God's Love - Part 3

This is part three about why we worship God.  We mentioned that we worship God for who He is and what He has done.  One of the best things He is is LOVE and one of the best things He has done is LOVE US.  We answered several questions about HIS love in the last two segments:

How do we know God loves us? (John 3:16; 1John 3:16; 1John 4:9-10; 1John 4:19).

How much does God love us? (Rom 8:31-32;  John 17:23; Ephesians 3:16-21)

What can separate us from God's love? (Rom 8:35, 37-39)

When did God start loving us? (Eph 2:4-6)

This time let’s look at a couple more:

What about when we sin, does God still love us?

Eph 2:4 God sent His Son while we were still sinners.  Sin cannot separate us from His love.  He loves us the same always, even when we sin.  It makes Him sad when we sin, but He still loves us the same.  We try not to sin because He loves us and we love Him too.  He is glad when we make the choice not to sin.  He loves as a function of His nature – that is – it is not ever a question He asks “Am I going to love them today?”  It is a foregone conclusion because of who He is.  He cannot be otherwise or He would cease to be God.  There is no shadow of turning in Him.  Discipline and punishment He doles out as needed but love is always a constant (Ps 32:7, Jer 31:3, Zeph 3:17; Heb 12:5-11)

Remember God’s desire to love is 250 times stronger than His desire to punish –

Exodus 20:5-6  5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

No matter what you do He ALWAYS loves you.  Sure, He can be disappointed with what you do (Do not greave the Holy Spirit Eph 4:30), but His love is constant.  You are always loved.  There is a place of security, safety, rest, peace and well being in your Father's love.

What does God do with our confessed sin?

Jer 31:34  "No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD.  "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Mic 7:19  You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea

Act 3:19  Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Psa 51:1 and (  Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions…Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Isa 43:25  I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

Isa 44:22  I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Ps 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

There are others as well: Col 1:12 the forgiveness of sins. 1John 1:9  will forgive us our sins.

Are you rooted?  Do you know and believe in how much He loves you?  Do you believe He loves you as much as He loves Jesus? Do you believe nothing can separate you from His love?  Do you see His love as your possession?  Do you believe your sins have been trampled underfoot, thrown into the see of forgetfulness, remembered no more, blotted out and fully forgiven?  Do you believe He has always loved you?  That there has never been a time when He did not love you? 

God wants us to be secure in His love and know it as our foundation the thing that roots us to Him.  He wants us to know He has always loved us and nothing can take that away from us.  He wants us to experience His love in a tangible way.  He desires to quiet us with His love, to rejoice over us with His love.  His love is our exclusive possession.  He has made a way to always thing positively of us by wiping out our sin and remembering it no more.  God love you infinitely and he is pleased with you as His child!  Walk tall brothers and sisters.  Rest in Him, YOU are the beloved of God!

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

Live by Faith

We have been studying faith and this month is more of the same.   Our key verse is Heb 11:1 (ALT)  “Now faith is [the] assurance [or, substance] of [things] being hoped for [or, being confidently expected], [the] confident assurance [or, proof] of things not seen.”  Our working definition is: “Faith chooses to see and believe in what is not seen.  It chooses to possess a moral conviction that its subject is true.  Faith chooses to believe in, to substantiate, to have confident assurance in, to count as the evidence, demonstration, and convincing proof of what God has promised.” 

Now let’s look at New Testament heroes of the faith.  Of course, you can find a great list of O.T. heroes in Heb 11, but let’s look at N.T. examples.  Acts 6:8 describes Stephen as “full of faith and power” doing great wonders and miracles.  Acts 11:24 describes Barnabas as “full of the Holy Spirit and faith.”  In 1 Tim4:12, Paul admonishes Timothy to be an example in faith.  2 Tim 4:7 has Paul proclaiming he has “fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”  2 Pe 1:1 Opens “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:”  More generic examples are 1Tim 6:11; 2:22 which shows the man of God being led by faith,  1 4:6  shows the good minister of Jesus Christ is nourished up in the words of faith and Heb 11 shows us heroes of the faith, Heb12 the great cloud of witnesses, and Jesus as author and finisher of the faith.  Wicked men are perceived as men who have not faith (2 Th 3:2,8).  1 Tim 5:8 portrays those who do not provide for their own as having denied the faith. 1Tim 6:10 shows the love of money as having erred from the faith. 

Next let’s look at what faith does for us.  What happens to us if we are people of faith?  God counts as just, righteous, and forgives all those whose faith is in Jesus (Rom 3:26; Rom 5:1-2; Gal 2:16).  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” Eph 2:8.  We have confidence in God.  “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)” Heb 10:22-23.  He is the source of our faith.  “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" 1 Cor 2:5.  The we learn that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” Rom 14:23.  We put our faith in God, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him” Eph 3:12  and He lives in us “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” Eph 3:17.  We become His children, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” Gal 3:26.  We learn we must “…walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Cor 5:7.  Then we come to understand “faith works by love” Gal 5:6 and “if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing” 1 Cor 13:2.  Rom 12:5 tells us to use our spiritual gifts in proportion with our faith because “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” Jam 2:17-18.  So let us “ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed”  Jam 1:6 and “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked”  Eph 6:16.  Finally, “…let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” 1 Thes 5:8. 

Let’s appropriate by faith what God has purchased for us at the cross.  Let’s find the promises of God in the Scripture and claim them as our treasures.  Let’s call things as not as though they were.  Let’s be people of faith.  Remember “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” Heb 11:6.



Oh Author and Finisher of our faith help us in our unbelief.  Help Your love in us to activate our faith and focus our minds on You and having faith for Your Kingdom.  Help us to live by faith.  Help us to trust in Your awesome character.  Help us to call things that are not as though they were and things that are as though they were not - though faith.  Reward our diligent seeking of You.  Amen!

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.