Three little words<\/strong><\/em>\u2026 but yet so powerful. What three words came to mind when you read the first sentence? And what makes them so full of power? Words are just words, aren\u2019t they; that is until you find what has gone on before they were written or spoken. Many of us have read, spoken or written empty words, or phrases. No substance to fill their emptiness.<\/p>\n As a man, when we propose to the love of our life, most of us back it up with a diamond ring. It\u2019s either been purchased with hard-earned money or it\u2019s an heirloom. Either way, there is substance to our words, at least financially. Of course, there\u2019s more to it than just the ring. The ring represents the proposal to love, honor and cherish this woman all the days of our life. The diamond ring is just the seal of that future commitment.<\/p>\n While I was pondering so many things about the kingdom of God today, Easter Sunday, three words came to my mind. Probably did for you also. May I give you my thoughts on the substance that make these words full of life and hope and joy.<\/p>\n The first three are\u00a0\u201cIt is finished\u201d<\/strong><\/em>. In the beginning God created heaven and earth and all that is on the earth. That includes us. It was a perfect environment and Adam and Eve walked with God, that is until they disobeyed. What man now had done would require the God of creation to undo. We have to understand that God did not make a mistake at creation. He desired that the earth be covered with people worshiping, glorifying him and serving him, actually forever. But since sin brought death, separation from God, removal from the garden, his purpose had to be redeemed. We know that he did that by sending his Son and offering him as a sacrifice. Jesus\u2019 last words, it is finished, is a pronouncement of the completion of this redemption. This is where we put our\u00a0faith<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n Secondly,\u00a0\u201cHe is risen\u201d.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0These sealed the deal so to speak. What the Trinity had begun at creation now was back on track. Death, separation from God, had now been defeated, the last enemy that could keep us from spending eternity with the Lord and his redeemed. The Father raised his Son from the dead, not like Lazarus earlier, who would again die, but to an eternal and glorified life. That is the second part of the gospel which we must embrace. The resurrection, the empty tomb is where we derive our\u00a0hope.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Lastly, is\u00a0\u201cI love you\u201d<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0These are the motivation for the first two.\u00a0They\u00a0have substance because of what was accomplished on the cross and at the empty tomb.\u00a0\u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>the operative word showing how much God loves us is in what he gave. He gave the most precious thing he could give. So, when he says he loves the world, there is overflowing substance in those three words.\u00a0\u201cBut God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(Rom. 5.8 NKJV) This is where we get our\u00a0love.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Jesus spoke these words.\u00a0\u201cGreater love has no one than this, then to lay down one\u2019s life for his friends\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(Jn. 15.13 NKJV). And he tells us that in order to be His disciple, we must lay down our life and pick up his cross and do the work of the ministry. There are actually three more words and they really were his last words before he ascended.\u00a0\u201cGo, make disciples\u201d.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0How easy it is to give lip service to the Easter message and not respond to this love in tangible ways. As you can see, he did not call us to comfort, he called us to obey, however that plays out in your life and mine. But the end result should be making disciples of our family, friends, neighbors, the nations. That\u2019s why he came, died, rose and ascended. His original plan now includes us. What a joy it is to be loved this much.<\/p>\n It is finished; he is risen; I love you; go make disciples! Three little words, so power filled!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Words with substance Three little words\u2026 but yet so powerful. What three words came to mind when you read the first sentence? And what makes them so full of power? Words are just words, aren\u2019t they; that is until you find what has gone on before they were written or spoken. Many of us have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,64],"tags":[63,212,156,161,102],"class_list":["post-5869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abiding","category-mentoring","tag-discipleship","tag-easter","tag-jesus","tag-the-gospel","tag-weekly-devotional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Three little words<\/h3>\n
Go make disciples<\/h3>\n