God's love.
How can one describe it? It's so deep and so perfect. When I try to describe it, I am at a loss for words, so I will try to approach this subject in the best way that I can. I often find myself asking "Why?" a lot. Specifically, "Why does God love me?"
God is love, and he shows the extent of His great love by extending that love to those who don't deserve it: Mankind.
You see, we people are deplorable. God is many things. He is holy, He is mercy, He is love, and He is grace. Humans are none of these things. Holy comes from a Greek word that means "separated" or "set apart." That being said, God is completely separated from sin. He can't have anything to do with it, which means that when the first human sinned, God could no longer be in communication with us because we were no longer holy and blameless before a righteous God.
God has existed for eternity past. He's even existed longer than that because eternity is an amount of time. God CREATED time and exists outside of it. He knew before He created mankind that sin would happen and that he would be separated from us.
Thank goodness that God has many aspects to Him, because if he were only holy, we would all have a horrifying fate. God's holiness says that we have to be separated from Him if we sin. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 starts with, "For the wages of sin is death..." If the road ended here, then we would all be on our way to hell.
Sin is what separates us from a holy God, and sin has an ending: death. This isn't just dying, but it's eternal separation from our Creator. It is an eternal seclusion, and the Bible calls it a fiery lake of burning sulfur - the second death.
Thank goodness for grace and mercy, because that verse ends with, "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Jesus was truly a gift to mankind. We were all doomed once sin entered the world. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will have eternal life.
Romans 5:8 says, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
We were dirty, and God sent his perfect, spotless Son to earth. His son came from heaven into our domain to be killed by us. That is love.
Why does God love us? Because He chooses to. He doesn't have to love us by any means, and we are definitely not entitled, as some think.
How deep is the Father's love for us? Oh, my friend, you couldn't measure it even if you tried.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Stagnance
Have you ever thought about your thought life?
I grew up hearing this in church a lot, but maybe it will hit home for you.
Do you realize that every sin that is committed starts out in the mind? It starts as a thought, then it's formulated into a plan, and then it becomes an action. This could be conscious or subconscious, but it happens and has happened to everyone. This is what comes natural to us. It's called our "sin nature."
Yes, ladies and gents, we all have screwed up minds. We are hopelessly, helplessly screwed up! And there is only One who can help us. His name is Jesus. He died on the cross to atone for all sin. He was placed in a tomb, and was raised from the dead three days later. Afterward he revealed himself to many, he ascended into heaven. That's the God I serve. And I want to continue serving Him daily.
Here's what I didn't ever hear in church... It almost seems like a given, but I never really thought about it. Did you know that our thought life also has a lot to do with our walk with Christ?
You can't grow closer to God as a stagnant Christian. You can't just pray a prayer, walk an aisle, and just be close to God. You actively have to think, "What can I do today that will glorify God?" You also have to keep in the word. Think of it as setting spiritual goals.
You have to have a goal set in your heart and mind in order to move forward in your walk with Christ. You can't just passively become more Christlike.
James 1: 22-25 says this:
"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."
What I'm trying to say is this:
It's so easy to become a stagnant Christian. You can walk into a church or Bible study and soak up all of the God stuff you can and then get up and leave everything you learned at the door. Some people even do personal Bible study and have quiet time but still do nothing about it. I like how the author of James put it: it's like a person who looked in a mirror and walked away from it, forgetting what he saw.
You, my friend, should not be like this person. You can easily be like the person in James, or you can make up your mind today to be a doer of the word. You can put everything into practice. You have to look intently at the law in order to be an effectual doer.
In order to do that, you can actually turn that logic that I used at the beginning of this post around to use it for good. You have to think about your future progression in your relationship with Christ, then formulate your plan, and put it into action. First it will be a conscious thing, but with time, it will be subconscious.
That's the spiritual goal I've set. I want to be a more consistent doer of the word, and I want it to eventually be a subconscious thing. I've made that decision in my mind, and I am praying that that decision turns into action.
I grew up hearing this in church a lot, but maybe it will hit home for you.
Do you realize that every sin that is committed starts out in the mind? It starts as a thought, then it's formulated into a plan, and then it becomes an action. This could be conscious or subconscious, but it happens and has happened to everyone. This is what comes natural to us. It's called our "sin nature."
Yes, ladies and gents, we all have screwed up minds. We are hopelessly, helplessly screwed up! And there is only One who can help us. His name is Jesus. He died on the cross to atone for all sin. He was placed in a tomb, and was raised from the dead three days later. Afterward he revealed himself to many, he ascended into heaven. That's the God I serve. And I want to continue serving Him daily.
Here's what I didn't ever hear in church... It almost seems like a given, but I never really thought about it. Did you know that our thought life also has a lot to do with our walk with Christ?
You can't grow closer to God as a stagnant Christian. You can't just pray a prayer, walk an aisle, and just be close to God. You actively have to think, "What can I do today that will glorify God?" You also have to keep in the word. Think of it as setting spiritual goals.
You have to have a goal set in your heart and mind in order to move forward in your walk with Christ. You can't just passively become more Christlike.
James 1: 22-25 says this:
"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."
What I'm trying to say is this:
It's so easy to become a stagnant Christian. You can walk into a church or Bible study and soak up all of the God stuff you can and then get up and leave everything you learned at the door. Some people even do personal Bible study and have quiet time but still do nothing about it. I like how the author of James put it: it's like a person who looked in a mirror and walked away from it, forgetting what he saw.
You, my friend, should not be like this person. You can easily be like the person in James, or you can make up your mind today to be a doer of the word. You can put everything into practice. You have to look intently at the law in order to be an effectual doer.
In order to do that, you can actually turn that logic that I used at the beginning of this post around to use it for good. You have to think about your future progression in your relationship with Christ, then formulate your plan, and put it into action. First it will be a conscious thing, but with time, it will be subconscious.
That's the spiritual goal I've set. I want to be a more consistent doer of the word, and I want it to eventually be a subconscious thing. I've made that decision in my mind, and I am praying that that decision turns into action.
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