LOVE

What is missing in the world today? Is it brotherly kindness or human generosity? Is it legal justice and fairness? Is it unbiased objectivity? Is it mere civility? Is it equality or equity?

I say all those and more.
What I ask, however, is what do each of these treatments of our fellow man have in common? Do they not all have their roots in love?

Our life must have its breath and being in a heavenly love as much as Christ did. What the Father's love was to Him, His love will be to us.
"Even as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," Jesus proclaimed.

How did the Father love Him? Was it not the infinite desire and delight of God to communicate to the Son all He had of Himself, to take the Son into the most complete equality with Himself, to live in the Son and have Christ live in Him? These proofs reveal the Father's love to Christ. It is the mystery of Glory of which there is no clear human understanding; we can only bow and worship when we ponder the Divine Trinity. And with such a love, with this very same love, Christ longs in an infinite desire and delight to confer to us all that He is and has to make us partakers of His own nature and blessedness to live in us and to have us live in Himself.

What might also be another component of our lack today is faith; a faith that breeds confidence, boldness, victory and hope. If Christ loves us with such an intense, such an infinite Divine love, what is it that could hinder us in triumphing over every obstacle and taking full possession of it?

The idea that mere sinful, flawed, wicked and depraved humanity could share in the Divine is beyond our limited thoughts. It is only by the written Word, the indwelling Holy Spirit and years of experiences with the unexplainable that we can finally begin to see the possibilities that we possess by being loved by God. Oh, such love that the Almighty would know and care for me. Oh, such love that would allow the sinless and spotless Lamb of God to sacrifice so much for the most wretched sinner on earth that I am. Oh, such love that would grant His all-conquering power without interrupting or limitation to such a weak and frail vessel as me.

It is all just too wonderful for me to contain it all within myself. Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should create me, sustain me, empowering me, love me, and die for me? Let angel minds inquire no more. It simply must be mercy. Let us adore Him all the more.

So free, so abundant, so infinite - His grace. Can you believe that He emptied Himself of everything but His love to bleed and die for you and for me? No condemnation now we dread; Jesus and all in Him is ours, alive in Him, our living Head who gives to us all that was found in Him. How can it be?

Read Romans 8:31-39

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure and measureless and strong! It shall forever endure it is the saints' and angels' song. To ignore this most incredible truth and reality is to limit yourself needlessly and put yourself in great peril without reason or necessity. You are a conqueror! The power that raised Christ from the dead lives within you. It was the Father's love and acceptance of the Son that allowed it. We possess that same Divine love within ourselves. No mountain too high. No valley too deep.

You got trouble? So?! Who doesn't. Could Christ have endured more? Now He is seated at the Father's right hand awaiting His next command. Defeated and destroyed? No, indeed!!! Death and the grave could not hold Him. One day He will come riding on a white horse with a sword in His mouth and all victory will be His, as it will be ours.

Read Revelation 19:11-16

We are loved and so we love others!
We are loved so we cannot be defeated!
We are loved and so we do not quit!




In Christ,
Pastor Todd