Salvation, November 2, 2008

Salvation, November 2, 2008

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
"You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
"These things I command you, that you love one another.

John 15:9-17 www.solascriptura.com

Jesus, here you teach us that keeping Your commandments is a pathway to maintaining our love towards You. We know that disobedience is an error and that You honor our will to serve You in the best possible way. You teach us that Your joy remains in us as we serve You. Would it be true Jesus that in failing to have joy in serving You that we would be missing that which You intended?

You teach us that the most evident thing we can do is to make sacrifices for others, as evidence of our love for them. Surely, Jesus, Your sacrifice for us was the most precious gift You could offer for our redemption. You said, "I call you friends", because all that the Father revealed to You, You have revealed to us. You have drawn us along side You, embraced us and loved us, teaching us by the power of the Holy Spirit, a gift for the here and now that has no equal.

Then You tell us, "I have chosen you" and appointed us that we might bear fruit. We see that the fruit we bear, in Your name will remain. No effort to serve You is ever forgotten. Oh, Jesus, absent Your power we can not bear fruit that endures. Lead us this day, to be fruitful, in Your Holy name, amen.

Bruce Caldwell