Tag Archives: God’s love

Why Choice?

Leave a reply

Jeremiah 47-49

God pronounced judgment on one nation after another. He wasn’t being unfair. They deserved His punishment because they had broken His rules.

Some people ask, “Why?” Why would God create humans with the ability to choose if He knew we would choose our own way, and He would end up having to punish us? Why didn’t He create us to automatically love and worship Him?

When I was a little girl I played with dolls. Baby dolls, Barbie dolls, paper dolls. Hours and hours of my childhood were spent dressing, undressing, combing hair, positioning arms and legs, and going on adventures with my little plastic people who only said what I wanted them to say, and only did what I forced them to do. I loved playing with dolls. But they couldn’t love me back.

What if I could make them love me? What if, instead of looking into cold, plastic, fixed eyes I would see adoration programmed into them?

Have you seen the advances in AI? It’s both fascinating and frightening. If you could program love into an AI robot – would it BE love? Or would it be just another command controlled by someone pushing the buttons?

What is love? And is it important?

If you have read your Bible, you have read that God IS love. It’s not only that He feels love. His very existence is love. So when He created humans in His image, He created us with the capacity to love and be loved.

Are you loved by your spouse, your children, your friends? Is that relationship voluntary or forced? Is it a relationship that is any different from the ones you have with your co-workers, or the guy down the street you wave “Hi” to every morning? Isn’t the love you share with those with whom you are intimate more precious and more important to you than the relationships you have with others? I sure hope it is!

I hope it brings you joy, a sense of belongingness, security, hope, peace, and a closeness that you find fulfilling. I hope it is a love that you carry with you every moment of every day. I hope the fact that someone has chosen to love you, makes all the difference.

So why would I condemn God for enjoying the same? Why would I question Him about wanting that two way loving relationship with us… and for us? Especially when I look at what it cost Jesus so that we can share that love relationship with Holy God?

I choose love. I choose God. And He has chosen me. He has chosen anyone who believes. You have that choice. Don’t mess it up.

For Love

Leave a reply

1 John 4:9-10

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life though him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

I think these are some of the most beautiful verses about Christmas in the Bible. Would you do something? Re-read these verses and insert your name in place of the “us,” and “we,” and “our.” Hear God speak these words to YOU this Christmas day.

The baby whose birth we celebrate today was born for love of you. Yes, YOU!

Merry Christmas!

(Jeremiah 5-9) His Heart Is Breaking

Leave a reply

People who have the audacity to question God’s love on the basis of evil in the world and judgment for those who deny Him, haven’t allowed themselves to hear God’s heart in Scripture. Reading these chapters today, I cannot help but recognize His pain as He watches His children make choices that will end up destroying them.

Yes, that destruction will come from His hand. Yes, that judgment is inevitable. But our Holy God – who can’t NOT be holy – wants us to know He will only go so far before judgment comes. He loves us enough to warn us about the dangers.

He’ll send people to speak the Truth. He’ll show Himself in nature, His power in circumstances of life. He’s given us His Word. But He won’t make you love Him. He won’t force you to obey Him.

He’s very clear to tell us if you don’t choose Him, He won’t relent and simply suspend your death sentence. You will pay severely for your rejection, and your rejection will (and does) break His heart.

If you listen, you can hear His heart breaking in the pages of the Bible.

(Song of Solomon 1-4) A Love Like That

Leave a reply

I’ve never been in love or have been loved by a man like Solomon describes in this book; that exclusive, protective, wanting the best for and seeing the best in each other kind of love. I have come close.

During those times I thought about the man, made decisions with him in mind, wanted to be with him every minute, defended him, and saw the best in him. And I wanted others to see the best in him, too. I kind of viewed the world through his eyes.

So why am I not as passionate about my love for God? He is the one who loves me more than anyone ever could. Why don’t I seek Him as fervently as Solomon seeks his loved one, and she seeks him? Why don’t I hang on every word He speaks through Scripture like I see happening between Solomon and his beloved?

Look at the lengths Solomon went to in order to be with this woman. Look at the lengths Jesus went to so this woman (Connie) could be with Him.

As I read Solomon’s Song I pray that it will re-ignite my passion for my God and make me a more loving bride of Christ. He loves me in such an extraordinary way. I want to love Him like that.

I AM and Me (Exodus 6)

2 Replies

This year I am reading my mother’s Bible. After she went to live with Jesus in 1996, I took her Bible home with me, and it’s sat on my shelf all these years. So this year, I decided to read through God’s Word and see the things Mom marked, the verses she underlined. Today I read the first of her underlined verses.

Mom underlined the things in chapter 6 that God said about Himself: “I am the Lord,” “I’ve heard your groanings,” “I remember my promises to you,” “I will free you,” “I will take you as my own,” “I am the Lord your God.”

I wish I knew what those verses meant to Mom, what was happening in her life when she underlined them. I wish I could talk to her. I can’t. So I asked God to speak to me about what He wants me to know about these verses that were special to my mother.

God is.

People have tried to deny that fact, but the truth is  – God exists. He is exactly who He says He is. Fighting against that truth is as futile as arguing that the sun doesn’t produce light and warmth, that trees that lose their leaves in fall, don’t bud again every spring. You simply can’t argue against what is.

God is.

He tells us His name is I AM. He is what He is. Period.

When Mom read this passage in Exodus, she seems to have been touched by the personal involvement the Great I AM has with His children, the fact that He is our Lord who hears, who delivers, who calls us His own. He is not a god. He is The God. And He wants to be involved in my life, like a Father, or a Shepherd, or a Friend, and a Savior.

I am humbled at the very thought that the God of the Universe, the Creator God, the eternal, powerful, majestic, and holy God wants a relationship with me. I think I know my mom enough to believe she was blown away by the same thing.

Please take a minute to bask in the precious truth. God, who IS, was, and is to come, loves you, wants to fellowship with you, loves you more than you can imagine, and died so that a relationship can happen. The Great I AM loves me.

And loves you, too.

September 5; The Other

Leave a reply

Ezra 2:21-70; Nehemiah 7:26-73a

Monday I shared that we had been evacuated from our island due to the threat of Hurricane Dorian. I’m thankful today to tell you we are able to go home. The storm has passed, and it’s safe to be on the island again.

The Jews we read about today in Ezra and Nehemiah are going home, too. Finally after seventy years of captivity, they were free. They didn’t know what to expect when they got there, but they were on their way home and, if they were anything like us returning islanders, they were excited. There is just something about going home, isn’t there?

The passages we read today are full of genealogies. Ezra reports name after name of people whose families were going home. And if reading the phone book isn’t boring enough for you, Nehemiah does us the favor of repeating the same list. So we get to read the list of name after name after name, twice! Woo Hoo!

What can we learn from these lists? Well, my friend, never blow off what God has breathed into print. He has something to say on every page of the Bible.

Here’s a blast from the past: “Newhart.” Bob and wife running an inn. A scraggly hillbilly comes through the door, followed by two more scraggly hillbillies. He introduces himself, “My name is Larry. This is my brother Darryl, this is my other brother Darryl.” (You are going to have to be a certain age to remember this one! Sorry, kids.)

I thought of them this morning as I read this genealogy record, then read it again. Because in Ezra 2:31, then again in Nehemiah 7:34 we meet “the other Elam.” Makes me wonder about the other Elam, or the first Elam, or the more important Elam. What would cause a person to be known as “the other?”

Most of us would admit that we like to be the one recognized as important, significant, talented, irreplaceable, whatever. We at least like to be recognized for what we have contributed to the work of God. But here we have a man who the only thing we know about him is, he isn’t THE Elam. He’s the other one.

This is what God whispered in my ear as I read this today. This Elam is going home. This Elam is listed with those who were freed from slavery, and he and his family were going home. He won’t be remembered for anything other than his freedom, and his destination. That’s all we need to know.

And that’s what needs to be known about each of us. Are you a Christian? Have you repented of sin and asked God to give you what Jesus’ death bought you? Do you know the Savior?

Then, friend, you are free! You are free from the chains and the penalty of sin. You are God’s child in every sense of the word, and you are headed home. Home! Eternity with God in glory.

And I know, without a doubt that when you look into Jesus’ eyes He won’t see you as just another Christian, or “the other” sinner He died for. You will look into His eyes and know He sees no-one but you, loves no-one more than He loves you, considers no-one else more important than you.

You won’t be “the other.” You will be “the one!”

 

 

 

 

July 17; One Of Those Days

Leave a reply

Isaiah 40-42

I’ve had a very frustrating day. In fact, I’m sitting here at 5 in the afternoon instead of in the morning when I usually have my time in the Word. Oh, I started the day out with my Bible in front of me, but then it began… Just one irritating thing after another, and I ended up in a very bad mood. It’s been one of those days.

When I finally sat down and opened my Bible this afternoon the first words I read were:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to (Connie) and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (40:1-2)

Yep. That was just one of the hugs I got. God comforted me. He reminded me of His sweet gift of salvation, more precious than anything. He continued to encourage me with words like:

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (verses 4-5)

God knows I have a bad day here and there, and He wants me to trust Him. He wanted to remind me I can trust Him.

Oh, there’s more. God loved on me so much today through the words Isaiah intended for the ancient Jews. God showed Himself to me, and assured me He is bigger than any problem big or small that comes my way. He doesn’t turn a blind eye to anything that would steal my joy or cause me pain.

“Be silent before me,” He tells me. “Hope in Me and and let me renew your strength.

For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

I am ashamed to tell you the sources of my frustration today. They are petty and insignificant in light of what some of you are going through. But I want you to know God loves me enough to want to encourage even me in days like today. I want you to know he wants to do the same for you.

I pray that you will open the pages of God’s love letter to you every day. I’m here to testify that He can and does speak to hearts that are open to hearing from Him. I am so glad that my devotional time was postponed today. I’m not sure I needed those verses as much this morning as I need them this afternoon.

Does God care what kind of day you are having? Oh yes He does!

 

 

 

June 15; It Keeps Coming

Leave a reply

I King’s 17-19

The more I read the Bible the more I realize people haven’t changed all that much since the beginning. Take the widow woman, for example. During the famine God miraculously provided her with flour and oil so she and her son, and the prophet Elijah, could eat. She didn’t do anything to earn God’s provision – except obey. She obeyed, and God kept it coming.

But then her son got sick. What did she do? She blamed Elijah and, in turn, God. “Is that why you’re here?” she asked. “Did you just come so you could kill my son?”

Elijah’s not any different than the widow, really. He asked the same of God (who had just spared his life, too, with the never-ending flour and oil). The son did not die. And the miracle came through Elijah.

Later Elijah, who had demonstrated great faith in God, who watched God do amazing things, unexplainable things, who was protected by God, fed by ravens and angels, had doubts. King Ahab was out to get him, and Elijah felt all alone. It was too much. He wanted to die.

Can you relate? We are so blessed by God. We see evidence of that every day. Some of us have witnessed extraordinary ways God moves. But when tragedy, or hardship comes, the first response of many of us is to blame God. Or question Him. Or at least give Him the cold shoulder for a time. It’s so much easier to recognize God’s blessings in the good times. It’s a bit of a challenge to see those same blessings when we are hurting

But I am reminded today about God’s great love for His children. The flour and oil kept coming for the widow and her son until the famine was over. God encouraged Elijah by assuring him he wasn’t at all alone. In the midst of trouble, God was still keeping His blessings coming.

And that’s His MO still today. I don’t know what life is like for you right now. You may be going through a really hard time. Maybe you, like the widow find yourself striking out at God. Or like Elijah, you might be feeling abandoned by everyone including God. But hear God whisper in your ear, “I’m right here.” Open your eyes to the ways He demonstrates His love for you right now while you are struggling.

Because I know, as evidenced in Scripture and in my own life, even in the darkest nights, God keeps His blessings coming.

 

 

 

 

June 9; Good, Bad, and Trust

Leave a reply

Ecclesiastes 7-10

Bad things happen. Good things happen, too. We have successes, and we have failures. Some days the sun shines, and some days the sun hides behind clouds. Let’s face it. There are just some things that are out of our control.

Solomon says, “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” (Ecc 7:14)

We who have placed our faith in the Lord know that He works all things for the good of those who love Him. We count on that with assurance.

Some people question why God allows sin, or tragedy, or hardship. Honestly, I don’t see how He could have done it any other way. If it wasn’t for the night, would we even notice the day? If it wasn’t for sickness, would we appreciate health? If it wasn’t for bad times, we’d take good times for granted. If it wasn’t for sin, how could we understand grace?

Solomon seems to be saying, let God be God. “Who can straighten what he has made crooked?” Quit fighting against God, or wasting your time being mad at Him. He is God. And He’s got this.

King Solomon has a dismal view of life. I don’t. And you don’t have to, either. Do you trust God? He absolutely can be trusted with every detail of your life. You can rest assured that, whether the sun is shining, or if you are in the middle of a storm, God wants to show you what He can do, He wants to draw you to Himself.

Good things happen and bad things happen. Trust God in every circumstance. He can be trusted.