5th lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

Born Again in Christ.

 ...To be the dwelling place of “God is Love”.

How can I be born again, was the question that Nicodemus asked Jesus. It is so beautiful how Jesus answered him. Jesus knew that Nicodemus was teaching this all the time in the Synagogue, and Jesus points it out to him; let us check the passage out. Jn. 3:5-10: “Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to f lesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit". "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?” Jesus makes a point of showing that Nicodemus knew this, since he was a teacher in Israel; because he asked him: "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?” Verse 1 says: “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Jesus was pointing out what the Pharisees were teaching and this is stated in Ezekiel.

According to Ez. 36:25-28, let’s verify it:

 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God”. 

The Pharisees were the ones that taught in the Synagogues this passage, and Jesus knew that Nicodemus had the knowledge of the fact that the Messiah would come and do this. But, at first Nicodemus did not recognize the Messiah when he met Him. Nicodemus comes and talks to Jesus, and Jesus opens his eyes so he might see the truth. Scriptures shows us that Nicodemus did open his heart to Jesus, because he defended him later on in the Jewish ruling council.

Let’s study this a little:

I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. = Jesus makes it a point of reminding Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and Spirit, do you know why? Because in the Garden of Eden the human being died when he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Gn. 2 : 16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die". Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit".

-  Jesus shows us that unless we are born of the Spirit, we cannot enter Heaven because; in order to be in Heaven our spirit needs to be alive, that is to be born again; because the human beings spirit died in the Garden Eden. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

-  Sprinkling clean water talks about the washing us clean from sin. The Blood of the Lamb cleanses us from all our impurities, and from all our idols. Many of us argue that we do not have any idols in our life. Well the Bible makes a point of saying whatever we love more than our God becomes an idol.

 

We need to be set free. And Jesus came to do that, this is what the Messiah was sent for. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. = Jesus shows Him in this conversation that He is the Messiah, because only Gods Anointed Messiah could do this. Giving a new heart and put a new spirit in us, the human being. From the time that the human being died, after eating the fruit in the Garden Eden, he was spiritually dead. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. = Jesus reminds Nicodemus of the fact that is written in the Prophets that He would come and give them a new heart, and would put his Spirit in us. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God”. 

How does this transformation happen in us? Could it have been a coincidence that shortly after in a teaching Jesus said: "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" - Jo. 14:23. God wants us to come to Him, to seek Him and invite Him into our lives. Have you ever had a communication, a conversation with God in which you were able to tell him that you love him and you want to keep his commandments? Did you ever at some point already invite him to come into your life, so that you can be a dwelling place for Him; so that He will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in your heart? 

 

Analyze something with me: the Bible tells us that Jesus is God and that God is love.

"We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life", 1 Jn. 5:20.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him”, 1 Jo.4:16.

o   Jesus is God

o   God is Love

o   The Son of God has come

He has given us understanding in order to know what the truth is, and that we are in that truth, it is in his Son Jesus Christ. "This is the true God and eternal life". God shows us clearly who the real God is, for there are many false gods around us in this world. Gods who nominate themselves as such, yet they are false. But the Bible makes it quite clear that the Lord Almighty is the true God. How can we know if the one true God is in us? Perhaps you wonder why you need God living in you. Am I not okay as I am? Who can say that there is anything wrong with me? Why do I need God living in me?

 

Let's make an analogy here: When someone comes to your residence, how can they discover who lives within it?  When a person goes to the house, they find out; the one, who answers the door; is most likely the one who lives there, right? The evidence of the fact that the God dwells within us is, people will recognize Him within us and they will be convinced. When people talk and socialize with us, they will notice that the one that is within us is "God is Love". "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" Jo. 7:38. Whatever is within us, will come out of us. When God lives within us, streams of living water will flow from within us. I believe this is one of the reasons why it is important to have God living within us. Are you a fountain of living water? Do you want people to consider you as a loving person, someone who has love inside of himself? Or do you want them to say: wow what a rebel, full of hatred?

Once we are baptized into the Body of Christ, the life of Christ flows through us, this is how people will know that Christ is dwelling in us. His Person is evidenced through our living, and this is the purpose to be lived in every instance. The Gospel of John begins with the statement: that at the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And verses 10-11 says: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him”.  And he continues in verses 12-13 saying: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”

Are we born of God, or are we the ones that do not receive Him? No one can answer this question for us, only we can answer for ourselves. We could say then that all who received Jesus as Lord and Saviour of their lives, Jesus and the Father come and live within them, and the evidence of this fact is that the world will see the love of the Father who is in them; because they act as Jesus did. Maybe you're reasoning why you should want to be a dwelling place of Love. Examine this with me, God the Eternal Father created us and gave us the Earth to live on, so we could dwell on this beautiful planet. He made the whole universe so we could rejoice in it. After the fall of the human being into sin, God sent his only begotten Son to come and die for the human being that he had created. He replaced us on that cross. Can you imagine a purpose to be lived higher than this one, that your Creator makes a point in making you His dwelling place? He could have made new human beings; no, but He decided to rescue us, and love us eternally.

 

In the Lord's Service

I greet you in His Love

Antonina Penner.

Missionary

Masters inTheology..

 

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

4th lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

 

GOD CHOOSES US IN LOVE.

God speaks to the prophet Jeremiah that He had chosen him before he was conceived by his mother. Check it out: "The word of the LORD came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations", Jr.1:4-5. God takes care of us in his eternal love. As He speaks here with Jeremiah, God confirms that He was always there with him, and that He was the author of his life. He also states it that before Jeremiah's mother give birth to her son, God had already sanctified him. In the original text to sanctify means: “separated for a specific mission, a work chosen by God for the person to perform”. God was present in each moment, even before his mother knew that one day she would have a son named Jeremiah. God was already caring in His Love for everything. Love Agape takes care of us; it sanctifies, protects, nourishes, sustains, leads, and teaches us. However, when we are still young we often do not realize that God surrounds us on a daily bases; and that He is there with his guardian angels to see us through every step of the way. That is what it means that LOVE takes care of us, and protects us. 

Eph. 1:3-6 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves”.

In this passage we learn that God chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. God did not only choose us after we were grown up and He saw it would be good based on our resume for the work He has for us. God chose us when none of us were here yet. The world was not even created yet and He chose you and I, and every human being that receives Jesus as his Lord and Savior. To exteriorize THE LOVE that is within us is the evidence of the purpose to be lived. There is an intimate connection between the Human Being and his Creator which is indistinguishable and unalterable.

 

To Exteriorize means: VERB V n: If you externalize your ideas or feelings, you express them openly, in words or actions. (FORMAL)  

Here on earth it will be difficult to describe with human words what in fact God has placed in our essence, when He made us in His Own Image and His likeness. But, as we invite the Lord Jesus to come in our heart, and to make us His dwelling place, He will exteriorize His Love through us. God showed us His Love first through Jesus when He came to give His life for us and thus way justifying us before the Father. Now, in the Era of Grace He exteriorizes it through the Body of Christ the Church here on earth. We will talk about this in details in a chapter later on.

According to the  Dictionary Evidence is: s.f.

 • Character of which is evident, manifest: the evidence of proof

 • Evidence of fact, which is obtained by observation.

 • To be in evidence, highlighted and in good concept or situation.

1 N-UNCOUNT  oft N of/for n, N that, N to-inf  Evidence is anything that you see, experience, read, or are told that causes you to believe that something is true or has really happened.

2   N-UNCOUNT  oft N against n Evidence is the information which is used in a court of law to try to prove something. Evidence is obtained from documents, objects, or witnesses. (LEGAL)

3   VERB  be V-ed by n, V n -  If a particular feeling, ability, or attitude is evidenced by something or someone, it is seen or felt. (FORMAL)

 

So it is proper to say that the evidence of the Love of God in us is what people see in us, experience with us, read us, or are told that causes them to believe that it is true about the Love of God in us; and that it really happens that “God is Love” lives through us. I think the highlight of Gods' love for us is the fact that Jesus came to give us life. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" John. 10:10 b. Externalizing the purpose to be lived by us is the evidence of the fact that God is Love and that we are children of Love, as we believe and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Jn.1: 12.

The Purpose to be lived is to reflect this love that is our God, through our lives. When people observe us, they will see that there is a God in us. This is the Evidence of fact, which is obtained by observation. "The one that does not love does not know God, for God is Love" it says in: 1 Jn. 4:8. According to this passage the one that does not love does not know God, for God is Love. This verse reminds me of what Job said to God one day. Job said to God: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you", Job 42:5. It is one thing to hear about God, it is something quite different to see God and know Him closely. David described in details how he knew God. John says that if a person does not love he does not know God. It is up to every one of us to analyze if we know God and if we indeed love as God loves. To know God is to love Him. To know a person is to see him face to face. Job had the privilege to see God. We can only see God by faith when we love Him as He loves us. Just as we do not know in a close way a person with whom we do not live close together, the same way we cannot love them in deeper way; even though we are aware of the existence of the same.

A relationship grows founder and closer, the closer we meet and bond together more often. If we only hear about the person as Job says but not see him, then we actually do not know him. But to know the person, requires personal contact to know his personality, character and attitudes. Can we speak the same as Job did about our relationship with God? "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you" Jb. 42:5. How close is your relationship with God? How well do you know Him? Is it maybe that your experience is like Job; that you only heard of God, but never had a personal encounter with Him?

Perhaps as you read these paragraphs above you may be thinking, but I am everything else, except this what you are writing; a true child of God. Yeah, that is true, you are right and I agree with you, and I am in the same boat. I by myself am everything, except a true child of God on my own effort. I on my own am nothing; I cannot present anything to God. The human being by himself cannot boast of anything. I want to quote some Scriptures on this:

®    “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 Co. 1:30-31

®    “So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours,” 1 Co. 3:21

®    “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” 1 Co. 4:7

 

Romans 7:14-24 describes the frustration of the Apostle, when he felt the same way. This we will study it in detail later in another chapter. The Bible tells us for it is God who works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose. God works in us the desire to be a child of His, as well as how it is accomplished, to transform us into His children. The Apostle Paul learned it through his experience with God, that it is God who works it in us, the willing and the fulfilling according to His good purpose. But, God will only come into our lives by our invitation. God does not force a relationship on anyone. "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Phil. 1:6. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" Phil. 2:13.

"God is Love" began a good work in us, and He will perfect this good work until the day of Jesus Christ. "God is Love" also works in us the wanting to be like Him, as well as acting as He does. This means that God will do everything on His behalf to do what is necessary that we can have this wonderful life; but it will only happen, if we invite Him into our life. God works in us the willing, but you and I still need to open the door for Him to do so. God works in us to will and to act in love. It is "God is love" the Author of everything in everyone. But, to be like Christ, sometimes takes time, and God will work in us until the day of Jesus Christ, that is, until the day we arrive in heaven. Seeing it from this perspective then we can cheer up, it is possible to be like Jesus taught us, and walk in his ways. J

When Jesus died on the cross for all of us, he showed the evidence of His Love for us. A likeness that we have in the image of our God is the fact that allows our Creator to operate and perform within us according to his good will. God began a good work in us, the day that He created the Human Being through Jesus Christ and came to justify us before the Father. Neither do I nor you need to stress ourselves about the fact that on our own we cannot be good. It is impossible only by our effort, to always please everyone and achieve perfection.

Perfection is in God our Creator. It is He who operates these things in us. It is necessary to allow God’s work in our life, or else God cannot operate, because He has given us freedom of choice. In the next chapters we will emphasize several factors how this happens in our lives. In this chapter however we will focus on the subject: A Purpose to be lived in "God Is Love".

 

 

Antonina Penner

Missionary

Masters inTheology..

 

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

3rd lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

THE PURPOSE TO BE LIVED IN "GOD IS LOVE".

Being in God and God in us is a purpose to be lived far beyond what we can describe or imagine.

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” - 1 Jn. 4:8.

God manifests himself to every human being since the day He creates him. The psalmist teaches us that God already sees us when we still are formless substance. The Word of God says that He sees us even before we are conceived. God is love and the Love of God manifests itself to the human being that He created in his image and likeness since the day He created this wonderful universe, for us to have a place to live. The Psalmist writes: “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be".  To know our Father we need to have a fellowship and a living relationship with Him.

GOD CREATES US IN LOVE

 "And we have known and believed the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him" 1 Jn. 4:16. John indicates here that every human being who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior of his life, knows the love of God; this is what he means when he says: "and we know and believe the love God has for us". There is only one way to be in God, and it is to abide in Love. The Word tells us that God is Love, and to be in God, it is necessary to be in Love. A person, who always lives in bitterness, hatred, anger and other feelings contrary to love, does not walk in fellowship with "God is love". The Bible teaches us how to walk and live in “God is Love”.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well," Ps. 139:14. David decided to praise God. He says: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. I praise you because; means he had a reason for it, and he finishes saying: I know that full well. If you will take some time to read the entire Psalm, you will see that the psalmist declares an act of worship to His Creator about all he could understand, see and analyze; living with this wonderful God that he discovered had created him. To come to the conclusion that you are fearfully made, something must have happened in your life. A person only states something so beautiful as this once an incident unchains his understanding to be able to analyse it as such. David wrote many Psalms which were sung. The Bible tells us that he played the harp since he was young of age, David praised God with his instrument, and he had a habit of expressing his thoughts and praises towards God in songs.

It was well known that David sang and wrote Psalms, because when the king Saul needed to be calmed down, David was brought to play the harp for him. 1 Sm. 16: 18,23: "One of the servants answered, "I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him. Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him".

The Bible tells us that God was with David, 1 Sm. 18:12: “Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul”. David only began to declare the wonders of God once he experienced these wonders. We only know the factors once we have had contact enough with it, to discover what is behind it and unravel it. God began to reveal his purpose in David’s life, and David learned to focus his attention on God´s love and care for him. Ps. 119:9-10 says: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands". This Psalm was probably not written by David, but one can tell that David´s life described the same thought line as is written in this Psalm. David knew God, and he served God with love. Love is the relationship the Creator offers His Creation. The Love of God is not a feeling but it is the essence of His being. God can only address its creation if it cooperates correspondingly with Him in this essence of his life.

What is Love?

The Bible tells us that God is love, and He proves his love for us. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners" - Ro. 5:8.

 

According to the Portuguese Dictionary: Love is a Noun, it is real and it is true.

M Noun: Love is a live affection for someone or something: the love of God, love for the neighbor, love for the homeland, love of freedom. We have an understanding of love as a lively affection.

When the Bible says that “God is Love” it does not mean that He is a lively affection, i.e. "God is Love" is much superior to that. It is the Agape Love, which surrenders unconditionally. It is the essence of his being. The Bible uses the Word Agape to describe God's Love towards the human being. The Love of God is a noun. The love we have in ourselves is the verb to love. When we treat others with the same value as we do with ourselves; we show love one to another. To love is putting into action the love that dwells within us. The commandment of God to man is to love God with all our understanding and with all our heart; and our neighbor as our self. The word Love can be used as a noun or as a verb, depending on how one is applying it in a sentence.

The concept of love described in the Greek verbs are:

Agape: “agapaó” is the verb to describe an unconditional love, based on the behavior to others without demanding anything in return. It is the essence in the action of a deliberate choice ... and it is not a feeling. It describes how we are and not how we behave, and not how we feel.

Storge: affection, especially with family and among its members (not shown in the New Testament).

Philos or Phileo: Fraternity is used for reciprocal love. A kind of conditional love, as in "you be good to me and I will be good to you".

Eros: derives from the word which means erotic feelings, based on sexual attraction and lust (does not appear in the New Testament).

The Love of God is unconditional, the love of God is. Since the beginning it is described in the Word that the heart of God ran after the human being he had created. Gods’ desire was to have a future with him, and together fulfill the project which God had prepared. However, God gave an ability to mankind to be able to choose between good and evil. Now you might wonder why is it then that God did this knowing they would choose to go after their own ways? This was actually a factor of Agape Love, which surrenders unconditionally. God did not create us as robots; He gave us freedom of choice. There is another factor involved in this, too: since the human being is created in the image and likeness of God himself, he has the ability to choose between good and evil. However, God had placed in him also the character trait of humbling himself before the eternal Father and submit to him in obedience; as Jesus did when he was here on earth.

A classic example of this is: God acted in love with Saul, but he strayed from this love going after his own understanding. God acted the same way with David, but he corresponded in love as well. The verse quoted above says that David says that his soul knew very well that God had created him in a fearful and wonderful way, and it was because of this that he served God with love. This was the answer that David gave to his God. We read in Acts 13:22, God gives testimony of David saying of him the following: "After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do".

Do you believe that God would give a testimony about us the same way He did about David? To be like God, as it is written that we were made in Gods´ image and likeness, is to be according to the heart of God; having the same aspirations, desires, purposes, and above all the same objectivity in love. We notice in David's life, that he found the purpose to be lived in love. David honoured his God who had fearfully and wonderfully created him. He continues his speech before God analyzing everything he discovered how marvelous God's work is in his life was by saying: "How precious to me, O God, are thy thoughts! And how great is the sum of them! "

As I read these verses I began to meditate: How long do we have to be in Gods´ presence and live with Him in order to be able to talk as David did? I have a close walk with my God for more than forty years and I realize that it is difficult to discern the thoughts of God.  I have learned that God loves me and that He has a great purpose in all that He does with me and for me and to me. But I do not know how to describe God's thoughts as David did. Surely he also received the revelation of God to do it.

 

Antonina Penner

Missionary

Masters inTheology..

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

2nd lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

THE PURPOSE TO BE LIVED IN "GOD IS LOVE".

God Loves Us, and "God Is Love" Created Us And Repurchased Us With A Very High Price.

Introduction

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love" -1 Jn. 4:8.  "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him"-1 Jn. 4:16.

Recently our beloved God made me think allot, when he sent my friend to the door of our home. As I opened the door, she greeted me with the question: "Do you have you any idea how much God loves you?" I looked at her and did not answer and she repeated the question: "Do you have any idea how much God loves you"? As I invited her to come in, she gave me as a present; a Thompson Study Bible in English. I will name my friend here Laura. Laura and I have the habit of reading and studying the Word of God together. As we were having a coffee that day she repeated the question: "Do you have any idea how much God loves you?" We laughed, because she wanted to emphasize the fact that our friendship was precious, and God had blessed us greatly in our devotional and prayer.

Later on that day I began to reflect on the fact how much God loves me. That day I made sure to pay attention, how many times in a day God does something special for me, even those things that apparently seem unimportant. I remembered that day among other things which happened; I could not install the new version of my antivirus on my computer. Each time I tried to reinstall it, it came up error. So, I prayed, O God, help me. After the prayer I felt a soft voice telling me: “the file which it says is active is on your navigation bar. There is an antivirus software installed; uninstall it and then reinstall it”. I did it and it worked. Incredible how I only could do it after I prayed and heard the soft voice guiding me. I knew that God was directing me, as He does in all other circumstances. Jesus said that His sheep listen to His voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them, Jn. 10:3.

I went and talked to my friend Laura again, and as I got there I asked her: "Do you have any idea how much God loves you?" This question was surrounding me almost day and night; since the moment she had asked me it first.  We had our Bible study, and as we were talking, every subject lead us back to the fact that Gods’ love surrounds us always. I noticed the first day she asked me the same question three times, and I do not know if it was intentional, or not; or, if it was God directing her to do so. I know it reminded me of the fact that Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him. I believe this pattern repeats itself in our lives. God will question us in many ways if we are aware of the fact that He loves us.

I felt Gods’ presents in our midst at my friends’ house that day, and I mentioned it to her; and she asked me: "Do you feel Gods' presence in this place too?" In fact, I felt it. I knew God was about to show me, that He has a purpose in bringing us to Earth. God began to address the fact to me that there is a purpose to be lived when He, “GOD IS LOVE”, brings us into this world. Many times God has shown me that I am special to Him. So many times we let the days go by and it seems that the fact that we know that God loves us; becomes as a background music, when we hear it too often. I started paying more attention to other things in my life leaving the voice of God as background music in my life, when it should have been the main voice. It is very easy to quote a verse like Psalm 139:14, but it is difficult to live it. It says: "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well". To praise God because we recognize that we were wonderfully made is really difficult, you know why? Not all of us are at the stage of life where we have already recognized this fact; we live and complain about everything that is wrong in us and around us. It takes a long period of time to reach the stage in life where David was; as he praised God in every situation of his life. The psalmist acknowledges that he was fearfully and wonderfully made, and he praised God for it. To recognize that we were fearfully and wonderfully made, and as a result of it praise God with our lips, and with our life as well; is not so simple. Looking at the life of this psalmist, he describes the wonders of God. He goes on to say that the works of God are wonderful and that his soul knows it very well. He had experienced God in his relationship; he had the discernment of this fact.

God wants to have a close loving relationship to this human being he created in his image and likeness. We can only describe God as the psalmist did when we have an intimate loving life with God, like the psalmist had. David began when he was little, step by step to know God as his parents taught him. He learned it in theory, and he made a decision to apply this in his daily walk. This was an option that he had, and he decided to apply it in his life. As he took care of his sheep, he could face every day his own way or he could do what God taught him. David decided to walk in the Word of God, he applied it; and it worked.

We began with the verses: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” - 1 Jn. 4:8. "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him"- 1 Jo. 4:16.

Please ask yourself: "Do you love something or someone? Do you love God as the Bible teaches"? God longs to have this loving relationship with us, reciprocal love between him and His creation; us. The Bible tells us that God is jealous of us. "Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us tends toward envy"? - James 4:5. If you declare that you love God, know that God loved you first, he is jealous of you. God does not want to lose you again. The jealousy that God has for us is a sacred feeling, a protective love.

The day that God used my friend to ask me if I knew how much He loves me I literally broke down into tears, tears of emotion and anointing, I felt the presence of God so strong around me. This book is meant to encourage you to meditate on the fact that you also were created in a fearful and wonderful way by your Creator, who is Jesus. In John 1:1 we read that all things were created by Jesus; and all human beings as well. I want to lead you as you read, to meditate on the great love that God has for you and I. John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life".

When God created us, he had a purpose to be lived by us the human being. It is the purpose to be lived in “God is Love” that I want to write about. I am not here to repeat what others have already talked about: A life with a purpose; but it is about: The purpose to be lived in “God is Love”. I know that by reading this book you will be blessed and see how God transforms every act of the enemy against us in double honour; the book of Job gives us a beautiful lesson about this. God is on our side. I want to praise and glorify our wondrous God and wish to lead you to do the same. Praising and worshipping God, will bring healing and blessings to your lips as well; because God has a purpose to be lived through you. Amen!

 

May God bless as you read.

In the Service of our Lord Christ Jesus,

 Antonina Penner.

All copy rights belong to:

Author: Antonina Penner

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

 

1st lesson: God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

About the Book

The purpose to be lived in “God is Love” was written to help us understand the perspective of everything that God gave the human being whom He created in His own image and in His likeness. God had a high purpose for the human being He created in a special way; the only one who received the ability to reason, and to make choices of his own.  We have emotions and we were made to have a relationship with God. The purpose God has for us is eternal and unchangeable. God does not change HIS endless love for us.

In this book you will be able to follow the beautiful lessons God has taught me. I was able to learn wonderful things in more than forty years of fellowship with our wonderful God. I share lessons I have learned from the Word of our God, in times of happiness, difficulties, victories, times of sowing and harvesting. In every phase of my life, time periods, I experienced “God is Love” with me, in me, for me, by me, and in perfect control of everything and everywhere; in my life and everyone surrounding me as well.  “God is Love”, has a very high purpose for all of us, and in this book, we will lead you from Genesis to Revelations of our life, in the Eternal Love Purpose God has for us. Our life with God starts as spiritual children, as the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth saying that he could not address them as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ. He explains to them that he gave them milk, not solid food. In his letters he says to them: for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”1 Co.3:1-3.

We can learn how beautiful every phase in our spiritual life is, and how it brings enrichment in the fellowship with our God. We all start as children, but as we grow in our walk with God, we start as infants in Christ Jesus, and we learn to act not as mere men, but, as spiritual people. To be Spiritual people, means to walk in the Holy Spirit. I learned, that when God teaches us that the greatest commandment is to Love God with all your understanding, and our neighbour as ourselves; He had a very high purpose in this, for the following reason: God does not demand more from the person than He knows. God only asks you to act upon your understanding. We ought to love God with all our understanding. We all know how to pursue more knowledge and this we are expected to do. We all should search for the Lord our God and His Word, just as David did. Psalm 139 gives us a beautiful lesson on this.

When I was approximately 23 years of age, I used to believe that I knew many things of the Word of God; and I lived according to my understanding. I believed I was living a fulfilled life before God. Now looking back, I see how many times I had not yet matured in the spiritual life and certainly was not walking yet in the Stature of Perfect Man in Christ Jesus. Paul says: "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead”. Phil. 3:13. God has a blessed purpose for His children in every step of their life. God has a purpose to be fulfilled in us in every stage of our life. Whether we are still infants, adolescents, or adults in our walk with God; He works the willing and the fulfilling according to His good will in us, to complete the purpose to be lived in HIM.

May you be blessed as you read the message of this book to edify your life. In the Love of Our Great God, I write to you. All the honour and glory belongs to our eternal "God is Love" for everything that is written in this book.

 

In the Lord´s Service,

                                                                   Missionary Antonina Penner,

All copy rights belong to:

Author: Antonina Penner

Publisher: A.Penner.

Publishing date: January-13

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher

The Risen Christ

The vast majority of the people around the world are looking to politics, science and education for the solution of life’s problems and not to Jesus Christ. Why is this? What is happening?
I believe part of the dilemma is that we have preached a weak, watered-down Christ. We have preached a watered-down Gospel. We have caused young people to doubt the authority of the Scriptures. We have taken this authority away from them, and so many of them are saying, “What is the use of it all?” God has become less than the God of the Bible. We have given our young people a god of our own imagination. Christ has been robbed of His deity.
It was the fact of the resurrection of Christ that called the disciples to go out as burning young revolutionaries to change the world of their day. They preached that Christ was alive. This should be our message, not only on Easter, but every day of the year. The risen Christ wants to come into our hearts today.
But beware—He is a disturber! He did not come to bring peace; He came to divide even families (Matthew 10:34-36). Many reject that kind of Christ because it costs too much to follow Him in this materialistic, secularistic, pleasure-mad, prejudice-filled age.

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We Christians must share the guilt. We have limited Christ to the sanctuary, to the temple, to the religious area of our lives. We have not practiced applied Christianity. We have restricted it to a Sunday affair. We worship Him behind thick church walls. We tuck Him away in quiet little recesses. From Sunday to Sunday, He is rarely mentioned. We spend very little time reading His Word or praying. We Christians act and live as though Christ were dead.
This kind of Christ will never make an impact on the world in which we live. This is not the Christ of the Bible. He is too weak and small; He is irrelevant. The weak, emaciated, impotent Christ of the church of today bears little resemblance to the Christ that Isaiah the prophet talked about. He bears little resemblance to the Christ who is found in the early church, which dared to challenge the world and turn it upside down.
When Christ was upon earth He went to the Temple, but He did not stay there. He went out into the streets where the sick, the needy and the dying were. His love and compassion broke the bounds of class, race and creed: “The common people heard Him gladly” (Mark 12:37).
Jesus Christ is alive. This risen Christ, taken by faith in all of His power and glory, is great enough and big enough to cope with every problem the human race faces at this hour.
The risen Christ is big enough to cope with the tyranny of man over man. Not only can He save the individual, but His power has worldwide implications. Isaiah said, “The government will be upon His shoulder” (9:6). He has not abdicated His sovereignty in the affairs of men. He is still the Lord of history.
When He was crucified, the Bible says, “an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38). He was then, and still is, King; only we have changed. Greek was the language of culture; Latin, the language of government; and Hebrew, the language of religion. One of our failures is not seeing Christ as King of the physical and material as well as the spiritual, of the mind as well as the soul, of the government as well as the heart.
In this country we are engaged in a debate on the separation of church and state. It is important that the church and state remain separate, but there is another sense in which Christ cannot be separated from anything that pertains to life, for He “is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11). He said, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and … so I am” (John 13:13, KJV). He is the Master of every phase of our lives.
Secularism is growing because we have tried to get Him to abdicate from the realms of economics, politics and science. We have limited Christ to the little sphere of man’s religiosity; we have hidden Him in cloistered sanctuaries, in clouds of incense and in rituals.
Nazism blossomed in Germany only after the church had failed to fill the vacuum following World War I. When the church failed to present and declare a dynamic, living Christ, Germany was robbed of a Savior and gave birth to a dictator. When Christ is made to abdicate from His rightful place as Lord in any nation, tyranny takes over.
In the United States, our Declaration of Independence speaks of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” but it is the pursuit of happiness that is guaranteed and not happiness itself. Chasing happiness around may be fun for a while, but the entertainment of it soon wears thin.
However, there is a better way. Paul says, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
Christian joy is dependent on a personal relationship with God, and not on externals.
In the upper room Jesus told His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). He further told them that His joy cannot be taken away (John 16:22). No pagan philosophy, no atheistic ideology, no deep sorrow, can dislodge the joy that Christ gives.
We have made the mistake of dividing our lives into neat little compartments—politics in one section, economics in another and religion poked back in a dark little corner, brought out for display only for a few minutes on Sunday morning.
Our resurrected Christ is also big enough to cope with the gigantic social problems of these times. The race problem is not limited to any one city, nor to any one part of the United States. The race problem is a worldwide problem. Wherever two races or two nationalities or even two religious groups live together, there is friction and misunderstanding.
It is into this kind of situation that Christ can come with the healing “balm of Gilead.” We must recognize the relationship between Christianity and healthy social conditions. One of the greatest and most far-reaching social revolutions of history was directly related to and grew out of the great evangelical revivals of the eighteenth century under John Wesley and George Whitefield.
I believe that a great spiritual revival today would have social consequences throughout the world. Christ has the answer to the social problems. He can meet them in His resurrection power and glory.
But let us not forget that man does not of himself have the capacity to love his neighbor. He does not have the capacity to live according to Christian ethics until he has come to Jesus Christ. When you repent of your sins and receive Christ as Savior, He enlarges your capacity and gives you new ability to love your neighbor. He gives you new powers, new directions, new strengths, new visions, new dimensions of living, when you come to know Him.
Jesus once said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
This is Good News for the poor. This is Good News for the suffering. This is Good News for the blind. Christ can indeed cope with the social and political problems of the world.
The world today offers many “saviors,” but none of them saves to the uttermost. The world today offers many panaceas, but they cannot reach to the depths of our depravity. The world today offers many shortcuts to what it considers salvation, but to be truly saved we must be reconciled to God.
Give your life to Jesus Christ today. Receive Him as your Lord and Savior. And whatever personal problems you may have, and whatever great problems may face the world, you can find help, and you can make your contribution to this generation by making your commitment and your decision for Jesus Christ. Let His joy, His peace, His love, dominate your life. D ©1964 BGEA
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture Quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. The Scripture Quotation marked KJV is taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.

Do you want to know the living Jesus?

http://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/april-2015/the-risen-christ-a-message-from-billy-graham/