The church in Ephesus was a “good church” – it was an orderly and a formal church, but God had something against it, that it has left its first love toward the Lord (Rev. 2:4-5). We can be good Christians, church-going believers, and we may read the Bible regularly and claim we are Christians before […]
simple ways of loving the Lord with our first love by giving Him the first place
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God’s heart is set on Zion with Christ, and everything He does is for this!
Our view and our vision need to be uplifted from seeing our own needs and the needs of others – to seeing God’s need, His heart’s desire, what makes Him happy. The truth is that if God gets what He desires, if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33), all the other things will be given to us as well. God just wants Christ in Zion, He wants Zion with Christ – He does everything for His Christ, for His Zion, and for His house and His city in order that one day He might gain the entire earth through Christ with His overcomers. God is for this, and we are for this. This is God’s economy and His desire! [read more online]
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whenever we as God’s people exalt Christ there will be restoration and revival!
After we are saved, we daily call on the name of the Lord and we daily learn to give Him the first place in all things. We as regenerated people need to come together in the meetings of the church and exalt Christ by our singing, our praising, our praying, and even our shouting, Praise the Lord! We shouldn’t be silent – we need to exalt Christ by declaring, Oh, Lord Jesus, You are right now at the right hand of God – we exalt You! We give You the preeminence in our church life, our family life, our work life, our personal life, and in everything! We exalt You Lord Jesus! [continue reading online]
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overcoming the loss of the first love by giving the Lord the preeminence in all things
One very simple way to overcome the loss of the first love for the Lord is to give Christ the first place, the preeminence, in all things. The Bible begins with, “In the beginning, God …” (Gen. 1:1), and Colossians tells us that Christ must have the first place, the preeminence, in all things (Col. 1:18). In order for us to love the Lord with the first and best love, we need to consider the Lord Jesus as the first in everything. In God’s eyes and in God’s economy, Christ is the first – but what about in our personal universe, in our decisions, considerations, emotions, living, walking, speaking, attitude, and in all our being? [read more online]
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desolation comes in when God’s people do not properly appreciate and exalt Christ
Our failure to give Christ the first place in all things – our failure to love Him with the best love and appreciate Him – brings in desolation and degradation. The problem of desolation can be solved by Christ being appreciated and exalted by God’s people (see Psa. 80:17). When Christ is enjoyed, appreciated, given the first place, given the preeminence in all things – when He is properly appreciated and exalted, the house and the city of God can be maintained, preserved, and built up! Our not giving Christ the preeminence and our not appreciating Him is the cause of our failure and desolation. [read more online]
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What does it mean to give the Lord the preeminence, the first place, in everything?
To give the Lord the first place in our life practically means to repent and do the first works. Rev. 2:5 warns us that if we don’t repent and do the first works, the Lord will remove the lampstand. These works issue from our first love for the Lord – they are a work issuing from a heart filled with zeal for the Lord’s love, and this is precious in the Lord’s eyes. We love the Lord so much that we just do the first works – and they come out of our zeal, our love for Him! In that day, when we will stand before God at His judgement seat, He will appreciate how much of what we have done out of love for Him. Only those things we do motivated by our love for the Lord are considered gold, silver, and precious stones. If we don’t do these works, the Lord will take the lampstand! Whatever we do in the church life, we need to love the Lord and do the first works – and we will be a corporate expression of the Triune God everywhere on the earth as the golden lampstands! [continue reading online – 12 ways we can give the Lord the preeminence in our life]
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the spirit of the Bible is to exalt Christ – He must have the first place in all things!
In our study of the Bible and particularly in our study of the book of Psalms we need to realize that the spirit of the Bible is to exalt Christ. This needs to become real to us – throughout the Bible and particularly in the Psalms, what we see as being “the spirit of the […]
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