Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so,

Little ones to him belong

They are weak but He is strong!

You didn’t just read those words, you sang them, right?  This is the first song you probable learned if your parents or grandparents took you to church.  This is the first song you learned as a baby being rocked in the nursery class.  As you moved on to the preschool class, you probably learned the hand motions that go with the song as you sang the song with other toddlers.

As a walking, talking toddler, you might of thought for a minute, who is Jesus?  It doesn’t matter, He apparently loves me.  If our parents continued their journey in their commitment to God to learn more about Him, we as children would move from class to class with our peers.  We would learn the stories of the Bible that taught us how to treat others with kindness. 

Later, we learned that this Jesus who “loves us this I know” was treated badly by those who did not like him.  As we grew to be young students, we eventually learned that this Jesus nailed to a cross!  We heard that Jesus didn’t have to do it but he did it so that our sins could be forgiven even though we might not understand just how that worked.  But we knew that “we are weak and He is strong. Yes, we are definitely impressed by Someone who would willingly do what He did!

But there is so much more…

Hebrews 6, The Message

^1-3 So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!

^4-8 Once people have seen the light, gotten a taste of heaven and been part of the work of the Holy Spirit, once they’ve personally experienced the sheer goodness of God’s Word and the powers breaking in on us—if then they turn their backs on it, washing their hands of the whole thing, well, they can’t start over as if nothing happened. That’s impossible. Why, they’ve re-crucified Jesus! They’ve repudiated him in public! Parched ground that soaks up the rain and then produces an abundance of carrots and corn for its gardener gets God’s “Well done!” But if it produces weeds and thistles, it’s more likely to get cussed out. Fields like that are burned, not harvested.

^9-12 I’m sure that won’t happen to you, friends. I have better things in mind for you—salvation things! God doesn’t miss anything. He knows perfectly well all the love you’ve shown him by helping needy Christians, and that you keep at it. And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish. Don’t drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them.

God Gave His Word

^13-18 When God made his promise to Abraham, he backed it all the way, putting his own reputation on the line. He said, “I promise that I’ll bless you with everything I have—bless and bless and bless!” Abraham stuck it out and got everything that had been promised to him. When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they’ll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.

^18-20 We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

There is so much more—

We need to grow up in Christ as not only Savior but Lord of our lives!  This occurs and solidifies our faith in God by seeking a personal, intimate, loving, all-consuming relationship with God—our “unbreakable spiritual lifeline for eternity”!

Jesus, God’s One and Only Son, made the Way to God possible.  We were caught up in sin and self that separated us from God.  God cannot be where sin resides. Someone had to pay the price for our sins and buy us back from evil who had a hold on us so we could be set free—forever!

Not only that, our risen Lord is now our advocate in Heaven who speaks on our behalf in the Presence of God.  Nothing in our lives goes unnoticed or undetected by God.  God created all, is over all, in all.  God is sovereign.  He is everywhere at once.  He sees our hearts.  God is with all who believe always. 

God looks over the earth seeking those whose hearts are completely devoted and committed to Him.  God loves us so much He not only sent His Son to save us, as promised, but His desire is to pour out His blessings over us in ways beyond our human understanding.  What are we waiting for?

God protects us before we know we need it. God provides for all our needs.  God knows what we will face tomorrow and equips us today. In our personal relationship with Him, God’s love never changes.  God is faithful and unshakeable—even when we are unfaithful to him! 

God wants our personal relationship with Him to grow in ways that reflect His character—for our good and His glory!  And He will help us!  Jesus taught us God’s Truth along with God’s desire to have a relationship with Him.  Jesus was the Light to a dark world who had all but forgotten God.  Jesus reminded all who would listen who God was, is and is to come.  Jesus represented God and came down from heaven, moved into the neighborhood of humanity, to love, heal, and forgive, while giving all glory to God.  Jesus is the same yesterday as He is today.  Jesus is Savior who is Lord.  His Holy Spirit lives in all who believe!

Are you merely impressed or firmly committed? 

Are you still back in the preschool of faith, coloring pictures of your own making of who Jesus is?  Is your thought of God being a far off being who merely sits in judgement when you do wrong and is deaf to your prayers for what you want to have or what you want to happen in your life? 

Then return to your first love— “Jesus loves me this I know, For the Bible tells me so,” and firmly believe in Jesus as a beginning to a wonderful, life-giving, love producing relationship.  Be committed to grow in a personal and intimate relationship with God through Jesus, His Son!  Believe in Jesus, Son of Man, who died to save us and rose again to set us free from the sin that keeps us from God.  Believe in Jesus, Son of God, who was risen from death, defeating the enemy of God, giving us hope to live forever with Him—just as He said He would!

God promised a Messiah.  God fulfilled His promise with His Son.  Done.  Completed. “God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.”  Believe, repent, and be saved. May God’s Holy Spirit teach us daily and mature our faith.

“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Lord,

Thank you for all you have done, are doing, and will do in my life to keep me focused on you and all the benefits of knowing you.  Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my soul, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within me daily.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen.

Yes, I believe and I’m listening.