The following is a preview from Chapter 1 of my soon to be published book: More of Jesus
Chapter 1: The Pursuit of Jesus
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jeremiah 31:3 NLT
What is it about an epic saga that draws us in, only to sweep us away? The Chronicles of Narnia is a battle for dominion to reclaim the lands frozen by the White Witch. The Lord of the Rings follows the journey of a group of friends longing to destroy the stronghold of evil and restore order to Middle Earth. The Prince of Egypt portrays years of oppression for the Israelite people only to see the hero, Moses, rise up and free an enslaved people from years of bondage and captivity.
I’m not here to push pop-culture, or tell you the next movie series to binge…..but I am wondering if these timeless classics that have both attracted billions and made billions globally don’t speak to something far greater than our hearts can articulate. They speak to something that resonates to all of us because of the lives we live and lead everyday:
There is good, and there is evil. There are battles that lead to war. We long for victory…..and there is something worth living and dying for: Perfect love.
Hear me out.
I think that deep deeeeep down, God has left in us an irrefutable longing for him. He’s built us with a desire to be seen, known and loved because he also wants to be seen, known and loved. The very nature of love is that it is not one sided but is most enjoyed when it has been protected, cherished, guarded and fought for as well as mutually enjoyed. To seek and find, give and receive and cultivate a deep knowing relationship with him, (not at him) that’s what Jesus is after. Because of the battle that rages around us, we get the message within us mixed up, and often distracted. At the heart of it- Jesus wants us to have a vibrant and beautiful relationship with him that surpasses anything else that we could possibly know.
Liking someone often leads to love, and love leads to a continual longing to be together. The very nature of love is that it is everlasting, beautiful and epic. We were created to walk with God in the garden, and after the fall of man, we’re just trying to get home. The relationship God longs for with us is put on full display throughout scripture, with a call to come back to and maintain our walk with him as our first love.
The longings of the Trinity are marked all throughout Scripture pointing us to the fact that God is ardent in his love for us, and wants us to be ardent in our love for him. Read each passage closely, (pause, pray and listen if you need to) but look at the longing that comes through every word, in each passage of Scripture.
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13 ESV
“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His.” 2 Chronicles 16:9a NASB
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3 ESV
“Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:7-8 ESV
And here’s the kicker from the man himself:
“Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40 NLT
When we consider the heart content of the author, not just the words or the context of these passages, it becomes clear that we are loved by God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and that they want us to love them in return. The summation truly comes to a climax when someone asked Jesus what the pinnacle of all the commandments was. You could call this his mission statement, his vision board or his secret-sauce words to live by:
Love him.
Let’s take a minute to pause and think about that. Even more than anything we could do for God, he wants us to love him. There’s no room for half hearted love in this passage. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that the most important thing we could do is to love God with everything we’ve got: heart, soul, mind and strength. Love our neighbors and love ourselves. Love is the backbone and heartbeat to all of life as well as relationship with the Trinity. There’s no way to ignore it, no way to get around it and no way you can have a burgeoning relationship with Jesus where this essential foundation is ignored.
But there’s a beautiful plot twist we have to remember that also grounds us from God’s word as well:
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 ESV
Friends, we don’t even know what love is, or how to love him…..without him teaching us first. Being in relationship with Jesus is our starting place because it all starts with love. We grow in our relationship with God because he opened the door through Jesus. Jesus’ plan all along was for our relationship to be restored to walking with the Father in the Garden. When Jesus left this earth, he said he would go to prepare a place for us and send us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit himself, so that we would have everything we need for righteousness and relationship with the Father. We spend time with Jesus day in and day out, not because of duty, obligation or because someone is telling us to- it is our responsibility and privilege to have time with him because we are loved, and our relationship with him will be strengthened. Spending time with God means he pours his love out on us and in us, so that we respond in love to him, others and ourselves. We will love truly, and purely because we have been taught what love is by him.
Before we proceed, there is one issue that has to be addressed and that is the danger of not knowing him:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
We can say that we know Jesus, do miracles, prophesy, and cast out demons without knowing him. How is that possible? Because any of us can get caught up in the trap of going through the motions without being in love. It’s the danger of any treasured relationship- love must be protected. With fear and trembling I encourage you to consider your relationship with Jesus is not just a priority, but THE priority and foundation of all things in life. Let us be people who do things because we love Jesus and out of our relationship with him, instead of going through the motions and leaving our hearts far from him.
I hope you enjoyed the excerpt from Chapter 1!
I can’t thank you enough for your support. Some of you have been the sounding board as I process these pages, some have prayed over and for the message of this book. Some of you have given personally to help defray the cost of self-publishing….and some of you have just encouraged me that God wanted to use my writing. I’m so grateful for your support, and I’m so grateful for Jesus who holds us all together! – May you truly be glorified through every word, every page, and every life Jesus!
So much love,
Joy