Category: best gift

A Life that Listens and Hears

There is a difference between listening and hearing. A child can listen to what you are saying but they don’t hear what you are saying. If you are a mother or a teacher then you fully understand this concept. The Lord said over and over again, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.

Matthew 11:15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

The Lord makes it very clear what is going to happen. He also is telling us to not only listen but to hear what He is saying. How blessed will be those who heard Him.

Matthew 13:41-43 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

The Lord tells us that not only should we be prepared for Him when He comes again but we need to be careful to not compromise His standards during the time of our stay on earth. Again, He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.

Luke 14:34,35 Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

God’s Word is given to us to change our lives and not just for us to talk about it. How easy it is to talk about God’s Word but not let it infiltrate every area of our lives. The Lord wants us to obey His Word and not just gain knowledge of His Word with it having no effect on our lives.

Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

God’s Word is like a hammer and how much we need it to break open our hearts so that we can hear what He has to say, rather than just listen to the words.

John 5:25 Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Before we came to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we were dead spiritually and it is only when we hear Him and respond to His voice that we come to life spiritually. God’s Word has the power to give life and those who receive His Words by faith receive that life, which is in Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:16,17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear”, Jesus says to all and how blessed are all who hear His Word and comes to the Lord in a saving faith. They receive eternal life, they do not come into judgment and they pass out of death into life.

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

 

 

 

A Life that Knows a Great Love

Once you know a great love your life will never be the same. You can endure anything if you know that you are greatly loved and there is nothing that can separate you from that love. Everything else in life pales in comparison to a great love. There is only One who offers a great love and it is offered to everyone.

I John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

This love is unfathomable. We can never understand it that the God of the universe wants to adopt each one of us into His family to be His child and to be called His beloved. Not only that, but once we become His child then He starts making us like Him, who is perfect and is love. He calls us Beloved, which means that He wants us to Be-Loved by Him. How do we become a recipient of this great love? How do we come into His family and become one of His children?

John 1:12,13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

To become His child you must be born again not of the will of the flesh or the will of man but it is the will of God. It is His will that you become His child. You were destined to become His child. He designed you for Himself. He is the only One who intimately knows you and loves you in spite of all of your failings and faults. He loved you when you were at your worse and there is nothing that you have done that prevents Him from loving you. He died for you to reconcile you to Himself and to save you from the devil, the world and your own self.

Romans 5:8-10 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Your sins are covered by His blood and His love for you. His love covers all of your sins once you belong to Him.

I Peter 4:8b because love covers a multitude of sins.

Not only are your sins covered by His blood but they are separated from you and they are remembered no more.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Once you come to know this love you will want to stay in this love. This great love that the Lord has for you is a relationship that is mutual and for that reason you will not want to do the things you did before but you will want to please Him with all of your heart. There is nothing that can separate you from this great love which is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:38,39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

 

A Life that Is Loved Unconditionally

You are far more loved than you will ever fully realize but if you do not know this unconditional love for you then you will live as if you were not loved at all, for you will realize that most of the love that people have for us is conditional. It is based on how smart we are, how well we do in school, how pretty we are, if we do not shame our family or friends and basically how proud we make others feel or what we have to offer to them. It is based on our performance or physical or mental assets. However, all of us know in our heart that we can not perform forever, that we will not always be smart or pretty and also, that what we have to offer to others will one day fail.

I Corinthians 13:8a Love never fails

Love is the one thing that all of us long for deep within our hearts. We wonder if there is anyone who will love us just the way we are, with all of our faults, including our past failures, present failures and future failures. There is only One who can and does love us with the love we long for. His love will never fail for He is love.

I Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

You can read this as, “Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind and is not jealous, Jesus does not brag and is not arrogant nor does He act unbecomingly. Jesus is not selfish or gets angry easily. Jesus does not remember your sins. Jesus is not glad when you do wrong because He knows that you will suffer. Jesus is happy when you live in the truth so that you will prosper. However, even when you fail, Jesus bears all things (including your failures), Jesus believes all things (that are good about you), Jesus hopes all things (when you have no hope for yourself) and Jesus endures all things (when you want to give up) because Jesus does not give up on you.” He is the only One who will never fail you because He is love.

Isaiah 43:4a “Since you are precious in My sight,
Since you are honored and I love you,

Jesus sees you as precious to Him, He honors you and He loves you. He is love.

I John 4:7-11 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.

God is love and His love was made known to the world through Jesus Christ. You will never be able to love others with God’s love until you know His love. You will never know His love until you know the love of Jesus Christ for you. You will never know the love of Jesus until you receive and believe what He did for you on the cross and that was that He died for you and was the propitiation for your sins. What propitiation means, is that Jesus Christ took the punishment for your sins so that you might experience God’s love for you forever.

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.

For God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son to die for you so that if you will believe in Jesus you will live in His love forever and you will not receive the punishment for your sins that you deserve, because Jesus took it on the cross when He died for you.

Have you experienced this love? Have you received and believed the love that God had for you by taking your punishment on the cross?

 

 

 

A Life that Receives

There is One who gives and there is one who receives. We have been given a gift, the greatest gift of all, but if we do not receive it then we will not know it or have it. A gift must have a giver who gives it and a recipient to receive it.

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.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. When you believe in Him then it means that you are receiving the gift that He is offering to you. The gift becomes yours. Jesus Christ becomes your Lord and Savior and you become His child.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

The right to become His child and to be adopted in His family only belongs to the One who receives Him but He offers the right to everyone.

I John 4:14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and especially to those who believe and receive the gift of His Son. That is why they are called Believers.

I Timothy 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

It was totally by His grace that brought salvation to all men.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,

All men or women or children who calls on Him will be saved. When you call on Him, confess your need for a Savior and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died and rose again then you will be saved. It is available to all who call on Him.

Romans 10_9,10 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

It was on the basis of His kindness that He saved us and not on the basis of anything that we did to deserve it. His salvation is a gift according to His love and kindness.

Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

He offers you a gift but you must receive the gift for it to become yours. Have you believed and received the greatest gift of all, that is the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ? This is what it means to become a Believer. The world does not know Him because they have yet to believe in Him. He is true and He is good and He loves you. Will you call on Him today to become your Lord and Savior? He offers you forgiveness and cleansing from your guilt. He came to give you His life. His life comes to you through His Holy Spirit whom you will receive when you become a Believer. Ask Him today for the gift of salvation and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I John 5:11-13 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.