In the last hours of His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke with His disciples and gave a command which was considered new: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
Should this command really have been new? Shouldn’t the disciples have known they were to love one another? Or is it possible to spend three years with a Master Teacher and yet not understand that learning must translate to action, and that we teach truth by first being an example of truth? If we desire to teach love, we must first be loving; to teach the concept of grace, we must first be gracious; and in order to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), we must begin by first being a true disciple!
As I continue to study and learn the wonderful truths of God’s Word – and as I diligently try to teach these truths to others – I never want to stop at simply being better educated: “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). I’ll be the first to admit that I fall short in many ways, but I sincerely strive to make His Word real and apply it in all areas of my life.
Our spiritual growth must never be measured by how much we know, but by how much we are transformed – by how much the Word penetrates to the innermost part of our heart. We have all been blessed by God’s love far more than we deserve. We must now better understand this love and then learn how to become His expression of love to others.
Ephesians 3:17-19
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.”
The ultimate expression of love was that God gave His Son to an undeserving world so “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is a love we will never fully understand.
Paul had such a deep appreciation for the love contained in God’s plan of Salvation through the sacrificial gift of Jesus, that he was often completely overwhelmed; “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father” (Ephesians 3:14 NLT). When we begin to truly grasp His love, all we can do is say, Thank You!
Let’s pray for a greater understanding of His love and then return His love through a devoted life of worship. Let’s make His love real by demonstrating love to those He places in our path. Let’s begin to grasp, and then give back and share, the true love of Christ.
Have a Christ Centered Day!
Steve Troxel
God’s Daily Word Ministries
From: judy mccombs
Dear Steve,
I have enjoyed your inspirational devotionals for some time now. My husband and I were on staff with CCC (CRU) for 25 years. We are now with Global Orphan Relief mainly in Zambia. We live in Parker, CO. We were born and raised in Texas however. All that aside, I wanted to send you my husband’s article about his time with the Lord when he quit breathing as a result of a severe asthma attack over 20 years ago. I am sending this article because the Lord said to him what you have said in this devotion.” Let’s make His love real by demonstrating love to those He places in our path.” I thought you might enjoy reading this account.
In our Saviors love,
Judy
“FROM BEYOND THE JORDAN”
Life after life experience has been a subject of much discussion over the last several years. On October the 16th, 1988 this writer experienced that phenomenon. The story actually began in March of 1974 when I was diagnosed with an unusual respiratory disease. The disease had only a 9 year medical history and the prognosis was incurable, progressive and terminal. At 30 years of age, I was the youngest patient ever diagnosed and for 15 years the battle had been win some, lose some, but the overall trend was downhill.
On the morning of the 16th, my wife and I had attended a special event in a local hotel ballroom. Brunch was served to the over 1,000 in attendance. Unknown to the event sponsors, the hotel restaurant had sprayed their fresh fruit with sulfites to keep the fruit from changing color. Unfortunately sulfites trigger a deadly respiratory reaction in this particular disease.
Breathing difficulties were immediate and the difficulties quickly multiplied into a crisis. To me however the crisis became the most incredible opportunity to experience, in my near death state, a profound encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. I had read of such experiences and listened to individuals on television describe them as “life after life.” My experience was similar, but as every individual is an individual, different.
By the time Judy and I had made the dash to the emergency room, my lungs had completely shut down. The medical team was expecting me because a neighbor nurse had called ahead, but the initial emergency procedures failed and I stopped breathing, turned blue and lost consciousness. As I was losing consciousness, I remember thinking, “Well, I guess this is the time, it’s really sooner than I expected and the time seemed so short.” I whispered the prayer, “Lord, I’m coming. I surrender my spirit to You.”
And, immediately, He was there. From this point forward the story must be recounted in a sequence, but actually, there was no sense of time within the dimension I had entered. It was as if every thing took place in the same instant. I seemed to be outside of time and space in a timeless and infinite dimension. Even as I write, it is difficult to find words that accurately communicate what I experienced. Much later I came to realize that I really cannot fully communicate an infinite experience with finite words.
I had always wondered what it would be like to die, physiologically and emotionally. I don’t think I had been afraid to die, but the unknown, particularly the sudden unknown, has always contained its measure of fear for me. What do you feel? Does it hurt? Is there panic, anxiety, and trauma? Do you struggle, fight, suffer, linger in pain, or agonize?
For me it was none of those things. It was an instantaneous transition in the “twinkling of an eye.” Suddenly, the Lord Jesus was there and He dispelled all else, there was no room for anything else but His presence, specifically the presence of His love. It was like an overwhelming atmosphere of love, peace, freedom, calm, security, again, there are no words to describe it. His perfect love had “cast out all fear,” there was no room for it. It was not even possible to feel self conscious. .
I could still see my body, but it wasn’t me. I cannot describe the feeling of detachment. I thought it was really funny, here were all these people working so hard trying to save something that wasn’t even me, just a piece of dirt laying there on the table. It seemed as if the Lord and I were having a chuckle together over the situation. And, I have never felt such a feeling of detachment from this world, like such a pilgrim in a foreign land. This world and that body had never been my home at all, and to think of all the time I had spent on the vain care of that body and its comforts. But this realization had come with no sense of guilt or shame, only freedom, for it was impossible to know such things in His presence.
This initial experience has left me with a strong conviction about the experience of death. First, it is not bad in any way. It is deliverance to something better and second, the deliverance process is good. It spares us from what might appear to someone outside the process as painful, hurtful or unpleasant. His allowances and provisions for our human frailties, whether they are death, coma, mental deterioration, etc., go far beyond our ability to anticipate, recognize or understand. Whether we are going through the process or observing the process, His grace is sufficient. After all, he is good and all His ways are good.
So, let me encourage you, be confident, He will care for you and your loved ones, whatever the situation. There is no room for fear or pain in His presence because His “perfect love casts out all fear.” And, He is always present for He has promised to never leave or forsake us.
The first time I addressed the Lord was to think, “What about the family?” And, at the same instant, I had the answer. I learned there were no questions there, only answers. “Of course they would be all right; He loved them far more than I and would care for them far better – with his perfect love, perfectly.” The idea of concern or worry just could not exist in the presence of His love; there was no room for it. I could not even regret leaving them, the overwhelming assurance of His love for them did not allow for even the initial impression of remorse. Again, words are simply inadequate.
It was at this point that I became extremely conscious that my time on this earth was ending, and I thought, “What had my life really meant?” It was not like my life began to pass before me, but something similar. The lord had in some inexplicable way, suddenly opened my understanding as to what was really meaningful, and what was not. I thought of things done, things undone, moments of disobedience, moments of selfishness, and of that which I had planned to do for the sake of the Kingdom, if I only had more time.
In ministry, I have always been sort of a forward thinker, a pioneer, a creator and developer of new ideas, concepts, strategies, methods, plans, etc., and had enjoyed it. But suddenly, the Lord sort of brought me up short and seemed to say, “Dave, those things are important and have their place, but the most important thing is people. I love people! And, the most important thing for you is how much of my love you give through your life to someone else”, and then He said “in the next 5 minutes. It’s that person you are with, or that person in your path, or that person in your thoughts who need My love expressed through your life.”
2
The “next 5 minutes” until I go home to be with Him will always be the most important moments of my life. It’s the people. He loves people, all people, they are important. And, He loves each one with all of that immeasurable love that I had experienced. Every morning and so often throughout the day, that thought comes back, “the next five minutes”. How much of his gentleness, compassion, and kindness, how much of His love can I pass along to those in my path in “the next 5 minutes?”
Today, I often find myself in a restaurant, walking on the street or involved in some activity and suddenly I see the faces of the people, as individuals. These are people He loves and for whom He gave His life. The tears just come to my eyes. Too often, I see despair, pain, hopelessness, loneliness, bitterness or anger in the faces and I know it breaks His heart. But I have 5 minutes and I can do what I can do.
For me, what I had experienced answered many questions about the judgment of the believer, when I would stand before the Lord to give an account. How would I feel? Would it be a fearful occasion, one of embarrassment, shame or guilt when my whole life was uncovered? Yes, there was some feeling of loss, regret, remorse, something like that, although none of those words are accurate. But there is no fear, not even discomfort, because “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and truth shall make you free… free indeed.” And Jesus was there and it was okay. Being immersed in the reality of His love and acceptance was so complete that it was impossible to be fearful, as I wrote earlier, not even self-conscious.
Today that says to me I am free, free to be all that He created me to be, free to do all He empowers me to do, free from all self-imposed performance standards and free from performance standards I perceive my culture requires of me. I am free to give to others as I have freely received. Fear is the opposite of love and has no place in my life, only His love.
Well, I suppose I could write forever after visiting forever. There are not enough words and there will never be enough time to confine His love to description. And, there is more I could tell.
My last comment to the Lord was, “Well Lord, this is it, I am really going home”, more of a statement than a question. He then answered me in the voice of the associate pastor of my church and said, “Hang on Dave, don’t give up, keep fighting for your life.” Then the voice changed to the voice of my senior pastor and said, “Hang on Dave, don’t give up, fight for your life, we still need you, your work here isn’t finished.” Although I understand now that the time between the two visits was 1 to 1 ½ hours, to me one voice immediately followed the other.
These words were more than just words that marked my “re-entry”, this was a message that I was desperately needing to hear. You see, my pulmonary problems had become steadily more serious and confining over the last two and one half years. Because of the physical limitations I had begun to feel useless. I was responsible for leading a large number of people and they could no longer count on me because of the frequent and increasingly more debilitating health crises. Fighting depression, I was sure my life and ministry were coming to a close. I knew well the prognosis and pattern of the disease but still, it wasn’t an easy subject to deal with inwardly. There were many nights with many tears.
Like too many men, too much of my value and identity was wrapped up in what I was able to do. So, for me it was important, it was good, very good to know that I was still needed, that my work was not finished.
Since the actual crisis I have been asked many questions about life after life experience and speak frequently on the subject. One of the most recurring questions is about heaven. “Aren’t most life after life accounts similar, generally positive, involving a being of light and the feeling of inexpressible love? And, doesn’t that indicate that everyone will go to heaven, assuming the existence of heaven ?”
The answer is simple. The people who have had life after life experiences are alive. They didn’t die. They simply had an experience. How they interpret and respond to their experience is their responsibility. Moses had an experience at the burning bush, Peter had an experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, and Paul had an experience on the road to Damascus. Each responded to the truth revealed through their experience. Experience does not create truth. Our experience can validate revealed truth, the Scriptures, or we can be deceived by our experiences. Satan is the father of lies, the master deceiver, and there is no truth in him.
So, the individual who has a life after life experience has the same option we do. He can choose to believe the truth or choose to believe the counterfeit, the lie, and so prove himself to be a fool and forfeit his own soul.
The second most popular question has to do with Hell. “If there is a hell, why don’t we hear about it in life after life accounts? The reason is that those experiences are too frightening. One Cardiologist reports that as a matter of fact he has had several hundred patients in life and death crises who have been revived and come back screaming in terror. They beg him to save them because they are going to hell.
But, he reports those who survive, completely repress the experience in less than two weeks, as if it had never happened. This Cardiologist speculates that this is a function of the subconscious, a defense mechanism that we use to protect ourselves from those things that are unacceptable, too horrible to deal with. So, we don’t hear about those terrifying experiences because people refuse to remember them. The experience is repressed.
My only conclusion is that He is good, so incredibly good, so incredibly trustworthy. What I have experienced is, to me, a unique privilege, and having been touched deeply by His goodness, I have only greater cause to respond with joyful obedience to the constraint of His eternal love.
David H. McCombs (720) 222-1112
5060 Ox Trail
Parker CO 80134
This was such an absolutely awesome testimonu .
Wow!!!