Sunday, February 15, 2015

Great Love................

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” Matthew 10:30

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God knows everything about you, yes “you”. He even counted every string of hair on your head. Isn’t that amazing? The Bible says He knew you before you were born. “My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth” Psalm 139:15. I guarantee you on the authority of the Word of God, that He loves you. This is amazing to me especially because I am almost invisible in my family (being 1 of 9), let alone in my community and the planet. It is hard for me to comprehend of any reason why the Lord of lords, the magnificent King of kings would be and/or should be interested in me and yet our Lord looks down and He sees me and you. We are cherished one by one and not as a group. He keeps tabs on us individually. He watches out and provides for each one of us as though each individual was the only child.

Think about it for a moment: The magnificent God that creates and runs the universe is concerned about “you”. Most people imagine that in God’s eyes we are just one of millions. We know most people don’t think we are important and so we assume
God thinks of us in a similar way. But then, again, God is not like
most people. To Him, each one us is special and worth sending His son to die for. To be honest everyone wants to be loved and accepted. There is nothing mankind wouldn’t do to find love and yet when love is found it isn't cherished but God loves us with His whole heart and He honors the relationship. Listen, God loves “you” with every speck of His enormous love. That means no matter how much God loves others, He couldn’t possibly love anyone else more than He loves you and no matter how much your spouse and your children love you (or say or don't say they do) it doesn't matter because either way their love can never compared to the love of God.

Mankind type of love is limited and conditional because most of us don’t know how to love but “God is love” (1 John 4:8). People love base on their personal agenda and selfish criteria but to God no Christian is too old, too naive, too ugly, too poor, too uneducated, too stupid and too annoying to be loved. It doesn’t matter who your parents were or what family you came from and in what part of the world you were born because when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you automatically become an accepted (worthy of love) member of the elite family of the most prominent and only living God. God is your Father and like any good father, He has plan for your life, great unimaginable and extraordinary plans but unlike your earthly father, He’s got the means, the power and the will to bring the plans to fulfillment. Now what is you’d like to accomplish on this earth? Are you in the midst of great troubles? What are your most pressing needs? Bring them all to the Lord in prayers. There is nothing you loving father cannot do? If He could bring a dead person back to life, He can surely take care of you. DO you need to finish graduate school? Would like to be married? Do you need a job or a place to call home? do you need emotional, financial and educational healing? I promise you that can do it all. The word of God in Psalm 34:17 says "The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles."

Have you been looking for the love that surpasses all intelligence? Has your search led you to heartbreaks, disappointments, loneliness and despair? Then look no further than the loving arms of God. No matter what you have done and where you have been, I assure you, He loves you. (Romans 5:8). Once in His family, He will bring the right people into your life. He will turn your sorrows into joy. He will repair you damage relationships. He will restore your peace. He knows you well but He loves you anyway. He doesn't love you because you are lovable or because of some misguided notion of love; He loves you because He is love. He created you to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son (who also willingly died for you- John 3:16) to restore that relationship. He loves you. You are precious in His eyes. He will never abandon you. You can count on His unconditional love.

God's love towards us is demonstrated by the sacrifice He made on our behalf. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Rely on God's unconditional and immutable love and you will not have to be lonely another day of your life.

Will you share His message of love with at least one person today? I trust that you will.

Praise the Lord!

Greatest Lover......

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

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Love by definition has many components, without any of them, love is missing. Love does not insist on its own schedule and time constraints, and rue love is not easily shaken, or only works when it is convenient. Jesus tells us here that our greatest command is to love. God gives us the ability to love when we are born again, the Holy Spirit fills our heart with the love of God so that we can show His love to others. What is it about true love that touches every heart? Why does the simple phrase "I love you" evoke such universal joy? Why is it that some spend a lifetime pursuing love? You see, love was the grand principle which prompted the almighty God to give His Son to die for sinners. How great, how sublime was the love that a perishing world! God's love fills the immensity of space; therefore, there is no shortage of love in the universe, only in our willingness to do what is needed to feel it. To do this, Jesus explained "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27). Responding to true love is part of our very being because we are children of God and Love is God's attribute, which he delights to manifest openly; and love was the motive that brought Emmanuel from his throne, to this dying world, in order to save the lost. We live in God's love. No one can deny it. Yes, we might go through hard times, but in the end we all will be accountable on how we responded to God's daily care for our lives.



God's love is persistent, ever-present, and very powerful. Our lives are transformed by the presence of love. All true love originates from God. Christians are to receive and replicate this love in their lives so people can know of God's love. When filled with God's love, we can understand things that we could not otherwise understand. The wonderful thing is that the more we know God’s attribute, the more we are going to obey His command to love "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment Matthew 22:37). Friend, love starts with God. One of favorite preachers once said that “Trying to find lasting love without obeying God is like trying to quench thirst by drinking from an empty cup you can go through the motions, but the thirst remains”. We often miss out on this comprehensive picture of God's love because we are searching for it at all the wrong places while taking God’s love for granted.

Friend, love is a big theme in our society. There are countless websites claiming to be able to help you find love. It is really quite interesting because each one of them is loaded with thousands of profiles. People are desperately looking for love. Have you ever had an opportunity to read some of these profiles? People are searching for perfection. (disease free, thin, smart, beautiful, tall, rich or have a great job, good communicator with no relationship baggage, ect.). But God wants you as you are: Sick, imperfect, broken, hurt, full of baggage, lost, confused, rejected. No need to change to find His love because His kind of love will enrich and transform. Glory! There are times in our lives when those who claim to love us refuse to talk to us and ask for space but my dear friend, there are no periods with God's love. God's love does not stop with the sunset or begin with the new week. God love never takes a break. Divine love will always continue throughout time and eternity. In the darkest of nights, there will always be the eternal light of God's love. Glory to God! All you have to do is submit to love by allowing Christ to reside in your heart. He will never leave you. His promise to be with you through your valleys and mountain tops is true. You can count on His great love.

Praise the Lord!