God's Pure Love for You

Be sure to watch for more inspirational quotes daily here at Godspureloveforyou.com !

September 26: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

September 25: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. – words of Jesus in John 6:44

September 24: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” – John 12:32

September 23: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – John 14:6

September 22: “Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.” – Abraham Lincoln

September 21: “Words can destroy. What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters.” – Jean Kirkpatrick ♥

September 20: “An apology is the superglue of life. It can repair just about anything.” –Lynn Johnston

September 19: “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.” – Will Rogers

I will be visiting my precious mom for her 90th birthday party this weekend, so here are the inspirational quotes for September 17th & 18th!

September 18: “Do you want a happy heart when you are old? Then get with the Lord and stay with Him. That is how it works.” - Shelton Smith

September 17: “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.” – John Wesley

September 16: “If all of the illustrious men were together and Shakespeare should enter their shining company, they would all rise to do him honor. But if Jesus should come, they would kneel and worship Him.” – Charles Lamb

September 15: “The Bible opens and closes with a wedding.” – Selwyn Hughes, 20th-21st c. Welsh writer and pastor. Happy 32nd Anniversary to my husband, Wes!  ♥♥

September 14: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

September 13: “Our triune God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the Supreme Multi-tasker!” – Josephine Thornburg

September 12: “Christ did not Die to Redeem a Bride who would keep Him on the Porch while she watched Television in the Den.” – John Piper

September 11: “God save us from Living in COMFORT, while Sinners are SINKING INTO HELL.” – Charles Spurgeon

September 10: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” – Matthew 24:42-44 -NIV

September 9: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

September 8: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein    “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – 2 Timothy 1:7

The white water lily, of the family of aquatic plants called Nymphaeaceae, was created by a loving God who designed pictures in His creation to reveal  something about Himself… and about us in Christ! Consider the (water) lily (Matthew 26:28*) with me for a moment.

I see it as a picture of each born-again Christian. One with Jesus Christ as his/her LORD and Savior has been washed from their sins in the blood of the Lamb to become whiter than snow. — Psalm 51:7.  The brilliant white of the water lily reminds us of this !

The water lily’s petals are arranged in a spiral- shaped cup, which most often floats above, but sometimes is submerged in water. (Oh, to be submerged in Christ!) The flower’s petals reach up and outward as a Christian does toward his Lord. Inside the water lily’s flower, we find a sun-like center of glorious yellow. This illustrates the warm, Christ-centered heart of the true Christ-follower. Christ is his center, causing the heart to be an overflowing cup of blessing to those around him. Christ causes the whole person to glow with His grace, peace, joy, and love, as he draws from and is filled with the Living Water of the Holy Spirit.

All flowers are actually the reproductive part of the plant, where pollination occurs. Ephesians 3:16-19 states:

“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith**; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Even so, when Christ dwells in a person’s heart, the abiding-in-Christ believer will reproduce or bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22,23. When this fruit production occurs, this disciple of Christ will be sharing with unbelievers the Gospel (or as it were, the pollen) or Good News of Jesus Christ. As a result, more fruit will be produced – the saved souls of new believers!

The water lily must receive sunlight, because it is its main source of food and energy production. The plants can store a lot of energy, so they become quite large. So also, the person that lives in the light of God will enlarge his life to be an abundant life. Water lilies also need clean, oxygenated water. These two ingredients, sunlight and water are God’s object lessons to us of Himself. If you feel dead or dying inside, look to Jesus the “Son Light” of God and the Holy Spirit, the Living Water, to give you everlasting life. It is available to you by trusting in His blood shed for you as payment for and cleansing from your sins!

John 7:37,38 says, “…Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Trust in Him as your Lord (Master) and Savior. Then grow in Him. As He increases in your life, you will thrive and bear fruit of abundance!

*29 “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” -Matthew 26:28,29

** Underlining of words in Bible verse is added for emphasis.

Please look further into the Biblical account in John 4. In verse 29, the Samaritan woman says, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” Verse 30: “They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.” The disciples then requested Jesus to eat.

Jesus said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about…My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” – John 4:32, 34,35

Jesus also had a different kind of work to do. First the woman leaves her waterpot to do the work of telling about Jesus, and now Jesus says that His “food” is to “do the will of Him who sent Me” and to do His “work”. We can say that the words “food”, “do the

will”, and “work” are almost interchangeable.

This story shows the importance of sharing the Good News of the LORD Jesus Christ. It’s equated to food we eat; it should be our sustenance! God may supply us with a job, such as tent-making that the Apostle Paul had, but that vocation, if present, should only be secondary. Going into all the world to preach the Gospel is the work of every Christ-follower!

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33, words spoken by Jesus, but recorded by Matthew, a former rich, tax collector, who left his tax-collector’s booth to follow Jesus (Matthew 9:9).

Here is what we need to ask ourselves. Is there something more important than earning money, gaining possessions, and eating food? Jesus says there is!  If you go on to pursue this life of telling people about Jesus, God will provide your material needs, or “all these things shall be added unto you.”

John 4:39 tells us that many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all the things that I have done.” Then Jesus was sought out by the men of the city to stay there, so He did for two days. “And many more believed because of His word.” (verse 41) Then they told the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42)

Do you want to lead others to Christ, let them hear His words, and then believe in Him, not only because of your testimony, but also because they have heard Him speak to their own hearts out of His word? Then discover what your “food”, your “work”, and “God’s will” are for you! The fields are white for harvest! God loves and can even use “a Samaritan woman”; He can use you!

When Jesus sat at Jacob’s well in Samaria, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. This woman was married to five men previously; now she was living with a man who was not her husband. She was surprised that Jesus spoke to her. By His clothing and hair, she knew that He was a Jew. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, who were of mixed Jewish and Gentile blood, and who worshiped at Mt. Gerizim, instead of in Jerusalem.

The woman, and later Jesus’ disciples, also marveled that Jesus spoke to her, because women in New Testament times didn’t enjoy the freedom or esteem that the women in Old Testament times did. In the OT, some women were called prophetesses and leaders in the Jewish culture. In the NT when Jesus met this Samaritan woman, the males in the Jewish society had degraded the women to be more like slaves, not allowing then to be  educated or to have leadership roles, but confining them to domestic duties. Women were viewed as mere possessions. It was a Jewish, rabbinic law/tradition that a man not greet a woman, make any gesture toward her, wink at her, or jest with her under any circumstances, unless married to her. Jesus broke these man-made laws by talking to the woman!

This woman didn’t have a good reputation at all, since she had many previous husbands and was now “living with a man”. In speaking to her, Jesus raised the value of women in society! He told her about living water that she could have. She was eager to get this water, so that she wouldn’t have to come to the well again.

Jesus told her in John 4:13,14, “…Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

When Jesus showed that He knew about her past life, her marriages, and her current “live-in”, she was so astonished that she called Him a prophet. She appears to be a genuine seeker of the truth, because she talked about prophets, about where to worship, and about the promised Messiah, the Christ, who when He would come, would declare all things to them. She was so excited when Jesus said, “I who speak to you am He (Christ or Messiah*)” , that she left her water pot(at least temporarily) to go into the city to tell the men about Jesus! So she left her “work” to go share Jesus!

Do you sense God is calling you to leave your normal, all-important job to go share the Gospel? Is this possible? I felt led to leave my waitressing job. Now I’m pursuing a life of telling you and others about Jesus! Does this sound insane? Then please see more in: “Doing God’s Will for Me, PART 2″.

* Parenthetical words are added.

Please see my question to you in Part 1, and relax! Jesus hasn’t left you, but is interceding for you with the Father (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34).

Does it seem that you’re in the middle of a project, drifting away from Jesus in your “boat”, battered by the waves. You can’t give up now, but no matter how hard you paddle, it looks like the stormy waves are going to shipwreck you. Then, in the middle of the night, you see Jesus walking on the sea! When Jesus’ disciples saw Him in Matt. 14:26, they cried out in fear, thinking  He was a ghost. When Jesus shows up to rescue you, don’t be afraid. It really is Him; believe it with all your heart! He is about to do something amazing for you! Hear Him say, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

When Peter heard Jesus, he said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Peter would be the one to say this, being the “rash fellow” that he was. Sometimes, that’s just the kind of person the Lord is looking for. So Jesus replied, “Come!” Peter had enough faith to make him get out of the boat right away. Peter believed in Him whom, just minutes ago, they all had thought was a ghost! Seeing Jesus and hearing His voice was enough for Peter to venture out in faith on this “crazy”, impossible dream of walking on the storm-tossed sea! This was no placid lake he was stepping into. The wind was gusting all around them, and their boat was getting pounded!

Are  you like Peter? Is your boat being rocked by the storm and waves, and yet, seeing Jesus makes you want to try something even more exciting? Do you want to step out on the water and walk with Him? Upon stepping out, do  you actually “walk on the water” for just a little while? Then you take your eyes off Jesus and you see the wind and waves once again, making you sink!

You should have kept your eyes on Jesus, and you wouldn’t have sunk! But what do you do now? If you’re wise, you’ll cry out to Jesus immediately, “Lord, save me!” Don’t be overwhelmed by the waves and give up, causing your defeat. Cry out to the One whom you have lost focus of. Even when you can’t see Him anymore, call out to Him. He is right there and will hear you and stretch out His nail-scarred hand to take hold of you. He will either help you walk on the water again, or bring you back into the boat. Don’t fight Him! Accept His help and rescue. Let Him walk right through the storm with you, taking you to your destination. You, and even those with you, may worship Jesus like His disciples did in their boat saying, “You are certainly God’s Son.” So step out and keep walking on water with Jesus! Will you?