The perfect love of Jesus casts out fear. 1John 4:10-18 makes this clear. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” “We love because he first loved us. “v19 ESV Propitiation? “ …the scriptural conception of the verb is not that of appeasing one who is angry, with a personal feeling, against the offender; but of altering the character of that which, from without, occasions a necessary alienation, and interposes an inevitable obstacle to fellowship.” quote is from Vincent “Word Pictures.” Christ, our sin-bearer, altered the character of sin by becoming sin for us, and taking it to a bloody cross, so sin died. Access to the Father resulted. So: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever…
Tag: <span>unconditional love</span>
“And David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Samuel 9:1 David never forgot the love of his friend, Jonathan. This man had helped David escape at a time when Saul’s jealous wrath was pointed toward him. Jonathan was a friend that loved at all times, a brother born for adversity — a rare, but loyal and true friend. As we navigate the perils of the Christian’s call, we certainly have a similar friend, Jesus. Touched with the feelings of our infirmities, He meets us at the Throne of grace. Here we find acceptance in spite of our broken hearts, mercy that rejoices against a certain judgment. As the story of 2 Samuel goes, found in the shadows of Lodebar (pastureless), was a forgotten son of Jonathan whose name was Mephibosheth. “Then King David sent and brought…
We often add sorrow to our blessings, but we should not because: “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.” Proverbs 10:22 These “blessings” are upon the head of the righteous as spoken in Proverbs 10:6. They are augmented with no “pangs” of grief, no cuttings or wounds. Yes, these “adorings” of God, these deep soul thanksgivings, these praise evokings, are without painful regrets, feelings of deceit, cautions of being cheated, or suspicions of fraud. There is no distortion, violation of rights, or irreverent treatment; as “violence” is on the mouth of those who receive unjust gain. Their mouths are well concealed as their intents are also — but the mouth of the righteous is a well of life, and his lips feed many. Proverbs 10:11 and 21 “The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver.” Proverbs 10:20 So, In John’s gospel we…
Through many failures, unconditional love grows — Through much weakness this love slowly emerges — In our personal sins the nature of His love finds a manifestation — In our frequent besettings He showers us with love — In our embarrassments, His glory shines –in humiliations His strength empowers — In utter weakness, His enablement finds perfection in us — In disgrace we find His grace. Unconditional Love? We have heard of it. It’s absolute, unqualified, clean, complete, consummate, etc. etc His love is all-out — flat out — straight-out –love. His love is pure — perfect — profound — Love. His love is stark — clean — sheer — love. His Love is total — plumb — complete — love. Ezekiel 16:6-8 speaks of this love: “I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood…” “Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time…
Do you have a friend? You can tell them things which you can’t tell others. Friends bear not only your failures, but also your humiliations. A Friend covers the multitude of your sins and tries to understand your rebellions, even. Friends want to know what we are feeling in our dejected state, they are not afraid of our adversity, our repeated errors, our besetting sins. They bear with our weakness. Our Pastor told a story: A child withdrew into their self and the family began noticing they were not emerging out. This continued for a long time and the family tried everything to get the child back. Professional help was sought and years went by. Nothing worked. One day the child’s puppy began to lick the child on the face and would not stop even as the child pushed the pet away. Something happened. The child came back. I have…
We live through heart-ache to be forever joined with Christ, intimately. Sin represents a dis-jointing, a dis-fellowship; pain sobers a saint toward what is real — our humanness –our unbelief – our disablement – our depravity. in our confrontation of reality, His true nature waxes clear, yet it comes unexpectedly. Mixed in our intensified sedation, comes His intensified compassion. Our little faith, even abject unbelief, renders His with-abiding love most precious. Our unworthiness apparent, compassions’ fire is seen ablaze in heaven’s eyes – our conditions-filled soul is superseded by His unconditional Being. The contrast is striking. Suffering does this: 1 delivers from idealism 2 delivers from law-following 3 delivers from our self-orientation 4 delivers from fear of death and dying 5 delivers from unbelief Idealism says “ideas or thoughts, (in themselves), make up basic truth.” Nevertheless, “if reason, (Idealism) were to say that all its conclusions are determined by…