“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15: 13-15.
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3: 20.
I once heard a radio interview with an agnostic Christian theologian (an oxymoron in my view) who claimed it to be the height of arrogance and self-agrandizement to believe in a personal God. Why would God, any god, be focused on the needs and wants of a specific individual out of all the other individuals in the world? Who could keep track of that many personal details?
Our verses above claim our God is personally interested in us. Jesus claimed it to be so at the Last Supper then reiterated it to the same apostle in a vision. God wants to know us personally not just at a distance. How He can keep track of all the billions of people who have ever lived and who exist today is beyond me, but this God claims He can.
His friendship with us, however, is based on our trust of His good will. We can’t believe in Him as our Lord and Savior without doing what He says we were created to do. It’s impossible to be a follower of The Way (the original name followers of Jesus gave their new faith) and not adhere to the teachings of Jesus. Both OT and NT are included in our conclusion because at the time of the apostles, the only Scriptures in existence were the OT books, though the letters the apostles wrote soon became grafted in as well as the recorded gospels.
Therefore we can conclude that the OT contains the gospel message for Paul declared to Timothy, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3: 16. We can’t split the message in two but they must remain one.
For example, a study of Revelation quickly reveals that John quoted Isaiah extensively in his narration and prophecy. In the same way Jesus validated every book in the canon by quoting from them. So what we have is not a message divided but unified and connected in Christ.
Who, by the way, just happened to call Himself our friend. But this friendship hinges on whether or not we obey His commands, especially the command to love each other as He loved us. It’s not only stated as a command, Jesus claims it will be the main means by which the world knows we follow Him. If we are a friend to an earthly king or ruler, we witness to the justice of his or her cause. In other words we advertise their worthiness and proclaim their policy as our own. This is the kind of friendship Jesus tells us we must have to be close to Him.
Why?
The reason is simple: We cannot be like Him without following what He says nor can we claim to be His without demonstrating for each other and the world around us the same love He displayed on the cross. To claim to belong to Christ without this self-sacrificing love is to put a lie to our claim.
In the time of Christ and still in many of the Middle Eastern countries, to invite even an enemy to one’s table was to declare peace–or a temporary truce of sorts. It was the height of dishonor to harm a guest at one’s table and a great personal declaration of personal interest to be invited to the house of a great ruler. To eat at a table one had to be connected in a personal way to the host, most of the time. For Jesus to knock on the door of our hearts is a sign of respect for our right to choose–one which He created. When He comes into our home and eats with us, He’s declaring His intention to get personal.
That’s why I believe in a personal God. And to wish for a God to love me and be personally interested in me is no more arrogant than aching for a parent’s love, for ultimately we are all His offspring.
Tags: a personal God, God's love, Jesus, Jesus' love, Love, love for our neighbor
June 23, 2008 at 8:32 am |
Mighty Oak. “Behold also the ships which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.” James 3:4.
What a great truth and encouragement this is for us all, we may at times feel very small and insignificant, but God see’s us as a rudder that He can use to guide His church. Our Lord still uses His twelve disciples to reach entire nations, even today, for the words that He put into their mouths is still heard throughout the whole world, and although sometimes His church seems to go off course, yet these words which were given to His disciples soon puts His church back on course, praise the Lord.
Do you remember how Jesus used a little boy’s basket which contained two fish and five loaves of bread, which He gave to His disciples, who then gave them to the multitudes for they had multiplied? Yes, through His disciples even today He feeds His church, how wonderful our God is. Now, you may feel very small and insignificant, but if you could only see yourself as God sees you, then you would indeed see that you to can be a rudder on God’s great cruise liner, or you could see yourself with that basket which can feed multitudes.
I am also reminded of a small seed which when it falls to the ground it soon germinates and comes alive and grows up into a mighty oak. So, let us never feel that we are too small for God, for our Lord has always done great things with people who were in this world eyes, as nothing and made them something, praise the Lord.
Just see who our Lord has used in the Bible to touch nations and kingdoms from those who came from such humble beginnings. Moses, a son of a Hebrew slave, King David, from a shepherd boy, St Peter, a fisherman, and St Paul, a humble tent maker, and many more the list just goes on and on. So, you see, we must never feel that we are insignificant, for God see’s us as magnificent, praise the Lord
“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” 1Corinthians 1:26,27.
EVANGELIST BILLY BOLITHO
http://www.evangelistbillybolitho.blogspot.com