We need A Fresh
Baptism of Love
The word "baptize" can be traced to simply mean to
"make whelmed" or to "overwhelm"
Volumes have been written about the characteristics of God,
but when it is distilled to the most basic categories, He is love (1 John 4:8),
life (Jeremiah 10:10; Revelation 22:1), and holiness (Psalms 99:9). And in
reality, His life and holiness are based upon and are an expression of His love:
love gives, so He gives life; love desires the best, so holiness proceeds from
Him.
Love is not something he chooses to do or give. It is the
very essence of who He is. He doesn't just love-He is love (1 John 4:16). It
motivates His every action, directs His activities, and reflects His desires (1
John 4:10). Love is the greatest and purest essence of who a person is and its
proper expression brings fulfillment.
Love Surpasses Knowledge
There is a place greater than knowledge; it is a simple, yet
eternally profound place where we actually abide in Christ's love. This is,
indeed, the shelter of the Most High.
Remember the apostle's prayer was that we each would
"know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge." As important as
knowledge is, love "surpasses knowledge." Doctrinal knowledge is the
framework, the vehicle, that opens the door toward divine realities, but love
causes us to be "filled up to all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19).
There are various baptisms in regard to our walk with God;
salvation, water, fire. But there is one baptism that is largely overlooked,
and even unrecognized. This baptism brings the greatest healing and freedom to
every believer that has experienced it, a Baptism of Father God’s love. There
are only a few people in this world that truly understand what it means to be loved
unconditionally. The rest have no idea what it is to receive and enjoy a love
without strings attached, without preconditions, or without a prenuptial
agreement. It is love that only our heavenly Father can give. Let the words and
spirit of this book sink deep as you read it, and get to know your Father and
His amazing love for you.
To Dwell Upon God
It is hard for us in this anxious, fearful age to quiet our
souls and actually dwell upon God in our hearts. We can engage ourselves with
Bible study or other acts of obedience; in varying degrees we know how to
witness, exhort and bless. We know how to analyze these things, and even
perfect them; but to lift our souls above the material world and consciously
ponder God Himself seems beyond the reach of our Christian experience.
Yet, to actually grasp the substance of God is to enter a
spiritual place of immunity; it is to receive into our spirits the victory
Christ won for us, which is oneness with God in Christ.
Thus, we cannot content ourselves merely with the tasks we
are called to perform. Ultimately, we will discover that study and church
attendance are but forms which have little satisfaction in and of themselves.
These activities must become what the Lord has ordained them to be: means
through which we seek and find God. Our pleasure will be found not in the
mechanics of spiritual disciplines, but that these disciplines bring us closer
to God.
Paul's cry was, "That I may know Him!" (Phil.
3:10). It was this desire to know Jesus that produced Paul's knowledge of
salvation, church order, evangelism and end-time events. Out of his heart's
passion to know God came revelation, the writing of Scriptures and knowledge of
the Eternal. Paul's knowledge was based upon his experience with Christ.
On the other hand, we have contented ourselves not with
seeking the face of God, but with studying the facts of God. We are satisfied
with a religion about Christ without the reality of Christ.
The Bible is the historical record of man's experiences with
the Almighty. Out of personal encounters people had with the living God, our
theological perspectives have developed. But knowledge about God is only the
first step toward entering the presence of God. As much as the Bible is a book
of truths, it is also a map to God. As Christians, we study and debate the map
yet too often fail to make the journey.
Love Surpasses Knowledge
There is a place greater than knowledge; it is a simple, yet
eternally profound place where we actually abide in Christ's love. This is,
indeed, the shelter of the Most High.
Remember the apostle's prayer was that we each would
"know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge." As important as
knowledge is, love "surpasses knowledge." Doctrinal knowledge is the
framework, the vehicle, that opens the door toward divine realities, but love
causes us to be "filled up to all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19).
There is a dwelling place of love that God desires us to
enter. It is a place where our knowledge of God is fulfilled by the substance
of God. Listen to the Amplified Bible's rendering of this verse: "May
Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His
permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded
securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and
grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love]
what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [that you may
really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love
of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you
may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have
the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and
flooded with God Himself]!" (Eph. 3:17-19).
Is this not our goal, to be rooted deeply in love, to grasp
the breadth, length, height and depth of God's love and to know for ourselves
the deep, personal love of Christ? Can any goal be more wonderful? Indeed, to
be filled and flooded with God Himself is the very hope of the gospel!
You see, God cannot truly be known without, in some way,
also being experienced. If we had never seen a sunrise or a starry night sky,
could any description substitute for our own eyes beholding the expansive
beauty? Awe comes from seeing and encountering, not merely from knowing that
somewhere a beautiful sky exists.
Likewise, to truly know God we must seek Him until we pass
through the outer, informational realm about God and actually find for
ourselves the living presence of the Lord Himself. This is the "upward
call" of God in Christ Jesus. It draws us through our doctrines into the
immediacy of the divine presence. The journey leaves us in the place of
transcendent surrender, where we listen to His voice and, from listening,
ascend into His love.
The earth's last great move of God shall be distinguished by
an outpouring from Christ of irresistible desire for His people. To those who
truly yearn for His appearing there shall come, in ever-increasing waves,
seasons of renewal from the presence of the Lord (see Acts 3:19-21). Intimacy
with Christ shall be restored to its highest level since the first century.
Many on the outside of this move of God, as well as those
touched and healed by it, will look and marvel: How did these common people
obtain such power? For they shall see miracles similar to when Jesus Christ
walked the earth. Multitudes will be drawn into the valley of decision. For
them, truly, the kingdom of God will be at hand. But for those whom the Lord
has drawn to Himself, there will be no mystery as to how He empowered them.
Having returned to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, they will have
received the baptism of love
1) Liberals are
relativists and hate Christians because Christians believe in absolute truth.
2) Liberals do
not want anyone to say that immorality is immoral.
3) Liberals are
selfish and are more interested in their "feelings" then they are
with what is right for others.
4) Liberals
misunderstand what Christians really believe.
5) Since liberals
see themselves as the superior enlighten ones they do not recognize that taking
a position against their position is not automatically hate.
6) Liberals do
not want to listen to what makes sense, they would rather listen to their
senses.
7) Liberals
ignore the clear evidence of the result of their philosophical positions
influence on the last 40 years. It had been a social disaster and they do not
want to hear it.
8) They see
Christians as intellectually inferior.
9) Liberals see
Christians as wanting to impose their religion on them when in truth it is the
liberals who have used the courts system to impose their secular humanism
religion on all of us.
10) Liberals are
spiritually lost and blind to the truth of the gospel. Consider the following
bible verses:
No comments:
Post a Comment