Friday, March 5, 2010

 “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.

{John 3:16-17 New Living Translation}

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY IN THE WORLD

Good Afternoon Beloved,

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! What a blessing those words are!  God “so loved the world”… the world… wait a minute.. the world?  Yes.  Lest we forget, the mission of the Son of God has always been salvation.  Why?  Because God loved the little human entities He created and put on planet earth.  That kind of love is incomprehensible to us.  We sing about it, we write about it, we muse about it.  There are television broadcasts that try to explain it, and others that try to disprove it.  We are finite beings.  We only know, what we know.  Our knowledge is not all inclusive and there is always a margin for error in our judgment.  Our God.  The Almighty God and the Lover of our souls… is not like that.  His love is based on past, present and future knowledge.  He knows what we’ve done (everything), what we didn’t do that we should have done, and what was done to us.  There is nothing that we can ever do to make Him love us more or less.  While we were completely ignorant of His love, He loved us… and He loves them …the people who thumb their noses at Him on a daily basis. Those who curse and vilify Him. Those who steal, kill and destroy without mercy.  Murmurers, complainers, mockers, blasphemers… my God!  What an awesome God … so powerful and yet so merciful.  What is worldliness?  Is it a style of clothes? A genre of music?  A television show or movie?  I have been pondering on this all week.  I believe it is so much more.  The clothes, music, shows may be by-products, but the real spirit of “The world” is something some much deeper and even more subtle.  It is a shift in mindset away from the holiness and truth of the Living God to another god.  There was a time when the saints could not dance because it was deemed “worldly”.  Yet, in biblical times the people of God have always danced.  Musical instruments were considered unGodly in the not so distant past, but in the Bible there were musicians who played and the Glory of God appeared.  Young David chased away the evil spirit from Saul, by playing his harp (1 Samuel 16:23) .  I believe I understand why the concentration on the externals.  The saints were so conscious of the blessedness of Heaven and the horrors of hell that they did not want anyone to miss Heaven. They drew the line in the sand, so to speak, as far away from possible backsliding and everlasting torment as possible.  For most of them, they were coming from a place of love and concern.  The bible tells us that “all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient (1 Corinthians 6:12 & 1 Corinthians10:23) ()”.  I know that scares a lot of well meaning  saints of the Most High ().  They see that as “license” for people to live raggedy lives (as if they really needed a license) that could cause them to be lost forever.  So what do we do?  Well, Go has sent His Spirit to dwell in us.  One of the Holy Spirit’s roles is that our ”Teacher”.  He will lead and guide us into all Truth so that we never need to live a lie.  We can’t go wrong listening to Him.  If something feels ”wrong” in your spirit, don’t do it.  There are saints who drink wine, and those of us who don’t.  That may shock you… but they may love Jesus just as much as you do.  The wine itself is not the problem… excess is.  There are cultures where wine is a part of their meals and they have no problems drinking whatsoever.  The bible is very clear on what sin is.  God does not have a problem telling us what is displeasing in His eyes.  He wrote it so that there would be no confusion.  In spite of all of this, there will be those who turn their backs on that love and refuse to give their lives to God.  God still loves them, but if they have made their choice, He will honor that choice, and they will face an existence separated from Him in a place that He never intended for them to go… hell.  But, LOVE … not a wishy-washy, flimsy, flippant type of love, but a steadfast, faithful, strong, never-changing but ever-evolving type of love… (I say ever-evolving because, though He never changes, we do and at ever stage in our development we are introduced to another level of Gods’ love) that’s what our God has for us…

… and that Beloved is Good News!

Y Stress? … U Blessed!

Have A Fabulous Day and a Wonderful Weekend

Regina

  “He Reigns”, Kevin LeVar and One Sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDUvrKIRtY

“Like Never Before”, Shekinah Glory, w/William Murphy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aNRxUDxfsI

“I Desire More”, Crystal Aiken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3nWrD2nF9o

“All I Need”, Brian Courtney Wilson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_SKO_pCn1A

“Days of Elijah”, Judy Jacobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUIa674GGCo

“I Have A Friend”, Clint Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i3GMSY6Dp4