How Deep the Love of God!
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Important messages
Trying
to encourage parents to teach their children the right things, I have been
sharing the fact that, because I was raised in the church, I have hundreds of
hymns in my head, sometimes including all the verses. They didn’t do me much
good as a child, but now, it seems to me that these words come to me on a daily
basis and I am blessed with their riches.
This
morning was a little different. A line and a tune from a contemporary song kept
running through my head, “How deep the
Father’s love for us” and I was stuck, because I didn’t know the song. I
got out of bed, went to the internet and found these words:
How Deep the Father's Love for Us
How
deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure;
That
He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure.
How
great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away;
As
wounds which mar the chosen One, bring many sons to glory.
Behold
the Man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed
I hear my mocking voice, call out among the scoffers.
It was
my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished;
His
dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.
I
will not boast in anything, no gifts, nor power, nor wisdom;
But
I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.
Why
should I gain from His reward, I cannot give an answer;
But this
I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.
Receiving God's teaching... some personal observations
If
you allow me some personal observations, I think you will find them helpful and
perhaps enlightening in your own life. The Lord showed me a long time ago that
the lessons that He taught me were not for me alone. They were to be shared
with others and so over the years I have taught as I learned. Academic studies
and appointed themes tend to come out dry and saltless.
It
is probably true in many people’s case, but one thing that I have noticed is
that today’s teaching will be built upon yesterday’s and will contain portions
of it. Some of the material comes out of a distant past. So then, there is
repetition, but fresh truth will grow from it. The things that come today are
not necessarily new; they were known before, but now they are emphasized and
amplified, as they are woven into the soul.
It
is impossible to give an exact time schedule, as to when a certain subject begins
to take root in my mind and heart. It comes without conscious knowledge and
suddenly I notice that it is there. What occupies my life and ministry these
days, which I will share with you today, I became aware of while I was studying
the book of Zechariah late last year. It continues on, as I speak on feeling
what God feels and having an obsession for God. A recent article, including a
short preaching by Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the presence and personal knowledge of
God, added fuel to the fire. Even in teaching on the curse upon the Mormons, I
saw their lack of Holy Spirit instruction and the resulting blindness and error.
I
begin to hint on today’s subject. Lloyd-Jones said that our spiritual condition
is not evidenced by our activity, but by our relationship with Christ. Of
course, we do not become inactive and we are at work, but that is not our
measure of spirituality, nor our aim. Our purpose is to know Him with an
increasing nearness and depth. A statement by the Apostle John is making a persistent
impact. The King James Version, the Spanish Reina Valera and other versions may
not give a clear impression of the meaning, but here it is:
Love to the extreme!
“Jesus
knowing that His Hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the
Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” John 13:1
In
the margin of the New American Standard there is this note: Or to the uttermost, or eternally. In a
note in the English Standard Version, MacArthur adds, meaning ‘to perfection’. I especially like the Spanish Textual
Bible: Les amó hasta el extremo or He loved them to the extreme! Here we
have something for meditation. That which is translated to the end does not describe the time relationship of Jesus and His
disciples from the beginning of His ministry up until the last, just before He
was arrested. Rather it describes the extent of His love… the unending extent! To the end means the unending
limitlessness of His love toward His disciples. He loved them to the extreme, to the uttermost, to perfection,
eternally!
That
was, and must always be, the love of Christ for His own. His love is unchanging
and therefore in these days, His love continues towards us to the extreme, to the uttermost, to perfection and eternally! This
is the love of God expressed through Jeremiah (31:3) to Israel: “I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. Again I will build you and you
will be rebuilt, o virgin of Israel!” Towards the end of Old Testament
history, God tells Israel that He has loved them from the beginning with an
everlasting love. When they went astray, he drew them back. When they were
defeated and destroyed, He would rebuild them. He guaranteed their restoration…
they would be rebuilt. It must be so,
because He loved them with an everlasting love.
Faithful love to an unfaithful people
This
morning in my daily devotions, I read Psalm 78 and here is the title: God’s guidance of His People in Spite of
Their Unfaithfulness. I am trying to show how the Lord invades our daily
life with His good teaching. First it was the line of the song before I got out
of bed, How deep the Father’s love for
us, then only a little later came the Psalm.
A.
W. Tozer fiercely criticized the shortcomings of the Church and chided us for
our indifference and spiritual weakness. Now, let me read as this tough, but
kind-hearted man, bares his soul to show us the unchanging lovingkindness of
God: No unsuspected weakness in our
characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly
before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything
that was against us. “For the mountains
shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from
thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that
hath mercy on thee.”
Our Father in heaven knows our
frame and remembers that we are dust. He knew our inborn treachery, and for His
own sake engaged to save us (Is.48:8-11). His only
begotten Son, when He walked among us, felt our pains in their naked intensity
of anguish. His knowledge of our afflictions and adversities is more than
theoretic; it is personal, warm, and compassionate. Whatever may befall us, God
knows and cares as no one else can.
Take
another look at those disciples. They had good intentions, but it seems that
they couldn’t get things right. They criticized what they should have lauded,
they feared when they should have trusted, they failed, they doubted, and they
ran in the hour of crisis and denied Him. I can’t begin to understand the
people, who say that if they had it to do over again, they wouldn’t change
anything. I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I have been careless
or light in my attitude towards my walk with Christ, because that is not the
case. But man, I have regrets and I’d change some things if I could. My
mistakes are not okay with me, that’s why I lament them. I haven’t done them intentionally,
but sometimes people have been hurt. I can only turn to God in prayer for mercy.
I
told the translator and publisher of Tozer’s biography in Romanian that what I
liked best of his story, is the part when he was playing checkers with his son
and forgot about a speaking engagement. That I can relate to! I make my
confession to show that if there is anyone, who takes to heart the wonderful
promise of Christ’s everlasting love to the extreme, to the uttermost, to
perfection, and eternally, it’s the one who is writing these lines.
Yet
there is daily evidence of His care, His blessing and His guidance. We have
seen so much grace in our family and in our ministry right from the beginning.
It’s all grace and even the things that I have done right have all been nothing
else than His gracious intervention in my life. I take the blame for what has gone
wrong; He gets the glory for what has gone right.
It is also the Father's love
Philip
said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the
Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus answered him, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:8-9). Jesus came to demonstrate the eternal,
heavenly love of the Father. This perfect, extreme love of Christ for His
disciples was also the love of the Father. Jesus made it very clear to them,
that not only did He love them, but so also did His Father: “If you ask the Father for anything in My
name, He will give it to you… For the Father Himself loves you, because you
have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father” (Jn.16:23,
27).
The
Father and the Son are one in their love for the true believer. If ever Paul
showed sublime, Holy Spirit inspiration it was when he wrote of the love of God
in Romans 5:5-10: “The love of God has
been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given us. For
while we were still helpless, at the
right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will barely die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man
someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in
that while were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life.” Read it carefully and drink it into your soul, because
it doesn’t get any better than this. The cross was the greatest manifestation
of the extreme, perfect, eternal love of God.
.....................................
Coming
next:
“I have earnestly desired to eat
this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again
eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22:15
And
“Behold, I stand at the door and
knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and
will dine with him, and he with Me.” Rev.3:20
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