What Marvelous Love...

1 John 3 (The Message)

 ¹ What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.  ^2-3But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.
 ^4-6All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backward.
 ^7-8So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.
 ^9-10People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.
 ¹¹For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
 ^12-13We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
 ^14-15The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together.
 ^16-17This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

When We Practice Real Love

 ^18-20My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.  ^21-24And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

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How did I get this Way?

Thinking of a clever, catchy title for my testimony isn't easy.  "Testimony" sounds boring so I thought I'd try to explain how I got this way.  "What way?" you may ask.  Well, when I first accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, I was told that I shouldn't become a fanatic!  People asked me, "What do you want to do, be a minister or something?"  To them, anyone who was as committed to something as I was had to want to go into full time ministry.  But I had been saved from the law of sin and death and to me that was worthy of devoting everything I was (and am) to...

It was October of 1978 (the 28th, to be exact) and a friend and I had gone down to San Diego to look at San Diego State University.  We were both considering going to college there and were checking it out.  I had a childhood friend, Terri, who lived down there in El Cajon, CA with her husband.  My mother was (and is) dear friends with Terri's mother and although we had attended the same church as children my mother informed me that Terri and her husband, Ronn, had something "new".  At the time, I thought I was going down to San Diego to check out the college but God had another plan in mind.

We visited Terri and Ronn and almost upon arrival I had asked them about their "new" thing.  I knew it was somehow religious and I had always been curious and seeking answers to my deepest questions.  What is this life all about?  Why does time pass so quickly?  What is my purpose?  Is there an answer to the  heartaches and tragedies that I see every where I turn?  Does God really love me?  Can Jesus change my life?

Ronn began telling us about heaven and hell, the rapture, the millennial period, (these topics were extremely popular in the 1970's even to the general public due to a number of "End Times" books that were released), judgment day, and how Jesus Christ had come to set us free from the law of sin and death.  He told us about heaven and how its streets were paved with the purest of gold.  He told us about Jesus dieing on the cross so that we could have eternal life. He told us about the marriage supper of the Lamb.  Now both my friend, Tina, and I had been raised knowing about Jesus, but I had never had it made personal before.  Suddenly, Jesus was someone who cared about me so much that He had suffered greatly for my sake. 

I had been seeking answers for several years prior to this moment but I still hadn't understood how personal this was.  I had been reading the gospels.  I had been searching and asking and talking but no one had been there to give me the information I needed.  The truth of the gospels just seemed to make me feel guiltier and I didn't know how to get out from underneath the weight of that guilt.  I knew how selfish I was.  I knew who I was on the inside, and I didn't necessarily like what I saw.  I knew I needed a way to be different.  I knew that I couldn't do it on my own.  I now realized that Jesus wasn't just God way out there;  I now saw Him as a real person as well as God, the God who lived here on earth for a time but lived a different, sinless way of life as our example.  I saw Jesus as someone who could show me the way, the truth, and the life that I so desperately wanted to live.

I found myself jumping out of my seat shouting, "I'll go!  That's for me!  That's what I have been looking for!"  And from that moment on, I never looked back.  Oh, I had a lot to learn and am still learning how to do things His Way, but my insides felt different immediately.  I had hope for myself.  I had hope for this life.  And no matter how quickly time passed, I knew that now my life would count for something, no matter how brief it was, no matter how ordinary it was, I now had in my possession the Extraordinary Love of God.

Thirty-two years have nearly passed, and I am still following Jesus, I am still wholly devoted to Him, to His truth, to His love.  It has been a long road so far and hopefully it will stretch out into the future and I will continue to be transformed into His image.  There are many bumps and potholes along the road of this life but for me then and now, "To live is Christ." Philippians 1:21  And that's how I got this way...

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."  Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

"Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!"  Romans 5:10 (The Message)

"It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life."  Ephesians 1:13-14 (The Message)  

"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."  2 Corinthians 4:16 (NASB)

Dear Lord,  Thank you for Your indescribable gift of salvation through Your Son, Jesus Christ.