Choosing Love
Deuteronomy 29:14“I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone,
15“but with him who stands here with us today before the LORD our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today
16(for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by,
17and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold);
18“so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;
19“and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
God has given us true freedom...there is great dignity placed on the decision of people.
This means great blessing is possible, as well as the tragedy of the curse of trying to live apart from the Author of Life. Western Christianity, in many ways, has watered down the consequences for rejecting obedience. What naturally must follow is loosing the concept of love.
Love requires a real choice to love back.
Jesus didn't come to violate...to do away with....to make automatic... Love.
No! Jesus paid FOR love.... he made possible the keeping of the very covenant Israel couldn't keep by obeying the law:
Matthew 5:16“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
19“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
If we truly love, then we must truly choose obedience:
John 14:15“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
17“the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Obedience is impossible without the Holy Spirit inside of us to direct and empower our choices to follow Jesus. As we choose obedience, Jesus send the Spirit to empower that choice. God has the power to do the obeying, but we have to choose it. This is one of the expressions of faith: saying yes to obedience knowing we need God to supply the power to obey.
Many are taught that the choice no longer matters... A false gospel says "if you are saved, then you are fine just the way you are."
This is a tragic lie. Jesus loves you the way you are, but He paid for you to grow in that love to be so much more. False grace is simply the theft of who you could be if you would trust Jesus that growing in love...which is growing in obedience...works!
To choose obedience in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit....the very costly gift Jesus paid for us to be re-given... Is to choose the reconnection to the Author of Life. It puts the tree of our being back in the light of the Son, so it can bear fruit. To continue on following the dictates of our own hearts is to really choose death. Following your own heart takes you out of the light of the Son. Many saved people are choosing death:
Matthew 24:44“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
45“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?
46“Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
47“Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
48“But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’
49“and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
50“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of,
51“and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The evil servant is a servant nonetheless...just a servant following the dictates of His own heart. This is the very definition of lawless. Jesus warned of this many times:
Matthew 7:19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
Our choices to obey matter because of the truth of love. The blessing of obedience is real, because the cost of disobedience is also real. Jesus paid for us to have the power to choose obedience, but he didn't dissolve the necessity of the choice...to do that would be to violate love. All the power to choose obedience is in the hands of the believers, but they still have to try to choose it. Perfect execution is not required, but complete desire is. Many believers in this hour are buying the lie that you can follow your own heart and still get all benefits of following Jesus. This is a lie meant to steal life.
There is great judgment coming to the lawless...first in the church, then in the world:
1 Peter 4:17For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18Now
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,
Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.
God is judging obedience. Disobeying Him has massive costs, for the saved first! Being saved is not the same as being ready for the time of judgment...
The judgments of the Lord are glorious...wonderful...joyful....because their very existence PROVES love is real.
The fact that God actually judges the choices of people to love Him or follow the dictates of their own hearts means that the choice to love REALLY matters...it will really establish your place in God's family forever. But, the flip side is also true...the choice for lawlessness....to reject God's leadership, even though you have claimed the wealth of Jesus' blood...the very payment that makes obedience possible... This must be judged as evil...otherwise there is no real love. Love looses all meaning if the dignity of the choice is removed.
We live in the time of increasing lawlessness, which means we also live in the time of increasing purity. Both must be true, since the choice is real.
This is the maturing of the wheat and the tares. The choice for lawlessness will produce the antichrist in the fullness of time...and also the pure and spotless Bride. Both the antichrist and the Bride emerge from the same choice....they are simply the final expression of the fullness of the choice to accept or reject obedience:
2 Thessalonians 2:7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
Revelation 19:7“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
8And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Whether you will find yourself in the Bride, or the camp of the antichrist entirely depends on the choice to grow in lovesick obedience to Jesus now. Choosing to follow the dictates of your own heart, even though you are saved, will eventually result in offense, betrayal, and the loss of love. No one can snatch you from Jesus' hand, but, for love to be real, you have to be able to jump out if you want to.
The rope will never break, but you can let go. Love is real, so the consequence for rejecting love is also real:
Matthew 24:8“All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
10“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
11“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
13“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
14“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Right now you are choosing the fruit on your tree, by deciding if you want to place yourself closer to the Son's light in obedience, or further from His light in following your own heart...every tree that bears the fruit of lawlessness will be burned. Otherwise, there would be no reward for bearing good fruit....there would be no love....no dignity on the choice to say yes.
Jesus said "make the tree good or evil"....it is up to you:
Matthew 12:33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.
15“but with him who stands here with us today before the LORD our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today
16(for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by,
17and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold);
18“so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;
19“and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
God has given us true freedom...there is great dignity placed on the decision of people.
This means great blessing is possible, as well as the tragedy of the curse of trying to live apart from the Author of Life. Western Christianity, in many ways, has watered down the consequences for rejecting obedience. What naturally must follow is loosing the concept of love.
Love requires a real choice to love back.
Jesus didn't come to violate...to do away with....to make automatic... Love.
No! Jesus paid FOR love.... he made possible the keeping of the very covenant Israel couldn't keep by obeying the law:
Matthew 5:16“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
19“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
If we truly love, then we must truly choose obedience:
John 14:15“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
17“the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Obedience is impossible without the Holy Spirit inside of us to direct and empower our choices to follow Jesus. As we choose obedience, Jesus send the Spirit to empower that choice. God has the power to do the obeying, but we have to choose it. This is one of the expressions of faith: saying yes to obedience knowing we need God to supply the power to obey.
Many are taught that the choice no longer matters... A false gospel says "if you are saved, then you are fine just the way you are."
This is a tragic lie. Jesus loves you the way you are, but He paid for you to grow in that love to be so much more. False grace is simply the theft of who you could be if you would trust Jesus that growing in love...which is growing in obedience...works!
To choose obedience in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit....the very costly gift Jesus paid for us to be re-given... Is to choose the reconnection to the Author of Life. It puts the tree of our being back in the light of the Son, so it can bear fruit. To continue on following the dictates of our own hearts is to really choose death. Following your own heart takes you out of the light of the Son. Many saved people are choosing death:
Matthew 24:44“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
45“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?
46“Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
47“Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
48“But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’
49“and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
50“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of,
51“and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The evil servant is a servant nonetheless...just a servant following the dictates of His own heart. This is the very definition of lawless. Jesus warned of this many times:
Matthew 7:19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
Our choices to obey matter because of the truth of love. The blessing of obedience is real, because the cost of disobedience is also real. Jesus paid for us to have the power to choose obedience, but he didn't dissolve the necessity of the choice...to do that would be to violate love. All the power to choose obedience is in the hands of the believers, but they still have to try to choose it. Perfect execution is not required, but complete desire is. Many believers in this hour are buying the lie that you can follow your own heart and still get all benefits of following Jesus. This is a lie meant to steal life.
There is great judgment coming to the lawless...first in the church, then in the world:
1 Peter 4:17For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18Now
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,
Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.
God is judging obedience. Disobeying Him has massive costs, for the saved first! Being saved is not the same as being ready for the time of judgment...
The judgments of the Lord are glorious...wonderful...joyful....because their very existence PROVES love is real.
The fact that God actually judges the choices of people to love Him or follow the dictates of their own hearts means that the choice to love REALLY matters...it will really establish your place in God's family forever. But, the flip side is also true...the choice for lawlessness....to reject God's leadership, even though you have claimed the wealth of Jesus' blood...the very payment that makes obedience possible... This must be judged as evil...otherwise there is no real love. Love looses all meaning if the dignity of the choice is removed.
We live in the time of increasing lawlessness, which means we also live in the time of increasing purity. Both must be true, since the choice is real.
This is the maturing of the wheat and the tares. The choice for lawlessness will produce the antichrist in the fullness of time...and also the pure and spotless Bride. Both the antichrist and the Bride emerge from the same choice....they are simply the final expression of the fullness of the choice to accept or reject obedience:
2 Thessalonians 2:7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
Revelation 19:7“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
8And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Whether you will find yourself in the Bride, or the camp of the antichrist entirely depends on the choice to grow in lovesick obedience to Jesus now. Choosing to follow the dictates of your own heart, even though you are saved, will eventually result in offense, betrayal, and the loss of love. No one can snatch you from Jesus' hand, but, for love to be real, you have to be able to jump out if you want to.
The rope will never break, but you can let go. Love is real, so the consequence for rejecting love is also real:
Matthew 24:8“All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
10“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
11“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
13“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
14“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Right now you are choosing the fruit on your tree, by deciding if you want to place yourself closer to the Son's light in obedience, or further from His light in following your own heart...every tree that bears the fruit of lawlessness will be burned. Otherwise, there would be no reward for bearing good fruit....there would be no love....no dignity on the choice to say yes.
Jesus said "make the tree good or evil"....it is up to you:
Matthew 12:33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.
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