All Things For God's Glory

Mark 10:17-23   Jesus loved this rich young aristocrat.  But, did Jesus love this man the same as He loves His own kids ?  I would contend that He did not.  God cannot even look upon sin, let alone love it.  And if we truly believe that we are born dead in sin (Col. 2:13), then we must admit that we are dead through and through - heart and body, and that there is nothing else about us to love.  We are actually called the enemy of God in Romans 5:10. This means God is at war with us, and we are at war with Him and His kingdom.  Jesus' love for this man was the love He tells us to have for our enemies, the love He had for the "world" in John 3:16 - meaning it is a love that is a choosing to do good in spite of being despised, rejected, scorned, mistreated, misunderstood, and murdered.  It is a love based upon the grace of God and not upon the recipients' worthiness.  But did Jesus' love for that young man signify his acceptance into God's ...

2 Corinthians 3:18-4:18   " But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,  just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart..."  For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.   But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;  we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.   For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the l...