January 21:  Accepting His Love.

HIS KINDNESS.
And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."--Mark 2:5

It was a very difficult time in my life, and it just so happened that I was about to spend Christmas Day by myself.  My loving parents lived on the East Coast while I was in California, and we didn't have money to visit each other.  But then something incredible happened!  An airline advertised a very inexpensive Christmas fare, but the round trip had to be completed within forty-eight hours.  My parents called me to tell me the exciting news that both of them were coming to spend Christmas with me.  I was not alone after all!  They cared for me deeply.

There was a paralyzed man who suffered greatly and desperately needed to know that someone cared.  Four friends brought him to Jesus, but the crowd around the house was so big that they were unable to get in (Mark 2:3, 4).  What should they do?  Go back?  Not these men.  They made their way to the roof of the house, since dwellings in Palestine had flat roofs accessible from the outside, but when they got there, they had to make a hole in the roof in order to access the interior of the house.  They were so eager to help that they willingly stepped outside their comfort zone and even risked losing their honor.  But the sick man was about to receive much more than physical healing.  They lowered him through the hole: "And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven' " (verse 5).  Did you notice the first words that Jesus uttered?  They conveyed His kindness and care for this man!  Because of his disability, people would call him cursed by God, yet Jesus calls him teknom (Greek) instead, which communicates endearment and is translated as "son" or "child."  Apart from addressing his disciples as "children" (Mark 10:24), this is the only time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus calls a person by this term.  This man would also receive forgiveness and healing, but the first kind word he heard was "son."  No matter how helpless or hopeless we may feel, Jesus kindly addresses us the same way: "Child, your sins are forgiven!"

My Response:_______________________________________________________

January 20:  Accepting His Love.

HIS STEADFASTNESS.
"Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?"--Matthew 26:53

I recently revisited the National Mall in Washington DC, which includes several monuments, such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington monument.  When I had been there almost three decades ago, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial had not been built, so it was completely new to me.  It is a stunning monument.  Engraved on the walls of the monument are several of his amazing quotations, including this one from 1963: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

When Jesus was arrested, Peter drew out his sword to defend Him and he cut Malchus's ear (John 18:10).  I am pretty sure Peter wasn't going for the ear, but something more vital.  But Jesus ordered him to put the sword away and said: "Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?  How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?"  (Matthew 26:53, 54).  If Jesus wanted to free Himself, He wouldn't have relied on a few disciples with swords.  No!  He was keenly aware of the supernatural resources available to Him!  He was innocent, He had power, and He had other divine resources.  And yet He didn't use any of these but restrained Himself in order to follow His Father's will for our redemption.  The use of force was not in Jesus' plan.  He was unwavering in His resolve to follow the will of God, even if that meant giving up His rights, His power, and His place in heaven.  His steadfastness to follow God's plan, walking in the path set before Him, is contrasted with His disciples' response to the situation.  We too may feel tempted to use force, perhaps not with a sword, but with words, attitudes, hierarchy, power, control, and other forms of coercion in our attempts to subdue our opponents.  Yet God is asking us to follow the way of Jesus: the way of love, forgiveness, and humility (see Philippians 2:5-8).  God bids us to put away our "swords," for "hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

My Response:_______________________________________________

January 19:  Accepting His Love.

HIS PROPOSAL.
"I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me."--Revelation 3:20

I heard a touching story, but I don't know its source.  A little boy arrived at the pediatrician's office.  When the doctor was using the stethoscope on the child's chest, he placed the earpiece in the boy's ears, so that he could listen to the sound of his own heart.  Having never heard a heartbeat, the child was startled!  Then he asked: "Is that the sound of Jesus knocking on the door of my heart?"

I cherish this endearing and tender picture of Jesus found in Revelation 3:20.  He is standing at the door and knocking, desirous to come in.  He proposes, to whoever opens the door, the intimacy of a spiritual meal with Him.  His offer is particularly touching to me because it is found right after the portrayal of the church in Laodicea, a church that is both lukewarm and self-sufficient (see verses 15-19).  Laodicea was one of the wealthiest business centers in the known world, and it was famous for its banking system, black wool industry, and medical school.  Therefore, these are used as the background of the counsel to Laodicea: to come to Christ for gold refined by fire, white garments to clothe their nakedness, and eye salve to see (verse 18).  The Laodicean church doesn't perceive its own spiritual needs; it believes it is fine as it is.  It is neither cold nor hot; it is lukewarm and doesn't realize that it is spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.  After a call to repent, Jesus offers Himself.  So far the message has been addressed to the corporate church, the church of Laodicea as a whole.  But in this verse, it changes to an individual proposal and appeal: "If anyone hears My voice."  Even if the group doesn't accept Jesus' offer, the individuals may.  Jesus already stands at the door.  His initiative preceded our acceptance of Him, yet He doesn't force Himself in.  It is the knock and plea of love personified (see Song of Solomon 5:2).  He promises to come in and dine in intimacy with anyone who hears His voice and opens the door to Him.  The proposed meal is not a hurried one.  He yearns to come in!  This is the eager plea of the One who gave His life for you and for me!

My Response:_________________________________________________

January 18:  Accepting His Love.

HIS SELF-DENIAL.
"Do You not answer?  See how many charges they bring against You!"  But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed.--Mark 15:4, 5

When the tropical storm Harvey hit southeastern Texas, authorities reported more than thirteen thousand rescues.  Unfortunately, some lost their lives.  Among them was a  woman who, along with her young daughter, had been swept away by high water.  While floating in the canal, the mother did everything that she could to keep her daughter alive.  When rescuers found them, the daughter was clinging to her mom.  The woman did not make it, but her daughter was worth her sacrifice.

The mockery and torture that Jesus suffered was more than we can imagine.  "Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, 'Prophecy!'  And the officers received Him with slaps in the face" (Mark 14:65).  Before His crucifixion, Jesus endured His disciples' betrayal, the false accusations of the religious leaders, the mockery of the soldiers, the questioning of the authorities, the unjust scourging, the crown of thorns, etc., yet He did not defend Himself.  "He kept silent and did not answer" (Mark 14:61).  This was in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy:

          He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
          Yet He did not open His mouth;
          Like a lamb that is silent before its shearers,
          So He did not open His mouth
          (Isaiah 53:7).

It's not that He didn't have anything to say, or that He couldn't prove His innocence.  He was not helpless to deliver Himself.  No!  He voluntarily renounced His rights; He relinquished His life.  From His conduct we may learn that we don't always need to defend our rights when a greater purpose is served.  We may also learn to surrender to God's will.  We may learn humility as well.  All these are very valuable.  Yet most of all, may we learn and understand that Jesus surrendered His life in exchange for ours.  His silence was loud proof of His love for us!

My Response:________________________________________________________

January 17:  Accepting His Love.

HIS INITIATIVE.
"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not...go after the one which is lost until he finds it?"--Luke 15:4

While going through rough times, I once received an encouraging card.  The statement on the front caught my attention: "All you need is another card telling you to hang in there...."  Yep, that's all I need, I thought, as my eyes settled on a little lamb, with sweat dripping from its brow, holding fast to something that wasn't visible on the cover.  I opened the card to read the message inside, which has stayed with me until now: "I want to tell you that you are SAFE in His grip; and He is not going to let you go."  A strong hand was holding the little lamb.

We've all read books and heard sermons that emphasize our seeking after God, our perseverance, our strength, our hanging in during the storm and not letting go when we find ourselves at our wit's end.  But, as important as all these things are, the Bible's major emphasis is on God seeking after us,  His initiative to go after what was lost, the strength of His grip, and His hanging on to us when we are weak and exhausted.  Our God is a passionate and loving God, who is eager and able to initiate action to find us, and who safely holds us in His grip.  He is a loving Parent, who pursues us with His goodness and grace all the days of our lives (see Psalm 23:6).  The parent's grip on the child is the child's security.  When the Pharisees and scribes are grumbling because Jesus is receiving sinners (Luke 15:2), the first parable that Jesus tells them is about a shepherd who goes after a lost sheep until He finds it (verse 4).  Once he has found it, He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing! (verse 5).  God has loved us before we loved Him; our love for Him is only a response to His infinite love for us (1 John 4:19).  His initiative is our response.  He is the Shepherd who desperately searches for the lost sheep.  "For thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.  As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day' " (Ezekiel 34:11, 12).  Thank you, Lord!

My Response:______________________________________________

January 16:  Accepting His Love.

HIS INTIMACY.
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."--John 15:13

Friendship means mutual affection, respect, and honesty.  Friends have each other's backs and like each other despite their character defects.  I am not talking about acquaintances, but close friends who will take your secrets to their graves.  This is what Jesus has chosen to call us: His friends.  He knows everything about us: the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And in spite of His intimate knowledge of us, He has chosen us as His friends.

The ultimate demonstration of the love of Jesus for us was His sacrifice on the cross.  Yet many view God as a distant and demanding Master, who treats us as slaves and not as friends.  When Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another, His love for us was the example: "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than one lays down his life for his friends" (John 15:12, 13).  Then he went on to explain the intimacy of this relationship: "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.  You did not choose Me but I chose you" (John 15:15, 16).  F.F. Bruce points out that, "The contrast between the slave and the friend here is not unlike the contrast between the slave and the son in Galatians 4:7.  John Wesley, looking back on his conversation in later years described it as the time when he exchanged the faith of a servant for the faith of a son.  Had he expressed himself in Johannine rather than Pauline language, he might have said that he exchanged the obedience of a slave for the obedience of a friend."*  Jesus has chosen us as His friends and has shared His plans with us.  Whoever pledges allegiance to Him becomes His intimate friend (verse 14).  Many carry the sting of rejection with them.  Perhaps you have never been chosen, either for a school sports team or simply as a friend.  Yet Jesus, the King of the universe, has died for you and has chosen you for a friend!

My Response:______________________________________________________
* F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), 112.

January 15:  Accepting His Love.

HIS SACRIFICE.
"I lay down My life so that I may take it again.  No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative."--John 10:17, 18

You may have heard the name of Salman Kunan, a retired Thai Navy officer who volunteered to help in the rescue that captured the world's attention in June-July 2018.  Twelve boys and their soccer coach were trapped in Thailand's Thum Luang cave.  Kunan lost his life while delivering oxygen to them during the rescue mission.  He was a hero.  Sources say that when he realized that the oxygen level in the cave was low, he left his own oxygen equipment and tried to swim back without it, knowing that it would be difficult to make it.  In selfless love, he made the choice to save those thirteen lives by giving up his.

Jesus' sacrifice was His own choice.  The fact that He was laying down His life for His sheep is repeated four times in this short narrative (John 10:11-18). John emphasizes that the sacrifice of Jesus was not an accident or a simple misfortune; it was the plan all along, and He submitted Himself to it voluntarily, in order to save the human race.  The Greek original word is often translated as "myself":  "I lay it [my life] down myself' (verse 18).  Frankly, it is a mystery to me that Jesus loved us so much, to the point of not only choosing, but planning ahead to die in our place for our salvation.  That's why we find our personal worth at the Cross, as we realize how much we mean to Him.  Barclay explains: "Jesus was not helplessly caught up in a mesh of circumstances from which he could not break free.  Apart from any divine power he might have called in, it is quite clear that to the end he could have turned back and saved his life.  He did not lose his life; he gave it.  The cross was not thrust upon him: he willingly accepted it--for us."*  Jesus continued to be in control to the very end when He gave up His spirit (John 109:30).  It was not the nails that kept Jesus on the cross.  It was His love for you and me!  He had the power to get down from the cross and avoid additional torture and death.  But His love for us was greater than His physical, emotional, and unsurpassed spiritual anguish.  Yes, my friend, you are loved that much!

My Response:______________________________________________
* William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 67.

January 14:  Accepting His Love.

HIS SONSHIP.
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."--Matthew 3:17

It is such a blessing to have godly parents.  My parents were a constant source of support for me, which they manifested in so many ways, lavishing me with unconditional and unwavering love.  I still remember when I graduated with my first master's degree.  My dad had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and was about to have a major surgery.  Still, he insisted on attending my graduation, in spite of his failing health, because he knew how much his presence meant to me.  Now that they are no longer alive, I like to re-read the notes of encouragement that my parents used to send me, telling me of their love and support.

God made sure Jesus knew of His support and love.  After Jesus' baptism, we find one of the most amazing scenes in the New Testament, one in which the Trinity is manifested.  The Spirit comes upon Jesus, and a Voice from heaven speaks, asserting God's view of Jesus in a heavenly revelation of His identity: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased" (Matthew 3:17; see also 12:18; 17:5).  In the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament), Israel is called the "son of God" (for example, Exodus 4:22, 23; Hosea 11:1).  The Davidic kings of Israel were also called "son of God" (for example Psalm 2:7).  Now Jesus, the ultimate King of Israel is identified and the Son of God.  And God asserts His Sonship and the fact that the Father "delights" in Him.  Right after this assertion, the status of Jesus as God's Son will be challenged by the devil ("If you are the Son of God..."  Matthew 4:3-6), who tempts Jesus to use His divine power for His own benefit.  When a person accepts Jesus as their Savior, they become beloved in the Beloved.  In Him, we are the beloved children of God: "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God"  (1 John 3:1).  Even our final reunion with God is portrayed with these divine words: "I will be his God and he will be My son" (Revelation 21:7).  Through the Sonship of Jesus, we too become children of God.  When we are in Jesus, we know with certainty God's view of us: we are His beloved children, and He delights in us!

My Response:______________________________________________________

January 13:  Accepting His Love.

HIS ANOINTING.
The Holy Spirit descended upon Him..., and a voice came out of heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased."--Luke 3:22

My parents always went out of their way to communicate their love and support for me.  Recently, I found a note inside a book that they gifted me, expressing their love and parental pride, which means so much now that both of them have passed away.  My mother left a memories chest for me, in which she had kept mementos from various stages of my life.  It contained things like my little red gloves from when I was one-year-old and a feather I wore on my hat as a child.  I thank God for my parents, who lavished me with love and approval.

Jesus received the affirmation of His Father's love and approval from the very beginning of His public ministry.  Luke is the only Gospel writer to report that after His baptism, Jesus was praying when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and a Voice from heaven was heard (Luke 3:21, 22).  Prayer is an important, recurring theme for Luke.*  The Holy Spirit is another recurring Lukan theme, both in his Gospel and in Acts.  Two foundational events occur at the time of Jesus' baptism: the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus to empower Him for His redeeming mission, and God declares the Sonship of Jesus, along with God's love and approval of Him.  The identity of Jesus as the Son of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit had been pronounced since His birth (Luke 1:32, 35), but at this time He was being empowered for public ministry as the divine Agent for the redemption of humankind.  God Himself now confirms what the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary (Luke 1:35).  Three times a Voice was heard from heaven, affirming the ministry of Jesus (see Luke 3:22; 9:35; John 12:28).  In Jesus, Heaven gave it all.  His identity and mission would become the only source of salvation for humankind, which He achieved through His sacrifice.  Now we are to proclaim what He has done, until He comes back.  And for this task, God promises the same two realities for us: in Christ, we are God's beloved children, and He empowers us for His mission through the Holy Spirit.  Praise be to God!

My Response:_________________________________________________
* For examples, see Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 22:32; 23:34.

January 12:  Accepting His Love.

HIS DETERMINATION.
"Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'?  But you have made it a robbers' den."--Mark 11:17

Parents contend for their children's well-being; they even fight with an attacker when a child's safety is at stake.  A woman, whose car was stolen with her little child inside, fought the attacker and wouldn't let go; her child was more important to her than her own life.  She appeared in the news with both hands bandaged due to the injuries she sustained, but she was happily holding her child.

Jesus was determined to defend all His children from religious, economic, and ethnic abuses.  The temple had become a fruitless institution, just like the fig-less tree (Matthew 21:18-22).  It was time to do something about it, so Jesus cleansed the temple from the business-like environment and the merchants in the court of the Gentiles.  Just in case anyone missed what He was doing, Jesus began to teach them what this was all about.  "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'?  But you have made it a robbers' den" (Mark 11:17).  Mark quotes more fully than the other Gospels the citations from the Scriptures that Jesus used to explain His actions and in doing so helps us interpret the heart of the matter.  The first part of the teaching of Jesus comes from Isaiah 56:7; Mark includes the words "for all the nations" from that passage.  Jesus was protecting the original intention for which the temple was designed: everyone was welcome to come to pray and worship the God of heaven and earth.  But the religious leaders of the day, with no regard for "all the nations," had taken the only place where non-Jews could worship and turned it into a shady marketplace.  No foreigner could be at peace with God in that noisy place, and Jesus was defending them!  Just like a zealous mother defends her children, Jesus is determined to defend the right of everyone to come as they are to receive His blessing!  All seekers are welcome in His Presence.  Jesus fought so hard for us on the cross that His hands and feet sustained irreversible injuries!

My Response:_____________________________________________________