Living In Love

John 15:9

Of all the things we could choose to do today, living in the love of Jesus is one of them. As John captures the communication of Jesus in this passage, we must capture the reality that living a life "in the love of Jesus" is optional. "Abiding" is required to move ourselves from potential to real.

Most of us can think of someone who loves us. Most of us know a parent, a spouse, a child that loves us every day. Yet if we do not have a relationship, that day with that person, the best we have is the thoughts of being loved. The real experience of being loved is only pondered.

The same is true with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus determines the reality of abiding in His love. For some, the closest they get is the idea of Jesus loving them. They read scripture, pray, follow Biblical commands, but never have a relationship with Jesus. The love of God is an idea, a thought they think. The love of God is not experienced.

My wife was telling me today that she heard on the radio a speaker sharing how the church in our day is becoming to mystical. He was warning the people of seeking an experience, of knowing or encountering God abort from the Bible.

In my view the Bible is foundational for truth and the knowledge of God. Yet the people who wrote the Bible did not have the Bible. So how did they come to know God so well? If the Bible is the only way we know God, then we will not know God at all. We will only know what the Bible says. We will miss a relationship with God and have only a relationship with the Bible. We must take what the Bible says and do it. We must be filled with the Spirit that leads us into all truth, we must abide in Jesus, we must be His sheep and hear His voice.

When we live with people who love us, we experience them. They touch us, we hear their voice, we interact with their presence in our lives. So it is with Jesus. The more our relationship with
God grows, the more we interact with Him. God becomes a living being and we do life with Him, in Him and come to know (experience) His love.

In considering my life and the life of the people in the Bible, I have come up with 17 ways that God interacts with us. These are in addition to prayer and reading the Bible. I think I should write a booklet about these! Number 14 is the hardest but number 10 makes up for it!