Tag: God’s love

God Is Love

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

God is love (I John 4:8). God is eternal (Jeremiah 10:10). God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). When you put those three truths together, we find that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a perfect loving relationship for all of eternity. He is radiant glorious love in action for all eternity.

God is love in Himself. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever loving each other. Which means He didn’t need to create us to have someone to love. Instead, He chose to create us, and this eternal love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spilled over to people like us. That ought to boggle our brains!

And when we sinned against Him, rejecting His amazing love, He chose to show the extent of His great love by saving us through the cross. He went to great lengths to save us, so that He might continue to extend His love to us forever. Not because we are lovable, but because He is love!

So how should we respond to His amazing love? Jesus sums it up in Matthew 22:37-40. Love God with all your being. Love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, love as God loves. Here is our challenge. Here is our purpose. Here is what life is all about. Love as God loves.

Show Me Your Love

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O Savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
– Psalm 17:7 (ESV)

Wondrously show me your steadfast love. 
In our suffering, isn’t that in many ways what we most need?
To know God’s love? 
To know that He still cares?
Like a young child running to his mom after hurting himself.
All he needs is a hug, to know he is loved and safe.
And we run to God in our suffering.
All we need is refuge in His steadfast love.
O God, wondrously show me your love!

Q&A#1: Verses for Reflection

On By BrianIn PASSION Catechism

Q: What is our primary purpose in life?
A: Our primary purpose in life is to love God and people, in response to His love for us, for the glory of God.

Verses To Reflect on God’s Love For Us
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We love because he first loved us.
– I John 4:7-11, 19

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
– Ephesians 5:2

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
– Psalm 115:1

Questions To Ponder
What do these passages teach us about God’s love for us?
How should his love for us spur us on to love Him and people?

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Remember, He Loves You– Joseph Tenney (DG)
Those of us whose lips are parched from sucking on the sands of idolatry, whose souls are shriveled from being hidden under the shadows of lesser loves, whose hearts long to drink full from his cup and be flooded with an inextinguishable light, we need only turn to Jesus. In Jesus, we experience the love that the Father has for us.

Four Questions for Obeying the First Commandment – Kevin DeYoung
What should we do in prayer? Try adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving. What should we find in our corporate worship services? Plan for adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving. What can we talk about with our friends in the car, our family at the dinner table, or our kids at bedtime? How about adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving.

The Biggest Temple in Town – David Mathis (DG)
Sports and athletic competitions are good gifts from God, but we dare not go all-in without our eyes wide open. Not in this culture. Sport is one of the most alluring, and subtle, competitors for our heart’s deepest allegiance.

Why Sunday Should Be a Day of Rest – Nicholas Davis
Do we view Sunday as our own time, or is it God’s time? By attending church on Sunday, we show that we really belong to Christ. The question Christians ask should never be who am I? Instead, it should be whose am I? Since we belong to God, our time—and even a portion of the day—is not our own but instead belongs to another (God) and to others (our neighbors).

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day resting and worshiping our great God with your local church!

Beloved

On By BrianIn Books of the Bible

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.
– Ephesians 5:1

God calls us beloved children.  You are God’s beloved child – his dearly loved son or daughter.  You are dearly loved by God.

The Creator and Sustainer and Sovereign King of the entire universe dearly loves you.  Let that sink in.  God dearly loves you.  Oh that you might grasp this incredible truth that God loves you.  Who cares what others think of you, if God of universe loves you.

This word “beloved” occurs three times in Ephesians.  Once is here.  The first time was back in 1:6 where Paul referred to Jesus as the Father’s beloved.  At Jesus’ baptism, the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.”  And here in our text, the Father says the same thing to you: “You are my beloved son.  You are my beloved daughter.  You are my beloved child.  I dearly love you.”

You are beloved by God.

May that truth sink into your heart, and may you live each day out of this glorious reality.

Stand Firm In His Love

On By BrianIn Book of Isaiah

“…but with great compassion I will gather you….
…with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the LORD, your Redeemer.
“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
– Isaiah 54:7-8, 10

God offers us great compassion. Not just a little. Not just some. Not just the leftovers. God offers us great compassion.

God shows us everlasting love. Not just occasional love. Not just temporary love. Not just conditional love. God shows us everlasting love.

On the cross he showed that love. And on the cross he paid the price to bring us peace with God (53:5). And this covenant of peace cannot be removed, it cannot be cancelled, it cannot be annulled.

And so, even if the mountains and hills in all their stability were to disappear, he will not remove his love from us. He will yet have compassion upon us. Because of Jesus, nothing can separate us from his great compassion and everlasting love.  So stand firm in his love.

Stop fretting that you will somehow lose his love – it cannot be removed.

Stop working, trying desperately to earn his love – he already loves you.

Stop grumbling about your life as though he doesn’t love you.

Stop sinning against this God who loves you so much.

Stop caring what world thinks of you – what does it matter if God himself loves you.

Stop looking for love in all the other places our world looks for love – you have already found the fountain of all love.

So stand firm in God’s love.  Rest in his everlasting love & his great compassion.

The God of universe loves you.

So stand firm in his love.