“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:12-14

               Jesus commands us in these verses to love each other as He loves us. That is a high calling! Then He continues to say that the greatest love we can show is to lay down our lives for our friends. He loves us so much that that is precisely what He did for us….He laid down His life for us so that we may have life. I love the words to the song Lead Me To The Cross:

                        Lead me to the cross,

                        Where Your love poured out.

                        Bring me to my knees,

                        Lord I lay me down.

                        Rid me of myself

                        I belong to You.

                        Lead me, lead me to the cross.

           Christ poured out His love for us on the cross. He commands us, if we are to be His followers, His disciples, to lay down our lives for Him. If we are His friend, we will do just as He commands. We will give up our selfish, prideful selves to gain life in Him. If we do not lay down our lives and turn all control over to Him, how can we say that we love Jesus just as He loves us? If we cannot or will not turn our lives entirely over to Him, we will never know true love. If we do not know God, we do not know Love. Because God is Love (1 John 4:8). The two cannot truly exist apart from one another. We cannot love others the way Jesus calls us to love if we do not know Him and love Him. It is sacrificial love. Have you laid down your life for Christ? If you have not, you do not know what love He is speaking of. You have never experienced the greatest, most freeing love imaginable. If you have laid down your life for Him and denied yourself to follow hard after Him above everything else, you are experiencing the most amazing love there is: a deep, undying love for Jesus. Love that will literally bring you to your knees!

                 Heavenly Father, bring us to our knees and teach us to love just as you love us! May we experience true Love, which cannot exist apart from You because You are Love. Thank you for showing us what real love is through Your Son Jesus, who laid down His life for us. Thank You for being madly in love with us and desiring us to be madly in love with You! And Lord, once we fall head over heals in love with You, teach us to love others with the same sacrificial love. We love you. Amen.

          “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

           Jesus died for you and me an agonizing death on a cross. He did this as a man. A man who was tempted by everything we are tempted by and more. He experienced every temptation that you and I have ever faced. But in those temptations, He never sinned. So in verse 16 of chapter 4 in the book of Hebrews, Jesus calls us to draw near to His throne of grace with confidence. Amazing, huh? With confidence? Because Jesus experienced human temptation, He stands ready at the “throne of grace” to give immediate and sympathetic aid when we are tempted to enter into sin.

            Grace is defined as “that which a person is not entitled to by law, but which is extended to him as favor.” However, grace is NOT your license to freely and purposely sin, but instead is the very act of Christ that FREES us from the bondage of sin. We deserve death. Jesus died for us. We deserve condemnation. Jesus bore that for us. We deserve to live in bondage. Jesus freed us from that.

            God has given us and continues to give us unending grace and mercy through the death of His only Son, Jesus Christ. We too are called to be like Christ, to take on His characteristics, to strive to be like Him. We cannot do this on our own, so He further gifted us with the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17). Therefore, we are also called to give grace, just as it has so freely been given to us. (Let me quickly point out the difference between grace and mercy: grace is receiving a pardon we do not deserve; mercy is not receiving the punishment we deserve.)

                So now I ask you: do you extend grace to those people you are in daily contact with? Your husband? Your children? Your friends? Your enemies? We are called to do just that. Give grace to others and to extend that grace without limits. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32. We often ‘run out’ of grace for others, particularly those we love the most, like our spouses and children. Does God ever ‘run out’ of grace for us? Never. Christ is continually interceding for us. We are called to be imitators of Christ, and that includes giving unending grace to one another. Practice giving others grace this week and experience the blessings that can be reaped from it.

              Heavenly Father, teach us what Your grace truly means. Help us to know deep in our hearts that You have fully extended Your grace to us through Jesus Christ, Your only Son. Then, Lord, teach us how to love one another in the same way You love us and have called us to love, extending grace to one another and forgiving others just as You have forgiven us. Thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit to guide us in giving that unending grace to those people You have blessed our lives with. Amen.

by: Jill Johnson

        A few days ago, as I was busily chipping away at my “to-do” list, my 5 year old son asked me, “Mom, would you rather sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to Him or be up cooking for Him?” He had obviously recently learned the story of Mary and Martha found in the New Testament and was churning over it in his mind. My son is prone to doing such things and then calls his mother out on the subject. I was, as usual, caught off-guard by his question and began to examine my heart.

            The story is found in Luke 10: “Now as they were traveling along, He [Jesus] entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’”

            I have heard this story a number of times and each time I have found myself in the position of Martha. Too busy to sit at the feet of Jesus and spend time with Him. Too busy to realize that my need is not in activity and completing a list of tasks, but in listening, learning and being in the presence of the One who most desires my time. Mary chose to sit at the feet of her Lord…the “one thing that is necessary.” More than anything else, Jesus longs for me to spend time with Him, nurturing my relationship with Him. He desires for me to desire Him, to desire time with Him. He doesn’t want me to spend time with Him because I think I need to or have to or because someone tells me I should. He doesn’t want me to be with Him in hopes that He’ll bless me with ‘stuff’. Jesus wants me to spend quality time at His feet because I love Him. He misses me and you when we stand Him up!

            Now lets take a quick look at Martha….was she wrong in wanting to serve Jesus and to please Him? Service is not wrong. Jesus called us to serve just as He served: “just at the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28. He just doesn’t want my service to replace my being with Him, knowing Him, growing in relationship with Him. First I must know Him and know His heart and as my life and heart begins to transform into His image, my life will naturally be filled with service to others. My service is supposed to be the direct result of the time I spend sitting at the feet of Jesus. So I am once again reminded: don’t forget “the good part”… sitting at the feet of Jesus.

            Jesus, we love You and desire You and pray that You will overwhelm our hearts with the desire to simply sit at Your feet. We ask Your forgiveness for standing You up when You long for nothing more than our time. We pray that You will show us who You are as we spend time in Your presence. Thank You for loving us so much that You want an intimate relationship with us. We pray Jesus, that our service to You and to others will be an outpouring of the time we have spent with You. We ask that You will show us the good part, Lord. Amen.

by:  Jill Johnson

          “But prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” James 1:22-24.

        Striking words of scripture, aren’t they? James tells us that we are to be doers of the Word. If we hear Christ’s call on our lives and then ignore it and go about our days as we never heard His commands, we may as well have never listened in the first place. How does your relationship with Christ LOOK to your children? Do you talk about Jesus often and continue to live your life like YOU want to? Or do you model His life as closely as you possibly can? Does your child SEE you living out your life in Christ? Does he/she SEE you spending time daily in His presence? Reading His Word? Speaking to Jesus? Does your child SEE you pray? Daily? Or just when it is time to share a meal?

          All children learn to model behavior. Whether it is your behavior or someone else’s, they are watching, learning. If someone were to ask your child about their mommy’s relationship with Jesus, what would he/she say? Would they know what to say? Does your child know that you have your very own one-on-one time with Jesus? If our children do not SEE us living out, modeling, a personal relationship with Christ, how can we expect or even hope for them to one day have their very own personal relationship with Jesus? Your children must SEE you living a life that glorifies Christ so that they can seek the same. They must SEE you develop a personal, meaningful relationship with the One who desires us the most! They want to be just like you……who are you imitating? Who do they SEE you striving to be like?

Do we lecture our children about being kind and gentle and loving and then turn around and snap at our spouses? They are watching, learning. Do we speak kindly to strangers on the street or thank the person checking us out at the grocery store? Your children are watching, modeling.

Am I telling you to pretend like we are happy and carefree and perfect all the time? Absolutely not. That is not what we want our children to SEE either. We want them to SEE our love for Jesus, but also our authenticity. It must be real. If it is a lot of work for us to display this love to others, even our own children, then we must examine our hearts. If we love Jesus with all our hearts, mind, and souls, then doing what He commands of us will come somewhat naturally. If we are trying to be “good” and loving by our own nature, we will inevitably fail. It is Jesus IN YOU that will model what Jesus looks like. Are you a doer of the word? Or have you immediately forgotten what Jesus looks like in you? Your children are watching.

Our most loving and gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that You will teach us to be doers of Your Word. That our children would SEE us living a life worthy of Your calling. We pray that they would SEE us spending time with You, talking with You, loving You. And that Your love would overflow from our hearts into the lives of others, especially our children. May we grow to love You more everyday by spending time with You and growing in our knowledge of You. And may our children experience that same love and knowledge of You that You have so blessed us with. Use us as vessels of Your love that our children may SEE and know You. Amen.

by:  Jill Johnson

Who can captivate us like the person of Jesus? Who can compare to the mysterious awesomeness of such an amazing God who loves us far beyond anything we could possibly imagine? How many of us as mothers forget, on a daily basis, the depths of Christ’s love for us?

            In Joshua 3, Joshua urges the Israelites to “consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. He spoke to the priests saying, ‘take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over ahead of the people.’ So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went ahead of the people.” Joshua 3:5-6

            You’re probably wondering what in the world those verses have to do with you and me! How many of us moms find our days to be mundane and repetitive? We often get lost in the routine of our everyday lives and wonder what’s next.  Feeding the kids breakfast, changing diapers, making lunch, running errands, giving the kids naps, having a  play date here and there, cooking dinner, doing the laundry, bathing the kids, putting them to bed. And those of you who also work outside the home, I’m sure, have a very similar routine with the mundane task of your career added to it. How about finding Jesus in the everyday routine of life? Waking up to all He has blessed you with? Finding contentment and joy in the tasks He has laid before you? He has called you to a life with Him and wants you to find pure joy in worshiping Him in ALL that you do.

You see, in the passage above, Joshua is leading his people after God. In the Old Testament, the presence of the Lord resided in the Ark of the Covenant. When it moved, the people followed. No questions asked. God is continually active in our lives, whether you “feel” Him or not. He is constantly working in your life if you have a personal relationship with Him. On whom or what are your eyes fixed? Are you keeping your gaze on Him or getting lost in the mundane, sometimes even boring, day to day activities that you forget to focus on the very Author of your life? Are you anticipating all the amazing things that God has in store for you or are you so caught up and preoccupied in the everyday “sameness” of your life that you forget WHO you are living for? The person of Jesus Christ has called YOU to a life with Him. There is nothing boring or mundane about that. Philippians 1:6 says “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Heavenly Father, we pray that You will help us to see all that You have called us to, even in the everyday routine of our lives. Show us Your glory in even the smallest tasks we face on a daily basis. We pray that You will help us keep our gaze fixed on you and that we will follow You wherever you lead…so that we may see the glorious wonders of You and all that You have in store for us. Thank you for allowing us to be in an intimate relationship with You through Your one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for Your passionate pursuit of each one of us and desiring for our hearts to be consecrated to You. Amen.

by: Jill Johnson