Weekly Word for May 4-10, 2003

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 be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15: 10 & 11)

Over the last few weeks we have talked about joy . It is one of God s promises to us! But the first thing Jesus asks us to do is to: abide in His love. I looked up the word abide in the dictionary in my bible - it says: to remain or stay. When I think of the word abide , I think of living in . So Jesus asks us to remain, stay, or live in His love! My gosh, how difficult that seems to be! It also seems a little unreal when you first look at it. Years ago, I used to think Christians looked strange with all that hugging, and being nice all the time! I guess I thought they were always supposed to be nice and good; and I knew that I had such a temper! (Yes - I really am a redhead!) And then I started really understanding who the Lord is - and that He had all the same emotions that you and I have!

Jesus lost His temper - He got angry in the Temple when He saw money changers defiling the place that was meant to worship God! Jesus cried when He was faced with being separated from The Father. The Lord was full of the emotions that make us full of life. Abide in His Love? Love is Life! Love means choosing what brings life - it means choosing the Creator of Life - choosing not to kill others or ourselves - it means choosing The Lord! Abide in His Love! We must remain, or stay in, or live in all that is Life ! When you truly love another - you want to do what will bring them full of life!

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, (John 15: 12 - 14)

We are His friends? He calls us friends? Yes He does! The Lord loves us! How amazing is that? I had a dream a number of years ago. In the dream I saw a close friend and myself in a place that looked like a library. (I have always wondered why a library - except that it is the place of knowledge - the place that you go to find answers) In the library my friend was sitting down. She looked up at me and said: Look, there s Grant I looked over and saw a very handsome man. He looked up and smiled at us. My friend then asked me to go over and talk to him - she wanted me to tell him that she liked him. I laughed and asked why she didn t go herself. She told me she couldn t. So I said yes . I walked over to this beautiful man and said hello. He smiled at me and then started talking to me as if I was a close friend. He was looking down at some maps, and he started showing me everything on the maps. I finished talking to him and went back over to my friend. She was so amazed that I had just been able to talk and enjoy His company. But I had! I had totally loved being with Him.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15: 15)

I knew when I woke up that the dream had been about talking with The Lord. So many people know about God and Jesus; yet believe God is to be feared and only approached through pastors, or others, and that they cannot talk to the Lord themselves. And love the Lord? I didn t know what it meant to love Him until I got to know Him. But I had heard from others that it was possible to get close to Him - and somehow I believed them! That is what I am asking of you - to believe me that you can get close to Him - learn who He is - and find out how much He loves you. In doing that, you will find out why you can love Him! That He brings life into you - even when you have felt you have never had life there before!

There is an old hymn that Whitney Houston sings at the end of the movie Preacher s Wife . I absolutely love this song. The words are: I love the Lord, He heard my cry! There were so many times in my life when pain and sadness caused me to cry - to feel there was no hope. And then The Lord came to those places and brought His Love and healing. He hears our cries. And wants to heal our wounds.

Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.

In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. (John 16: 24, 26, 27)

My hope is that you will ask Him to come closer to you, to show you how much He loves you and allow Him to open your blind eyes, heal your broken heart, and set you (the captive) free!


God bless you in the coming week ahead.

In His Love,

Debbie and Ted Ayers