Oh The Deep Deep Love of Jesus

"In Himself, God is love; through Him, love is manifested, and by Him, love is defined." -Burk Parsons

This morning as I was listening to the radio a song came on that reminded me of the oh so amazing love of our God and I couldn't help but smile; I think I so often am not amazed enough, not overwhelmed enough, and not thankful enough for the great love of God. As I stood there and repeated the song in my head I realized that I don't focus on the love of God in my life as often as I should, that I don't ponder it enough, and all of that comes from my great lack of understanding...if I could only begin to fathom the deep deep love of Jesus I would never be able to stop praising Him for it. A line in the song played, "You're love is extravagent"...the word itself only began to describe the reality. The word extravagent means abundant, exceeding the bounds of, exceeding the limits, excessive, and unrestrained...what a taste of Truth that really is, the love that our God showers upon us is an extravagent love. What a love!

As I thought more I couldn't get Romans 8 our of my mind, especially the verses towards the end of the chapter v 38-39 where we read, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a crazy kind of love that really is, one that leaves me dumbfounded everytime I think about it, yet how often do I...I mean really think about it? I could just reiterate over and over again this crazy kind of love but no matter how much I do to myself or to you, or how much I plead with you or myself to just SEE it for what it is, we will fail to meditate on it, we will fail to respond rightly to it, and we will fail to stand in amazement the way we should to it. So what you might ask? What am I supposed to do? What should this love motivate me to do? As James reminds us we are to be more than just merely hearers of the words, but doers as well. So here are some helpful tips that I am prayerfully putting into practice to better understand God's love and in turn live a life that brings Him more glory. Afterall He deserves and demands His glory!

1. Be In The Word:
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." -2 Peter 1:3
"Scripture is like a working museum of which the Spirit is the Curator, showing us around and explaining the wonders of the mind of the Maker. In this museum we are taken behind the scenes to learn from God Himself. In growing to know God, therefore, there is no substitute for the discipline of Bible study and Scripture reading and meditation. We cannot bypass the handbook God has given to us and then expect that we can know Him in our own way. The only god we can know in our own way is a god that we make in our own image." -Sinclair Ferguson

The Big Book aka the Bible is the resource, the greatest resource we have, and were given to know God. By it we are transformed through the working of the Spirit as He conforms us more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is through time in the book, time of study, and prayer coupled with it that we are able to begin to comprehend the love of God. Being in the Word is crucial to our walk and our growth! We must develop a daily discipline in order to grow. If we are not in the Word we are starving so to speak; I love how Paul equates the Word to our food, that truly is what it is...our spiritual food and we must eat daily just as we must physically eat daily too! I love Peter's explanation for us above in which we see that God's Word gives us EVERYTHING we need for not only godliness but for life as well, what a reassuring and exciting Truth. Let's be committed to being in the Word...and I promise you will fall more in love, it is only natural.

2. Meditate on The Cross:
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." -John 15:13
"By the cross we know the gravity of sin and the greatness of God’s love toward us." -John Chrysostom

Oh the cross, and the mystery of it, that God would come and die for us! What a true reality that is so tough to understand...it makes no logical sense to our finite human brains and yet it is the central theme of all of biblical and redemptive history. The cross of Christ is the definition of love. If we had a picture dictionary next to love would be a cross. During Easter I am always more aware of God's love for me and that is directly correlated to the fact that I am meditating on the cross more than usual. If that became a regular practice, a daily practice I can only imagine how great my understanding of His love would be. May it be a goal of ours to not only think about the cross on occassion, but daily, yet that it would never become common or simple but always leave us in amazement!

3. Manifest Love to All:
"Here is a spiritual principle: We cannot exercise love unless we are experiencing grace. You cannot truly love others unless you are convinced that God’s love for you is unconditional, based solely on the merit of Christ, not on your performance. John said, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love, either to God or to others, can only be a response to His love for us." -Jerry Bridges

If we have been saved we now have the regenerated ability to love as Christ loved us! That is a truth that is foundational to the Bible...non Christians don't have the ability to love this way. This kind of love is not selfish, it is the 1 Corinthians 13 type of love, one that is manifested most perfectly again in the cross of Christ. But what does our witness say if we don't love in this way? It is one of two things: 1. We really are not saved 2. We don't understand God's love for us for if we did we couldn't help but love others. Think about that for a moment, think about how the more you have grown in your understanding of God's love the more you have sought to love those, especially the lost around you, as Bridges says, it is a natural response. We as Christians must be the biggest lovers! Now sometimes our love may not appear as love to an unbeliever (for example in sharing the Gospel and being rejected) but when our goal is to love like Christ and win souls for Him we will radiate His love in all we do!

Just a taste of what has been going on in my head today and thought I would share in hopes that we would as brothers and sisters partner together in our pursuit of Him with our goal being to know God, love Him and love others to Him!