The agony Christ endured amidst the mocking crowds during His crucifixion makes His response toward His captors all the more staggering. Hear how Jesus reacted to His tormentors with a prayer and a promise. Join us on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. 
Love is Jesus. That is it.
If people go much further in trying to understand love than Jesus, they will miss it.
John says: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:16-19).
If you have never been loved deeply, without condition, and without requirement, I do not have the words to explain it to you. On the other hand, if you have experienced it, I really do not have to say much more.
A number of years ago, I wrote the book Three Free Sins. Its main thrust was that the reason people are so bad is that they are trying so very hard to be good. The trying is often so prideful, ego-centered, and narcissistic that holiness is hardly ever the product. Because of justification (we’re forgiven), imputation (we’re clothed in the righteousness of Christ), and adoption (we now have a cool father), believers can lighten up and allow God to show them his love when they get better and when they do not. And then, Christians will be surprised with the goodness that often follows. That happens because goodness and failure to be good are no longer the issue. Jesus has taken care of that, and now believers can go out and play.
It is the same way with love, being loved, and loving others. Christians have been trying way too hard to love, and the harder they try, the less they love. The more people chase love, the more it recedes. Try to define, manufacture, control, earn, or use love, and love will not be found. But if people give up trying to look for love in all the wrong places, love finds them. And that love will become the key to their efforts to speak and live the truth we’ve been given. The reason God did not send a book to express his love, but instead sent his Son, was because of the nature of love. Love is not a concept, an action, or a doctrine. Love is an experience, both when it is received and when it is given.
A number of years ago when our oldest granddaughter Christy was little, she was playing with her Madeline doll. She was trying to put clothes on her doll, but it was not working. She became quite frustrated. Her father Jim and I were watching a football game on television, and Jim said to Christy, “Try a little patience, honey, and you’ll get it.” Do you know what Christy did? She threw Madeline at her father, and when he admonished her, she threw the beanbag chair she was sitting on at him.
“That’s it,” Jim said, picking her up. “You’re going to be in time out and you’re going to stay there.” As he walked away with Christy on his shoulder, she was saying things like “I hate you!” and “I’m never speaking to you again!” Jim said he was fine with that, put Christy in a chair, and told her not to dare move before he told her to. Then Jim and I went back to watching the football game. Actually, Jim did; I never left because wise grandfathers learn to stay out of those kinds of altercations.
A while later, Christy came slowly back into the family room. She was crying. Christy climbed up onto her father’s lap and said, “Daddy, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I do stuff like that. I love you so much.” Jim hugged her and said, “And Christy, I love you so much . . . more than you will ever know.”
Love happened. Nobody planned it or used it. It just happened.
So if Christian love is the key to reaching a world that does not want to be reached, what do believers do?
Nothing! And above all, do not do anything religious.
Jesus showed love by being love. Jesus hung out with the wrong people, said the wrong things, and hugged those nobody else would hug. And he was quite harsh in what he said to those religious people who violated the essence of their faith by making obedience to a very demanding God the center of their belief system. He called them “whitewashed tombs” and a “brood of vipers,” who often took a searcher for God and made him a “child of hell” (Matthew 23:27, 33, 15).
Sadly our agendas almost always precede and define everything we say and do, and certainly that is true about love. Love often turns into theological demands and religious definitions, or even worse, syrupy and cloying drivel.
What do believers do? Again, nothing.
Well, there is something: just let Jesus love you. I am not even sure what that means but it feels like forgiveness, acceptance, and delight. Read 1 Corinthians 13. Instead of reading it as a condemnation of the love you do not have or a definition of what you want, change the words “love is” to “Jesus’s love for me is.” It does not matter that you are not worthy (and I’m talking to Christians in general here, and to myself in particular), that you have sinned, or that you have a lot of doubts. It does not matter where you have been, what you have done, what you have been smoking or drinking, the shameful secrets you cannot share with anyone, the people you have hurt, the anger you feel, the unfairness you have experienced, the piled-up failures you have, or what people who do not know you think about you. In fact, the most important part of the Christian faith is not church or doing religious things or witnessing or being good. It is simply hanging out with Jesus and experiencing his unconditional and relentless love for you.
Then what? Do not leave. Stay there until you have experienced the love that happens in his presence. It might take a few days or a few years—that is OK. Then go mingle and see what happens.
Adapted from Steve’s book, Talk the Walk.
Theme: When the Church Acts Like the World
In this week’s lessons, we are reminded of the need to continue in those things we have learned from Scripture, in order to live a holy life.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
The interesting thing about these days as Paul describes them to Timothy is that they refer in this case not so much to the secular world as to the secular church. We get this from verse 5, where Paul writes of those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. Since this cannot be said of the world, which is ungodly, Paul must therefore be talking about people in the church who have a form of godliness—that is, religious people who go through all the rites of religion—but whose lives are characterized by the very kind of things he spells out here. This is the kind of troubling situation Timothy is going to be facing in the future.
As I read over verses 1-9, it seems to me that we can break them down as addressing three different ideas. The first deals with the immorality of these people. Here, we are not speaking about sexual immorality, but, instead, general immoral behavior. Notice the things Paul talks about in verses 2-4: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—…”
What a description that is of our age! If I were going to apply it to any period I would apply it to our own. What more characterizes our time than people being lovers of themselves? Do we have an age in the whole history of the world more preoccupied with self? One writer has called it the “me generation.” It is the “new narcissism,” as Time magazine put it some years ago. People are wrapped up in themselves, rather than in God and from him toward others.
If we are honest with ourselves, we have to say that we are not very interesting subjects with which to be preoccupied. If you want to be perfectly miserable, keep focusing on yourself all the time. You will keep going over all the things that you don’t like about yourself but cannot change. Or you will keep thinking about things that others have that you don’t but think you deserve.
If you really want to be joyous, then you have to do what the Lord Jesus Christ did, who looked not upon his own affairs but on the affairs of others. He did this to the greatest possible extent, of course, by offering himself for others on the cross. But we can follow his example by putting aside our own interests in order to serve other people. And when you do that, when you put others first, you find that you actually improve yourself at the same time.
The next category of people Paul mentions is lovers of money. Now it’s true that in any age there are always people who love money; but one thing about past ages of the world is that apart from the rich, the vast majority of people didn’t have enough money to love it. Or if they did love it, they only did so in their minds but not in reality. But today even people who are not considered wealthy do have enough money with which to feed their materialism that our society pushes at them from every angle.
The next two, being boastful and proud, seem to go together, and makes me think of Romans 1, where Paul describes the moral decline of the culture in which he lives. Then, at the end of that section in Romans, he talks about the people who not only engage in such unrighteous behavior, but then even go a step further by taking pleasure when other people do the same wicked things. Now we don’t need to comment about each item Paul gives. These are all things that Paul says exist, not only in the world, where we would expect to find them, but in the church.
Study Questions:
Application: Do you find at times that you are thinking too much about yourself? What can you do to correct this?
Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
— Read on www.thinkandactbiblically.org/tab/tuesday-when-the-church-acts-like-the-world
How do we react to the severe demands and pressures of life? Are we learning to acknowledge the Spirit of Christ within, and to be overflowing with His Presence?
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
It is interesting that Paul puts these two things in contrast, one against the other. Don’t get drunk with wine, he says. This recognizes there are things in life that tend to drive you to drink. There are pressures in life, there are demands made upon you so severe that you will feel the need of some stimulation, something that will undergird you a bit, give you some confidence and add help and strength. But don’t let it be wine or any other artificial stimulant, because,
he says, the trouble with that is, it so easily leads to lack of control.
The word here translated debauchery is the Greek word that means without any limits, with reckless abandonment.
It refers to escapism and the tendency to throw all restraints overboard and live without control.
But in contrast to that he says to satisfy that need for something to stimulate and strengthen you by being filled with the Spirit, for that is God’s provision for this need in human life. There is no need to feel ashamed over the sense of need. We were not made to be self-sufficient, independent creatures. Because you feel like you need something to help you, to strengthen you, to make you feel adequate to face life, do not be troubled by that. You do need something. But let it be the right thing. Be filled with the Spirit.
Here he touches the great secret of real Christianity, the possibility of being filled with the Spirit. When you became a Christian, when you believed in Jesus Christ and received Him as your Lord, the Holy Spirit came to live in you. You have the Spirit, but the interesting paradox is that, though all Christians have the Holy Spirit, we constantly need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the momentary taking from Him of the resources you need for the situation in which you are. It has nothing to do with an experience or a feeling or a crisis; it is a quiet drinking again and again of an inner supply of strength.
This is a truth that many Christians seem to miss. They think that Christianity means coming to church, getting a blessing, and then going away to try to live in the light and warmth of the blessing until it leaks away, and then they must come back and get filled up again. But that is not Christianity. When Jesus said of the person who drinks of Him, Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water,
John says, By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive
(John 7:39a). That is the strengthening that comes from within, and there is plenty there for any situation.
Father, I pray that You will teach me to draw upon the well of water within, to know that every demand made upon me is a demand made upon You, and that you are prepared, ready, to live Your life through me in every situation and thus manifest Your grace.
— Read on www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/ephesians/live-overflowingly
3 For I handed on to you among the first things that I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)
This Christians walk is one in which we must take up our own crosses and follow our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this life we will have tribulation. However, in the midst of fiery trials we grow less self-oriented, less self-dependent, and less self-righteous while we learn that we must, at all costs, abide in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit…. In this time before our Lord takes us home, there will be much heartache, many crushing blows, and at times, it will seem that the world and those who follow it have all the cards and are on the way to winning by whatever means. However, as our Lord Jesus said on the night of his arrest leading up to his crucifixion, “ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν ἵνα ἐν ἐμοὶ εἰρήνην ἔχητε. ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ θλῖψιν ἔχετε· ἀλλὰ θαρσεῖτε, ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον.” Or, “These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but be cheerful, I have conquered the world.” View article →
“I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” – 1 John 2:14
Scripture reading: Ecclesiastes 11:7-10
In chapter 11:7-10, Solomon highlights the command to live in joy by repeating that life without God is “vanity, vanity.”(v.8b; v.10b). However, living in God’s grace and the fear of God brings a life of joy. Solomon has taught us that living wisely in the fear of God means living in joy. At the conclusion of each of the previous sections in Ecclesiastes, joy has been commanded and God calls us to joy at the end as well.
First, Solomon affirms life in all its fullness in v.7. Light is a metaphor for being alive. The living are in the light of the sun, so enjoy them all your years. Of course, how long you will live, the success of your work, how many children you have, what illness will take your life, and all aspects of your future are out of your control, so be joyful while you are young for many dark days will come when you are older (v.8-9).
Second, Solomon affirms that the young should live in joy. Verse 9 startles us. Is Solomon being ironic or is he giving a wise principle? The context shows he is giving us a wise principle. Matthew Poole put it this way. “This is serious advice to this purpose: seeing life is short and transitory, improve it to the best advantage, take comfort in it whilst you may, only do it with moderation, and the fear of God.” When we are young we should fear God and live cheerfully.
Suggestion for prayer
Rejoice in the covenant God has made with our children. Pray they would fear God and enjoy all He gives to them.
Rev. Henry Bartsch has been serving as pastor of the Trinity Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (Chatham, Ontario) since 2003. He and his wife Tammy have seven children and two grandchildren. This daily devotional is also available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional.
March 23 – Having joy in your youth (Part 1) — Reformed Perspective
Confession: Psalm 95:6–9
Come in, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before Yahweh, our maker.
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you will hear his voice:
“Do not harden your heart as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tried me.
They put me to the test,
even though they had seen my work.”
Reading: Mark 14:32–42
And they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took along Peter and James and John with him, and he began to be distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” And going forward a little he fell to the ground and began to pray that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you! Take away this cup from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.” And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Were you not able to stay awake one hour? Stay awake and pray that you will not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And again he came and found them sleeping, for they could not keep their eyes open, and they did not know what to reply to him. And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us go! Behold, the one who is betraying me is approaching!”
Reflection
With eternal foresight, and with lifelong, fond intention, our glorious Saviour entered into His passion. “I come to do your will, O my God.” That will was that He—Jesus, the Son of Man, God of God, the Holy One—should pass through and feel, as if it were His own. He experienced the torment and the horror of all sin in expiation of the crimes of the whole world. “And He began to be exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.” O Jesus, we bow down our hearts before your sacred heart, which, in the garden, alone, cried out to heaven with the agony God laid upon it. “See if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow.” We adore that dear, submissive heart, burning with love for God and man, but wrung with anguish, sweating drops of blood.
—Bernard of Clairvaux
Saint Bernard on the Love of God
Response
Christ remained obedient to the Father in all things, even leading up to His death. Write a prayer of thanks for Christ’s obedient sacrifice in the space below.[1]
[1] Van Noord, R., & Strong, J. (Eds.). (2014). 40 Days to the Cross: Reflections from Great Thinkers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
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March 23
Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46
Luke 5:29-6:11
Psalm 66:1-20
Proverbs 11:24-26
Numbers 36:8 – This might seem that your options are limited, but considering Numbers 1:35, there were 32,200 able-bodied men in the tribe of Manasseh, and a few of them should be eligible bachelors.
Numbers 36:10 – Numbers 26:33, 27:1, also talk about the daughters of Zelophehad, but the best thing that can be said about them, is that they obeyed the LORD even in an ‘arbitrary’ action. By marrying within the tribe, they protected the distinction of the tribes, so that by the time of the birth of the Messiah, it would be clear what tribe He was from.
Deuteronomy 1 – Moses is reminding the tribes of what they have seen, because the adults who rejected God’s offer had died off, and a new generation was being shown God’s mercy and grace.
Luke 5:30 – I’ve yet to see a positive use of the word ‘murmur’ in the Bible. Notice what happened to the murmurers in Luke 6:11 at the end of today’s reading.
Luke 6:6 – “And they were filled with madness.” Jesus took madness out of the possessed, yet the madness possessed others (similar to Mark 5:13). Ever notice today that the hatred of Jesus seems a bit irrational? It’s always been.
Psalm 66:1 – This is an echo of the classic Psalm 100.
Psalm 66:18 – Prayers not answered? Check in with 1 John 1:9.
Proverbs 11:26 – This seems to extol the virtues of Joseph, the manager of the wealth of Egypt.
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The mainstream media seems to be turning a blind eye to some of the many gaffes by President Biden, which could be much more than Freudian slips or physical trip-ups. Attorney and media analyst Lionel weighs in. (5:03)
The city of Miami is under a state of emergency and nightly curfew after police struggled to contain the massive spring break crowds looking for fun and sun. RT America’s John Huddy reports from Miami. (1:12).
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DC Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman calls to abolish the law protecting news media from liability for defamation
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