The ultimate love from which you cannot be severed.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-35, 37-39, KJV).

  There is much that we do not understand in the tragedies of life.  There is much that we will never comprehend in the things we face and endure and there is much we will never know … but there is one thing we can know.  We cannot be severed from the love of Christ, this we can know as truth.  God's grace through Jesus Christ is greater than all the sin of the world and God's forgiveness is total and complete.  This is a great gift of God’s love that is lavished upon us in making us His children. This gift   will always be unfathomable and indescribable even as it holds and sustains us. We all rest in the indescribable gift we have in the absolute sufficiency of Christ in redeeming our souls when we believe and trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord.  We may at times become daunted in the momentary pain of a season yet in the midst of anything we face we trust in our Father’s love. We trust in faith, knowing there is nothing on this earth and not even death itself which can separate us from our Lord Jesus Christ.  When forgiveness is needed … He forgives.  When love and grace are needed … He brings love and grace.  The powerful love of Christ is now and will always be steadfast and fixed on us, if He is our Savior.

     Here is the great truth and the solid rock upon which our faith stands. As a child of God you cannot be severed from the love of God in Jesus Christ. You cannot be cut off, now or in eternity.  There is nothing … absolutely and completely not a single thing in the past, in the present or in the future that can take God’s unfailing, enduring and everlasting love away from being fixed on us.  There is nothing … including death, things seen or unseen and things known or unknown that can separate us from the Lord Jesus Christ if we believe and trust in Him as our Lord and Savior.  No death can take away the gift of life we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Because death is swallowed up in victory … the victory over death by our Savior on the cross and in the resurrection. This is the celebration of the Christian faith. It is the great joy of the Christian faith to know the ultimate love of Christ God is upon us and we can never be separated from it.  It is and will always be an indescribable gift.

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15, NIV).

Suggested Reading … Romans 8

A peace like no other.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down tin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Ephesians 2:13-16, ESV).

  In order for any peace to be secured, some action must take place. If there is a separation of entities, something must be sacrificed or released to bring the two separated and estranged parties together in peaceful relations. If covenants or promises have also been broken, a new commitment must be made and noted by renewed vows bound in complete dedication.  All offenses must be atoned for in order for a peace to settle over both entities. All of this must precede the actual peace that comes over the relationship and in the minds and hearts of all involved.

     We offend with our sin, we break our promises and vows, we often come up short in our commitments and offerings and thus to find a peaceful place of peace in our minds and in our hearts is so very difficult.  Yet, this is the part of the indescribable gift of Christ to us. He is a peace secured with a Holy God. It is a peace laid down freely in total sufficiency beyond what all offerings possibly could ever hope for. He is a sacrifice forever completed to atone for all our sin, failure and broken promises.  He is a peace like no other and a peace of tranquility, contentment and rest for all moments and all times.  His peace does not diminish nor does it disappoint and it floods over us in blessedness.

      He promised peace and freely gives it to us. He leaves it over us, now as we live out our days and into eternity (John 14:27). He secured forever our nearness to a Holy God by being our peace totally and completely.  What offerings could barely and temporarily secure for a moment, Christ has secured forever and it is peace that is available to all and for all time.  The peace we have in Jesus Christ is like no other and when you step into His peace, we find a place of tranquility, contentment and rest like no other.  He is a peace that passes all understanding.

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phillipians 4:7, KJV).

Suggested Reading … Ephesians 2

Saying good-bye to the cave of fear and despair ...

“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12, KJV).

  We can possess great amounts of faith standing in the face of offense and ridicule. We can be stalwarts of strength in the midst of hardships and pain. We can be brave and courageous as danger and persecution threaten our very life.  We can boldly declare the amazing name of our God and securely rely and act on His power. We can believe in the astounding provision and faithfulness of God abandoning any doubt as we pray for deliverance and miracles.  We can stand firmly in anticipation of the Lord’s wonderful intervening and rejoice with much celebratory fervor when the Lord’s hand mightily provides, proclaiming the glorious distinction of God’s presence and action.

      Such was the faith and confidence of Elijah the great prophet of God as he faced off against hundreds of false prophets of Baal.  His audacious faith is legendary and this story has been retold countless times over the centuries to numerous generations.  Yet this great prophet follows this extraordinary act of faith in the Almighty God with a complete, reckless and faithless retreat from a singular wicked queen.  Elijah ends up in a cave of immobilizing fear and life forsaking despair.  As Elijah cowers in this place, God exhibits His mountain melting, hurricane blowing, fire heating power but then comes near with a small voice to direct and assure with His loving presence.

     No matter in whatever cave we may find ourselves cowering and retreating from all that is coming against us having forgotten the provision of our God, we can be assured that our God who can melt mountains will come with the comforting voice as our concerned and loving Father to assure and guide us.  When we again remember His mighty power and trust in Him, we can depart and say good-bye to the cave of fear and despair.

Suggested Reading … 1 Kings 19

How far is His reach?

“My tears have been my food day and night … O My God, my soul is cast down … deep cries out to deep … why have You forgotten me …” (Selected verses from Psalm 42, NKJV)

  We cannot know of the limitlessness of God’s power and knowledge.  The comprehension of the incomprehensible is too great for us. If we could travel to the highest heavens or to the deepest depths of the abyss of hell itself, we can never go so far as to find a place where God is not present (Psalm 139). We can however find ourselves in a place where we do not sense Him or in our minds conceive or imagine Him to be distant or absent.

      There is a deepness to the agony we feel when we cannot sense our God.  There is a deepness in that loneliness.  There is a deepness like no other in our feeling alone, overwhelmed by despair and abandoned in the tragic and devastating situations we feel swirling around us.  We feel so very alone in these deep places when all reason and understanding eludes us, when tears flood over us like a swollen river or when we wander aimlessly in the fog of anguish hopelessly hopeless in finding a way out of these deep places.  We may feel abandoned but we are not.

      In the deepest agony when even the rock of faith and relationship we have with our God seems to give way and we cry out with groanings too deep for words … He is hearing us and the grace in His reach is upon us.  God’s reach comes to our deepest places because the deepest places of loneliness were redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ as He experienced the deepest place of loneliness separated from His Father on the cross. His abandonment in that place secures our hope for any deep place we encounter.  The deepness of our pain and loneliness is never beyond the reach of the grace freely given by the Creator of the heavens and the earth nor is the deepness of the need beyond the power of His love to lift us to His presence. No matter what bleakness one may encounter in life, the brilliance of God’s love and mercy can melt it away if we simply remember His faithfulness in the past, grasp unto the power of His deliverance for today and hold unto the promises of our hope in Him for the future.  No matter what we feel at the moment, we are never out of His reach.

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God,  for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11, NIV).

Suggested Reading … Psalm 42

The heavens declare …

“And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?”  (Psalm 89:5-8, KJV)

  We gaze up into the heavens and we see tiny spots of brilliant light. Some are stars that are dying and some are stars being born.  We long to recognize the planets and constellations and galaxies.  Beyond the flickering lights we can barely see are the countless others that we cannot see. We cannot begin to comprehend the size of each star nor the number of the stars in a single galaxy. Still beyond those staggering dimensions and quantities are the galaxies yet unknown.  Such is the vastness of the heavens above us.

     What we see and know is such a minuscule part of the vastness of the world and the heavens.   What we believe and know is such a minuscule part of the vastness of God and yet He created the world and the heavens.  So how much greater is God and His love than the vastness of the world and the heavens we see.  Oh the wonders of God, we have yet to see!!! 

Suggested Reading … Psalm 89