This Is Love

                                                                                                                                             

Aloha Dearest Family,

                In 1985, singer songwriter Julie Gold wrote a song called “From A Distance” which has been recorded by many artists. The message of the song is that if we look at the earth from a distance, it seems flawless and beautiful. From a distance we do not see the troubles and sadness that men and women experience in life. Also in the song are the words “God is watching us – from a distance.” These words have always rubbed me the wrong way because I know that my God isn’t watching us from a distance, but is a very personal God and loves to get involved in each of our lives. In Romans 8:28 it says that God is always at work on our behalf,

           “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” It sounds like God is very involved.

                In the Bible, no other Psalm portrays God’s personal involvement in our lives than does Psalm 139. In this Psalm, David describes God’s continual presence and love for him.

                “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.” (verses 1-5)

                To David, this thought was just too wonderful for him to comprehend, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (v. 6) He could not imagine the Creator of the heavens and the earth wanting to be so involved in his life. (Wow!) David then writes just how close God was to him and how God would never leave him or forsake him.

                

           “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (verses 7-12) David could not go anywhere where the Lord would not also be present with him. He is a very personal God. He knew David and all his days even before he was born.

                “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (verse 16) 

These verses must have brought David much joy and comfort. 

           “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.” (Verses 17 and 18). 

How God must love us to have so many thoughts of us. Does this sound like a God that just watches us “from a distance?”

                

          God has not changed since the days of David. God still has great love for us and He wants to be involved in each of our lives. He longs to walk and talk with us each day, throughout our days. God shows us in many different ways how much he cares for us and wants to shower us with blessings. And God dramatically demonstrated His love by giving up His beloved son for us all. A son who always obeyed His Father. Who always chose his Father’s will over his own. There can be no words to describe how deeply God loved His son. But God was willing to give him over to experience agonizing torture and death – ON OUR BEHALF. This kind of love is beyond comprehension. 

               “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) 

This is called sacrifice. Someone once gave the true meaning of sacrifice; it is "giving up something you dearly love in order to receive something of greater value." We are that of greater value that God was willing to give His own son for. This is love.

                “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) If God was willing to give up His own son for us, what wouldn’t he give us?

                Through the many centuries, God’s greatest desire was to be able to have an intimate relationship with sons and daughters. This plan was fulfilled by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. The truth is that God not only raised Jesus from the dead to live forever; He also raised us up also-to live forever. 

                                       

                Today we can find great joy and comfort, just like David did, with the reality that no matter what we do and wherever we go, God’s unfailing love is always with us. He will never let us go and He will not allow anything to pull us away from His side because of His great love He has for us. This love will NEVER change. And like David wrote, this thought is almost too wonderful to comprehend; but nevertheless it is true.

                “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38 and 39)

                                                                                                    

Love Always, Ray

                “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)

Only One Life

                                                                                                                                                   

Aloha Dearest Family,

                We will start today’s sharing with a parable from Jesus.

                

                     “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

I have heard this parable taught numerous times and always thought it was a great story and good instruction for one’s life. So I filed it away in my brain amongst the many teachings I have heard over the years . . . until I was listening to a sermon on my way to work. The preacher told a story about the son of a missionary who went far away to study his chosen field of engineering. When he was almost finished with his studies, he suddenly came down with a rare disease. The doctor came into his room and told him that he had only about a year to live. This was devastating news and crushed the man’s hopes and his dream of a career as an engineer. But just then he received a letter from his father. Now, this story took place in a time when it took months to get a letter to a far-off country. The father had no way of knowing of the son’s fatal disease. When the son opened the letter, he read the words of his father that said, *“Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” At this point the son re-dedicated his life to Jesus Christ and promised to live for Him from now on.

                

             It was at this time that I thought about the man in the parable. He had spent so much time and energy gathering for himself that he had forgotten what was really important. Even though he was physically rich, he was not rich toward God.

 

                The longer I live and learn I have come to realize that we only have a certain amount of time here on this earth (duh). I have come to understand that the things we should invest our energies toward should be the things of God. In the end, these are the only things that will really matter and endure. Now I am absolutely NOT saying that you can’t work and thrive in your chosen field and succeed. This is what God wants, too. But we must remember that being rich in this life is found not in the things that one has, but what impact we have made in the lives of others the rewards that God has in store for us. We only have a short amount of time in order to do good for God.

                One of our family traditions each Christmas season is to watch the movie Scrooge starring Allistair Sim as Ebeneezer Scrooge. In the movie there is a scene where Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, is on his death bed. When Ebeneezer Scrooge bends his head to hear Jacob’s last words, he hears “wrong, we were wrong”. At the end of his life, Jacob Marley finally realized that he had been wrong in the way he treated people; that he had been wrong in just living for himself. But now it was too late. I would hate to wait until the end of my life to realize that I could have done more.

                In Ephesians 2 it states that God has prepared good works to do each day.

                

              “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

God has prepared good works for us to do in our life. If we walk with God He can direct us in what He wants us to do. It may be to speak to someone about God, or give someone some money, or simply show kindness to someone. God has specific good works that He has for each of us to do. All we have to do is have a willing heart and to love people. After all, isn’t this what Jesus Christ wanted for his followers to do? Love. Also the good works that we do today can earn us crowns and rewards in the future. When Jesus Christ comes back we will receive the rewards we have earned in this life. These we can enjoy forever.

                I think God’s people forget who they are and become too involved with what the world can give them. Now there is nothing wrong with possessions, but our main focus in life should be asking ourselves “What can I do for God today?”

                “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them…The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (I John 2:15 and 17) 

The worldly matters of this life will one day pass away. The only things that will last are what you have done for God and the continuance of all He has set in motion. I don’t need to tell you just how amazing it will be. 

                Finally, God has given each of us certain gifts - specific talents and abilities to use to minister to the body of Christ. What your gift or ministry is will be between you and the Father and it usually is practiced based on the needs of the believers around you but each one is vital to the work of the ministry, for the building up of the church of God. This should be our main focus in life.

             Remember we only have a certain amount of time on this earth. Let us use that time wisely and use it do the good works that God has prepared for us to do.

                                                Love Always, Ray  

  

*(For the entire poem, look up Only One Life by C.T. Studd).

How To Please God

                                                                                        

Aloha Dearest Family,

                How do you please God? Perhaps you have asked yourself this question a time or two. After all, God is perfect and He would require perfection in order to please Him, right? Already, that leaves me out. How could I even hope to come close to this standard? But maybe the answer is simpler than I thought.

                If you are a Christian, the hard part is over. For those of us who have confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord, we need to fully understand that all of our sins, sickness, guilt or any other shortcomings we have had, have been paid for by Christ’s death and resurrection. Furthermore, God has given us His gift of holy spirit to dwell within us. We are now completely, complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10). We now have peace with God, 

               “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Romans 5:1)   

Now that we know that we are children of God, like all other children, we strongly desire to please our Father. Not because we have to, but because we want to. A great example of this is Jesus Christ, the original son of God. He said that he always did those things that please his Father.

 

“And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” (John 8:29) 

How did he accomplish this? First of all, he must have known what the will of his Father was by studying the scriptures, and then he carried out his Father’s Will. He followed God’s commandments by loving people, giving to people and more specifically, fulfilling his own calling of preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and healing all those that were oppressed of the devil. And God acknowledged that he was pleased, “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) (Man I would love to hear God say this to me). He also greatly pleased the Father by choosing to become a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind by dying on a tree. Jesus Christ’s total obedience pleased his Father. If we follow Jesus’ example, we will also please God. What are some other ways to please God?

-“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

If we don’t have faith in God we will never please God. What does it mean to have faith in God? We must trust in all that He has revealed to us in His Word and that He is faithful to all of His promises. Also we believe that God will reward us if we diligently seek Him. If we do this we will please God.

                   

            -“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8)

I’ve heard some teach that mankind cannot please God because they are flesh, but God is Spirit. That is not what this verse means. In the context, this verse is speaking about the kind of thoughts we are to hold in our minds. If we look at the prior verses we will learn what Paul was referring to. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6-8) If we have godly thoughts we will have life and peace. And we will please God.  

            

            -"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable(logical) service.“ (Romans 12:1)

In this verse the word “acceptable” means “well pleasing”. But what does it mean to become a living sacrifice? Well if you look at what it took for Jesus to become an actual blood sacrifice for sins, we will have a better idea of what it means. Jesus totally gave up his own will and committed himself wholly to his Father’s will, even though Jesus knew what this would mean. It meant a 40 hour long ordeal of constant beatings and scourgings, followed by an excruciating death nailed to a tree; dying the humiliating death as a vile criminal.

                God does not ask this of us. Because of the great sacrifice that was made for us, our next logical response is to give of ourselves with this same type of commitment that Jesus demonstrated. Not to die for Him, but to live for Him. We owe this to God. This kind sacrifice will be well pleasing to God.

                                                      

                         Love Always, Ray

                “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (II Corinthians 5:15)