Love Fulfilled Ministry

" Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " (1 John 4:8). The ultimate love is that God could have ended everything with man, but he did not, even flooding the earth to wash away man's filth he chose a man to carry on humanity. Eventually to reconcile himself with man, Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and although he existed in the form of God he counted himself not equal to God but took on the form of a servant, in the likeness of humans, he humbled himself becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-9). God's love is often  opposite  of what the  world  teaches, but the Bible is clear when it speaks about God's love; if I speak with languages of men and angels, if I have prophecy and are perceiving all secrets and knowledge and have faith that moves mountains, if I give away all I have even my body to be burned, if I have not love, I am nothing, it benefits me not (1 Corinthians 13). The Bible says that ...

For every one shall be salted by fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt  (Mark 9:49). God tests us by testing our hearts (Proverbs 17:3). He tests us by affliction, " I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction"  (Isaiah 48:10). It was prophesied of Jesus's coming that " He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross...refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices " (Malachi 3:3). He wants acceptable sacrifices and He wants us to be pure, " I will turn my hand on you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities " (Isaiah 1:25). God wants to remove the impurities from us so that we become a vessel for his use,  " take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer " (Proverbs 25:4). Paul writes of the sufferings encountered in Asia; it was beyond measure, ab...

" Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me " (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). To Paul, Christ's power in him was of more value than the weaknesses and hardships, " that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong " (2 Corinthians 12:10). Some have speculated to what Paul's weakness was, I believe it is unspoken for a reason. " Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself! " (2 Corinthians 12:10). It was a messenger of Satan sent to torment him. A friend...

Then were brought unto him little boys and girls, that he should place his hands on them, and pray: yet the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Let the children come, and do not be  forbidding  them to come toward me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he placed his hands on them  (Matthew 19:13-15). D uring Jesus's time on earth there was a mixture of  Jewish and Greek culture,  this period is referred to as the Hellenistic   period or age. The false Greek gods were worshiped by many in society and they did not value their children. Unwanted children would be abandoned or thrown over cliffs to peri sh, often sold into slavery as  laborers  or sexual objects. This influenced typical Jewish society; it was considered an insult for children to approach Jesus. Jesus spoke against such  treatment  of children and early  Christians took in these abandoned children. Early Christianity is credited with so much in the...

" I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him " (1 John 5:13-15). This is a conditional statement. There are conditions that must be met for God to hear us;  And if we  ask according to his will And if we know he hears us . For God to hear us we must ask according to his will; we must know his will to ask according to it. He hears us and grants us our requests if we know and ask according to his will. It is that simple, simple faith. But faith can be difficult to grasp, Jesus said if we had faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains. So our faith is usually weak, but it doesn't have to be, if we fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith we can know ...