Posted on by Pastor Steve

Just Love Jesus

Most Christians are familiar with the passage in Matthew chapter 22 and Jesus’ response to the question, Which is the great commandment in the law?  His response was that we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. The gospel writer Mark adds to that list, all our strength. That is, we are to love God supremely. With everything that we are. We are to love Him completely.

But how do we know if we love God like that? I’m sure most Christians would say, Of course I love God supremely. But do they?

Can we define what it means to Love God supremely?

I don’t have all of the answers, but there is one part of the answer that I’m sure of and that is this: To Love God Supremely is To Love God the way Jesus Loves the Father.

We can widen that picture by saying it is the way each member of the Trinity loves all of the other members of the trinity. The way the Father loves the Son and the Spirit. The way the Son loves the Father and the Spirit. The way the Spirit loves the Father and the Son.

To love God supremely

is to love God the way

Jesus loves the Father.

In other words, the way a perfect God loves Himself perfectly.

That kind of love does not exist outside of the Trinity. Nevertheless it is our calling.

To love God the way that God loves Himself. That is a perfect love.

The fact that we will never be able to love God with a perfect love in this life is not a reason to ignore the command or to give up. We are still under an obligation to try. Our effort is as important as our progress. Without effort nothing will be accomplished. Some progress is better than no progress.

So we are to love. Certainly we are to love others, as the second part of Jesus’ answer makes clear. But most of all we are to love God.

When we love God supremely – when that is our desire and goal, when that is our effort, the other areas of the Christian life will fall into place.

Just Love Jesus.

Love Him with everything you have. Love Him with everything you are. Love Him most of all. Love Him above all.

Make loving Jesus your purpose. Your life’s ambition.

Make loving Jesus what your life is all about.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Posted on by Pastor Steve

Hope is More Than OK

Some years ago I was preaching in evangelistic meetings in Haiti. One of the deacons from the church I was working with asked me how I was that night. I answered using a common Haitian expression pa pi mal which translates into, I’m not bad or I’m OK. According to some sources the idea behind the expression is that no matter how bad it is, it can always be worse so I’m pa pi mal. I’m not yet the worst of the worse.

I had heard people use the expression literally hundreds of times and I had used it often in conversation. So I was not expecting Brother Jean Jeannot’s reaction when he admonished me, Pastor Steve a Christian is NEVER pa pi mal!

I’ve thought about that exchange several times over the years and I realize that my dear brother was right. A Christian is never just OK because we have something no one else has. We have Jesus and with Jesus we have Hope.

Don’t bring Jesus (or your Hope)

down to just being OK.

Don’t bring Jesus (or your Hope) down to just being OK.

Even in the hardest times in life we have Hope. Even in the darkest days we have Hope. Even when we can’t see light at the end of the tunnel we have Hope. And that should make us, not just OK, it should cause us to rejoice because for the Christian there is always Hope.

In Romans chapter 5 the Apostle Paul reminds us that because we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Our Hope is not that life will get any easier or that God will remove all of our problems. Our Hope is in God’s glory. There is no uncertainty here (as the English language sometimes implies by the word hope). Our destiny is to share in the inexpressible glory of God himself (Romans 8:28-30).

In the very same passage the Apostle tells us that problems produce perseverance which leads to godly character, which in turn leads to our Hope which will never disappoint us.

So no matter what you face today or this week, it’s worth remembering that we are not just pa pi mal, we are rejoicing in what will be as we anticipate participating in the glory of God.

Hope is more than OK.

Thank you brother Jean Jeannot.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve