CityLight Church’s One Year Bible Reading Plan
Thursday, December 3rd, 2015
Daniel 11:2-35
1 John 3:7-24
Psalm 122:1-9
Proverbs 29:1
For full text click here: http://bit.ly/1rSOmrW
Commentary from Pastor Michael White:
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another… – 1 Jn 3:11
Under the Old Covenant, God’s command was to, “…love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). That was hard enough; but under the New Covenant, God’s command gets even more difficult: “…that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn 13:34).
God loved you so much that He gave His Only Son for you. He gave up His most prized possession – Jesus Christ – so that you could be set free. Your job, then, is to go out and love other people in exactly the same way.
Love means death to self. Love means forgiving when you don’t feel like it. Love means caring when you don’t have time to spare. Love means stopping for the one, when everyone else just keeps on walking.
We are not God; yet God asks us to love like Him. The only way we can live up His expectation is by relying on His Holy Spirit. Jesus gave you His Holy Spirit so that you can love like Him. He gave you His mind (1 Cor 2:16) so that you can think like Him. He gave you His life so that you can be reconciled to God, just like He is.
If you try to love others on your own, you will fail; but if you ask God’s Holy Spirit to love others through you, the whole world will know the love of God.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. – Jn 3:16
Prayer:
Father, help me to love like You! I give You permission to work through me to love other people better. I submit my life to Your Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name!
© Michael D. White, 2015. All rights reserved.