“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” – 1 Timothy 1:5

What a perfect vision for all biblical teaching and study! As followers of Jesus our studies should always help us grow in our expression of Christ’s love. If we aren’t becoming more loving as we study, something is probably wrong! It’s critical our “love” isn’t about a false appearance of love stemming from wrong motivations or a desire to fit a certain image. As you study God’s Word your love should flow not out of guilt or fear but out of the three things Paul mentions in this verse…

1. A Pure Heart. As we study, learn, worship, and praise Jesus, God’s Word should be transforming our hearts. We should be growing in holiness and purity. Christ’s sacrifice has already made us holy in God’s eyes, but as Christians we should be actively working to crucify our sinful desires, flee whatever tempts us, and purify our hearts. Out of a heart made pure like that of Jesus will flow true love for God and neighbors.

2. A Good Conscience. As we navigate life in this fallen world we must constantly make decisions. Some are big, many are small. Some are public, most are private. As we’re transformed by God’s grace into the likeness of Jesus we should be increasingly making the same decisions He would. Even in situations the Bible doesn’t address directly, our ability to think like Jesus should help demonstrate love in a challenging world with a good conscience.

3. Sincere Faith. Our love won’t last if it’s coming from a place of fear, guilt, shame, box-checking, or rule-following. True, lasting, Christlike love must flow out of our sincere and saving faith in Jesus Christ. We must grow in our understanding and appreciation of God’s grace and His work in our lives. Our of our confident hope in our present and future state, we’re freed to pour out the love of Jesus wherever we go and on everyone we encounter.

#FollowJesus

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” – Titus 3:4-5

If Jesus is your Savior, never lose sight of what saved you. It wasn’t your righteousness. It was God the Father’s mercy and grace poured out upon you. It was God the Son’s loving kindness toward you. It was God the Spirit’s work of regeneration and renewal in you. God saved you as a gift. He didn’t save you because He owed you, but because he loved you. Through faith in Jesus, He has given you a gift of love, kindness, mercy, and grace.

You have been washed. You have been made new. You have been forgiven and welcomed into God’s family. God did all the work and you receive all the blessing and benefit. Praise the Father! Praise the Son! Praise the Spirit! Your 3-in-1 God has made you new creation! God sees you with eyes of love. He sees the righteousness of Jesus in you. He sees the seal of the Holy Spirit upon you. So He welcomes you into His throne room with your prayers, your praises, and your worship. Praise Him!

As nice as you might imagine it would be to be righteous enough to save yourself, it’s far nicer to be saved by the righteousness of Jesus! Because of His sacrifice, you’re free from the burden of legalistically trying to save yourself by following rules. You are free to respond to God’s grace. Free to live a righteous life because you’re already saved rather than burdened by trying to save yourself. You are free. You are loved. You are clean. #FollowJesus

“Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning” – Mark 13:35

Jesus is coming back, but nobody on Earth knows exactly when. Jesus made clear that His precise timing would be surprising, though there will be signs. For this reason, His people must always be ready. His return could be today or it could be thousands of years from now. That said, the current events of the world may be indicating His return will be sooner rather than later. Take these signs seriously! Regardless of when Jesus returns, today is certainly a day closer to His return than yesterday was. Are you prepared for your Master’s return? What will He say about how you’ve lived your life?

As followers of Jesus, we’ve been commanded and warned by our Lord to live lives that are always prepared for His return. What does that mean? It means being diligent about the work He’s given us. We must devote our time, talent, and treasure to making disciples of Jesus Christ. We must be living increasingly holy lives that reflect God’s saving grace transforming us. We must be sharing the truth and hope of Jesus Christ with those who haven’t heard. We must be teaching new believers how to follow Jesus. We must be helping established believers become more like Jesus. And we must be going and sending disciples out into God’s harvest fields from our neighborhood to the ends of the earth.

Currently, there are billions of people who have not yet had the opportunity to respond to the Gospel. Jesus has commanded us to go to them. As His followers, we must be mobilizing His people to go, to learn about, pray for, and support those who go, and to go ourselves, even if it’s just to our newly arrived neighbors from far away. As we await the return of Jesus, we should live our lives with joy, abundance, and devotion to Jesus. We must align our attitudes, words, and actions to the commands and example of Jesus. We must pursue holiness and walk without shame, confident in the Lord’s return. #FollowJesus

“So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” – John 12:10-11

If you’re a present day Christian and very familiar with the story of Lazarus, you can easily miss the significance of the miracle Jesus performed. Lazarus wasn’t just a little bit dead when Jesus raised him. Lazarus was four-days, rotting, decomposing, stinking, in the tomb dead!!! Bringing him back was understood to be impossible. Several prophets (and Jesus) had raised recently dead people back to life. That was good but not unimaginable. NOBODY reversed the natural process of decomposition and restored a man to full life and health after four days. Then Jesus did!

Many who saw or heard about this miracle knew what it meant. Jesus truly was the Messiah, the Christ. He was the anointed one of God come to establish the eternal kingdom of God on earth. He had power infinitely beyond any mere prophet. God had come in the flesh! The raising of Lazarus from the dead was the most important and persuasive miracle Jesus performed apart from His own resurrection. It was a whole other level beyond His previous miracles.

This miracle was so persuasive that crowds were making the short journey from Jerusalem to Bethany to see Lazarus. They met or talked with Lazarus and his sisters and they believed in Jesus. The possibility that Jesus really was Who the evidence of this miracle said He was absolutely intolerable to the religious leaders. They decided there was only one thing to do…. Destroy the evidence! They didn’t just want to kill Jesus to shut down this new movement. They wanted to kill Lazarus to keep people from believing the plain truth about Jesus that he represented.

Their love of their authority was so much stronger than their love of God. Their fear of change so entrenched in their hearts that they wanted to destroy God’s work to prevent people from being reconciled to Him. Those were some seriously hard hearts! Understand the significance of the Lazarus story. Embrace what it reveals about Jesus. Don’t let it merely be a really cool, fun Sunday School story. Jesus is the resurrection and the life! #FollowJesus

“Those who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But he said, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’” – Luke 18:26-27

Sometimes it’s obvious when people are very far from God. In those cases, everyone readily agrees that person would need divine intervention to get right with the Almighty. Other times, we can be fooled into thinking, “He or she is a good person” or “I’m a good person”. We see someone’s kindness, good deeds, accomplishments, success, health, or wealth and imagine they’ve really gotten close to God.

That isn’t how salvation works! God is absolutely, completely, utterly perfect. There is no shadow of darkness, sin, or evil in Him. Every human being falls far short of God’s absolute holiness. It doesn’t matter how wealthy, successful, nice, or wise you are, you can’t save yourself. It’s utterly impossible. The best human being you’ve ever met or heard about can’t save him or her self. It’s impossible for us to save ourselves.

What is impossible for us is possible for God. He made the way for us to be saved and reconciled to Him. He made the way for our sins to be forgiven and our relationship with Him healed. That way is Jesus, His Son. Jesus lived the holy life we can’t and died as our substitute on the cross. His death paid the penalty for our sins and when we believe in Him, we are saved. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, we too will rise to eternal life.

What God has made possible through Jesus is freely available to everyone who hears this good news. Have you believed? Has God already done for you what’s impossible for you to do yourself? If so, rejoice and share this good news with others. If not, repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus! #FollowJesus