Love Giving Life And Light

Psalm 36:5-9

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the great deep. O Lord, You preserve both man and beast. How priceless is Your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house; You give them drink from Your river of delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

Such precious love that grants us life and light!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Cleanliness

Hebrews 10:22

Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water.

We are to cleanse both our hearts and our bodies. Some have taken this to refer to water Baptism, but I think that God is concerned for our physical as well as spiritual cleanliness. I think this is where the admonition, "cleanliness is next to Godliness," comes from. God is concerned that we take care of our bodies, to keep them clean and free from sexual sin and in good physical health in our eating real food. The Temple of the Holy Ghost is worth taking good care of.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Jesus' Anger And Disappointment

Mark 3:5

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts . . .

Jesus knew that the religious leaders of His day did not want to believe that He was their Messiah. They wanted a strong military leader, not this meek, humble Teacher. Their mis-use of God's laws angered Him, but He was "deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts." It distressed Him deeply that they could see Him and perceive His power to heal and over demons, yet they were too stubborn in their own self-importance to accept who He was. Sin angers Him, but our own poor choices break His heart.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Those Who Must Give Account

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you.

O my dear Father, please teach me to obey those You have set above me, especially in Your church. Teach me how to listen to what they teach with complete understanding of all the implications that apply to my thinking, reasoning and doing. Help me to display Your love to all whose lives touch mine, however briefly or extendedly, that others would see You in me and be drawn to You through me.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Reconciliation

Colossians 1:19-20

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

I know that Jesus was our atoning sacrifice, the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world. That is here on Earth. But what is in Heaven that needed reconciliation? Jesus did not die for the angels that sinned, there is no known redemption for them. What else is there in Heaven that needed Jesus' blood shed on the cross?

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Loving

Jon 15:12,16

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My Name.

O my dear Father, I pray that You would teach me how to love You and others with the Love that You love me with. Show me Your ways, and teach me to be generous with what You have given me, as You have generously and graciously given me all things. Make me a channel of blessing to others.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Clothing

Revelation 3:4

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

Clothing is what we use to cover our nakedness, as well as present to others who we are. So we disguise our real selves with a "public" self. Or we present to the world what we want others to think of us. If we're honest and have integrity, we will dress in a way that reflects who we really are inside.

When God clothes us in white, we will be more than "dressed up," we will glow, shine like the sun, publicly displaying that New Life, that Eternal Life that God has placed in us in Christ. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!