God's Love Post

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Successful Christian Husband and Wife

Succesful Christian Husband and Wife as co-heirs, joint heirs of the grace of

God, the grace of eternal and abundant love and life. This is the key to a

strong and successful union, the secret to a happy family. The husband

recognizes and follows the lead of Jesus Christ in everything. He initiates,

protects and respects. Likewise the wife loves, shows kindness and

respects. They each place greater importance on the other. Each prioritizes

 Jesus Christ and then the other. Each sacrifices and does not seek its own.

This prevents all sorts of dysfunction and unhappy results.

It avoids the common pitiful pitfalls where one seeks to dominate or

exploit.

The proper male female relationship under the Leadership of Jesus Christ

is truly Spirit led. The hallmark of this relationship is mutual love.

This love is the special love of  God which is shed abroad in our hearts

 by the Holy Spirit. It is super-natural and super-human. It can not be

faked, contrived or worked up. It can not be earned. It can only be displayed

when it is granted by grace, the grace of of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Spirit led life is lived and experienced through the Holy Spirit Who

comes at the initiative of the Father, as sent by our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ.

The grace and peace of our Lord and Savior be with you all. AMEN!

DIVINE MYSTERY of  HUSBAND AND WIFE

The Christian orientation of the husband toward his wife and the wife

towards her husband  is a primary divine mystery.

Particular attention and appropriate affection to one another are of

such importance that lack of discernment of husband and wife as male and

female joint heirs of God’s grace (the grace of life) results in unanswered

prayers and hindered relationship with God.(I.Peter 3.7).

Here is Karl Barth with  more detail on the importance of this relationship:

” The commanded orientation of the sexes on one another, which consitutes

the essence of of each, can be summed up under three heads. They are to

consider one another, to hear the question which each puts to the other

and to make responsible answer to one another.

To consider one another means to know, or more precisely to want to know,

about one another: not, then, as if they already knew about one another;

not on the basis of a preconceived general or even personal judgement of

men about women or of women about men; but with unprejudiced eyes

and generous hearts, always ready to learn something new, to turn the

corner and see something better. Among the immediate data of existence

there is certainly no greater riddle for man than the fact of the existence of

woman and the question as to her nature. And on the other hand the same

applies to women. We need not think that a man can exist without

encountering this riddle and being preoccupied with it, nor need we think

that he has already solved it. To live humanly means never to escape the

astonishment of one’s own sex at the other, and the desire of one’s sex to

understand the other.

But each sex has also to realize that it is questioned by the other. The puzzle

which the opposite sex implies for it is not theoretical but practical, not

optional but obligatory, not factual but human.

It is the great human puzzle which as man and woman they put to one

another in their mutual confrontation. As man and woman are human in

their co-existence and mutual confrontation, neither the one nor the other

can be content with his own sexuality or heedlessly work out his sexually

conditioned capacities, needs, interests, tendencies, joys and sorrows.

Man is unsettled by woman and woman by man. There is always this

unsettlement by the opposite sex where there is the encounter of man and

woman.

Each is asked by the opposite sex: “Why are you, in fact so different from

myself? Can and will you guarantee that your mode of life which disconcerts

me is also human? Can you show me this in such a way that I can understand

it?” There is such a thing as a silent by severe criticism which tacitly but

persistently and in all conceivable forms passes between man and woman in

their mutual relationships. The woman stands always in a certain tension

to the man, and the man to the woman.

No one can escape this unsettlement, this criticism and tension. To live

humanly means to hear and face this question at the expense on both

sides of self-glorification or simply self-satisfaction.

And the question challenges both man and woman to act in responsibility

to each other. As they consider one another and necessarily realize that

they question each other, they become mutually not the law of each other’s

being (for each must be true to his particularity), but the measure or

criterion of their inner right to live in their sexual distinctiveness. Man can

be and speak and act as a true man only as he realizes that in so doing he

must answer the question of woman, i.e., give her an account of his

humanity. Much that is typically masculine would have to be left unsaid

and undone, or said and done quite differently, if man remembered that

in it, if it is to be truly masculine, he must prove his humanity in the eye

of the woman, to whom he constitutes so great a question mark.”

We understand that since we try to explain the rational of our actions to

the opposite sex, our actions come under question, accountability

and scrutiny. This is a major factor that regulates  and governs

inter-gender relationships and brings greater effectiveness to our lives.

Karl Barth thinks that anyone who might try to avoid or evade this

scrutiny, whether male or female, is missing a great deal.

Here is what he says about this:

” For this reason all the movements of man and woman in which there is

an open or secret attempt to escape this reciprocal responsibilty are suspect

at least from the very outset. On both sides, everything is at stake here. They

are not to elude their mutual responsibility, but to fulfill it. And of course

they must do it even when no representative of the opposite sex is present.

As a norm and criterion the opposite sex is always and everywhere

invisibly present. The divine decision that it is not good for man to be alone

has been taken irrevocably and it applies to woman as well as to man. For

both, therefore, there is only an incidental, external, provisional and

transient isolation and autonomy. They elude themselves if they try to

escape their orientation on one another, i.e., the fact that they are ordered,

related and directed to one another. Their being is always and in all

circumstances a being with the other.

In obedience to God’s command they will know that they are always and in

all circumstances bound to remember and to do justice to the character

of their existence as an existence in relationship”

 Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth contains phenomenal insight and wisdom

much needed especially in  our time. The reader is encouraged to get a copy

and read this vital work by the preeminent theologian Karl Barth.

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) The truly amazing and fascinating relational existence to which our

Creator has assigned for us is  ever fresh an exciting. The Triune God

relates in the sphere of love,because God is love. The Oneness of the

Trinity is based on the foundation of the excellent love of the Father,Son

and Holy Spirit.

2) The fantastic opportunity for growth, understanding, learning and

improvement which comes with the husband and wife relationship is

divine and unique. It can not be altered, substituted or avoided without

significant consequences.

3) Praise, glory and honor be to our heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus

Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are eternally grateful for this wonderful

divine mystery which is understood by experience as it is shaped and

nurtured by God’s unconditional AGAPE love. HALLELUJAH!

GIVE A LOGICAL DEFENSE

But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy and acknowledge Him as Lord.

Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account

for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.

(I.Peter 3.15).

POINTS FOR PRAISE AND MEDITATION

1) The clear and logical explanation of our faith is a definite imperative.

The darkness of this current age MUST be dispelled by the marvellous

LIGHT of THE TRUTH.

2) Here is a good example by Karl Barth from his Church Dogmatics:

” The knowledge of God in the Christian sense is the result of an event

which took place once and once for all. ” The Word was made flesh”.

God  as Creator confronts the creature as an object (His primary objectivity)

and He declares Himself as such by means of certain earthly realities, the

reality of Jesus Christ and the witness to Him effected through Him and

made efficacious by the power of His Spirit (His secondary objectivity).

On the human side the corresponding factor is faith,i.e., an indirect

knowledge of God which begins with the grateful recognition of this divine

mode of revelation and keeps to the realities chosen by God.”

” What God is as God,the divine individuality and characteristics, the

essence of God, is something we shall encounter either at the place

where He deals with us as Lord and Savior, or not at all.

The act of revelation as such carries with it the fact that God has not

withheld Himself from men as true being, but that He has given no less

than Himself to men  as the overcoming of their need and light in their

darkness- Himself as the Father in His own Son by the Holy Spirit.

The act of God’s revelation also carries with it the fact that man, as a sinner

who of himself can only take wrong roads, is called back from all his own

attempts to answer the question of true being, and is bound to the answer to

the question given  by God Himself.

And finally the act of God’s revelation carries with it the fact that by the

Word of God in the Holy Spirit, with no other confidence but this

unconquerable confidence, man allows being to the One in Whom true

being itself seeks and finds, and Who meets him here as the Source of his

life, as Comfort and Command, as the Power over him and over all things.”

3) THE TRUTH WHO SETS MEN FREE

JESUS IS THE TRUTH AND HE SETS US FREE

Here again is Karl Barth:

” ..the Word does not appear in His eternal objectivity as the Son Who

alone dwells in the bosom of the Father. No; the Word became flesh. God

gives Himself to be known, and is known, in the substance of secondary

objectivity, in the sign of all signs, in the Work of God which all the other

works of God serve to prepare, accompany and continue in taking on

humanity to Himself , to which He humbles Himself and which he elevates

through Himself. ” We say His glory” now means: we say this One in His

humanity, the humanity of the Son of God, on His way to death, which was

the way to His resurrection. Hence, it is again an indirect encounter with

God in which the apostles, as the witnesses of the New Testament, find

themselves. They, too, stand before a veil, a sign, a work of God. In the

crib of Bethlehem and the cross of Golgotha the event takes place in which

God gives Himself to them to be known and in which they know God.

The fact that they see this in the light of the resurrection, and that in the

forty days they see it as what it really is, God’s own presence and action,

does not alter the fact that in the forty days they do see this unambiguously

secondary objectivity, and in it as such, and attested by it, they know the

primary objectivity and hence God Himself.

The fact that the God-manhood of the Mediator Jesus Christ is the fulfilment

of the revelation and reconciliation proclaimed in the New Testament is

equivalent to the fact that the knowledge of faith in the New Testament is

indirect (and for that very reason real!) knowledge of God.

And it is precisely this knowledge of faith, attested on the Old and New

Testaments as the knowledge of God from His works, which is now the

content of knowledge in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Since this message is the Gospel of its Lord and therefore of the God-man,

the Mediator, it stands in explicit contrast to any message having the

pure and naked objectivity of God Himself as its object. It is the Gospel of

faith and the summons to faith in that it proclaims God-really God Himself-

in His mediability, in the sign of His Work, in His clothed objectivity. And it

is this just because it does not leave the realm of indirect knowledge of God,

but keeps to the fact that in this very realm of God Himself- and therefore

all things- is to be sought and found, and that this indirect knowledge is’the

right and true knowledge of God because it is chosen and ordained by God

Himself.

Letting this be enough for oneself is not resignation but the humility and

boldness of the man who really stands before God in faith, and in faith alone.”

Here is what St. Paul says:

” Whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come

to consider as loss for Christ’s sake.

Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of

the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing

worth and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of

progressively becoming more deeply acquainted with Him (of perceiving

and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly). For His

sake I have lost everything and consider it all mere rubbish, in order that

I may win Christ,

And that I may be found and known as in Him, not having any self-achieved

righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the

Law’s demands, but possessing that genuine righteousness which comes

through faith in Christ, the right standing with God, which comes from God

by faith.”

(Philippians 3.7-9).

HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE NAME OF JESUS FOREVERMORE!

ENJOY LIFE

All of you should be united in spirit, sympathizing with one another,

loving each other as of one household, compassionate and courteous

tenderhearted and humble.

Never return evil for evil, criticism for criticism, insult for insult, but

on the contrary blessing, praying for their , happiness,well-being,

protection, truly pitying and loving them. For know that to this you

have been called, that you may yourselves inherit a blessing from God

that you may obtain a blessing as heirs, bringing blessings, happiness and

protection.

 For let him or her who wants to enjoy life and see good days keep his or

her tongue free from speaking evil and his or her lips from guile, treachery

or deceit.

Let them turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let them search for

peace, (harmony: undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, moral

conflicts) and seek it eagerly. (Do not merely desire peaceful relations

with God, with your fellowmen and with yourself, but pursue, go after

the peaceful relations!)

For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous (those who are upright

and in right standing with God) and His ears are attentive to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who practice evil (to oppose them,

to frustrate and defeat them).

Now who is there to hurt you if you are zealous followers of that which  is

good?

But even in case you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are

blessed. Do not dread or be afraid of their threats, nor be disturbed by

their opposition.

(I. Peter 3. 8-14).

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) In the unity of the Holy Spirit we can all live in peace and harmony

as brothers and sisters.

2) Our attitude ought to be the attitude of Jesus Christ. We  show care,

compassion and act humbly with each other.

3) The way to respond to criticism, insult or attack is with blessing and

prayer. When someone attacks us let us respond with the love bestowed

on us by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Loving those who do not

love you or those who despise you is feasible through the Holy Spirit.

This love is super-human and super-natural. This is what we need.

4) The peace, harmony and good of all we desire can only be achieved

when we respond with God’s love, this super-natural AGAPE love which

is bestowed on us by Jesus Christ though the Holy Spirit!

THIS IS THE WAY OF PEACE FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD!

PRAISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS MAGNIFICIENT GIFT!

CHRISTMAS MEANS JESUS IS GOD WITH US

Behold, the virgin shall be pregnant and give birth to a Son,

and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which means, God

with us. (Matthew 1.23) and (Isaiah 7.14).

The message of Christmas declares God’s amazing Love for humanity.

God indeed is love. He is love and His message is love. The message is

that God came as a human baby to redeem humanity. The birth of Jesus

is the turning point in all history.

This is described by Karl Barth in his Church Dogmatics:

” Between God and man there stands the person of Jesus Christ,

Himself God and Himself man, an so mediating between the two.

In Him God reveals Himself to man. In Him man sees and knows God.

In Him God stands before man and man stands before God, as is the

eternal will of God and the eternal ordination of man in accordance with

this will. In Him God’s plan for man is disclosed, God’s judgement on man

fulfilled, God’s redemption of man accomplished, God’s gift to man present

in fullness, God’s claim and promise to man declared. In Him God has joined

Himself to man. And so man exists for His sake. It is by Him, Jesus Christ,

and for Him and to Him, that the universe is created as a theater for God’s

dealings with man and man’s dealings with God. The being of God is His being

and similarly the being of man is originally His being. And there is nothing

that is not from Him and by Him and to Him. He is the Word of God in whose

truth cannot be over-reached or conditioned by any other word. He is the

decree of God behind and above which can be no earlier or higher decree

and beside which there can be no other, since all others serve only the

fulfilment of this decree. He is the beginning of God before which there is no

other beginning apart from that of God within Himself.

Except, then, for God Himself, nothing can derive from any other source

or look back to any other starting point. He is the election of God before

which and without which and beside which God can make any other choices.

Before Him and without Him and beside Him God does not, then, elect or

will anything. And He is the election (and on that account the beginning and

the decree and the Word) of the free grace of God. For it is God’s free grace

that in Him He elects to be man and to have dealings with man and to join

Himself to man.”

 John the beloved disciple writes about this:

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word

was God Himself.

He was present originally with God.

All things were made and came to existence through Him and without Him

was not even one thing made that has come into being.

In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men.”

(John 1.1-4).

When we quote Matthew and Isaiah about Emmanuel (God with us) we

are saying the following with Karl Barth again from Church Dogmatics:

” ” God with us” means more than God over or side by side with us, before

or behind us. It means more than His divine being in even the most intimate

active connection with our human being otherwise peculiar to Him.

At this point, at the heart of the Christian message and in relation to the

event of which it speaks, it means that God has made Himself the One who

fulfills His redemptive will. It means that He Himself in His own person-

at His own cost but also on His own initiative- has become  the inconceivable

Yet and Nevertheless of this event, and so its clear and well-founded and

legitimate, its true and holy and righteous Therefore.

It means that God has become man in order as such, but in divine

sovereignty, to take up our case. What takes place in this work of

inconceivable mercy is, therefore, the free overruling of God, but

it is not an arbitrary overlooking and ignoring, not an artificial

bridging, covering-over or hiding, but a real closing of the breach, gulf and

abyss between God and us for which we are responsible. At the very point

where we refuse and fail, offending and provoking God, making ourselves

impossible before Him and in that way missing our destiny, treading

under foot our dignity, forfeiting our right, losing our salvation and

hopelessly compromising our creaturely being- at that very point God

Himself intervenes as man. Because He is God He is able not only to be

God but also to be this man. Because He is God it is necessary that He

should be man in quite a different way from all other men: that He should do

what we do not do and not do what we do. Because He is God He puts forth

His omnipotence to be this other man, to be man quite differently, in our

place and for our sake. Because He is God He has and exercises the power

as this man to suffer for us the consequence of our transgression, the wrath

and penalty which necessarily fall on us, and in that way to satisfy Himself

in our regard. And again because He is God, He has and exercises the

power as this man to be His own partner in our place, the One who in free

obedience accepts the ordination of man to salvation which we resist, and

in that way satisfies us, i.e., achieves that which can positively satisfy us.

That is the absolutely unique being, attitude and activity of God to which

the “God with us” at the heart of the Christian message refers. It speaks of

the peace which God Himself in this man has made between Himself and us.”

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Family Harmony

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is just and right.

Honor (esteem and value) your father and your mother- this is

the first commandment with a promise-

That all may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

Parents, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger (do not

exasperate them to resentment), but rear them (tenderly) in the

training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.

(Ephesians 6.1-4).

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) Our role model as parents is our heavenly Father.

As children, we obey and honor our parents in the Lord.

2) This is the secret to happy parenting and family harmony.

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOR GIVING US
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS IN FAMILY RELATIONS!

Harmony in Marriage

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ

(the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Wives, be subject (the Savior of His body.

be submissive and adapt yourselves

to your own husbands as (a service) to the Lord.

For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head

of the Church, Himself the Savior of His body.

As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also

be subject in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church

and gave Himself up for her,

So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the

washing of water with the Word,

That He might present the Church to Himself in glorious

splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things (that

she might be holy and faultless).

Even so husbands should love their wives as (being in a sense)

their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.

For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully

protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church.

Because we are members (parts) of His body.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be

joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning (the relation of) Christ

and the Church.

However, let each man of you (without exception) love his wife as (being

in a sense) his very own self; and let the wife see that see that she respects

and reverences her husband (that she notices him, regards him, honors

him, prefers him).

(Ephesians 5.21-33).

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) We realize how much Jesus loves the Church and how He

wants us to love one another with His love.

2) To the extent that we experience His love we can express

His love.The perfect role model for us is Jesus Christ Himself.

HALLELIUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

MELODY

Speak out to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs

offering praise with voices and instruments and making melody with

all your heart to the Lord,

At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord

Jesus Christ to God the Father.

(Ephesians 5.19 and 20).

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) The importance of music in our hearts both as self-talk, inner

message and in our conversation with each other is tremendous.

As  we reflect on His goodness, love, grace, His provision and

constant kindness we are filled with gratitude and melody in our

hearts.

2) We encourage each other as we speak of His mercies that never fail

and are new every day. His loving-kindnesses are everlasting. He has

begun a good work in you and will also perfect it. You are more than a

conqueror through Jesus Christ. Greater is He Who is in you than

he that is in the world. He is faithful to the end. He will never leave

you nor forsake you. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and

forever. He is able to make all grace abound in you. My God shall

supply all your needs according to His abundant riches in glory

in Christ Jesus. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above and

beyond all we can ask or think. Nothing can separate us from His love.

HALLELUJAH! PRAISE, LAUD, POWER, GLORY AND HONOR BE

TO THE LAMB FOREVERMORE! AMEN!

LIVES

For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit

consists in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart

and trueness of life.

And try to learn (in your experience) what is pleasing to the Lord

(let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him).

Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and

enterprises of darkness, but instead (let your lives be so in contrast

as to) expose and reprove and convict them.

For it is a shame even to speak of or mention the things that such

people do in secret.

But when anything is exposed and reproved by the light, it is made

visible and clear and where everything is visible and clear there is

light.

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) Our lives must reflect the Light of Jesus by doing what is pleasing

to Him.

2) When contrasted with those in darkness the results of Christ like

living will convict those who are still in the dark.

3) This will bring glory and honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ to Whom be honor forever and ever! AMEN!

WAKE UP

Therefore He says, Wake up, O sleeper, and arise from the dead

and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.

Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily

and accurately not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible,

intelligent people).

Making the very most of the time (buying up each opportunity),

because the days are evil.

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) Jesus Christ Who is the Resurrection  and the Life gives us His

Resurrection Life He makes His Light shine on us and gives us Light.

2) Our New Lives are now His Life and reflect His goodness.

3) Live therefore wisely, full of purpose and accuracy in a manner

worthy of the Father Who has qualified and made us fit to share the

portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God’s holy people) in

the Light.

The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control

and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the Kingdom

of the Son of His love,

In Whom we have redemption through His blood, (which means) the

forgiveness of our sins.

(Colossians 1.12-14).

4) We thank, praise, worship, glorify and serve Him.

“We continually give thanks to God the Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ (the Messiah) as we are praying for you.

(Colossians 1.3).

AMEN! HALLELUJAH!