HOW TO LOVE LIKE JESUS.

HOW TO LOVE LIKE JESUS 
By Ekpo Bassey Jacob.

To love like Jesus, we need to understand a simple truth. We cannot live the Christian life on our own.

Sooner or later, in the midst of our frustration, we come to the conclusion that we're doing something wrong. It's not working. Our best efforts just don't cut it.

I’ve learned a couple things so far in my life with Jesus. I’ve learned that Jesus pursues me in love, that he uses circumstances to shape me—even that he talks with me regularly (whether I’m listening or not!).

These lessons—and many more—have greatly impacted my spiritual life, and they have greatly affected the way I treat those around me. Ultimately, I’ve learned that my actions reveal a lot about what I believe about love.

FAITH

                                                       

FAITH

To have faith we also have to obey God. Our inner attitude does not define faith alone. (James 2:17) “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:19-24) “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter? And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” A person is justified by deeds only by man; because man cannot see our faith. Our faith is justified by God. Our deeds do not save us, but they are the evidence to our saving faith. If we could save ourselves by deeds, Jesus has not done any help for us. Faith saves us and faith alone. (Ephesians 2:1-2) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The disciples had great faith and sometimes we desire to have faith like them. Since we have not seen Jesus and still believe we have greater faith. “Because you have seen me you have believed, blessed are those who have not yet seen but still believe.” (John 20: 29) People that have seen Jesus and believe will not be punished, but that the people that have not seen Jesus and still believe are blessed. By having faith and believing in God we will have everlasting life. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”(John 20:31)

HOW TO GET FAITH?

To get faith we have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and we will get the gift of faith and have life in his name. Faith can also come through the message through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Sometimes we will have a problem believing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that he died on the cross for our sins. We should then, fill are selves with God’s word and meditate it with our heart. To do this we should read the Bible. We will soon realize that Jesus “is the way the truth and the life.”(John 14:6) Once we become a Christian and have great faith, we can compare our life to what it used to be without God and we can see that the struggles were harder when we did not have God leading us through them.

We know that our faith will not always stay at the same level. (2 Thessalonians 1:3) “because your faith is growing more and more.” We can pray, study the Bible, go to church, and serve God. These things will not give us faith, but they can help us grow in our faith. We should always continue to praise the lord as a sacrifice! (Hebrews 13:15) We should “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.” This will also help us grow in Faith.

Sometimes we get caught spending all of our time shopping, cooking, and even work. This will consume all of our thoughts and God will be slowly pushed out of our lives, then when we have a problem we will go to God and use him to help us with our problems but we will never think to give thanks to him. You should spend most of your time reading the bible, praying to God, and thanking him for everything he has given us. Jesus died on the cross for us and has given us some very great things; the least we could do is thank him for the stuff he has given us and praise him with all we have.

If we have done some really bad things in our life and don’t think that God would ever forgive us or even love us anymore, think again! God will always love us and forgive us, no matter what we have done. We could be the ones not honoring our mother and father or have even murdered someone, but they are both sins, both having consequences. Everybody sins and if we just ask for forgiveness and believe, we will have everlasting life and your journey with the Lord will continue in the right direction.

When we accept God into your heart, our life will not be perfect. It does have great things that come with it though! If we have struggles in our life that you think will never go away, we can pray to God and he will help us through it. When a problem comes up and we have nothing left, we can always count on God to be there for us! God is the one that we will always need and the one that will always love us! To know God will always forgive and love us, should give us the courage to love and forgive our enemies.

If we are striving to go in the right direction and want to live our life praising, and serving God, the door will always be open. To ask Jesus Christ to be in our life is easy but it will be the biggest decision we will make in our whole entire life. God has led me to do many things that will help his kingdom grow and they were things I never thought of doing, but through faith I did it and I was rewarded. Faith is a big thing in everyone’s life, I encourage everyone to go out and do the thing that God is calling you to do. This thing might be very hard to understand or you might not trust that he will get you through it but God has a plan for us and he will guide us through it and reward us for what we have done. We need to use faith and trust in God as we take these steps into the right journey.

DOUBTS

Doubts are when we are sceptical about something or have undecided feelings. Doubts can come running in our life at a bolting speed, and will compete with everything for are attention. Sometimes we can be drowning in doubt until something reassures us of our faith. (Proverbs 3:5) “Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” If we are a true Christians and human beings, we will experience doubts. We have not seen Jesus therefore we will have doubt. There will be a point when we hit something that will make us decide between faith and doubt. This will help us grow in Faith.

In the Bible there were people that had not believed in Jesus until they had seen him. Thomas did not believe the other eleven disciples when they had said (John 20:25, 27) “we have seen the Lord.” Thomas said “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” Jesus then came in through the locked doors and said “Peace be with you! Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Doubts aren’t always a bad thing though. Doubts can help guide us through our journey with God. When we have doubts we might not think that we will still have everlasting life in Heaven, but doubts can help us have greater faith in the long run. When we doubt we will ask more questions to find out everything we want to know. We will learn why God is the answer and why the other theories have no way of being possible. We will also start reading the Bible more and going to church more so we reassure are faith. Doubts don’t mean you’re not a Christian or that you don’t have faith, it just means that you doubt because we believe in God and he is unseen! Doubts are normal in life. Its hard to build so much faith up of something that we have not seen and not knowing if it’s going to be true until we see it, but we need to believe and trust in the lord.

Have you ever got caught thinking “Maybe God isn’t real.” Or maybe “Is it to good to be true?” or “How could God have done this?” But the truth it is a great thing that God made this Universe. If we think about it God Is REAL because who could have made this Earth? Who could have made us? It had to be someone so great just like God.

Sometimes we even doubt because we have prayed and what we prayed did not go are way or we got hurt by a loved one dying. God disciplines us because he treats us as sons- everyone has had discipline. God disciplines us for our good, it is painful at the time but later you have a harvest of righteousness and peace for us if we are trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7-13) “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet” so that the lame may not be disabled.”

Sometimes we will pray to God, testing him so that we can believe. We will tell him “God if you let me get a job promotion or get on the high school basketball team the next day then I will believe.” When that doesn’t happen it does not mean God is not real or doesn’t answer prayers, it just means that we want the job promotion or the high school basketball team more than we would love to believe in God. God is not a person that will hand us things when we so desire, but does answer our prayers. (Jeremiah 33:3) “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. ”He also promises to answer are prayers. (Isaiah 65:24) “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” Once we see beyond the image of God giving us what we wish for, his word promises we have confidence that we will receive anything we ask for. (1 John 3:21-22) “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

God is not a force that is just someplace. God is everywhere and he is a God that is personal with us and he is the spirit. He cares for us and he knows us all and even the number of hairs on our heads. (Luke 12:7) “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” It is easier to realize that God is real when you know that he is not a fairy-tale or a force; he is the spirit.

THE END

Life is an experience of living. We have two lives. One is where we are born from a human being on Earth and the other is when we die we will be born again and we will be sent to Heaven to be with God. Here on Earth we have troubles mentally, physically, spiritually, and many other ways, but in Heaven it is perfect. (Revelation 4:1-3) Heaven is where God lives. It is where God is on his throne and is the full and complete expression of God’s kingship. Heaven has no pain, sorrow, deaths, crying, or sadness.

In the Bible there is not a lot of information on Heaven is going to look or be, we just know that it will be a perfect place! We can only imagine what Heaven will be like, but God has way better plans then we could ever come up with, or even imagine. If we saw a mansion we would deliberate that the houses in Heaven will be three times as big, but that is not what they will be like because it would not be superior enough. Heaven is a reward for those who overcome everything in the life we are living. (Revelation 3:21) “Heaven offers rewards for those who overcome in this life.” To get to Heaven we don’t just live life, we have to believe in God as were living! (John 3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

One of the many immense things about Heaven is there is never a time when God runs out of rooms. (John 14:2) “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.” God does not send only the best people, that have greater faith, or the ones that have done better things, he will send everyone to Heaven that believes in him.

TIME

                      




       LIFE IS MADE UP OF TIME [Ekpo Bassey Jacob]

“If I could, I would stand on a busy corner, hat in hand and beg people to throw me all their wasted time” – Bernard Berenson

Time in the inexplicable raw material for everything. Anything you want out of life will only be gotten through the currency of time. Of all the resources we have, time is the most expensive. Time is primary, scarce, perishable resource and control base for all human activities on earth. Life is made up of time, don’t waste it. Your time is like a precious jewel which must be guarded well.

Do you know that the Richest, the most educated, the most celebrated people in your society and indeed the world do not possess more of this precious commodity than you?

Everybody is allocated 24 hours a day. Some people simple know how to maximize and use every second to their advantage. They know that to waste time is to waste life as such anything that seeks to steal and waste their time is considered an enemy and treated so.

Time is as valuable as water is to desert. The proper use of your time is what will take you to your destiny. Jim Rohn said “time is more valuable than money. You can get more money but you cant get more time.

               Unlike money, time cannot be stored, stolen, counterfeited, recovered, borrowed or printed. Once its is wasted, it is wasted forever. The wise use of your time can earn you respect, dignity and honour. You can enjoy good health, have friends and build healthy relationships.

            Through the proper use of time, you can acquire wealth, become more knowledgeable, better skilled and increase your value. Don’t waste, it is suicidal. Youn canot build an enduring legacy without it. To grow old does not mean you have truly lived because some old peopled cannot count their years while mourning in regrets. Every accomplishment is a product of the proper use of time.

            You can live 24 hours a day if you choose to. Make every second count. Your destiny is hidden in it. Those who kill time abort destinies and that’s a tragedy. Time is more than money. Time is life. Use it wisely, don’t waste it. Time lost can never be regained.

DEVOTIONAL

Loving the Broken

[Article from Bible plan]

        I was raised in a broken home. Drugs, alcohol, and physical abuse were common and expected. It didn’t take long for me to take on some of the same characteristics that I saw on a daily basis. Before I knew it, I was out drinking late, and stealing drugs from my stepdad’s stash to sell and often consume. I remember walking home at 7:00 one morning to get ready for school after a night of drinking and drug use. I looked in the mirror, unhappy with the person staring back at me. I had become someone I had despised for so long—someone I promised myself I would never be. It didn’t take long for me to justify it and convince myself that this was who I was destined to be. "That’s all small-town living has to offer,” I told myself. "What else is there to do?"

During this same period of time, my grandmother was persistent in inviting me to church. Some weekends I would give in and made sure that I was sober enough or didn’t party as hard the night before. As I said before, I lived in a small town. If you’ve ever lived in one, you know everyone usually knows what you do before you even do it. She was aware of my substance abuse and had been praying God would show me His love and the plans He had for me. They were much more promising and hopeful than I could ever dream or imagine.

Home life was getting worse, and the abuse had turned from moderate to extreme. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how God orchestrated the timeline of events. My grandmother’s love for me and her ability to look past my faults led me to a family who was willing to take me in as their own. They took a chance on a troubled teen. Through their love and acceptance, I was able to see Christ’s love for me. It’s because of that love I am now a changed man. A man with a wonderful marriage and children who will be raised knowing the love that I once was unaware of. I gained all of this because several people were able to love like Jesus.

Danny Duran
Life.Church Overland Park

REBOOT YOURLIFE BY EKPO B.J(BELS)

“Alright everybody…back to ones.”

This is what you’ll hear if you’re working on a film set and they’re going to reshoot a scene. I’ve been an extra in several films, and the more times I heard that phrase meant the more hours I was going to be spending on set that day. It wasn’t the greatest sentence to hear, but deep down I knew that the intent behind it was to get the scene completed just right. Going “back to ones” time and time again rebooted the scene until it worked.

There are times in our lives where we need to reboot ourselves. We get stuck in a pattern, follow the wrong path for too long or simply need a jolt; that’s when rebooting can be the best thing we can do. Think about when you reboot a computer: you’re essentially changing how it is currently functioning (usually slowly and sluggishly) and getting it back to where it was when you first powered it up. You’re not changing the entirety of the computer, just the way it is currently operating. When you reboot yourself, you’re doing the same thing. You’re not changing the inner workings of yourself, you’re changing how you’re currently operating.

But rebooting yourself isn’t as easy as pressing a power button or holding down control-alt-delete. There’s more to it than that.



Remove Yourself
When you are going about the reboot process, you need to step back and steer clear of whatever it is that you’re doing that is causing the need to reboot. That may mean taking a day off of work mid-week or taking a trip to get away from it all so that you can get clear with yourself. Regardless, it has to be something that you would not normally do. Calling in sick mid-week or taking one of your vacation days to break the pattern of a steady work week is one method. Using paid vacation to go as far away from what’s got you stuck is another. This isn’t running away from the problem – this is putting yourself in a place where you can really look at it and decide what the next step is. The goal is to reset yourself and you can’t do that when you’re still “on”.


Rest Yourself
Once you’ve taken the time to get clear on your next move, take the time to enjoy that moment. When a computer reboots it takes a bit of time to refresh itself. You don’t press the power button and see it instantly turn back on. It spends time getting ready for what’s next. That’s what you need to do.

You need to reflect on what you’ve decided to do and why you’ve decided to do it – and then look forward to what’s next. There’s no clutter involved, no stress. You’re just warming up. You’re getting ready to go. That takes time and energy. So rest up…and then go.



Recognize Yourself

Now that you’re clear and rested, recognize what you’re going to do to keep operating at the level you need to without having to reboot again anytime soon. Rebooting slows you down initially but once you’re up and running again you start to progress rapidly – as long as you stay focussed on what your intention is. You need to recognize this and act on it, otherwise you’ll be rebooting yourself again far too soon.

Yourself…Rebooted

Just as being stuck can be a stick in the craw of your productivity, so can not knowing how to get yourself unstuck. The next time you feel that you’d be better off just trudging through your difficulties, think about giving yourself a reboot. It may just be the wake-up call you need, and now you’ve got the tools to get it done.

Don’t quit on yourself and your situation. Take a page from technology and “force quit” what’s going on and fire yourself up again. You may find out a lot more about what’s going on inside you and whether or not you need to refresh your life – or if you need to upgrade your life.

                                                                THANKS FOR READING