God's Redeeming Love

It is a marvelous, wonderful thing to contemplate, that God has come down in the flesh in order to rescue and redeem us, and opens his heart here to show us his wonderful concern for us and his amazing love with respect to us.
--Martyn-Lloyd Jones

The Vase

Imagine you are an artist, one who works with pottery and glass. As you lay in bed, you dream of a vase, a beautiful vase with deep blue floral designs on the sides, an unusually shaped mouth and a textured lower third. The design excites you. It is unique and truly beautiful to you. So, you begin to plan to create this vase. You choose the appropriate clay and paint and organize the tools necessary for it's sculpting. Then you begin to lovingly mold and shape the formless lump into that about which you have dreamed. You put the vase in the kiln to, in the heat, firm up your work so it is ready for use and display. In completion, it is exactly as you had planned. Striking, beautiful and pleasing to you. Because you dreamed of this vase's creation and then gave it life, it is dear to you, something at which you enjoy gazing and that you long to protect and to keep near by. This is a good word picture of how God feels about those he has saved. For those in Christ, God (the artist) thinks of you as this vase - planned, beautiful, pleasing, wanted and loved.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved --and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7

The Vase

Imagine you are an artist, one who works with pottery and glass. As you lay in bed, you dream of a vase, a beautiful vase with deep blue floral designs on the sides, an unusually shaped mouth and a textured lower third. The design excites you. It is unique and truly beautiful to you. So, you begin to plan to create this vase. You choose the appropriate clay and paint and organize the tools necessary for it's sculpting. Then you begin to lovingly mold and shape the formless lump into that about which you have dreamed. You put the vase in the kiln to, in the heat, firm up your work so it is ready for use and display. In completion, it is exactly as you had planned. Striking, beautiful and pleasing to you. Because you dreamed of this vase's creation and then gave it life, it is dear to you, something at which you enjoy gazing and that you long to protect and to keep near by. This is a good word picture of how God feels about those he has saved. For those in Christ, God (the artist) thinks of you as this vase - planned, beautiful, pleasing, wanted and loved.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved --and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7

Steadfast Love

I have been praying through the Psalms and have noticed with great joy the frequency with which God's love for his people is described as steadfast. Steadfast to me implies a love that remains in spite of the behavior of it's object. It is a love that is dependent upon the person doing the loving entirely. It is loyal, enduring, and persistent. In the Psalms God is described as loving his people with a steadfast love in 123 different verses! The Hebrew word for this is hesed. The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible describes hesed in this way:  


For this strong, unselfish love the OT usually employed another word, almost untranslatable, hesed, rendered sometimes “loyalty” (2 Sm 22:26 RSV), more often “steadfast love” (Gn 39:21) or “kindness.”
The connotation of this significant word is clear in Hosea 2:19, 20: “I will betroth you for ever … in righteousness … justice … steadfast love … faithfulness”; in Job 6:14, 15, where kindness is compared with treachery; and in 1 Samuel 20:8, which speaks of covenanted kindness. This unshakable, steadfast love of God is contrasted with the unpredictable, capricious moods of heathen deities. Hesed is not an emotional response to beauty, merit, or kindness, but a moral attitude dedicated to another’s good, whether or not that other is lovable, worthy, or responsive (see Dt 7:7–9).1


What an amazing thing to realize that God's love for me is steadfast!

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, 
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him
Ps 103:11 (ESV)

1 Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (1357). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.

O How He Loves Us

He is jealous for me.
Loves like a hurricane.
I am a tree.
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and  mercy.

When all of  a sudden I am unaware
Of these afflictions eclipsed by glory.
And I realize just how beautiful you are,
And how great your affection is for me.

O how he loves us so.
O how he loves us.
How he loves us so.

We are his portion,
And he is our prize.
Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes.
If his grace is an ocean,
We're all sinking.

Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest.
I don't have the time to maintain these regrets.
When I think about.....the way.....

He loves us...
O how he loves us.
O how he loves......

David Crowder Band
How He Loves Us

The Ethiopian Eunuch

Last night I was reading in Acts about the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) and was overwhelmed with a recognition of the love of God for those who want to know him. The eunuch was the treasurer of the queen of Ethiopa, and he had gone up to Jerusalem to worship God. On the road back home, the Spirit directed Phillip to go first on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza and then up to the chariot where the eunuch was reading the book of Isaiah. Phillip climbed into the chariot and explained the gospel to the seeking Ethiopian who then requested to be baptized. Notice the eunuch left his home to worship. He was willing to sacrifice his time and comfort to meet the living God. Notice the eunuch studied the scriptures seeking to know the Almighty. It was not a token acknowledgment of the existence of God but a planned, dedicated seeking of Him. Most meaningful to me, notice God's great love for this man who sought him. God caused the needed events occur for the seeking man to be reconciled to Him by faith. He proactively sought and secured the Ethiopian's salvation. O how he loves us!

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deut 4:29).

God's Love For Believers

OBSERVATIONS:
1. God desires to possess believers as his own. Ps 4:3: Mal 3:16-17;
2. God loves believers before we believe. Rom 5:8, 1 John 4:10
3. God is patient and merciful in his love: Isa 30:18; 2 Peter 3:9
3. God's love for believers is great in quantity. 1 John 3:1; Col 3:12; Eph 2:4-5; Romans 8:32; John 17:23; 2 Thes 2:16; John 16:27; Romans 1:7
4. God loves those who fear him, obey him, serve him., give cheerfully, do the right thing, try to do the right thing, and those who believe and love Jesus Christ. Ps 103:13; Mal 3:16-17; John 14:21-23; 2 Cor 9:7; John 16:27
5. God disciplines the ones he loves. Heb 12:6; Isa 38:17
6. God loves us as his children. 1 John 3:1, Romans 8:32
7. He promises to graciously give us all things in him. Rom 8:32, John 15:7; Matt 7:1
8. God"s love for believers will never fail. Romans 8;38-39

God's Love For All

OBSERVATIONS:
1. God invites the entire world to turn and be saved. Isa 45:22; 55:1
2. God invites sinners to turn and be saved. Eze 18:23,32
3. Salvation will include all of the physical earth. Isa 49:6
4. God loves the whole world. John 3:16,17
5. God desires the whole world to be saved. Eze 18:32; 2 Pe 3:9; 1 Tim 2:4
6. God sent Jesus to be savior of the world. 1 John 4:14
7. God's salvation bringing grace appears to all. Titus 2:11
8. Scripture suggests Christ paid the potential ransom for all. Heb 2:9; 1 Tim 2:6; 1Tim 4:10; 2 Pe 2:1

Psalm 73:23-26

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

_____________________-

Father thank you!!