Wonderful Jesus!

Category: Galatians 2:20

• How Do I Love Thee?

  Posted at 1:28 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on July 16, 2019

  Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.

  Love is, and always has been a powerful emotion. It’s the subject of countless books, songs, poems, and movies and it’s theme never fails to put hope in us all. A person who says they are not interested in love is a liar or someone who has been so deeply hurt by its lack that they are in total denial. We were made for love!

  Elizabeth Browning Barrett wrote a poem in the 1800s that is still known and recited on some level, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” After 40 years as a single woman, she had finally found her Prince Charming. In order to be with him she had to run away from home and elope. Her father disinherits her for leaving, but she goes on to have a son and sixteen years of marriage with the one she loved. Another key point was her love for the Father. It is said that she taught herself Hebrew in order to read the Old Testament. While she is not my focus today, I thought it would be good to give this insight about a poem that has been rewritten and used for the past 200 years. That’s a long time!

  But over 2,000 years ago, another declared His love with even greater passion, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16) and in another place He declared through Paul, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)!

  Another personal favorite: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ” (Romans 8:35)? I can answer that one, no one can! No one and no thing can lessen His love for us or cause Him to stop loving us! Even when we toss His love in His face and walk away from Him, He still loves us. Even when we reject His Son and die and go into a Christless eternity, He still loves us, for it is the greatest love ever known. Period!

  John wrote, in 1 John 3:1- “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…” Isn’t that something? He bestows His love on us and calls us His sons. Can I clarify something here? Although He genuine loves the whole world, only those who receives Jesus becomes a part of the family and enters into sonship! But His love invites all those who are not in the family to enter in.

  Years ago we sang a song, and I’ve been hearing it more today, that simply states:

  “O how He loves you and me!

  O how He loves you and me!

  He gave His life, what more could He give,

  O how He loves you, O how He loves me,

  O how He loves you and me!”

  Paul relishes in this love! As he writes to the Galatians and remind them of this love and why it is so hypocritical to slight one another based on heritage or for any other reason, he boils it down to it being about love. And when Paul thinks about dying to himself, being crucified with Christ and allowing Christ to live through him, Paul is basically saying, “it’s easy because He loves me so!”

  Oh how He loves us! Why? Because He is love (1 John 4:8)! Everything He has said, everything He has done, and everything He will ever do, is because He loves us so! Jeremiah wrote that He loves us with an everlasting love and He has drawn us to Him through his unfailing kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).

  The devil is constantly bombarding us with lies about who God is and why God did or didn’t do something. He has us looking at the Word, the commands of God as if they are there to spoil life for us, to bind us up and to keep us from having fun. He even tells us when our loved ones die that God needed them more than we do and that’s why He took them as if He is so selfish and so needy that He hurts us to satisfy His longings! THE DEVIL IS A LIAR! Stop choosing to listen to him over what your heart knows, GOD SO LOVES YOU!!!!

  Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13). In other words, He laid down His life for us to show us how much He loves us!! His love isn’t demonstrated in coming through for us, or in answering our prayers per se; but in dying for us! Receive it today! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Galatians 2:20, love, love of God | 0 Comments | Tagged Galatians 2:20, Jesus, love

• This Life I Now Live!

  Posted at 12:01 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on July 12, 2019

  Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

  Living a life in the flesh by the faith of Jesus is my daily aim. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it or even look like it, but it’s the life I choose. Everything Jesus did He did for our example and He did well. In the flesh without being fleshy. That’s the life I desire and there are a few things I can do to make it happen. Today my blog is to highlight a few things that demonstrate Him living in me and through me.

  First, I believe it’s a life of deep and intimate fellowship with the Father. Jesus was known to be a person of prayer. (Matthew 14:23). And when He prayed things happened because He didn’t just say a lot of religious words, for Him, it was a place of prayer. A time to commune with God. A place of prayer that ceases to be about needs, and fears, and desires, that centers on the majesty of the Father. A place where communion is so sweet that all you want is more of Him and to give Him more of you.

  Let me be perfectly honest! That isn’t the case always. I am a praying woman, but I don’t always lose myself in His Presence and have a time of worship where I know I have communed with the Father. I know my prayer life is good, but deep in my heart, I want it to be so much more. I have experienced that place of communion where I have known His presence to enter my room and surround me, but I have to admit, not nearly as frequently as I could. Notice I wrote could and not should, because this is not a place of obedience but a place of adoration! When I think of the faith of Jesus, I always start here. His life of faith that He lived was developed through a deep communion with the Father!

  Secondly, loving others! A prayer that I pray more than I care to admit is Lord, help me to love like You love. Living this life by His faith deeply centers around loving people like He loved. John 3:16 is such a challenge to the believer. To love like He loved, to give my life (not on the cross) but in prayer and service for the kingdom, making a difference, impacting others, showing them the Father because I love them, not because I want to be able to testify that I led someone to Christ or I blessed someone. Is it a testimony? Yes! But the testimony should not be the motivation, only love when reaching out to people. His motivation for the cross and everything He did was love!

  Lastly, (only because I don’t like long posts), a life free of sin. He said that the devil had nothing in Him. (John 14:30) That’s a powerful statement to know that the devil has never been able to infiltrate your life or your heart with sin. Yes He was born without sin, but when we are born again, we are free of sin. (Romans 6:18)

  Letting Jesus’ faith live through us is allowing Him to keep us from sin, having His heart and His attitude about sin. No sin can be ok in our lives. We can have no place for lying, no place for cheating, no place for sexual immorality, no place for worldly acceptance, and the list can go on. Jesus was born free of sin but He chose not to live in it and not to allow to give any place to the devil. And then He freed us and told us that we are no longer slaves to sin and to give no place to the devil. That’s His life! That’s to be my life!

  This life that I now live in the flesh, I still live in the flesh much too much. Work, pleasure, church, and the cares of this world are always vying for my time, but I press toward the mark of the high calling in Christ! (Philippians 3:14) Paul wrote, walk in the Spirit and we’ll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

  Therefore, if this life I now live in the flesh, I’m to live by the faith of the Son of God I am going to have to be a person of communion with God. Jesus still wants to commune with the Father and since He is in me, it’s what I am to do. Since He is living in me, love should be my life’s motivation. Not just with the people I like and whom like me; but simply allowing Him to love through me. And lastly, a life free from the domination of sin and the devil. Jesus still has dominion over sin and has given it to me, to you! We can allow Him to live His life through us in such a way that we too can make the claim that Paul made. Father, help us to live by the faith of Your precious Son! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Faith, freedom, Galatians 2:20, Jesus, love, Prayer, Victorious Living | 0 Comments | Tagged Faith, freedom, Galatians 2:20, Jesus, love, Prayer

• Life After Death

  Posted at 1:49 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on July 1, 2019

  Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.

  In my previous blog I wrote about the need to die to hypocrisy. The same hypocrisy that Paul addressed when he spoke to Peter and the other Messianic Believers of his day. The same hypocrisy that needs to be addressed in us all! But there is so much more we die to!

  We not only die to our old ways of thinking, behaving and acting, but we die to our sin. Paul knew that, and so did the others. I didn’t address it because he was talking to believers and that was understood. His point in this verse is that when they died to their sins, they died to the law and to their traditions. And it was worth it!

  But today I want to address life after death!

  Nevertheless, I live!” Paul has just mentioned the effects of his death by crucifixion, but he doesn’t stop there. He lets us know that he has been raised from that spiritual crucifixion to being very much alive. Paul could have just as easily said, “I have a new way of living since I died to my old way of living and it is much better than that old life I had because I am truly alive!”

  If you know anything about Saul of Tarsus, then you know that he was a busy man for the Sanhedrin and the cause of Judaism. As a young man he was zealous for God without any spiritual revelation of his knowledge. He went about gathering Believers and turning them over to be killed because he felt they were a bunch of heresy practicing lunatics! In Acts, Luke makes a point of letting us know that Paul was there when Stephen was martyred and was instrumental in his death! So Paul had a full and busy life, yet he recognized it was life he had to die to in order to live!

  “Yet not I, but Christ lives in me!” However, Paul is saying, I am not alive because of laws, traditions, and hypocrisy, but because Christ lives in me. By now I am sure the Jewish believers are squirming in their seats! Paul reminds them all, life didn’t begin for any of them until Christ came to live in them. Jew and Gentile both lay claim to same thing “salvation by faith in Jesus Christ”, because if they don’t, they are yet not living. True life springs forth from the life of Christ that radiates from the inside to the outside. It did then, and it does now.

  Jesus introduced this concept when He made the statement, “The thief comes but to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I come that you may have life, and that more abundantly!” (John 10:10)

  I was just reminded of something that happened to me many years ago. We went to pick up a young lady for church services who lived in the projects of Chicago. My husband drove me there, but on the way he made a statement about her being in the tallest building without a working elevator in it, living on the top floor. I told him to stop it! But sure enough, it turned out to be true. He then decided that the girls and I should go back to the van and wait for him because he didn’t want us in that building.

  As I was headed back to the van, I saw four young men headed towards us and I knew by the Spirit of God that they were up to no good. I put my daughters in the van quickly, locked the door and turned to face them.

  The first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Have you heard that Jesus came to give you life and that more abundantly?” It stopped them in their tracks! They surely was not expecting that! As I began to share the gospel, that saved me from being robbed or something, three of them walked away and the fourth one prayed the prayer for salvation with me! Glory to God!! If that young man was sincere, he died to his sinful ways that he came to assault me with and walked over to new life in Christ!!! And when my husband came back down he reported that the young lady was not there and he knew she had probably given me the wrong address to begin with. But someone still got saved that day!!

  Paul reminded Peter of this new life and that there was so much more to it than being one way with the Jewish brethren and another way with the Gentile brothers. He reminded Peter that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and Life and that no one comes to the Father, but through Him!” And since that had happened with him and with the the Galatians, he should have known better. Abundant life in Jesus is not through our contacts, our heritage, our family, our works, or our church affiliation…only through Him and in Him!

  Life after death!! That is the greatest and most powerful testimony any of us can have! And it can be yours today if you have not been crucified with Him. Ask Him in today that you may be crucified to your death and alive in Him. Say this simple prayer: “Father God, I recognize that I have never given my life and my heart to you. Today I recognize I am in need of your salvation. I believe in You, God! And more importantly, I believe that Jesus is Your Son, who came to earth in the flesh and died on the cross for my sins. That He rose again from physical death and is alive in You. Forgive me of my arrogance of thinking that I could live my life without You. I want Him to be alive in me. Jesus come into my life today. Change it! Crucify the old man in me and make me alive in You! Then lead me where I can learn more about You so that our relationship can grow and I can experience life more abundantly. In Your Name I pray! Amen”

  Well, if you have prayed this prayer today, I welcome you into the family of God. We are family!! Praise God for another member being ingrafted in the family! One last thing— if you have prayed this prayer today, please leave me a comment so that I can begin praying for you that Christ will be formed in you and also rejoice in this great salvation! You have just experience life after death! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Believers, Family, Galatians, Galatians 2:20, Salvation, testimony, Victorious Living | 0 Comments | Tagged Believer, Evangelism, Family, Galatians 2:20, Jesus, Salvation, testimony

• Are You a Hypocrite?

  Posted at 1:53 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on June 29, 2019

  Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.

  The goal of my life is to live it according to this verse. When Paul said this to Peter, he said a mouthful and I have been impacted by it in such a way that I want it said of me, Galatians 2:20 encapsulates her life.

  Paul and Peter were fellowshipping with the Gentiles when some Jewish brethren from James arrived. Peter, a leader in the church, removed himself from the mix fearing criticism, causing other Jews, including Barnabas, to do the same. Paul was so outdone that he felt a need to address the situation. So he called Peter out in front of everybody.

  Paul begins by reminding the Jewish believers of the truth that when they became believers, the law and its code of separation from others went out the door and was no longer the way they should live. The Bible actually refers to this type of behavior in the New Testament as hypocrisy.

  Let me just stop and say that I believe that God told the Jewish nation to stay separate from the other nations because they didn’t have the power to live for Him yet, while being amongst them. In other words, it wasn’t until they accepted Jesus as Savior and were filled with the Holy Spirit that the power to intermingle with unbelievers were made available to them. You can see throughout scriptures that they acclimated to every culture they lived near. So God was trying to keep them from straying from Him, while at the same time teaching them that the law was insufficient in helping them to do so! Now Paul is reminding Peter and the other Jewish believers that in light of this truth, what they had done was hypocritical.

  Paul then comes to this life changing statement of faith! He says “I have been crucified with Christ!” This is powerful! Don’t miss it! Paul is saying, I have laid all of that stuff on the cross with Jesus. All of my elitist attitudes have died. All of my old ways of thinking have died. My old ways of living have died. All of my allegiance to separatism of the law has died! All of it!

  There is so much in this verse! As I was meditating on it I had to really think about my life. Have I truly died to everything associated with the “old man” and its nature? Yes, I have! It is written, “old things have passed away, behold all things are new!” But it is up to me and up to you to live accordingly! As it was up to Peter and to Barnabas! They too had died to their old man, but when placed in certain situations, the old man was resurrected.

  Peter knew this better than Paul did. Or he should have. After all, it was Peter whom God placed in a trance and commanded that he eat the unclean beasts. Peter then told God that he wasn’t going to and he never had eaten anything unclean or uncommon. Then God responded to him, “Don’t call common what I have cleaned!” (Acts 10). I thought it interesting that Peter had just raised Dorcas from the dead and seen a mighty move of God and now he was telling the Lord what he wasn’t going to do! Just a note to remind you that even when He uses us powerfully, we can still do and say some dumb things!!

  I’m not going to go where you I know I can go with this. Suffice it to say, there is no place for this type of attitude in the body of Christ. It was not acceptable then and it isn’t acceptable now. Paul reminded Peter, and I will remind myself and you, hypocrisy is harmful to the body! Especially from leadership! Leaders are leaders because others follow them. Right or wrong! You don’t want to be responsible for leading others into the ditch!

  If you are a leader in your church and you have felt above others, or selectively have fellowship with others in the faith, or have totally not embraced others because they are different, you are a hypocrite! If you, as a member of the Body of Christ, have ever been guilty of similar behavior like Peter’s or Barnabas, you are a hypocrite! Stop it!

  Might I remind you that Jesus died for us all! He cleansed us all! He doesn’t have one cleansing for the Jew and one for the Gentile. He doens’t have one cleansing for the blacks and one for everybody else. He doesn’t have one cleansing for men and one for women. He doesn’t have one cleansing for Baptists and one for Pentecostals. No!!!!!! If you are born of the Spirit of the Living God, then you have had the same Blood washing that all the rest of the believers have had. And that’s the gospel truth!!

  I told you that there is a lot packed in this verse! I didn’t realize that I would only be able to address this first part. If you want to know what else I have to say on the rest of this verse you will just have to return to my blog to view it. Until then, don’t be a hypocrite! Wonderful Jesus!!

  Posted in Attitude, Believers, Galatians, Galatians 2:20, hypocrisy, relationships, Victorious Living | 0 Comments | Tagged Attitude, Believer, Galatians, hypocrisy

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