We Share...

We share

Christ died for every individual in the whole of God’s creation. We all share

him because without him there would be no anything. We are hidden with

Christ in God. We were known before the creation of the world. We are

each of us given the measure of faith needed to be saved. We have the

power of choice to love, to hate, to forgive, to repent, to live or to die. The

wonder of it all is that God has a people who so desire to share spiritual belief

founded only upon scriptural truth. God does not count how many people

we lead to Jesus. He measures our faith through our living our lives and how

we demonstrate our faith. When we share truth with others our hope is aid

in their overcoming difficulty and doubt. We share that we care. We stress

spiritual vigil around the heart to keep it from the evil of unbelief. Guard what

you read. Guard what you watch. Guard the things you think about. Avoid

people, places, and things that will lead into sin. Take care of your heart with

all vigilance brothers and sisters. Exhort one another to be faithful. That’s

why God puts us in community. As long as there is life in the lungs, there is

grace to be had at the cross. We are admonished to go therefore and teach.

Let’s not overcomplicate this counsel. Love is even greater than faith and

hope. Faith and hope are vital. Faith is what pleases God. And hope is what

gets us through life in a fallen, often hopeless world. But love is what fuels

our faith. We have faith in Jesus because we love him. And love is what gives

us hope. Death may take the body. It will resolve us into our first principles –

the first principles are self-evident truths that are the foundation of what we

know to be true. They are basic reasonings that cannot be deduced any

further, they are priority arguments to the creative power of God. We are a

light of heaven united with clods of clay, the dust of the earth. At death these

are separated, and each goes to the place whence it came. The spirit does

not die with the body. These principles are the first basis from which a thing

is known. God holds the spirit of the soul that waits. Our mind holds the

memories. Our heart keeps the love. Our faith lets us know we will meet

again. Faith is the real knowing of knowledge. It is real certainty of Christ.

We know that one day we will see, face to face, the One we love. It is for

these principles that we share truth. We are to become aware of and follow

the deeper spiritual wisdom that God has placed within us, called the

Comforter by Jesus. Love is established in the faith of Jesus. Can this love

be shared? The bible is the real word of God. It's His message of love for

us and hope and salvation. God is love and Jesus is the Word who is God.

We understand him to be “love” in human flesh. Love is what Jesus says will

reveal that we are His true disciples. He says this is what we will be known

for. Love is what we try to share. It is what we do. There are a lot of issues

that are important, a lot of doctrines people like to discuss, to argue over,

and theological positions that people might break fellowship over, but Jesus

is saying over and above all those things, if we love the people in whose life

we are invited, if we love the other people who loves him, it will be clear that

we are a follower of Jesus. People don't know us for our love. That’s not

what they think of when they think about bible teachers. Jesus tells us that

we will be known by our love because that’s not really what we’re known for.

Most know us for what we’re against. They think to know us by our

theological rules. They know us by what we accept and don’t accept. Most

say we’re not like Jesus. We must get better at letting God love others

through us. God is raising up a people who are so close to Jesus and so

into His word, who are so full of the Holy Spirit, that people will know that

Jesus is real because of the love, the caring, the peace that is flowing in our

lives to those around us. That is what makes us so different from the world.

We are learning to share God’s love like Jesus does, and to love them with

the love that He has loved us with. Obedience to the first and second

greatest commandments shows how great God is, and how He works

through our weaknesses, through our flaws, through our imperfections. We

understand that the hand of God is on our life. And because we know that

much, we know enough to share Jesus with others. God is ready to use us

who are available, who will love Him and are prepared to reach other people.

As we sincerely care about people, God will work through us and move in

our life in areas that we would have never imagined. God is working in the

hearts of His people to fill us deeper with His love and then to bring it to the

surface for all to see. What He’s wanting to do in these days is for His people

to be serious about truly caring about people and loving them as Jesus loves

us. We are given a different kind of love. A love that is not dependent upon

return. We become a work in progress. We’re going to be learning and we’re

going to be growing, and Jesus is going to be manifesting himself in us until

the day we leave this earth to go on to Heaven.

It takes the Holy Spirit to love like Jesus. Why? Because it’s not in our nature

to love like that. When we love like that, it changes our priorities, it changes

our agenda. It changes our friendships and other relationships. It makes our

lives different as we begin to love others the way Jesus loves us. With all

the means we have today to reach people, to help people, to understand

people, how much more does our God have to do to get us to let Him work

in our whole lives, in our whole hearts. We need God’s love for our faith to

work. As we speak with others, to share what God has been doing in our

life, and how He isn’t done with us yet it speaks to people that we’re still

being worked on. We don’t have it all together yet, but that doesn’t mean

our sharing is without benefit. But we have the confident expectation of

God’s faithfulness and future promises. God promises that He will have a

finally perfected people. God has predestined His people to be conformed

to the image of His Son: that is, to become like Jesus. We all know that when

Adam fell he lost much - though not all - of the divine image in which he had

been created. But God has restored it in Christ. Conformity to the image of

God means to become like Jesus: Christlikeness is the eternal

predestinating purpose of God. We all, with unveiled face, beholding the

glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness. What a vision...what

a promise, becoming like Christ. From eternal predestination to present

transformation. We will be like him. We are to be like Christ in his love. We

are to be like Christ in his mission. We are to share biblical truth with those

we love. That’s the truth that glorifies Jesus. We must make much of Jesus.

We must share difficult truths in a gentle, kind, inoffensive manner – in love.

Rather than be spiritually immature and easily deceived, we are to speak the

truth to one another, with love, so that we can all grow in maturity. We are to

train one another in truth - the foundational gospel truths, truths about who

God is and what He has called us to do, hard truths of correction, of doctrine

- and our motivation to do so is love. A self-sacrificial love that works for the

benefit of the loved one. We speak truth in order to build up. Share what is

helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit

listen

those who listen. Our words should be beneficial to the hearers of those

words. We should share truth in love. We are not to attempt to hide things

about ourselves out of shame or in an effort to manage our images. Rather,

as those who are part of the same body intended for the same purpose and

united by the same love, we should be characterized by honesty. Those who

love must speak the truth, must share the truth. We must be characterized

by grace and truth. We are called to love those who do not know Christ. The

best way we can show love is to share with them the truth of the gospel.

We have a message that we must share. We must unapologetically impart

knowledge about both truth and love. Remember the question, “what is

truth”, and the phrase, “what manner of love”? The truth that God’s people

share is “divine revelation”. It is reality that cannot be hidden. Truth is not

how we know; truth is what we know. Truth is always there, always open

and available for all to see, with nothing being hidden or obscured. Truth is

that which corresponds to reality. Truth is that which matches its object.

Truth is simply telling it like it is. Truth is unaffected by sincerity. Truth is

impervious to desire. Why is it so important to understand and embrace the

truth in all areas of life? Because life has consequences for being

wrong. Nowhere are the consequences more important than in the area of

faith and religion. God is eternal and eternity is an awfully long time to be

wrong. In our sharing the truth we must give earnest attention to the

enthralling theme of the Father’s love. Though the subject of the greatness

of God’s love exceeds all human comprehension, God nevertheless exhorts

us to look at it, ponder it, study it, weigh it, meditate upon it, marvel at it, seek

to grasp the full meaning of it, and rejoice in it - because out of the mercy of

God through our Lord Jesus Christ we have already experienced upon

ourselves the bestowal of it. The greatness of God’s love is seen in the

manner of that love. What kind of love is this? This love is not the general

kindness of the Creator, which in His wise providence He mercifully exercises

towards all His creatures. There is a great difference between God’s dealing

with us as Creator and His dealing with us as Father. God is not the Father

of all men, though He nevertheless is the Creator of all men and all men are

under His providential care. But He is the Father of all those who have been

born again and who have truly believed in His Son. He is the Father of only

these and none others. What, then, is the manner of this love? It is that love

which God peculiarly exercises in regard to His own children. It is a love that

finds no other cause outside of God. God is gracious to whom He will be

gracious. God hates sin and sin is in us. His love for us is not based on any

merit on our part. What manner of love? God’s love is without beginning,

without end...it is everlasting. Ponder that prayerfully - we unworthy ones

are loved with a love that had no beginning and will have no ending. What

manner of love! Share this; tribulation, distress, persecution, famine,

nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things

present, things to come, height, depth, nor any other creature! If these

cannot separate us from that love, nothing can, for nothing else exists

outside of this list. What manner of love! From eternity and out of His free

and unchanging grace, the Father appointed His Son to be our Savior.

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” What manner of love!

If we would know the manner of God’s love to us and give thought to the

depth of it, we must not ignore this wonderful, though mysterious aspect of

it. His love towards us is distinguished by being electing love. Our Father has

not tried to hide this truth from those whom He loves, for He has written about

it plainly in His Word. Scripture says that God has chosen us to salvation.

In the face of this great truth all we can do is wonder what manner of love is

this. This love could not allow us to lie under the curse and bondage of our

sins exposed to the penalty of the holy law. Christ redeemed us. What

manner of love! God’s elect experience redeeming grace of the Father’s

great love from day to day and are brought to know the meaning of

progressive sanctification in their life. The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit

- with all His strengthening, guiding, and purifying graces; ever making

effectual to each believer the blessed benefits of redemption - assures the

constant growth in true holiness of every one of us. The prayer of Christ to

the Father, requesting Him to “sanctify us through thy truth”, is sure to be

answered in every believer’s experience. What manner of love!

We are to share and to teach that the objects embraced by this love is us who are God’s election. We share this hard truth –“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.”

Those who are included in the pronoun us - and only those -

are the objects of this great love. It is a sad

mistake, as well as a dangerous twisting of scripture, to make this passage

refer to everybody in general. We can by no means read every son of Adam

into this text; and though we are aware that as we share this truth we shall

certainly lay ourselves open to the charge of being narrow and uncharitable

in our interpretation. We are compelled by the plain truth to say - and say it

with emphasis - that this passage clearly limits the love of God to His chosen

election. This great love will never be viewed by us in its proper setting until

we have been brought by divine mercy to realize what terrible sinners we

are. Then, and then only, shall we who are the predestined stand in wonder

that God did not consign the entire lot of us to the second death. Then, and

only then, shall we find ourselves utterly amazed that a holy God should so

condescend as to be willing to take upon Himself the task of saving us from

the ruin of sin. Then, the thing that will forever clasp us in holy astonishment

is to discover that such sinners as we were included in that number to be the

everlasting objects upon whom He would bestow His Sovereign love.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!”

This love exceeds and excels all loves, for it is the Father’s love - divine love,

out of free and sovereign grace. God loves righteousness and truth. There

are three effects of this love that we love to share as the truth. The first –

right now are we the sons of God. The word says, “beloved, now are we the

sons of God.” The second – as sons we purify ourselves. First made pure

by the redeeming blood of Christ applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Then, by God’s grace. A key truth and thirdly - the world knows us not,

because it knew him not. The world will despise our witness.

Sharing charitably the truth in love is communally and commonly reflecting

upon the experiences of others with doctrinally correctness and that which

proceeds from a biblically committed life to a person who wants to know

Christ. It is done in love for the benefit of one who needs our commitment to

sacrificing life-time to share the treasures of heaven. Sharing the word of

God is an act of love for God and others. It helps us to connect more fully

with our own faith. Inviting others to share scripture and hearing their

histories are effective ways to share the gospel. The spiritual welfare of

others matters. We have a responsibility to share the truth in love not only

because it is a command, it is saving a soul from death, helping a soul to

come to truth, that’s a worthy reason for doing this. We also cover a

multitude of sins, which means that the sinning stops instead of it continuing

and being exposed before others. We love and because our love is the love

of Christ there is no fear of losing friendships or straining relationships.

We cannot be judgmental or fear rejection. In sharing the word of God we too

are helped to be better people because the words we share are words

spoken to our hearts. We must be right with God to help others. We must

be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of the

hope that is in us. We all belong to Christ. We pray before, during, and

after our conversation with others. We pray that God would open their hearts

to hear truth, we pray while we’re sharing that our words would not fall on a

hard heart, and we pray afterward that the dear Holy Spirit would do the work

of conviction of sin and convincing of truth to lead those who hear to

repentance. We share the word of God to others to give God glory.

We are in the last days and they are darkening the hope of far too many

people. Dire consequences loom on the horizon of a setting sun. Prophecy

fulfilled. The last steps are now being taken. Many are stepping into

darkness...few into light. The dark times are blackening. While faith sustains

darkening times

God’s people, hope for much people is fading. Our sharing can cause them

to remember that even in this hostile world they are part of Christ’s family.

They can be of one mind in unity, in belief, and purpose. Our choice to submit

humbly and share the truth is because it is Christ we are submitting to, loving

and serving him through our sharing with others. We set him apart as Lord.

This is to recognize his purity, goodness and distinctiveness. He is exalted

over creation. This is also clear evidence for Christ’s deity. It is in this life

that the decision about Christ and repentance must be made. The truths that

are to be shared will be bound in sorrow for the suffering to come. Our words

have the sound of tears. Thoughtfully considered and examined, there is no

outward manifestation of emotion. These tears have a far different purpose.

We weep for the intensity of the trials to be faced. There will be no contention

that tears and weeping are only artificial for they will not be seen. These

tears will be placed in a bottle. God keeps watch over them. No matter how

much of our sorrow goes unnoticed by others, not one moment has escaped

the attention of God. Our words are bound up with these unseen tears. As

Jesus wept some saw the tears...we heard the tears sharing the word to

snatch the people back from death. Jesus stays with us in our sorrow – he

comes down into our valley of tears and walks alongside us. He knows every

word that is shared by faith. The truths shared will be pure, genuine,

containing in themselves the sorrow for a soul lost. The truths that we share

are the promises of God to them who receive them that whither they are

going, there will be no more sorrow or sadness, and it is a curious

circumstance that in the bible wherein are contained all of these promises,

the very last time that the word tears is used, as though it would emphasize

the fact that they would be done with them forever, is in an assurance that

there shall be a place provide where there will be none and no occasion for

any. We will keep on sharing the word and gathering with God’s people,

even when they don’t understand what we’re going through...what they too

will have to endure. We’ll keep on serving others, even while we carry our

sorrow wherever we go. And we’ll keep on sowing the seeds of truth and

grace into our barren souls, waiting for the day when God takes us home.