CHRISTLife — ThirtyNine: Purposeful

We each have the very same purpose that Jesus had when He walked this earth.  His purpose—to love. Our purpose—to love.

• God purposed to love the world by giving His Son.

Jesus was sent to show God’s love, to be God’s love, to give God’s love.  He was the epitome and the manifestation of His Father’s love.

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 purposed to love by revealing God’s love.

Immediately before He allowed Himself to be arrested, and knowing that He would be interrogated, tortured, crucified, and ultimately give His life, Jesus prayed this prayer.

Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me]
may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory,
which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me];
for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed
to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually];
and these men understand and know that You have sent Me.
I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character
and Your very Self, and I will continue to make [You] known,
that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them
[felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them.
John 17:24-26

• Jesus purposed to love by giving up His life.

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

• Our purpose is to show God’s love by giving of ourselves.

Jesus taught a great lesson (Luke 10) about love in the parable about the Good Samaritan.

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

Jesus taught His disciples and other followers numerous times about love and the immense importance of it. There is much to glean and learn in Jesus’ lesson.  In this account, He gave a graphic example of what love DID NOT look like…and how love DID look.  And then He said,

“Go and do the same.”
Verse 37

The love that the Samaritan showed for the stranger laying on the side of the road was purposeful…intentional…took effort.  All love should be the same.

• Not only do we have the same purpose……but we have the same ability.  With Christ in our hearts, we can know this love.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence
in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
1 John 4:16 and 17

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him,
he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;
just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:4-5, 10-11

I pray that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-20

Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
1 John 4:11

Each of us is a person with one life of purpose to live along with the choice to love.
By God’s love and grace we have been given the ability to purposefully live out this high calling.

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And NOW here is some encouragement from Kim
along with the final  page for her beautiful inner identity album!

I love how Mrs. Myers writes: “We are not qualified from a human viewpoint, for we lack many longed-for qualities, abilities, talents. Yet from Gods viewpoint we are qualified. God does not call the qualified.”   He qualifies the called…so let your light shine before men so that your Father in Heaven may be glorified.

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