Tough Day?

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Matthew 16:21 (ESV)

Have you ever dreaded starting a day? Maybe there has been tragedy in your life and during the midst of the difficult time you just did not want to get out of bed on a particular day. We do not have to have the ability of divine foreknowledge to reflect on times in our past where we thought we could not get through a day or a week or a particular time in our life. Maybe it was death or divorce or surgery or cancer or even child birth and you would have just liked to skip that portion of your life.

I would not be bold enough or silly enough to say that Jesus dreaded what was going to take place at Calvary. However, though He was 100% God He was also 100% human. I can not image what went through His mind knowing even more than He told His disciples prior to what was going to take place in just a few days. Mel Gibson’s movie helped me to understand more of what I had read in Scripture time and time again but even the best filmmakers could not show what our Lord went through. Has the thought ever entered your mind, what we would I have done?

The amazing love that it took for any person to do what Jesus, the Son of God, did for us is beyond comprehension. He even had the discouragement of the disciples as they heard Him speak different times about going to Jerusalem that it wasn’t safe. Yet Jesus knew and was driven by love for you to complete this tough day.

I’m so thankful the story doesn’t end here. Tough days, even in our limited perspective, are hard to get through. Truly love drove Jesus to Jerusalem to face physical, emotional and spiritual torment on our behalf. There was also something else driving Him. Jesus told the people during His ministry “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). He had a purpose and a goal in mind. The completion of the task, the victory of the battle was another driving force. To complete what He was sent to do, to finalize the mission given by the Father, God Almighty and to win to Himself people that would believe in Him as Lord and Savior. Wow! Now that’s my Jesus! He is the perfect example of enduring the tough days.

The hope and vision of the Resurrection is what gives us a hope like to other. What Jesus did on Calvary is mind blowing but oh the completion! The tough day was turned into a glorious day! When our Savior, our Redeemer broke the bonds of death, hell and the grave and by His resurrection set us free. We can get through tough days because Jesus got through the ultimate tough day. We can excel when everything seems like it is falling apart if we reflect on the truth that the Son of God provided for His own.  

Lord Jesus forgive us when we whine. You set the ultimate example and have given more than we can ever know in this life. Blessed be Your Name. Amen.

Love Inside Out – 2

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14–21)[1]

The love that comes from within us is so powerful and yet this power can be ignored or perfected in amazing ways, ways we can fully discover. Though the discovery is limitless the process of discovery is extremely rewarding. Marital love is a small example or reflection of this infinitely more powerful and infinitely abundant love called in the Greek language, agape. When sincere, right, perfected the love between a man and woman can be really amazing, rewarding, exciting and living, only to mention a few attributes and benefits of this love.

 The love of God flowing through us is limitless in application and direction. Paul describes it as having four dimensions, height, width, length and depth. This analogy goes beyond common human understanding. According to Wikipedia the concept of the fourth dimension In mathematics or a four-dimensional ("4D") space, is an abstract concept derived by generalizing the rules of three-dimensional space. It has been studied by mathematicians and philosophers for almost two hundred years, both for its own interest and for the insights it offered into mathematics and related fields. In modern physics, space and time are unified in a four-dimensional Minkowski continuum called spacetime, whose metric treats the time dimension differently from the three spatial dimensions.^{[clarification needed]} [2] Did you totally follow this? I can not comprehend this depth of physics or mathematics it is beyond my comprehension. Same way with the volume and power of God’s love, it is beyond my full comprehension.

Though God’s love is vast, as I stated last week it can be comprehended enough at the time you need it. The fullness of God’s love maybe beyond total comprehension but it is still comprehendable sufficiently for you. It is like the ocean, you may not be able to understand it but it is so cool to swim in. So, I challenge you to swim in God’s love. The first time I ran down the beach in Jacksonville, Florida I was amazed, I have never seen so much water. Look at God’s love like that, be amazed but swim in it, bask in it, splash it around all areas of your life and just get happy with it.

The vastness of God’s love is also multidimensional in application. Not only can it surround and saturate every (not almost every) part of your life it can affect others as well. Peter wrote, Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins 1 Peter 4:8 (ESV). The vastness of God’s love in the life of a child of God can change other people, it covers a multitude of sins. Jesus said other people will know that you are mine if you love me. That love has an effect on other people. However, it goes even farther than that. The apage love of God flowing through a child of God can change a spouse, can change a child, can change a co-worker. Oh, experience the greatest of God’s love in your life like never before. It is amazing, it is unending, it is so powerful to you and to others it splashes upon.

Lord Jesus, teach us to love You more. Teach us to experience Your love in every area of our life. Show us how Your love can change areas of our lives that never crossed our minds. Show us how that Your love can change the lives of others all to Your glory, Amen.

---

[1] All scripture references are from the English Standard Version of the Holy Bible

[2] Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation: Accessed March 28^th, 2011 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension