Devotionals

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His Love

1 John 4:16 And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.

2 John 1:6 And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning that you continue to walk in love [guided by love and following love].

The Lord Jesus told us that no one could serve two masters. His love cast out all filth, lust, and immorality. When a man recognizes that all he needs in this earthly life is intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, the lust for all temporal things dissipates replaced with a Heavenly thirst and hunger for the spiritual nourishment that comes from Christ. When I see the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on that cross voluntarily for me knowing that I hated Him, resisted Him, shunned Him, for years and that He loved me so much to suffer and die in my place anyway, My soul is torn every time I fall short of His love, will and desire in my life. Truly no one can serve two masters and I want my Lord and Master to be Christ now, not my selfish desires, ambitions, or vain pleasures. I want the things of this world to be dead inside my soul.

Meditating on His love for me that passes knowledge and understanding destroys those longings for the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. I understand through His sacrificial love for me that eternity is far more important than right now. When the Lord Jesus commands us to love our enemies (those who want to harm and hurt us), this is not easy for any of us that truly know Christ. However, when we look back and recall that we were ourselves once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating other people, we can then exemplify the same sacrificial love to those who don’t deserve it just as we did not deserve Christ love and forgiveness. For none of us are without sin, yet consider the Lord Jesus Christ who endured much vicious hostility and hatred from sinners and He was without one drop of sin and went about only doing good.

Christ left all the majesty, splendor, and glory of heaven to become weak, poor, despised, and mocked by people He created who hated Him. He did not give us more things He gave us Himself (His Love). He is Love. He does not force us to love Him; He invites us to love Him. His love is so transforming, pure, and perfect that when we receive His Love we are finally free and complete. The soul of every man is satisfied in Him alone. We prove our love by walking according to and after His commandments; for love is the principle of obedience. The Lord Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.] The Lord said again “If a person [really] loves Me, he will keep My word [obey My teaching]; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home (abode, special dwelling place) with him.” How can anyone or I resist such love with disobedience?

Sincerely in Christ,

Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author, Silent Assassins of the Soul (not yet published; coming soon)

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