GOD’S EXTRAORDINARY, AMAZING LOVE
GOD’S EXTRAORDINARY, HIS AMAZING LOVE
God’s Love really is extraordinary. His Love is amazing. And best of all, His Love is absolutely real. Look around. He proves it in the intricacy and beauty of Creation which surrounds you. Listen. He proves it with the infinite variety of sounds in nature which fairly sing His praises. Examine your heart. All you find there which is good and true and beautiful comes from Him and His proven love for you.
God’s Love is always looking for those who will declare and prove His Love in the beautiful way they both speak and act in Him and for His glory. When I observe extraordinary love lived out in life, I always find as its source, the glory of God. When I am amazed at loving acts, loving thoughts and loving intent; I always find in the heart of those acts, those thoughts and that intent; the absolute love of Christ.
If we look for an example of living the life of godly love, we need look no further than to the life of Jesus, our Lord. He clearly lived out the Love of God and demonstrated daily the reality and the power of divine love. The Apostle Paul gave us a beautiful description of such love in I Corinthians 13. If you examine the qualities he identifies in God’s Love, you cannot help but see how beautifully His Life met every standard for living out Almighty God’s own Love for us.
1. Jesus lived out patience and kindness day-by-day as He related to His disciples.
2. Jesus neither envied nor boasted—He always chose contentment as the Father led Him.
3. Jesus insisted on the Father’s Way and not His own.
4. Jesus never allowed weariness nor disappointment to make him act irritably or resentful.
5. Jesus never rejoiced at wrongdoing. He clearly rejoiced with the truth.
6. Jesus bore up under every attack. Jesus believed and acted obediently in response to every word from the Father. Jesus joyfully embraced hope from Heaven even when there were 5000 waiting to eat. Jesus endured His arrest, His trial, His condemnation, and His crucifixion.
7. Jesus bore every earthly hurdle life threw His Way, looking to, listening and reveling in every promise from Above.
Just last week I was reading in a daily devotion book based on the life and testimony of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who joined the small number of Christian ministers who dared to stand against the evil violence of Adolph Hitler against Jews, disabled and so-called imperfect people in Germany society. Hitler’s hellish philosophy, which proclaimed keeping the so-called purity of the German race by any means necessary—much too often leading to hideous torture and murder. In the face of pure evil Bonhoeffer and others risked everything to joint in planning Hitler’s assassination. When their plot failed and they were arrested, Bonhoeffer and others eventually faced the death penalty.
“This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.” In 1945 Just as War II Ended, Bonhoeffer was hung because of his anti-Nazi activities, inspired by his deep faith in Jesus.
Bonhoeffer inspired Charles Ringley to write these words in speaking of God’s Love which aggressively seeks redemption for every person He creates:
An approach that gives when it has the right to demand
is a remarkable quality of love indeed.
An attitude that forgives when it could condemn
and a love that embraces when it could so easily
find reason to reject us
is an attitude and life that can inspire hope and faith.
God’s love does the opposite to what we would normally expect.
It fills empty rather than full hands.
It pursues the worst to make it be best.
It makes the weak strong and rules with love
rather than with force or coercion.
Such a love is wholly undeserved,
but it I most welcome,
for it is love that transforms us.
Here is a lot to ponder: The Love of God gives when it has the right to demand.
The Love of God forgives when it could condemn.
The Love of God embraces rather than rejects.
The Love of God inspires hope and faith.
The Love of God does the opposite of what we would expect.
The Love of God fills empty rather than full hands.
The Love of God pursues the worst to make it the best.
The Love of God makes the weak strong.
The Love of God rules with love rather than with force or coercion
The Love of God is wholly undeserved but is most welcome.
The Love of God miraculously transforms us.
The Love of God lives eternally in our Lord Jesus.
Throughout His life on Earth Jesus daily and moment-by-moment illuminated the Love of God. One of His most poignant and powerful acts of Love came just before the Last Supper when Jesus knelt and washed His disciples feet—something none of them had been willing to do for Him or for each other.
GOD KNEELING DOWN
Christ in His Perfect Love
startles our slumbering hearts
when we watch
God kneeling down
with a towel around His waist
taking our filthy feet
in His strong
yet His merciful hands
doing for you what we in
pride never thought we could do
for another—
carefully cleaning from
the bottom of our toes
the grimiest of earth,
ignoring the odor
of the dung from the street,
serving in love
those who should be bowing
before Him in glory—
Him whose feet we should
be anointing,
Him who in humility serves
those who should serve Him.
