Long before [God] laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. Ephesians 1:4-6 The Message

When Jesus, the King, was born in a feeding trough over 2,000 years ago, God was showing the love and value He places on each one of us.

We were trapped and lost. We couldn’t save ourselves. Jesus became like we are so that we can be made right with God. What happened in that manger and ultimately on the Cross is fully available today. He died to save us, and when we call on the name of Jesus we bring that vital action into the present of our lives.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NLT

People need breakthrough that only a Mighty God can give; they need an Eternal Father’s unconditional love and the Prince of Peace to save them from the war in their hearts. Jesus is each of those things, and He is available to you.

God sent His Son to save us from our sins. If you’re not a Christian, I encourage you to humble yourself and call out to God. He will respond. Bury your regrets about the past and your fears concerning the future—trust in a faithful God. He loves you.

Pray this prayer: Lord Jesus, You know everything about me. Please forgive me for all the wrong things I’ve ever said or done. I know that You died for my sins and rose from the dead. Please come into my life and be my Lord. Help me to follow You always. Amen.

Merry Christmas!
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2011 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

But you, my friends, must fortify yourselves in your most sacred faith. Continue to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, and look forward to the day when our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy will give eternal life. Jude 20-21 New English Bible

Fortify yourselves in your most sacred faith. These verses show us ways we can be strengthened. We need strength from God because the things He has called us to do cannot be achieved by our own human effort. “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4b).

Continue to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. Aren’t you glad that God sent the Holy Spirit? He is the fortifier and strengthener, and His “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12 NKJV) is available to guide and lead us. The spiritual effects of praying in the Spirit are similar to the physical effects of exercise. Prayer will fortify you so that you won’t faint or lose heart (Luke 18:1). Instead, you can be strengthened “with power through His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16).

Keep yourselves in the love of God. To stay in the love walk with others, we must first understand our spiritual roots: that we are loved and accepted by God. When Jesus comes into our world, He changes us on the inside. Instead of bitterness controlling us, “the love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

[I pray] That He [The Lord] would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19

The fruit of the Spirit can work in your life. As we fortify ourselves by getting in the Word, praying in the Spirit, and continually walking in love, we will become more sensitive to the subtle promptings of the Holy Spirit. We will walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. We will be less dull and more perceptive, less static and more dynamic, less fleshly and more spiritual! We will grow stronger, and the fruit of the Spirit will show up powerfully in our lives.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Ephesians 5:22-23

God bless you!
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2011 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God. 1 John 3:1a

You’ll become frustrated trying to walk in love if you don’t understand that we love because God first loved us. We can only truly walk in love as it flows out of our understanding of God’s love for us.

The apostle John had a profound understanding of God’s love. Four times John reiterated his awareness of God’s love by calling himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7). I used to think John was rubbing it in to Peter and the other disciples that he was the favorite. But now I realize the contrast between those two disciples at that point in their journeys: Peter was the disciple who tried to love Jesus, but John was the disciple who received the love from God.

It’s not about your loving God more—it starts at square one: God’s love for you. Let it resonate in your spirit that you are the disciple whom God loves, and out of that value, you can start valuing your relationship with God and valuing the people around you.

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:9-11

God is calling us to revolutionize our generation with this radical approach called love that emanates from our relationship with God. We are at our best when this translates into practical action. How are we going to win the world? Not by our amazing sophistication, but by our love.

It’s good to be loved,
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2009 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

Without agape—the God kind of love—all other loves fall short. God’s love is different from natural human love; it’s supernatural and changes a person. Agape love is value: looking at a person and realizing that is someone for whom Christ died.

If you started out walking the love walk, but over time life has dealt you a weird hand and your attitude has changed, go back to the Bible and see the pattern that God set in place. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

You can’t control other people, but you can control yourself. Here is a description of love adapted from 1 Corinthians 13. It’s been modified so you can confess it over your own life every day—or ten times a day!

• I am patient.
• I am kind.
• I am not jealous.
• I don’t brag.
• I am not arrogant.
• I don’t act unbecomingly.
• I don’t seek my own.
• I am not provoked.
• I don’t take into account a wrong suffered.
• I don’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoice with the truth.
• I bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. I won’t be driven off course, because love never fails!

Press on!
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2009 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

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. 2 Corinthians 3:18

The value of something is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. The world evaluates worth based on appearance, performance, and status. But God doesn’t make superficial evaluations. Whether you are doing great or not so great, He absolutely loves you. You are worthy because of the blood of Jesus that reconciled you to God!

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17

In order for us to operate fully and effectively in the ministry of reconciliation, we must know who we are in Christ. The devil wants to keep us from seeing ourselves in the mirror of the Word so that we stay dominated by our flesh, fears, and sensory impulses. But God’s Word identifies us clearly and transforms us completely: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

Forget conforming to the expectations of the world. If you want to live radically for Jesus, get your mind on what God has intended you to be: someone who walks in close fellowship with Him and who carries the message of reconciliation to a lost world.

You are loved by God!
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2009 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.