Taken from the book Knowing God, chapter 12.
The Love of God
When we say God is love, the statement means that His love finds expression in everything that He says and Does.
I think to us personally is the supreme comfort for Christians, as believers, in the cross of Christ assurance that we, as individuals, are beloved of God. Whereby the Son of man loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
God so love us that he gave his only son Jesus Christ to be our Savior, and bring us to know and to enjoy Him in a covenant relation.
Knowing this, we are able to apply the promise that all things work together for good to us who love God and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Note, not just some thing, but all things!
Every single thing that happens to us expressed God’s love to us, at every moment and in every events of every day’s life.
Even thou we cannot see why and how of God’s dealings, one thing we know for sure that there is love in and behind it.
God’s love towards sinners
We are undeserved, but God still show grace and mercy towards us sinners where by we sin and corrupt in God’s sight.
God loves people because He has chosen to love them.
Duet 7:8- But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
No reason for His love to be given to save his own sovereign good pleasure.
Even when a sinners repents, there will be exceeding joy
- Luke 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
There is no doubt according to the scripture that such is the love of God.
God’s love formed before creation, in
Eph1:4 - For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love…
God choice and selection to those whom He would bless and, appointed the benefits to be obtain and enjoyed.
So we ought to give thanks to God
2 Thessalonians 2:13- But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
God’s love to sinners was expressed by the gift of His one and only son Jesus Christ to be our saviour.
1 John 4:9- This is how God show his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
The love measure love of God is the gift of His only son Jesus Christ, to become human, to die for our sins, and so to become the one mediator who can reconcile to bring us to God.
God, who did not spare his own Son, but gave His son for us all.
Most Popular verse John 3:16-
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
This is love: not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent His only son as an atoning sacrifice once and for all for our sins.
Romans 5:8- God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So lets give thanks to God for what He has done for us. Through the love and grace of Jesus Christ by dying on the cross and His precious blood, we are redeemed and saved.
Questions to ask you and me included…
Do I ever allow myself to grow cold and half-hearted in the service of the Lord who loves me so?
-Last verse from 1 john 4:11-
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Meditate upon these things and to examine us.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
God Unchanging
Taken from a book Knowing God Chapter 7. My Book Review :)
Two Different World
As we read the bible, we get to read God dealing with people like Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of them thousand years ago.
We also get to read about Jesus Christ doing miracles, arguing with Jews, dying for sinners, rising from death and ascending to heaven.
It all seems very far away.
We even may think it all belongs to the world, not to this world.
It is true that in terms of space, time and culture, and the historical epoch to which they belonged, are very far away from us.
So how can the past links up to the world now?
The link is God himself.
The exact same God whom they had to so in the past thousand years and the same God with whom we have to do now.
God does not change in the least particular and is the truth of God's immutability. (unchangeable, changeless)
1. God's life does not change.
In Jeremiah 10:10, the verse says - But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God, the eternal King.
Psalm 102:26-27 - They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end.
God did not need to be made, for He is always there. He exists forever, and He always the same.
He created things have a beginning and an ending, but not so for the Creator.
-God is already perfect.
-He does not grow old
-He does not gain new powers nor lose those that He once had.
-He does not get stronger, or weaker, or wiser, at time goes by.
The difference between God the Creator and creatures(us) is that we, creatures are mutable and nature admits of change where by we will grow old, will go weaker etc... at times goes by.
Whereas God is immutable and can never cease to be what He is.
2.God's character does not change.
In course of a human life, we change radically, in terms of our taste, outlook and temper. A kind person may turns bitter.
A person's good-will may grow cynical (Distrustful) and maybe callous (Emotionally hardened; unfeeling)
But nothing of this sort happens to God
* He never become LESS trustful, or merciful, or faithful and gracious than used to be.
The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving wickedness, rebellion in sin.
Yet God discipline and punishes the children, he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
The character of God is today, and always be exactly what it was in the Bible.
3.God's truth does not change
We people sometimes say things differently to express to the same topic or a thing, simply because our view changes. We find that we can no longer stand to the words we have said in the past.
We sometimes even recall our words, because we ceased to express what we think.
The words of human being are unstable.
But not so for the words of God.
The word of God stand forever.
No circumstances no change of His own thinking will prompt him or to amend (to change for the better, improvement) to rectify (to remove or correct faults) in his words.
Psalm 119:89- Your word, O Lord, is eternal, it stands FIRM in the heavens
The word 'firm' in the verse carries out the idea of stability in God's word.
Every word God's says in the bible throughout generations, so long as this world last, it last forever.
John 10:35- The word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken.
4. God's way and purpose do not change
God still continue to bless those whom He love and people who humble themselves.
Hates the sins of his people, discipline and punish us from compromise and disobedience.
Teachers us believers to value God's promised, pray persistently so on before God bestow them.
God's aims, principle of action still remain consistent, God's dealing with his people in the scripture record is still how God deals with us still.
Psalm 33:11- But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations
God's plan are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control extend to the past, present and future.
Bible, the living word of God.
The first Bible will be the last. God has already planned in the beginning when the world has formed till revelation whereby the believers of God will be lifted to heaven and to be reconcile with Him in his heavenly throne.
God's son does not change
Hebrew 13:8- Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
-He never change, it still remain true that those people who come to Him will be save completely. And he lives to intercede for us.
Hebrew 7:25- Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Conclusion- So where is the sense of distance and difference between Bible times and believers now?
Remember, God does not change. So let us continue to fellowship with Him, trust His word, live by faith and to stand on the promises of God forever.
Two Different World
As we read the bible, we get to read God dealing with people like Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of them thousand years ago.
We also get to read about Jesus Christ doing miracles, arguing with Jews, dying for sinners, rising from death and ascending to heaven.
It all seems very far away.
We even may think it all belongs to the world, not to this world.
It is true that in terms of space, time and culture, and the historical epoch to which they belonged, are very far away from us.
So how can the past links up to the world now?
The link is God himself.
The exact same God whom they had to so in the past thousand years and the same God with whom we have to do now.
God does not change in the least particular and is the truth of God's immutability. (unchangeable, changeless)
1. God's life does not change.
In Jeremiah 10:10, the verse says - But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God, the eternal King.
Psalm 102:26-27 - They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end.
God did not need to be made, for He is always there. He exists forever, and He always the same.
He created things have a beginning and an ending, but not so for the Creator.
-God is already perfect.
-He does not grow old
-He does not gain new powers nor lose those that He once had.
-He does not get stronger, or weaker, or wiser, at time goes by.
The difference between God the Creator and creatures(us) is that we, creatures are mutable and nature admits of change where by we will grow old, will go weaker etc... at times goes by.
Whereas God is immutable and can never cease to be what He is.
2.God's character does not change.
In course of a human life, we change radically, in terms of our taste, outlook and temper. A kind person may turns bitter.
A person's good-will may grow cynical (Distrustful) and maybe callous (Emotionally hardened; unfeeling)
But nothing of this sort happens to God
* He never become LESS trustful, or merciful, or faithful and gracious than used to be.
The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving wickedness, rebellion in sin.
Yet God discipline and punishes the children, he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
The character of God is today, and always be exactly what it was in the Bible.
3.God's truth does not change
We people sometimes say things differently to express to the same topic or a thing, simply because our view changes. We find that we can no longer stand to the words we have said in the past.
We sometimes even recall our words, because we ceased to express what we think.
The words of human being are unstable.
But not so for the words of God.
The word of God stand forever.
No circumstances no change of His own thinking will prompt him or to amend (to change for the better, improvement) to rectify (to remove or correct faults) in his words.
Psalm 119:89- Your word, O Lord, is eternal, it stands FIRM in the heavens
The word 'firm' in the verse carries out the idea of stability in God's word.
Every word God's says in the bible throughout generations, so long as this world last, it last forever.
John 10:35- The word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken.
4. God's way and purpose do not change
God still continue to bless those whom He love and people who humble themselves.
Hates the sins of his people, discipline and punish us from compromise and disobedience.
Teachers us believers to value God's promised, pray persistently so on before God bestow them.
God's aims, principle of action still remain consistent, God's dealing with his people in the scripture record is still how God deals with us still.
Psalm 33:11- But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations
God's plan are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control extend to the past, present and future.
Bible, the living word of God.
The first Bible will be the last. God has already planned in the beginning when the world has formed till revelation whereby the believers of God will be lifted to heaven and to be reconcile with Him in his heavenly throne.
God's son does not change
Hebrew 13:8- Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
-He never change, it still remain true that those people who come to Him will be save completely. And he lives to intercede for us.
Hebrew 7:25- Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Conclusion- So where is the sense of distance and difference between Bible times and believers now?
Remember, God does not change. So let us continue to fellowship with Him, trust His word, live by faith and to stand on the promises of God forever.
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