01/09/2020 —
Jesus is not a friend to the Church; He is a friend to sinners – meaning, each one of us! From the beginning, God’s purpose has been to align His creation with Himself. Adam and Eve's choice to disobey Him did nothing to change God's desire to have a friendship with us.

If we want to be imitators of God, we should love what He loves, and hate what He hates. God hates only sin, because it separates what He loves – people – from Him. Our charge as believers in this Decade of Dominion, above all else, is to love people despite their sin – to honor them for what they are without stumbling over what they are not. Let us be known in this body by the extravagant love we demonstrate to others!


Matthew 11:11-19
“For I tell you the truth, throughout history there has never been a man who surpasses John the Baptizer. Yet the least of those who now experience heaven’s kingdom realm will become even greater than he. From the moment John stepped onto the scene until now, the realm of heaven’s kingdom is bursting forth, and passionate people have taken hold of its power. For all the prophets and the Torah prophesied until John appeared. If you can receive this truth, John is the Elijah who was destined to come. So listen and understand what I’m telling you.
“Don’t you understand? How could I describe the people of this generation? You’re like children playing games on the playground, yelling at their playmates, ‘You don’t like it when we want to play Wedding! And you don’t like it when we want to play Funeral! You will neither dance nor mourn.’ Why is it that when John came to you, neither feasting nor drinking wine, you said, ‘He has a demon in him!’? Yet when the Son of Man came and went to feasts and drank wine, you said, ‘Look at this Man! He is nothing but a glutton and a drunkard! He spends all his time with tax collectors and other affluent sinners.’ But God’s wisdom will be visibly seen living in those who embrace it”(TPT).

• God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden so Adam and Eden would be continually faced with the choice to obey Him or not. The tree gave the first humans the ability to make a choice that proves love.
• In one of those occasions when Eve was "at the tree," she yielded to temptation and did the very thing God admonished them not to do. Adam, attempting to justify his actions to God, joined Eve in sin.
• We are all sinners as a result of the fall. But God has not given up on us! God has proven to be a friend to sinners like us because He made a way for us to have fellowship with Him despite our sin nature: to claim the sacrifice of God's son, Jesus Christ, on our behalf on Calvary's cross as our own.
• Man has and does miss the mark. When sin is the standard, death is the decree.
• Jesus left eternity's majesty for an earthly manger, and He has come to repair, reconcile and restore the relationship between a timeless God and a temporal man.
• True death is separation from the life source: Jesus. He said that Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy but He came that we might have life more abundantly (see John 10:10). Receive His life today, and love those in your circles of influence who need that love as much as you do!

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for being a friend of sinners like me! I know I continually fall short of keeping Your holy law, and of loving You as You ought to be loved. I understand that I cannot have a relationship with You because of anything about me, but because of Your provision through the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus Christ. He made a way and I am grateful!

Let me be a beacon of Your love to others in the coming weeks and months, and throughout this Decade of Dominion, so they may know You as I am coming to know You. Order my steps in my circles of influence to show Your love wherever I go.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ – Jehovah Joshua Messiah – I pray. Amen!