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Awhile back I started a thread on communing with the Triune God, which was pretty much dead in the water as are most threads that are about God and Christ and Him crucified. Nothing to fight about I guess. No fodder for the ego. This will probably go the same way. Yet there are some extraordinary and beautiful truths about God's love that I wish to share. All Christians know of His love and that He is love if they are familiar with the Bible. At the same time, we, and I include myself here, kind of slide right over that, immediately equating it with the same love that human's express on a horizontal level. In truth, God's love is expressed on every page in the things that are given, the bounty bestowed on us. And to be clear, this love of which I speak is not universal but is a unique love that He has for the saints, those in Christ. The same type of love He had for the Israelites uniquely over all other nations. It is covenant love. Love for His people.
This love that is God far surpasses anything we can imagine, or anything that we are able to give, cannot be defined or fully encompassed, by the limitations of our finiteness, for it is eternal and infinite. We can, however, perceive and experience this love in the things that He does, and the things He tells us. When we begin to get a glimpse of it and then enter into communion with Him, the communion of His love for us, not ours for Him, we can begin to enter into a different place in our relationship with Him and with our brethren, for it fills us to overflowing. I will not cover all of it in this first post, as it would be far too long, but God willing, will keep it alive and fleshed out, with further posts, even if no one responds. And hopefully the place love has with many, an imitation of what we think love is, by which primarily we end up meaning "be nice" and profess love for one another, will move into the real thing.
The love of the Father is a love that comes down to us. It begins with His love for us and this is what results in our love for Him. It is never the other way around---we love Him and as a result He loves us. This love of God is a love of choice, He chooses who to love, it is not the result of of us first choosing to love Him. At the same time, the believer can rest assured, if He has a love for God, that is because God has bestowed love upon Him. Too often we think, even if it is subconsciously, that we are doing God a favor by loving Him, and that in doing so, He will love us back. God gives us His love freely. It is our duty to return that love.
This love that God has for His people is like Himself. It is equal, constant, and incapable of growing larger or smaller. We love Him and others, like ourselves. Unequal, increasing and decreasing, growing, stagnating, declining. Even so, His love for us remains the same. The love God has for us is fruitful, a love of bounty. He sheds His love abroad in our hearts. (Romans 5:5). The love that the Father has for His people is the same perfect love that He has for the Son and the Holy Spirit in all eternity, and the same love that the Son has for the Father and the Holy Spirit, the same love that the Holy Spirit has for the Father and the Son. (John 17) That is the same love they have for the believer. (John 16:27; Psalm 36:7; Psalm 109:26) Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4:9-10 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
When we enter into our prayers meditating on His love for us and ask for a greater understanding of this to enter our minds and be written upon our hearts, we can be assured He will hear and answer for it is to His glory and praise for us to recognize and appreciate this love. Chances are we will begin to see His love manifested on every page of the Bible. Col 1:9-14 For this reason since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
What manner of love is this! We are not the center of Christianity. God is. We are the fruit bearing plants in His garden. It is not to our glory, but to His glory. We----well we are the objects of His love. When we get that deep into our minds and hearts, the rest---fruit bearing, love for others, obedience to His imperatives for His children, will multiply after their own kind---the love God has bestowed upon us. And all we have to do is ask it of the One who in His love made it possible to go before His very throne of grace to receive---what? mercy in our time of need, which is always. And our King, in His love for us, holds our the "golden schepture" (metaphor from the book of Esther) and says, "Daughter/Son what do you desire. I will give it to you." Prayer is the means God has established for us to go before His throne. So ask. It is the robes of Christ's righteousness that He places on us in this great love He has for us that grants us entrance into the Holy of Holies.
This love that is God far surpasses anything we can imagine, or anything that we are able to give, cannot be defined or fully encompassed, by the limitations of our finiteness, for it is eternal and infinite. We can, however, perceive and experience this love in the things that He does, and the things He tells us. When we begin to get a glimpse of it and then enter into communion with Him, the communion of His love for us, not ours for Him, we can begin to enter into a different place in our relationship with Him and with our brethren, for it fills us to overflowing. I will not cover all of it in this first post, as it would be far too long, but God willing, will keep it alive and fleshed out, with further posts, even if no one responds. And hopefully the place love has with many, an imitation of what we think love is, by which primarily we end up meaning "be nice" and profess love for one another, will move into the real thing.
The love of the Father is a love that comes down to us. It begins with His love for us and this is what results in our love for Him. It is never the other way around---we love Him and as a result He loves us. This love of God is a love of choice, He chooses who to love, it is not the result of of us first choosing to love Him. At the same time, the believer can rest assured, if He has a love for God, that is because God has bestowed love upon Him. Too often we think, even if it is subconsciously, that we are doing God a favor by loving Him, and that in doing so, He will love us back. God gives us His love freely. It is our duty to return that love.
This love that God has for His people is like Himself. It is equal, constant, and incapable of growing larger or smaller. We love Him and others, like ourselves. Unequal, increasing and decreasing, growing, stagnating, declining. Even so, His love for us remains the same. The love God has for us is fruitful, a love of bounty. He sheds His love abroad in our hearts. (Romans 5:5). The love that the Father has for His people is the same perfect love that He has for the Son and the Holy Spirit in all eternity, and the same love that the Son has for the Father and the Holy Spirit, the same love that the Holy Spirit has for the Father and the Son. (John 17) That is the same love they have for the believer. (John 16:27; Psalm 36:7; Psalm 109:26) Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4:9-10 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
When we enter into our prayers meditating on His love for us and ask for a greater understanding of this to enter our minds and be written upon our hearts, we can be assured He will hear and answer for it is to His glory and praise for us to recognize and appreciate this love. Chances are we will begin to see His love manifested on every page of the Bible. Col 1:9-14 For this reason since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
What manner of love is this! We are not the center of Christianity. God is. We are the fruit bearing plants in His garden. It is not to our glory, but to His glory. We----well we are the objects of His love. When we get that deep into our minds and hearts, the rest---fruit bearing, love for others, obedience to His imperatives for His children, will multiply after their own kind---the love God has bestowed upon us. And all we have to do is ask it of the One who in His love made it possible to go before His very throne of grace to receive---what? mercy in our time of need, which is always. And our King, in His love for us, holds our the "golden schepture" (metaphor from the book of Esther) and says, "Daughter/Son what do you desire. I will give it to you." Prayer is the means God has established for us to go before His throne. So ask. It is the robes of Christ's righteousness that He places on us in this great love He has for us that grants us entrance into the Holy of Holies.