A real and abundant life

When the Spirit urges us to speak with love, we must do it. Recently, while having lunch with my wife, I received that I had to tell one of the waiters that Jesus loved him. He did not answer, but later, I saw him repeat to another employee what I had said, which caused some curious looks in our direction. And then, an interesting thing happened. As we were leaving, a different waiter stopped me and asked me if I wanted to pray with him !

This is an example of the difference between religion and the love of Jesus. To love Jesus involves sharing the testimony, even when it makes us look like a little crazy - just before we see the power of God at work.

Some think that becoming a Christian requires knowing the spiritual laws or praying in a certain way. But this is not how Jesus explained the faith to Nicodemus, a Jewish intellectual versed in religion. Nicodemus had difficulty understanding what Jesus meant when He spoke of "being born again." "How can a man be born when he is old ? Can he return to his mother's womb and be born ?" (John 3: 4).

Nicodemus was trying to understand God's ways through his intelligence, but Jesus pointed out that the ways of God are never fulfilled through our flesh : "Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, if a man born of water and the Spirit, he can not enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (3: 5-6).

My friend, we have been given something better than religion. It is time to get up and follow Christ on another ground. The heart of what James calls "pure and undefiled religion before God" (James 1:27) is to take the love we have known and share it freely with others. This removes any fear about what we are going to do for the Lord and replaces it with a heart willing to receive and give His love. This is the real and abundant life !

Gary Wilkerson