Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Amazing Love

Due to some serious technical difficulties...no blogs have been posted for, well, like eons...

What a privilege to love and be loved. The thing about love is that while it gives rise to the highest joys you will ever know, it also can deliver the deepest sorrows you will ever face. Life makes it clear that it is impossible to love without pain. And while there is pain involved in love on earth - there will be no more pain in heaven. There love will reign for all eternity.

When pain results from love, I am reminded of the pain I cause my Savior. He, in total and absolute love, paid the ultimate price for me by dying in my place for my sins so I could escape for free what I deserve in hell. "For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame" (Heb 12:2). He became sin on my behalf, though He knew no sin so I could become the righteousness of God in Christ (II Cor 5:21).

What amazing love. To think for 1/2 a second that I am worthy of God's love is to be deceived. He loves because of who and what He is - He is love (1 John 4:8). He loves mankind because all men were created in His image. Isaiah 53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."


His love has nothing to do with who I am in myself or who you are in yourself. What we deserve from God is His punishment for violating His moral standard. His love was so deep, that it could not have been demonstrated in a more needful way. Christ's love met mankind's deepest need - the need to be saved from an eternity separated from His love in the lake of fire.

Now what is truly amazing about this love is that the same love which Christ demonstrated by dying for me (and all) on the cross can be displayed through the child of God to others who do not deserve it -- like me---. How? Because God put His love in the heart of His child. Romans 5:5 "...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Because this love has been freely and completely given to the believer in Christ, he or she can then love the unlovely and the undeserving just like Christ loved them. We live in a world in which love is given on an "if you perform" or a "when you perform" basis. "What's in it for me?" is too often the bottom line. And if the world feels that you are not worthy, well then....too bad. The world says that love must be earned in some way shape or form. Not so with Christ. He loved the ungodly. He loved us when we were yet sinners.

This means it is the believer's privilege, as empowered by God's Spirit, to love the one who by nature may likely be despised. Let's get personal -- It is your privilege to love --- as Christ loved you-- the one who has hurt you deeply - the one who disappointed you above measure. The one who has done unthinkable things to you or to someone you love. Are you willing to be a vessel of His love for His glory? This cannot be done to the glory of Christ apart from His Spirit for Christ aptly said "without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5) Peter put it this way: "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."" (1 Peter 4:8). Cool.