Loving Jesus Christ

Can you play in a championship football game just because you are a good football player? What if you’ve practiced every day and are the best player you know? It seems like a silly question—there are obviously certain criteria that must be met, the first of which is actually being a member of the team! Skill, or your own estimation of yourself, doesn’t automatically get you on the team or in the “big game.” Many people have a similar approach in regard to their eternal destiny. When you come to the end of your life, will “being good” (or even being better than everyone else you know) be enough to enter God’s Heaven? It doesn’t need to be guesswork. We know the exact criteria required to spend eternity in Heaven as part of God’s team. The Bible shows us the way!

One spring day Mr. C. Austin Miles received an assignment from his employer. After working for ten years as a pharmacist, Mr. Miles had left that profession for a new job: writing hymns and music for the Hall Mack Publishing Company. That morning Mr. Miles’ employer requested he write a song that would be “sympathetic in tone, breathing tenderness in every line; one that would bring hope to the hopeless, rest for the weary, and downy pillows to dying beds.” Mr. Miles accepted the challenging assignment. What followed was so remarkable that Mr. Miles recorded what happened as God met him in fulfilling this great task: One day in March, 1912, I was seated in the dark room, where I kept my photographic equipment . . . . I drew my Bible toward me; it opened at my favorite chapter, John 20 . . . . As I read it that day, I seemed to be part of the scene. I became a silent witness to that dramaticmoment in Mary’s life . . . . I seemed to be standing at the entrance to a garden, looking down a gently winding path, shaded by olive branches. A woman in white, […]

Just as any human relationship can grow cool and distant, so can our relationship with the Lord. Understanding why we lose our first love will give us insight into finding it again. So, how do we lose our first love?

Every Christian should be aware of the danger of leaving his first love for the Lord. Long ago, the church in Ephesus was busy doing many things for God, yet Jesus told them, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Let’s consider some indications that you may be wandering from your first love for Christ.

In the early 1700s, a young German nobleman named Nikolaus Zinzendorf visited the Dusseldorf Museum. One particular painting captivated his attention. The painting depicted Jesus with a crown of thorns on His head just before His crucifixion. The caption below read: “I have done this for you; what have you done for Me?” The painting moved young Zinzendorf to a wholehearted commitment to serve God. Count Zinzendorf became one of the most influential leaders in the history of Christian missions. More than one hundred years later, another young Christian visited that same museum. A tired, seventeen-year-old Frances Havergal sat opposite that same painting. Quietly she gazed at the dramatic painting along with its inscription. Deeply moved, she began jotting down phrases. Miss Havergal’s sister later wrote: “On January 10, 1858, [Frances] read the motto, and the lines of her hymn flashed upon her. She wrote them in pencil on a scrap of paper. Reading them over [once she returned home] she thought them so poor that she tossed them on the fire, but they fell out [of the fire] untouched.” The story continues that her father grasped the papers that weren’t burned and encouraged his daughter to keep them. Her […]

Aaron Wolfe walked quickly to the shipping office. Two weeks earlier in Florida, he had stowed all his worldly goods in crates on a ship headed to New York. Then, with just a knapsack, he had traveled via the cheaper overland route. The thirty-four-year-old had graduated from seminary in New York, worked several years in Florida as a headmaster, and was now returning to the Northeast to seek a pastorate.  He fully expected his crated valuables—his personal library, sermon notes, and other resources needed by a pastor—to be waiting for him when he arrived.  Upon entering the shipping office, Reverend Wolfe told the clerk the name of the ship that carried his belongings. The clerk had bad news for him. On the day the ship had planned to set sail, a storm had blown into port. Lightning had struck the ship and set the vessel afire. The ship’s main cargo—turpentine—had ignited instantly, and both ship and cargo were destroyed.  The news was devastating. Yet, as Reverend Wolfe would later recount with a grateful spirit, God used this tragedy to redirect his calling. He realized his life and work were not dependent on the books, papers, and other physical possessions he […]

Meekness is yielding our rights to God so He can demonstrate His peace and power through our lives. We learn meekness by coming to Christ with the recognition of our own weaknesses and being united with Him by belief in His finished work on the cross.

The Lord offers a great number of rich rewards for those who meditate on His Word, including success, wisdom, faith, fellowship, and victory over sin.

Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). What are these commandments, and what does it mean to “keep” them? We cannot keep (observe, remember, and apply) Christ’s commands without first knowing what they are.

Do you struggle to pray for an extended period of time without getting distracted, running out of things to say, or falling asleep? You can overcome these obstacles!

The truth of God’s Word will dispel doubts about salvation. As a Christian, you need to learn about the security of your standing in Christ and recognize the deception of the enemy, Satan, who seeks to torment you with doubt.

The specific circumstances of Jesus’ life fulfilled Biblical prophecy and qualified Him to complete His redemptive mission. Similarly, God prescribes our unchangeable features according to His design.