Seize the Moment – Day 1001
Stick Around!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, December 13.
As a pastor, I have been tempted to leave my pastorate for greener pastures. But God’s call upon my life has been to stick around – to remain faithful to New Castle First Baptist Church because the work God has called me to do has not been completed. Even after thirteen years, there is still a long way to go so my plan is simple – to stick around! I am to persevere until the work is completed or until the Lord makes it clear that it’s time for me to pass the baton to the next generation. My calling is a long slow obedience in the same direction of faithfulness to Christ and His church!
Nehemiah is a wonderful example of the importance of sticking around until the job gets done. People need faithful leaders to inspire them to persevere through the daily temptations of bailing before the blessing. As the people of God, we must learn to keep our commitments – to obey Jesus and let our yes be yes (Matthew 5:37). In Nehemiah 6:11, Nehemiah asked the question in the face of deception and opposition, “Should a man like me flee?” He decided to stick around and complete the job, as he testified in verse 16, “When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”
We don’t need showy leaders who are always seeking the next best thing; we need faithful men and women who are willing to suffer for righteousness and endure hardship for God’s will to be done in and through them (Matthew 5:10; 1 Peter 3:14; 2 Timothy 1:8; 2:3; 4:5).
Seize the moment and stick around – make a commitment to not bail before the blessing by taking a vow of stability to your local church.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 1000
Be the Solution!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, December 12. Today celebrates the one thousandth day of making these daily calls. May you grow stronger in your daily walk with Jesus by taking on His easy yoke to learn from Him and find rest for your soul. May you join me in reading and meditating upon God’s Word.
Good leaders don’t ask anything of others that they wouldn’t be willing to do first themselves. Nehemiah was a great leader! During a time of economic hardship caused by heavy taxation by the Persians, a famine, and internal greed (Nehemiah 5:3-5), Nehemiah demanded that the wealthy of his nation stop being a part of the problem and be the solution (6-12). Unlike many leaders in our world today, Nehemiah was setting an example of economic justice for the rest to follow – He was being the solution!
Nehemiah was authorized a governor’s food allowance, but instead of taking that which came from the taxation of his people, he fed them out of his own resources – over one hundred fifty people (14-18). Nehemiah worked side-by-side with the people, he lent them money and grain, and he expected the rich and powerful to follow his leadership, without exception. In a powerful display of leadership, in verse 13, Nehemiah held himself and the rich to the same standard of God’s judgment:
I also shook out the front of my garment and said, “Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” And they praised the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise.
Nehemiah was being the solution, and he will always be remembered as a leader who cared for his people (19). The people followed him because he was a leader of integrity.
Seize the moment and be the solution – Live in such a way that others want to follow you as you follow Jesus!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Advent 2022 – Week 3
Welcome Home: Inviting Jesus to Make My Heart His Home!
A Home of Joy
Something interesting you may not know about my family is that years ago Kimberly and I named our home. This is the first house we have ever owned, having previously rented or lived in military housing. The naming of our house didn’t happen for years, but after the first five to six years of pastoral ministry here in New Castle, we decided to call it, “The Haven.” The definition of a haven is, “any place of safety and shelter.” Some synonyms for the word haven are “retreat, anchorage, cover, harbor, sanctum, or sanctuary.” We want our home to be a space for grace – a sanctuary where God is at work in and through us, a retreat to find rest for the soul, a safe harbor from the storms of life, a sanctum from the insanity of the world, a cover from the attacks of the enemy, a sacred place where we will love and disciple our children to walk in the ways of the Lord.
Additionally, years ago, we named our home school, “The Little House Discipleship Academy.” This merges our family’s heritage with my sixth (or seventh) Cousin Laura Ingalls Wilder and her famous series of books, The Little House on the Prairie, and our focus on raising our children in the Word to train them to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. As a family, we intentionally and diligently protect our home to be a home of hope, love, joy, and peace. To do this, we must very intentionally and diligently walk in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ so that our hearts and minds are a haven of God’s presence before we can work together as husband and wife to create a home that lives up to its own namesake, “The Haven.” Friends, nothing happens by accident nor happenstance; you must be diligent.
This Christmas, I am inviting you to surrender your heart to be Christ’s home so that your home may become a home of hope, love, joy, and peace – a place where the weary of mind and body, a place where the heavy-burdened of heart and soul, can come and find rest (Matthew 11:28-30). If you want to transform your home, you must start with your own heart – you must become a person of hope, love, joy, and peace.
In the first two weeks, we focused on transforming our hearts into homes of hope and love, today, the message will focus how our faith invites Jesus Christ to transform our hearts into havens of joy. There is great joy you receive through a relationship with Jesus Christ! This is not only the joy of our eternal salvation, secured through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but this is the work of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of God’s presence in and though our lives that gives us a joy that will empower us through the mountaintops and valleys of our emotions and life experiences.
To illustrate my emphasis on our hearts being havens of joy so that we can create homes of joy, I want to emphasize the famous passage from Nehemiah 8:10, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” As most of you know, I am currently studying the book of Nehemiah for my daily devotional phone calls, which then is transformed into the material for my Seize the Moment devotional books with AGF Publishing. As I was studying this passage, I wrote this devotional for this coming week’s daily phone call:
Dry Tortugas National Park is one of the most remote parks in our national park system. It is seventy miles off the coast of Key West, and you can only get there by seaplane or boat. As part of its natural wonder and historic significance, Dry Tortugas is the only deep-water safe harbor in that vicinity, making it a strategic location when ships were the key to both commerce and security for our growing nation. For this reason, Fort Jefferson, a massive stronghold, was built on the island, to protect American ships and sailors.
Whether it’s from the storms of life or the dangers of enemies, we all need a safe harbor – a stronghold to find shelter or refuge. Inside the stronghold of Jerusalem, with its finished walls and restored gates, Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest taught the nation of Israel where they would find their safe harbor – not in a walled city, but in God’s Word. Nehemiah 8:9-10 captures the moment they first heard the Torah:
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The Hebrew word translated “strength” means stronghold, refuge, or fortress. The joy of the Lord is both our safe harbor from storms and our stronghold from enemies. As Psalm 18:2 declares, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Seize the moment and find shelter in the safe harbor of God’s joy – put your faith in Jesus Christ!
Your home becomes a space for grace when you have become a safe harbor of God’s joy. This happens by inviting Jesus Christ to make your heart His home. The Christmas story, in Luke 2:9-14, foretells the purpose for Christ’s coming into the world:
And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Christ came to bring us “great joy!” This is as applicable for your heart and your home, as it is for world peace. Let’s do a quick survey about what the Bible teaches about God’s joy:
- Psalm 16:11. “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
- Psalm 118:24. “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
- Proverbs 15:13. “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.”
- John 17:13. “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”
- Romans 15:13. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
- Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
- Philippians 4:4. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”
- Hebrews 12:2-3. “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Joy is not a response to circumstances; joy is the rock of our well-being – a firm foundation from which we can experience all other emotions and respond in covenant faithfulness to God, according to His promises for our lives. When joy is the deep bedrock of our souls we can experience the human realities of anger, grief, and sadness without being displaced from the rock of God’s joy into the shifting sands of human emotions. You can experience the hardships and injustices of real life while finding the security of God’s stronghold, which has been strategically built in the only safe harbor to be found out in the open seas of life. The King has made a way for this to be done for you! You can respond authentically as a child of God, and authoritatively as a soldier for Jesus, because you are secure in the Father’s love and safe in His sovereign grace.
It takes diligence to make your home a haven of joy! It’s not a response to our circumstances, it is the stronghold of our lives, the haven of our sanity, the sanctum of our peace, the rock on which we build our lives – it is the victory of our faith in Jesus Christ! Always remember, joy is the fruit of the Spirit, not a manifestation of the flesh. It is so much more than an emotional response to our circumstances. I close with this prayerful exhortation from 1 Peter 1:3-9:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
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Seize the Moment – Day 998
Today’s Christmas hymn focus will be
Adore
Psalm 95:6 (NASB95)
“ Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Written in 2013 by UK Worship Artists Graham Kendrick & Martin Chalk, it later became the featured title song of Chris Tomlin’s Christmas album in 2016. Graham stated that he was inspired by one of the greatest Christmas carols, “O Come Let Us Adore Him”, when Martin started playing the music for this song and it had the word adore in it. He went on to say, “It very simply just tells the story of God made flesh and enables us to respond to it.”
Adore, o come let us adore. O come let us adore Him
The Lord, worship Christ the Lord. Let all that is within us, adore!
As we are halfway through the advent season, we need to wake up to the fact that we can’t just assume that the world knows what Christmas is all about. God sent this precious gift to us to give to others. It is up to us to share the blessed hope of God’s amazing grace that came to earth that night in a manger. And His name is Jesus!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:
Adore
Humbly you came
God of all creation
Here with us
In a starlit manger
Emmanuel
Light of the world
Here to save
Come let us adore
Oh come let us adore him
The Lord, worship Christ, the Lord
Let all that is within us
Shepherds bow low
Angel voices sing of peace on earth
What have I to offer
To heaven’s King
I’ll bring my life, my love, my all
Come let us adore
Oh come let us adore him
The Lord, worship Christ, the Lord
Let all that is within us
Adore
Peace on earth, here with us, joy awakening
At your feet we fall
Adore
Come let us adore
Oh come let us adore him
The Lord, worship Christ, the Lord
Let all that is within us
Adore
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Seize the Moment – Day 997
Overcome Discouragement!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, December 9.
It is easy to become discouraged when we experience criticism or intimidation. Nehemiah’s successes in Jerusalem led to opposition from their neighbors. Nehemiah 4:1 reports, “Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews.”
People oppose the work of God when they feel threatened by it. Sanballat was the governor of Samaria and the last thing he wanted was a revitalized Israel. The refortification of Jerusalem would provide a haven for the Jewish exiles to return from Babylonian captivity in droves. He first opposed the work with mockery to discourage the workers, and when that wasn’t enough to stop them, he intensified the opposition with fear and intimidation.
It would have worked if it wasn’t for Nehemiah’s efforts to counter the discouragement and oppose the threats. His first tactic to overcome discouragement was to seek God, as recorded in verses 4-5, “Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.” Prayer is our first response to overcoming discouragement.
Second, Nehemiah took active steps to embolden the workers with a higher calling. Nehemiah 4:14 narrates, “When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people: ‘Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.’” Nehemiah led his people in prayer and then in setting up a defense (9). He gave their lives and work meaning (9-23). Living with purpose is our second response to overcoming discouragement.
Seize the moment and seek a higher calling for your life and work (Colossians 3:23-24).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 996
The Security of God’s People!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, December 8.
Do you feel secure where you live? To what length will you go to feel secure?
Nehemiah had surveyed Jerusalem and determined that the walls and gates had to be their priority of work. Gates are important because they provide security for the inhabitants of a walled city. Nehemiah 3 describes the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, with the work focused around the ten gates of the city: the Sheep Gate (1); the Fish Gate (3); the Old Gate (6); the Valley Gate (13); the Refuse Gate (14); the Fountain Gate (15); the Water Gate (26); the Horse Gate (28); the East Gate (29); and the Inspection Gate (31).
Nehemiah’s success was dependent upon all the people working together, and no one was exempt from the work, including the officials, as well as the priests and Levites (16-17). Nehemiah 3:1 starts, “Then Eliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors.”
Whereas the security of a people has often been dependent on walls and gates; it will not be this way in the coming Eternal Kingdom of God. Revelation 21:25-27 gives us a glimpse of the gates of the wall in the New Jerusalem:
In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
“Its gates will never be closed” is a powerful vision of security; it gives us hope! What truly secures God’s people is neither the weapons forged by man’s hand nor the walls and gates we build around ourselves. Rather, your security is found in nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
Seize the moment and find your security in Christ alone; rejoice that your name is “recorded in Heaven” (Luke 10:20).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 995
Compelled to Act through Prayer!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, December 7.
You should always pray before you act. Don’t do anything until you know it is God telling you to do it, but once you are compelled in the Spirit, act with conviction and authority – Don’t hesitate and don’t hold back!
In response, King Artaxerxes made Nehemiah governor of Jerusalem. This doesn’t happen by accident – from cupbearer to governor in an instant! Go God! As Nehemiah testified, “the good hand of my God was on me” (8). After four months of praying and fasting, which providentially led to this encounter with the king, the next place we find Nehemiah is arriving in Jerusalem surveying the damage, building consensus amongst the people, taking on the opposition, and starting the work (9-20). Nehemiah’s activity for God was shot out of the cannon of prayer!
Seize the moment and wait upon the Lord to compel you to act! Pray first then act with conviction and authority.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 994
Cry out to God!
Nehemiah 1
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, December 6.
Nehemiah 1:5-11 records Nehemiah’s brokenness before God, as he humbly fasted and fervently prayed. He took on the mantle of responsibility for his people and faithfully confessed the sins of Israel, as if the sins were his very own – “on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned” (6). His heart was broken for what broke God’s heart, and he lamented over Jerusalem. In verse 9, he cried out for God to respond according to His covenant faithfulness by invoking His ancient promises, specifically Deuteronomy 30:1-4.
If we want to see God do in us today what he did through Nehemiah in his day, we must start in the same place – with a broken heart over sin and the consequences of sin upon our world. Like Nehemiah, God can place you in just the right spot to see His power move in and through you. God is looking for faithful people, whom He can use for such a time as this.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 993
Embrace God’s Grace!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, December 5.
Apart from God’s grace, not a one of us could call Heaven our eternal home. It is God’s grace that provides the solution to sin – “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
Ezra described Israel’s return from exile as “a brief moment grace” (Ezra 9:8). When he was confronted with the remnant’s sin of intermarriage with the Canaanites, he wasted no time to entreat God, and the people gathered around him in a large assembly weeping bitterly over their sin (Ezra 9:5-10:1). After three days, all the men of Israel gathered to Ezra the priest, who said to them in Ezra 10:10-12:
“You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” Then all the assembly replied with a loud voice, “That’s right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do.”
Their confession of sin came with their willingness to repent. God’s grace to the people of Israel is the same call to us today, as commanded by Paul in Titus 2:11-14:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
The grace of God always comes with a reward – “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23b). Ezra embraced grace, so should we in our lives.
Seize the moment and embrace the grace of God by walking closely with Jesus!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Advent 2022 – Week 2
Welcome Home: Inviting Jesus to Make My Heart His Home!
A Home of Love
Kevin Stonerock to share about and play special song: Black Diamonds.
This song speaks to a situation that has been playing out for generations, in many shapes and sizes. There are the lost stories of the Civil War and World War I veterans who came home. There are the whispered stories of the World War II & Korea War veterans who came home. There are the loud stories that I grew up with of the Vietnam veterans who were homeless and struggling with substance abuse. There are the sensational stories of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans coming home lost to themselves and their families, with devastating suicide rates.
These stories of veterans coming home from war and struggling to transition back into their families and communities have a theme – the soldier may have left the war to come home, but the war didn’t leave them just because they came home. We’ve said, “Welcome home!” Now let’s welcome soldiers home from war in a way that invites them to experience the qualities of a home of faith that will be healing to them and to all our families. A home characterized by the four virtues of the Advent season – hope, love, joy, and peace.
There is a lot of preparation that goes into a homecoming, for both those at home and the soldier who is returning. The home itself must be actively prepared to be a home of hope, love, joy, and peace, just as the soldier must intentionally work on transforming his mind and heart from a posture of hyper-vigilance (called “Battle Mind”) to being in a posture of rest. Jesus wants to make His home in each of our hearts and in all our homes, and it is His presence in our hearts and homes that transforms us.
This Christmas, I am inviting you to surrender your heart to be Christ’s home so that your home may become a home of hope, love, joy, and peace – a place where the weary of mind and body, a place where the heavy-burdened of heart and soul, can come and find rest (Matthew 11:28-30). If you want to transform your home, you must start with your own heart – you must become a person of hope, love, joy, and peace.
Last week we focused on transforming our hearts into homes of hope, today, the message will focus how our faith invites Jesus Christ to transform our hearts into homes of love. Our Scripture for this message is Ephesians 3:14-19:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us to all the fullness of God so that we may know the love of Christ and be transformed by it, so that we, and our homes, may be homes of love.
The love of God is transformational. When Jesus Christ makes your heart His home through faith, then you become rooted and grounded in love. In other words, the love of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, transforms your story – God changes you and begins the process of changing your life, your marriage, your parenting style, your motivations for work, and your inspirations for living. Our entire life becomes a dialogue about the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love because we are supposed to bring the love of God into every area of our life.
Here’s the secret to all of this, you don’t know something until you put it into practice. Teachers know that you haven’t learned the material until you can teach it. By the same principle, you can’t know the love of God until you express it, share it, give it in each circumstance of your life. The transformative quality of God’s love is a positive feedback loop. As you grow in spiritual maturity and learn more about God’s character and His love, you can ‘teach’ or demonstrate His love more and more through your actions. God transforms your understanding of His love as you grow in Christ, and that doesn’t mean that God or His love has changed because He is constant. Rather, it demonstrates the importance of our progressive sanctification. We must pursue the relationship to experience the fullness of the transformation so that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”
You are transformed by the love of Christ because the Holy Spirit fills you to the fullness of God. This is when your home becomes a space of grace for returning soldiers, when you are a person in an ongoing conversation with God about His life and what His love looks like in every situation of your life. You are transformed by love by practicing the love you were first given, and, in doing so, you become a loving person. It’s kind of like this, if you are looking for friends, be one. If you are looking for good people, be one. Love transforms you through the giving and receiving of love. It’s not a theory, it’s an action that is constantly explored, a way that is walked, a life that is lived. If you don’t know how to react to a situation or person – love! It’s the golden rule at work, as Jesus taught us in Matthew 7:12, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
The love of God is not transactional – it is freely given! The motivation for the Christmas gift of Jesus Christ is explained in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Our salvation is an action of love. You could not be saved today, if God had not taken His essence of love and expressed it in action. You are transformed because God first acted toward you, as Paul explained in Ephesians 2:1-10:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Therefore, because of God’s love, you are to walk in the good works of love – the activity of our salvation should be an expression of that same love He first gave you. Just like we give gifts at Christmas because God for gave to us on that first Christmas, our lives become love because we are transformed by His first love! The beloved of Jesus said in 1 John 4:7-5:4:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.
The love we are to fill our homes with is the love that overcomes the world; it is the love of God that comes through faith, not the love of the world that comes through the flesh; it is a fruit of the Spirit’s work in you, bringing God’s fullness into your life (Galatians 5:22-23). If you want to make your home a safe place for the soldiers to come and find rest for their heavy hearts and weary minds, then don’t give them a counterfeit love for which they must perform. Rather, give them the love that flows from the throne of grace.
When we give this to one another, then we proclaim the gospel of peace for all the world to see, as Jesus taught in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Welcome home our soldiers by giving them a soft place to land, a space for grace to experience the security of love that will help them transform from being in a hyper-vigilant battle mind, always looking for the worst in other people, watchful for attacks and ambushes. Help them be restful at home, always looking to be their very best for other people, as they experience the peace and rest of a love that cannot be earned, and one that will never end because of that first Christmas gift. As the song O Holy Night teaches us, “Truly He taught us to love one another / His law is love and His gospel is peace / Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother / And in His name all oppression shall cease / Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, / Let all within us praise His holy name.”
Never forget, we can’t love with God’s love until we experience God’s love personally. I pray that you will accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and begin to experience the love of God for yourself personally; that’s where it all begins for each of us. For those who have already experienced God’s love, I pray that your home may become a great laboratory of learning to love as God first loved you. May you be transformed as you put into practice God’s Christmas gift to you and to me, and to all of humanity.
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