He loved His own to His Fullest

Our associate pastor gave a most wonderful sermon this morning that really spoke to me. It came from that old familiar passage of John 13, verses 1-17 in which Jesus washes His disciples feet. We know the story well, we have heard it many times, maybe even taught it in our own classes, but this morning it was presented in a new way, and a new realization was revealed to me from God for my life. This whole story is surrounding the final hours of Jesus and what He left for His disciples, for us. It made me ask myself, what do I want to be remembered for? What do I want to leave from my life?

Jesus washing the feet of the disciples was not just about doing acts of service, it is about being like Him-"behave as I have behaved" (vs 15). We are to be like Him in mind, in spirit and in action. Beyond the act of washing their feet, Jesus was implying the need that we all are to be washed or cleansed by His blood in order to be filled with His spirit (vs. 8). And in an even bigger message, He demonstrated that "He loved His own to His fullest" (vs. 1). He loved US to His fullness. He was about to further demonstrate this to us with the cross of Calvary and His resurrection.

He loves us to His fullest. Did you really hear that? Shall I repeat it? He loves us to His fullest!! And oh how He demonstrates it in our everyday life. Sometimes we have to put on our spiritual glasses to see it but it is there, in the mundane task to the supernatural if we are so blessed. So I had to ask myself, when my end has come, what will others remember about me? What do I want my life to reflect to God as I stand, or more likely bow, before Him in eternity? I quickly jotted three things that came to my mind on the title page of my Bible (all the blank pages in my Bible are filled up with other spiritual incites, Scripture or significant statements for my life). This is what I wrote as a commitment to God this day...

They will remember me by:

1. She loved her God with all her heart, mind and soul (Matt. 22:37)

2. She loved her own to her fullest (John 3:1)

3. She lived in grace and overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of her testimony (Rev. 12:11)

I want to have "She loved her own to her fullest" put into a frame or "They loved their own to their fullest" etched on a wooden picture block to place in our home. It is my goal this week to behave as Christ-to love my own (the family and friends He has blessed me with) to my fullest.

I will need prayer. It will require me to love to my fullest when the girls decide to bicker, or when I come home to a messy kitchen from the after school pancake snacks that they have made. I will be called to love to my fullest when there are annoying habits to endure (like shoes left out, toilet paper rolls not replaced, just to name a few). I will be called to love to my fullest when I am needed to meet individual needs within my own busy schedule. I am sure it won't be easy, but I want to behave like Jesus behaved and to love, fully love!!

In His final hours He completed His journey and He loved us to His fullest.

To be like Him....

In his Graces~Pamela

PS-I posted actual pictures from my palm camera of the flowers I talked about in my last post. I think they are a form of a daisy called "glebionis segetum"...?