So I put on a video for Lydia this morning, sit down at the table with my coffee and bible and open it up to where I had stuck a bookmark in no particular spot. I was ready to ask God to show me something of Him this morning. If you have not done this before, opened up the bible that is, I would hightly recommed it. There was a time I used to think it was a waste of MY time and so was God, but He certainly changed my attitude on that. :)
So before I even start to pray, I look at the page and there it is. The passages that I needed to read today. How appropriate for this week. How appropriate for every week, every day...
John 15:10-13 "I have obeyed my Father's commands, and I remain in his love. In the same way, if you obey my commads, you will remain in my love. I have told you these things so that you can have the same joy I have and so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy. This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."
The disciples did not fully understand what Jesus was saying and what was going to happen in just a short while. The depth of Jesus' love for them, for us was about to be displayed.
Jesus, the perfect role model of faith, obeyed God to the point of death. He looked beyond His very painful circumstances and He knew what His sacrifice would bring...Life to others.
This next passage is from the book, God Came Near by Max Lucado...Read this slowly and soak it all in.
He looked around the carpentry shop. He stood for a moment in the refuge of the little room that housed so many sweet memories. He balanced the hammer in his hand. He ran his fingers across the sharp teeth of the saw. He stroked the smoothly worn wood of the sawhorse. He had come to say goodbye.
It was time for him to leave. He had heard something that made him know it was time to go. So he came one last time to smell the sawdust and lumber.
Life was peaceful here. Life was so...safe...
I wonder if he wanted to stay....I wonder because I know he had already read the last chapter. He knew that the feet that would step out of the safe shadow of the carpentry shop would not rest until they'd been pierced and placed on a Roman cross.
...If there was any hesitation on the part of his humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of his divinity. His divinity heard the voices...
And his divinity saw the faces....From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the world as you read these words, he saw them all.
And you can be sure of one thing. Among the voices that found their way into that carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice....
And not only did he hear you, he saw you. He saw your face aglow the hour you first knew him. He saw your face in shame the hour you first fell. The same face that looked back at you from this morning's mirror, looked at him. And it was enough to kill him.
He left because of you.
He laid his security down with his hammer. He hung tranquility on the peg with his nail apron. He closed the window shutters on the sunshine of his youth and locked the door on the comfort of ease of anonymity.
Since he could bear your sins more easily than he could bear the thought of your hopelessness, he chose to leave.
It wasn't easy. Leaving the carpentry shop never has been.
Even though Jesus left the comfort of his carpentry shop to do God's will, to endure such pain and suffering, He could see the joy that lay ahead. He knew there was a divine purpose to what He was doing. He was willing to step out of his comfort zone and take on our sins to fulfill God's plan so that we could know a peace and joy that is not found in this world, but in Him, in eternal life with God.
Are you willing to look beyond your pain and find God's purpose for your struggle? for your pain? for your difficult time? There is great joy to be found in our sufferings, a joy that surpasses all understanding in this world.
So be encouraged today that we can be joy-filled in all circumstances because of what Christ did for us. We are called to follow the perfect example of Jesus, who overcame difficult circumstances. Wow!
To that I say, AMEN!!!
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