Love – Light from the Word

Do You Love Me? (part 3)

This is My commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.

(John 15:12)

God’s love compels Him to mercy and kindness in order to lift us up from our sinful condition. In love, He forgives and blesses us with His precious gift: His Holy Spirit. Through Him He allows us to have a relationship with Him that will take us to heaven. He fortified His love assuring us that nothing can separate or come in between or snatch us from His love. John confirms by saying, God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God and God dwells and continues in him. In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world (John 4: 16b-17). Being complete in His love we will have the confidence of our salvation. This is the result of His love flowing to those who dwell in Him and do what He commanded them to do – love one another as He has loved us. He continues asking the question, to all His children, Do you love Me? The more that we love one another, the more that our love will flow to Him, answering and satisfying His question, Do you love Me?

The life of Stephen registered in Acts chapter seven well prints his love for God. His life truly radiated his love for Him through His service and love in forgiving those who were involved in his killing. He prayed as he was being stoned by those who hated YAHSHUA, Lord YAHSHUA, receive and accept and welcome my spirit, and falling on his knees, he cried out loudly, Lord, fix not this sin upon them! And when he had said this, he fell asleep [in death] (Acts 7: 59-60). Stephen here echoes the prayer of YAHSHUA, when dying on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!” That was the perfect love that sprung from the heart that truly loved God. He loved God with all his soul and with his own body when he offered it as a sacrifice unto Him. Stephen was justified in the presence of God, for he died without bitterness against those who hated him; that was an action of his love for others which radiated as love for God.

The manner in which God loves, is the manner that He wants us to love one another. That’s the way we will be made complete in His love. He told His disciples, I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me] (John 15: 9). This is a commandment directed to all who are the Lord’s. We have no choice, but to obey. It will be our link to receive His blessings of peace. For His word said, There is no fear in love, but full-grown love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love (I John 4:18). Living a life voided of love for others will result in a life empty of love for God. Where there is no love, fear will find an open door to torment and destroy us. John says, But he who keeps His word, truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected. By this we may perceive that we are in Him (I John 2:5). Our love for God is demonstrated by the love for one another. Because God is love, John says that whoever loves his brother abides in the Light, and in It or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin, but he who hates his brother is in darkness and walking in the dark; he is straying and does not perceive or know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes (I John 2: 10-11). Who can understand the consequences of walking out of love for others? It is like walking in spiritual darkness, away from God’s love; empty of love for Him and voided of His presence and spiritual blessings. It wasn’t for nothing that YASHUA asked the question, do you love Me? There is much involved in this question that we do not perceive. Obviously, love is the root of all spiritual success. God desires that we would be spiritually blessed and complete in His love.

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Do You Love Me? (part 2)

Do you love Me with reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion as one love the Father?

This question is not only directed to Peter; its echoes remained throughout the ages after him. This is the agape love. It is the glue that keeps all Christians together in harmony working to further the gospel of our Lord YAHSHUA. With this love many have died; the agape love has nothing to do with sentiment of feelings. It will not exist in this frame, for it is unconditional. It is the love that YAHSHUA expressed while being crucified: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing.” It is the foundation of our faith and the compelling reason to serve Him. The New Testament opens our eyes to that love in several passages: the prodigal found in Luke 15:11-32, the love of God in John 3:16, in the death of YAHSHUA in all the books of the gospel, the story of the Samaritan who saved the life of a stranger and several others. YAHSHUA lived to show Who He was in the expression of agape love, for that is what and Who He is. It is hard to understand the unconditional love found in agape love. The worldly person, although practicing good deeds, does not comprehend the true meaning of this love. The agape love abides only in God and in those whom He has shared with through the Holy Spirit, because this love originates from God, and is the love that is God. The deepest demonstration of this love was displayed on the cross. The apostle John describes agape love as God Himself. He says, God is love and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God and God dwells and continues in him. In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in this world (I John 4).

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Do You Love Me? (part 1)

This question automatically brings Peter to mind, for it was to him that this question was directed after the ordeal our Lord YAHSHUA had to go through. Peter became part of it when he fell into the temptation of denying his Savior in time when He needed him most. Peter, as a fisherman, was strong and gruff, shabbily dressed, with vulgar language; He was born in the year 1 B.C in the city of Bethsaida and died in 67 A.D. He was one of the first disciples of Christ led by his brother, Andrew. Simon was his original name, but YAHSHUA changed to Petra or Rock.

Peter’s first experience with the Lord was on one of his fishing experiences. He had caught nothing that night, and frustrated he responded to YAHSHUA when He told him to lower his nets into the deep, Master, we toiled all night and caught nothing, but on the ground of Your word I will lower the nets (Luke 5:5). Peter had no idea that by submitting to the Lord’s command, he would be so blessed. When he saw the result, he then realized that before him stood not an ordinary man. And falling down at His knees he said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. After they had run their boats on the shore, he, James and John left everything to follow YAHSHUA as His disciples (Luke 5). Peter was one of the three disciples who witnessed YAHSHUA’S transfiguration at mount Hermon; he also experienced the miracle of walking on water during a storm, which happened when they were alone on the boat after the multiplication of fish and loaves of bread when YAHSHUA sent them ahead of Him. When he saw the Lord walking on the water, coming toward them, he said, “If it is you Lord, command me to come to you on the water,” but failing to believe, he started to drown. He cried to the Lord, Lord, save me! YAHSHUA lifted Peter from the water, saying, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? (Matt. 14:31) Peter also witnessed the anguish of the Lord at the Garden of Gethsemane, but could not pray for and with Him. Three times he was warned to “watch and pray.” But he failed and three times he fell into the temptation of denying the Lord.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Peter rightly answered YAHSHUA’S question, Who do you say I am? But the same Peter went against God’s plan of salvation when he rebuked the Lord at His announcement of His death. The Lord YAHSHUA vehemently rejected Peter’s advice by saying, Get behind Me Satan! Peter, in his plan did not want his Lord to die. Perhaps he thought that He was going to establish the kingdom at that time. He fought the arrest of YAHSHUA by cutting the ear of the high priest, who came to arrest Him. But when the time had come for him to show his love for his Master, he could not do it; he run away instead, because Peter did not sincerely love the Lord. He walked with the Lord YAHSHUA three years, witnessing the miracles He performed, but Peter’s heart was hard.

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The Everlasting Covenant (part 2)

(The Covenant of Love)

When God created man, He entered into the covenant with him by commanding him to observe the rule of not eating of the tree of knowledge and good. He said to him, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen. 2:16-17). That’s all he had to do to keep covenanting with God. Adam however, broke the covenant with God by willful disobedience. Knowing what is right and not doing it, one commits sin, according to the Word of God. While Adam followed the command of God, he was in agreement with the covenant and there was a relationship between God and him. But when Adam chose to disobey God, he not only died spiritually but brought himself under the curse of sin and the world with him. So, by the sin of one man, we all sinned and have become short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). God, in His mercy, however, not only promised them the covenant of love through the death of His Son (Gen. 3:15) but clothed them with skins when they saw that they were naked (Gen. 3:19). From that time on until YAHSHUA came, man was to offer sacrifice to God for the remission of their sins according to what the Word of God says: without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. God’s covenant of love is beautifully expressed through the words of His Son, YAHSHUA: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). When YAHSHUA died, He offered salvation to every individual person. As the letter to the Hebrews said. The covenant of love was extended to all whosoever will accept Him. The covenant of love annuls and brings to naught the devil and his power of death. YAHSHUA came in the flesh and blood, partaking of man’s nature so He would go through death, in order to conquer it, defeat the devil and set men free from his power.

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A Manger, a Crown of Thorns and a Cross

(Luke 2:7; Matt 27:29; John 19: 16-18)

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; [yet] of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2).

The Manger

Before his death, Jacob prophesied of the tribe of Judah: The scepter of leadership shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh [the Messiah, the Peaceful One] comes to Whom it belongs, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people (Gen. 49:10). This prophecy was fulfilled many years later in the birth of our Savior, YAHSHUA. In those days it occurred that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole Roman empire should be registered; all the people were going to be registered, each to his own town; Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David ( Luke 2:1-3). That happened close to the time for Mary’s delivery. And while they were there, the time came for her delivery, and she gave birth to her Son, her Firstborn; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room or place for them in the inn (Luke 2:6-7). Was YAHSHUA laid in a manger where all kinds of animals were feeding as tradition tells us? In Micah 4:8 the idea is refuted, for the prophet gives us the exact location where Messiah was to be born and the type of manger He would be laid on: And you, O Tower of the Flock, the hill and stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, unto you the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the Daughter of Jerusalem. Messiah was to be born at the “Tower of the Flock”. This was a watch tower used by the shepherds in ancient times for the protection of their flock from enemies and wild beasts. It was also the place where chosen ewes were brought to give birth to their young ones; after their babies were born, they were wrapped in swaddling clothes for their protection. These were special lambs, chosen for temple sacrifices. Only these lambs would be feeding in that place. It is without a doubt that God chose this place many years earlier for His Son to be born; a significant picture of what was to come in the person of His Son, the Lamb of God.

After His birth, the perfect Lamb of God was wrapped in swaddling clothes and was laid in a manger at the “Tower of the Flock.” John the Baptist declared: There is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

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Do You Love Me Peter, More Than These?

(John 21)

It was the third time that the Lord had appeared to the disciples after He arose from the dead. They were waiting for Him at the Sea of Galilee, as they were told, although not everyone was there. Only seven out of eleven disciples. We don’t know how long they had waited before Peter decided to go fishing and the rest with him. YAHSHUA came to them in the early hour of the morning, when they were exhausted, for not having caught anything all night. YAHSHUA stood at the beach, without them recognizing Him. His familiar voice called to them saying, Boys, You do not have any meat, do you? They answered Him, No! And He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find, so they cast the net, and now they were not able to haul it in for such a big catch of fish (vs. 5,6). 153 large fish were caught that morning under the command of YAHSHUA, Whom they did not recognize at first. YAHSHUA had breakfast ready for them when they got to land. He invited them to eat. He took the bread and the fish and gave them to the disciples. After they had eaten, YAHSHUA directed a very important question to Peter. A question that would connect Peter once again with Lord, for saying, “I do not know the man,” he had left the Lord. A question that would challenge his love for YAHSHUA. Three times the same question was asked, measuring up to the three times he denied the Lord. Grieved that YAHSHUA should ask him the third time, Do you love Me? He said to Him, Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You (vs.17).

The first time YAHSHUA asked the question, Do you love Me, He added, more than these? Peter’s mind was on going back to his old life style. “I am going fishing.” With that, he disregarded YAHSUA’S calling of while back: “I will make you fisher of men” (Luke 5). The love that YAHSHUA was challenging Peter was not to the extent of the love the disciples had for Him. As you know, they too failed in their demonstration of their love for YAHSHUA. One betrayed Him, one doubted Him, and the rest forsook Him at the moment He needed them the most. It was not a question of comparison of his love with the other disciples’ love for YAHSHUA. No, this had to do with the love that Peter had for his fisherman’s business. Under the command of YAHSHUA, he had caught many fish. That was his livelihood, his money maker. Was Peter willing to leave all behind once again to serve the Lord, after the Lord had left the world? His past actions showed otherwise. YAHSHUA had to re-instate Peter with the question, Do you love Me more than these? In order for him to realize where he was and where he should have been. “I do not know the man” were the words Peter uttered to confirm he had forsaken the Lord. YAHSHUA was bringing him back to equip him for a task that required his complete surrender. A task that required the giving up his life to die for YAHSHUA, not only spiritually, but physically. It would be only through his genuine love for the Lord that he could accomplish the calling to be a martyr. Had not the Lord reinstated him, Peter would have gone his old way of living; but God had a purpose for him that only him would fulfill it: Feed “My lambs,” three times YAHSHUA challenged Peter’s love for Him. “Not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20) Peter had to die to self to receive the supernatural strength that came from God for him to go through the hard road ahead of him, as the Lord told him in which manner he was going to die as a martyr.

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The First Multiplication

(Mt. 14:15-23)

When evening came, the disciples came to Him and said, this is a remote and barren place, and the day is now over; send the throngs away into the villages to buy food for themselves. Jesus said they do not need to go away; you give them something to eat. They said to Him, We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish. He said, Bring them here to Me. Then He ordered the crowds to recline on the grass; and He took the five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and blessed and broke the loaves and handed the pieces to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about 5,000 men, not including women and children. Then He directed the disciples to get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent away the crowds. And after He had dismissed the multitudes, He went up into the hills by Himself to pray. When it was evening, He was still there alone.

“Send the throngs away into the villages to buy food for themselves,” said the disciples. Jesus however had another plan. He answered them; you give them something to eat. How? was the question in their minds. Five loaves and two fish was all that were available to feed thousands. But YAHSHUA only needed to have them to be given to Him for a miracle to happen. A need, much greater than the resource, cannot be met by the human standard, but in the hands of the Master, no resource is too small for Him to perform a miracle. Although the disciples puzzled over YAHSHUA’S command, “You give them some to eat” they brought Him the resources of five loaves and two fish. Something was happening at that time besides the physical need of the thousands of people. In God’s calendar He was expressing symbolism in these two numbers: five and two. What were these numbers speaking of at that point of time? They were expressing their meaning in prophecy. YAHSHUA said, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for whosoever believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16. That crowd represented by several nations, was the focus of the message hidden behind all that was happening: God loves the world. The two fish and the five loaves of bread did not happen by accident. No, through them God was lighting His love not only to the Jews, but to all the world. The message in the two fish is that the space of two thousand years He was going to give to the Gentile nations for their salvation under His grace which is symbolic by the number five in the five loaves of bread.

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The World in Spiritual Chaos

Peace, peace is the cry of the world today as it faces turmoil of biblical proportion. What is really happening world widely that so many people are committing suicide in a hopeless state of mind? Can you separate what’s happening in these days from the prophecies written in the Bible? No, you cannot. YAHSHUA, when answering the disciples’ questions concerning the end of time, said this as a sign of His coming, among many other things: And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, a d there will be famines and earthquakes in place after place; all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs (Matt. 24:6-8). There is a cry out there coming from the hearts of men for the normality of things, when there will no longer be as it was just two years ago. No one expected that a manmade virus would control the destiny of the world, much less that it would linger with vaccine, mandated vaccine and passport vaccine. When will it ever end? A question everyone asks anxiously wanting to see the end of the ordeal. One thing we did not realize was that what’s happening today is the result of many years the few who controls the world have been planning in the pursuit to depopulate the world from billions to five hundred million. An evil plan coming from Satan himself, performed by those who follow him. This is definitely a scary time for those who do not know God neither His word. The Bible is filled with fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecies in God’s watch. The prophets of old did not see what they prophesized; because although, some prophecies were to be fulfilled in a short time, others had a long span of weighting time for them to be fulfilled.

Nations are unsettled and will continue to be until God supernaturally intervenes their plan, and these people will be judged for the slaughter of many who took the vaccine. Used to be cradled in comfort and peace, nations are found shocked at what is happening. Why do the nations assemble with commotion, and why do the people imagine an empty scheme? (Psalm 2:1) For sure this verse describes the world’s situation of today. The chaos created by the few to bring about their “empty scheme” will not prevail, although it looks as though it has. Our God is not limited to impossibilities of problems. He shines then, because there is nothing impossible for Him. One of several examples concerning God’s unlimited power is found in II Kings in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign over Judah, when the king of Assyria came up against the cities of Judah and took them. All seemed to be impossible for King Hezekiah to overcome such power, as the king of Assyria defiantly challenged him. But King Hezekiah found a place of comfort in the presence of the Lord, when he went there to pray. The message came to him from the Prophet Isaiah saying, Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled and blasphemed Me. King Hezekiah prayed: O Lord our God, I beseech You, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know and understand that You, O Lord, are God alone (II kings19). The Lord heard King Hezekiah’s prayer and supernaturally delivered Judah from the hands of Assyria’s king.

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I Sought a Man Who Should Build the Wall and Stand in the Gap

From the time that God created man, He has not ceased to seek that special person who will build walls and stand in the gap on behalf of a country or people so that He would not destroy them; a man who will stand in the gap for righteousness and justice. The Word of the Lord that came to the prophet Ezekiel while he and the nation of Israel were captives in Babylon were words of judgment against the sins of that nation. Israel laid bare before her Lord and her sins were exposed before Him. God’s love and patience over Israel and all other nations are evident in the length of time He waits before He sends judgment. Meanwhile He seeks intercessors who will stand in the gap in His presence for the land and for its people. He told Ezekiel that He had sought a man among Israel who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Him for the land, that he should not destroy it, but He found none. Therefore, He said, Have I poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their own way have I repaid upon their own heads, says the Lord God(Ezekiel 22: 30-31).

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The Ultimate Gift

(Isaiah 53; Hebrews 10: 7,10)

Then YAHSHUA said, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God, what is written of Me in the volume of the Book; and in accordance with this will we have been made holy through the offering made once for all of the body of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10: 7, 10).

While He was carrying our grief and sorrow, while He was being wounded for our trespasses and transgressions, while He was being bruised for our guilt and iniquities, while He was taking our punishment and giving us His peace, we stood ignorant and considered Him to be under God’s judgment, rejecting Him to the point of hiding our faces from His appearance, which was marred beyond human form (Isaiah 52: 14). Why do think that was? The reason why, was that we could not stand to see our own sinful condition being put on Him. He didn’t fight back and we thought Him to be weak and marveled at His silence. He was taken away by oppression and falsehood and was led away to the slaughter with criminals, as if He were one of them. He was denied justice and a fair trial. We then, nailed His hands and feet to a tree for six hours when our guilt and iniquities were lighted on Him. With the intensity of His suffering, He cried, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? (My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me)? (Isaiah 53; Psalm 22)

Bruised, grieved and sickened, God made Him an offering for the sin of the world. Nailed to a tree, His face and body disfigured and poured out like water (in His blood), all His bones out of joint, His heart softened in anguish, no strength left in Him, thirst from dehydration, His tongue cleaved to His jaws, yet He endured the insults of men. “Come down from the tree, if You are the Son of God!” with many other insults they tormented Him. But again, they could never understand that the horror they had seen in YAHSHUA’S face body were indeed the reflection of their own sins He was taking upon Himself. They failed to accept that He was the perfect gift to them- the ultimate gift God was giving to the world– the gift of forgiveness.

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