The Approaching and Approachable God:

Well let me ask you, have you made a home in your heart for Jesus? We closed this week’s lesson by
reading John 14:23, which says “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.”

We invest so much into trying to figure out the Christian life when Jesus gives us the key ingredient in this one simple verse. With the completion of two axioms of faith and trust in our daily walk, Jesus will move right in. The Lord Jesus said first to love Him and secondly to keep His word. Abraham, formerly Abram had to come to this crisis of belief: “I can trust God to do what He said He would do.” How much easier life would be, if we could get our head around that truth? I am reminded of Philippians 1:6, that we can be “confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” This verse takes me back to the scene at Calvary where Christ hangs on a tree between two thieves. Remember what Arthur Pink said of the thief who would join Christ in paradise, “He could not walk in the paths of righteousness for there was a nail through either foot. He could not perform any good works for there was a nail through either hand. He could not turn over a new leaf and live a better life for he was dying.” But yet based on the sovereign authority of Jesus Christ that thief would join Jesus in paradise. That rings encouragement into my heart! No matter the failure, no matter the disappointment, no matter the struggles in life, no matter what, if my trust is in God and I know that there is nothing “too hard for the Lord,” I will be okay!

I want to challenge you this week to truly let God have control over life’s situations, He can do more with them than we can. Second to this, I want you to make more time for the two things that make a home for Jesus in our lives: 1. Find a special way to show your love for the Lord this week. 2. Make a special point to spend purposeful time in the Word.

I look forward to hearing how God is blessing the life you have surrendered to Him.

Pastor Barry