What's Love Got To Do With It?

After I decide to make a decision to follow Christ…

He’s all about love! In the Bible God says:

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ And equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these." Mark 12:30-31 NLT

And this:
Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. John 13:34

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

So love is pretty important to God…..

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23

So when we make a decision to follow Christ – what happens next? How should we live, how will our life change when I become a Christian?

What does God want? There is much in the Bible about living a life that pleases Him. Here is some excerpts from 1 John 2:

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely. He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

…Those who obey God’s word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did.

…This commandment — to love one another — is true, because the darkness is disappearing and the true light is already shining. If anyone says, “I am living in the light,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness.

I am writing to you, my dear children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus.

….. Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.

So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will continue to live in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

You have received the Holy Spirit and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you all things, and what he teaches is true — it is not a lie. So continue in what he has taught you and continue to live in Christ.

And now, dear children, continue to live in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.
Read more from this chapter in 1 John 2

Faith in the Son of God

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Concluding Remarks
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5 NIV

The Wise and Foolish Builders
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.
He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” Luke 6:46-49 NIV

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while still with you.
But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. "Come now; let us leave. John 14:15-31

You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:14

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:21

And as for me…

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me. Psalm 13:5-6

Your goodness is so great! You have stored up great blessings for those who honour you. You have done so much for those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. Psalm 31:19

For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in heaven, which is yet to come.With Jesus’ help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name. Hebrews 13:14-15

Now that we know what we have – Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God – let’s not let it slip through our fingers.

We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all – all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. Hebrews 4:14-16

“Give thanks to God. Call out his name. Ask him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done, spread the news of his great reputation! Isaiah 12:2-4

My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God. James 5:20

The story of forgiveness is found here in Matthew 18:21-35

Please share this message and help to bring light and hope to those you love the most!
2016 Elaine Costin – Capturing Sunrise / Blog