Furthermore,
I have been corresponding with a dear brother in the Lord who lives in Norman, OK. We've been discussing sin, and obedience to God. And as I've been reading Bluecollar's posts about love and marriage, the following rumination began to form:The Holy Spirit has been lately speaking to my heart about love. About loving God first. Now, as one who wants to get married one day, I think that loving a husband would be easy, but that is just with "human love" which fails and isn't always loving and pure; it can be downright selfish. God's love is so much greater, and demands something different. It demands self-denial to the greatest degree. We are ALSO required to do this with God, but do we? I mean, do we put God before ourselves? Do we deny self so that He can be honored? Do we shun evil and embrace good? Do we love those who we feel do not deserve love or kindness? Man, that is so tough. Loving a spouse means putting their desires before our own, and loving God means putting HIS desires before our own.
I was really thinking about this earlier, about how if we really consider it, we are so unlovable. When we REALLY consider the ultimate ramifications of disobeying the law of God, we deserve to be eternally condemned. LOOK at what He did with the angels. They didn't get a second chance!!! He did NOT set His affections on them!!!! So now Satan and his cronies are walking dead men, essentially, condemned to the lowest pit of hell. God did not spare angels when they sinned. So, here we have a living example of just WHO God is. Satan isn't a new thing to pop on the scene here. God's been GIVING us example after example after example just to show us Who He is and what the rewards of sin and righteousness are.
Just THINK about this ultimate show of love God is bestowing upon us... and we get mad at people who annoy us, who are careless with us, who fall through on their promises to us, who are unfaithful to us, who hurt our feelings, who abandon us, who seek to offend us, who reject us, and who are just the epitome of "unlovable".
If God set His affections on us all, the human race, to give us all a chance to come to Him, then shouldn't we set OUR affections on those around us. I'm not talking about championing a cause in Darfur or anything, I am talking about loving the unlovable around us, because THAT is what mercy is. God is not giving us what He has decided we deserve, so we should not give others what we decide they deserve. It's the ultimate in self-sacrifice, and the ultimate in love. Let God take revenge, but let us reflect the love that is available to those who would forsake their sins and come to the cross of Jesus.
Thoughts?
posted by Marcian @ 10:40 AM
1 Comments:
Some very good thoughts. Good admonishment to us Christians.
It's all about the Lord. He is worthy!
We show God we love Him the most, by loving the least of these.
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