We can not earn God's love. We can't lose God's love. He will not love us more and He will never love us less. That doesn't mean He will always be pleased by our actions and the choices we make. That doesn't mean we will escape divine judgment.
God demonstrated His great love for mankind by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cruel rugged Cross. Jesus Christ shed His blood on the Cross dying for our sins. That is what true love looks like. He loved us so much that He died in our place. Jesus took the punishment on the Cross that you and I so rightly deserve.
There is none of us that is good enough in our own right to make it into Heaven. We all have sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins. Everyone who humbles themselves and trust in Jesus Christ finished work on the Cross will be saved. We obtain forgiveness of our sins and escape judgment by putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are saved by His precious blood. There is only one way to be forgiven of our sins and have a home in Heaven and that is by believing in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the Cross.
God rose Jesus from the dead on the third day and He is in Heaven at the right hand of God. One day the Lord Jesus Christ will return to the earth at His second coming. Those of us who have put our faith and trust in Him will be with Him for all eternity in Heaven.
The Lord loves us so greatly and we see how much He loves us by looking at what Jesus did for us on the Cross. The question we must ask ourselves is, "Do I love Jesus Christ?"
We who are believers will say, "Yes! I do love Jesus!"
We would say that because hopefully we do because of all He has done for us. We come humbly to Him because we know we can't save ourselves.
When we love Jesus. I mean when we really love Jesus we will love other people as well. That is how it is supposed to be, isn't it?
I would hope that we who say we love Jesus would grow more and more in love with our Savior everyday. Sometimes as time moves on our hearts may become weighed down with the things and stresses of life. We may drift from our love of the Lord. This sometimes happens.
It happened to the Church in Ephesus. We can read of what the Lord had to say to them in Revelations 2:1-7,
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
The Ephesian Christians had a lot going for them. They had good deeds that they had been doing in their community. Maybe they were having great suppers once a month and people we really pleased by receiving good meals.
The Ephesians were working hard with various projects and the were showing great perseverance.
They couldn't tolerated the wicked things that were going on all around them. They were even able to find some false apostles in their midst and they rooted them out.
They seemed to be doing so well, at least on paper.
Then Jesus tells them this, "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first."
They had good works. The Church was doing great things for the community, but something had gone terribly wrong. They had drifted from their first love. Their love for Jesus Christ had cooled off and their love for each other had become cold like a January day in Northern Maine.
Is that the state of the Body of Christ in out day and age? Have we drifted from our first love?
It is easy to think that the newest Church program will draw people into the Church and they may at least for a while. Hiring some new person may help or it may not.
The thing that must take place in our lives as believers in Jesus Christ is that the love that we have for Him must be rekindled in our hearts before we can reach out to the world with message of the Gospel.
The world needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People are literally going to Hell without it every hour of everyday. Does that concern you even a little bit?
We believers of Jesus Christ have a mission and it is called the Great Commission.
We need to reignite our love for the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and we need to stir up a love for one another and we need to come together and proclaim the Truth and Hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a dying and dark world that badly needs to hear it.
The Lord Jesus Christ loves you dear child of the Most High God.
Love Him back and love each other.
It is by our love for one other that world will know that we are His disciples.
Heavenly Father,
We are sorry for forsaking our love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We sometimes drift and we confess that to You.
Forgive us our sins of commission and our sins of omission.
Thank You for forgiving us all of our sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Rekindle our love for You Lord Jesus.
Stir up a love in our hearts for each other as well.
Pour out Your Spirit upon us.
Refresh our faith in You.
Lead us and guide us into all Truth.
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen.
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