Engrave God's Love
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August 31, 2014 |
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 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Towards the end of the World War II, the Allies pushed their way into a German concentration camp holding Jews. They looked for survivors, but all the people there were dead in the gas chambers. One of the soldiers who was checking the camp found some writing on the wall in a corner and became solemn.
"The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. We cannot record God's love even if the oceans were ink, and the skies were parchment." We don't know who wrote it. Probably it was one of the inmates who were suffering from forced labor and hunger. While his friends were dying and he was spending hopeless, brutal days, he did not write any complaints or resentment, but only thanks for God's love.
We should also engrave God's love into our hearts and profess our love for Him with assurance at any moment and any case. To do so, what should we do in detail?
1. We have to remember the love of God in giving us His only begotten Son
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." God the Creator, the most glorious God, loved this world so much. He had mercy on those souls who were falling into sins and lawlessness, and finally He gave up His only begotten Son.
Parents who have raised children might have felt that kind of pain to some extent, but is there anyone who would allow your precious child to be put to death? Imagine somebody says he will give you wealth and honor or anything you wish if you crucify your son. Would you, could you do it? If you love your son, you would never be able to do it.
Now, if you were supposed to give up your son on behalf of a convict sentenced to death who had committed murders, what would you say? Most of you would probably say, "It is nonsense!" But God did what seems to be at this level of nonsense. He gave His Son to be brutally executed in the place of us who were stained with such sins as hatred, anger, adultery, jealousy, envy, and carousing. At the moment of crucifixion, the pain that God had was so great that even the sun lost its strength. There were earthquakes and the rocks were split.
Bearing with such pain, God gave up His Son to give life to us who were sinners. Because of this love, we can now call God the Creator our "Father". We must never forget this love. I hope you will engrave it in your heart again and again and give Him praises of thanks forever.
2. We have to remember the love of the Lord who sacrificed His life for us
Even though God wanted to save the world, we couldn't have been saved unless the Lord obeyed God. The glorious Son of God the Creator forsook all the heavenly glory and came down to this earth in a lowly human body. This in itself is such a great sacrifice. And, His creatures spat on Him, mocked Him, scourged Him, and finally stripped Him naked and they crucified Him.
If the Lord had not loved the souls who were stained with sins, He could have destroyed them any time by bringing down fire from heaven or with the heavenly army. But Jesus did not do that. He became the atoning sacrifice, taking on all the sins of the world because He knew the heart of God who loved the souls and that is why He willingly took all the sufferings.
Jesus made us rich by living in poverty. We were set free from diseases through His scourging. We can receive a heavenly crown because Jesus wore the crown of thorns. He was nailed through His hands and feet and shed His blood, through which we received forgiveness.
I urge you to put in your heart His face covered with blood and His eyes filled with love seeing the souls from the cross.
3. We have to remember the love of God who has prepared a place for us in Heaven
We are to be so thankful that He saved us from Hell, and furthermore, God is preparing a glorious dwelling place in Heaven for us. When we believe in the love of God and the Lord and walk in the truth, our heavenly dwelling place will be built according to our deeds.
Now, what is it to believe in this love and to walk in the truth? It is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. John 6:54 says, "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
Unless we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, we do not have life or hope of resurrection. Spiritually, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is to take in the Word of God as spiritual bread. It is not just to commit the Word in the Bible as knowledge but to renew our heart with that Word. That is, it is to cast off evil from our heart and replace it with goodness and love. In order to do so, we have to drink His blood at the same time.
This means when we learn the Word of God, it has to be accompanied by the deeds to obey the Word we've learned. Figuratively speaking, when people eat food, they have to consume liquid as well. Our body can absorb the nutrients and pass the body waste only when liquid is supplied.
In the same way, once we learn the Word of God as the truth, we have to try to practice what we learned. Only then will the Word of God we learned really become life and the strength in us. The untruths that were in our heart will go away and the truth will replace them.
In 1 John 1:7, we can understand we have life in us not just when we eat the flesh but when we also drink the blood of the Son of Man. The Scripture says, "…but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." Here, to walk in the Light means to obey and practice the Word of God.
Jesus forgave us of our sins by shedding His precious blood. But in order for us to be forgiven through His blood, we have to walk in the Light. When people do not receive the answer they want, or if they are persecuted for their faith, they complain saying, "God does not love me." But I hope none of you will speak such foolish words.
God sacrificed His only begotten Son to make us His children. When His children, whom He bought with the price of the blood of His Son, walk in the truth, then He answers anything they ask of Him in the name of the Lord. As their souls prosper, God makes all things go well with them and makes them healthy. The Lord sacrificed His life understanding the love of God, and He is building a dwelling place in Heaven for us. Every day He is looking forward to the day when He will share eternal love with His true children in Heaven.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, those who truly realize the love of God do not look at the world. Jesus was crucified because of our sins, and how can we commit sins again? If we believe in the glory of Heaven, how can we crave the worldly things and have lingering attachments to the world?
Remembering this great love of God, I hope each of you will love God in return with all your heart, mind, soul, and life. I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will dwell in the most glorious New Jerusalem in Heaven and share that love with God forever.
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