"Real Love"

 "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21 KJV)

  "Don't you remember thar our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his Son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say, "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not be faith alone." (James 2:21-24 NLT)

 So, 'a needle pulling thread.' Don't ask, because it just came to me as I was thinking what I should say and why I should say it. First of all, without even trying to make sense of what some people might say, sometimes as if they have an axe to grind; we have no righteousness outside of the righteousness we get from Christ Jesus! 

 I say that, mostly because I believe that there are some people who wear their good deeds on their sleeve, as if it shows that as proof of their love for God. Without getting too far into the logistics, meaning what plans and motivation are behind their actions, Jesus gave a parable regarding sheep and goats, which, if you recall, the sheep did not even know they did something special; while the goats, they expected that everything they did would be accounted for by God.  

 Not quite sure if they might know, but everything is about God's glory, will, and purposes! We are merely vessels that are part of something spectacular and glorious, that God is working out, for His glory! As Paul proclaims in Ephesians 2:7, saying, "So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus." 

 Abraham believed that God would keep His promise, as if his son was the one that would carry on the plans He had chosen for Abraham. Therefore, Abraham believed that his son was safe, whatever it was that might happen, because his son was to be the one who would fulfill the plans of God. In other words: Abraham believed God! Regardless of the circumstance and situation, he believed God would find a way, even if there was no way; even if he went through with killing his son, God would bring him back to life. 

 That might be a lot of assumption, on my part; but it is the only way that Abraham could have had the faith to carry out what God asked him to do. Faith requires action, because we believe what God has said! Faith is not blind, because faith can see what God has said; even if we cannot see the results, we believe His promises...

"While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us His Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body." (2 Corinthians 5:4-10 NLT)