God's Everlasting Love

     God told the prophet Jeremiah that he loved Israel with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3 "the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." God had anger toward Israel for awhile but he continued to loved them. Isaiah 54:8 "In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the LORD, your Redeemer." Even though Israel angered God, God like a loving Father punished them but still loved them with an everlasting love. Hebrew 12:6 "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."
     It is the same with us as it was for Israel. God loves us with an everlasting love and will punish us just like a loving Father, who punishes his children. God's love is everlasting to those who fear him, meaning those who obey, respect and worship him. Psalm 103:17 "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children." Lamentations 3:22 "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;"
     God's love is a long lasting love. Deuteronomy 7:9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations," Psalm 100:5 "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 136:26 "Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever."
     God's love is a steadfast love, meaning it will never change or become weaker. It is a permanent love that cannot be extinguished or ever run out. God's love will never abandon us or leave us without hope because it is an everlasting love.

Live Your Life as Christ Lived His

     We should be like our teacher Jesus Christ. Jesus said to his disciples in John 13:13 "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am." Jesus said in Luke 6:40 "A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when is fully trained will be like his teacher." Jesus is saying that he being our teacher can fully train us by his words and example to be like him. 1 John 1:6 "whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." 1 Peter 2:21 'For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps."
     If we are to live our life like Jesus, we must believe in him. John 6:28-29, 40 "Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." If we are to live our life like Jesus, we must love one another. John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." If we are to live our life like Jesus, we must forgive each other. Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
     Jesus has many good qualities. 1 Peter 2:22-23 "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." Jesus lived his life in an humble manner. Philippians 2:5-8 "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Jesus said I am gentle and lowly in heart in Matthew 11:29-30 "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 
     Jesus Christ has many more qualities that I have not written about. By looking at the few that I have listed, you can see that Jesus is someone that we should be following. Out of his love for us, he die upon the cross to take away our sins so that we may have a future in his kingdom. He gave us a commandment to love one another. He told us to forgive each other. He has always been truthful. He is someone who we can trust. He lived his life in a humble and caring way.
     I want to live my life, the way he lived his. I want to be able to love as he loved. I want to do good and make a difference in someway. I know if I lived my life as Jesus lived his, my life will be the better for it and I will be seeing him someday in his Kingdom.
     
      

We are a New Creation

     We are a new creation according to 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come." Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:19-20 "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone." 
     To be a new creation of God, my old sinner self had to be crucified with Christ so that the Holy Spirit of the Lord can live within me. Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Romans 6:5-8 "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."
     New Creation means being recreated and transformed into the image of Christ. Ephesians 4:22-24 "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Colossians 3:9-11 "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all." Isaiah 43:18-19 "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
     Ephesians 5:1,15-17,19-20 "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."