Dear Partner,
What a wonderful time of the year! Leaves are changing colors, and there is a freshness in the air.
Let’s begin by turning in The WORD to 1 John 4:7-9, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition: “Beloved, let us love one another, for Love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him]. He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is Love. In this the Love of God was made manifest (displayed) where we are concerned: in that God sent His Son, the only begotten or unique [Son], into the world so that we might live through Him.”
Notice, first of all, that our God does not have Love. He is Love.
In Matthew 5:44, AMPC, Jesus said, “But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
And in Luke 6:27-28, also in the AMPC, Jesus said, “But I say to you who are listening now to Me: [in order to heed, make it a practice to] love your enemies, treat well (do good to, act nobly toward) those who detest you and pursue you with hatred, invoke BLESSINGS upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you, implore God’s BLESSING (favor) upon those who abuse you [who revile, reproach, disparage, and highhandedly misuse you].”
What did He say in verse 27? He said, “Make it a practice to love your enemies!”
“But Brother Copeland,” you might say, “you don’t know what they did to me. They really hurt me with what they said to me and about me.”
I know. I’ve been there. However, what they said and what they did have to bow the knee to what the Master said. His words are Truth and they are Life. Just look at the back of the Cross. By those stripes, you and I are healed!
John 10:10-11 is why Jesus came. Let’s look at it in the AMPC: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd risks and lays down His [own] life for the sheep.”
Notice, verse 10 says Jesus came so that we could “have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it OVERFLOWS.”
Second Peter 1:4, AMPC, says, “By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.”
All these exceeding great and precious, BLOOD-backed promises are received by Faith. That’s the only way we can make it a practice to love our enemies. Second Corinthians 5:7, AMPC, tells us: “For we walk by Faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk] not by sight or appearance.”
We walk by Faith,“not by sight or appearance”!
Now look at verses 17-18 in that same chapter: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Verse 21 in the AMPC says, “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].” In the King James Version, it says: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Now let’s go to Hebrews, my favorite book in the Bible, and turn to my favorite chapter, Chapter 11, which I call “The Hall of Fame of Faith.” Verse 1 in the AMPC, says, “Now Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” And verse 6, also in the AMPC, says, “But without Faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].”
How do we get Faith? The BOOK tells us in Romans 10:6-8. The AMPC says: “But the righteousness based on Faith [imputed by God and bringing right relationship with Him] says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into Heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or who will descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ up from the dead [as if we could be saved by our own efforts]. But what does it say? The WORD (God’s message in Christ) is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, The WORD (the message, the basis and object) of Faith which we preach.”
Remember, you and I were made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Verse 17 says, “So Faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself)” (AMPC).
Look at Galatians 5:6: “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but Faith which worketh by Love.” Now, read that same verse in the AMPC: “For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only Faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love.”
When I prayed last night, and again this morning, about what to say in this letter, I heard these words: Tell them how much I Love them.
Since He is Love, there is nothing we can do to cause Him to love us more. And there is nothing we can do to cause Him to love us any less. There are things, however, that we can do to grieve Him. He went to the Cross. Love did that for me!
Fear is also a spiritual force. Fear is NOT OK.
First John 4:16-19, AMPC, says: “And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put Faith in and rely on) the Love God cherishes for us. God is Love, and he who dwells and continues in Love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. In this [union and communion with Him] Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.There is no fear in Love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) Love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of Love [is not yet grown into Love’s complete perfection]. We love Him, because He first loved us.”
Do you remember the account given about Jairus in Mark 5:22-24? “And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.”
“And she shall live.”
Jairus spoke the END result by Faith. Then the death messenger spoke in verse 35: “While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?” Who answered? Jairus? No. It was Love Himself: The Son of the living God is Love. What did Love say? “Be not afraid, only believe” (verse 36).
Let’s read verse 35 again, along with verse 36, and we’ll see it. This time, we’ll read it in the AMPC: “While He was still speaking, there came some from the ruler’s house, who said [to Jairus], Your daughter has died. Why bother and distress the Teacher any further? Overhearing but ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear; only keep on believing.”
“Overhearing but ignoring what they said,” Jesus told Jairus, “Stop the fear! Believe only and she shall be made whole.”
Now, look at Colossians 1:12-14, AMPC: “Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God’s holy people) in the Light. [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His Love, in Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.”
Go now to the prayer Jesus prayed just hours before He would be crucified. John 17:20-23, AMPC, says: “Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching, that they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.”
“What? Brother Copeland, do you mean to tell me that God loves me as much as He does Jesus?”
That, dear Partner, is the way it struck me when I first read it while I was at Oral Roberts University. Jesus went to the cross, died, and then went to hell for three days and three nights so that you and I wouldn’t have to go ther
John 3:16-17 tells us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
God gave His only Son. That’s shouting ground! As you sow your BLESSING seed this month, do it remembering that we live by Faith in the kingdom of the Son of His Love. Remember, too, that I pray for you at every meal that you be BLESSED beyond measure—spirit, soul, body, financially and socially. God Loves you, we Love you, and Jesus is LORD!
