Love Fulfilled Ministry

 Casting all your anxiety on him because he cares about you (1 Peter 5:7) You know what is the secret to being able to cast your anxieties on him? Knowing that he cares for you. If you do not believe that someone cares you will not share your anxieties and burdens with them. Knowing that God cares and values you makes a difference. Look at the birds of the air; neither do they sow nor reap nor gather in storehouses, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than them? (Matthew 6:26-34) Birds don't sow to have seed to eat later, they don't gather food for the winter, yet God feeds them. Look at the lilies and how they grow, not toiling nor spinning. If he cares for the birds and clothes the flowers in such glory, how much more will he value and care for you? What do you have to be anxious about if you know he cares about you? If men being bad know how to give good things to their children how much more will God give good things to his children who ask. ...

I have other sheep which are not of this fold. These too I must bring in. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock, with one shepherd (John 10:16) Two becoming one speaks that there is only one fold in the new covenant, and being part of this fold is not based upon the fleshly birth but of the Spirit, so both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus will enter the fold where Jesus is the Good Shepherd. A sheepfold is a robust fenced enclosure to protect the sheep gathered within it. Figuratively Jesus uses the idea that we are sheep in his fold. When comparing God's children to a flock or sheep in his fold we see he calls them by their name, and they follow him because they know his voice (John 10:3). When he brings the sheep out [of the fold] he goes before them and they follow him because they know his voice (John 10:4). They will not follow a stranger's voice because they do not trust his voice, but they know the good shepherd will protect them and care for an...

God is faithful the one through whom calling you into fellowship of his son Jesus Christ... (1 Corinthians 1:9) God is faithful to keep you to the end, blameless in the day of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8). Paul begins this letter by writing "to the church of God that exists in Corinth sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints together with all the ones in all places calling on the name of our Lord..." (1 Corinthians 1:2). God has sanctified you and called you saints so to be in fellowship with his son. just as he chose us in him before creating the world to be holy, blameless in his presence, in love, he predestined us for adoption as his own... (Ephesians 1:4-5) God chose us to be holy and blameless so that he could love us and be in our presence. God doesn't love unrighteousness therefore "in him" speaks of Christ and what God eternally purposed and hid in the beginning before he created the world. In Christ, we receive adoption as his own, redemption, and forgi...