Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

Of course, living to love with Jesus has to do with relationships with various people. Already in this chapter the writer mentioned strangers, prisoners, the mistreated, spouses, and brothers and sisters in Christ in general. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the leaders of one’s local congregation should come to mind. Jesus loves those who lead us, and one of the ways we show our gratitude to God for placing us in His unshakable kingdom is by loving them with Him. In this verse, we learn 3 aspects of loving our leaders.
First, let’s distinguish between two Greek words translated as obey. This is not the kind of obedience commanded of children to parents (Eph. 6:1) or servants to masters (Eph. 6:5). The word used communicates to persuade or win over. W.E. Vines says that in the N.T. this word “suggests an actual and outward result of the inward persuasion and consequent faith. When a man obeys God, he gives the only possible evidence that in his heart he believes God. Of course it is a persuasion of the truth that results in faith (we believe because we are persuaded that the thing is true).” So we are encouraged that our relationship with our leaders is to be guided by love, being persuaded by faith that it pleases God. So ultimately, our confidence in our leaders doesn’t lie in them, but in God’s faithfulness and love. This command isn’t calling for blind, unquestioning obedience no matter what they say or do. Our leaders are part of the shakable things on earth. But the love of Christ in us is unshakable, and we are persuaded that God is at work in all things for our good. He will make it profitable for us.
Second, we are to submit to their leadership, guidance, and teaching when it comes to soul issues. This is not a blanket submission. Notice they are to give an account for our souls. They have no jurisdiction in family and work decisions. When it comes to the health of our souls, we are not to be stubborn or resistant to what they say to us. We are to listen attentively with an attitude of trust in God to use His servant to our spiritual benefit. When we relate to our leaders in this way, it benefits them. We are doing good and sharing the life of Christ with them as we were directed in the previous verse.
Third, we have an opportunity to bless our leaders by relating to them in love. We are to let the watch-care of our souls be a joyful responsibility for our leaders. If we do obey and submit to our leaders in this way, trusting God, and with a humble attitude receive their care for our souls, there’s a benefit for us. This is implied because he said it wouldn’t be profitable if we gave our leaders grief as they cared for us.
So I wrap up our encouragement today with this: If we live to love with Jesus, Jesus will love our leaders through us in such a way that they will consider it a joy to be the Lord’s under-shepherd. We want to bless them in His name. So if God puts one of your church leaders in your path today, give him a reason to rejoice in the Lord’s love and grace through you.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

Let it be a joy for your leaders to care for you

Hebrews 13:18-19 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner.

We don’t know any of the details about the relationship between the author and his readers. It is obvious, though, that they knew each other and that something had occurred that had separated them from one another. The writer’s reference to a good conscience and conduct may suggest that he and others with him were being detained by authorities for their ministry. Perhaps they were being falsely accused and detained, and the author felt compelled to defend their integrity. Their conduct had been honorable to both God and men, and they were not conscious of doing anything that displeased the Lord. 
We might note that confidence in prayer comes from a clear conscience. The author could confidently ask his readers to pray for him and his companions because they were at peace with God and were walking with integrity. Because he said they were acting honorably in “all these things,” it implies that all of the things of which the author was writing had gotten them into trouble with religious or secular authorities.
I interpret their good conscience and honorable conduct to mean that they had been living to love with Jesus and teaching and living the truth. When we walk in love, we live honorably and freely. But that doesn’t mean that life will be easy with no conflict. We are strangers and exiles on the earth, so we should expect that those who are on the earth may look with disdain and disgust at our honorable conduct. In fact, loving, honorable conduct may make them feel more guilty. If they are deceitful, dishonorable, and have no integrity, they may make life difficult for those who are righteous. 
It doesn’t make sense to think his prayer to be restored to them implies that he and his readers have had relational problems. If he felt it necessary to ask them to pray for them, he obviously has confidence in their love for him and their faith in prayer. The apostle Paul also asked for prayer (1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1; Eph. 6:19). Philemon 22 expressed this same confidence in prayer for restoration. “At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.”
The encouragement today is to continue to love with Christ today, being sure to walk with a clear or good conscience before both God and man. Let’s remember again that by our conduct, we are showing to both God and others that we are grateful to be in God’s unshakable kingdom. It is a privilege for us to be God’s ambassadors of His kingdom on the earth. As we abide in Jesus, we can know God will give us the grace we need to love well for the glory of His name.
For those of you who are not familiar with my website, livetolovewithjesus.com, and book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships, I hope you’ll take advantage of the free resources so you can walk with Jesus in the power of His love. Jesus started the Live to Love movement when He was raised from the dead and sent His disciples out to make disciples in the nations. I hope you’ll join us in the live to love with Jesus journey.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

Live to love with integrity

Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

I want to break up the benediction of this letter into two parts because there is so much in these two verses. We can derive much encouragement to live to love with Jesus. First, we take heart that God is a God of peace. This is so important for us since there is no peace on earth if it doesn’t come from God. The world is hostile to God and therefore always in conflict. It is always shaking. However, God sent His Son to give peace to all men with whom He is well-pleased (Luke 2:14). He said to His disciples, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And again, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. 
The author based the declaration of God as a God of peace on the atonement and resurrection just as Paul did when writing to the Romans in 5:1. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The author harkened back to his discussion about the new covenant, that it is an eternal covenant based on the blood of Jesus, His Son, and our Lord. He shed His blood on the cross as the propitiation or payment for sin, putting us at peace with God. Our encouragement today is that this peace originates with God. He is the great peacemaker between God and man. That is the ministry of the high priest of which the author spoke throughout the entire letter.
We know we have peace with God through the blood of Christ because God raised Him from the dead. The resurrection is God’s testimony to the world that He accepts the sacrifice of His Son as payment for sins. Rom. 4:25 says Jesus was delivered up to death because of our transgressions, but He was raised because of our justification, meaning He has declared all who are in Christ as just in His presence. Sins paid for. All flesh removed. Nothing but Christ and His righteousness remains. The great Shepherd of the sheep has brought us all into the fold where we are safe and secure forever. 
Are you encouraged yet? I am! What love God has for His people that He would make peace within Himself on our behalf by dealing with our sin in His Son. He deserves glory, all the glory, forever and ever. If He’s to receive glory forever and ever, then we should give Him glory today. Let’s do it! Let us praise His name and show our gratitude to Him by loving with Jesus. Let us receive Him as life today and thank Him in word and deed for His steadfast love. We live out of His fullness because the God of peace has given us access to His throne through the blood of His Son, so we can fill up on His grace to love for His glory.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

God of peace

Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

As we get to verse 21, we see that this benediction is a blessing or a prayer. As we saw yesterday, the basis or confidence in this prayer is that we are at peace with God, who is the God of peace, through Jesus Christ. We see the author’s heart for his readers in this benediction. He longed for them to be equipped through Jesus Christ to do God’s will through every good thing they do. It is a recap of his main point throughout the letter: Through Jesus Christ, your high priest, you may draw near to the throne of grace to get the mercy and grace you need to run the race God has set before you and remain faithful to the end of your life.
What else was He praying for? He also asked that the God of peace, through Jesus Christ equipping his readers to do His will, would accomplish His work in both them and him. In Heb. 11:6 we learned that it is faith that pleases God because faith comes from His Son. Do you get it? The only way for God to get the glory forever and ever is if all of the work done is from and through Jesus. That is the heart of the author: May God get all the glory forever through His people. His prayer is for God to grant the grace necessary through His Son, who gives us both access in prayer and then grace through His indwelling life, the Holy Spirit. This truth is absolutely life-changing. It is the foundational truth of living to love with Jesus. It’s WITH JESUS! It’s THROUGH JESUS! Jesus’ life is our life. His love is our love. His love comes from the work of faith in our hearts, the evidence of which is obedience. He commanded us to believe in Him and love one another. So God receives the glory; He works in us what He commands.
This gives us confidence in life. It is the unshakable kingdom in which we live. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9). And when all is said and done in our lives and we come to the finish line, all the glory will be His. The apostle Paul echoed His praise in Rom. 11:36. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” To which we also add our, “Amen!”


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

To God be the glory, Amen!

Hebrews 13:22 But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

After 13 chapters in our Bible, we may laugh at the author’s assessment of his letter. It’s a brief one. Wow! I wonder how long it would have been if he had written everything that was on his mind. Maybe it’s like John’s comment about all the works of Jesus. John wrote in 21:25, Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” 
As I come to the end of this letter to the Hebrews, my heart is so grateful for the encouragement I have found to live to love with Jesus—even in this brief letter. It has been full, so full of foundational truth and continual encouragement. It is a wonder to me that he felt he needed to appeal to them to bear with his letter, which he considered an exhortation or an appeal. If we were reading the Greek, we would see that the words for urge and exhortation are the same word. It’s like he appealed to them to bear with his appeal.
The encouragement I get from this verse is that I want to appeal to you to do what this writer did with everyone God puts in your path. Follow my train of thought. We know God is love. God inspired this author to appeal to his readers to run the race by faith with endurance, fixing their eyes on Jesus, and confidently, continually, going to Him for grace so that God would receive the glory through Jesus Christ at the end of their lives and forever. I encourage us all to make the same appeal to our brothers and sisters in Christ whenever we meet someone who is growing weary and tired of the journey of life. They need the grace of God, and in this letter, we have learned where that grace comes from—Jesus Christ, Himself.
So today, in harmony with the author of Hebrews, I make this brief appeal for us to love with Jesus like the author did by pointing others to Christ.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

A brief appeal

Hebrews 13:23-25 Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all.
We learn a few things about the author from today’s verse. It is believed the letter was written in the second half of 63 or the beginning of 64. He was probably in Rome, where it is believed Timothy was imprisoned for a time. Since he mentioned in his request for prayer that he would be restored to them, the author also may have been imprisoned in Rome at the time of writing this letter. We learn that he was hoping to be released as well and travel with Timothy to see them. He closes with a greeting to the entire Hebrew community.
My takeaway from this verse is that we make our plans, but God establishes our steps. That’s how living to love with Jesus is. We must approach the days of our lives humbly, with open hands. As James wrote, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”
As we walk with Jesus each day, we can trust that He will set the course for us. We only have today, and the greatest confidence we have that we will make it to the end in faith is to abide in Him now, today. That doesn’t mean we don’t make plans, but we trust God to lay out our course. So today, you probably have plans, and I hope you embrace Jesus’ purpose of loving with the Father those the Father gives Him. Receive well those He puts in your path, and then look to Him for grace to love them—for their highest good and greatest benefit. 
What better way is there to finish an appeal such as we have received from this letter than to say, “Grace be with you all.” I can’t think of one. If we are going to respond to any appeal to bring glory to God, the only way it is possible is through the grace of God. It is a wish or prayer that we know will be answered to all those who truly believe and seek God, knowing He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Will you join me in prayer as we close the book of Hebrews? Father in heaven, we worship You and draw near to You through the powerful work You have accomplished on our behalf through Your Son, Jesus Christ. We want to show our gratitude to You for bringing us into Your unshakable kingdom. We seek Your face for the grace we need to love whoever You put in our paths today, for Your glory. May your grace be with us all. Amen.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

We make our plans, and God establishes our way

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I think this is one of the most amazing statements about Jesus in the Bible. Commentator Arthur Pink wrote that in this verse we see Jesus’ relation to time, to the Godhead, and to the Trinity. Each reality is important. The first declares that Jesus is eternal. He already existed before the beginning of all things. The second reality is that He is the Word, “the spokesman of God, and the One who spelled out the Deity, and One who has declared or told forth the Father” (Arthur Pink). The writer of Hebrews in 1:2-3 described Jesus as the One through whom God spoke and the exact representation of His glory. Jesus could say, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9). The third reveals that the Son is separate from God the Father and the Holy Spirit because He was with God. It also reveals that Jesus was and is always in the presence of God. And fourth, Jesus was God. Only one who is God can exactly express or reveal all of God. Jesus is God manifested. Expressing and revealing that great truth was the goal of John’s gospel.
My vision for the live to love scripture encouragements isn’t to give an exhaustive commentary on each scripture. It's to draw from each verse an encouragement to live to love with Jesus as our purpose in life. I will argue that the primary way God receives glory in His people is by their living to love with Jesus. Then I will make an appeal for you to embrace God’s call to walk in love with Him. 
Jesus was God, yet separate from God, and His purpose in coming to earth could be described this way. He came to glorify His Father by living to love with the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit. John’s conclusion after knowing Jesus was that God is love (1 John 4:8). Jesus came to earth to reveal that God is love by loving with the Father. He died, was raised, and ascended to the Father in order to come be with us so we could glorify the Father as we live to love with Him.
Our encouragement today is that as believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we have living with us He who in the beginning was the Word. He who lives in us lives in the presence of God and is God. We have God, who is love, living His life in us. This is the message of John’s gospel. It’s great news, and so we are not living for God, but He is living for us. As we will see in the next few days, Jesus alone is life. 
May we walk today in reverence and awe, showing our gratitude to God for giving us life by living to love with Jesus, for the glory of God.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

God revealed and communicated in Jesus, the Word

John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:2 repeats two foundational realities for everyone who lives for the purpose of loving with Jesus—the eternality and immutability of Jesus. Hebrews 1:10 reveals God saying about the Son, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain.” Then in chapter 13:8. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and, yes, forever.” Notice it was God who spoke about Jesus, which shows us that in the beginning, Jesus was with God, and they were separate persons. 
I’m encouraged by the fact that if I have Jesus living in me, I have eternal life. John wrote in 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has the life.” The life we have in us has always been and has always been with God. The source of the Son’s life is the life of the Father. To see the Son is to see the Father. May our lives be more and more united with Jesus as we live with Him so that those around us will believe that He lives. Then may the Father draw them to Christ that they might have life in Him and give their lives to live to love with Him. That is the way God planned for His kingdom to advance in this world throughout history.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

His life in believers

John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In verse 3, we see Jesus’ relationship with the universe. He’s the creator. Notice there’s nothing that came into being that He didn’t create. It’s important to note that Jesus is outside of creation. This is important because of those who say that everything is god. Also, there are those who propose the false notion that Jesus was just a man who reached his full potential as a man, and we all ought to emulate Him. The truth proclaimed here is that Jesus existed prior to all things, and God created every material thing through Him. 
Obviously we are all part of His creation. We are His creatures, created for God’s purpose and glory. I hope you’ll follow what I’m about to say. First. God created all of the ages of time through Jesus (Heb. 11:3). “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” The word for universe in Heb. 11:3 is the word eon, which is ages. The same word, eon, is used in Rom. 11:36, and it’s translated forever. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” Listen to what Colossians 1:15-18 says about Jesus.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent [or be the first consideration].
Second, after creating the ages, He created us and put us in the ages. As Lord of the ages and our creator, it is to Him that we will give an account. We will give an account to Jesus for everything we have done in our bodies, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).
Third, we were created by Jesus, for Jesus, and all things in our lives will bring glory to Jesus. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:13 that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand for us to walk in them. That’s living to love with Jesus. We were made for Jesus to live in and through. We become His temple, His body, and His people on the earth, filled with His Spirit so He can love through us. He created us. He brings forth His life in us. He brings into being His love in our hearts. He then directs His love and empowers it where He wishes. And ultimately, of course, He gets the glory as the creator of all things.


I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

Jesus, the creator of all things

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

That Jesus is life and has the power to give life and that His life is the light are major themes in John’s gospel. Let me show you what I mean. 
John 5:21. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.
John 6:33. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
John 6:63. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
John 14:6. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” 
John 1:9. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
John 8:12. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
John 9:5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
It makes sense then that in John’s introduction to the gospel, he would declare that in Jesus was life and His life was the light of men. We will also see that the light that His life radiates is love. He alone is life. He alone is light, and He alone is love. The natural man can’t hold a candle next to Him. We have no light in ourselves. If we are ever to have life, light, and love, we must receive it from God through Jesus Christ.
We are born dead. We come into this world with no spiritual life, light, or love. John spoke of this condition when he wrote in his first epistle, 1 John 3:14. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” Can you see it? The proof that we have Jesus’ life is His love flowing in and through us. If we don’t have his life and love, we abide or remain in a state of death.
That’s why I have simplified my purpose in life to living to love with Jesus and inviting you to intentionally join the adventure. In believing in Christ, we receive His life. In receiving His life, His life becomes our light, and that light is His love shining forth through our lives. The way we know we are in Christ is that we have His life shining the light of His love in this world. To God be the glory. Let His light shine.

I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

New tracks tagged #lovingothers,