Especially His: January 2015

Monday, January 12, 2015

12 Proofs You Have Left Your First Love

"But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Revelations 2:4

1. When your delight in the Lord is no longer as great as your delight in something else, you have left your "first love".

[Jesus teaching] "'Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.'" Mark 13:30

2. When your soul does not long for times of rich fellowship in God's Word and/ or in prayer, you have left your "first love".

"And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognising that He had answered them well, asked Him, 'What commandment is the foremost of all?'

"Jesus Answered, 'The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'" Mark 12:30

3. When your thoughts during leisure moments do not reflect upon the Lord, you have left your "first love".

"Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children of farms, for My sake and for the Gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions;; and in the age to come, eternal life.'" Mark 10:30

"The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, 'There is no God.'" Psalm 10:4

4. When you claim to be "only human", and when you easily give in to those things which you know displeases the Lord, you have left your "first love".

See Mark 12:30 at point 2

[Jesus teaching] "'Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!' In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.'" John 15:8-10

"And when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, 'Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" John 14:15 Be sure to read from verse 7-24 for context.

5. When you do not willingly and cheerfully give to God's work or to the needs of others, you have left your "first love".

"But whoever has the word's goods and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" I John 3:17

6. When you cease to treat every Christian as I would the Lord, you have left your "first love".

[Jesus teaching] "'And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" Matthew 25:40

[Jesus teaching] "'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.'" John 13:34

7. when you view the commands of Christ as restrictions to your happiness rather than expressions of His love, you have left your "first love".

[Jesus teaching] "'He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.'" John 14:21

8. When you inwardly strive for the acclaim of this world rather than the approval of the Lord, you have left your "first love".

"Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in Him." I John 2:15

[Jesus teaching] "'If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are no of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.'" John 15:19

9. When you fail to make Christ or His Words known because you fear rejection, you have left your "first love".

[Jesus teaching] "'Remember the Word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.'" John 15:20

10. When you refuse to give up an activity which you know is offending a weaker brother, you have left your "first love".

"For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.'" Romans 14:15

11. When you become complacent to sinful conditions around you, you have left your "first love".

[Jesus teaching] "'You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.'" Matthew 12:34

12. When you are unable to forgive another for offending you, you have left your "first love".

"If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." I John 4:20

Intro Statement of Faith

Why "Especially His"? It comes from a closing statement in the WeakDay Devotions that I have been writing nearly every morning since 1999. Each day I close with this:

"Take care with love, especially His"

Although it is shared with many others around the world now, it seems each day's entry is written specifically for me and for what I am experiencing because I am, as the closing says, "especially His".

Over my lifetime I have been writing and teaching Bible-based studies and wanted a way for these teachings to reach a wider audience -- and hopefully be my legacy to a future generation. We all benefit from fellowship and good teaching and motivation that comes through prayer and reading our Bibles!

On this site you will find a variety of Bible-based and Christ-focused materials. My prayer is that they will help you grow and help you as you help others grow.

Modern-day Evangelism

Something amazing I learned as a young follower of Jesus Christ was that most of the efforts of modern day evangelism have little lasting effect, other than exposing an increasing number of people to God's Word. And as it says in Isaiah 55:11:

"So Shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."

Yet, many are not ready, have hard hearts, are surrounded by influencing family or peers and they slink away into the warmth and darkness of unexpected despair.

We Need Ways

I do not minimise the value of canned methods or fancy printed tracts or little gimmicks like colourful beads strung on a leather bracelet or origami-folded coloured cards. We all need to have a way to share our faith in a way we are comfortable using.

I myself, was brought to the Cross through a tract called "Peace With God" published by the Billy Grahame Evangelistic Organisation, and I have trained in most of the methodologies for sharing my faith with another. I even wrote one that focuses on how Jesus evangelised and is based on the four Gospels.

But while being discipled under a wonderful Navigator couple (Don and Elaine Lanier) I also learned a statistic that makes so much sense. It goes like this:

"If each one of us, won one person per year to Christ, and we spent that one year discipling them in the basics, every person in the world would hear the Gospel message of Salvation in just thirty-three years."

Earmarked from the Beginning

Our lives are drawn to deciding to or not to follow Jesus from the moment we are conceived. This journey is as unique as our DNA (yes I do know about identical twins).

The journey after we come to understand the grace of the Father is furthermore unique until we die and begin eternity with our heavenly Father.

Statement of Faith

There is more to come, but want you to know just the core basics of my beliefs.

1. I believe God made man in His image and loves him and desires fellowship with him (Genesis 1:26-27, I John 4:10, John 3:16).

2. I believe there is no other way to Eternal Salvation than through knowing I am helpless against my sin nature and choice of sin. (Romans 5:6-8; 6:23).

3. There is nothing I can do to be acceptable in Heaven (Romans 3:20).

4. The only possibility is to accept the freely-offered gift of Jesus Christ paying the price for my sins by His death and resurrection. (I Corinthians 15:3-6; John 14:6).

5. I believe that the gift of Salvation is just that a gift and it is a gift by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) and because this is a gift of grace, there is nothing I can do to make God love me more than He does once I accepted His salvation and there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.

6. That my salvation is not transitory according to my behaviour and that He holds me firmly in the palm of His hand (John 10:29).

7. That from the moment of Salvation, my life is a personal journey of growth that He has designed just for me (Psalm 139).

8. That the Bible is His Word to help me grow daily. II Timothy 3:16. (The translation I use for all quotes, unless otherwise specified, is The New American Standard Bible, ©The Lockman Foundation.)