Jesus Loves the Little Children

This past Sunday God showed how amazing He is once again.

The KidzLive Team began a new series called REACH. It focuses on salvation and how we can all follow Christ with our entire lives. I had the opportunity to step in on some of our small groups and listen to our teachers. They began to share a compelling and relevant story about how we can follow Christ and accept him as the leader of our lives. They planted the seed.
As the children came back into our large group time, we had a moment of prayer in which we asked all the children if they wanted to accept Christ into their life. We had seven children accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This was amazing in itself and we are still rejoicing in this great news. However, the part that touched my heart even more, was when a mother of one of the children who accepted Christ approached me in tears. She gave me a hug and began to share her story. She told me that when she was seventeen, a man approached her at a bus stop and told her about Jesus. That was the day her life was changed forever. But, then she looked at me and said this, "My daughter is a Christ follower now. She doesn't have to wait seventeen years to know how great a life can be with Christ in it. I am so thankful for this day and the future that she now has ahead of her."
God is truly amazing. And for this little girl, as well as the other six children, the reward of knowing Christ is now theirs.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

Spring Interest Group Fair a Huge Hit

The response Sunday to our Interest Group Sign-Up was overwhelming. I am so excited about the possibilities of reaching our friends and neighbors through these groups. If you are not familiar with I-Groups, they are just simply groups built around a common interest for the purpose of outreach and relationships. If you are interested and did not get a chance to sign up, email Carl at carlnichols@yourfamilyplace.com
Groups for the Spring
Men's Golf, Ladies Aerobics, Youth and Men's Sports, Jewelry Making, Mom's and Kid's Day Out, Family Fun Day, and Fishing.

WE ARE GOING FORWARD

Your response Sunday was amazing! 85-100 people responded with a commitment to move forward. We are all so excited, this is our finest hour since Hurricane Katrina. We are a little overwhelmed with follow-up, but we will be in touch with everyone as soon as possible. Thank you for being a great church. Our future is bright. In the meantime, continue to pray, put God first and grow in love.

FORWARD in love,

Forward In Love - Sunday, January 27

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”
1 John 5:3

How do we love God? How does God define love? There is one way and only one way to prove love; it is obedience. Why does God define love in terms of our obedience? It is because obedience is the closest form we can have to His love. His love can only be comprehended by His actions. His love cannot be understood abstractly in theory or by a variety of definitions. It is in God’s actions in the death of His Son that we can even begin to understand the depth of His love.
Unless love acts, it is not love. If God had done nothing to impact the state of humanity, we would have proclaimed him a hypocrite. How could someone say they love and do nothing? God’s love for us must take on action; our love for him must take on action. This is why love is obedience.
Action is a big deal to God, because it is a big deal to us. He knew there was no other way that we could better understand that He loves us than to show us. Therefore, there is no better way for us to love God than to show Him. The way we do that is to obey God.
If you are a parent, you know the unique joy that you feel when your children simply do what you ask them to do with a good attitude. It almost makes you feel… well, loved. Somehow, God must feel this way.
“To obey is better than sacrifice” 1 Samuel 15:22 To obey God is better than telling Him you are sorry. Keep moving forward in love!

Forward In Love - Saturday, January 26

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
John 21:17

The people that I know that are the deepest in God are the ones whose true personality is hard to detect. My theory on that is that the fruit and gifts of the Spirit fill in the blanks in our personalities. Having said that, sometimes God works through our personality, sometimes in spite of it. Neither really matters. The true point is to be guided by God’s Spirit, not by our personalities.
When we are united with God, by the indwelling of His Spirit, that is not the end, but the beginning. Jesus’ prayer for us was that we would be one with the Father, like He was one with the Father. Jesus and his Father had such a oneness that God could send Jesus to earth so He could be spent for us.
The Apostle Peter now realizes the point of Jesus’ hurting question—”Spend it out”. Don’t talk about how much you love me. Don’t tell about the hurting question. Feed my sheep. Jesus has some funny sheep. Some are worn out, some are dirty, some awkward, some fighting sheep and some have even gone astray. It is impossible to run out of God’s love and it is impossible to run out of God’s love for me, if I stay connected to the source.
Now that you have received God’s love, are you feeding His sheep? The point of God’s love was not to be hoarded and spent only on us, but to feed others. Who are you feeding?

Forward In Love - Friday, January 25

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”
John 21:17

Have you felt the hurt of Jesus in the quick of your life? Satan never hurts you there, neither does sin nor human affection; nothing gets through to that place but God’s word. Under the weight of this question, Peter was awakened to the fact that in the true center of himself he was devoted to Jesus, and he began to understand the purpose for Jesus’ persistent question.
After this questioning there was no delusion left in Peter’s mind; he wouldn’t allow himself to be deluded again. There was no need for a passionate discourse to prove his love. Jesus’ question revealed to Peter something that probably surprised even him-he really did love God. After three times, the only thing left for Peter to say was, “Lord, You know all things (I have nothing to hide) You know I love you.”
Peter was beginning to realize just how much he did love Jesus. He didn’t try to prove it; he didn’t cite examples; he just seemed to live in the hovering reality of his love for God. He did love God, but he didn’t realize how much until Jesus questioned his love. Jesus’ questions always reveal to me something about myself.
Jesus was skillfully and patiently revealing the true condition of Peter’s heart to him. Jesus doesn’t ask us questions until the right time, but usually at least once, he will corner us where he will hurt us with his relentless questions; and hopefully, like Peter, we will realize that we do love Him more deeply than any answer could ever reveal.

FORWARD In Love - Thursday January 24

The third time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
John 21:17

Probably the most piercing, soul searching, vulnerable question of life, “Do you love me?” As the honesty of that question cuts to the heart, I cannot imagine how it must have felt when Jesus asked it. We know to have Jesus ask you this question is an unsettling experience, because later in this verse we learn that the Apostle Peter (Simon, son of John) was hurt by it.
The depth of our love is only discovered by the hurt of Jesus’ question. Peter loved Jesus in the way that any natural person loves anyone else. His love was temperamental, based on his personality, but it did not touch the center of his person.
Until we get wounded out of every deception about ourselves, God’s word and Jesus’ questions are not penetrating our rough exterior. Jesus’ questions hurt like no sin can ever hurt, because sin numbs your feelings. Jesus’ question intensifies your feelings, until to be hurt by Jesus becomes the greatest hurt you have known. God’s word pierces our soul until there is no deception, no manipulation in us.
Jesus’ question was not sentimental. When Jesus asks you questions, polite answers just don’t work. There is never a mistake about the hurt that God’s word brings; the point of the hurt is not pain, but a deeper revelation of God’s love and your heart in light of it.
Let this question pierce your heart today, “Do you love me?”

Forward In Love - Wednesday, January 23

“Does God really love me?” That question has been answered again and again through the scriptures shared in this devotional. Though one critical question remains… “Do you love God?” I mean really LOVE God? Do you?
Do your thoughts drift to Him in unguarded moments? Do you long for more moments alone with Him? Are there times when your impulses lead you one direction, but your simple love for God restrains you and just won’t let you go that way?
Do you love God before anyone else, more than anyone else? Have you scrapped the sides of your soul and allowed the Holy Spirit to inspect your heart like a magnified mirror to stare directly at your heart? What price would you pay to get closer to God? What would you give up to be more like Him? How much are you willing to lose for His sake? If your relationship with God cost you your friends, family, future, where would you bail out?
We have spent so much time, consciously, subconsciously, in conversations, in our thoughts and in attitudes and actions, asking the question, “Does God really love me?”. But, have we neglected the most important question in the world, “Do I really love God?”
Pray with me, “Lord today we pray, take us higher, deeper, farther. Help us to increase our love for you.”

Forward In Love - Tuesday, January 22

“…..Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8

No question about it, God loves us. His love for us precedes our love for Him. Our love for Him is a result of His love for us. He is the initiator; we are the responders.
While we were separated from Him, not even acknowledging His existence, He was arranging the circumstances of our lives so that we could hear the whispers of His love again. Those voices came through friends, parents, family members, dreams, memories, T.V. shows, radio broadcasts, sermons, songs, the witness of creation, impressions and the Bible.
The most important revelation of God’s love is not spoken, claimed or written, but demonstrated. While we were oblivious to our responsibility to love God, He showed His love for us. Someone may die for a good man, but Christ died for us while we were sinful.
Thank God today for loving us before we were even aware of it.

Forward In Love - Monday January 21

Today I saw God ___________________. Spend the rest of the day filling in this blank.

Forward In Love - Sunday, January 20

And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength.
Isaiah49:5


As God’s love grows in our hearts, we are more and more set free from our prejudices, agendas and selfish interests. We are transformed into servants of God. The entire human race was created to worship God and enjoy Him forever. The fall of humanity and presence of sin have switched all of us to another track, but it has not changed God’s purpose in the smallest degree.
When Jesus enters our lives and we live in a relationship with Him, we become aware of God’s purpose for each of us. We were created for God; He made us for His purpose. The realization of our life’s purpose is the most joy-filled realization on earth.
The first thing that God does as we understand our purpose is shove a love for the entire world through the channels of a single human heart. God’s love is introduced into us but is focused through John 3:16, “God so loved the world…” We have to keep our soul open to the simple purposes of God that were introduced to us when we first met Jesus. We cannot allow the purposes of God to become muddied with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to crush our intentions, as painful as it might be.
Our greatest purpose is to be God’s servant and to glorify Him. When we understand that Jesus’ saving work of making us new creations made us perfectly compatible to God, then we understand why God is so relentless in His demands of our life. God requires a lot of His servants because He has put His nature in us. Today, live in the awareness that forgetting God’s purpose for your life is life’s greatest diversions.

Forward In Love - Saturday January 19

So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?
2 Corinthians 12:15

One of the sure signs that God’s love has rooted itself in our hearts is that we begin to intentionally recognize God’s interest in other people. We don’t view people as resources to forward our own interest. We look at people and ask, “What is God doing in that person’s life and how can I partner with God in that work?”
As God’s love spreads through us, we are less and less led by our own affinities. This is one of the biggest tests of the strength of our relationship with Jesus. Love is growing in us for all people, not just select people. I have always been impressed with the Apostle Paul for this reason. He poured his life out with one goal; that by every means possible, he would win some people to Jesus. Paul always attracted people to Jesus, he did not attract them to himself.
When we live to serve our own interests, Jesus doesn’t have access to use us. We are closed air tight and locked down with our own agendas. Paul knew how to serve people without resenting their inconsistencies because Jesus was the center of his life and he knew that God’s love for him was real. Bring your plans to Jesus today and lay them at His feet. Offer Him the following prayer: “Jesus, today I lay my interests at Your feet. I surrender my agenda and I exchange it for Yours. Help me to see what You are doing in other people all around me today.”

FORWARD In Love - Friday January 18

For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.
Romans 14:7

Do you realize that we are spiritually responsible for other people? Wasn’t this the nature of Cain’s response to God when God asked him where his brother was? Cain said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The silent echo across the pages of time is “Yes”.
If I allow my relationship with God to grow cold, those closest to me will suffer; they may be influenced to do the same thing. If my prayer life suffers, someone else’s prayer life may suffer also as a result. If I neglect fellowship with other Christians, they will miss the encouragement I could have brought. The idea of American individualism is an overstatement. No one is that unconnected, no one that isolated. Each one of our lives impacts some group of people. When our spiritual heat cools, frigidness flows into those near us.
Are we willing to live under the tension and responsibility that someone else’s spiritual life is in some way dependant upon our own? Are we willing to be spent for God? Are we willing to be like Christ and be broken bread and poured out drink for Him?
Our lives as servants, as workers and as ministers is the way that we say “thank you” to God for His unspeakable love for us.

FORWARD In Love - Thursday January 17

“…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:28


Paul and Jesus had the same idea about serving. It was their mission. Sometimes we focus so much on the options we have and the rights we have, that we do not see the spirit of our mission. All believers are called, as Jesus and Paul were, to be “doormats” for other people.
Paul’s idea of serving was, “I will spend myself to the last drop for you; you can affirm me or curse me, neither matters. As long as there is someone who does not know Christ, I am in debt to him, to serve him until he knows.” The motivation for Paul’s serving was not humanitarian or love for people, but love for God.
If we think our call to serve is primarily motivated out of our love for people, we will be crushed. We will quickly realize that people are often times ungrateful, dysfunctional and inconsistent in returning the love we gave them. If our call to serve is motivated by our love for God, how people treat us will be irrelevant to our call.
Paul realized that the secret to dealing with people is remembering how Jesus dealt with them. Before coming to Jesus, Paul admitted to being the chief sinner; so, no matter how people treated him, Paul realized they would never treat him worse than he had already treated Jesus. Yet Jesus had continued to serve Paul with love and faithfulness.
There is only one right motivation for serving people. It is because you love God. If you serve because you love God, you will become a more effective servant. You will stop expecting other people to meet the needs in you that only God can meet.
Be brave. Love and serve people because you love God.

FORWARD In Love - Wednesday January 16

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
Joel 2:12-17

We are about midway through our 21 day fast. I just wanted to pause here to encourage you. To give us an opportunity to refocus.

- Fasting is not so much about food as it is about focus.
- Fasting is not so much about saying no to the body as it is about saying yes to the Spirit.
- Fasting is not about doing without, it is about looking within.
- Fasting is an outward response to an inward attitude and cry of the soul.

As Jim Cymbala, Pastor at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, says, "God is attracted to weakness." Rarely are we weaker than when we fast. Let me encourage you today, keep attracting God. Lean on Him. Depend on Him.

FORWARD In Love - Tuesday January 15

Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
Matthew 10:41-42


Isn’t it interesting that God seems to have different rewards for different things. For example, if you receive one of God’s servants, you will get a prophet’s reward. If you receive a righteous man, you will receive a righteous man’s reward. But if you give a cup of cold water to a little one, you will not lose your reward. In this scenario, you are not told of the kind of reward, but that your reward will be guaranteed. It cannot be lost.
Why would Jesus give greater priority to “these little ones” rather than righteous people, or even a prophet? Who are these little ones? No one knows for sure. It could either refer to new believers or children. It refers to those young in faith or young in life. Either way, it reveals God’s heart for those who cannot yet adequately care for themselves. Surely this would apply to children and new believers.
Ask God today to move us forward in love for children and secure the reward that God has for us.

Forward In Love - Monday January 14

Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.
Psalms 127:3-4


Arrows have a determined target. No one impulsively points an arrow toward a busy road and randomly fires it. Releasing an arrow takes forethought. There is a moment when the hand is steady, the eye sharp and finally the arrow is propelled toward it’s target. Sounds intentional doesn’t it?
This is the power of a child in the hands of an intentional adult. Maybe this is why universities have targeted the minds of the young for decades in order to force a humanistic doctrine into America. Maybe this is why the politically correct agenda seems to be found on the battle ground of the public school. Maybe this is why the homosexual agenda is being driven into the curriculum of kindergarteners.
What about Gulf Coast Worship Center? Do we understand the power of shaping the life of a child? It is easier than shaping the life of an adult. It is easier to bend a twig than redirect a tree. Have we taken seriously our responsibility to release arrows into this world?
How about you? How are your children? Feeling a little bit overwhelmed? Me too.
Let’s pray together…. “Lord, help us today to be the warriors that you need us to be, to release the kind of young people into the soil of our culture that you desire.”

Forward In Love - Sunday, January 13

People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Luke 18:15-16

Sometimes it is not that we don’t do what Jesus did, it is that we don’t love what He loved. Jesus loves kids. It is that we don’t love kids the way He does. We have someone else’s heart for kids.
Our culture has said, they are not important; abort them. It’s O.K. if no one is home, they can let themselves in. Set them in front of the T.V., that is a good baby sitter. They are going to do it anyway, we might as well give them a condom. There are so many voices out there that say so many things about children.
Unfortunately, the followers of Jesus didn’t offer much more. I think I have spoken to some of these disciples. We can figure out what to do with the kids later, we need more services now. Let’s get on to the important stuff, the kids can catch up. But they never do and children eventually realize it. God help us. Will we be a church with God’s heart? If so, we must love kids because He did. We must do our all to pass our faith on to our children. Did I say, I have spoken to some of those disciples? I forgot to add, I have also been one.
What the disciples were saying was, move the kids out of the way, so that we can do the important stuff. What Jesus said was, the kids are the important stuff. How can we move forward in love without moving forward in love with kids? How can we love God and not love what He loves. God loves kids, let’s love them too.
Would you pray this prayer with me? Lord, as a follower of yours, would you warm my heart, with what warms your heart. Give me your love for people, especially for kids.

Forward In Love - Saturday January 12

People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Luke 18:15-16

Did the people who brought the children really need to be rebuked? Had they done something so offensive, so wrong, that the only thing left was to rebuke them? Jesus didn’t think so.
Reading this passage reveals to us that the idea of, “let’s get the kids out of the way so that we can do the stuff that really matters” is not an American or modern idea. It is somehow rooted deep in the depravity of the human soul and seems to ache in the muscles of all societies.
But how will children learn if there is no place for them? How will the things that God is doing in our lives be passed along if we do not take the time to pass them on to the children? If the wanderings of Israel through the wilderness teach us nothing, they should at least teach us that success in one generation is only historical failure.
However, none of these are the greatest issues as it relates to children. The greatest issue simply is that God loves children. While we hustle and bustle to “keep the line moving”, Jesus violates protocol and woos the little children to the front of the line so that he can bless them.
I am afraid that Jesus’ disciples are still rebuking people who “waste time” on children, instead spending their time and energy on more important ministries. When we minister to adults, they can express gratitude, affirmation, and compliments. They might even bring an offering. But children seem to have nothing to give in return. Maybe that is the reason Jesus loves them so much. Children don’t know if you are a good kids’ worker or not. Even if they did, they wouldn’t know how to critique or affirm you. They only know if you are with them or not.
As we move forward in love, would you ask Jesus to reveal to you how you can make an impact in the life of a child?

Forward In Love - Friday January 11

I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.”
Jeremiah 2:2

Love is a two-way street. It is only by knowing God that we learn to love and it is only by loving that we learn to know God. Like a stream, love flows from God. Like a trail of bread crumbs, love leads to God.
So how is the traffic flowing on love’s street? Is it flowing both ways? Are we as loving to God as we used to be, or are we only expecting God to be loving to us? Are we full of the little things that excite his heart? How much love have we shown him this past week?
In Jeremiah 2:2, God is saying to Israel and perhaps to us: You are not in love with me now, but I remember the time when you were. Think back to those early days in your relationship with Jesus. Are you as full of the extravagant love of Jesus as you were in the beginning? Do you remember those times when you didn’t care about anything but Him? Are you there now or have you become too wise for all of that foolish love?
If you see that Jesus means less to you than he once did, let that reality produce humiliation in you; that humiliation will lead you to repentance, which will drive you into God’s heart.

Forward In Love - Thursday January 10

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8


There is a spontaneous nature to love. It is not premeditated. It bursts up in unexpected ways. There is nothing calculated in Paul’s description of love. Love is not a rule. We don’t list the requirements of the Bible on our to do list and say, I will do these to show my love today. But when God’s love is boiling over in our hearts, we live according to that list without even knowing it. Later we look back on those moments and are amazed at how little our focus was on keeping the requirements.
The springs of love are in God, not us. He is the source. It is a lost cause to look for God’s love in our own humanity. God’s love only fills us when it has been spread through our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we do not. The proof of our love for Him is the spontaneity and natural flow of our love. It is those times when the only explanation for our actions is simply because we love Him. The life of God overflows in us because the springs of love are found in our quiet hours with Jesus. Dig a well and allow that living water to flow through you until it becomes natural.

"FASTING FOR LOVE"

I am beginning to hear great stories about our 21 day fast. People are fasting different types of foods and activities. Some are getting strange looks from co-workers and classmates. I guess in the end, it all boils down to just wanting to love God more.
As we walk through this journey together, we will all need encouragement at some point. Hearing other people’s stories are so encouraging. It reminds us, we are not alone. Would you post a comment on our blog about your fast? What are you fasting, how is it going, is there an insight you would like to share? Also, any feedback or thoughts you have had that came from the Forward devotional. Just post a comment on any of our recent blogs.
The more people blogs we post, the more people will read them, the stronger we will all become. God bless, keep moving Forward in Love!

Forward In Love - Wednesday January 9

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35; 37-39

God does not keep any of us immune from painful experiences. God is with us through all painful experiences, but He doesn’t take all of them away. The good news is, regardless of how bad the pain gets, there is no pain severe enough to separate any of us from our relationship with God.
Trouble, hardship, persecution, starvation, nakedness, danger, violence, death, life, angels, demons, now, later, all powers, height, depth, and nothing created. The is an amazing power list of the greatest forces, trials and emotions known to humanity. This verse is so arrogantly driven into our faces, it can only mean one of two things; either Jesus was a deceiver and Paul was delusional or amazing, supernatural things happen when a person maintains a death lock on God’s love. Only God’s love could explain such reckless stubbornness. Keep holding on, every detracting voice eventually melts away.
If absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love, then the only battle left is for us to relentlessly believe it. So believe it today. Ask God to increase your faith in his love, to believe it is everything he says it is.

Forward In Love - Tuesday January 8

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18


Is hate the opposite of love or is fear? We may never know. One thing we can be sure of, love and fear do not co-exist. No child who is raised in a caring home with a covering of love lives in fear. That child may have momentary flashes of fear, but she will not live regularly live in fear. In the same way, neither will an adult live in fear who walks in God’s love.
Where does fear come from? It comes from the expectation of punishment. As long as we think of God as our Judge and Law-giver, we will be submerged in fear. Have you ever noticed that people who seem to live in the most fear, tend to interpret the painful circumstances of their lives as things that God did “to” them. Why? They expect to be punished because they think that is the kind of God they serve. They often ask questions like, “Is this God’s way of punishing me for the things I did when I was younger?” or “What did I do wrong to deserve this?” For certain there are consequences to our actions, but please don’t confuse those with God’s heart for you. If you follow that line of thinking, you will believe in a God that takes more pleasure in punishing you than in loving you.
God’s word does not tell us that God is Judge or God is Law-giver, it tells us God is love. In the end, it was God’s love that caused Him to send Jesus to pay penalty for our sin so we could escape punishment. Once we understand God’s true nature, our fear is overcome with his love. Let today be the day you move FORWARD in love, ask God to reveal himself to you until all of your wrong pictures of who He is are gone and your fear has drowned in His love.

Forward In Love - Monday January 7

…God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16

“God is love”. This is probably the greatest single statement about God in the entire Bible. It is amazing how many questions that one sentence answers. For example, with God there is never a question about motive. We never have to ask why. We already have the one and only answer there is: love.
In this verse we are actually told what God is, He is love. Love is God expressed. Love is the most basic ingredient of God. It is His essence. There is no adequate way to describe God apart from love. But God’s love is not some co-dependant loneliness. God did not create people so that He would have some focus for His love that He would otherwise be incomplete without. God is love, with or without His creation. God’s love is altogether free standing of our existence or our receptivity. It actually has nothing to do with us at all, it is who HE is!
Being that God is love, He is our only source for love. When a mother stares into the face of her newborn, where does the love come from that instantly binds her heart with that little stranger? It comes from the only source there is, from God. God is love and no one else is. If we have love, it is only because after the fall of humanity we have maintained some faint silhouette of the original form that God created us in. There is one way to get a clearer picture. That is to receive God’s love into our hearts through Jesus, and to pursue Him with wild passion. As we do, the revelation of His love in our lives will become clearer with each step.
Any journey with God, is a journey in love. Will you join me for the next 20 days as we go FORWARD in love?

Let’s pray together:
Lord, today I pray that by your mighty grace, you will pour more of yourself into us and by the end of this day, we will see greater evidence of your love in our lives. Amen

Devotional Post

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