The Love of God

John 3:16-21
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

The Love of God
John 3:16 is one of those scriptures that many of us as young Christians memorize. Sometimes in its simplicity we forget or miss how profound it truly is. How many of us as fathers can really grasp what it would be like for us to give our only son as a sacrifice for someone else’s misdeeds? Romans 5:6-8 tells us, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So even if you could be willing to allow your only son to be sacrificed for someone would it be your enemy? Would it be for the one who deserved your wrath and judgement rather than you love and mercy? When we really stop to analyze and think about God’s love for this world it should just blow us away, because it makes absolutely no sense to the natural mind or reason. How can we take this manner of love so lightly? How can we even regard it as common or ordinary? Our God is such an extraordinary God that works through such a supernatural and incomprehensible love towards us and the world rejects it. So many times, even we, as the people of God, treat as common place and ordinary this holy love, displayed and sacrificed for mankind. If we do, it is because we don’t truly comprehend it or have it operating fully within us. Those who go willingly and offer their lives as willing sacrifice for the gospel of Jesus Christ have come into a revelation of that love. They comprehend that if this love is so great that even the holy Son of the living God and Creator would lay down His life for us then it is worth our laying down our lives as well. Most of won’t even sacrifice our comforts let alone our lives.
One of the things a true revelation of God’s love will bring us too is that there is something so much greater at stake than just us. It will give us the heartbeat of God for creation. It will empower us to love the unlovely, the rejected and the destitute. It will cause our hearts to hurt for the lost and dying, just as Father’s heart hurts and longs for them to come to Him.
As human beings perhaps one of the things we like least is having our darkness exposed. We are often comfortable in our sin and deception even though it only brings us misery and pain. We don’t want to see ourselves for what we are and as God sees us. The capacity of the love of God is to see past our faults and see our need and it is to that need that He addresses Himself. He created mankind to rule and reign with Him, but we exchanged the truth for a lie and righteousness for pleasure. Romans 1:21-25 says, ” For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
“For God so loved the world.” What a blessing and a privilege that we have come to an acknowledgement and acceptance of this love by our faith in Jesus Christ. Is our love now so shallow that His love towards us stops with us? No, an immature child is one that is only concerned for their own needs, but when one comes into maturity they learn to become the givers and not the takers.
What is our revelation of God’s love in us today? Are we still just content to take it and not give it? God didn’t build us to be reservoirs to horde and store up for only ourselves, us four and no more. He is wanting to impart His heart of love into us that we may become the conduits and pipelines of His love and blessing. We are the salt of the earth and a city set upon a hill. We are the outshining of his glory and the expression of His love. If not us, then who?

Blessings,
#kent

Advertisement

His Wisdoms

His Wisdoms
Job 26:14
Lo, these [are] parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

Never stop being passionate about who you are.
You were created for a distinct reason and purpose
And your purpose can only be fully revealed by the One who made you.
Your gifts and the talents He gave you can be used in many ways,
But they are best used and humanity best served by using them His way.
He has created you unique, special and one of a kind.
There will never be another you and that is why you are highly collectable.
God sees you as His treasure and desires to purify you into your most refined state.
How often do we insult our Maker by despising and disliking what He has made?
If you have weaknesses they can be a blessing,
They keep you constantly dependent and reliant on the One who is your strength.
Not even the best of us are complete in ourselves.
If we become an island, then we become disconnected and disjointed.
We fail to give out and take in the breath of other human lives.
Just like breathing our lives are a series of interactions of giving out and taking in;
It is the breath of life, blessings and struggles of other human beings.
As we breathe God in through our spirit we exhale Him out through our souls.
His people feeding and breathing in His life are the breath of life to the world they touch and live in.
Hope is based not on what we see, but on what we believe.
Faith is the wings that allows hope to fly into our reality.
Love binds the universe.
While hate destroys and tears asunder,
Love is the creative force that brings light out of darkness;
That overcomes and triumphs over all that is evil.
Love is the blood flow of God’s heart and it courses throughout His creation,
The Cross is the doorway through which the blood of Jesus, His Love flows.
God’s heart has been broken by our sin, but His blood poured out to cover them.
Because we are washed in the blood we are the instruments of His love.
He is our destiny.
His life is our reality.
His love is incomprehensible.

Blessings,
#kent

The Thunder of My Presence

The Thunder of My Presence

Job 26
1 Then Job replied: 2 “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
3 What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! And what great insight you have displayed! 4 Who has helped you utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth? 5 “The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. 6 Death is naked before God; Destruction lies uncovered. 7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. 8He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. 9 He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. 10 He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke. 12 By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. 13 By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent. 14 And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

How often do we stop and really meditate on the awesomeness of our God, how great His ways and how marvelous His acts? I marvel at God’s seemingly infinite patience with man and even myself, as I think how such a mighty and wonderful creator endures the insolence, arrogance and foolishness of man. Especially when we see how God sees mankind in Genesis 6:5 when is says, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.” The fact that mankind still exist is a testimony to God’s incredible loving-kindness and long-suffering. How many times He must have been grieved that the creatures that he created in His own image and honored with dominion and authority over the earth would turn from Him and despise Him through their actions and their deeds. If our God had not had a plan and a vision wherein He saw the end product of what He was bringing His creation too, surely He could not have endured us.
It is incomprehensible that the very God who created the immeasurable vastness of the universe with all of its wonders, stars, constellations, planets and all that is contained therein, could care about you and me. We, who in His sight, would be less than microscopic dust in light of His great creation. Yet, He tells us that He loves us and His thoughts toward us are more than we could even recount. Psalms 40:5 tells us, “Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.” Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” If God showed Himself to us as He did to the Children of Israel we would become as dead men in the fear and dread of His Almighty presence. Exodus 20:18 tells us about when the people had gathered before the mountain of God and He revealed His holy presence, “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance.” After that, they didn’t want God speaking to them, they wanted Moses to speak to them on His behalf for the fear of Him. When we get an inkling of the Holiness of God it will make us quake and fear Him. God doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him, for He has not given us a spirit of fear, but we do need to greatly reverence and hold Him in the utmost respect. Because God’s grace has been so rich toward us many of us have in our minds and hearts reduced God to someone on our level or who is simply there for our benefit. We treat God as common and regard Him lightly. We must realize what an insult and offense this is to the Holy God that has given His all for us.
Leviticus 10 reveals how God feels about that kind of an attitude when we see what happened when the two sons of Aaron, offered up strange fire before the Lord. They decided they would do things their way, instead of His. They lost their fear of God and counted His holiness as common. It says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: ” ‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’ ” Aaron remained silent.” We see a similar incident in the New Testament church in Acts 5 with Ananias with Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit.
What we must realize as the people of God is that we have been called apart unto holiness and we must take very seriously the responsibility we have to sanctify ourselves before the Lord. Why? Ezekiel 39:27 tells us, “When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations.” God has purposed us to the expression of His holiness. We can not be what He has purposed us to be until we truly see and reverence Him for who He is in the fear of the Lord. The Word tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We can be like the children of Israel and know God from a distance through the revelation of others, but if we want to know Him intimately and personally we must approach in the fear of His holiness with boldness, confidence and full assurance of faith. Jesus tells us in John 14:21 to whom He and the Father will reveal themselves, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

blessings,
kent

Incomprehensible

Revelation 4:6-11
… In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Incomprehensible

How incomprehensible and unfathomable is our GOD? How could we, in our small finite minds, even begin to grasp the greatness of His magnitude and being. We need only look at what we know of the tremendous immensity of the universe to realize that out of Him this all came into being and He is ever continually creating, ever expanding and ever increasing.
Can you imagine sitting before His throne and continually seeing new and awesome wonders expressed through our Almighty? No wonder they never tire of falling down before Him and worshipping Him who lives for ever and ever. Casting their crowns at His feet and declaring, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
Can we even imagine the Spirit and Energy, Power and Dominion, Majesty, Glory and Splendor that radiates from His Being. It would be so much more intense than setting before the sun. Can we even imagine that so great a Being could know, understand and care about your every thought and feeling. When we are but a micron in the scope of the universe and His creation. Can we even imagine that He knew us before the foundation of the world and set us apart for His good pleasure to call us sons and daughters.? Can we even imagine that He has called us to be born into His kingdom and be partakers of His very blood and DNA through the blood of Jesus? He knows ever hair on your head and knows all of your life before you even have lived it. Wow!
When we begin to really think upon and comprehend the tremendous enormity, power, authority and majesty it is no wonder that we could bow in presence, forever amazed, mesmerized and astounded at all that He is and all that exudes from His Being and Presence.
Now we turn and look back at our problems and our challenges and realize they are but puffs of dust in the light of the One whom we serve, love and have been called into identification with. When we see who is behind us how can we ever fear again that which is front of us.
Where are we as believers in Christ in all of this? Ephesians 2:4-7 enlightens us, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Even now we are seated in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. If I am in Christ who is in God looking down upon what I have perceived as my giants, my giants have now become as ants beneath my feet because of where I am positioned in Him. When we get the eyes and the mind of the Spirit and begin to see our natural world in its light, then nothing is too great or too impossible for our God who lives through us. FAITH just arises when we comprehend who we are in the enormity of the God we love and trust. Our Papa is a far greater force to reckon with than any of the other bad boys we know on the block. So let faith arise and your enemies be scattered. Don’t allow the smoke and mirrors of the present world cloud and obscure your vision from seeing all that our God is in the limited amount that we are able comprehend, understand and know Him.
He is so worthy of our continual awareness, gratitude and worship of all that He is. Allow yourself to go to the place of the living creatures, the host of heaven, the twenty-four elders and just ask the Lord to help you see through the eyes of your imagination and Spirit into that place of such magnificent glory in Father’s presence.

Blessings,
kent