For God so loved the world ...

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17, KJV).

  His love is incredibly longsuffering, releasing a saving grace for all believers in His Son. A Son, whose liberating life, death and resurrection demolishes all oppressions and every stronghold.

     His love overcomes all sin and separation and is overreaching in its capacities to satisfy. His love saves us, bringing a living hope to the hopeless. His love is a love from which we cannot be separated.

     His loving us as sinners, allowed His Son to be humbled in the most vulnerable of sacrifices unto death. Christ's love is beyond vigilant in the shedding of His blood to cover all the sins of a fallen creation lost in its sin, disregard, pride and lusts.

     His love is unfathomably extravagant lavished upon us when we are so obscenely self-centered. His love is eternally securing in our relationship with Him granting us a peace that passes understanding. 

     Longsuffering and liberating, overcoming and overreaching, vulnerable and vigilant and extravagant and eternal are just words that describe God’s love. Still these and million other words would not be sufficient to describe even the beginning facets of His love. A myriad of words from a myriad of angels cannot express the love of God unfolding before them and the world cannot contain all the books it would take to express the love lived out in gift of His Son.

     Oh, that we would grasp the slightest dimensions of the width and breath and length of His love that through His grace makes us adopted royalty in a living Spirit secured eternity.  Oh, that we would allow this incredible favoring, to fragrance our lives with the love of Christ to become to others the compassionate love that He is to us. Oh, that we would love like we are loved.

     Oh Lord, pour out your love again upon us … your indescribable love that carries us now and eternally home. Dear Eternal Father, you are love. Thank you for your love steadfast and everlasting upon us.  Thank you for loving all the world. Thank you for loving us.

To the most disloyal, offensive and affronting child … loving grace.

“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden” (Deuteronomy 4:23, NIV).

  They were set aside in significance, protected in every way and a preferred people. Tenderly watched and blessed with all necessities for living and destined for abundance because of the affluence of their benefactor and provider.  Attention to their needs and development was constant and comprehensive. Delivered out of danger and released from oppression, free from fear and bondage.  The richness of their position in their relationship with God was evident and envious to those around them.  Great love was upon them, as great as was imaginable and possible and as great as possible for a Father to have for His children.

  

      These people who were the Children of Israel were as ungrateful as possible to their Father, the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth.  They were disloyal as possible as they turned away in the midst of all they had been given. They offensively mocked their provisions and clamored again to be enslaved forgetting their misery and suffering. Finally they were grotesquely affronting to their Living God throwing their affections and worship upon empty idols of wood and gold.

      We can be like those children of long ago.  We worship with abandon, things that will pass away and become worthless instead of the Heavenly Father who loves us with a great love in Jesus Christ.  We can be disloyal to the Only One is forever loyal to us. The One who is even loving us in our sin and we at times can be as offensive as the most spoiled and selfish child in the entire world. 

       Yet just as the Almighty God was to His children of ancient times … He is to us. To the most disloyal, offensive and affronting child reeking with sin … He offers loving grace.  In Jesus Christ we have a grace that saves us and love fixed upon us beyond our comprehension.  Thanks, be to God.

“There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath” (Deuteronomy 4:28-31, NIV).

 Suggested Reading ... Deuteronomy 4

A living hope.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5, ESV).

  There is living hope.  This is not a hope based solely on the past, on something done for you. This is not a hope that bides its time without being of present value. There is a hope that is living hope. There is nothing in your past that can take it away from you and nothing in the future that can deny the promises it holds for you.  You have a Living hope. Grasp on to it with all your heart and soul and mind.  It is the one thing in  your life that redeems your past, sustains you in the present and will remain for eternity. Is there anything on this earth is worth trading for this hope that is alive in such powerful ways?

     The Living Hope is in the Living One. It comes from and is found in Jesus Christ our Lord alone who was raised up from the dead that we might have an inheritance that cannot be taken away. We have a Living Hope … it is a L I V I N G Hope.  A hope that is alive:  not a partial hope … not a sometimes hope … not an fake hope … not a futile hope … not a hope that fades away in the heat of the battle … not an shallow hope … not a little hope … not a crazy hope … not an illusionary hope nor a positive thinking hope.  It is a Living Hope coming from a Living Lord.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we do not have to wish for something that may or may not come but we trust in faith in a Living Savior.  We follow a Living God who has given us grace and peace in abundance and faithful life and truthful, rock solid promises and confidence in our future.  Jesus Christ our Lord is “A Living Hope” now and forever.

     What has He done for you? He has redeemed you and saved you.  You are His child. He has adopted you, given you freedom from sin and access to come into God’s very presence. He has given you amazing grace (showered you, smothered you and covered you in grace) and filled you with an abundant life. He has made you special and given you an treasure when you deserved nothing.  He has made you an heir to an inheritance that angels look upon with envy. He has sanctified you by the Holy Spirit and showered you with mercy. He is your true forever friend and healed you, carried you, lifted you up, protected you, watched over you, listened to you, taken your burdens, loved you, empowered you, suffered with you and  walked with you. He has not nor will He ever forget you or leave you.  He has always forgiven you when you come to Him with a broken heart and finally He will carry you to eternity with Him.

     Trust and walk in the Living Hope alive in you. Let go of everything that would keep you away from Him and let Him have all of you.  If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord, you simply call upon His name to save you.  With all your heart,  follow Him and you can be fully alive with "The Living Hope."

Suggested Reading … 1 Peter 1

A Guiding Presence

“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people” (Exodus 13:21-22, KJV).

  A true guide knows the way to the destination. A good guide is careful and protective, avoiding hazards and dangers along the course of the journey.  A compassionate guide is watchful of the stresses along the way. A proficient guide provides sustenance for the strength needed for each day and supplies for every facet of the ongoing challenge or in the resting components.  A generous guide does everything in his or her power and expertise to benefit the adventurer and facilitate the goal of the journey. An expert guide is completely trustworthy and loyal to those in his or her charge.  A benevolent guide encourages you in the hardest places with hope and points out each step ever mindful of joy that will come on the completion of the journey.  A professional guide possesses lifesaving skills and tremendous knowledge of every aspect in the terrain and environment.  In reality, you put your very and death in the hands and competence of the your guide with the anticipation of reaching the goal of your journey.

     There is a guide who fulfills every requirement of guidance and is unsurpassed in His ability to help you in your journey through life.  Not only is this guide completely trustworthy but He has never failed a single person in His care. He has never abandoned a single person or faltered to get them to their intended and purposed destination.  He has paid for your journey and redeemed your sins. His guarantee is in His presence.  He never sleeps or looks away.  His attention is permanently attached and secured on every one in His care.  He gives us a book of guidance unequalled in its wisdom and relevance as it lights and shows the pathways of life. Finally He abides in us by His very Being, as the Holy Spirit … teaching, guiding and even convicting us when we have wandered away from His presence.  He has no agenda but only a love to sustain us in the journey and guarantee our arrival at the goal where He meets us to celebrate forever with Him.  Is there any other guide like Him or any other presence you would want along on journey which will be your life?

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 14:13-14, KJV).

Suggested Reading … John 14, 15, 16

What is God’s place in your heart?

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”  (1 John 5:21, KJV)

  When we read the statement, “keep away from idols,” we feel pretty confident that we do not have any idols in our homes or even in our lives.  It might be hard to find in all the homes we know of … a single life sized stone altar with a golden calf perched upon it.  That would seem bizarre to us.  Yet, we all know people that worship everything from Hollywood and sports celebrities to their successes at business or in their careers. Hedonism, pleasurable pursuits and countless other indulgences can be just as elevated as any ancient god ever was. Things new and improved can be a consuming importance in our lives evidenced by the raging materialism in our world.  The things that keep people from God might not be called idols in our society but don’t these pursuits of pleasure, material things and idealizations keep many people from God?  They certainly do.

      It is quite ironic and simply very sad, that people spend numerous hours in front of the TV or the computer every  single day and sometimes not a single minute reading their Bible in any given week. Anything that keeps anyone from giving God His rightful place in their hearts is an idol. We just prefer not to call them idols. 

     There are countless other ruses, vices, attractions, lies, relationships, material things and sins that are really idols even if we do not call them such.  There are hundreds of temptations, addictions and multitudes of sinful behaviors that people give their very lives to but yet they would never call them idols.  They may not be idols in our language but they steal from us our faith, our relationships and our true identity in God. 

     In the scope of life on earth, all of this stuff and all these idols can keep us away from God and His presence.  It is the fellowship and relationship with God that was our created place and it becomes again our restored place through Jesus Christ.  God’s place in our lives is walking in the “abundant life” that only Christ can give. God should be elevated and held as the greatest love and desire of our hearts and lives.  Followers of Christ, give up things in their lives that are really worthless and temporary to have things that are priceless and eternal.  We must keep away from “anything that might take God’s place in our hearts.”  It is the way we find the life of God.  We lose nothing and gain everything,  by living this way.

“Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts” (1 John 5:21, NLT).

Suggested Reading … 1 John 5