Good morning, all!
Father, we know that Your love is immeasurable, it has no beginning and no end. We pray that we would believe and experience Your love today, Lord, let us never forget where true strength comes from and give us the resolve to love like You even when we don’t understand all that is around us, Amen.
Revelation 2
1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
This is the message Angel speaks to the church, the ones that hold 7 stars in their right hand and that walk among the path lit by 7 golden candles.
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
I know how hard you grind, and your patience and how you can bear to deal with people who sin; and how you try those that call themselves Christians and aren’t, you see them as liars:
3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
You have carried the burden and have been consistent, and you’ve labored through this for God’s sake and have not moved from your position.
4 Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Nevertheless, I do have a problem with you BECAUSE you have left of the FIRST priority of life…LOVE.
Bottom line
While I do love Tina Turner and she is “simply the best”, her hit song what’s love got to do with it? It’s the only thing it has to do with it…LIVING that is! John is speaking to the church in this passage, people that claim to know and love God. What do the 7 stars in our hand represent and the walk we take through 7 candlesticks?
[Eph 3:17 KJV] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love. The angel is none other than the spirit of Christ in our heart by FAITH…you need to believe He’s there and the stars in the HAND…what you use to work…the work of Christ is love, we do that when we are ROOTED…what sustains us and helps us to GROW…mature…and we are GROUNDED…we stay in that spot and never move NO matter what happens. So, follow with me, God has NO beginning and NO end He always is and always will be, right? In the beginning God created heaven and earth…everything including us, right? it also says we are created in the image and likeness of God, and if God always existed, He is not a created being, right?
[Psa 108:4 NIV] For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Notice God’s love is above heaven, it has to be. First of all, NOTHING can contain God’s love and
second, God created heaven and earth He didn’t create love…He is love, always was and always be. His image and likeness have nothing to do with our flesh, His image is faith, and His likeness is love. How do we walk in light?
[1Jo 2:11 KJV] But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. The only way to walk in light, to walk with God is LOVE. If we hate one another we walk in darkness and we don’t KNOW how to live life, the hate we have blinds our view of life. This is the problem with the church of Ephesus, they won’t bear with the sinner they reject them, they call them liars and they do it in the name of the Lord…NEVERTHELESS…translation…God has a problem with this lifestyle…we LEFT off love. Love is the first thing we do NOT the last, and once we mature and love FIRST nothing else can get in the way of that…just like the verse says we are GROUNDED in love. What’s moves us off love? offenses…hurt…sorrow…self-pity…pride…self-righteousness…that’s a big one, why do you think the church of Ephesus calls people liars? I don’t about you but when was the last time you loved someone you called a liar? Call me crazy but I believe that’s why God has something against me.
[Rom 12:3 KJV] For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Riddle me this if every man has faith given to them by God shouldn’t they have the power to love? Otherwise, what’s the point of having faith if NOT to love one another? I think God is TEACHING us how to love because we left that off in favor of thinking we’re better than others and so we think our purpose is to judge rather than love.
[1Th 4:9 NIV] Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. The greatest teacher in the world has provided the greatest lesson, He laid down His life NOT to judge you but to LOVE you…faith will lay it down to love FIRST…here endeth the lesson.
Point to Ponder
Why? [1Jo 4:19 KJV] We love him, because he first loved us. He is the first and the last…starts and ends with LOVE, whatever you do don’t walk in darkness.
Let’s all love first, everything else will work itself out. In Him Phil
Faith – Family – Friends