It is always refreshing, calming and satisfying when you work for a company or with a group of people with great goals, a big picture focus, a written mission with ways to achieve that keeps everyone on the right page as you grow together in strength as a team. 

When we work with anyone in life who knows where to go and what to do that is best for everyone around them, it gives us confidence to take more risks in getting the work accomplished.  We love to hang around with people who love well and have like goals.  We love to build with people who love to build.  We love to help with people who love to help others.  We love to love because God taught us how to love well by first loving us.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

God loved us first–and from the beginning of Creation, He had a plan to save us because of that love.  That plan was Jesus.  Jesus gathers a team who is beginning to see the larger picture, get a glimpse of God and gain insight into the mission Jesus has in mind.  They follow Him because what He says matches what has been written in Scripture.  The disciples who love and believe Him form a bond with Jesus that cannot be shaken or broken.  They watched the Son of God clean the Temple of cheating merchants and are reminded that this was a “house of prayer”.  They watched him deal with those in power with words of Truth and wisdom from Scripture that they would ponder and remember later.

“They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.”  When we truly believe what Scripture says and match the words to who Jesus is and believe in Him, we become part of the team of new understanding.  We begin to take on His character.  We begin to realize that what the world says is opposite of what God says.  Our minds change, our hearts soften, and our souls become more willing to follow exactly what He tells us to be and do.  Our will is truly being undone as we pray for His will to be done.

Yes, everything changes when Jesus enters in and transforms us to be all God created us to be.  It is then that God invites to His work in ways that grow our faith and strengthen our resolve and commitment to love Him back forever.  Our greatest need and passionate prayers are to love others like He loves us.

John—God’s Love

John 2:13-25, The Message

Tear Down This Temple . . .

^13-14 When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.

^15-17 Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.”

^18-19 But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.”

^20-22 They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.

^23-25 During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.

JESUS SEES RIGHT THROUGH US…

Jesus knows all that dwells in our hearts and minds that guide our behavior.  And He forgives all that is not of Him when we ask.  So, relax and be honest.  God loves a sincere, humble heart.  For this thought alone, let us stop and thank Him!  Ask for forgiveness for the times we fail to please Him, but move on with new learning from it and celebrate what changes He is making in us with worship to Him. 

Remember, Jesus loves us no matter what.  He loves us so much; He died and rose again for us.  Jesus is who he says He is and does what He says He will do.  We can count on Him.  Jesus sees right through us and wants to help us in those areas of our lives that need Him.  There is nothing we do that will stop Him from loving us.  Wow.

Lord and Savior,

Thank you for forgiving me of all my sins.  Thank you for teaching me to learn from the failures.  Thank you for cleaning up my messes.  Thank you for transforming me daily.  Thank you for your patience, for I have clearly not arrived yet!  I need you ever hour of every day.  Thank you for Your Holy Presence, your love, mercy and amazing grace.  You are my Living Hope.

In Jesus Name, Amen