1 John 5: 1-3; 1) “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2) This is how we know that we love the children of God; by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3) This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.”

          So, when we accepted Christ as our Savior, we became children of God. Our faith in Jesus, even as minuet as it was, brought us to Him. To rescue us, to save us from the destruction we had made of our lives up to that point. Our faith in the world laid in pieces at our feet. “I have come into the world as a light, so that no noe who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:46 (NIV). So now being in the light of His glory, we begin to look at others through a new set of eyes, eyes created by Jesus.

And we begin to really listen, through ears created by Jesus. And just as we “love[s] the father, ‘we’ love[s] his child as well,” we love the Father and the children He has created. The believer and the non-believer. “And to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19 (NIV).

          As we look on others, through our eyes created by Jesus, we look past the outer shell. We look at the heart. Many of the hearts we see are dark, encased in stone or bound by chains. We see the miss-direction of their ways. We look at how the follow the world, not caring that destruction is coming. And with our ears, created by Jesus, we hear the worry, the anxiety, the hurt and the pain in their voices. And then we suddenly realize that our hearts are going out to them. We find ourselves calling out their names in our prayers to our Father. We have begun on the road of obedience by beginning to love them. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV).

          Filled with the desire, at our conversion, to understand Christ better, in order to obediently follow Him, we dove into the word. Consuming its power daily. We filled our minds and hearts with His commands. And in doing so our hearts opened up to see and hear God’s children, to their fears and angers and to their hurts and disappointments. “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16 (NIV). We now can relate to those in the dark, since we too were living in darkness, at one time. Because to the power in us, through His word and the Holy Spirit, our words, actions and life will be an example to others the power of Christ, the change that has occurred in us may bring others to Him also. Some may come to us to inquire about the change, and accept the words that God gives us to speak, others may not. But because we see everyone as His child, we will continue to pray for them. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 (NIV). “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus” Revelation 14:12 (NIV). As we have read in these two verses, we must be patient, praying daily for those who walk in darkness, knowing Christ is working in their lives.

          So that they have the opportunity to be welcomed into His presence at His second coming. And we also see, that we, by being obedient to the Father and proclaiming His mercy, grace and love to all He has created is storing up for us treasures in heaven. We are securing our inheritance, our birthright, along with Jesus Christ as God’s children. And so by doing this our hearts will not fear death, but we will begin to understand that death will only be a blink of an eye, if you will, between life here and eternity with Christ. And our hearts will ache until ALL have come to Christ. That ache or desire will be what pushes us to live our lives with Christ in the center. It will push us to boldly confess our faith and trust in Christ to others. And it will give us the patient endurance to continually lift up those hurting and dying children of God, to God.