He loves us and there's nothing we can do about it...
9/27/2009 8:00:12 PM
The message I heard today was from more than one “Messenger”. I heard it a second time when I got home from church by Joyce Meyer who was speaking on the same topic - Love.
The series that we are on is the Christian Mysteries of Why? Today was "Why Christian Living?" The scripture that was read was I John 5:1-3 that speaks of Loving God and if we Love God we will love His children as well. It goes on to say that love for God is to obey His commands, and His commands are not burdensome.
Mark 12:28 says that a teacher of the Law asked Jesus "of all of the commandments, which one is the most important?" I did not know until today that the Torah, which made up the first 5 books of the bible, consisted of 613 laws that the people lived by. There was always great debate among the teachers and priests of which laws were more important than others. When Jesus was asked this by this teacher, He quoted the familiar law from Deuteronomy 6:4 that says to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. But then Jesus added the Leviticus law that said to Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
In short- God commands us to Love... That is the whole concept and meaning of the Bible as it stands anyway, but it brought a new meaning to me today.
The way it was explained is that:
1. God loves us. He has from the beginning and there is nothing we can do about it. We need to just receive His love.
2. Once we receive His love for us, we then will begin to learn how to love Him with all that we have and all that we are.
3. We need to love ourselves- do what is best for us and take care of ourselves to be able to do what is needed to live and love on this earth.
4. In being loved by God, and loving Him with all we are, we in turn can begin loving ourselves. Then we can love His children and reach out and show love that He has shown us. Many may not or possibly will not, get this kind of love from anyone other THAN us that have been blessed with this type of love.
Receiving God's Love is sometimes hard- we don't think we deserve it; there could be a catch to it.
God's love is called Agape love, love that is without condition.
To be a Disciple of Christ, you must love and be loved.
When we become His followers, we cannot help but love Him, ourselves, and others if our Heart has truly made a transformation.
A statement the Pastor made near the end made an impact on the rest of my day. She said "God cannot love you anymore than He loves you in this moment."
Friends, that means every moment…. of every minute… of every day.
No matter what...
