9-1-2019

Good Morning All,

1 John 3:18; “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

    In the late 60’s, there was a song by Judy Collins entitled “Both Sides Now.”  This is a ballad about a person growing up and how at first you see everything through rose colored glasses, but as you get older, you see things a little more clearly.  There is a portion of the song that is rather poignant and very telling.

      “I've looked at love from both sides now from give and take, and still somehow.

                       It's love's illusions I recall I really don't know love at all.”

    This is really a very accurate description of the relationship that we have with God.  It is also why we struggle sometimes.  We really have not looked at love from God’s side.  We have always looked at love from our sides.  We see love as conditional.  We all have a point where we would say to another person; “I can’t love you anymore.”  It might take a whole lot but we all have that point.  We tend to think that since we are this way then God must be the same way.

    We really need to look at love from God’s side.  The apostle John tells us all about the love of God; it was made manifest in Jesus.  God sent his only Son into the world to die, to die a horrific death, for people who do not deserve this kind of love.  This love is beyond our understanding.  Even though we don’t understand or comprehend it, we have it.  This is what is so great about God’s love for you; you don’t have to understand it; you only need to enjoy it.  Take it to heart with the faith that God gives to you.  You are truly loved by God; there are no strings, no conditions, absolutely no need to earn it.  God loves you beyond anything you can ever imagine. 

   It is hard for our limited ability; but God’s love for us is beyond anything and everything that we can ever comprehend.  Yet God desires us to have this type of love for or fellow man.  God desires that we place the needs of our neighbor higher than our own needs.  He does this because our needs are already satisfied by Him.  This world and the devil like to try and make it an illusion but God’s love is real and for you.  There is no earning this love but this love will sustain us and carry us and comfort us in all needs and trials.  God is love; this is His nature.  His desire is to show His wondrous love to us and that we show it to others.  Enjoy it as His gift to you and share it with those around you.

Dearest Father, your love for us is beyond our understanding.  Give us the faith to trust what we do not know or understand.  Help us to rely in this love and give us the courage to respond to others with this same love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret