Printing/Copying
available here
Stage 2: Level 2 - Class 1
Click here to print!
Printing/Copying
available here
Copyright © 1998 P.F.(Simon) Measures
You and I as Christians need to be renown for our love one towards another; though nothing else be noticed about us let this love be noticed!
Jesus, during His final Passover meal with His disciples, presented to us His new commandment,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35 - NKJV.
It was the love of Jesus clearly to be seen in His followers that first really drew me to Jesus and God's salvation in Him.
I was living in Holland at the time. Three years earlier in 1972 I had broken my neck in a trampoline accident while studying at St Paul's College in Cheltenham. The severity of the accident meant some very tricky operations and then spending a lengthy period in the local General Hospital.
Two of my neck vertebrae had been thrust completely out of place leaving me paralysed from the neck down. Without any doubt, I would never have recovered if the right people hadn't been in the right places at the right times and done just the right things at the right moments.
I thank God for His saving intervention in my life. I thank Him too for His Holy Spirit Who began drawing my thoughts towards Himself while a lay there in hospital. Perhaps you can imagine the inner hunger for truth, purpose and answers to life's questions that arose out of this.
Sad to say though, years of empty words from wooden pulpits hadn't given me much confidence in the direction of Christianity. Instead I began to search in literature, philosophy and even eastern religions for answers.
This search took me to Holland where I trained as a contemporary dancer - a real testimony to how good my recovery had been! Finally, one weekend in the summer of 1975, I found myself in the presence of some Christians in a coffee bar in Amsterdam.
I must confess that at that time no amount of words, however skilfully presented, could have convinced me that Jesus held the answers I sought. Yet the lives of these young Christians were so obviously brimming over with God's love that it touched me as it overflowed onto me.
There in their eyes I at last saw what my heart deeply yearned after, the love of God! I was ignorant of God but when I came into the presence of these people possessing His love I could only acknowledge His love was real and available to people just like me.
The Bible tells us when God's love flows in human hearts it does so by His Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5.) This can mean only one thing - it is available to every one of us by His Holy Spirit today.
When we yield to this love of God we will begin to see beyond the failings of others and instead believe to find beauty in others and possibilities for good in their future. They in turn will then begin to acknowledge that God's love is real and present in this modern, cold world of ours today.
Apostle Paul describes exactly what the love of God in our hearts does for us and in us when we yield to it in our lives. His writing in 1 Corinthians 13 is the Holy Spirit's own word-picture of God's love at work.
Love endures long and is patient and kind;
love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy,
is not boastful or vainglorious,
It is not conceited;
it is not rude and does not act unbecomingly.
Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights
or its own way, for it is not self-seeking;
it is not touchy or fretful or resentful;
it takes no account of the evil done to it
(it pays no attention to a suffered wrong).
It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness,
but rejoices when right and truth prevail
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes,
is ever ready to believe the best of every person,
its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances,
and it endures everything (without weakening).
Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a - Amplified Bible
This Holy Spirit word-picture is the best indicator I know of how well I'm walking in God's love. When I want to check on my progress in love I make a comparison of my life with this word. This is what you should do too.
God's love - given free-reign in a human life - is so powerful! It affects change in every area of human existence and very particularly in the area of social relationships. Imagine, God's love in us will cause us to pay no attention to present suffered wrongs while dropping all resentments for wrongs already suffered.
How is it possible to overlook wrongs against us? Simply because God's love forgives! God's love in our hearts causes us to let resentment drop, forgiving and forgetting the wrong. God's love forgives unreservedly.
"Well, I could never do that. You don't know some of the things people have done to me and my love ones." Listen to me. You are the one you harm most by taking that stand. Your inner life gets disfigured by that resentment and it's not long before your external life exhibits that disfiguring.
You can forgive. Forgiveness is an outflow of God's love. The one that loves also forgives. You can't say, "I love but I don't forgive!" That's impossible; for where there is love, there is always forgiveness!
Paul in his letter to the Colossians puts it this way,
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13 - NIV.
Let me conclude (this part) with Apostle Peter's words,
Love each other intensely!
1 Peter 4:8 - Barclay Translation.
Forgiveness must be present in our Christian lives - prayer depends on it. When Jesus taught His disciples how faith and prayer will operate together He also exhorted,
And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any.
Mark 11:25.
When you fail to forgive those "you have ought against" your prayers are hampered. This is because faith is the basis of answered prayer and faith doesn't work without love! We read in scripture Paul writing of "faith working through love." (See Galatians 5:6.)
Paul also writes to the faithful in Christ Jesus,
Forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 - NKJV
Look at that exhortation. How does it say you are to be forgiving one another? It says you are to be forgiving as God forgave you! This means in the same way; in the same dimension!
How has God forgiven you? The Bible tells us,
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12 - NKJV
That sounds as if they're off out in infinity to me and that's what God did with your transgressions (sins) when you came to Him through Jesus.
The same thing is expressed by the prophet Isaiah as he calls upon God,
You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
Isaiah 38:17 - NKJV
So God not only forgives you but also puts your sins out of His sight so that He ceases to remember them against you.
Jesus' parables have a powerful way of setting us straight on things. The magnificence of God's forgiveness is brought into sharp focus by the parable of the creditor and the two debtors. You can read this parable in Luke 7:41- 42.
The two debtors both had debts with the same creditor and - when neither were found able to pay up and settle the debt - we hear the creditor "frankly forgave them both." What can we assume the creditor did for the debtors? We can take it he let the debt drop, putting it forever behind him.
This is how God, the creditor, is with us, the debtors. He has erased our debts - accrued through our misconduct - from His accounting books! This is the wonderful love of God!
Since this is the way God has forgiven us then this is the way we are to forgive others. In the love of God we are to forgive erasing it from any account book we may have been holding.
Forgiving as God forgives will have to be in the love of God. Such forgiveness is not natural but supernatural. It is not found in feelings and emotions but only in the love of God. You will only be able to forgive as God forgives by making a decision of will in the love of God.
God's love is not based on an emotional response. God's love never fades out or comes to an end because His love is based on a decision to love. It says, "I will love this person and that person no matter how they are behaving right now." (Just think how everyone was behaving when Jesus declared, "For God so loved the world!")
Loving with God's love is an act of will. God has already put His love in your heart but you have to make the decision to release it. The same is true of forgiveness; it is an act of your will since it is an act of God's love in you. You have to make the decision to release it with the words, "I will forgive!"
Pray this prayer now and release forgiveness from your heart into the lives of those who've wronged or hurt you.
"Father, in the Name of Jesus, I will forgive. As a decision of my will I forgive all those who've ever wronged me or hurt me and I let all resentment drop in my life. Specifically I release forgiveness in my heart for...(name those you need to forgive). I forgive them as you, God, for Christ's sake forgave me! Amen."
Copyright © 1998 P.F. (Simon) Measures
Click here to print!
Printing/Copying
available here
This class is part of High Impact Christianity - now available as a six part book series!
Next class: Father and Son - A class on knowing your Heavenly Father.
Previous class: Hearing From Heaven! - A class on being led by God's Spirit.
Please sign our
|
Please Vote! A visit to our Home Page is a vote for us |
Return to
|