In His Love and Glorious Service: Season 1 the Beginnings in a Life of Following Christ

PROLOGUE

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand’ ‘No’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’

JOHN 13:3–9 (NIV)

When I began writing this book, it was a New Year’s resolution. That resolution lasted a month. The next year I made the same resolution, with the same results. Five years went by and I ignored the prodding of God, though many in my family, friends and business associates were encouraging me to write. Thus, the first two months of messages are a bit shorter and differ somewhat from my writing at this later date.

All along, in my heart, I knew I needed to obey God. However, the business of my life and physical problems gave my mind the excuse it needed to avoid the calling from my Lord. Finally, I paid real attention to Jesus and what began as a resolution became a journey.

The pages you are about to read are meant to encourage, educate and enlighten you. God’s Word is paramount and I hope that through the revelations given me by the Holy Spirit, you can see the truth of God’s love and the calling of all His children to love and serve Him.

All of us are gifted by God, in many different ways, to serve Him and those around us. We are all blessed as we abide in His glorious love, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in our calling. Just as Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, He is calling out our names, His children, to boldly come forth and show generation after generation the truth of the gospel message, through those various talents brought to us by the Holy Spirit.

Beloved, you are gifted. You have a significant purpose in your life. God has anointed you and is calling you to serve. He needs you. He loves you. He cherishes you. He did not make you His robot. Rather, He cries out to you, hopefully a willing servant, and asks you to accept His love and be released into His glorious service.

Are you willing? Are you ready? Can you feel the love of Christ flowing through you and calling out to you? Let Him fill your heart, mind and body with His glory. Feel His mercy, accept His grace, embrace His mission and live as though you belong to Him. He has written to you encouragement, love and truth through the words in this year of devotions and messages, divided into three seasons.

It is my sincere hope that the scriptures, messages and poetry in each book touch your heart each day, and help to open your eyes to the love that Jesus Christ has for you. He is the only way to eternal life in the glory of God the Father. I hope you are thirsty and ready to drink from His everlasting cup of grace. I hope you are ready to answer the call, or continue in it, as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ baptizes you into His love and glorious service for the rest of your life. May His face shine upon you and may you enjoy His peace which passes all understanding. May His love move in your heart and bring you everlasting joy.

Charlie Lusco

January 1

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

JOHN 1:1 (NKJV)

The first beginning had no precedent as we know it, only the I AM. While you, others and I have a variety of years before this 1st day of the New Year, God had an eternity. Eternity is not a precedent because we cannot understand eternity. Our minds and intellect are limited, so to try and understand the intellect of an eternal being is impossible. It is beyond human comprehension.

Our days have a beginning and an end. We then move on to the next day, which has a beginning and an end. An Olympic runner or swimmer has a beginning and an end to a tenth or even a hundredth of a second. Our lives have a beginning at conception and an end when we breathe our last breath.

It is at this point that our souls leave our finite intellect and are translated into the eternal realm. This realm initially populated only by God, has neither beginning nor end.

When John writes that the Word was with God and was God and was there at the beginning, what beginning is he talking about? Since God had no beginning as we understand, he must be referring to the beginning of our material world at creation. Out of an eternal wealth of Glory, we came forth from the Words spoken by the Father through the Son. No philosopher can pretend to understand this, although they may try.

Perhaps a form of understanding can come in comprehending God’s calling Himself I AM. In an effort to help us cope with our lives the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart and in each individual moment of our lives, we live. We live as He reveals to us through our own consciousness, the glory of our present being. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians to "forget what is behind and press on." (Philippians 3:12) LIVE! But live only for this moment. God holds our future in His hands, but like a picture taken in a camera with film, it must be developed in order to see what it really is. That development is a process.

A book is developed from the first word and as we read on, the fulfillment of the books message is brought forth, word by word. If we cheat and read just the first word then go the end, we have missed out on the development of the characters and plot, and thus will not have a true understanding of what the author is trying to say. God wants our lives to develop and in that exercise of living, we can come to understand a piece of God’s glory as each moment builds on the last.

This is the precedent we now have. Immediately after God created the world, a past was created and a future left to unfold. This is all we can try to understand. I do not marvel at precedent nor wait in anxiety for what is to come. Simply, I live in this moment and I pray that God be glorified in the precedent I am setting for the next one.

Thy precedent now gone to thee,

Thus look at what unfolds,

As living in each moment brings

The glory not yet told.

January 2

Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven…..But his (Lot’s) wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

GENESIS: 19:24, 26 (KJV)

Picture this scene and imagine what Lot’s wife was looking for, as she turned and glanced at the burning cities behind her. Lot was reluctant to leave the city and it was only through the prodding of angels that he and his daughters and wife left Sodom behind and fled to Zoar. God had promised not to destroy it along with Sodom and Gomorrah. Certainly, what awaited them was better than the city of iniquity they were leaving. Although the city they lived in was filled with evil, they had achieved a ‘comfort zone’ of living. The uncertainty to start a new life was certainly a stern test of their wills.

Why does it seem that God is always testing us, to see where our loyalty lies? Is this what He was up to now? When Lot’s wife turned, she was not looking to see what the city on fire looked like. The turning and look was first of all disobedience: "So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, ‘Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed." (Genesis 19:17 NKJV) The second act of disobedience was a refusal to trust God. In her heart of hearts she longed for the city she was leaving, and because of that she was stricken.

In the mind of God, it is simply a matter of loyalty and trust. He wants us to trust Him. He desires our loyalty to His Word and purposes and our acceptance to the life He has prepared for us. Frequently the road to the land of promise in our lives is fraught with obstacles and tribulation. Our wonderful Father in heaven is watching to see how badly we want it. He is watching to see if we, like Lot’s wife, will turn around and desire the ‘sure thing’ of the past and not be willing to take the chance for the hope and promise He makes to us. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11–13 (NKJV)

This way of thinking can only come from living in the past and fearing the yet told future. That is why God pleads with us to let Him and Him alone be our precedent. Let us live now and only now in the moment that we breathe and allow and trust the Spirit of God to transcend all that is known and seen and safely lead us to His promised treasure.

Beloved, if the treasure in your heart is flesh, you will turn back. If the treasure is His glory you will press on until you have it…at any cost. The cost to our Savior was His life. The cost to you is yourself.

In looking back we find no rest,

And yet we plainly see

The path our God has set for us

To spare our agony.

January 3

And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

PHILIPPIANS 2:8 (KJV)

When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane He was filled with sorrow. Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. (Matthew 26:38 KJV). Jesus was preparing for His final communion with the Father before His capture. He knew His purpose. He knew His calling. His entire life up to this moment had glorified the Father. And yet, His mission had not reached completion.

In similar circumstances, our mission would have reached completion long ago. But the mission of the Son of Man was not just any mission. Our salvation depended on it. And Jesus knew this. He was aware of the pain and suffering awaiting all mankind should His mission not be ‘a completion.’

And yet, here is the only begotten Son of God, on His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane, weeping in sorrow and anguish. Three times He went back and prayed in the same way, asking His Father to take the cup away, but also each time submitting in His final words, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39 KJV)

Jesus Christ was certainly aware of all that had happened to Him in His thirty three years on earth. No man had ever lived like He lived, nor has any man since. His influence was greater than any other man in history, and yet He wept in His confrontation with His flesh at war against His spirit. Don’t think he didn’t remember all the sore and tired feet from His three year ministry and all the homeless nights. The pain and discomfort He had already suffered was more than any of us could possibly bear.

So, it was His remembrance of the pain and His knowledge of what He was expecting to happen that caused Him this grief and anguish. He did not want to be murdered on the Cross. And yet when faced with the supreme test of loyalty and trust, He gave in to His Father’s will. Jesus would not turn back, as Lot’s wife. Jesus had no desire in the flesh, other than to do His father’s bidding, and thus bring Him Glory. Jesus loved His disciples beyond any measure. He loved all those He met, even His enemies. And so He went.

…despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3–5 NKJV) Jesus pressed on and completed His mission. He went to the cross having totally denied His own will and passed the supreme test in all of human history, a test of loyalty and trust in God our heavenly Father.

His will denied and tears thus shed

He went to face His call,

Our Savior Jesus loyal be

Has saved us from our fall

January 4

For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord.

JEREMIAH 30:17 (NKJV)

Earlier in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet cried out for his people. In Chapter 8:21 and 22 Jeremiah (NKJV) wrote For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; Astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people

The nation of Israel was troubled. Jeremiah had called out to God and asked if He had forgotten them. Was it true? Had God abandoned His people because of their sin? Proverbs 1:33 (NKJV) says But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.

It was God telling His people to make Him their only precedent. He is telling Israel to rely only on Him and He will take care of them. He tries to reason with them so they will not worry. God wants them not to dwell on the pains of yesterday and even the present pains, but to know Him for His faithfulness.

Why did Jeremiah question this? Perhaps because he was seeing so much in his eyes to the contrary of what God was promising. But, that is the whole point of faith. It is to believe in what I do not see. To believe in what I see is not faith. That is easy. God says that despite my feelings of being overwhelmed and in so much despair that I simply cannot go on, He can! You see, He has already been there and done that!

Psalm 46:1–2 (NKJV) says God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. So, in the middle of all my pain and suffering and apparent hopelessness, I am to look away from it and focus on my God. I can look into His open heart and study His love. I can feast on His Glory shining above all the earth and above all my troubles. I can look upon that Rock and suddenly, I will not fear. I will no longer see the earth being removed from under my feet nor the trembling of the mountains of my troubles being carried into the middle of my thinking. Shall I not ‘delight myself in the Lord?’ (Psalm 37) Shall I not ‘Trust in Him with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding?’ *(Proverbs 3:5) Shall I not hear the promise ‘that it is His good pleasure to give me the Kingdom?’ *(Luke 12:32) * my paraphrasing

I am at yet another crossroads in my faith. I can continue to build on the past failures that will certainly envelope my mind and constantly remind me that God has deserted me, or I can forget what is behind and with great determination focus on the God of Abraham who willingly awaits my trust to deliver me from all my troubles. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12–14 NKJV my underlining

The pain is never enough to carry my faith into that plateau of trust, but the willingness of my heart to deny it’s precedence in my life can help me in focusing on my God who will heal and deliver me.

Although the purpose of my life

Was crumbling in my eyes,

I had to nonetheless recall

To focus on the prize.

January 5

But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.

MATTHEW 5:44 (KJV)

I have come to realize that I have a great lesson to be learned in ‘loving my enemies.’ I find it incredibly difficult to give blessings to those who would curse me, or to do good to someone who hates me, much less pray for a man or woman who despitefully uses me. In the all in all it would seem that I have failed, and I am walking a path alone, for this does not agree with God.

As the Bible is studied, it is sometimes so very hard to accept because of the nature of its Word being so absolute, or ‘black and white’. After all, the world we live in operates in mostly shades of grey. This fact alone makes life very challenging, and I have concluded that the only way through this quagmire of ‘grayness’ is through constant communion with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, prayer and the continuous study of God’s Word.

His word ‘just’ is not ‘grey.’ His truth is absolute and no matter what excuses I may offer for my behavior, while He may understand my behavior, the fact remains that His word is truth. When I begin to entertain a thought of desire for a beautiful woman presented in a picture ad or on television in a seductive way, I cannot offer the Lord an excuse like, What was I supposed to do Lord, it was just there…right in front of my eyes.? Or perhaps the reasoning could be that I have been conditioned through my life by the constant bombardment of women being presented as sexual objects and not as Holy children of the Lord to be respected and loved properly. How about You put this desire in me God, How am I supposed to react?

First of all, it is a ‘commandment’ to not commit adultery and Jesus also said in Matthew 5:28 (KJV) I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now that’s tough! That’s black and white. There is no grey in what Jesus said. Many men and women spend their lives trying to find grey in God’s Word to excuse their sinful walk with the desires of their flesh. But God presents us with the choice of an absolute versus the grey of the world. (Hey, it’s only an Ad, and after all I am just a man!)

Regrettably, this will not cover my sin with God. When the thought may enter my mind, I must begin to fight it immediately and not entertain it. I firmly believe that this is the most frequented sin in a man’s life. It is a constant struggle, and although I love my wife with all my heart and soul and would never cheat on her, I must be on guard not to cheat in my mind and spirit through the acceptance of temptations of my flesh. God gives me the Black and White commandment not to commit adultery. Jesus follows that up with an almost impossible decree in that just thinking lustfully towards another woman is adultery. And here am I, weakened in the flesh by my own choices to walk away from God’s word and pursue the desires of my own flesh. What is a man to do? For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. (Romans 8:13–17 NKJV).

Beloved of Christ, this scripture and answer can be summed up in a universal saying about getting in shape: No pain, No gain! Clearly, if we want to be in glory with God, we will have to also partake of the sufferings of Christ. The medicine may taste horrible, but in the end healing will come.

I read His Word and think it through

Then still do I confess

How troubled is my mind and heart

When filled with emptiness.

January 6

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

AMOS 3:3 (KJV)

When I was in college I took a philosophy class. One of the ponderings we spent a class on was the following question, If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, is there any sound? The general consensus among my peers, at that time, was that there was no sound. This conclusion centered on the reasoning that because there was no receptor there could not be sound.

At that time I was not saved and had no anchor in faith. The very core of faith is expressed in Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Like the wind, I cannot see it but I know it is there because I feel it when it blows. Can I thus ascertain that if I was not there to feel the wind, it would not exist? I say not! While I may not be hoping for the wind, and although it may be blowing hard in another city, I am not there to feel it. So, thusly in my reality I may ask does it really exist. In the reality of that city it does and I also submit that in the reality I am living in, it also exists.

When God reaches out in His tenderness and mercy and touches the heart of man, we cannot see Him nor hear Him. And yet I believe He is there. Why?

The heart of the argument in my philosophy class about the sound would also deny the existence of God as an eternal being, because until creation who was there to see Him or feel Him or hear Him? But because God is eternal and self sufficient, He needs no one to acknowledge that He exists or existed. We walk by faith and agree with His Word, or we walk with someone else.

God asks me to walk with Him, but He also tells me that if I want to be His disciple that I must deny myself, take up my cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). I cannot walk in sin and not have faith, while claiming to be in agreement with God! Therefore, I cannot walk with God, if I cannot agree with Him. He will have no part of me if I am living my life apart from His will and in the gratification of my own flesh. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples." (John 15:4–8 NKJV)

So here I have God telling me that He loves me will provide all my needs, and yet like the tree falling