A Love That Can Not Be Ignored

Happy Valentine’s Day!  This is one of those love it or hate it holidays, isn’t it?  Some people go crazy over this day and try really hard to express their love toward a spouse or someone they hope might one day become a spouse.  J  Then, there are others who feel the commercialized forced puppy love is fake, ridiculous, and disingenuous.  Today, in honor of “true love” let me share a few passages of scripture that express the love that God has for you.  Take a few minutes and soak these in, probably the best valentine’s card you will ever receive!

John 17:22-26

Jesus praying to the Father for future believers says this, “ ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”                                                                                                       

• If you are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and made new through his death and resurrection look at the truth that is true about you…whether you feel it or not.  God the Father loves you with the same white hot intensity that he loved Jesus Christ!  And this love is not new, it is not something earned, it isn’t a love that comes and goes or is based on anything inside of you, it is from the foundation of the world and is just as passion filled and strong as ever.  Feel the love of God today!

Romans 8:31-39

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.^] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Notice all the questions Paul asks in this passage?  He asks these questions, not because he doesn’t know the answers, but because the answers are so obvious the point should be clear.  God is for you!  His love for you is strong and NOTHING will take it away.  God is stronger than any accuser, stronger than any sin/temptation, stronger than guilt or shame, stronger than anything that might attempt to stand between His love and your broken soul. 
• Never fear that the love of God would run out or betray you.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Here is an Ephesians love bomb for you to consider:

Ephesians 1:3-6

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 2:1-7

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 5:2

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

Ephesians 5:25-27

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

• Finally, I encourage you to pray a similar prayer to the one Paul prays in Ephesians 1 and again in Ephesians 3…May we truly know this love that God has for us and may we be held by it, changed by it, saved by it. 

Ephesians 3:14-21

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Happy Valentine’s Day and may we all be shocked and amazed by the love of God.

Time to Pray

       The other day I was reading a short biography of a great Christian missionary named Patrick.  Yes, the same Patrick that is honored (or dishonored) on St. Patrick’s day.  Long story short Patrick was a Roman Citizen living in Briton who was kidnapped by Irish pirates and forced to be a slave in Ireland for years.  He escaped and years later felt called to return to Ireland as a missionary bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the people who had once kidnapped and enslaved him.  Patrick learned to pray as a slave and then learned to love to pray as a missionary.  He wrote about prayer often and one of his comments quoted in the biography got me thinking.  Here is what he said after a season of doubting his ability to pray, “He who gave his life for you, he is the one who speaks within you.”  He is referring to some New Testament passages that tell us Jesus himself prays for us to the Father.  He also had a dream hearing groans and sighs, being totally confused until he remembered the passage in Romans that says the Holy Spirit prays for us with groans and sighs that we do not understand.  So, the Holy Spirit was also praying for/with Patrick!  Here is the conclusion the biographer makes after this realization from Patrick.  “With Jesus and the Holy Spirit helping him to pray, Patrick could no longer use his poor prayer skills as an excuse!”  Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have this same privilege!  Jesus Christ prays for us and the Holy Spirit prays for us as we pray.  Let us not hold back in our prayers because we feel they are inadequate.  Of course they are inadequate!  But, God wants to hear them anyway.  So, read these passages of scripture and then GO PRAY!

Romans 8:26-27

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. ²⁷ And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because^[g] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

Hebrews 7:22-25

²² This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

²³ The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, ²⁴ but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. ²⁵ Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

John 17:20-26

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

1 Corinthians 2:8-16

 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

¹⁰ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.¹³ And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ¹⁶ “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The Spirit will guide you and help you, the Son will pray for you and be your advocate!  So, go!  Pray.  Yes.  Now.  The Lord is listening as a Father listens to his child.  It’s time to say something to your Father.