Repent and Be Baptized

When you get married, you are declaring your love for your spouse, but that love is always backed up by a commitment to continue loving them through every season of life. You know that when someone tells you that they love you, but doesn’t commit to living out that love, then the declaration of love was just a fleeting emotion. Our relationship with Jesus is the same. If we love Jesus, we will be committed to a life of loving him. If we love Jesus, we will be committed to the work of loving other people (and it will be work). If you’ve been married for any length of time, you know that loving people is hard work. If the people with whom you have an emotional connection can be difficult to love, imagine how hard it is to love your enemies. But if we love Jesus, we will love even our worst enemies.  Love is a commitment, not a feeling. We don’t love Jesus when it’s easy, convenient, or sensible. We love Jesus always — no matter what. It means we are committed to loving the people that he loves. We are committed to rooting out sin in our lives. We are committed to obeying his commandments. A life marked by the love of Jesus is one that will consistently be marked by an unwavering commitment to Jesus’s way.  Reflection/Discussion Question: What gets in the way of committing yourself to Jesus?

Jesus died on the cross while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), so we can be sure that his gift of peace is just like his gift of eternal life: free. The trouble with gifts is that they need to be accepted in order to be used, enjoyed, or experienced. Jesus offers us his peace through the gift of the Holy Spirit, but if we don’t accept his gift, we will never experience his peace. This is why so many Christians aren’t living in peace, but are instead mirroring the dissension, anxiety, and chaos of the world. They may have come up out of the waters of baptism declaring themselves a new creation in Christ, but they haven’t turned their focus away from the world and onto Christ. While his peace isn’t dependent upon our working for it, our experience of his peace is dependent upon our turning toward it. How do we turn toward Christ’s gift of peace? Philippians 4:4-6 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (NIV). Because of what Jesus has done, we can turn and rejoice in him always. We can give everything to God in prayer and petition and we can have a genuine heart of thankfulness. When we take this posture of submission to Jesus in the midst of our circumstances, we fully receive his peace that “transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).  Reflection/Discussion Question: How can you rejoice in the Lord in the midst of your current circumstances?

My husband had an affair. The “other woman” was beyond cruel to me for a very long time. So many negative emotions flooded me for long towards her. I made a decision to not only give them all to Jesus but to reach out to her and share His love. I purchased a card with scripture on it explaining forgiveness. I wrote a long note inside the card not only proclaiming I forgive her, but WHY. I shared Jesus. Talked about how His grace and dying on the cross was the ultimate forgiveness for me and I wanted to walk with him and forgive her as He does. I apologized for any harsh words or difficulty I caused her in her life and repented towards her. I shared how beautiful Jesus was and how he changes lives. I invited her to church. I also enjoy, as a hobby, making crafts out of plastic canvas and yarn. I sewed her a cross with what I know her favorite colors to be and placed it in the card and mailed it to her. I shared Jesus with her, how He changed my life, my heart and how He is the ultimate good. God took the anger, sadness, and resentment from my heart as I’ve been praying for, and he filled it with love and only He knows- but hopefully reached this daughter of God in His way.

I’m the executive director for nonprofit and central Indiana. This past week we did an outreach event providing Easter meals & baskets to individuals and families in our community. My small group leader through Southeast provided me a box of copies of Grace from the Cross to add to our meal baskets. On Monday, I had a group of nine volunteers from a tool manufacturing company volunteer for the the distribution portion of our event. While we added the books to the meal baskets, it spurred a conversation about faith, Jesus, and our own personal journey. I hate to admit that I have never personally shared my faith with a stranger, let alone a group of strangers, let alone a group of random volunteers serving at my organization! Boy was Jesus moving that day! As we filled the baskets the silence began to fill with conversation about my own struggles- to their own struggles- their own faith journey… laughter and hugs were shared among new friends. At the end of their shift, several of the volunteers asked if they could have copies of the book— of course I said yes! My heart was overjoyed knowing that not only would strangers receive these books— that a physical need be met with a meal— but a real conversation about faith happened in an intimate setting, one at a time, as we worked together to serve others. It was such a full circle Kingdom moment for me ♥️ I’m so grateful that a box of books led to so many moments that sparked conversation and opportunity to share my faith, and for others to do the same!