Love
The greatest want in the world today is love, love that works by faith and purifies the soul. Love is the automatic response of trust; trust is the automatic response of time spent together with someone who is trustworthy. We see this in life many times in each day.
We see children playing together, laughing and rejoicing in a heavenly freedom; we see young adults going places and doing things together; we see grown-ups who are companions for life. Love is not a new thing in the history of mankind. And even in the lesser orders of the animal, and even the insect, kingdoms we see community, communication, and togetherness. Love is what keeps the world together and going around.
What a continual testimony to God, His image of love which He instilled in the wonderful creation called, planet Earth! Lucifer is beside himself in doing what seems to Him to be the impossible task—to stamp out the all-pervading evidence of God that is so painful to his selfish heart.
And he has one last attempt at this planned for the human race. He will sink man down in his own self-absorption through his diet, through error, and through spiritualism. By these three he will affect the destruction of man’s physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of nature.
Yet, by beholding the self-forgetful love of God, we can avoid all three prongs of Satan’s pitch-fork.
There is no law against love. Gal. 5:22,23. No true government in its right mind would seek to destroy love, seeing that love forms the basis of real law and order. What a job would a governor or mayor, king or president have on his or her hands because love disappeared and the people are in an uprising! No ruler wants the headaches war brings.
Owe no one anything except love. Rom. 13:8. We owe a debt of love to everyone we meet. How that love comes across will be tailored to the individual need. The love may be strong; it may be gentle. It will never overwhelm; neither will it ever lack. Nothing is more alert and alive than love. Nothing is more considerate of others.
“She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” (Prov. 31:26).
I was reading the other day about the God of the Old Testament. It came from Psalm 11. “The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.” (vs. 4-7).
I asked a friend what this was saying. He said that in the old dispensation, God loved those who obeyed Him and hated those who didn’t. But in the new dispensation of grace, He has opened His love up to everyone. But that bothered me a lot.
Surely, if the virtuous woman, whose price is far above rubies and in whose mouth is the law of kindness, is upright and honored by the God of the Old Testament, then surely the God of the Old Testament must also have the law of kindness in His mouth. “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.” (Prov. 31:20). Surely, the holy God of heaven does a million times better than even the most virtuous of women.
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matt. 7:11).
So, let’s keep the loving-kindness of God ever before us. When we read something in the Bible that seems to destroy our faith in the love of God, we must take another look. And we will see that the law of kindness forever has our Father as its source. He is and ever has been the light that lightens every shining star that has ever come into this world.
The one grand assumption we can make upon reading the very first words of any Bible text is that God is love. Love is the main lesson every word of God is teaching. Trusting in Him for love is the beginning of having faith in Him. Without faith in his love we are all atheists. Our minds reject a God without love. Subconsciously, we cannot entertain the thought of a God who does not love. Consequently, for those who seek God, but a God without love, they remain atheists in spite of their best efforts to have faith.
Faith has one object—love. Trusting God must assume that He is the creator and upholder of love and that His law is love. If I seek Him I will find Him, when I have sought for Him with all my heart—that is, seeking His heart, His love. I may seek His justice on evil, I may seek His mysteries in prophecy or science, I may seek a number of interesting topics relating to the Almighty, and never find Him or His power to help me overcome sin.
When all else has failed in my search for the God of my life, and I finally fall in total helplessness before Him, then He will reveal His love to me. And in that love comes all the knowledge of God and the essentials for the Christian life.
“Whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44).
Let’s learn to start at the correct beginning. Love forms the first and foremost assumption when dealing with God and man. Let’s assume that God loves, and then go on from there. And we will find every move He has made, even His hard, tough actions, to be founded deeply in love, bound in the bundle of life. Will you believe that? Will you trust Him?
“For God so loved the world.” (Jn. 3:16).
We see children playing together, laughing and rejoicing in a heavenly freedom; we see young adults going places and doing things together; we see grown-ups who are companions for life. Love is not a new thing in the history of mankind. And even in the lesser orders of the animal, and even the insect, kingdoms we see community, communication, and togetherness. Love is what keeps the world together and going around.
What a continual testimony to God, His image of love which He instilled in the wonderful creation called, planet Earth! Lucifer is beside himself in doing what seems to Him to be the impossible task—to stamp out the all-pervading evidence of God that is so painful to his selfish heart.
And he has one last attempt at this planned for the human race. He will sink man down in his own self-absorption through his diet, through error, and through spiritualism. By these three he will affect the destruction of man’s physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of nature.
Yet, by beholding the self-forgetful love of God, we can avoid all three prongs of Satan’s pitch-fork.
There is no law against love. Gal. 5:22,23. No true government in its right mind would seek to destroy love, seeing that love forms the basis of real law and order. What a job would a governor or mayor, king or president have on his or her hands because love disappeared and the people are in an uprising! No ruler wants the headaches war brings.
Owe no one anything except love. Rom. 13:8. We owe a debt of love to everyone we meet. How that love comes across will be tailored to the individual need. The love may be strong; it may be gentle. It will never overwhelm; neither will it ever lack. Nothing is more alert and alive than love. Nothing is more considerate of others.
“She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” (Prov. 31:26).
I was reading the other day about the God of the Old Testament. It came from Psalm 11. “The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.” (vs. 4-7).
I asked a friend what this was saying. He said that in the old dispensation, God loved those who obeyed Him and hated those who didn’t. But in the new dispensation of grace, He has opened His love up to everyone. But that bothered me a lot.
Surely, if the virtuous woman, whose price is far above rubies and in whose mouth is the law of kindness, is upright and honored by the God of the Old Testament, then surely the God of the Old Testament must also have the law of kindness in His mouth. “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.” (Prov. 31:20). Surely, the holy God of heaven does a million times better than even the most virtuous of women.
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matt. 7:11).
So, let’s keep the loving-kindness of God ever before us. When we read something in the Bible that seems to destroy our faith in the love of God, we must take another look. And we will see that the law of kindness forever has our Father as its source. He is and ever has been the light that lightens every shining star that has ever come into this world.
The one grand assumption we can make upon reading the very first words of any Bible text is that God is love. Love is the main lesson every word of God is teaching. Trusting in Him for love is the beginning of having faith in Him. Without faith in his love we are all atheists. Our minds reject a God without love. Subconsciously, we cannot entertain the thought of a God who does not love. Consequently, for those who seek God, but a God without love, they remain atheists in spite of their best efforts to have faith.
Faith has one object—love. Trusting God must assume that He is the creator and upholder of love and that His law is love. If I seek Him I will find Him, when I have sought for Him with all my heart—that is, seeking His heart, His love. I may seek His justice on evil, I may seek His mysteries in prophecy or science, I may seek a number of interesting topics relating to the Almighty, and never find Him or His power to help me overcome sin.
When all else has failed in my search for the God of my life, and I finally fall in total helplessness before Him, then He will reveal His love to me. And in that love comes all the knowledge of God and the essentials for the Christian life.
“Whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44).
Let’s learn to start at the correct beginning. Love forms the first and foremost assumption when dealing with God and man. Let’s assume that God loves, and then go on from there. And we will find every move He has made, even His hard, tough actions, to be founded deeply in love, bound in the bundle of life. Will you believe that? Will you trust Him?
“For God so loved the world.” (Jn. 3:16).
posted by David | 7:17 AM
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