GOD’S LOVE

 

 

God’s Love

1 John 3:1-3

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us,
that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

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God’s LOVE

Here is the fundamental reality
and at the same time
the elemental mystery—
God’s Love.

How does a human heart and mind begin
to wrestle with so
mighty a sacred
Gospel Truth . . .

. . . and so beautiful a miracle lovelier
still than a rainbow
shimmering in
a waterfall?

Only the Holy Sprit can inspire words
stretching a human
heart or mind
to comprehend . . .

and portray in a portrait or compose a poem
profound capturing
such wonder
from God’s heart;

and only in the Incarnate Loving Son
can there be found
perfect Love
renowned.

I John 4:9-10

“This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his only Son into the world
that we might live through him.
This is love:
not that we loved God,
but that he loved us
and sent his son
as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

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Brennan Manning had his life saved by a friend who threw himself on a grenade as they fought together in the Korean War. That gift of sacrificial love led Brennan to Christ and, as we read above, to his life-long astonishment at the goodness and love of God. His Christian writings deeply impacted Rich Mullins, whose music also emphasized the greatness of God’sLove so amazing in the face of humanity’s sinfulness.

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I Walk In Wonder Surrounded By His Love

I walk in wonder surrounded by His Love,
He who created this world I live upon
as I look above me and around me
and beneath me and see
such glory as fills my  whole heart and mind
with delight at all the beauty with which
He blesses my sight—and as I listen
to the songs all nature sings
as praise to Him who is my loving Maker,
as praise to Him who is my loving Savior,
as praise to Him the Holy Spirit,
my Counselor and my Sustainer.

 

Romans 5:8

But God shows his love for us
in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.

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John Chrysostom served as the Archbishop of Constantinople  toward the end of the fourth century. He is remembered as one of the greatest preachers, proclaiming the Gospel wherever he went. He spent a long life of Christian service, emphasizing the plain truth of the Bible. No wonder, in the midst of all of his teaching and preaching and serving the poor, he declared clearly, it was on the cross where God spoke most directly, demonstrating His Love for us. The power of His Love should inspire us to lives of godly love. It does not matter where we are or what people we are serving.

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God’s Sacrificial Love

All those years Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob
wandered searching
for God’s Promised Land
they offered animal
sacrifices as
God covered their sin
with atoning blood—
always the perfect one
laying down his life
for hearts besmeared,
shadowed within.

And then when Jesus
obeyed God’s Perfect Will
and accepted the Cross
as atonement for us
He took upon Himself,
His perfect heart, free
of all shame, and free
from any of sin’s stain
bled out for our own;
and He proved there
and then, God’s Love for 
 every precious one of us.

John 3:16-19

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world,
and people loved the darkness rather than the light
because their works were evil.

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Rick Warren has stood firm on the Bible throughout his ministry. Often he has been ridiculed by popular culture for being old-fashioned and out-of-step with modern ways. That has never intimidated him or kept him from proclaiming salvation in Jesus as the central truth of the Bible, and also, the Way to Salvation. In that call he has always emphasized God proving His desire to have us as His children, by giving Jesus, the Son, to pay for our sins. In applying that love, Warren has been questioned within the faith for reaching out to non-Christians—but what else did Jesus do, and command us to do?

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What Else Can I Do?

What else can I do
when the great God
of all Glory
reaches down to me
in His perfect Love
through the life and
the death and His
ressurection
of Jesus declaring
to me, “I want
your love and the
whole of your heart
and all of your mind?”

What else can I do
but surrender
my heart and my
 mind and accept
His Gospel plan
for rescuing me
from my sin and
my penalty
as He pays for
me the price
and from death
sets me free?

Romans 8:38-39

For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Hannah Whitall Smith emphasized throughout her lifetime and in her writings a deeply personal and deeply devotional relationship with God.  She expressed her view of such a close walk in faith with Christ in her book, The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life. In this book she presents simple truths, God’s Love, our sin, Christ’s death for us, and forgiveness of sin. She certainly celebrates the Love of God for us and the perfection of His expressing that Love no matter how the Enemy may attack us. Praise God! Nothing can separate us from the Love of God.

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When I Gaze Upon God’s Loving Faace

When I gaze upon God’s loving face
I fall upon my knees
and confess how unworthy
I kneel before Him
who is the Holy Creator of the Universe,
the Maker of the sun, the moon and the stars,
the One who formed the mighty oceans
and sculpted the magnificent mountains,
and I am amazed as He looks
upon me with redeeming love
and holds out His hand and bids
me come as His child set free
from all the despicable things I have done,
from all of the ugliness I have imagined,
from all of the blasphemies I have spoken—
and replaces it all with His own perfect Love.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing;
it is the gift of God,
not a result of works,
so that no one may boast.

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C.S. Lewis and his writings have stood strong for seventy-five years as a bold declaration in the midst of modern humanity, that true fulfillment and joy in life comes only through faith in Jesus; and God rules all—as in perfect Love He calls us to Himself. Lewis’ portrayal of the Christ-like Jesus in The Chronicles of Narnia, makes it clear, that we depend on Aslan in Narnia, and God through Jesus in our world, for the gift of salvation from the evil forces of sin and selfishness and ultimate self-destruction. We must be rescued. So God, by His Grace, sends us His gift, Jesus, to set us free.

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His Own

He graciously
and miraculously
call in us in
this world
from the eternal
darkness covering the glory
of His Promise
every morning
in the sun reclaiming
from the night our
souls reborn brand new
in His Love
which dared the gates
of Hell and Sin and Death
resurrecting
His own.

 

John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”

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Though Julian Of Norwich lived most of life in isolation as an anchoress in the late 1300’s, her writing powerfully inspired many because she emphasized so passionately the Love of God, which she considered the essential gladness, the absolute meaning and center of life. Her message brought hope to many in a turbulent time filled with wars and terrible plagues destroying many lives. She pointed many hopeless people, then, to the absolute hope of the Love of God as expressed through Jesus.

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We Have A Suffering Yet Triumphant Savior

Praise be to our Almighty God!
Praise be to His Holy Name!
Praise be to our suffering Savior!
Praise be for His Empty Tomb!
Praise be to the Holy Spirit!
Praise be for His loving Presence!

Praise be to our Almighty God!
Praise be to His Holy Name!
Though He made the stars,
Though in power He named them,
He calls us His own, His precious,
His blessed, His blessed children.

Praise be to our suffering Savior!
Praise be for His empty tomb!
Though the Enemy pursued Him
and though He was beaten,
He rose up victorious
over all sin and all darkness.

Praise be to the Holy Spirit!
Praise be for His loving Presence!
He cleanses, He fills, indwells
us with His heavenly power.
We are never, never alone,
we are blessed in His Presence.

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