Christ Our Example

Songs:
Draw Me Nearer (Crosby)
You Are Good, by Jeff Deyo

Scripture: Psalm 100 (King James Version)
1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

I was in my devotional time, and having just prayed “We are Your people, and the sheep of Your pasture,” I began singing:

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord…


I stopped when I sensed the Lord questioning me:

Do you know what you’re asking?

I was quiet. I thought of when it was requested of Jesus that James and John be allowed to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus in His glorious kingdom, and Jesus’ answer to them:

Mark 10:38 (NKJV)
But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

My mind went to another time when the Lord stopped me as I was singing to question my grasp of the words coming out of my mouth. I was in church, and we were singing some song about how much we love Jesus. I was really getting into the song, really feeling it, and sensed His query:

Do you really love Me?

"Yes, Lord,” I said.

Do you even know what love really is?

At that point I was quiet (like Job when he was questioned by God) and just sat down. I was led to 1 Corinthians 13:


The Greatest Gift
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

…and to John 14:

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.


…reminding me that love wasn’t about a feeling, but about obedience, shown through actions.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

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Back in the present, I waited. Not sensing anything else right then, I read my God Calling devotional entry for today. One part of it struck me:

"He saved others. Himself He cannot save."

Lord, I believe that You could have saved Yourself
– that it was not beyond Your ability - but You chose not to.

John 12:27 (NKJV)
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

It was either You or us, and You chose us.

John 15:16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

I am reminded anew that You could not – by Your own choice - save Yourself, because You were saving us. You put us first. Because of Your love for the Father and Your obedience to Him…

John 14:31 (NKJV)
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

John 10:17 (NKJV)
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

Mark 14:36 (NKJV)
And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”


John 13:1
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

… and Your love for us, for me – You could not: You did not. Thank You, Lord.

Isaiah 55:8-13 (AMP)
8For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12For you shall go out [from the spiritual exile caused by sin and evil into the homeland] with joy and be led forth [by your Leader, the Lord Himself, and His word] with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name of renown, for an everlasting sign [of jubilant exaltation] and memorial [to His praise], which shall not be cut off.


Mark 10:45 (NKJV)
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."


John 11:49-52 (NIV)
49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.


Matthew 27:42 (AMP)
42He rescued others from death; Himself He cannot rescue from death. He is the King of Israel? Let Him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in and acknowledge and cleave to Him.


Romans 5:15 (NIV)
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

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In writing this blog, I also thought about the Our Daily Bread devotionals for the past couple of days, and went online to look at them. I saw on the RBC home page part of the Been Thinking About blog. It mentioned that this is Yom Kippur, so I read what it was saying. The lessons of Jonah, love, sacrifice from all of this reminds me of the greatness of God’s love, grace and mercy – not just towards me, but towards everyone, even those I may not think should benefit from them. And my challenge, as He answers my prayer to “draw me nearer,” is to let that greatness live in and through me…

Philippians 2:1-11 (NKJV & AMP [v5])

Unity Through Humility
1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

The Humbled and Exalted Christ

5Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

... and my journey with Him continues ...