Let me ask you this question: “What is on your mind today?” Is it money, sex, bills, broken relationships; or are you just sitting there thinking, I wish someone cared about me? I mean, I wish someone loved me. I mean really, really loved me. Well, my sweet friend, look no further!
Did you know God loves us more than you could ever know in this lifetime? In fact, we cannot measure His love, because it is just like Him. He fills the whole universe with Himself and still has more than enough left over. What do you think about that? Many say, “If He loves mankind like you say, how come there is so much evil in in the world?” Well, if we would stop for a minute, go read the first chapter of Genesis, and trust what we read; it will give us a detailed account of the true heart of God. You know what I am talking about. Or maybe you don’t know what I am talking about? But if you are a Christian, I hope this is not the case. Because the Word of God is the total package, and it is the guide for our lives; anyways, God created Adam and Eve and placed them in a perfect garden where there were no sicknesses, diseases, death, or unhappy moments. Please do not take my word for it. And really, this is why we must find out for ourselves, than no one can take it away from us. He meant for man to live and love and fellowship with Him for an eternity, and if we would stop and allow this truth to go into our spirits, we could understand and be clear in our thinking. Yes, my friend, our thinking!
We see that Adam and Eve had it made. But then along came God’s enemy, Satan – you know the one who was thrown out of heaven because he tried to take over God’s position? Fat chance! Anyway, Satan was out to undo God’s plan, and he succeeded and talked Adam and Eve into disobeying the Lord. So at that time, they fell to Satan’s evil plan and received his nature into them. This wasn’t just eating an apple, and boom they were doomed. And where did the apple thing come from anyway, because I did not read anything about an apple? Maybe I can’t read, but do you see anything about an apple? No friends, that is man’s doctrine, and Satan loves that because it takes away from the horrible thing that happened. No, they actually received the nature of Satan, and Adam and Eve died spiritually to the life of God. This is where evil came from my dear friend and why there is death and disease and tragedies. I cannot see why that is so hard for us to understand. It is like a good king ruling in a country, and along came a tyrant that took over. Except this is much more serious because this included taking the nature of the tyrant into ourselves; Ouch! Yuck! And more!!!! Moving on… So we see why God had to make a new plan to regain His creation, so he sent Jesus who came in the flesh and died on the cross for us. Now we can understand where evil came from, and we realize God is truth and has nothing to do with evil. Yes, I understand there are different portions of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, that we may read passages of scripture that imply that God sent evil upon people; but it was in the causative sense. He allowed it because of the evil intent of their hearts. Also, we must realize that He and He alone is the one who says we are to go to war. These are decisions that are too big for man to make because God knows the future. We do not. Again, if we read these accounts given in the word, we will see clearly that David, Saul, and others sought God first. He is the one that must direct the battle, and instruct men how to fight the battle. We have seen what happens when men decide these matters. It is total chaos, and more harm is done then good. I think we can clearly see the results of this just in our generation alone. Moving on!
If we would stop and go again to the Book of Genesis, we would see what God told Cain about doing the right thing and that blessing would be at his door; but if he allowed sin in his heart and acted on that sin, Satan would be at his door to take advantage of him. And what did Cain do? You do remember that he ended up killing his brother Able. But Jesus went about doing good, and we are to follow His example.
So now that we cleared that up, and we have a clean palate to start from; let us get back to our subject, The Love of God.
God’s love is a lasting. It is an unconditional love that never gives up on us. It doesn’t depend upon our performance, and I am so thankful for that. It is about relationship, which takes us way beyond our small definition of what true Love is. The world puts it on a level of performance, sex, and affections; but that is far from what His true love is. The world’s idea of what love is will be wrapped up in lust, outward appearance, and acting in a certain manner to please your boyfriend, or spouse, or friend, etc. But this is called the Phileo Love, a natural kind of love that measure’s love from a fleshly, carnal, natural, sense ruled standard of what people think love is. When in truth, the carnal nature knows nothing at all about the Agape, the true love of the Father. Let’s look at what true love looks like, shall we?
The true Love of the Father tells us that it is pure, wholesome, and holy. It has nothing to do with sexual vices or selfish motives. It is a love that will take the place of another, like Jesus did on the cross for us. It doesn’t look out for his or her self but is always concerned about the well-being of others. It never looks at people like they are nothing. You know, “the Big I”, or “the Little You”, “the Have”, or “the Have-Nots”; In fact, it never thinks that way. God’s love never thinks in the way of belittling His creation or talking down to them. He tells us that we are more than loved and wanted. He wants us so much, and invites us to become a part of His family. How does that make you feel? Isn’t that the most wonderful news you could ever get? Does that change your perspective on love? We are important to Him, the God of the whole universe; and he thinks we are something special. Did you know that His love can shape our thinking, where we can imagine all things possible? Think about this for a moment! His love will cause us to grow in wisdom and favor to the place we can see way beyond our natural limitations. We now live in the supernatural realm, full of His love and creativity, where we are free to succeed. I am getting excited just typing this and can hardly sit still. Praise the Lord!!! We can’t allow our small thinking to cheat us out of this, can we? A thousand NO’s, my sisters and brothers, because His love can cause us to dream dreams and make accomplishments that will change us and that will thrill the Lord to His very core. Why? Because it will make us the most unselfish and giving person that will reach out to others and help them be successful too. This will draw them into a life with Jesus and bring Holy Spirit adventures that will far exceed anything the world could ever give them. If that isn’t good news to us today, I do not think we know what good news looks likes.
Let’s get rid of the perception of God that He is sitting on His throne ordering people around. Or just looking down on us to pound us into the ground because we did something wrong, and He is so small minded and shallow that He scolds us over every mishap. We can see in the past this has been our religious view of the Lord. It must not have been King David’s view because he said that he longed for God, like the deer that panteth after the water brook. I think He knew His love under the Old Covenant far more than we do under the New Covenant, and it was clear that he couldn’t get enough of that love. He kept coming back for more, like a deer that keeps coming for a cool drink. That is the same way God wants us to be with Him. His Love is so sweet, so wholesome, holy, and pure, that we keep coming back for more. His love can draw us into His arms, and He, in an instance, can take away the hurts, disappointments, and horrible feelings that we are alone and forgotten. He wants to touch us to the very core of our being, with the very core of His being so we will never be the same and so that we will never stop coming or stop longing for Him. I do not know about you, but I want all I can get of His love. His Love casts out fear, because fear has torment. Isn’t that comforting? His love brings answers to prayer according to St. John, chapter 15. If we fall in Love with Him, we will truly be fulfilled in every part of our lives. He has enough Love to go around to everyone in the whole world and have lots and lots left over. He wants us to indulge in His Love until we are about to burst and then indulge some more. So my sweet brothers and sisters, lets dive in, and get all we can of Him. Stop thinking about what we want and our mistakes, and turn our focus on the GREAT I AM, THE ONE WHO IS, WHO WAS, AND WHO IS TO COME. AMEN, AND AMEN!!!!