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RIPPLES OF GENUINE LOVE
CHAPTER ONE
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.
Love is a virtue that shows great concern and care towards a person. Love first began in creation. God loved us from the beginning. Love is a virtue that God placed in all humans because He is love and since we were created in the image and likeness of God, we were made with this wonderful virtue called love. An interesting fact is that love is the most important of all virtues (joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control).
In the beginning God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. He created out of nothing, and He spoke and things came into being, came to life and things appeared at the power of His words. The Word of God is Jesus Christ. He saw that His creation was good and He blessed it. Mankind was the only creation created in the image of God. God gave them power and blessed them that they should multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over all the other things God has created. God loved His creation especially Mankind who was created in His image.
Mankind was placed in the Garden of Eden and had a wonderful fellowship with the Lord. This continued day by day until, one fateful day, a serpent visited them and deceived them to sin against God. The serpent was the devil who rebelled against God in the beginning. He was an angel in heaven who sinned against God and was cast out of heaven. He took a third of God’s angels. A certain place called hell was made for him to dwell eternally with his fallen angels. He then came to mankind in the beginning to deceive them to sin against God. This brought about a separation from God. This brought about doom to mankind and when they departed from the earth, they went to join the devil to be destroyed eternally in a lake of fire. There were just a few righteous people who walked with God and they finally joined the Lord in eternal glory after their lives on earth had ended.
God looked down upon the earth in love and had mercy on mankind. This same world of sin and humankind who disobeyed Him. So He loved us so much so that, He decided to give us a ransom for our sin and disobedience in order to draw us back to Him. The Almighty God had compassion on mankind and provided us with a Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Saviour. He came in the form of a Man to sacrifice His life to cleanse us from our sins and deliver us from the bondage of the devil. Jesus is the word of God and He is God. This portrayed the wonderful love of God.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Holy Spirit caused a virgin to conceive and bring for a Child. This Child, Jesus Christ was born in a manger. Luke 2:7, “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
He began His ministry at age 30 and was baptized by John the Baptist. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and was tempted by the devil but overcame him and his temptations. (Matthew 4:1-11). While Jesus was on earth, He performed many miracles including; raising the dead (Mark 5:36-43), He healed the sick (Matthew 9:20-31), He feed five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two fish (Matthew 14:14-21), He was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-9), He taught in parables (Mark 4:1-34), He calmed the storm (Mark 4 :35-41), He cast out demons (Mark 5:1-20), and at 33 He completed the work of Salvation by His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection (Matthew 27:22-66 and 28:1-10) and ascension (Luke 24:46-53). While He was on earth He preached the Word of God to so many people and taught them so many things they were and were not supposed to do in order to please God.
Jesus loved us even unto the point of death. He gave His life as a ransom for us to cleanse us from our sins and restore us back unto God. Now what humankind must do is to admit that we are sinners and we couldn’t be restored back to God without the salvation work of Jesus Christ. We have to repent from our sins and pray a prayer to God, confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in our heart that God sent Him to die for us and He raised Him from the dead and He is alive forevermore. Now let’s pray and invite Him into our hearts and lives to be Lord of our lives now forevermore.
It is very necessary to pray this prayer is you haven’t done so because without believing in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation for your soul but rather condemnation (John 3:18 and 36). Friends we have to surrender our lives to Jesus now and forsake worldly things because they cause us to sin and that brings about enmity with God.
We must put the will of God first and forsake the pleasures of this world, lusts of the flesh and pride of life. Let us put on the full amour of God so that we might be able to overcome the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-18). We must watch and pray to be able to overcome all temptations of the devil (Mark 14:38). We have to read and meditate the word of God (Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 119:11). We also have to pray for grace to obey so that we would be able to obey. This would only happen if we love God with our all. Loving our neighbor would prove our love for God. This brings us to an endless ripple of the genuine love of God and His command to mankind to love both Him and our neighbors. Amen.
At this juncture, let us thank God for His amazing love and ask for grace to live Him to as we ought.
CHAPTER 2
LOVING GOD WITH OUR ALL
What does it mean to love someone? What does it mean to love God? The answer can be found in John 14:15, 1 John 5:1-3 and 1 John 4:20-21. Loving God can be summarized into two points:
• Keeping His commandments- John 14:15, 1 John 5:1-3
• Loving our neighbors- 1 John 4:20-21.
God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to come and die on the cross to save mankind from sin. Do you know God’s love is the greatest love of all time? Yes because even Jesus said in John 15:13 that, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” This is why He sent Jesus and forgave our sins.
God has commanded us in His word to live a perfect life. How can we do it? By loving God with our all and surrendering totally unto Him.
Do you remember the story of Jacob? He worked for Laban for 14 years just to marry Rachel and they seemed just a few days to him because of his love for her.
This is human love. So how much more heavenly love for none other than God? We actually have to surrender our lives to God in order to truly love Him also.
A TOTAL SURRENDER.
Totally surrendering our all to God is a necessity for we creations of God in order to please Him and do His will. The fact is we can't do His will if we aren't totally surrendered unto Him. We as mortals cannot make it to heaven by our good works alone so we need the grace of God to work in us as long as we are liberated and have surrendered unto Him. The Holy Spirit of God is here to help all those who are born again to live a life pleasing unto God (John 14:16-26).
Liberation unto God, begins with believing in Jesus, His work of salvation and His words written in the Bible. After believing, we take an action to receive Him into our lives and do away with the things of this world. Jesus came to deliver us from sin.
Now we have to die to the world, its lusts, troubles and everything that opposes God. We can only do so by the help of God. If we truly desire to be dead to the world and to be totally surrendered unto God? We have to pray to God in faith and ask God to help us to be totally liberated unto Him. It would be granted to us if we abide in Jesus and His words abide in us. (John 15:1-8).
If we are truly liberated unto God, we are no more of our own rather, we are of God. We must surrender our will unto God and take His will. We must lay aside anything that is capable of causing us to displease God. We are now God’s.
ABIDING IN JESUS AND HIS WORDS ABIDING IN US.
God tells us to live Him but how can we love Him if we don't truly know Him? We will know more about Jesus when we study His word constantly and diligently, Meditate upon the word, Pray always, have faith in God and Obey His word.
•Studying the word of God.
We as Christians must study God’s word in order to obey. When we study, we get more insight about God, His nature and His will. Studying will help us to stand strong in the faith and not be deceived by false teachings.
•Meditating upon the word.
Meditation is pondering over something to get a deeper meaning or understanding of it. Now meditating upon the word of God does not only give us a deeper meaning, it also causes the word to remain in our hearts and eliminate every form of iniquity in our heart.
In Joshua 1:8, God told Joshua to meditate upon the word of God so that he may observe to do according to all that is written in it. This shows us that, meditation plays a major role when it comes to obedience.
• Praying always.
The bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that, we should pray without ceasing. Do you know how important prayer is? It is through prayer that we ask God for our needs, we cancel the plans of the devil, we get things in order in the spiritual realm, the sick are healed, the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are brought back to life.
When we pray, we speak to the Almighty God to intervene in the situations we find ourselves in. The devil is always looking for an opportunity to kill, steal and to destroy so when we pray, our Sovereign Lord delivers us. Note; We have to apply faith to our prayer. A faithless prayer does not work.
•Faith in God
John 14:1-4, Mark 11:24 and James 1:5-8 teaches us to believe in God and not doubt Him. He who doubts should not suppose that he will receive his answer. (James 1:7) Therefore, have faith in God in order to receive answers to your prayers.
•Obedience to the Word of God
Obedience is a very important virtue all Christians must have. It shows that we truly love God (John 14:15). We have to pray to God to grant us obedient hearts so that, we may obey Him. Disobedience to God will produce terrible results- being cut off from Him, thrown into the fire and would be burnt (John 15:6). Don't forget, obedience to God is one of the ways we can abide in Jesus and Jesus says, those who don't abide in Him will be cut off, thrown into the fire and would be burnt.
Now the second way to prove that we truly love God is to love our neighbor (1 John 20-21). Also to prove that we love the children of God, we must love God and obey His commandments (1 John 5:2). This moves us to the third chapter which is “LOVING OUR NEIGHBOURS AS OURSELVES.”
At this point let us pray that God will help us to love Him and by so doing obey Him completely and promptly and love our neighbors as ourselves.
CHAPTER 3
LOVING OUR NEIGHBOURS AS OURSELVES.
Loving someone as yourself means desiring for the person the same things you desire for yourself. If I want to go to heaven, then I mustn't wish that someone should go to hell. Rather I must wish the same for the person; that by the grace of God one day we will all meet in heaven. This would cause me to pray for the person and correct the person when he/she is going astray.
Our neighbors could also mean our enemies or strangers. This is because even the good Samaritan helped a Jew, and that was the example Jesus gave when a certain lawyer went to Jesus and asked Him who his neighbor is (Luke 10:29-37). In John 4:9, we are told that, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. This teaches us that we must even love (Matthew 5:44), pray for (Matthew 5:44), greet (Matthew 5:47) and help even our enemies (Luke 10:33-37).
When we love someone, we would forgive easily whenever they offend our hurt us, be kind to them, listen to them (only if it's in accordance with the will of God) and we would be at peace with them.
At this moment let us pray that God will help us to love our neighbors as we ought. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
© claim_all_all_Jesus
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.
Love is a virtue that shows great concern and care towards a person. Love first began in creation. God loved us from the beginning. Love is a virtue that God placed in all humans because He is love and since we were created in the image and likeness of God, we were made with this wonderful virtue called love. An interesting fact is that love is the most important of all virtues (joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control).
In the beginning God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. He created out of nothing, and He spoke and things came into being, came to life and things appeared at the power of His words. The Word of God is Jesus Christ. He saw that His creation was good and He blessed it. Mankind was the only creation created in the image of God. God gave them power and blessed them that they should multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over all the other things God has created. God loved His creation especially Mankind who was created in His image.
Mankind was placed in the Garden of Eden and had a wonderful fellowship with the Lord. This continued day by day until, one fateful day, a serpent visited them and deceived them to sin against God. The serpent was the devil who rebelled against God in the beginning. He was an angel in heaven who sinned against God and was cast out of heaven. He took a third of God’s angels. A certain place called hell was made for him to dwell eternally with his fallen angels. He then came to mankind in the beginning to deceive them to sin against God. This brought about a separation from God. This brought about doom to mankind and when they departed from the earth, they went to join the devil to be destroyed eternally in a lake of fire. There were just a few righteous people who walked with God and they finally joined the Lord in eternal glory after their lives on earth had ended.
God looked down upon the earth in love and had mercy on mankind. This same world of sin and humankind who disobeyed Him. So He loved us so much so that, He decided to give us a ransom for our sin and disobedience in order to draw us back to Him. The Almighty God had compassion on mankind and provided us with a Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Saviour. He came in the form of a Man to sacrifice His life to cleanse us from our sins and deliver us from the bondage of the devil. Jesus is the word of God and He is God. This portrayed the wonderful love of God.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Holy Spirit caused a virgin to conceive and bring for a Child. This Child, Jesus Christ was born in a manger. Luke 2:7, “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
He began His ministry at age 30 and was baptized by John the Baptist. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and was tempted by the devil but overcame him and his temptations. (Matthew 4:1-11). While Jesus was on earth, He performed many miracles including; raising the dead (Mark 5:36-43), He healed the sick (Matthew 9:20-31), He feed five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two fish (Matthew 14:14-21), He was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-9), He taught in parables (Mark 4:1-34), He calmed the storm (Mark 4 :35-41), He cast out demons (Mark 5:1-20), and at 33 He completed the work of Salvation by His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection (Matthew 27:22-66 and 28:1-10) and ascension (Luke 24:46-53). While He was on earth He preached the Word of God to so many people and taught them so many things they were and were not supposed to do in order to please God.
Jesus loved us even unto the point of death. He gave His life as a ransom for us to cleanse us from our sins and restore us back unto God. Now what humankind must do is to admit that we are sinners and we couldn’t be restored back to God without the salvation work of Jesus Christ. We have to repent from our sins and pray a prayer to God, confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in our heart that God sent Him to die for us and He raised Him from the dead and He is alive forevermore. Now let’s pray and invite Him into our hearts and lives to be Lord of our lives now forevermore.
It is very necessary to pray this prayer is you haven’t done so because without believing in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation for your soul but rather condemnation (John 3:18 and 36). Friends we have to surrender our lives to Jesus now and forsake worldly things because they cause us to sin and that brings about enmity with God.
We must put the will of God first and forsake the pleasures of this world, lusts of the flesh and pride of life. Let us put on the full amour of God so that we might be able to overcome the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-18). We must watch and pray to be able to overcome all temptations of the devil (Mark 14:38). We have to read and meditate the word of God (Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 119:11). We also have to pray for grace to obey so that we would be able to obey. This would only happen if we love God with our all. Loving our neighbor would prove our love for God. This brings us to an endless ripple of the genuine love of God and His command to mankind to love both Him and our neighbors. Amen.
At this juncture, let us thank God for His amazing love and ask for grace to live Him to as we ought.
CHAPTER 2
LOVING GOD WITH OUR ALL
What does it mean to love someone? What does it mean to love God? The answer can be found in John 14:15, 1 John 5:1-3 and 1 John 4:20-21. Loving God can be summarized into two points:
• Keeping His commandments- John 14:15, 1 John 5:1-3
• Loving our neighbors- 1 John 4:20-21.
God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to come and die on the cross to save mankind from sin. Do you know God’s love is the greatest love of all time? Yes because even Jesus said in John 15:13 that, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” This is why He sent Jesus and forgave our sins.
God has commanded us in His word to live a perfect life. How can we do it? By loving God with our all and surrendering totally unto Him.
Do you remember the story of Jacob? He worked for Laban for 14 years just to marry Rachel and they seemed just a few days to him because of his love for her.
This is human love. So how much more heavenly love for none other than God? We actually have to surrender our lives to God in order to truly love Him also.
A TOTAL SURRENDER.
Totally surrendering our all to God is a necessity for we creations of God in order to please Him and do His will. The fact is we can't do His will if we aren't totally surrendered unto Him. We as mortals cannot make it to heaven by our good works alone so we need the grace of God to work in us as long as we are liberated and have surrendered unto Him. The Holy Spirit of God is here to help all those who are born again to live a life pleasing unto God (John 14:16-26).
Liberation unto God, begins with believing in Jesus, His work of salvation and His words written in the Bible. After believing, we take an action to receive Him into our lives and do away with the things of this world. Jesus came to deliver us from sin.
Now we have to die to the world, its lusts, troubles and everything that opposes God. We can only do so by the help of God. If we truly desire to be dead to the world and to be totally surrendered unto God? We have to pray to God in faith and ask God to help us to be totally liberated unto Him. It would be granted to us if we abide in Jesus and His words abide in us. (John 15:1-8).
If we are truly liberated unto God, we are no more of our own rather, we are of God. We must surrender our will unto God and take His will. We must lay aside anything that is capable of causing us to displease God. We are now God’s.
ABIDING IN JESUS AND HIS WORDS ABIDING IN US.
God tells us to live Him but how can we love Him if we don't truly know Him? We will know more about Jesus when we study His word constantly and diligently, Meditate upon the word, Pray always, have faith in God and Obey His word.
•Studying the word of God.
We as Christians must study God’s word in order to obey. When we study, we get more insight about God, His nature and His will. Studying will help us to stand strong in the faith and not be deceived by false teachings.
•Meditating upon the word.
Meditation is pondering over something to get a deeper meaning or understanding of it. Now meditating upon the word of God does not only give us a deeper meaning, it also causes the word to remain in our hearts and eliminate every form of iniquity in our heart.
In Joshua 1:8, God told Joshua to meditate upon the word of God so that he may observe to do according to all that is written in it. This shows us that, meditation plays a major role when it comes to obedience.
• Praying always.
The bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that, we should pray without ceasing. Do you know how important prayer is? It is through prayer that we ask God for our needs, we cancel the plans of the devil, we get things in order in the spiritual realm, the sick are healed, the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are brought back to life.
When we pray, we speak to the Almighty God to intervene in the situations we find ourselves in. The devil is always looking for an opportunity to kill, steal and to destroy so when we pray, our Sovereign Lord delivers us. Note; We have to apply faith to our prayer. A faithless prayer does not work.
•Faith in God
John 14:1-4, Mark 11:24 and James 1:5-8 teaches us to believe in God and not doubt Him. He who doubts should not suppose that he will receive his answer. (James 1:7) Therefore, have faith in God in order to receive answers to your prayers.
•Obedience to the Word of God
Obedience is a very important virtue all Christians must have. It shows that we truly love God (John 14:15). We have to pray to God to grant us obedient hearts so that, we may obey Him. Disobedience to God will produce terrible results- being cut off from Him, thrown into the fire and would be burnt (John 15:6). Don't forget, obedience to God is one of the ways we can abide in Jesus and Jesus says, those who don't abide in Him will be cut off, thrown into the fire and would be burnt.
Now the second way to prove that we truly love God is to love our neighbor (1 John 20-21). Also to prove that we love the children of God, we must love God and obey His commandments (1 John 5:2). This moves us to the third chapter which is “LOVING OUR NEIGHBOURS AS OURSELVES.”
At this point let us pray that God will help us to love Him and by so doing obey Him completely and promptly and love our neighbors as ourselves.
CHAPTER 3
LOVING OUR NEIGHBOURS AS OURSELVES.
Loving someone as yourself means desiring for the person the same things you desire for yourself. If I want to go to heaven, then I mustn't wish that someone should go to hell. Rather I must wish the same for the person; that by the grace of God one day we will all meet in heaven. This would cause me to pray for the person and correct the person when he/she is going astray.
Our neighbors could also mean our enemies or strangers. This is because even the good Samaritan helped a Jew, and that was the example Jesus gave when a certain lawyer went to Jesus and asked Him who his neighbor is (Luke 10:29-37). In John 4:9, we are told that, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. This teaches us that we must even love (Matthew 5:44), pray for (Matthew 5:44), greet (Matthew 5:47) and help even our enemies (Luke 10:33-37).
When we love someone, we would forgive easily whenever they offend our hurt us, be kind to them, listen to them (only if it's in accordance with the will of God) and we would be at peace with them.
At this moment let us pray that God will help us to love our neighbors as we ought. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
© claim_all_all_Jesus
