"Living God's Love"

 "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26 KJV)

  "In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people that he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful." (Colossians 3:11-15 NLT)

 Yesterday I had this crazy thought, as I was listening to a message and God's love, I recalled something that Pastor Bryan mentioned Wednesday night: that part of God's plan in having His people taken off into Babylon, was to get them to be offended by idols. Which caused be to think about the very first post of this blog, which was about God's will, verses His perfect will.

 There I was, visions of Hezekiah facing the wall in his bed, after being told he was going to die, praying to God and pleading for more life. And, it dawned on me, God knew! It was His plan all along! When He gave Hezekiah 15 more years, those were years that God had set for the several things to take place, to put His perfect plan in action. 

 Because God had given Hezekiah more time, the extra time went to his head. All of the sudden he felt as though he was gifted with something special, and it lifted him up, making him, if you will, boastful and proud. This was also God's plan, to show him death, but then give him more life; just to make him able to work out His plan and perfect will. 

 One thing that happened was the blunder that Hezekiah did, by showing off the treasures to the Babylonian ambassadors. It wasn't a blunder after all, because God already knew that would happen! The other, important issue was the birth of Manasseh, the worst king of all; also, the longest king to reign. Yet, as bad as he was, and as much evil that he did, he repented, and God forgave him! 

 Not quite sure that you got that picture, but God's loving kindness is far greater than our sins; no matter how bad we are, He is always willing to forgive us and show us His great mercy! Therefore, since we have been given such great mercy, we must also be willing to show mercy for others! 

 We must be willing to see things as they are; primarily, we are obligated to be tenderhearted towards others, because we have a tenderhearted Father in Heaven. As His children, we must represent His character and love, as if we are His children! It is not a command; it is a must! Man, O man, I need to get a handle on some things in my life! I must...

"Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. After all, is God the God of the Jew only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does that mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law." (Romans 3:27-31 NLT)