The best life is a God First life
If you love me, you will keep my commandments ~ Jesus
To help clarify. I posted the above article on a social media site and had some take exception to it so, In my opinion, Love for others is one of the main reasons many Church’s closed the building doors a year ago.
At this time, much of covid-19, how it was transmitted, how to treat it, how deadly was it, was very new and unknown. There was and still is a ton of misinformation regarding it.
I remember having and listening to discussions of concern for others, for their safety, especially those more susceptible.Based on some of the comments I recived on the social media site, maybe some never did, but I classify these discussions and concerns for others as love. Love for others!I believe since it is the second greatest command that it strongly played into the decisions of our elders’ at my congregation.
I am not an elder or deacon, but I am confident the elders weighed the circumstances and all scripture very carefully and made the right decision.I believe It was made out of love for God, God’s Word, and love for others.
)We are God’s creation; We are the focus of God’s love! During the steps of creation, we find this phrase stated several times “And God saw that it was good” However, it was after God created man in His image that scripture tells us, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 )
Jesus died that we might have eternal life with Him, That our souls could have never-ending life in heaven in a new heavenly body. (2 Corinthians 5:1-10)
What can we give to God?
God wants us to love Him; He’s given us every reason to love Him. Our love is the only thing we can give God because it’s all we have to offer.
What does God want from us?
God wants us to recognize that He is, our God, the only God. He created us and everything we know and understand. He has made us a home beyond this world if; we chose to accept His grace and keep His commandments.
May we all seek God First in our lives, Love each other as Christ has loved us, and show Jesus that we love him by keeping his commandments.
God First!
written by: Wayne Johnson
Several days each week, my sister-in-law Julie and her two teenage children meet to go on evening walks with some other brothers and sisters in Christ. Yesterday, on the ride there, in an attempt to spark conversation with her teenage son, she asked him this question: “If you were to die tomorrow, what would you wish you had gotten done today?”
She expected a secular answer, but his response: “Be Baptized.”
This lead to further discussion, and my nephew Michael Jr. Johnson (affectionately known as Mikey) made the absolute best decision any of us ever make in this life. Mikey decided he wanted to have eternal life in heaven by being baptized and following Christ for the rest of his life.
So, last night, Michael Jr. confessed Jesus as the Son of God and was baptized into Christ in the name of The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of his sins. Later, Mikey told me he had been thinking about it for a while. You just never know what’s on someone’s mind.
The timing of his mother’s question and a follow-up question of “why wait?” Seemingly perfect.
Welcome to the Lord’s Church, Michael Jr. Johnson
God First?
written by: Wayne Johnson
God’s Word tells his disciples…
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
James 4:8 ESV
If you feel farther away from God today than you have in the past, the question becomes… WHO MOVED?
Hint: it wasn’t God.
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
James 1:13 NASB”
“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all.”
1 John 1:5 NASB“
“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
1 John 4:8 NASB
“For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
Psalms 100:5 ESV
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Isaiah 5:20
Sometimes we are tempted to blame God when our hearts are torn in anguish and pain; We struggle to reason why such tragic things happen to good people, innocent children, loved ones, or maybe to ourselves. We might ask, why me? Why us? Why them? We may experience the tragic loss of life or have life-altering events we simply don’t understand. We want an explanation, and we want to assign blame but blaming God is misplaced.
As we see from the scriptures above, there is NO evil in God. There is, however, refuge; there is hope, there is help, answered prayer. There is the possibility of eternal life in heaven for those to choose to become In Christ and keep his commandments according to God’s will, Not our own.
“For he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” Matthew 5:45
Satan is the evil one.
God First!
Acts 2:38-41, 1 Peter 3:20-21, Colossians 2:11-13, Romans 6:4-5, John 3:5, Mark 16:16, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5, Matthew 28:19–20, Acts 10:48
Jesus would not be swayed from his purpose. His purpose was to do the will of His Father!
Even after fasting 40 days and nights. When Satan tried he could not sway Jesus.
When Jesus was weak and hungry Satan tried to exploit that hunger and provoke Jesus to perform a miracle “tell these stones to become bread”
Instead, Jesus quotes scripture to Satan telling him that life comes from “Every Word of God” (The Holy Bible is the word of God for us today)
Satan then tries to get Jesus to prove; He is, the Son of God, by throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city, SATAN EVEN USES SCRIPTURE in his temptation.
Jesus quotes scripture again,
” ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
Satan tries yet again, and shows Jesus the splendor in all the Kingdoms of the World and offers them to Jesus If, he will just bow down to him.
Jesus tells him to “BE GONE” and quotes scripture a 3rd time.
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
This is a great example to Christians to not allow Satan to sway us from our purpose, to put God first, to seek all his righteousness, to hold fast and to trust God.
It shows us that Satan, knows scripture, Satan will try to use scripture to mislead us. It’s also a great example of how knowing scripture can help ”us” overcome temptations and discern the truth. It points out that we are NOT to test God and ARE to Worship and Serve God Only
God knows what’s best for us, if we love him we will keep His commandments and when we study we shew ourselves approved unto God.
If God is for us who can be against us!
May God be with us all!
God First!
God gave mankind a unique opportunity. He created us in His image and gave us the ability to give to Him the one thing He really wants from his Creation. “Our Love by Our choice” I can think of nothing else we can offer God that He simply could not create for himself. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus points out that all the law of the prophets is dependent on Loving God with every ounce of our being and loving our neighbors as ourselves. In John 14:15, Jesus tells us, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And in John 13:34-35, A New commandment to love others as Christ loved us.
How can we know God’s commandments if we don’t study? Someone said to me, “it does not matter what we believe; we are all headed to the same place.” Why would God document thousands of years of interactions between Himself and mankind, that we may know him and provided us a pathway through the sacrifice of His Son on the Cross if it doesn’t matter what we believe?
We have been given the opportunity to accept God’s Grace through our loving obedience, which we strive earnestly to give because we love God. It’s that love that creates in us the desire to do God’s Will, according to God. While it might be comforting to say, it doesn’t matter what we believe, teach and practice, it’s not what we find in the words, examples, and precepts of Scripture.
The Bible is the most available book on the planet, and according to God’s word, all scripture is “God-breathed.” (2nd Timothy 3:16). I never want to hear Jesus say to me the words He mentions in Matthew 7:21–23. According to Scripture, it matters to God what we believe, what we teach, and the example we set.
I never want to take God’s love for granted; Instead, I want to give God, The one gift he values from you and me. “Our Love” We can do this by studying and sharing the message of Christ, keeping his commandment, pursuing righteousness. Doing all that we can to follow the commands, examples, and precepts of God according to God’s Word, not ours.
God First!
If you want to become close to someone, do you reach out by ignoring them?
Many people say they believe in Jesus. Some will shout it from the rooftops, yet few take time to get to know Him.
I’m not talking about feelings like when you listen to music and become emotional. No, I’m talking about getting to know Jesus through His Father, His life, His words, His example, and His message.
It’s when we study God’s Holy Word that we truly get to know and understand Jesus. Because when we study, we draw closer to God, closer to our creator.
The creator of the world and everything in it. In John 1:1-2 we find: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, He was in the beginning with God.”
What an opportunity we have!
We cheat ourselves immensely when we don’t spend time in God’s Word, when we don’t spend time getting to know our Heavenly Father or make an effort to draw closer to God so that God will draw closer to us.
If we are in God’s Word daily, it’s only natural that God will be part of our daily conversations. Is He?
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you…” James 4:8
God First!
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