the humiliating and torturous death of the worst kind of criminal even though HE was completely innocent. He went to His death on the cross with OUR guilt on Him. Thankfully, He was more than willing to do this to save us from going into eternity only to continue to be separated from Him! WOW! What a MIGHTY God we serve!
This is why Acts 2:38 clearly says:
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (I’ve added the emphasis here by adding the colored text.) The reason that we are commanded to be baptized in The Name of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ was God, Himself, in the flesh! He came to do the job that NO ONE else was qualified to do! He wanted SO BADLY for His creation to be with Him in eternity that He, Himself, made the way when there was previously NO way! Wow! He must REALLY love us a lot!
This is the reason that being baptized in Jesus’ Name is SO important! When we die spiritually and are buried with Him in the water baptism, then we arise from the water to take on our new life in Him! In doing this, we take on HIS Name, Jesus Christ, as we are, NOW. His bride. What a beautiful reality!
I’m praying that this post helps us all to understand the significance of Christ dying for us. It’s not that some man came from Heaven and died for people who’d done NOTHING for Him, but that THE CREATOR of ALL came to die to save the creation who had, time and time again, turned its back on Him! Now, THAT, my friends, is AGAPE love!
In order to truly grasp this, we must understand what Agape Love is. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/05/02/what-is-agape-love-a-bible-study/ tells us that Agape Love is “…the Greek word for love at its ultimate.” This resource goes on to tell us that Agape Love is different from romantic love or an erotic type of love. In fact, Patheos.com goes on to express that:
Agape Love
“This is the Greek word for love at its ultimate. Agape love is not like a brotherly love or a love between a husband and a wife. It is the most self-sacrificing love that there is. This type of love is the love that God has for His own children. This type of love is what was displayed on the cross by Jesus Christ.”
This resource attempts to illustrate the concept of Agape Love by likening it to a situation where a man could either allow his children to die or he could die in their place. If the man died in his children’s place, then this is similar to “Agape” love. However, even THIS illustration is inadequate. Because of the depth. gravity, and selflessness of Agape Love, it’s quite difficult to adequately translate the word in order to convey its true meaning.
In any case, this gives us a somewhat better idea of just how much God really does love us and how limitless that love is. I, personally, don’t know that we will ever fully grasp this concept this side of Heaven, but it’s definitely important to work hard to come as close as possible to a true understanding of this love as the ideal love that we would have for our fellow man is the kind of love that our Heavenly Father gives to us. It’s the love that allows Him to embrace and pardon us even when we are our ugliest. That is no small deal as we are all guilty of breaking the law. Thankfully, Jesus died that we can be forgiven for all of our sin. It’s there for the taking. He’s only waiting for us to ask and to receive. I don’t know about you, but I can use all of the forgiveness that I can get, so I have purposed in my heart to ask and keep asking as often as I need to as well as to thoroughly and frequently forgive those who transgress against me so that my Father in Heaven can forgive me.
I, truly, pray that I have said something here that encourages you and fills you with hope. God WANTS to give you hope. He wants to give you all of the blessings of Heaven. He’s only waiting for us to trust, obey, and ask. I’m working on faithfully doing these things and I pray that you will do so too. God is great and Jesus died to give you an abundantly joyful life. Take hold of that life and claim it. Take Him at His Word and let Him multiply the blessings that He has for you as He bestows each and every one on you. And remember that we are brothers and sisters. Let’s lift each other up and love each other. Only when we do what God would have us to do can we truly effect change in this lost and dying world.
I leave you with this final thought. Jesus loves you and I do too!
I’ll see you next time!
In His Love,
In His Love,
Nikki Hodson
Founder and Christian Life Coach at Nikki Jordan Life Coaching
nikkijordanlifecoaching 