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Day 4 Your Love

In God’s Big Book of Life He constantly demonstrates He has a plan, an order of all things. All one needs to do is picture the cosmos, see the structure of our solar system, recognize we have everything we need here on this Big Blue Ball to sustain and enjoy life. He loves His creation so much that He promises to never leave us, never forsake us. He sent His son to bring us back into a relationship, bringing order into our lives.

He created an order for marriage, for our sexuality, roles for both genders, for how we treat others and so much more. It’s all there in that big book called His Word or the Bible. Yet for 1,000s of years we humans take our gifts of a free will and a big brain and buck against His order of all things. We are the only created beings that do this.

A tree, as a tiny seed, doesn’t decide if it wants to become a tree. It doesn’t decide where it will grow, or even what type of tree it will be. No, its very essence is to live according to how it was made by God. The same for all plants and animals. A bird doesn’t stress and ponder how to make a nest or even if it wants to lay eggs. It seamlessly moves to God’s plan and rhythm.

Believer or not, all humans seem to instinctively know when they aren’t in sync with God’s plan. Some of us may recognize we push to the limits of the natural order. While others may blame everyone else for not conforming to their plan for the world. But we all feel that friction when our marriages struggle, when we act sexually immoral, or when we are constantly unkind and ungenerous. That friction is God reminding us He is the creator; He is the keeper of the order of all things.

It’s taken me awhile but I finally decided I want to stay right in the middle of God’s love at all times.  I want my life to be ordered such that I never leave the comfort, joy and peace that He promises when we stay close to Him.  Because the thing about God is if you want to live outside His order, He will allow you.  And you will experience a friction that maybe you just can’t understand.

No, I want to be right in the middle of His love.  Not following my own will but His.  Not sitting on the fence straddling between two worlds.  Right in the middle.

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To Know Love

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8

“Wasn’t it Alexander the Great who had a soldier who bore his name who was unfaithful in duty and demonstrated cowardice? And Alexander called him in and said, “Either change your behavior or change your name.” And I think that’s, in a sense, what John is saying here. If you’re going to call yourself a Christian, if you’re going to say you are God’s and you belong to God and you truly are His, then conduct yourself as He would, with love.” John MacArthur

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Love Comes From God

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

“No one is beyond the reach of God’s love. Jesus made this clear by saving people like a greedy, dishonest tax collector, a criminal on the cross next to Him, and Saul—a persecutor of His church. God’s love isn’t dispensed according to how good we’ve been. On that basis, no one could be saved. 

Divine love can’t be fully comprehended by the human mind, but it can nonetheless be ours through faith in Jesus Christ. And from the moment a person receives that love, he or she will forever live under its protective canopy. ” Charles Stanley

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Love Made Complete

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:12

“The Lord wants you to believe that His love for you is steadfast—and that it can ground you in the difficult seasons of life. Are you seeking to grow in your comprehension of His love? The more you dwell on divine grace, the more firmly you’ll stand during trials. Begin by asking God to give you a deeper understanding as you mediate on His love as described in His Word.” Charles Stanley

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This Is Love…

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10

“And that is the wonder of all wonders that God loves the lowly.  God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings.  God marches in.  He chooses people as His instruments and performs His wonders where one would least expect them.  God is near the least of men; He loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak, and the broken.”  God Is in The Manger, Dietrich Bonhoeffer