Christ like love

 Christ Like Love: A good devotional for the week by Zac Poonen

Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment just before He went to the cross. They were to love one another as He had loved them (Jn. 13:34). It is this last phrase that makes Jesus' command impossible to fulfill without God's grace.

What is the distinctive feature of the love of Christ? Surely, it is the cross on which He died for us. So when He tells me to love my brother as He loved me, it is a call to follow His example and to die to self in my relationship with my brother. Self-denial is to characterize my relationship with other members in Christ's Body. This and nothing less than this is true Christian love. When we are told that "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn. 3:16), it is not a reference to physical death, but to something far more difficult. It is easier to die once as a martyr than to lay down our self-life many times every day in our relationship with our fellow-believers. But it is to the latter that Jesus calls us.

Exploring Christianity?

These are just some of the things that I have come to find compelling, inspiring, hopeful, exciting, and good news in my faith journey with Jesus. I start this entry with some more head level, logical points about the validity of Jesus’ claims to be God and his resurrection. I definitely do not flesh out these points or defend them in full because that is not the point of this entry and you can read many books on this. I would recommend More than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell, and Reason for God, by Tim Keller to start with. Then I move into more heart level, personal issues to wrestle with in coming to faith. Again, it is not a complete document on all the good news of Jesus, just some thoughts. So take it for what it’s worth! After you read this, I hope you will dive into the Bible yourself and ask God to reveal Himself to you as you read. I would recommend starting with the Gospel of John. You can read a short "birds eye view" commentary on this gospel by a pastor named Ray Stedman here.

meaning of names in geneology from Adam to Noah

Meaning in      Meaning in

Hebrew            English

Adam               Man

Seth                 Appointed

Enosh              Mortal

Kenan              Sorrow

Mahalalel         The Blessed God

Jared               Shall come down

Enoch              Teaching

Methuselah      His death shall bring

Lamech           The Despairing

Noah               Rest, or comfort.

So in a sentence, the first ten names in the geneology of the Bible reads: Man appointed mortal sorrow. The blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring the despairing rest, or comfort. 

Read the introduction (and more if you want!) of God is the Gospel by John Piper here.  It is amazing! A few stand out quotes to me were:

When I say that God is the Gospel I mean that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment. The saving love of God is God's commitment to do everything necessary to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying, namely himself. Since we are sinners and have no right and no desire to be enthralled with God, therefore God's love enacted a plan of redemption to provide that right and that desire. The supreme demonstration of God's love was the sending of his Son to die for our sins and to rise again so that sinners might have the right to approach God and might have the pleasure of his presence forever.

The critical question for our generation--and for every generation--is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?

A powerful wake up call and word from Britt Merrick. His words have some powerful authority behind them given what he has been going through: his six year old daughter has had cancer two times now in the last year, so these words are not empty in the least. 

The following videos (below this post) are excerpts from an interview with NT Wright about the resurrection, heaven and hell, etc. These were an awesome reminder to me today that: 1. Jesus really raised from the dead, and that changes everything! 2. Our ultimate destination is not "heaven" or "hell" but new creation and either being with God as a fully whole human or being apart from him without his image in us anymore. 3. Our choices in this life matter a lot. 4. We have a lot of work to do with God in this broken world. It is cool he lets us take part in his redemption story, in making all things new. 5. I cannot wait to be with Christ in a real body that cannot be destroyed in the new creation where the heavenly realm has invaded this physicality as we now know it stewarding this new creation. That is going to be unimaginably awesome! Watch these short videos below!

Historical Resurrection of Christ? NT Wright responds (HD)

What Does Heaven Look Like? NT Wright on 100 Huntley Street (HD)

What Will We Do In Heaven? NT Wright on 100 Huntley Street (HD)

What Is Hell Like? Does It Even Exist? NT Wright on 100 Huntley Street (HD)

What is Purgatory? NT Wright on 100 Huntley Street (HD)