FollowingJesusUS.com

God’s Love

A friend of mine sent this, I just had to share 🙂

“TO MY CHILD

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and Loved more than you know. If I could give you one thing in life I would give you the ability to see yourself through My Eyes. Only then would you realize how special you are to Me. You are My Sunshine. Believe in Me. Surrender.

Love you,

Your Heavenly Father.

Peace”

Peter: “And above all things have Fervent Charity”

In Peter 4:8, Peter the Apostle, writes a letter to other Christians to tell them how to live in times when Christians are persecuted. Sadly, a time is coming when Christians will be greatly persecuted.

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” -1 Peter 4:8

Have you ever lived among those you love in a tight-knit circle in a small house? No matter how much we love one another; we can get on each other’s last nerve, lol. And because we love one another so, we often share our inner most thoughts, including our sins. Or sometimes, we just-get caught.

And that is why Peter’s verse is so very important. The definition of charity is: “kindness and tolerance in judging others.”. Or historically, “loving” others.

The first has often been confused. Refraining from judging others does NOT mean refraining sharing with them God’s Truth. It does NOT mean failing to share with them if their behavior if sinful. It DOES mean loving them anyway! It DOES mean forgiving them as Jesus forgives us :).

No matter how great the challenges we face,

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” -1 Peter 4:8

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

People Will Know That We Follow Jesus If We Love One Another!

” By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” – John 13:35

Jesus said this to His apostles: “if ye have love one to another”, others will know that you Follow Me 🙂

And do they? There are so many acts of kindness we can do. Listening, smiling, carry grocery bags, sharing our food and water, allowing others in the parking lot to pull out in front of us, sharing our blankets and clothes… The list is endless!

We can hug each other, help each other, walk with each other, share God’s Truth with one another… Just as Jesus does with us 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready 🙂

“Peter’s Letter to Christians In 1 Peter 4 Is About How To Live In The World While Suffering For Faith In Christ. “

Notice, this does not say we should be reluctant to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in case we suffer for it. As more and more people suffer for their faith in Jesus, as more Christians are persecuted, it will become even more important to share the Good News.

Why? In part, because there will not be any Good News to be had. But most importantly, because every person that we reach with the Good News of Jesus Christ will have the ability to go to Heaven if they choose to accept Jesus as their Savior.

Can you imagine is such a time of darkness, how it will help another to be able to look forward to Heaven :). How it will help another to be loved and give love 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

War Is Coming!

No matter how much we fear it, no matter how much we dread it, war is coming. The only question is how will we behave?

Will we love one another? Will we love our enemies? Will we reach out in kindness? Will we share whatever we have? Will we love as God has called us to love?

Will our family, friends, strangers and enemies know us by our love?

Will God?

Prepare, Pray and Be Ready!

God Understands Just How Much We Love Our Children!

“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.” – Isaiah 60:4

Just that this verse is in the Bible comforts every parent. We love our children so. That God knows and understands this is such a comfort. His understanding gives such hope.

He loves our children even more than we do. And yet, God also understands and empathizes with how much we love our children and He will, as always, be Faithful to us all 🙂

God is so good and loves us all so much! In these dark days, we can take much comfort and hope from His Love, both for us and for our children 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

God Is Always Faithful!

Doubt Creeps In, Where Only Faith Belongs.

I wish I could say that I have never had any doubts, but that would not be true. And that’s okay. Remember Thomas? Jesus understands ?

Do we doubt that Jesus is real, no. For even Satan knows Jesus is real. I think when doubt creeps in, it is more subtle than that and has more to do with our own insecurities. We do not really doubt God’s Goodness, but our own.

But God is Faithful, even when we are not. He loves us, even when we feel unlovable. He loves us every second of every minute of every day. We just need to remember that ?

And Thank Him 🙂

Because Faith is not about how we feel on any given day, but rather who we choose to follow every single day ?

Follow Jesus 🙂

My Friends, Stand Alongside Your Brother!

1 Chronicles 12:16-18 Then some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the stronghold. And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if to betray me to my enemies, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look and bring judgment.” Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the captains, and he said: “We are yours, O David; We are on your side, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, And peace to your helpers! For your God helps you.” So David received them, and made them captains of the troop.

Mark 6:7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.

“As David grew in stature those who stood by him increased in number, devoting themselves to fight with him. Though it was a time of adversity for David, and a time of warfare, he found that there were many willing to join their lives to his; “…a brother is born for adversity”; and “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”. Again we note that David’s anointing and his character made him a friend to many…and many became his loyal friends.

When Yeshua (Jesus) sent his disciples out, He never sent them alone — He sent them two by two; and no doubt these pairs of disciples developed deep loyalty, unity and friendship as they proclaimed the kingdom and faced the powers of darkness together.

TheresaF, how would you describe your friendships in the Body of Messiah? Do you feel isolated, fighting battles alone? Do you know others who are in that condition? With the battles now raging, it’s more important than ever to be a friend, and to really know who your friends are. May the Lord grant each one of us loyal and faithful friendships as we fight the good fight.”

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah
Gulf Port, Mississippi

(From Israel)

I have started by day with Worthy Devotionals for over 15 years. They really help me to focus my day on serving Jesus :). To receive them in your email, use this link: Worthy Devotionals

Isaiah 59: Does Our Father Forgive Us?

Of course He does, He loves us ?

Often we read of forgiveness in the New Testament, but it also speaks of forgiveness in the Old Testament (Isaiah 59).

Isaiah 59 starts with a reminder that God is all powerful and can save and hear us. But because of our sins He could not. So clearly our sins do separate us from God. Good thing for us that we have a Savior that forgives us and wipes our slate clean. Because of His Great Sacrifice, God can hear us and we are saved ?

And in fact, towards the end of Isaiah 59, God clearly wishes to save His people, even if it is from themselves. And so He looks to find one good person who truly stands up for truth and justice, who seeks to turn the people back to God, but sadly, He can’t even find one.

So at the end of Isaiah 59, our Father promised to send a “Redeemer” to save us Himself-Jesus Christ. God could have given up on us. He could have stopped loving us. But He didn’t. God Loved Us Always. And because He loves us so, He sent Jesus to Save us.

And because Jesus came and we accepted Him as our Savior (Redeemer), we are completely forgiven. For God not only forgives our sins, He erases them.

And we should do the same for others ?

Anger At God Really Comes From Fear!

There are many who are angry at God right now. They question why He doesn’t “fix” things. Make the Covid-19 virus go away. Make the riots stop. Right the country. But God gave us free will. We, ourselves, get to choose our own path. And right now, some are making very poor choices.

It’s okay for us to feel anger at the situation. But we need to keep talking to God about it. Tell Him how we feel! Believe me, He understands! And when we feel those angry feelings rising up, we need to recognize them for what they are-feelings. And as my Dad used to say, feelings lie. We know the Truth-We just need to remember it-God uses all things, even the bad things, to the good of those who love Him.

Also, this isn’t Heaven! In Heaven, all will be perfect. There will be nothing to fear! And although this isn’t Heaven yet, one day we will be in Heaven together, and we need to hold onto that 🙂

And we also need to understand why we feel angry. The root of all anger is fear. There are some who are afraid that if bad things are happening, that means that God does not love them. Nothing could be further from the truth! God loves us!

In the Bible it warns that we “will have troubles”. Jesus warned us of this so that when the “troubles” came, we would would not fear and we would know that He still loves us. All of us!

Do not fear my friends, Jesus has it all in hand, even our “troubles” and He loves us all-each and every one.