Lavish love

Ephesians 3:16-19 explains Paul's desire for all of us to understand how wide and long and how high and deep is the love of Christ.

Beth Moore in her Bible study A Woman's Heart God's Dwelling Place(pg 168) shares her Inspired thoughts on this passage that I really wanted to share with you.

"How wide and long and high and deep - with His lavish love Christ embraces us equally in four perfect directions. This verse about the completeness of Christ's love for us might be applied like this: God's love for me extends in every direction. Because I am His child, all that is behind me must be worked toward good, even when I have failed (see Rom. 8:28). In addition, everything ahead of me belongs to God. My future is entirely His, and His love extends through circumstances I have not yet known (see Jer. 29:11). No matter how deep I sink into a pit of despair, His hand can extend that much deeper to lift me out (see Ps. 40:2). No matter what heights this human experience can boast, God's ways are higher. Every day I spend with Him, I am lifted out of insignificance to ascend and take my place in God's high calling in Christ Jesus (see Isaiah 55:9; Phil. 3:14).

God's Word states that this life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor, very brief. And we get only one opportunity to experience Him as mortals relating to an immortal Savior. Will you agree to experience Him in His fullness? Will you revel in your God through the breadth, length, depth, and height of this human experience? Can you say to Him, 'I want to experience every part of You that is possible this side of heaven'? If you can, then you will 'know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God' (Eph. 3:19)."

I hope you have a few minutes to think about this and to begin to grasp how great is the love of Christ Jesus (for each of us)!

Have a blessed day and Thanksgiving weekend!
Renee

I want to be with you

God wanted so badly to be with His people, to be with us. In Exodus, he even gave instructions how to build the Tabernacle that He would dwell in to be amongst His people, to dwell with them. However, He knew that His holiness would kill them if they weren't prepared so He protected them them with the veil. It wasn't until hundreds of years later, when Christ died on the cross as the final blood sacrifice for our sins that the veil was torn (Mark 15:38, Hebrews 10:19-22). Through Christ we now have access to God. Our God did all this so that He might be with us and we with Him! This is how much He loves us! He will do anything to be with us and live amongst us. In Exodus He gave detailed instructions to build His dwelling place. In the New Testament gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) we learn how He gave His life so that we may become His new living temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16 "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you."

God has done everything He could do to be intimately in our lives. Do you have anyone who has gone to such lengths to love you and be with you?! If you can say "yes" to that, you are truly blessed. But if the "yes"' is in reference to a person, sad to say, you cannot be with that person forever but with God it is forever. He has promised to never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). Romans 10:9 says "that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
With this act and belief, you too will have the afor mentioned indwelling of the Spirit of God and become His living temple and begin a truly intimate loving relationship with the Creator God, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. This is the greatest love we can ever know and have. It will last all eternity.

Will you believe? Will you accept His gift of love?

Just say,
"yes."

____________________ (a catchy title lost to me)

Hebrews 2: 17-18 “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

We may from time to time remember the sacrifice Jesus made for our sins. It is unfathomable that He would give up Heaven to come to earth as a baby to eventually die a horrible death on the cross for our sins knowing how many times we would reject Him, ignore Him and blaspheme Him. Yet He chose to do these things for us to pay the penalty for our sins. That in and of itself is amazing and makes me just shake my head in wonder and awe.

But these verses in Hebrews talk of even more than the sacrifice on the cross. Jesus came to earth because He knew how fickle and untrusting we can be. He wanted to reach out to us in so much love it would take eternity for us to discover it! Jesus is omniscient (knows everything) and that in and of itself can be a bit much to wrap our heads around on a good day but what if we are having a bad day or maybe even a really bad day. A day of our own making or a day that catches us in the circumstances of life. Is His omniscience enough – knowing exactly what has happened and how it makes us feel simply because He knows everything? Does His omniscience bring us comfort? Not always at least I don’t think so when those days hit me.

I have a friend whose parent died this past weekend. She knows and believes in Christ and His character. Does this bring her comfort? I am sure it does. But does it bring her more comfort knowing that the God who saved her and loves her, knows exactly how she is feeling because while living on earth, He too experienced the same thing?* I would think the answer is yes.

Jesus came not just to die for us but to experience life as we do. He knew that in our time of sorrow, trouble, temptation and difficulty we in our human weakness would do better knowing that He understands exactly what we are going through not due to His omniscience but life experience. He loves us that much! He sacrificed and suffered that much to bring us more comfort and love us in a way that we could hang on to in our time of need.

*Did you catch in the gospels that when Christ was ministering to the Israelites and it mentions His family, it doesn't mention Joseph? Also when Jesus is hanging on the cross He takes the time to make sure John takes care of Mary. Why? Because He was the eldest son and he was responsible for caring for Mary when His father died. I know that it never states in the Bible Joseph died but it is inferred in a number of ways.