Embracing the Love of God

There are a lot of bad things going on in this crazy world of ours.  There is a lot of anger and bitterness and resentment.  It is hard to talk to people of different opinions in a civil way without it ending in a heated argument.  There is one thing that hardly seems mentioned much anymore and that is love.

The people of this world need love.  You and I need love.  This coming Thursday is Valentine's Day in which we remember love.  We usually buy a card and chocolate for someone to show our love and appreciation.  I like what the Apostle Paul has to say about love in what is known as the love chapter of the Bible, I Corinthians 13.  The verses I would like to look at are verses 4 through 13 which say,

"4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 
                                                                           

5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!

10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love."

Love is patient and kind.  We find it hard to be patient and sometimes kind in our world these days.  Theses things don't  come to us naturally because of our sinful selfish nature, but through the help of the Holy Spirit we can develop these qualities as well as other fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

There is no jealousy in true love.  Love is not proud, boastful, or rude.  The love the world tries to hand out is often times selfish and very shallow.  True love is not just about warm and fuzzy feelings, but it encompasses a sacrifice.  God loved the world so much that He gave.  What did He give?  He gave the world His Son, Jesus Christ.  

John 3:16 says, " For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

The world has a sin problem.  We are all born into this world with sin in our hearts.  Our hearts are bent away from the living God from birth.  We are all deserving to be cast away into a literal hell for all eternity because of our sin, but God out of His great love towards each one of us sent us the most precious gift possible.  He sent us Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to this earth to live a perfect sinless life. 

Jesus says in John 15:13, "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

Jesus showed each one of us the extent of His great love by stretching out His arms upon the Cross and dying there in our place.  Jesus took the punishment you and I rightly deserve.  We are all guilty of breaking God's Holy Law.  I am eternally grateful for God's love and His mercy.  We can't earn God's love or His grace.  The Lord loves us unconditionally and it is His desire that no one should perish and be sent to hell.

God doesn't want to see you perish.  He wants you to receive His love for you by receiving His perfect gift to you.  His perfect gift of love is His Son, Jesus Christ.  There is only one way into Heaven.  There is only one way to receive forgiveness of your sins and that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  John 14:6 says , "Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."  

Jesus is the only Way to the Father.  There is only one way into Heaven and that is through Jesus Christ.  We must come to the Lord and confess our sins to Him and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  We do that by going to Him in prayer asking Him to forgive us for our sins and we need to ask Him in prayer to be our Lord and Savior.  The loves us and He wants us to come to Him by faith.  We need to trust in His grace.  

Jesus loves you!  He loves you more that words can possibly describe.  I hope that you would come to know the love of Jesus Christ in a greater way throughout this year as you draw nearer to Him.  If you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior or maybe you have wondered away from Him.  I would like to invite you to go to Him right now wherever you are in life and pray to Him asking Him into your heart and your life.

Sometimes it is hard to love others around us because sometimes people are mean or don't think the way we do.  The Lord tells us to love Him with all of our hearts, minds, and souls.  He also tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  We can't love our neighbors properly without first loving God who loved us first.  

Let's love the Lord with all of our being and let us love each other.  This world needs God's love.  This world needs Jesus.  Let's go out there and give them Heaven by showing them the love of Jesus Christ and telling them about His love for them.

Lord,

We love You.

Thank You for loving us so greatly.

We aren't very lovely at times we know.

Thank You for loving us despite ourselves.

Thank You for Your mercy and grace that keeps shining through to us.

We praise Your Name.

Help us to love You more and help us to want to love each other.

Empower us through Your Holy Word, the Bible and through Your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus Name we pray,

Amen.