PODCAST
Love Makes It All Possible
January 27th, 2013
1 John 4:7-21
One of the first Bible verses many of us learned as a child was, “God is love” (vv. 8, 16). This is beautifully simple, yet at the same time most profound; simple because it is not encumbered with complex theological jargon; and profound because it embodies all the deep and eternal truth of God’s passion to have an intimate relationship with all humanity.
This intimate relationship is fueled with the energy of love. Love is not a static sort of thing. It is both active and interactive. It is energized by passion, truth, honesty, and trust. So God is love, is an action packed, reciprocal relationship. It is not only an attitude, but it is a dynamic demonstration of the mind, heart, and spirit of those who engage in its lifestyle. The scripture from 1 John 4:9 identifies it this way: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
Author: Richard H. Neiderhiser
January 27th, 2013 at 12:38 pm
“Love is not a static sort of thing. It is both active and interactive…dynamic demonstration of the mind, heart, and spirit of those who engage in its lifestyle”
How beautiful to know we we can approach God at anytime, in the morning, noon, night, on our way to work, on our way home, in the grocery store, at the post office, anywhere we are. He is always there and wants us in constant connection with Him. Sometimes we can just dwell in His Presence and listen
to what He has to say.
Psalm 63:3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
January 27th, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Luke 6:35-36 states that God is kind and merciful to the ungrateful and wicked. HE so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten son as our sin sacrifice and HIS Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name (by which we can build a strong relationship that stands through all kinds of storms — Matthew 7:24-27, Luke 6:47-49
Moses (and the prophets of old) taught righteousness as a means to avoid death. Jesus is our example of righteousness and the way to achieve righteousness. Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:24), but there was not a recording of that walk. Jesus shows us “the way” thru faith in Him, forgiveness of our sins, and repentance of sins with the Holy Spirit’s assistance.
Furthermore, He taught of a “refining fire.”
The problem is the ungrateful and wicked do not want to know and rely on God. The righteousness that is by “faith” does not say in the heart who will or will not go to heaven (Romans 10:6-7). Usually, we utilize the parable of the “Rich Man & Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-32) which allows the hearer to make their own judgment upon their selves.
There is “an application” of that parable which employs the principles taught in regards to that refining fire. With a “spiritual death” of “the flesh” through the Holy Spirit, the chasm that prohibits the soul from hearing the Holy Spirit quench our thirst from the fire of the trials and tribulations of life is bridged with the fire of God’s Word (Jeremiah 23:29).