A Cost of Unity
God has fashioned my heart uniquely. No one else can give Him what I can. My thoughts taste different to Him. My obedience feels different to Him. My worship can only come from me. No one else can love Him like I do.
The implications of this truth are massive for my own confidence in Jesus' desire to know me and to have me know Him. He is so committed to me. He has said "yes" to a relationship with me, and when I say "yes" to Him, I begin exploring what it means to know that the Author and Creator of everything is completely committed to me fully experiencing all my heart was created for.
Jesus could wave His hand and accomplish everything He intends to. But, in His mercy and brilliance, God has chosen to include me, and all my brothers and sisters who will say yes to a relationship with Him, in what He plans to do. God has committed to partnering with people in everything He does on the earth:
Psalm 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.
Noah built the ark, Moses led the captives out of Israel, David defeated Goliath...Jesus, who had to become fully man, paid the price for sin and made redemption possible.
God made men and women to be the highly prized vessels, the Bride, chosen to partner with Jesus in all He intends to do on the earth. This was always God's intention: God with man. We have always been intended to share in the story and in God's glory. Free will made rebellion possible and seperated us from God. But God's love made a way back, because God is committed to what He always called very good...God with man.
Jesus prayed for the unity of His people. The "oneness" of His Bride:
John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
This is Jesus' prayer...when Jesus prays it is God asking God! This IS God's agenda and desire: that I would love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (time, money, possessions, passion), and that I would love other people as I love myself:
Luke 10: 27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
I get the loving God with everything part...a little. I need to get it much more. But the loving others as myself...this one I really need God's help to see much more clearly. God the Father loves the annoying person I have to deal with like HE LOVES JESUS. God loves the person who resists me, like He loves Himself. The one I am threatened by, or jealous of, Jesus has a plan and purpose for that person, too.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit experience such perfect unity and fellowship they are actually one God...the Three-in-One. The Father and the Spirit love Jesus perfectly and completely and vice-versa. Jesus' prayer in John 17 invites me into that same fellowship! If I really understood who I am, and who those around me (even the mean or selfish ones) are to Jesus, I could never imagine being invited into that fellowship and, at the same time, be indifferent about my brother or sister.
Loving my annoying, at times mean-spirited, self-focused brother or sister shouldn't be something "I am working on.". Instead it should be priority #1. This is what Jesus prayed for.
I am a "unique flavor" to God. The other people I am walking through life near are also unique flavors to God. Their response to Him...their worship of Him and obedience to Him are unique to Him...one of His favorite flavors. Only they can offer to God what He has designed them to offer. I want to commit in my heart to do everything I can to see God get what He wants...to see those around me walk into the fullness of what God has created us for. I want to see Jesus get everything He desires from me AND from those around me. My commitment isn't going to depend on how they feel about me, but on how Jesus feels about them! I am setting my heart for this. He is worth it.
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
The implications of this truth are massive for my own confidence in Jesus' desire to know me and to have me know Him. He is so committed to me. He has said "yes" to a relationship with me, and when I say "yes" to Him, I begin exploring what it means to know that the Author and Creator of everything is completely committed to me fully experiencing all my heart was created for.
Jesus could wave His hand and accomplish everything He intends to. But, in His mercy and brilliance, God has chosen to include me, and all my brothers and sisters who will say yes to a relationship with Him, in what He plans to do. God has committed to partnering with people in everything He does on the earth:
Psalm 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.
Noah built the ark, Moses led the captives out of Israel, David defeated Goliath...Jesus, who had to become fully man, paid the price for sin and made redemption possible.
God made men and women to be the highly prized vessels, the Bride, chosen to partner with Jesus in all He intends to do on the earth. This was always God's intention: God with man. We have always been intended to share in the story and in God's glory. Free will made rebellion possible and seperated us from God. But God's love made a way back, because God is committed to what He always called very good...God with man.
Jesus prayed for the unity of His people. The "oneness" of His Bride:
John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
This is Jesus' prayer...when Jesus prays it is God asking God! This IS God's agenda and desire: that I would love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (time, money, possessions, passion), and that I would love other people as I love myself:
Luke 10: 27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
I get the loving God with everything part...a little. I need to get it much more. But the loving others as myself...this one I really need God's help to see much more clearly. God the Father loves the annoying person I have to deal with like HE LOVES JESUS. God loves the person who resists me, like He loves Himself. The one I am threatened by, or jealous of, Jesus has a plan and purpose for that person, too.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit experience such perfect unity and fellowship they are actually one God...the Three-in-One. The Father and the Spirit love Jesus perfectly and completely and vice-versa. Jesus' prayer in John 17 invites me into that same fellowship! If I really understood who I am, and who those around me (even the mean or selfish ones) are to Jesus, I could never imagine being invited into that fellowship and, at the same time, be indifferent about my brother or sister.
Loving my annoying, at times mean-spirited, self-focused brother or sister shouldn't be something "I am working on.". Instead it should be priority #1. This is what Jesus prayed for.
I am a "unique flavor" to God. The other people I am walking through life near are also unique flavors to God. Their response to Him...their worship of Him and obedience to Him are unique to Him...one of His favorite flavors. Only they can offer to God what He has designed them to offer. I want to commit in my heart to do everything I can to see God get what He wants...to see those around me walk into the fullness of what God has created us for. I want to see Jesus get everything He desires from me AND from those around me. My commitment isn't going to depend on how they feel about me, but on how Jesus feels about them! I am setting my heart for this. He is worth it.
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
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