Worship, Love And Grace PART FOUR
Morning dear ones?
I hope you are well in the Lord
Today we continue with our exposition on Worship, Love and Grace!
We concluded on Part 1 (WORSHIP) on Monday. Today, welcome to Part 2; LOVE!
For the next few days, we will endeavour to look at as many aspects of Love as we can. My hope is that the Lord will instruct us on His intent as far as love is concerned
Our study objectives are that by the end of this section, we will:
√Understand what love is and is about!
√Understand the different dimensions of expression of Love
√Experience the Love of God again
√Love as God intended!
May the Lord speak to us
I will begin by saying this: Love is probably one of the most misunderstood phenomenon on the face of the earth today!
It is a subject in which almost everyone has something to say on. In fact everybody nowadays seems to at one point have an expert opinion on what love is and is about!
But the reality is that, we often speak about love based on what we ourselves have been exposed to!
This is to say that our opinions of love are often shaped by what love inputs we have gathered from our environment!
Lemme demystify that a little. What you see, what you hear, what you watch, listen to or read, what you imagine, etc, forms your environment. That is also inclusive of the company you keep around you.
And all these things determine how you percieve things; love included!
That is why your idea of love may be based on something you heard, saw, thought, watched, read, etc, or something that you went through, someone around you went through, etc!
But if we are to understand love as it should be, then we have to go get our answers from the Source of all Love! The architect and creator of Love; God!
I believe that is the only way to get it right! Because any other way might be corrupted by one thing or the other! And what we need here is the purest form of Love!
I would like us today to understand what pure love is about by looking at the nature of God's love, then we can truly understand what it means to love as God intended
1st John 4:
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Now, these three verses will serve as the benchmark for our insight today.
Verse 8 of 1st John chapter 4 establishes two things:
-Love is the expression of knowing God!
-God is love!
There is a lot of power behing those two statements!
Love is an expression of knowing God!
Therefore the only way to love, or express love is by knowing God!
That makes me wonder how many times we claim we are expressing love at moments when we are clueless on God; at times when our knowledge of God is little or non-existent! How can we know love when we do not know God?
Now, hear this: It is one thing to know about God, but it is a whole different thing to know God!
You may know about God, after all you may have heard about Him, seen Him do stuff, and all that, but I assure you knowing God is about a relationship with Him!
God is Love! This has got to be the most simple definition of love known, yet the weight it carries is unimaginable!
Love is God's nature! It is Himself! He exptesses Himself by and through love! Because love is His very character!
Verse 9 of 1st John chapter 4 establishes these two things:
-God loves mankind
-God is interested in redeeming man whatever the cost!
It is absolutely clear in scripture that God loves mankind! Enough to let Jesus, His only begotten Son, die on the cross to pay the ultimate price for the redemption of mankind!
John 3:16 and Romans 5:8 are confirmations on just how much God is interested in redeeming man and reconciling him back to Himself!
So, today we are in Him because He first chose us! We are His because He desired it to be so; instead of our sin provoking Him to serious anger, it provoked Him to furious love! How amazing is that?
Verse 10 of 1st John chapter 4 confirms that God loved us first! If we love Him today, it is because He loved us first!
I am convicted this morning to ask us back to the first love! I hope this sparks the flames of a furious love that will spark us into repentance!
2nd Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
As we continue understanding love, may you be spurred into a furious love for God. May the Lord bless you all. See you tomorrow
I hope you are well in the Lord
Today we continue with our exposition on Worship, Love and Grace!
We concluded on Part 1 (WORSHIP) on Monday. Today, welcome to Part 2; LOVE!
For the next few days, we will endeavour to look at as many aspects of Love as we can. My hope is that the Lord will instruct us on His intent as far as love is concerned
Our study objectives are that by the end of this section, we will:
√Understand what love is and is about!
√Understand the different dimensions of expression of Love
√Experience the Love of God again
√Love as God intended!
May the Lord speak to us
I will begin by saying this: Love is probably one of the most misunderstood phenomenon on the face of the earth today!
It is a subject in which almost everyone has something to say on. In fact everybody nowadays seems to at one point have an expert opinion on what love is and is about!
But the reality is that, we often speak about love based on what we ourselves have been exposed to!
This is to say that our opinions of love are often shaped by what love inputs we have gathered from our environment!
Lemme demystify that a little. What you see, what you hear, what you watch, listen to or read, what you imagine, etc, forms your environment. That is also inclusive of the company you keep around you.
And all these things determine how you percieve things; love included!
That is why your idea of love may be based on something you heard, saw, thought, watched, read, etc, or something that you went through, someone around you went through, etc!
But if we are to understand love as it should be, then we have to go get our answers from the Source of all Love! The architect and creator of Love; God!
I believe that is the only way to get it right! Because any other way might be corrupted by one thing or the other! And what we need here is the purest form of Love!
I would like us today to understand what pure love is about by looking at the nature of God's love, then we can truly understand what it means to love as God intended
1st John 4:
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Now, these three verses will serve as the benchmark for our insight today.
Verse 8 of 1st John chapter 4 establishes two things:
-Love is the expression of knowing God!
-God is love!
There is a lot of power behing those two statements!
Love is an expression of knowing God!
Therefore the only way to love, or express love is by knowing God!
That makes me wonder how many times we claim we are expressing love at moments when we are clueless on God; at times when our knowledge of God is little or non-existent! How can we know love when we do not know God?
Now, hear this: It is one thing to know about God, but it is a whole different thing to know God!
You may know about God, after all you may have heard about Him, seen Him do stuff, and all that, but I assure you knowing God is about a relationship with Him!
God is Love! This has got to be the most simple definition of love known, yet the weight it carries is unimaginable!
Love is God's nature! It is Himself! He exptesses Himself by and through love! Because love is His very character!
Verse 9 of 1st John chapter 4 establishes these two things:
-God loves mankind
-God is interested in redeeming man whatever the cost!
It is absolutely clear in scripture that God loves mankind! Enough to let Jesus, His only begotten Son, die on the cross to pay the ultimate price for the redemption of mankind!
John 3:16 and Romans 5:8 are confirmations on just how much God is interested in redeeming man and reconciling him back to Himself!
So, today we are in Him because He first chose us! We are His because He desired it to be so; instead of our sin provoking Him to serious anger, it provoked Him to furious love! How amazing is that?
Verse 10 of 1st John chapter 4 confirms that God loved us first! If we love Him today, it is because He loved us first!
I am convicted this morning to ask us back to the first love! I hope this sparks the flames of a furious love that will spark us into repentance!
2nd Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
As we continue understanding love, may you be spurred into a furious love for God. May the Lord bless you all. See you tomorrow
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