Not trying to take anything away from Father's Day service, well strike that, I took something away from the service. As always, it was what God wanted me to hear...Pastor Mark had an awesome service about how 'God is...farsighted'. While that is true, God reached out and spoke to me.
While life is about something more, Jesus, we are all blessed with one major endowment. It puts life in perspective, gives meaning to the resplendent wonders abound, gives hope, faith, trust, and joy to each and every one of us...
♥♥LOVE♥♥
To take a good example on how majority of society views love, here is an excerpt that is on Wikipedia.
"Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ('I loved that meal') to intense interpersonal attraction ('I love my boyfriend'). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states. Love is an extremely powerful emotion; it is irresistible and people are often bound to pursue their love interests. Love is a major theme in many literature texts and poems, with movies often portraying 'finding true love.'"
If that is true, how is God love?
I believe God is love in a pure and simplistic form. While most blindly struggle through life never "knowing" love...it's right there with them, every step of their lives.
Remember last week when I spoke about God being there every step of the way? Where all we have to do is open our eyes, lift a finger...and BAM! There is God!
So why do we constantly get wrapped up in internal strife trying to find "the love" that we see in all the movies?
The question is the answer...it is in the movies...it's fictional...it's a dramatization. That love doesn't exist between two people. Oh sure, there are some truly blessed with the best possible partner/spouse/loved one that completes them in the worldly sense, but what about in the eternal sense?
That's where God comes in. You need to realize with all your relationships in this world, nothing can surpass, replace, take away, add to the glorious love God has for us.
Don't believe me? Look it up...
Wait! I just did that for you...[!] Astounding! Close to SEVEN HUNDRED times love is mentioned in the bible. Starting with Genesis and ending with Revelations. Coincident? I think not.
So, who are we to rebuke God? The answer: I think, in the end, we don't want to accept the easy way out. Because no matter what hells we endure in this life, nor what hells we create for ourselves or others, God still loves us.
Forever. As it has been and always will be. Amen.
Usually, I end with some quote on self-reflection, yet this week won't be any different. I would encourage to all my readers though, to go to your local bookstore, get 'Ragamuffin Gospel' by Brennan Manning. It will change your life, this I promise.
"My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it."
— Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel)
