Tag: Jesus died in your place

God’s Love


God’s love is more than we can believe or understand and that is why we have so much trouble believing. Even when you read the “Love chapter”, 1 Corinthians 13, most of us think this is referring to love that we have toward each other. In reality, it is a human description of God’s Love for us. Why do I call it a human description? Because the Bible was written with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just as the words here are, but our vocabulary is limited by the words that we use.

God’s love for us is so…deep and unknowable until we can’t begin to describe it in terms which we can understand. We can compare it to our love for our children, whether we are a father or a mother but even that falls terribly short. Yes, we love our children but God loves each of us in a deeper way that we just can’t comprehend. Does He really love those who hate Him? Yes, and He loved the world enough that He sent Jesus to die in our place to provide each of us a way to come to Him through His Son. Whether we accept that invitation or not is still our choice though.

God doesn’t want slaves or instinctual service from us, He wants a relationship with us! It doesn’t matter what we have done or who we are, He wants to know you and He wants you and me to get to know Him!

1 Corinthians 13 New International Version
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This is the description of how we should be to our wives and our children as well as toward each other in the church. It is a description which falls short of the love which God has for us, but it is how we are to be toward each other in Christ. Can you do this without Him? Partially, but not completely. Living and loving in this manner is not something which we are able to do on our own. God designed us to be this way but when sin entered the Garden our Spirit was cut off from God until we realized that we truly need Him in every way, every single day!

Don’t turn away from God and His love for you. He longs to show it to you in ways which you may not be able to see right now, but He will if you just give Him a chance in your life to change your heart and draw closer to Him each and every day.

Be faithful in the little things


Do you pay attention to the little things in life? Some people do, many of us do not. Why could that be? It could be because little things are so commonplace, ordinary even. They aren’t eye-catching like a lime green BMW or Mustang, even though to me that color on a car, especially a sports car, is just nasty. Eye-catching colors are good sometimes, but what about the cars which can get about forty to fifty miles per gallon? I may be stingy but I like those cars. Granted, I would truly love to at least drive a Ferrari just once. I will never be able to afford one, but just driving one would be fun!

You hear about so-called “bucket lists” which list the things which people would like to do before they die, whether from natural causes or from some cancer or terminal illness. Why not work on lists of little things which can bring you more happiness and fulfillment in your life? What do I mean by “little things”? Well, enjoy your children and your grandchildren by taking them fishing or playing in a creek one day. Don’t time it, just enjoy it!

Show them how to make something out of sticks and leaves, if you can craft something like that. Enjoy life as much as possible. Don’t walk around in a pity party over things which can’t be fixed or changed…but if you can do something to change those things then do it! Take a trip for a day and see where it leads you. Don’t plan it or map it out, just wake up one morning and fix a lunch and some cold water in an insulated cooler, get some fuel for the trip, make sure to tell your family unless they are coming along. Then just go!

My title says “Be faithful in the little things”, so do the things which don’t take much. Like read your Bible each morning and before bed at night. Pray to the Lord and thank Him for the day that you have had. Ask Him to go with you and guide you toward the people and places that He needs for you to go. Most of us can’t be missionaries in other countries so seek out people closer to home and tell them about Jesus. Tell them what He has done for you and your family. Make sure that they know that He will do whatever is needed in their life too if they will ask Him to come into their hearts.

People think that being a Christian is hard and that we are required to do something almost every day to help God in our salvation. That is not true of course. God did not need our help to save us from our sins, Jesus did that on the cross all by Himself. It is a gift to each of us who have been called by God to become His child, all that we have to do is answer His call when we feel it in our hearts. Then, enjoy your life as a new creation in Jesus Christ because you are going to have an eternity to get to know all of your brothers and sisters who came before you.