Nothing But the Blood

Why do you love the Lord? Why are you willing to stand for Him when others think that your ways and ideas are old fashioned, out of date, archaic and foolish? Why do you believe in a God you can’t see and why are you willing to base your life on His word?

Why?

The first thoughts that came to me as I was journaling this morning were “What can wash away my sin? Nothing, but the blood of Jesus”.

That’s the answer to my why. It’s the love of Jesus, unconditional love, that caused Him to go to the cross and die for me.

My answer in a nutshell – I love the Lord because He loved me first! In my 73 years of life my heavenly Father has never had a bad thought about me; He has never belittled me, never lied to me and He has never abandoned me and He never will!

Has He approved of everything I’ve done? NO

Has He corrected and instructed me? ABSOLUTELY

He has loved me unconditionally and without embarrassment.

My greatest form of worship is to love Him and then to love others as He has loved me.

“Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. 10 True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.

11 That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us. If we love each other, God’s love has reached its goal—it is made perfect in us.

13 We know that we live in God and God lives in us. We know this because he gave us his Spirit. 14 We have seen that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world, and this is what we tell people now. 15 Anyone who says, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” is a person who lives in God, and God lives in that person. 16 So we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.

God is love. Everyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them. 17 If God’s love is made perfect in us, we can be without fear on the day when God judges the world. We will be without fear, because in this world we are like Jesus. 18 Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love takes away fear. It is his punishment that makes a person fear. So his love is not made perfect in the one who has fear. 19 We love because God first loved us.” I John 4:7-19 ERV

I pray that you have an intimate knowledge of how much God loves you. “He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.” Nothing, but the blood of Jesus could cover our sin. His love is life changing!

Success In Life

Yesterday I shared with you about our great inheritance. I hope you are able to understand how amazing this is.

With most inheritances the person making the bequest has to die to put the will into effect. Our heavenly Father has always been and forever will be, He will not die, so how does the inheritance come in to being.

Through Jesus.

Yes, Jesus came to earth, lived as a man and then died an earthly death so that we would be heirs and joint-heirs with Him to all the Father has promised. In fact, just hours before His death Jesus took the Passover supper with His disciples and he said to them:

“Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to God. He gave it to his disciples, and they all drank some. 24  Then he said, “This is my blood, which is poured out for many people, and with it God makes his agreement. ” Mark 14:23-24 CEV

It was Christ’s blood, His death, that enacted the last will and testament and made us heirs. This is why it’s so important that we don’t treat the communion service as ritual or religious tradition.

God’s word is the testament that sets forth all the specifics of our inheritance. To fully understand and appreciate what we’ve been given we need to read it and apply it.

” Christ says ‘Yes’ to all of God’s promises. That’s why we have Christ to say ‘Amen’ for us to the glory of God. 21 And so God makes it possible for you and us to stand firmly together with Christ. God is also the one who chose us 22 and put his Spirit in our hearts to show that we belong only to him.” II Corinthians 1:20-22 ERV

I have learned from applying God’s word in the small areas of my life that He is more than capable of handling those larger issues that seem to be completely out of control. When Christ was here on earth He proved that all of God’s promises are true; He lived in the faithfulness of His father. And because He lived by the Word of God in victory so can we.

  “Jesus answered, “The Scriptures say: ‘No one can live only on food. People need every word that God has spoken.’” Matthew 4:4 CEV

God didn’t make empty promises, nor did He make them unattainable. He desires for us to be victorious and so He has given us His promises because He loves us and wants our lives to be abundantly blessed.

Enjoy the promises that God has for you today. They are yes and amen to those who love God.