Monday, August 26, 2013

Friendship With Jesus

Another chorus to an old song comes to my mind called, "Friendship With Jesus." The words go something like this;
     Friendship with Jesus, fellowship divine
     Oh what blessed sweet communion,
     Jesus is a friend of mine.
I am  made to think of my Facebook friends. It is possible to "un-friend" someone with whom you previously called a friend on Facebook. The Bible says in Proverbs 17:17,  "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." I am sorry for those who have perhaps un-friended me or those I know.

Now I don't suppose that un-friending someone on Facebook means that the person who un-friended you is no longer your friend. It may have some other significance. I am glad that the Lord Jesus is a true friend. He is, the Bible says in Proverbs 18:24b, "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."  Another chorus comes to mind,
     I don't know what I'd do,  I don't know what I'd do,
     I don't know what I'd do without the Lord.
     When I look around and see, all that He has done for me,
     Then  I don't know what I'd do without the Lord.
Jesus is the best friend I have or ever had!

I guess I will never understand why some people are not my friends. It is probably something that I have done (At least I don't mind taking the blame). The Lord Jesus did put a qualifier to who His friends are. He said in John 15:14, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." It is not that He has ceased to be our friend when we disobey Him but rather we have ceased to be His. In fact in verse 13 the Lord said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The Lord Jesus laid down his life for you and I, thus proving His friendship for us. In fact we were not only not his friends but we were His enemies. In Romans 5:10 the Bible says, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." We were His enemies in word and actions. Thank God the Lord Jesus did not hold that against us, rather He went to Calvary and died for us.

And the Bible asks the question in Romans 8:31-39, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" We might ask ourselves, why would God be for us when we were against Him? Read what the apostle continued saying. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." It was reading these scriptures that gave me the confidence to believe God for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Apostle Paul went on with the rhetorical question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Oh what wonder, that the Lord Jesus would love someone like me!

Let me say to you who have read this blog thus far, The Lord Jesus is your truest friend. You may have, in word and deed, been His enemy previously. But let me assure you that Jesus is your best friend. The Bible says of Jesus in John 13:1, "...having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." He will love you unto the end also. If you have done wrong in your life, why not do what Proverbs 3:5-8 says, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones."  Jesus is your friend, will you be His?

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