What is important is faith expressing itself in love

Galatians 5:6

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁶ For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.                                         _______________________________________________________________Compelled by Love, by Heidi Baker (Author) (2008)                    the true story of the ministry of Heidi and Rolland Baker in the war-torn, poverty and disease-stricken country of Mozambique, chronicles twenty-seven years of ministry among the poorest people on earth. The book is based upon the beatitudes as seen through the eyes of third-world pastors and missionaries. The Bakers have experienced God’s miraculous provision of food to thousands, brought physical healing and spiritual wholeness to His poorest children, and witnessed the transformed hearts of people caught in desperate life or death situations. Their stories prove the reality of God’s kingdom on earth, and demonstrate how to transform this world through the power of love.     

About the Author

Rolland and Heidi Baker, founders of Iris Ministries, served as missionaries in Indonesia and Hong Kong before following God’s calling in 1995 to Mozambique. Having faced overwhelming need, the Baker now watch God provide miraculously for almost 2,000 children at their centers. Iris Ministries has expanded to more than 5,000 churches all over Mozambique and neighboring countries. The Bakers are the authors of Almost Enough and Expecting Miracles.                             

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

What does it look like to trust God with EVERYTHING? In Compelled by Love, Heidi Baker gives you a glimpse of total dependence and authentic Christian community by taking a fresh look at the Beatitudes. In the war-torn, poverty-stricken country of Mozambique, she and her husband have experienced God's miraculous provisions and witnessed the transformed hearts of people caught in desperate life-or-death situations. Join them and discover the reality of God's kingdom here on Earth. -For anyone wondering if they could truly live a life of radical love...
-For anyone wondering if the Beatitudes mean anything...
-For anyone wondering how to follow Jesus all the way... "If God is not with us, we do not want to continue. If the Sermon on the Mount is simply impractical, our mission work is hopeless. We have no backup plan. We have nothing but Him."
--Heidi Baker                           

Biography

Heidi and Rolland Baker founded IRIS Global in 1980 (called IRIS Ministries at that time), and began ministering together in Asia. In 1995 they were called to the poorest country in the world at the time, Mozambique, and faced an extreme test of the Gospel. They began by pouring out their lives among abandoned street children, and as the Holy Spirit moved miraculously in many ways a revival movement spread to adults, pastors, churches and then throughout the bush all across Mozambique's ten provinces. Heidi is now "Mama Heidi" to thousands of children, and oversees a broad holistic ministry that includes Bible schools, medical clinics, church-based orphan care, well drilling, primary schools, evangelistic and healing outreaches in remote villages and a network of thousands of churches. She has BA, MA from Vanguard University and her PhD from Kings College (University of London). A documentary film called Compelled by Love: The Film premeires January 5th, 2014 which features the life story of Rolland and Heidi Baker, narrated by Reinhard Bonnke. (http://www.amazon.com/Compelled-Love-change-through-simple/dp/1599793512)

End days church countdown: how Jesus has defined love

Reading the book of John I found the love that God talks about. I always thought that the Bible does not talk about love. Not of the kind of love we know as humans. But Jesus talks about love a lot. This is the true love we need to know and practice.

______________As children of God, love of God is natural.
John 5:42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

______________Loving God and loving His words are synonymous: those who practice this truth abide in God's love 
John 14:15 [ Jesus Promises Another Helper ] “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. John 15:9 [ Love and Joy Perfected ] “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

________________Loving God results in loving His people naturally.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

_______________Loving God means being separate from the world. God's love is costly. Jesus paid His life for it.
John 14:31 but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 17:26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

_______________Loving God means being demanded and prepared to pay a price too.
John 21:15[ Jesus Restores Peter ] So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” John 21:17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

Journey to see God: See what God looks to see

Today we learn to see what God looks to see in us. One theme stands out: be obedient to His word.
_________________Bible verses: (English Standard Version)
Humble and contrite; tremble at God’s word
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:2b
Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: your brothers who hate you and cast you out for My name’s sake have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified that we may see Your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame. 66:5
Delight in the Lord’s word
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night…for the Lord knows the way of the righteous.. Psalm 1:1-2, 8a
Fear the Lord
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7a
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom, and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek like silver and search for it like hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, Isaiah 11:2-3
But I, through the abundance of Your steadfast love, will enter Your house. I will bow down toward Your holy temple, in the fear of You. Psalm 5:7
Worship God: bow down, give thanks and praises, know His name and trust Him alone
I will give thanks to the Lord with My whole heart; I will recount all of Your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most high. For those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. Psalm 9:1-2, 10
Have faith in God: seek Him
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, Hebrews 11:4
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death…now before he was taken he was commended for having pleased God. Hebrews 11:5
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
Hold fast to God in love
Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name. Psalm 91:14
Made God your dwelling place
Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place-the Most High, who is My refuge- no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. Psalm 91:9-10
Bible Example 1: Belief in the word of God, fear God, and took action evident of repentance.
The case of the Nineveh city.

Jonah 3:5 “And the people of Nineveh believed God.”
Jonah 3:10 “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it.”
Bible Example 2: How a self-seeking king lost his kingship because of his fear of men rather than fear of God; disobedience to God because he took God’s word lightly.
The case of king Saul, in 1 Samuel 15:22-23 
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
Bible Example 3: Have faith in God and His word! The case of the centurion.

Matthew 8:8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under My roof, but only say the word, and My servant will be healed,”

8:10 when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed Him, “truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

Bible Example 4: Jesus.

Matthew 3:17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
John 7:16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent Me.”
6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.”
John 8:28-29 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

Journey to see God: God's Accounting -obedience counts

Romans 6

English Standard Version (ESV)

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, butpresent yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.