Tag: GodIsLove

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Scratching the Surface

Yesterday I started to talk to you about unimaginable love. Started, yes started. If I spent every day this year focused solely on the love of God, I still would only be scratching the surface of the subject.

There is an old hymn, The Love of God, written in 1917 that expresses it better than I can:

  1. The love of God is greater far
    Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
    It goes beyond the highest star,
    And reaches to the lowest hell;
    The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
    God gave His Son to win;
    His erring child He reconciled,
    And pardoned from his sin.
    • Refrain:
      Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
      How measureless and strong!
      It shall forevermore endure—
      The saints’ and angels’ song.
  2. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
    And were the skies of parchment made,
    Were every stalk on earth a quill,
    And every man a scribe by trade;
    To write the love of God above
    Would drain the ocean dry;
    Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
    Though stretched from sky to sky.”

To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry and the whole sky would be filled with the acts of the love of God. And, that still wouldn’t adequately contain the depth of His love.

I think Paul and John were the best at conveying God’s love through Scripture. Back to Romans 8 this morning.

“God knew them before he made the world. And he decided that they would be like his Son. Then Jesus would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. 30 God planned for them to be like his Son. He chose them and made them right with him. And after he made them right, he gave them his glory.

31 So what should we say about this? If God is for us, no one can stand against us. And God is with us. 32 He even let his own Son suffer for us. God gave his Son for all of us. So now with Jesus, God will surely give us all things. 33 Who can accuse the people God has chosen? No one! God is the one who makes them right…35 Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or problems or persecution separate us from his love? If we have no food or clothes or face danger or even death, will that separate us from his love?…37 But in all these troubles we have complete victory through God, who has shown his love for us. 38-39 Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:29-39 ERV

Is there something in your past that keeps haunting you – telling you, “You aren’t good enough”? None of us are, that’s why God’s love is so amazing. He sees our failings and loves us in spite of them!

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Unimaginable Love

There are a number of things on my heart this morning. My reading in Romans took me to Ephesians.

I love it when the Lord just opens up His word and drops it in my heart.

In Romans 7, Paul writes of his frustration of being human. He says he often ends up doing things he doesn’t want to do and finds himself lacking in doing the things he does want to do. His conclusion is that the fleshly desires of his old life are warring against the spiritual desires of his new life in Christ.

I know each and every one of us have experienced the same battles and probably with the same result. Paul deals with self-doubt and self-condemnation. But he doesn’t stop with those thoughts – thank God!

“What a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? 25 I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin. 8 So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. 2 That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. 3 The law was without power because it was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do: He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that everyone else uses for sin. God sent him to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to destroy sin. 4 He did this so that we could be right just as the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit.” Romans 7:24-8:4 ERV

Paul goes on to explain that God isn’t condemning us for our failures. No, indeed. It is God who has provided the way of victory and freedom for us from our sinful life through Jesus. “He did this so we could be right”.

As we go to the end of Romans 8 Paul writes that if God is for us, who can be against us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing! How can that be? Well, that’s when I moved to another of Paul’s writings in Ephesians.

“And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. 19 Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you. 20 With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of.” Ephesians 3:18-20 ERV

The power of love.

God wants us to know and experience the depth of His love which really is incomprehensible to the natural way of thinking. We have to accept the depth of His love by faith. It’s greater than we can ever know naturally. The love of God fills our lives with everything our loving heavenly Father has designed for us, it is so much greater than anything we could ask for or imagine.

That’s what God’s unconditional love is…its unimaginable. It’s all God.

I know I started last year focusing on the love of God and here I am doing it again. The reason, after all my years of walking with the Lord I am daily becoming more aware of the depth of God’s love for me.

It calms my fears, dispels the condemnation, removes the guilt and defeats all the attacks that the enemy launches against me.

I am loved not because of my goodness or my works. I am loved because God, who is love, says I am. Therefore, I am confident in Him and who He has called me to be.

I want to encourage you each day as you also grow confident in His unimaginable love.

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Christmas Eve

The family has all arrived; four of us came by plane, nine by car and three live here. Thank God for modern conveniences. Mary and Joseph didn’t have those.

It’s only been about the last 15 or 20 years that I have begun to see what that trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was really like for them. 155 kilometers or approximately 96 miles. This trip would have taken many days, walking and riding a donkey.

“So Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and went to the town of Bethlehem in Judea. It was known as the town of David. Joseph went there because he was from the family of David. 5 Joseph registered with Mary because she was engaged to marry him. (She was now pregnant.) 6 While Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to have the baby. 7 She gave birth to her first son. She wrapped him up well and laid him in a box where cattle are fed. She put him there because the guest room was full.” Luke 2:4-7

If they were able to keep a steady pace of 20 miles per day, it would have taken at least 5 days. Sleeping on the ground, cooking food over an open fire.

I do love to camp, sleeping in a tent – being around a campfire under the stars but breaking camp each morning and setting up again each evening would be a bit tedious and then add to that the discomfort of being nine months pregnant.

Dave and I used to travel a lot and it was always so nice to get to the hotel after twelve hours on the road, get something warm to eat and crawl into a nice bed. But when Mary and Joseph got to their destination their accommodations weren’t quite as welcoming.

Those of us who’ve had livestock know that even when we clean the stalls each day – removing the manure, putting down clean bedding- it still isn’t a place that we would like to give birth. Joseph was Mary’s birth coach and delivery team – he was the midwife! Just the two of them bringing God’s Son into this earthly home.

“Think how much the Father loves us. He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are.” I John 3:1

God loved us so much that He sent His Son so that we could become His children. AMAZING!!

And what manner of love Mary and Joseph had for God and for each other to go through this difficult journey and less than “perfect” birthing experience. Still they glorified God and gave Him thanks for His wondrous gift.

Is your Christmas this year difficult, not exactly what you had planned?

When our hearts are open God can, and does, fill them with His wonderful love. He can and will fill the loneliness, ease the ache and give us a reason to be thankful. May you experience that love in a very special way.

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas Eve!

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Back Sliding Isn’t Fun

Yesterday I told you that one of our Christmas tree cuttings had an added adventure that we weren’t expecting. Now, let me tell you the rest of the story. This image is a picture I took from the top of that mountain.

We went up to cut our Christmas tree. We backed off on a side road to turn around and slid 100 yds down the mountainside. Two hours later, after much work, we were finally back on the main road and heading home. We would gain a foot and then lose 6″. It seemed almost impossible to get any forward momentum. Inch by inch we gained ground, but we had to make sure we had good traction and that meant cutting pine boughs to put under the wheels – we needed a firm foundation.

Backsliding created some real stress and anxious moments.

I’ve had those same type of experiences emotionally as well. A failure or hurt can be daunting. Friends leave, loved ones don’t understand and so we can get stuck in our failure and live in self-pity or even become suicidal. Maybe you’ve had a “tremendous” sin in your life that has held you back from serving God. Leaving you with the thought that God couldn’t possibly love or forgive me after what I have done but He can. He does and He already has.

“So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. 2 We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. 3 Think about Jesus. He patiently endured the angry insults that sinful people were shouting at him. Think about him so that you won’t get discouraged and stop trying.” Hebrews 12:1-3

To go on with God we need a couple things; one, to be looking in the right direction – looking forward and looking up and then two, we need good traction – something solid beneath our feet.

“Jesus Christ did the things God wanted him to do. And because of that, we are made holy through the sacrifice of Christ’s body. Christ made that sacrifice one time—enough for all time. Jesus Christ did the things God wanted him to do. And because of that, we are made holy through the sacrifice of Christ’s body. Christ made that sacrifice one time—enough for all time…19. And so, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place. We can do this without fear because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus. 20 We enter through a new way that Jesus opened for us. It is a living way that leads through the curtain—Christ’s body. 21 And we have a great priest who rules the house of God. 22 Sprinkled with the blood of Christ, our hearts have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. So come near to God with a sincere heart, full of confidence because of our faith in Christ. 23 We must hold on to the hope we have, never hesitating to tell people about it. We can trust God to do what he promised.” Hebrews 10:10-14,19-23

The solid foundation Christ has given us is His sacrifice that offers us forgiveness and a right relationship with God (that’s our traction), it gets us out of the ditch of self-pity and off the slippery slope of unworthiness. The blood of Christ can and has cleansed us from a guilty conscience and put us on the right road with God.

When we’re wrapped up in guilt, and we all go there from time to time, we’re looking the wrong direction. The victory comes in looking at Jesus – looking forward, not back. Looking back, we magnify our failures and sin; looking forward we magnify Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.

Get on track and run the race looking to Jesus and don’t get “stuck” in your past.

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Consider the Lilies

One of my favorite extravagances is fresh cut flowers. If money were no object I would have a fresh bouquet every other week.

The colors, the fragrance, the individual beauty, the significance of each flower is a testimony of God’s goodness.

God’s goodness. As I wrote those words I had to stop for a moment, take pause and meditate.

God – Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, Creator of all, Lord of hosts, the Alpha and Omega (the beginning and the end). He is love, His mercy endures forever, His grace is sufficient, He is the provider and protector. There is no one like Him, He is above all else.

I call him Father. I depend upon Him for my very life. I draw each breath because of Him. I find shelter under His wings, in Him I find rest when I am weary, in His presence I find fullness of joy and at His throne I find help in my time of need.

My Father is Lord God Almighty!

Now, you ask me “what’s that got to do with a bouquet of flowers?”. I’m glad you asked.

“Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 28 And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

29 “And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don’t worry about such things. 30 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs.” Luke 12:27-30 NLT

Flowers are a simple, daily reminder of God’s goodness, the Father’s love!

I mean so much more to Him than the beautiful flowers He created, each flower, each bouquet reminds me to trust.

Yes, consider the lilies of the field and thank your heavenly Father for his faithfulness and love.

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Grateful for Unconditional Love

Unconditional love and loving-kindness walk hand in hand.

We saw over the last week that the loving-kindness of God is His love in action. His protection, provision, peace and forgiveness. Forgiveness is certainly paramount in my life and thoughts.

For years, I felt I had to earn God’s love. I needed to be reading my Bible every day, praying according to some set standard, going to church by man’s standard, doing as many good works as possible and giving, not only finances but my time, according to a standard.

I couldn’t! I didn’t measure up to the standard of a good Christian.

“My dear children, I am writing this to you so you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, there is One Who will go between him and the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the One Who is right with God. 2 He paid for our sins with His own blood. He did not pay for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” I John 2:1-2 NLV

My sins – past, present and future – were paid for by Christ. We were on His heart before He went to the cross and willingly gave His life. We were forefront in His thoughts. He died for us. He wanted us to have an unbroken relationship with His Father.

“I do not pray for these followers only. I pray for those who will put their trust in Me through the teaching they have heard. 21 May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. May they belong to Us. Then the world will believe that You sent Me. 22 I gave them the honor You gave Me that they may be one as We are One. 23 I am in them and You are in Me so they may be one and be made perfect. Then the world may know that You sent Me and that You love them as You love Me.” John 17:20-23 NLV

This was just part of the prayer Jesus prayed on the night He was arrested and taken to trial. His thoughts weren’t on the persecution He was about to face, He was thinking of us!

“The Lord says, ‘I love you people with a love that continues forever. That is why I have continued showing you kindness.'” Jeremiah 31:3 ERV

Forever!

“We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” Romans 3:22-24 NLT

I want to spend my time walking and talking with Him each day. My Father loves me. All those things I said I felt I had to do to earn and deserve God’s love, I now do because of my love and gratitude for His unconditional love!

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More Love

That really is an oxymoron. If you love or are loved how can there be more?

With our heavenly Father there is just love for He is love. His whole character, His nature, His very being is love!

We can come to comprehend His love in greater depth but there is never a point where He withholds His love and then releases more of it. He can’t stop being who He is, He is love.

Yesterday while I was looking further into “hesed”, loving-kindness, I found these words.

“Hesed is to love as God loves. When God’s presence passed by Moses on Mt. Sinai and revealed his very essence, God proclaimed his great hesed. (Exodus 34:6) In his book The Bible Among the Myths, biblical scholar John Oswalt describes it this way:

The word hesed…[is] the descriptor par excellence of God in the Old Testament. The word speaks of a completely undeserved kindness and generosity done by a person who is in a position of power. This was the Israelites’ experience of God. He revealed himself to them when they were not looking for him, and he kept his covenant with them long after their persistent breaking of it had destroyed any reason for his continued keeping of it. …Unlike humans, this deity was not fickle, undependable, self-serving, and grasping. Instead he was faithful, true, upright, and generous—always.

Like other Hebrew verbs, hesed is not just a feeling but an action. It intervenes on behalf of loved ones and comes to their rescue.” excerpt from Hesed: Love in the Long Term.

by Lois Tverberg

Contrary to what some teach, our heavenly Father is not the one causing evil and disruption in our lives. He is the One bringing peace in the midst of our storm.

“ For this is like the days of Noah to Me. As I promised that the waters of Noah should not flood the earth again, so I have promised that I will not be angry with you or speak sharp words to you. 10 The mountains may be taken away and the hills may shake, but My loving-kindness will not be taken from you. And My agreement of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has loving-pity on you.” Isaiah 54:9-10 NLV

and we have this promise in Ephesians

“At one time all of us lived to please our old selves. We gave in to what our bodies and minds wanted. We were sinful from birth like all other people and would suffer from the anger of God.

4 But God had so much loving-kindness. He loved us with such a great love. 5 Even when we were dead because of our sins, He made us alive by what Christ did for us. You have been saved from the punishment of sin by His loving-favor. 6 God raised us up from death when He raised up Christ Jesus. He has given us a place with Christ in the heavens.” Ephesians 2:3-6 NLV

A heart of gratitude is established on love. Day 2 in the month of giving thanks. Thank the Father for His unconditional love and then look for an opportunity to share “hesed” with someone.

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You Are Loved

This morning I have spent some time looking at pictures from four years ago. You see, this is a very special day, it’s our youngest granddaughter’s birthday. This afternoon, all three of our youngest grandkids will be coming for a sleepover. I love being a Bestamor.

I don’t imagine that God has photo albums; He doesn’t need them. We are always present in His thinking. From the day we accept Christ as our Saviour and become a part of His family He takes special interest in us, He even knows the number of hairs on our head.

“What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

8 “I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels.” Luke 12:6-8 NLT

Even before we accepted Christ He loved us.

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:6-8 NLT

Do you see that? Willing to die. There’s a common expression, “that’s to die for”. It’s used to describe excitement over a new car, a good meal, a vacation – but when God used that expression, He was talking about us.

We are that precious and valuable to Him.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NLT

As a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother I feel I have a big capacity to love but as much as I love it isn’t even close to the depth of the love God has for us.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT

May your day be filled with the thought of this very thing, you are loved so deeply that you were “to die for”.

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Letters of Love

Don’t you love getting personalized gifts? Something that was made or designed just for you…

It could be something to wear, eat or decorate with but you know that it is specifically for you. Cards made by your kids, grandkids or your spouse are the most treasured items we have.

Now let me ask you this. When you read the Bible is it just a book that you read because you think you should or is it a personalized love letter that you can’t put down?

If it’s the former let’s change it to the latter. God inspired its writing so He could tell you how much He loves you.

Take this passage in Ephesians 2.

“Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else.

4-5 But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you. 6 God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven. 7 God did this so that in the future world he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done. 8 You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. 9 It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about. 10 God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live. That’s why he sent Christ to make us what we are.” Ephesians 2:3-10 CEV

Please go back and read those verses again but this time substitute the words I, my, me for the words we, our, us and you. Now, go back one more time and read it again only this time read it out loud. I want you to hear, really hear, the message of God’s love with your own ears.

Personalize God’s word. Let it sink down deep into your heart and let the Holy Spirit begin to reveal to you just how special you are to your heavenly Father.

“You were (I was) saved by faith in God, who treats us (me) much better than we (I) deserve. This is God’s gift to you (me), and not anything you (I) have done on your (my) own. 9 It isn’t something you (I) have earned, so there is nothing you (I) can brag about.” my paraphrase

I have several different places I read in the Bible each morning. Each of them reminds me of God’s goodness and love. I don’t want to start the day without that being my foremost thought.

“This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. 10 True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.” I John 4:9-10 ERV

Amen!

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What Great Love!

This morning I was thinking about the events of yesterday. Sending and receiving emails with friends and neighbors. Phone calls with the kids. Truly a day bathed in love.

In all of this I was telling the Lord “I love you dearly”. And then I heard, “why”. Why…why do I love you? The answer that first came to mind was because You are worthy.

Wrong!

We don’t love based on worthiness. If we do, that isn’t true love. We don’t love because we “fall in love” because that would mean we could fall out of love.

In our relationship with the Lord we love because we take on His nature and follow His commandments

“Jesus answered, ‘The most important one (commandment) says: ‘People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. 30 You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.’ 31 The second most important commandment says: ‘Love others as much as you love yourself.’ No other commandment is more important than these.” Mark 12:29-31 CEV

“If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won’t be worried about the day of judgment. 18 A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows that we have not really learned to love. 19 We love because God loved us first.” I John 4:17-19 CEV

Love in its truest form isn’t a verb but a noun. As a verb it would imply action and so if I choose not to act, then I could choose not to love.

However, when I recognize that love is a noun – the name of a person, place or thing, then the only way that love would cease to exist is if the person of love, God Himself, ceased to exist.

So let’s ask the question again. Why do I love you Lord?

Answer: You loved me first and Your love never fails or comes to an end. You gave me Your DNA when I was born again into Your family so I take on Your character and nature and I love.

Thank you Father for being the personification of love – for taking love from an action, making it a person (Christ) and for giving me the command and the ability to be a living example of Your love!

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