When the Time Had Fully Come

“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

Galatians 4:4-5

God had declared in Israel through His prophet in Amos 8:11-12, " ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ’when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.  Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.’ ” Amos’ prophecy period was 767 to 755 B.C.  He warned that there would be a famine of hearing the LORD’s words.  The Israelites had already lost God’s protection and presence through their rebellion.  Then, God stopped talking.  Hearing God speak set them apart from other nations.  Since they lost the security of His relationship, the religious leaders clung to the security of legalism and burdened the people with religious rules.

Imagine the questions of people in the market place, in the fields, and at the dinner tables.  The people envisioned political greatness, a world conquering Messiah, and an eternal King with divine power.  When would Messiah come?  When would He throw off the Roman rule over the people?  When would He raise up His kingdom?  When would the “Son of David” restore the splendor of the Jewish throne?  When would God speak again to the people?  How long would He keep silent?  Why was He waiting?

Today’s Scripture tells us that when the time had fully come, God sent His Son.  The word “fully” is from the noun pleroo.  It means “fullness, full measure, full end, abundance, completeness as in reaching the intended goal.”  It implies “gestation.”   God used time to do what only time could do.  It caused the people to be starving for a Word from Him.  Although the nation of Israel rejected Jesus, pockets of Jewish people received Him well.  They were hungry for a fresh Word from God.  An empty stomach enjoys an all-you-can-eat buffet much more than a full stomach or even a partially full stomach.  After 400 years without hearing one word from God, God sent the entire all-you-can-eat buffet of His Word and His presence.  How much a person eats depends on how much she desires to have of Jesus.  What a dream - a buffet with no limits!

God used time to prepare the earth.  He waited until the earth was completely prepared.  Have you noticed that the preparation period is very important to God?  Preparation impacts the fruit of the tree called destination.  He prepared the way by:

1.    Universal language – Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, thus ruling over the Jews in 333 B.C.  He conquered the “known” world and made Greek the common language, the second language for all.  It was the language of commerce and writing.  The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Old Testament was translated into Greek making it easy to disseminate and understand.

2.    Universal peace - In 63 B.C., the Romans conquered the Greeks.  They ruled with an iron-fist, but there was peace.  The temple doors of their god of war were closed.

3.    Established road system – The Roman army built a road system allowing them to reach a place quickly if there was an uprising.  The road network established a working postal system, protection for travelers, and opportunities never before seen.

4.    Death penalty by the Roman cross - The Roman government’s form of capital punishment was the cross.  It was a brutal, torturous, and humiliating death for criminals and a deterrent for future criminals.  The Hebrews stoned people to death.  Through Rome, God perfectly planned the death of His Son just like He planned every other detail of His life.

God may have been silent for hundreds of years, but He was not asleep.  The first three things allowed the disciples to bring the Gospel to other countries.  An earthly army may have established it, but the army of God used it for His purposes.  The fourth point prepared God’s chosen way for His Son to die for you and me.  God used these empires to prepare the way for His Son’s birth, life, and death.  God used these empires to prepare the world to receive the greatest news that God had come as a Man to redeem man.

When God declared it was time, He sent His angel Gabriel to declare the good news.  Luke begins his Gospel with the story of Gabriel visiting the priest Zechariah to announce the birth of the forerunner to Jesus, John the Baptist.  Six months later, Gabriel went to a young Jewish girl named Mary.  Everything happened in God’s perfect timing.  He chose the right time on the kingdom calendar centered on the Jews, and to all races and religions:  The Incarnate Deity, Immanuel, God with us.

What about you, beloved?  Do you have an experience that was against your patience and flesh, but you later realized it was all in God’s timing?  Are you having one right now?  Hold on!  Our God just may be arranging the background for the best scene of your life.  When you and I are obedient and faithful, we give God all of the room to set the stage and raise up the curtain of His best performance in our lives – all in His perfect timing.

Pray with me:  Dear Heavenly Lord, we are amazed at Your perfect plan.  You knew that You would bring a famine of Your words to Your people.  You kept silent for those many centuries.  After You set the stage completely and not a moment sooner, You declared it was time.  It was time for Your Son to be born of a woman under the Law to redeem us who are under the Law that we might receive the full rights of sons and daughters.  We praise Your perfect plan for Jesus’ birth. 

We can’t help but exclaim that we never want to live under a famine of Your Words.  When Your words come, may we eat them for they are our joy and our heart’s delight (Jeremiah 15:16).  We are hungry for a word from You today.  There are so many of us that are in tough circumstances.  We need You in our lives, in our problems, today.  We need our daily bread.  It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray.  Amen.

Excerpt from the Jesus Lives Bible study,

Or Olam

“The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

Isaiah 60:19

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to see the Christmas lights.  I squeal like a young child when our lights go up outside in our tree and bushes.  Last year, I added a lighted angel to our meager yard decorations.  I drive my family in our van through some of the nicer neighborhoods to see their lights.  We enjoy lights of all colors – white, blue, green, and red.  Some houses have stars, lights on Christmas wreaths, or a candle burning in every window.  My friend Bobbie was telling me at lunch today about the Christmas lights she saw in San Francisco when she visited her daughter.  They had lights on the trees the colors of fall leaves – orange, red, and yellow.  Some buildings were outlined in lights and made to look like Christmas presents.  The splendor of the lights delights me.

As I have been preparing my heart for Christmas, Jesus’ birthday, I ran across Isaiah 60:19, and God captured my attention right there.  Like a sparkling diamond, my eyes stared and reread this verse.  “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”  So I had to read the rest of the chapter to get it into context.

I discovered that Isaiah 60 is a chapter of promise for a time to come.  It tells us that some day our loved ones will be reunited from the distance or death that separates us (v.4).  We will no longer receive our “economic lot in life,” second-hand gifts, or the mere bare necessities, but we will receive the riches of God (v.17).  This chapter tells us that some day there will be no more violence, robberies, vandalism, or crime (v.18).  Some day salvation will dwell in the streets.  We will live in a country of peace.  Praise will ring all over town for the one true God (v.18).

Isaiah 60 is also a chapter of the promise about the Light of God.  It begins by saying, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”  It was not until I studied it in detail that I realized this chapter is one of the most packed chapters in the Bible about the Everlasting Light.  Isaiah says darkness covers the earth, but the nations will come to the light of the city of God.  God’s glory will appear over us.  His beauty and splendor will radiate and glitter in magnificence that will dazzle us.  The sun will no longer be the light by day, and the moon will no longer shine at light.  Isaiah 24:23 tells us that they would be embarrassed and ashamed for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders.

Of course, I studied the Hebrew words for Everlasting Light.  “Everlasting” in the Hebrew is olam.  It means “forever, evermore, everlasting, perpetual, ancient, always, continuous existence, perpetual, lasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity.”  The Hebrew word for “light” is or.  It means “light, shine, bright, illuminate.”  Our God is perpetual brightness, evermore shining, and unending illumination filled with beauty and glory.

God created the sun, moon, and the stars so that we might have light in order to live.  We think of them as timeless and unshakable.  However, they have merely been a substitute until we can have the one true Light, the Everlasting Light.  In the city of God, these heavenly bodies will no longer be required.

Then, God reminded me of some verses about light in the New Testament.  You see, Jesus, the Son of God, was the Light of the World.  This Light came into the world (John 8:12), but the darkness did not understand it (John 1:5).  Jesus said when He healed the blind man in John 9:4-5, ^“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  Even as the Son of Man who took on flesh, Jesus exhibited the family characteristics as the Everlasting Light.  In Him, there is no darkness.  There is nothing hidden.  In Him, beauty and majesty divine shines everywhere.  Unlike the sun and the moon which are substitutes for the one true Light, Jesus came as a preview of the Everlasting Light.  Although the sun and moon are quite lovely, Jesus’ compassion, love, and protectiveness of those He loves makes me long to dwell in this place of beauty. 

Some day, the Everlasting Light will be revealed to us, and we will bask in His presence forever.  We will behold His majesty that currently surpasses our wildest imagination.  Oh, beloved, how I pray that when you look at the lights this Christmas that it will make you long for the day when we will behold Him, our beautiful Or Olam!

Pray with me:  Or Olam, we praise You!  God, You are the Everlasting Light. Your presence captures our attention, and we are drawn to the Light.  You dazzle and radiate.  Your appearance is breath-taking.  In You, there will be no more dreary days for You are Light.  Thank You, Jesus, for coming to give us life so that we might dwell in the city of God, a place of eternal beauty and splendor.  Thank You for being the Light of the World and being the most stunning Light of all.  It’s in Your precious Name, Jesus, we pray, Amen.

Immanuel

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Isaiah 7:14

The prophet Isaiah gives more rich prophecies of Jesus, His ministry, and His coming than any other prophet in the Old Testament.  So today we return again to Isaiah.  Maybe you are familiar with Isaiah 7:14, maybe you are not.  Isaiah prophesied that LORD would give a sign - a sign that was impossible for man to fulfill.  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  Roughly 700 years before Jesus was born, God spoke through His prophet Isaiah about His precious Son, the nature of His birth, and His Name.

To understand this significance of the prophecy, let’s talk about the context that it was given in Isaiah 7.  Ahaz was the King of Judah.  The kings of Aram and Israel joined forces to come against Jerusalem.  The hearts of King Ahaz and his people were shaken.  The Lord sent Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him to not be afraid and to not lose heart.  Now was Ahaz a good king who deserved to have the Lord’s protection and deliverance?  Not at all.

Ahaz was an evil king who did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD.  He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, made cast idols for worshipping Baal.  He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places.  The last one crushes me to even say.  He sacrificed his sons in the fire.

So in his time of great need, God reaches out to him.  King Ahaz had rejected the God of Israel, Yahweh, but God did not severe the relationship.  No, God wanted to show Himself mighty to King Ahaz so God’s beloved chosen people would be delivered and restored to Him.  They would know that He is the one true God.

God offers to deliver King Ahaz and his people and tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, “whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”  God wanted Ahaz to turn his heart to him.  How does Ahaz respond?  He says, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”

Ahaz had the God of the universe giving him permission to ask him for help yet he didn’t accept it.  He didn’t know the God of Israel so he could not believe the God of Israel. He preferred to ask the king of Assyria.  He sought the help of an untrustworthy human over the Almighty God that he could not believe.  God outstretched His arms to Ahaz, but Ahaz rejected God and would not embrace Him.  So God didn’t just give a heavenly sign of His power.  God didn’t miraculously sweep through the enemy’s camp and deliver Israel from this attack.  God’s sign to him would change the course of mankind for all generations.

God gave the sign of His ultimate deliverance.  The virgin would give birth to a son.  She would give birth to God’s Son.  He was to be named Immanuel which means “God with us.”  Jesus came to be with us.  The Son of God came as a man so He could experience everything that we experience.  He came to relate to us.  You see precious one, ever since Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, God’s deepest longing was to deliver man from sin and to be with man.  We see it when the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, and God directs them to set up a tabernacle so that He could meet with them.  We see it time after time with the kings of Judah and Israel.  They forsake God and worship other gods.  Yet, God remains faithful to His covenant and to them.  He waits, and He woos them back to Him.  He is the God of relationships, and He is the God loves us and longs to be with us.

Because I now understand deliverance and God’s desire to be with us, “O, Come, O Come, Immanuel” has become one of my favorite Christmas carols.  Jesus coming as Immanuel is the biggest reason of all to rejoice and to celebrate.  It’s not the temporary gifts of the materialistic Christmas we have created.  It’s the eternity that we have with our God.  Hallelujah!  I’m bursting with joy!  Aren’t you?  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to make this year the most special Christmas ever because we choose to focus on our Savior and worship Him.   

Pray with me:  Almighty God, thank You for sending Your Son Jesus to deliver us.  Thank You for delivering us from captivity.  Thank You for extending Your arms to us and asking us to believe in You.  You are a with-us God.  You will never leave nor forsake us.  All You have ever wanted was to be with us.  So we give you our hearts and affections this Christmas season.  We celebrate Your deliverance and Your love.  Thank You for Jesus, Your ultimate plan for deliverance.  In the mighty Name of Jesus, our Immanuel, we pray.  Amen!

For to Us

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”

Isaiah 9:6-7

Are you ready for Christmas?  Did you start on your shopping list for your loved ones months ago or were you one of those crazy people out the day after Thanksgiving to get those bargains?  Have you started putting up your Christmas tree?  Have you started either the “sweet reminding” or hearing the “gentle nag” to put up your outdoor Christmas lights?  What are you hoping will happen this Christmas?  Are you hoping to receive that Pampered Chef stoneware, new camera, gift cards to your favorite store, a cruise, or even a diamond ring? 


Many of us have Christmas traditions and have some idea in our head of what Christmas should be like.  God is asking me to take a step back and think about if I am really celebrating Christmas in a way that honors Him.  I am not ready for Christmas in any sense that the Americans celebrate it today.  I haven’t bought a present, written a Christmas card, put up a tree, scheduled Christmas pictures, or made a shopping list.  Do you know where I’m starting first this year?  I’m starting in my heart.  I’m reading all of the Christmas passages, you will be seeing what God has shown me over the next few weeks. 

Today we start with Isaiah 9:6-7.  Isn’t it amazing that God revealed to His prophet hundreds of years earlier about His Son?  God told him that His Son came to set up an everlasting government and peace.  He rules on David’s throne.  He has dominion over all creation.

Isaiah says that He will be called Wonderful.  He is a wonder to me still.  He never ceases to make me marvel at Him.  His works are magnificent.  He is the thorough and caring physician.  I’m astonished that He loves me.  I’m flabbergasted that He uses me for His kingdom.  It renders me speechless when someone else’s life is touched through what He does through mine. 

He is our Counselor.  He is my confidant and my very best friend.  He always listens and always gives the perfect advice.  He has never been wrong.

Isaiah says He will be called Mighty God.  He is stronger than any human and more valiant than the bravest soldier.  He is God of all.  He is mighty to save.  No one is too far out of His reach.  He saves! 

He is Everlasting Father.  He will exist forever!  From the Hebrew, He is father, chief, and the head of the family.  He deserves respect and honor.

Lastly, He is the Prince of Peace!  He gives peace in any circumstance.  Through Him, we can rejoice always.  His peace transcends human understanding.  I understand it greatly today as my husband recovers from his surgery and has had some bumpy complications.  He has been my peace when I could have just been so tired or not known how to speak to the doctor or pack an open wound.  He is my peace through anything!

Precious one, let’s remember make this the most special Christmas ever because we choose to focus on our Savior and worship Him.  Let’s celebrate those blessed words, “for to us a child is born!” 

Pray with me:  Almighty God, thank You for sending Your Son to have the government on His shoulders and to rule over all.  Thank You Jesus, for being Wonderful, our Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Thank You for coming to save us and not condemn us (John 3:17).  In Your precious Name, we pray.  Amen!

Thank You!

“I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

Psalm 7:17

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 sometime between September 21 and November 1.  After the first harvest, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer for all the colonists and neighboring Indians.  In the American Revolution, an annual day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.  By the middle of the 19^th century, many states had adopted a Thanksgiving Day.  In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln appointed the Thanksgiving Day to be the last Thursday in November.  He proclaimed that on this day we were "to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt adjusted it to the fourth Thursday in November in 1939.

Today’s government has distanced itself from the true reason why this holiday was created – thanksgiving and prayer.  Although the president still issues a proclamation of thanksgiving, the one true God is not attributed as the Giver of our blessings.

So as we celebrate this day, let’s be leaders of our family and loved ones.  Let’s demonstrate the principles of our faith that politically correct people shun.  God has been leading me to count my blessings even more this year.  He has opened my eyes more to the wonderful husband that I have who takes care of his family, protects us, and tends to our physical needs.  I have realized that when I focus on frustrations and desire a “better life,” ungratefulness grows in my prideful heart.  I am left empty because I have let my blessings slip away and leak out through the holes that ingratitude leaves in my heart.  When I am thankful, then I am Spirit-filled and Spirit-led.  Thankfulness stems from what thoughts I choose to focus on in my mind.

Take the time today to count your blessings.  Review the past year and write down 10 things that you would finish this sentence with, “I thank God for _____________”  Your list doesn’t need to be grand nor grammar perfect.  Then take the time to think about the people who have helped you get this far in your life.  Who has shaped you?  Who has mentored you?  Take the time to thank them and encourage them.  This will fan the flame in them so they will be encouraged to keep pouring into others.

Precious friend, as I counted my blessings, you have to know that I thank God for you all the time.  I don’t take you for granted.  God has given me a supernatural love for you.  Know that if you were the only one reading this that I would still write just for you.  Thank you for your diligence to read these writings from our hearts.  Thank you for wanting more of God in your life.  Know that He sees your desire, and He knows that you want an intimate relationship with Him.  God always responds to someone who truly just wants Him affirmatively.  Have a great Thanksgiving where you really celebrate it in a way that honors our God!

Pray with me:  Father God, we give You thanks!  You have poured out Your storehouses of heaven and given us Your best.  You inhabit the praise of Your people so hear our praise for You.  Thank YOU!  We thank You for all that You have done in our lives.  We choose to let You remove fretting, whining, murmuring, and complaining!  No more holes left behind by ingratitude -  only joyous thankfulness.  Thank You for adopting us as Your children and making us heirs.  It’s in Your precious Son’s Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray.  Amen.

Unfailing and Unshakable

Tuesday's Memory Verse

“ ‘ Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

This is a verse to hold onto when your world turns upside down.  Hold onto it when the stock market is tumbling, the economy is rattled, and your job is uncertain.  Hold onto it when your health is deteriorating and the doctor throws up his hands.  Hold onto it when your ministry is barren and you question if God really called you to step out in faith.  Hold onto it when your marriage seems to be crumbling and has no human hope.  Hold onto it when you don’t think you can make it one more day in such agony.  When our lives are shaken and our comfort zones are removed, remember this verse.  God’s love for you will never be unstable.  He will never take away His peace.

God’s love is unfailing.   His supernatural love will never let us down.  He loves us no matter what we do.  If we sin greatly, He still loves us.  If we lose our determination to follow Him no matter the cost, He still loves us.  He doesn’t love us conditional like humans do.  If we hurt Him, He still loves us.  If we lose our physical beauty, He still thinks we are gorgeous.  If we lose our mental abilities, He still loves us.

If our worlds turn upside down, we still have God’s peace.  We can be confident of the days to come that nothing comes to us that has not come through the filter of His loving fingers.  His love for us is unshakable even though the world may fall apart.  His covenant of peace is irrevocable even though the times may be turbulent.  We have a compassionate God who will never fail us or remove Himself from our lives.  This is our blessed hope and assurance as children of the Living God!  Carry this verse with you wherever you go this week – be it written on an index card, recorded on your smartphone, or imprinted in your heart.  Study it, pulverize it, and memorize it!

Memorization Reminders:

Please join me in memorizing these verses and implanting God’s thoughts into our minds.  I’m expecting for God to radically change our lives if we do this.  Redeem your time to make room for memorizing God’s Word.  Take this verse with you wherever you go.  Meditate on it, and pulverize it.

We are blessed to live in a time where we can have the Bible at our fingertips even through the internet or an actual Bible in our hands.  Yet, this blessing can become a curse if we do not treat the Bible with such honor to savor every word of it as those through the centuries who have longed to have His Word so much. They had to memorize every Scripture they had ever been given because their own copy of the Scripture was not possible.

Most of us probably don’t memorize Scripture because we think that we do not have the time.  However, our minds have a lot of wasted space that can be given to God.  We have to redeem the time.  For women, we can use the time while putting on our make-up or blow drying our hair.  For men, use the time while shaving.  For both genders, we can use the time while we shower, stop at red lights, do the laundry, wash the dishes, and mow the lawn.  Let’s face it:  our minds are thinking about something during this time.  Instead of being focused on our obsessions, worries, cares, to-do’s, and problems, give this time to God.

Take your verse(s) with you wherever you go.  You can type your verse out and put it on beautiful sheets of your choice.  You can write it out on index cards.  Many people prefer index cards spiral bound to keep them together.  For iphone users, I’m sure there is an app.  You can write it on your iphone notepad or record your voice speaking it and replay it throughout the day.

Now that we have the verse and we have found the time, let’s focus on the method.  We don’t just memorize it by saying it over and over; we meditate on it.  We spend time thinking about what each word means and what it doesn’t mean. 

Then one of my favorite techniques as taught by Waylon Moore is to pulverize the verse.  Say the verse over and over each time focusing on a different word in the verse to emphasize.  For example, say Isaiah 54:10 (today’s verse) aloud and say with more umph the underlined and bolded word:

“ ‘ Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

“ ‘ Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

“ ‘ Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

 “ ‘ Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

“ ‘ Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

Repeat this process until each word in the verse has been emphasized.

After meditating and pulverizing the verse continuously for a week, the seed planted in our hearts will begin to germinate.  You and I will no longer be merely short-term memorizing, but the Word will dwell within us.  When God’s Word dwells within us, something miraculous happens.  Our minds are renewed and transformed into the mind of Christ.  We worry and fret less.  We are armed for the attacks of the enemy.  Our lips will be full of praise for our God.  My friend, I’m ready for that kind of transformation!

Dull, but Loved

“And He said, ‘Are you also even yet dull and ignorant (without understanding and unable to put things together)?’ ”

Matthew 15:16 (Amp)

“One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.”

John 13:23

In John Mac Arthur’s book Twelve Ordinary Men, he says that Jesus “chose to work through the instrumentality of those few fallible individuals rather than advance His agenda through mob force, military might, personal popularity, or a public – relations campaign.” Jesus was not about using strategies to enlarge His group of followers. He did not use marketing techniques. He preached the truth, confronted the religious establishment, and focused on transforming individual lives.

The most amazing part of His strategy is that not only did He use twelve disciples who were not perfect, at times, they were difficult to tolerate. In Luke 8, the disciples wake up Jesus who is sleeping through the storm because they think they are going to drown. Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waters, and the storm subsides. Then He asked them disappointedly, “Where is your faith?” In Luke 9, when Jesus comes down from the Mountain of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, the other nine disciples cannot cast the demon out of the boy – even though they had cast out evil spirits previously. Jesus said, “O unbelieving and perverse generation. How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” Also in Luke 9, the disciples argued about who would be the greatest. Jesus tells them that whoever is the least will be the greatest. In Matthew 15 when the disciples do not understand the parable, Jesus asked them, “Are you still so dull?” In John 14, on Jesus’ last night with them, Philip asked Him to show them the Father and that would be enough. Jesus answered him, “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.”

They were slow learners. They could be spiritually dense. They made mistakes. Their faith failed. They may have frustrated Him and abandoned Him when He needed them the most, but they were His disciples. And He loved them. They knew it. Above all other emotions, the prevailing one Jesus demonstrated to them was love.

The disciple John refers to himself by a title which underscores Jesus’ prevailing attitude toward this group of frustrating men. He repeatedly calls himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, John 20:2, John 21:7, John 21:20).

In a recently released movie, a man is recounting the love story of two young people to a lovely woman with Alzheimer’s disease in a nursing home where they live. The man is her husband telling her the story of how they fell in love. Every day, he tells it to her in the hope that she will remember him for a few moments. The majority of the movie is scenes from their youth when they fell in love. However, by the end of the movie, the interesting part of the story is no longer the couple in their youth but the couple at the end of their days. The love of the elderly couple had built a life together, endured time, survived hardships, and the loss of physical and mental abilities. While the circumstances of their physical life had worsened, their love for each other had grown even deeper. The love between a man and a woman can be different from God’s love in some ways. In other ways, it gives us a picture of God’s heart for us and our response to His love. Usually, the love in movies is a dream. No person can love another like that! However, God can. He can love us better than our dreams.

John was taught much about love. He changed from one fighting to be the greatest to one who talked repeatedly about Jesus’ love and loving each other. Decades after Jesus left, John still identified himself in his writings by the description meaning the most to him throughout his life - “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” This love grew deep roots and invaded his entire being. This love endured time. This love deepened through the hardships. This love built a life together. This love defined who he had become.

Oh, precious one, do we really understand Jesus loves us this deeply, too? He wants His love and our love in return to grow deep roots. He wants this love between Him and you and between Him and me to invade our entire being. This love should sustain us through hardships. This love should build a life together. This love should define who I am and who you are. Does it? Has it invaded you? Is it shaping who you are becoming? Oh, how I pray that we let this love shape every part of our being.

Pray with me: Almighty God, thank You for loving us so much! We know that we can be frustrating at times. We know we can be slow, dull, and faithless. Thank You for being patient with us. Thank You for loving us more than we can imagine. May this love build a life together with You, define who we are, and last a lifetime. It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.

Excerpt from the Jesus Lives Bible study