Welcome in the Warmth of the New Season by Walking in God’s Love

Yesterday morning during my quiet prayer and study time with the Lord, I heard His voice on my heart say, “I want you to write more of who I am through your eyes. The words will be through my eyes to your heart to believe.”

I knew this was an answer to my heart prayers of the last several weeks, asking for guidance on how to write about my thoughts about the Gospel of John. It was perfect timing as the ladies in my prayer group and I had felt a tug on our hearts to read the Gospel of John for our next Bible study journey together.

My journey in the Gospel of John started four years ago. The Lord put it on my heart to read this book. Little did I know that the Gospel of John would become a home for me to visit, live in, leave at times, and return to when I needed some extra comfort and rest.

For four years, I have been “camped out” in this book! It has become a comfortable home for my heart to rest in fellowship with God. The words penned by John have guided me through a deeper understanding of God’s love and truth through the life of Jesus; and to have an understanding to know that he is always with us, if we believe.

As written in John 14:1, Jesus talks to his disciples to give them comfort:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. And may our hearts grow to believe our faith to find that same comfort in Jesus’ love for us every day.”

The New Testament presents four biographies. The Gospel of Matthew testifies that he is the King, the Christ of God according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, the One who brings the kingdom of the heavens to earth. The Gospel of Mark presents him as the Love-Slave of God, the perfect servant who labors faithfully for God. The Gospel of Luke presents a full picture of Christ as the true Man and the compassionate Savior of everyone who comes to him. Finally, the Gospel of John unveils him as the Son of God, the very God himself, to be life to God’s people. Some refer to the Gospel of John as the book of Eternal Love.

As we navigate through the Gospel of John, we discover miracles everywhere: water becomes wine; blind eyes are blessed with sight, and the dead rise to walk again when Jesus lived among men. Every miracle is a sign to make us wonder about who this man truly is. To embrace the love, joy, faith, kindness and peace of Jesus is to enjoy a heavenly perspective filled with wonderful revelations in every verse. Some say that nothing in the Bible compares to the writings of John. He was a prophet, a seer, a lover, an evangelist, an author, an apostle, and a son of thunder.

I realized over these last few weeks, that my heart study of the Gospel of John, is not something I can quickly walk through, wrap up in a big bow and put on the shelf for another time. The depth of the love for Jesus expressed through the voice of the Apostle John is endless.

John also wrote three letters to reveal the glorious love that God has for all of us, to give us His Son Jesus:

The light of God’s love shined within us when he sent his matchless Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.
1 John 4:9 (TPT)

I also realize that the purpose for writing my thoughts about the Gospel of John, is not to take the reader through the book verse by verse, but it is to offer a perspective of the Gospel through the eyes of my heart as God had called me to do,

in the hope of encouraging one’s heart to map out a personal journey and to see and embrace how God’s love is real.

My study in the Gospel of John -- and the entirety of the Bible -- will continue to be my daily food and living water for God’s love and the story of Jesus, as it is written on every page of the Bible.

Loving are all the ways of Yahweh,
loving and faithful for those who keep his covenant.
Psalms 25:10 (TPT)

As Dr. Brian Simmons describes in his devotional book entitled God is Love, God never stops moving in marvelous mercy. He is always at work, weaving threads of his love through our lives, creating an intricate tapestry of his kindness. We each are a small part of a larger whole. Our lives are not at the center of God’s plan, and yet each of us is sewn in. We play a part. Simmons adds that God never stops working. That means he is up to something good even when we cannot recognize it quite yet. What a wonderful God! What a reason to rejoice and never lose hope!

The next day I began my journey to write about the Gospel of John. The early morning sunlight began to wash over the garden and I felt as though God was giving me an invitation to sit with Him and take in the peaceful moments of the early spring season. I bundled up in my hat, scarf and warm jacket, and filled my arms with my Bible, books, journal and writing tools. I made a cup of hot tea and found a cozy seat in the garden to sit with God—to be still and slowly take in the beauty of the new life beginning to sprout on the trees and plants, replenishing my soul with renewed hope.

I began to read the introduction to the Gospel of John in The Passion Translation. It says the Gospel of John is all about the beautiful Christ. John tells us why he wrote this amazing book:

Jesus went on to do many more miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not even included in this book. But all that is recorded here is so that you will fully believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you will experience eternal life by the power of his name!
John 20:30–31 (TPT)

According to Simmons, “John wrote with a twofold purpose. He’s writing to nonbelievers, mostly Jews but also gentiles, to believe that Jesus is the One through whom they will find and experience eternal life; he’s also writing to believers that they would more fully believe the same, to experience the fullness of that life by Jesus’ powerful name.”

The word ‘believe’ is found nearly one hundred times in John. It is the Gospel of believing! We believe that Jesus Christ is

the Living Expression of God and the Light of the World. He is the Savior, the King, the true Anointed One, the Living Bread, and the Loving Shepherd. This is why we continue to teach and preach from this magnificent, authoritative book so that people might have faith and grow in their faith. The Gospel of John reveals these living truths to us.

I turned to the first chapter of John to begin my journey. As I slowly read through it, I learned that most scholars believe that the first 18 verses of John could be words for an ancient hymn or poem that may have been cherished by first-century believers. According to Simmons, just as we express ourselves in words, God has perfectly expressed Himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s story.

May I invite you to join me to read these verses and find a quiet space to reflect upon these words. Welcome the love of Jesus into your heart:

1 In the beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God.
2 They were together—face-to-face, in the very beginning.
3 And through his creative inspiration
this Living Expression made all things,
for nothing has existence apart from him!
4 A fountain of life was in him,
for his life is light for all humanity.
5 And this Light never fails to shine through darkness—
Light that darkness could not overcome!
6 Suddenly a man appeared who was sent from God,
a messenger named John.
7 For he came as a witness, to point the way to the Light of Life, and to help everyone believe.
8 John was not that Light but he came to show who is.
For he was merely a messenger to speak the truth about the Light.
9 For the perfect Light of Truth was coming into the world and shine upon everyone.
10 He entered into the world he created,
yet the world was unaware.
11 He came to the people he created —
to those who should have received him,
but they did not recognize him.
12 But those who embraced him and took hold of his name
he gave authority to become
the children of God!
13 He was not born by the joining of human parents
or from natural means, or by a man’s desire,
but he was born of God.
14 And so the Living Expression
became a man and lived among us!
We gazed upon his glory,
the glory of the One and Only
who came from the Father overflowing
with tender mercy and truth!

The cool morning breeze began to pick up so I wandered to another spot in the garden where the warmth of the sun became a cozy blanket. I found myself rustling through the pages of my bible to John 3:14-17 (TPT):

“And just as Moses in the desert lifted up the brass replica of a venomous snake on a pole for all the people to see and be healed, so the Son of Man is ready to be lifted up, so that those who truly believe in him will not perish but be given eternal life. For here is the way God loved the world—he gave his only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue.”

I put my bible down and closed my eyes to ponder what it must have been like for God, our Father, to give His only begotten Son’s life as a gracious gift to take away the sins of world; all of the diseases, doubts, hurts and sadness, so that everyone who believes will have an ever-lasting life. To think He did this unthinkable sacrificial act for us. Yes for us! To show us “how deep, wide and endless His love is for us.”

We could reference this from Ephesians 3: 17 -19 (NIV) where the Apostle Paul writes: ...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Can one even imagine this type of love? I could feel His love wrapped around me as I continued to commune with Him in His word. I can see how, if we are able to open our eyes to our hearts, we will see that our God is always working for our good. We will always feel His love for us through all days, as Jesus did.

“Every day my Father is at work, and I will be, too,” as Jesus said in John, 5:17

Dr. Brian Simmons writes about the Gospel of John: “Love unlocks mysteries. As we love Jesus, our hearts are unlocked to see more of his beauty and glory. When we stop defining ourselves by our failures, but rather as the one whom Jesus loves, then our hearts begin to open to the breathtaking discovery of the wonder of Jesus Christ. Jesus does not see us in the darkness of our pasts but in the light of our destinies!”

The sunlight began to dim as a sea of clouds washed over the sky. I decided it was time to take a break and putter in the garden. I grabbed my garden tools, hat, glove and bucket. I found myself softly humming the U2 Song, “In the Name of Love”:

One man come in the name of love One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love.
What more in the name of love?

In the name of love.
What more in the name of love?

While clipping and cleaning the beds in the garden and humming these words, I paused for a moment to watch the butterflies dance in the wind and the hummingbirds sprint from one blossom to the next. Yes, our God is always at work, doing more in the name of love as He surrounds us with His love in the form of beauty that can be seen if our eyes to our heart are open.

PAUSE & REFLECT:

Please take a moment to sit down and ponder what love means to you. What did you do today to share God’s love?
What did you do today in the name of love?

The next day, I continued my journey in the Gospel of John. Sitting by one of our olive trees opened the door of my heart to memories of sacred visits to Israel and walking through the footsteps of Jesus from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross. As we walked these steps, my soul could almost feel the deep agony and pain that Jesus must have felt, knowing what was going to take place at the Cross.

After Jesus finished this prayer; he left with his disciples and
went across the Kidron Valley to a place where there was
a garden. Judas, the traitor, knew where this place was, for
Jesus had gone there often with his disciples. The Pharisees and the leading priests had given Judas a large detachment of Roman
soldiers and temple police to seize Jesus.
Judas guided them to the garden, all of them carrying torches and lanterns and armed with swords and spears. Jesus, knowing full well what was about to happen, went out to the garden entrance
to meet them.
Stepping forward, he asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. (Now Judas, the traitor, was among them.) He replied, “I am he.”
John 18: 1-5 (TPT)

At this moment, Jesus, took the time to pray. To pray before His life-giving sacrifice was to begin. Knowing in advance what was to befall him, he still prayed to his Father God.

I continued to read through the painful flight of Jesus’ crucifixion in chapter 19. Soft tears from my heart rolled down my face, blotting the ink of my notes. I encourage all of us to slowly read through Chapter 19 and take time to pause and truly mediate on the word and what took place.

As I slowly walked through this chapter, some of the verses from John 19 really struck my heart:

Then Pilate ordered Jesus to be brutally beaten with a whip of leather straps embedded with metal. And the soldiers also wove thorn-branches into a crown and set it on his head and placed a purple robe over his shoulders. Then, one by one, they came in front of him to mock him by saying, “Hail, to the king of the Jews!” And one after the other, they repeatedly punched him in the face. Once more Pilate went out and said to the Jewish officials, “I will bring him out once more so that you know that I’ve found nothing wrong with him.” So when Jesus emerged, bleeding, wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns on his head, Pilate said to them, “Look at him! Here is your man!”

Jesus carried his own cross out of the city to the place called “The Skull,” which in Aramaic is Golgotha. And there they nailed him to the cross. He was crucified, along with two others, one on each side with Jesus in the middle. Pilate had them post a sign over the cross, which was written in three languages—Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Many of the people of Jerusalem read the sign, for he was crucified near the city. The sign stated: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” John 19: 17 – 20 (TPT)

PAUSE & REFLECT:

How could one even imagine being totally beaten and disfigured and then carrying the cross that one would be nailed to and crucified to, in order to complete a mission that was planned before the beginning of time for the salvation of human kind?

“Jesus knew that his mission was accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said: “I am thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was sitting nearby, so they soaked a sponge with it and put it on the stalk of hyssop and raised it to his lips. When he had sipped the sour wine, he said, “It is finished, my bride!” Then he bowed his head and surrendered his spirit to God.”
John 19: 28 – 30

The great mission that Jesus accomplished to fulfill the Scripture was the most amazing love gift from God to all of us. We now have a gateway to God for eternal life.

Jesus prayed in the opening of John 17:

“This is what Jesus prayed as he looked up into heaven, “Father, the time has come. Unveil the glorious splendor of your Son so that I will magnify your glory! You have already given me authority over all people so that I may give the gift of eternal life to all those that you have given to me. Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth by faithfully doing everything you’ve told me to do. So, my Father, restore me back to the glory that we shared together when we were face-to-face before the universe was created.”

Further in chapter 17, we read about how Jesus continues to pray for His Disciples and for you and me (verses 20-26):

And I ask not only for these disciples,
but also for all those who will one day
believe in me through their message.
I pray for them all to be joined together as one
even as you and I, Father, are joined together as one. I pray for them to become one with us

so that the world will recognize that you sent me.
For the very glory you have given to me I have given them
so that they will be joined together as one
and experience the same unity that we enjoy.
You live fully in me and now I live fully in them
so that they will experience perfect unity,
and the world will be convinced that you have sent me,
for they will see that you love each one of them
with the same passionate love that you have for me.
“Father, I ask that you allow everyone that you have given to me to be with me where I am!
Then they will see my full glory—
the very splendor you have placed upon me
because you have loved me even before the beginning of time. “You are my righteous Father,

but the unbelieving world has never known you in the perfect way that I know you!
And all those who believe in me
also know that you have sent me!

I have revealed to them who you are
and I will continue to make you even more real to them, so that they may experience the same endless love
that you have for me,
for your love will now live in them, even as I live in them!”

How wonderful to know that our God loved and loves us so much. He knew before the beginning of time that His Son, who bore our sins, would die so that you and I could live a victorious life in His love.

Let’s praise God for His tender love and gracious gift of Jesus. May the words that David composed in Psalm 136 rejoice love and blessings in your life to Know that God loves today, and tomorrow and forever.

Let everyone thank God, for he is good, and he is easy to please! His tender love for us continues on forever!
Give thanks to God, our King over all gods!
His tender love for us continues on forever!

Give thanks to the Lord over all lords!
His tender love for us continues on forever!
Give thanks to the only miracle-working God!
His tender love for us continues on forever!
Give thanks to the Creator who made the heavens with wisdom!
His tender love for us continues on forever!
To him who formed dry ground, raising it up from the sea!
His tender love for us continues on forever!
Praise the one who created every heavenly light!
His tender love for us continues on forever!
He set the sun in the sky to rule over day!
His tender love for us continues on forever!
Praise him who set in place the moon and stars to rule over the night!

His Tender Love Psalms 136: 1-9 (TPT)