Reflecting God ~ Embrace Holy Living ~ Sunday, 27 October 2013 ~ ”Please Love Jesus Passionately!” 1 John 2

Reflecting God ~ Embrace Holy Living ~ Sunday, 27 October 2013 ~ ”Please Love Jesus Passionately!”

1 John 2:1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor* with the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous. 2 And he is the atoning sacrifice† for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. 3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. 4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. 5 But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him: 6 he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.

7 Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines. 9 He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now. 10 He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.(Messianic WEB)

“Please Love Jesus Passionately!” by Kerry Willis

The God-gifted, 20-something-year-old worship leader, Kari Jobe, inspired me saying, “My generation is attracted to what’s real.” It inspires me because I am a 50-something-year-old and I am also “attracted to what’s real.”

Jesus was the most real person to ever inhale and exhale on planet earth. People were attracted to Him then, and if He lives in us, people are still attracted to Him. Was real ever more real than when Jesus surrendered to His Father’s will and became our willing substitute on the cross? No. Because of His shed blood we have pardon for our acts of sinning and purity for attitudes of sin. It’s a real double-blessing.

There are many reasons we should want to be like Jesus, but one right reason is the way He proved His real love by laying down His life so He could lift up ours. We love Him so much because He first loved us too much. To live in Him is to allow the love of God to flow through us.

Please love Jesus passionately! That’s one way our seemingly hopeless world will know we are His and that He loves them so much too. It’s real and attractive.

Hymn for Today:

”O Breath of Life” by Bessie Porter Head

1. O Breath of Life, come sweeping through us,

revive your Church with life and power;

O Breath of Life, come, cleanse, renew us,

and fit your Church to meet this hour.

2. O Wind of God, come bend us, break us,

till humbly we confess our need;

then in your tenderness remake us,

revive, restore; for this we plead.

3. O Breath of Love, come breathe within us,

renewing thought and will and heart;

come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,

revive your Church in every part.

4. Revive us, Lord! is zeal abating

while harvest fields are vast and white?

Revive us, Lord, the world is waiting,

equip your Church to spread the light.

Thought for Today:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”(Mark 12:30).

Prayer Needs:

Developing Christian leaders in Saint Lucia.

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