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Everyone has their own ideas about what “love” means. I can across an old email recently entitled “What children say about love.” Some of them are very insightful:

• When you’re born and see your mommy for the first time, that’s love
• Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other
• Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and talk more.
• Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way.
• Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.
• When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis, too. That’s love.

In our lives as followers of Jesus Christ, one of the essential ingredients is love. Love must be part and parcel of a being a disciple.

Ephesians 4:1-3  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The kind of love we are told to share involves

• Humility – not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, but thinking about the other person
• Gentleness – not running over others in an overbearing way, even when you have their best interests at heart, but a gentle nature that is concerned how you are perceived by others.
• Patience – our lives should be marked with a willingness to wait for others
• Bearing with one another – our love leads us to join others in good times and bad
• keep the unity of the Spirit – the love we are to show wants to be united with others in faith
• Bond of peace – our love should desire to live in peace with our fellow man

Going back to that list of what children said about love, there is one more that came off of that list that you should hear:

• God could have said some magic words to make the nails fall off the cross, but He didn’t. That’s love.

It was love that led God to send His Son into this world. It was love that caused Jesus to be born as one of us. It was love that led a perfect life that would be credited to your account. It was love that led Jesus to be crucified in your place. It was love that held Jesus on the cross for you. The almighty God had more than enough power to not only come down from that cross, but also to obliterate all those who stood around mocking Him and questioning His identity. It was His tremendous love for you that led Him to stay on the cross for your sake, to pay for your sin. That love is what enables us to be forgiven children of God, confident of our salvation. That love is also to be our example and the pattern we follow as we live our lives for Jesus.

Last month I filled in for a preacher on vacation. I wore a stole I received as a present from my inlaws years ago. It was a hand woven, multicolored, stole from Central America that had Christian symbols in it like a Chi-Rho and a cross. One of the members of that congregation was upset, thinking I was wearing it for “Pride Month” because it had all the colors of the rainbow in it. Let me just say that the rainbow was a symbol for God’s people long before the LGBTQ bunch appropriated it for their agenda (Genesis 9:13-16).

I personally don’t pay much attention to “Pride Month.” The federal government first recognized it in 1999 when President Bill Clinton declared June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.” In 2009, President Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month. On 1 June 2021, President Joe Biden declared June LGBTQ Pride Month.

I recognize the right of people to believe differently than I do. I don’t agree with them, but they can make that decision. I find it interesting that those who take pride in their sin will turn around and tell me that I do not have the right to believe the way that I do. Yet another reminder of the Old Evil Foe at work in our world.

I saw a post last month that said we don’t need a pride month. We need a humility month. Scripture seems to agree with that sentiment.

Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 15:33 The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 18:12 Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

1 Peter 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

God’s grace has been given to us. Even though we are undeserving sinners who continue to offend our God with our behavior that is contrary to His will, He covers us with His grace for Jesus’ sake. We know and believe that He has paid the price our sins demanded so that we would not have to do so. He gives us a clean slate in God’s sight and the certainty of eternal life with Him.

Listen to where Scripture says our Pride should be:

2 Corinthians 10:17 But, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Please continue to pray and show love towards those who take pride in their sinful behavior and lifestyle. God loves them and wants to show His Grace to them, too, that they might repent and be saved.

The last devotion was about Job’s afflictions in chapter one. Satan was not successful in getting Job to curse God. Chapter two has God pointing that out to the Devil. The old evil foe has this comeback:

Job 2:4–5 ⁴ “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. ⁵ But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

So the Lord gave Satan permission to afflict Job physically, but not take his life. Again, the attack was severe. Painful sores over his entire body. His wife encouraged him to curse God and die so that he could be put out of his misery. But Job remained faithful

Job 2:10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

I think about the physical impairments and afflictions I have had. I recall all the times I have witnessed people suffer terrible ailments and disease. As terrible as injuries and illnesses can be, those of us who have put our faith and confidence in Jesus need to keep things in the perspective of eternity.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

We can have this attitude thanks to knowing what God has done for us in Christ. He took our place in punishment to give us the certainty of forgiveness and life forever with our Lord. May we be willing to accept whatever comes our way with the grace and steadfast faith that Job displayed.

At a recent Bible Study we were looking at a passage in the book of Job. That motivated me to read that entire book again. In the first chapter, we find that Job was an extremely wealthy man.

Job 1:3 … he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants.

The following verses describe an encounter between the Devil and the Lord. God holds up Job as an example of a faithful and righteous man. Satan says that is only true because Job has so much wealth. God gives Satan permission to afflict Job, but forbids him from attacking his person.

We hear next that four messengers bring bad tidings to Job. The first spoke of Sabean raiders carrying off his oxen and donkeys. The next brings news that fire consumed his sheep and servants. The third spoke of Chaldean raiders absconding with his camels. And the fourth brought the message of a tragedy resulting in the death of all his children. Satan lambasted Job with all his evil might. And yet, in spite of his tremendous losses, we read this:

Job 1:21–22  [Job] said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” ²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Lord, give us such a faith as this, a faith that recognizes you are in control. Help us to remember the love that would not let us go, a love that sent your Son to rescue us from the sentence of eternal destruction that we deserve. Remind us how richly we have been blessed and how often we fail to honor you.

As I was thinking about this, I remembered the chorus of a song Ray Boltz released in the late 1980s. It was about Paul and Silas chained in a prison cell after having been beaten, and they said:

But I will praise the Lord
I will praise the Lord
No matter what tomorrow brings
Or what it has in store
I will praise the Lord

(You can listen to the entire song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NA1gGHUATs)

We have the same confidence that Paul and Silas had, that Jesus is the Christ who paid for our sin and gives us the certainty of life everlasting. No matter what the Lord gives or takes away, may we join Job in praising the Lord.

A man driving along an interstate highway noticed a woman on the side of the road having trouble. She was trying to change a flat tire on her car. Being a gentleman, he stopped to offer help. It was a hot and humid day and it was hard and dirty work. But he did it. He was filthy and dripping with sweat as he completed the job. As he was moving to release the jack and lower the car, the woman said, “Please let the car down easily; my husband is asleep in the back seat.”

Can you imagine? How do you think that Good Samaritan felt when he heard that? I guess we could try to put the best construction on things and say there could have been several legitimate reasons why she had not wakened her husband: maybe he was ill; perhaps he was handicapped; he was mean and would have slapped her around; he could have been drunk. Yet it seems strange to us that a woman in this situation would not call upon her husband for at least for moral support. While this may seem ridiculous, listen to a similar situation.

Mark 4:35–41 (ESV) 35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

How many people today have Christ right in their life’s boat with them, but do not call to Him? Through faith in Jesus, you have His promise to be with you always. The amazing love of God is such that he goes right into the struggles, dangers, conflicts and crises of life with you. He is right there in your boat, with you, able and wanting to help. Do you wake Him?

According to Jesus, all the disciples really needed to do was waken their own faith. He said, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus was with them. Always. Through faith, they could draw on His strength and power in any circumstances. Eventually, they learned that the One who commands obedience from even the winds and waves could be absolutely trusted. They came to understand that He loved them with an everlasting love, a love for all people is that is constant, consistent, without hesitation or limitation. Each of you needs to discover and experience that love.

It is a simple story. Every evil thing that you have done and I have done, those things that make us deserving of eternal death, all of that was put on Jesus. He paid the price for all sin by letting Himself die in our place.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

After Jesus did this for you and for me, God raised Him from the dead to proclaim victory over death and the grave for all who trust that He is the Son of God and the Savior.

Romans 8:31–32 (ESV) What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Jesus is always right there with you in the boat as you go through life. Try to remember that.

One more day looking at John 14 using the thought “Your Father would like to have a word with you.”

John 14

 ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ 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.”

Through the working of His Counselor, the Holy Spirit, mentioned in the verse just prior to this, we clearly see Jesus with the eyes of faith. We see that we are connected to Jesus and the Father because of the Word He has had with us. And we know that we are loved by our God. We see that in what Jesus did for us and for all people when He sacrificed Himself as the payment for the sins of the world.

²² Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ 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. ²⁴ 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.

Jesus is speaking the words of the Father, because He knew the Father wanted to have a Word with us, His creation, His dearly loved children. And those who are His will be readily recognizable. They will be the ones who obey His teachings. This is how the world should be able to see Jesus.

²⁵ “All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, 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. ²⁷ 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. ²⁸ “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. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. ³⁰ I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, ³¹ 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.

Jesus was doing the will of His Father when He laid down His life for us. He did it to accomplish peace between us and our Father.  He was showing us the depth of His love.

Your Father would like a word with you. You and I have that quite literally not only in the written Word of God, but also in Immanuel, “God with us,” the Word made flesh. Because the Father had and has His Word with us, we have peace with God.

Yesterday I started going through John 14 with you using the phrase “Your Father would like to have a word with you” as our these. That continues today.

John 14
⁷If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” ⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. He is not just a representative. And it is more than just “He’s the spitting image of His dad.” It is not simply a resemblance. They are connected and intertwined. In fact, Jesus says “the words I say to you are not just my own.” They are the Father’s words, the word He wants you to know and have with you. The Father has His Word with you.

¹² I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. ¹⁵ “If you love me, you will obey what I command.

Recognizing all that Jesus has done in living without sin, dying to pay for our sin, and rising again in victory, gives us a picture of the depth of God’s love. Our response is to want to love Him, too. And He tells us that love will be expressed in our lives by doing what He commands, by listening to His Word. He said it this way in Luke 11:28: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” If you love me, you will obey what I command.

 ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ 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.

Note how the Father makes provisions for when the Word made Flesh is no longer visibly among us. He gives us another one, the Holy Spirit, who speaks the Word and operates through the Word to lead us to faith and strengthen us in that faith.

The Father has His Word with us. I’ll wrap this up tomorrow.

Almost forty years ago the movie “Cocoon”  was released. As with most movies, if  you watch this with a discerning eye, filter out the foul language and humanistic teachings, you will discover that the basic plot or story line is taken directly from the Bible. This is nothing new. Much of the literature throughout history can be traced to the Bible for its origins. This particular movie is an account of the free gift of eternal life given to man.

The story is set in a retirement community in Florida. A couple of old men sneak into an abandoned house to use the swimming pool. Then some “people”, who are actually aliens, rent the house. They want to use the pool to revitalize some of their fellow aliens that were left behind thousands of years ago in cocoon-like pods at the bottom of the sea. They treat the pool with some chemicals and forces that will accomplish this task. However, the next time these old men sneak into the pool, they find that it has a rejuvenating effect on them. It is the long sought after fountain of youth, it gives them a new life. As the story develops, more and more people start using the pool and benefiting from its effects, but they use up all of its “power.” The aliens are unable to accomplish their mission, and must return. However, they offer to take a group of old people with them, promising them eternal life. The old folks naturally accept this free gift gladly. One old man, explaining to his grandson that he would be going away, tells the boy that he was going to a place where “we’ll never get sick, we won’t get any older and we’ll never die.” Of course they wanted to go!

’m sure you see the parallels to the Biblical revelation of God’s Plan of salvation. The pool is like our Baptisms. It gives us a new life, and should have a constant rejuvenating effect on us. In Baptism, we are “born again” as the Children of God. This should always empower us for our lives of service. We should feel like new men and women, since we have had all of our sins washed away.

Lot’s of religions include the teaching of eternal life, but only the Bible tells us that it is a free gift, earned for us by Jesus. In this world we have pain, and suffering and hardships, we grow old and die, all the result of sin and disobedience. This is not only because of  the sin we have inherited from Adam and Eve. We keep on sinning, daily. The only thing we deserve from God is hell, damnation, and eternal torment. But our loving God did not abandon us.  He provided the means of escape through the living bread, His Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. He paid the price for all of our sins on the cross. He took our punishment upon Himself in order to pay the price for our iniquities.

JOHN 6:41-51   At this the Jews began to grumble about Him because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How can He now say, `I came down from heaven’?”  “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets:  `They will all be taught by God.’  Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.  No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God;  only He has seen the Father.  I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The Bread of Life  gave Himself “for the life of the world.”  By His selfless act of love and mercy, we are saved. In real life, just as in that movie, the saving comes from an outside source, not from ourselves. The sad thing is that people are more willing to believe in a fantasy like that movie than they are to believe the fact of eternal life as a free gift from God to all who believe.

Jesus was and is the real deal. He earned us a place where “we’ll never get sick, we won’t get any older and we’ll never die.” He paid the price for us to have all that.